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A world where grades don't exist and learning is free As USA TODAY celebrates it 30th anniversary, we interviewed some of the USA's greatest visionaries to talk about the world of tomorrow: How we'll live, learn and travel, what we'll do and who we'll be. PALO ALTO, Calif. -- About a mile from the main quad at Stanford University, one of the nation's bastions of exclusive and expensive higher education, a street-level office building across the street from an Olive Garden houses the makings of an up-and-coming contender. In this version of education, learning will be free and available to anyone who wants it while operating like a whimsical playground: No one is late for class, failure is not an option, and a lesson looks something like Angry Birds, the physics-based puzzle game that has been downloaded more than 1 billion times. "You want learning to be as much fun as it is to play a video game," says Sebastian Thrun, a Google vice president and Stanford research professor best known for his role in building Google's driverless car.

Spelling Exercises & Games Click here for some worksheets to print off Click here for what other people have said about the help I've given them. Click here to see the books I recommend about spelling, history of spelling/English, dictionaries and books on creative writing Speaking a foreign language can change your personality In the book Me Talk Pretty One Day, humorist David Sedaris recounts learning to speak French as an adult under a vicious instructor. Fumbling in his attempts to master the new tongue, he feels powerless and vulnerable—almost like a different person entirely. Anyone who’s taken on the challenge of learning a new language can probably relate. But it’s more than just a feeling: Research suggests our personalities really can shift depending on the language we speak. Margarita, a Russian-American immigrant, came to the US at age 19 to escape anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union.

Alternative Video Use in the Flipped Classroom Guest post by FLN executive director, Kari Arfstrom. Recently, you may have heard about flipped learning. If you read any professional journals or education publications over the summer break, most of them have written at least one story on this new ideology. Top Ten Spelling Rules Spelling Tip Number 9 - Knowing Spelling Rules The Top Ten Spelling Rules Knowing spelling rules, and the exceptions to the rule, is a great strategy to help you understand why spelling is the way it is and helps you spell. In this lesson we'll look at the top ten spelling rules. Some people think if they learn a spelling rule they’ll be able to spell.

Improve Your Pronunciation One of the most important aspects of learning English is pronunciation. Without clear pronunciation, it is difficult to make yourself understood. However, you might be surprised by the following statement: Pronouncing every word correctly leads to poor pronunciation! A place of greater safety Motivation is key to learning, the carrot being better than the stick, and if the carrot is brought in by the learner themself, why, even better. Of course, motivation is a lot of things: it’s output from input (as a ratio), it’s challenge, engagement, effort, empowerment, being energised, it’s having needs met and then some. As teachers, we often think of needs in linguistic or language learning terms: he needs to be able to write business emails to engineering companies, she needs to be able to understand articles about plant genetics, he needs to pass his first year secondary school exam, she needs to improve her pronunciation as she’s difficult to understand.. and so on. But there’s more to life than language, and the classroom – if we open ourselves to it as teachers – is more than just a language box or drip, it’s a microcosm – and a good place to be. Do you remember Maslow and his five neat layers working their way up the hierarchy of needs? Why am I banging on about this?

How ordinary people decide to become terrorists For all the hand-wringing in the US over the threat posed by Syrian refugees, it turned out that so far, every positively identified terrorist from the Paris attacks was not a refugee at all — but rather, a European Union citizen. Those in the US who advocate for accepting Syrian refugees have emphasized this as a way to counter fear of refugees. But this revelation highlights a very different and all-too-real threat: Westerners who join terror groups such as ISIS. And people are naturally wondering what the hell is going on in France and Belgium that a handful of its citizens would commit such terrible acts against innocent people. The threat is often shorthanded as "radicalization."

How to Write a Limerick - Kenn Nesbitt's Poetry4kids.com What is a Limerick? Limericks are one of the most fun and well-known poetic forms. No one knows for sure where the name “limerick” comes from, but most people assume it is related to the county of Limerick, in Ireland. The reason limericks are so much fun is because they are short, rhyming, funny, and have a bouncy rhythm that makes them easy to memorize. In this lesson, I’ll show you how you can write your own limericks in just a few easy steps. 24 Ed-Tech Terms You Should Know If you’re a teacher or administrator who has been to an educational conference or sat in on a product demo featuring the latest classroom innovation, you know that the intersection of schools and technology is littered with buzzwords. From mLearning to mobile apps to asynchronous instruction, the ed-tech landscape is equal parts high-gloss marketing and roll-up-your-sleeves instruction. In the face of increased pressure to improve student performance, how can K–12 educators cut through the promotional hyperbole and put the focus where it should be — on classroom improvements? It helps if you speak the language. This Ed Tech Cheat Sheet, which we first encountered on the Mr. G Online edublog, features 24 frequently used terms that teachers and other educators can reference when wading into discussions about the latest trends in educational technology.

High School Debate Topics Source Whether joining the high school debate team or talking about topical discussions in class, debating current topics is a wonderful way to shore up speaking skills and build confidence. Debating helps you learn about yourself, think on your feet, and how to take a stand on issues.