Ineffective Principals is the real reason our schools are failing...What can I do as a parent ?

Much has been written or talked about in the news of late about what the classroom teacher is/not doing to educate our children. But very little has been said about the ineffective principals that remain in failing schools year after year with no improvement in test scores. For too long…ineffective principals have been blaming their staff/faculty for their lack of leadership, goals, vision, and failure to improve test scores. The classroom teacher is the most visible person in your child's life at school, but it is the principal who is responsible for providing a high- quality education for all students there.

 

An ineffective principal is very detrimental to a school’s progress. Instead of leading, many try to bully classroom teachers by threatening to place them on a PDP (Professional Development Plan) or write them up about something that’s frivolous in mature. What is so ironic about being placed on a PDP by an ineffective principal is that they are…many times, are on a PDP also. Teachers don’t respond to this type of maltreatment well because it leads to low morale, high teacher turnovers, transfers, or teachers leaving the profession altogether. And when the school’s environment is dysfunctional…the children suffer, parents suffer, teachers suffer, and community suffers.

 

How do you know if your child’s principal is providing the kind of leadership that it takes to make a great school? There are seven warning signs parents need to look for when visiting their child’s school.

 

1. The principal has no overall vision for the school. She doesn't have a sense of what kind of school community she and the staff are trying to establish or what values the whole school should uphold.

 

2. There is no plan to address academic achievement and the schools' test scores continue to decline. Although principals can't take all the blame for declining test scores, they should have clear goals for school-wide academic improvement that they communicate to staff and students, and ways to measure improvement against the goals. They should include staff and parents in the goal-setting process.

 

3. The principal spends all her time in her office pushing papers. He/she delegates discipline decisions and dealing with parents to the school secretary. You never see him/her in classrooms, hallways, and lunchroom or on the playground. He/she doesn't know students' names and doesn't interact with them.

 

4. The principal is seldom there. He/she spends much of his time away from the school in meetings or at conferences.

 

5. The principal does not return your phone calls. If you have tried to contact her several times and he/she does not respond, you should be concerned. If you do make contact, but he/she doesn't provide you with any possible solution, you have a problem.

 

6. The principal tells everyone what he or she wants to hear. He/she says "yes" to everyone but doesn't take action.

 

7. The principal shows favoritism. It is obvious that certain teachers, students or parents have the ear of the principal but others do not.

 

Parents have the right to contact the principal when there is a concern about their child's academic achievement or discipline within the classroom. But, you should first contact your child's teacher. If you are not satisfied with the teacher's response, you should contact the principal. It is always better to try to work out problems with the teacher first. If you have a concern about a school-wide discipline problem or the school's philosophy, you should contact the principal.

 

Parents should contact the superintendent if the principal does not return your phone calls or if you are dissatisfied with the response of the principal. If you have concerns about the principal's leadership abilities and you can clearly document those concerns, you should contact the superintendent. If several parents feel the same way, make an appointment as a group to visit the superintendent. There is always greater power in numbers!

In closing, effective principals don't make excuses for why their schools can't succeed. Instead they make it their top priority to figure out how their schools can excel, and do everything they can to make that happen.

 

 

Use technology as educational tool, not for constant entertainment

Throughout history, technology has been viewed as a tool primarily intended to aid in our survival, but throughout the last 50 years or so technology has accelerated to the point of transcending even this need.

Increasingly, much of our technology serves only as a social luxury. Yet with each passing year it becomes interwoven into the fabric of society. We’ve let it into our homes, into our schools, and we’ve given it to our children.

Do we run technology, or does it run us? The world is becoming more and more impersonal by the day, transitioning away from meaningful face-to-face social interaction. In the younger generations this will continue to become more and more apparent if nothing is done.

Technology needs to be viewed as an amazing educational tool, not a toy for constant entertainment.
 

Back to School: 10 Terrific Web Apps for Teachers

 

From keeping track of grades to sharing lesson plans, from helping students collaborate to communicating with parents, teachers now have a host of web-based tools at their disposal to help them stay organized and make their jobs easier.

 

Teachers have one of the most difficult and least appreciated jobs in the world, and most of them spend many unpaid hours after school doing extra work coming up with lesson plans and managing their classrooms. That’s why it is exciting that new tools are making it easier for teachers to manage the administrative tasks — like keeping track of attendance — so they can focus more energy on helping students learn.

