Lisa Nielsen

It turns out my support of student activist Jeff Bliss caused at least one teacher to announce on his blog that he wants to quit Tweeting and blogging.  

Friends bombarded me with the post, accompanied by comments like, “This is great. We don’t need someone like that representing our profession.” Or, “Wow. He must really be threatened by students being heard. I think that’s a good sign.”

Guest post by Bradley Lands  | Cross posted at The Landscape of Learning

At the behest of politicians, educators nationwide have been told to view students as statistics, not as individuals, and to view the purpose of the educational enterprise as raising test scores rather than developing capable minds [1].

While I was taking a survey today about Response to Intervention (RTI) I began

By now, you've probably seen the video of high school student Jeff Bliss demanding an end to what he calls "packet teaching." Instead he puts out a call to action for teachers to work to touch the hearts of kids to open their minds. The interaction was ignited when his teacher told him to stop his bitching about the test and kicked him out of class. A student flipped open the cell phone, caught

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog this week. Below you’ll see the top weekly posts along with the number of pageviews. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you.  If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired, share it with others and/or leave a comment.

Post

Views

What's your digital footprint? Take this quiz ...

Apr 9, 2013, 2 comments

If you are responsible for helping to build and strengthen the home-school connection, you’ll want to follow Principal Joe Mazza on Pinterest. Mazza uses Pinterest to pin resources aligned to the National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs which build upon the six types of parent involvement identified by Joyce L. Epstein, Ph.D., of the Center on School, Family, and Community

Editor's note: There are plenty of questions around if college is really worth the time and money. Personally, I found a way to graduate college as a teen without going into any debt, so the decision wasn't too difficult. More and more people are finding innovative ways to have their cake and eat it too. Here's one such story.  

Guest post by Laura Fokkena. Cross posted at Rise Out: Leave School

Quest2Matter is a youth-focused effort that encourages young people to tackle problems that break their heart. The Quest seeks to unlock the potential of young people to think entrepreneurially and innovatively and use modern tools to change our world.

What is The Quest?
The Quest is a catalyst that challenges students:

Students who accept this challenge will know that they matter and that

Did you know that anyone (in the US) can receive Tweets on their phone even if they haven’t signed up for Twitter? Twitter Fast Follow allows anyone to follow Tweets right from any phone with texting capabilities. For a school community, this can provide a simple way for people to get information they care about in real-time. It is a terrific way to build and strengthen the home-school

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog this week. Below you’ll see the top weekly posts along with the number of pageviews. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you.  If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired, share it with others and/or leave a comment.

Post

Pageviews

7 free ways to capture student responses ...

Mar 27, 2013, 7

As I looked into using Pinterest  as an educator tool, I found that most people I asked were using it more as a consumption or curation tool. (See the infographic at the bottom of this post for those type of ideas.) However, as the Pinterest guru NewYorkBob (who has more than a million followers) tells us, it is also a great creation tool. Among other things, one of the reasons I like this tool