A brawl is sparked as a Libyan woman makes a plea for help at a Tripoli hotel full of foreign journalists before being bundled away by government minders.

A high school mathematics teacher reflects on the positive impact of the one to one shift (a computer for every student) is having on her classroom. More student engagement, motivation, inspiration - more learning.

A mindfulness-based approach may be exactly what they need to help them manage the emotional stress and to be better teachers. Research has shown that increased levels of mindfulness are associated with improvements in psychological functioning across many domains. Mindfulness enhances self-regulatory processes that buffer against psychological distress and promote general well-being and compassion for self and others.

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Mindfulness may also support reflective practice. In his book Mindsight, Dr. Daniel Siegel compares the experience of reflection as a tripod with three “legs” of openness, observation and objectivity. Openness allows us to accept things as they are rather than focusing on how things “should” be. Observation is the ability to notice what is happening while it is occurring, allowing us to disengage from automatic behaviors and habitual reactivity. Objectivity allows us to experience a thought or a feeling without getting swept away by it. These three dimensions support a reflective approach to teaching.

To be clear, by "curriculum" we mean a coherent, sequential set of guidelines in the core academic disciplines, specifying the content knowledge and skills that all students are expected to learn, over time, in a thoughtful progression across the grades. We do not mean performance standards, textbook offerings, daily lesson plans, or rigid pedagogical prescriptions.

What do we mean by curriculum? This is what we mean....

While federal grants have often supported curriculum development, sections of federal law bar the government from dictating what is taught. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, for instance, says that federal officials may not “mandate, direct, or control” a state’s, district’s or school’s “specific instructional content, academic achievement standards and assessments, curriculum or program of instruction.

What's good for the federal government is good for the states.

9) Use the tools

I am sometimes heard to be critical of Elluminate, as also with other services, in that they provide more tools for the teacher than for the learner. It is more frustrating, though, when teachers don’t make use of those tools available to them and resort to just basic text presentations on the whiteboard, which they then proceed to talk through. If you have ever suffered ‘death by PowerPoint’, I can assure you ‘death by Elluminate Whiteboard’ is worse. There are several tools available to the teacher, such as ‘application sharing’, ‘breakout rooms’, ‘web tour’ or multimedia sharing, get to know them and explore how each could be used in an online session.

You should read the whole post, but I especially like this tip. Where are you (Elluminate Users) on the Elluminate learning curve. There is a curve, right? Start here ... and get more skilled over time (i.e. "‘application sharing’, ‘breakout rooms’, ‘web tour’ or multimedia sharing"). Given my experiences as a participant over the last 3 years, there is rarely more than the Elluminate white board as slide presentation being offered.