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9 Essential Skills Kids Should Learn, by Leo Babauta

9 Essential Skills Kids Should Learn, by Leo Babauta
Kids in today’s school system are not being prepared well for tomorrow’s world. As someone who went from the corporate world and then the government world to the ever-changing online world, I know how the world of yesterday is rapidly becoming irrelevant. I was trained in the newspaper industry, where we all believed we would be relevant forever — and I now believe will go the way of the horse and buggy. Unfortunately, I was educated in a school system that believed the world in which it existed would remain essentially the same, with minor changes in fashion. And that kinda makes sense, given that no one could really know what life would be like 20 years from now. We had no idea what the world had in store for us. And here’s the thing: we still don’t. How then to prepare our kids for a world that is unpredictable, unknown? This requires an entirely different approach to child-rearing and education. I won’t go too far into methods here, as I find them to be less important than ideas. 1.

25 TED Talks Perfect For Classrooms The 50 Best Sources of Free STEM Education Online 12.05K Views 0 Likes Colleges, universities, and other educational forums in your community can be excellent places to learn more about a variety of STEM topics, but there is also a wealth of educational material available on the web for those who prefer to learn at their own pace or take a more individual approach. Barcelona's secret to soccer success Total entertainment right in your pocket Now you can watch live streams of your favourite programmes from BPL matches to the best of Asian programming anytime, anywhere on your mobile device. Watch over 37 LIVE channels, 12 Sports, 11 Asian, 4 Entertainment, 4 Kids, 1 Education, 3 Lifestyle, 2 News channels – free with your Singtel TV subscription1. And we’ve got something extra for our BPL footie-heads. The new and improved Singtel TV GO app features an all-new Football Portal, bringing our football fans much closer to exciting BPL action and news. You can track individual player’s action on a Heat Map, their personal statistics, team squad line-ups and catch up on the latest football news. Live Streaming Football Portal So how do I get Singtel TV GO? The app is now available for free download in both Apple App Store and Google Play store4. For access to live streaming, you will need a Singtel TV subscription with the corresponding channels on Singtel TV GO. Step 1 1. Step 2 2. Step 3 3. Tablet

Thin Mints, after the Girl Scout cookies are gone Timing is everything, right? On the day when a colleague showered my cubicle with a few boxes of my personal dietary Kryptonite -- Girl Scouts Thin Mints cookies -- a cookbook landed in my mailbox. Wouldn't you know it? I needed to find out. As is the book. But first, chocolate. I tweaked the recipe in a few places. Also, when preparing the filling, the recipe requires four cups of powdered sugar. Another discovery: It's important to roll the dough as thinly as possible. Because this is an extremely rich cookie -- it requires, yes, four sticks of butter -- less is definitely more. Well, emphasis on the word barely.

Videos to help you rethink education, learning, & school Having children causes one to (re)think seriously about education and the role of school. Education obviously is the most powerful thing in the world. And yet the old Mark Twain chestnut — "I never let school get in the way of my education" — speaks to the core of my own thinking regarding education. Seth Godin on EducationIn this short interview, Seth Godin sums up the essence of the problem. Seth Godin on how schools teach kids to aim lowIn this short clip Seth Godin says something concerning the "lizard brain" and our fear of taking risks that reminded me of the world of live stand-up presentations in work or academia. This gets at part of the problem: a boss or a teacher or a conference organizer will ask you to make a presentation, and while doing something different and creative - and effective - should be welcomed by all, we retreat to doing only what is expected (less downside that way) rather than doing something creative, different, and engaging. Dr.

The Hard Science of Teamwork - Alex "Sandy" Pentland by Alex "Sandy" Pentland | 10:15 AM March 20, 2012 Like many people, I’ve encountered teams that are “clicking.” I’ve experienced the “buzz” of a group that’s blazing away with new ideas in a way that makes it seem they can read each others’ minds. But to me, the buzz was so palpable, I decided that it must be a real, observable and measurable thing. The team I lead at MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory has done just that. My feature article in HBR’s April Spotlight on teams describes in detail the new science of building great teams. Communicate frequently. You’ll notice that none of the factors outlined above concern the substance of a team’s communication. This is purposeful. According to our data, it’s as true for humans as for bees: How we communicate turns out to be the most important predictor of team success, and as important as all other factors combined, including intelligence, personality, skill, and content of discussions. Many people are uncomfortable with this.

Four Strategies to Spark Curiosity via Student Questioning British archaeologist Mary Leakey described her own learning as being "compelled by curiosity." Curiosity is the name we give to the state of having unanswered questions. And unanswered questions, by their nature, help us maintain a learning mindset. When we realize that we do not know all there is to know about something in which we are interested, we thirst. We pursue. Strategy One: Equip Students to Ask Questions At its essence, curiosity is asking questions and pursuing answers. We often ask students if they have any questions, but we rarely teach them how to ask advantageous questions. Strategy Two: Provide a Launch Pad Even if students have mastered the full range of question forming, it is difficult to inquire about topics with which they have no familiarity. Strategy Three: Cast a Wide Net During the information gathering phase of learning, the brain does its best work in an active and receptive state. Keep the search active by praising student efforts to discover novelty.

Plan B: 'Find out what kids are good at. It will change their lives' | Comment is free | The Observer I'm working really hard at the minute trying to finish my directorial debut, Ill Manors, which is a hip-hop-based film. When people ask me what the film is about, I say it's about all the things we read in the newspaper; the despicable things that I don't think many of us agree with when we read them. The papers tell us that they happen but they never tell us why they happen. So Ill Manors is trying to get to the bottom of why we have these problems in society with our youth, why we constantly keep on reading negative things about our youth. The reason I've done this is because I got kicked out of school in year 10 and no other schools would take me. I had to go to a pupil referral unit called the Tunmarsh Centre in Plaistow. I think the reason why we didn't have respect for authority was that we felt that we were ignored by society, that we didn't belong to it. Unfortunately, some of those words are negative. Damilola Taylor was 10 years old when he lost his life. And so he did.

Digital Differentiation Technology is a tool that can be used to help teachers facilitate learning experiences that address the diverse learning needs of all students and help them develop 21st Century Skills. At it's most basic level, digital tools can be used to help students find, understand and use information. When combined with student-driven learning experiences fueled by Essential Questions offering flexible learning paths, it can be the ticket to success. Here is a closer look at three components of effectively using technology as a tool for digital differentiation. Note: The interactive graphics you see below have been updated. They can be found in a newer post on this blog. The goal is to design student-driven learning experiences that are fueled by standards-based Essential Questions and facilitated by digital tools to provide students with flexible learning paths. Essential Questions: Student-driven learning experiences should be driven by standards-based Essential Questions.

The Best Players Rarely Make the Best Coaches The 92nd P.G.A Championship ended yesterday with the usual fanfare and excitement that this last major of the year typically garners. But, what this tournament may be most remembered for was the younger generation of golfers - most who had not yet won a major - that sat atop the leaderboard throughout the final days at Whistling Straits. Seasoned players like Padraig Harrington missed the cut and, although we saw some amazing shots, Tiger Woods was never really in contention. As it happens, the best players don't make the best coaches in sports . This sentiment applies in golf too. As I have blogged about in the past, for well-learned activities like taking a free throw, hitting a simple putt, or playing a cadence that you have performed a thousand times in the past, thinking too much about the step-by-step processes of what you are doing can be detrimental.

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