 

Here is a collection of ten teacher applications that really make the grade. Do you know of any other applications that can be helpful for teachers? Let us know in the comments.

1. SchoolRack

 

 

SchoolRack is a free application for teachers to create classroom web sites. Using these class portals, teachers can interact with students and parents, post, collect, and grade assignments, communicate via mailing lists and private discussion boards, and send private messages to students.

2. SchoolTool

 

 

SchoolTool is a free web-based tool for school administrators. Unlike the other tools on this list, it isn’t hosted, but instead is a downloadable, open source application written in the Python language. That means to use it, teachers will need some technical knowledge. Though not the prettiest application, it is extremely useful, offering a grade book, attendance tracking, calendar, and contact management features. SchoolTool can even create report cards for each student based on the recorded grades.

 

For a hosted grading tool, check out Engrade, which is one of the most popular online grading apps for teachers. Engrade also offers a built-in attendance tracker and assignment calendar.

3. Curriki

 

 

Curriki is a collaborative project bringing educators together to share curricula with one another. Teachers use the site, which is unsurprisingly wiki-based, to share educator resources such as lesson plans, handouts, templates, and study guides. Though it takes some getting used to, Curriki is a great resource for teachers who need ideas for classroom activities.

4. Edmodo

 

 

Twitter is actually a great tool for use in the classroom, but unfortunately, because it is also a great tool for goofing off many schools have it blocked. Further, because it is a public network, there are serious privacy considerations involved when using Twitter with students. Edmodo, however, is something like Twitter, but designed specifically for use in a classroom setting, which makes it safer, more secure, and have more utility for teachers overall. Edmodo offers microblogging, link and file sharing, inline replies, a class calendar, and assignments and grading functions all in a Twitter-like package built with the classroom in mind.

5. Shmoop

 

 

Shmoop may have a really silly name, but it is actually an incredibly useful tool for educators, especially those working in a liberal arts setting. Shmoop offers study guides for literature, US history, poetry, and civics, as well as biographies of famous people. But what sets Shmoop apart from sites like Sparknotes is that the guides are written with kids in mind. Each guide is written with a down-to-earth, irreverent wittiness full of pop culture references that make the subjects more easy to grasp and more enjoyable for students.

 

Shmoop guides are written by mostly Masters and Ph.D. level college graduates from top Universities (two-thirds from Stanford, UC Berkeley, or Harvard), 91% of whom have taught at the high school or college level. Teachers can develop lesson plans around Shmoop content as a way to help digital age students connect with classic content.

6. Footnote

 

 

Another great content resource for educators is Footnote. Footnote is a collection of over 58 million original historical documents that history teachers can use to make history seem more real. What better way to connect students to something that happened a hundred and fifty years ago than to let them actually explore documents and original sources from that time? Users of Footnote can also annotate documents, to help others better understand them. Why not put students to work annotating historical documents to help them even better connect with history?

Educators will also want to check out Flickr: The Commons, a vast and growing collection of public photography archives from The Library of Congress, The Smithsonian, the Powerhouse Museum, the George Eastman House, Oregon State University, the National Galleries of Scotland, and many more.

7. ClassMarker

 

 

Unfortunately for students, not everything can be fun and games: sometimes teachers must test performance. ClassMarker is a full-featured online test and quiz maker, that lets teachers create quizzes with a mix of multiple choice, true or false, short answer, fill in the blank, and essay questions. Test questions can be randomized and results can be given to students instantly and emailed to professors.

8. Bookgoo

 

 

Bookgoo is kind of like document sharing site Scribd, but with the additional ability of users to mark up and annotate uploaded documents. With better privacy controls, Bookgoo would be a great tool for teachers to offer feedback to students on any sort of document — however, because of its lack of robust privacy features, take care when using Bookgoo with students. (That’s not to say that you can’t use Bookgoo — just be careful.)

For a more feature-filled solution, though at a higher cost, check out Backboard.

9. DOC Cop

 

 

While the web may have made it easier for students to copy other people’s writing, it also has made it easier for teachers to test student work against a corpus of preexisting material to catch plagiarizers.

 

One way to do that is to search for suspicious sentences in Google and do the detective work yourself. Another way to go about testing for plagiarism is to use a free web-based tool like DOC Cop, which does the heavy lifting for you and emails you a report indicating how much of the document may have been copied and where the copied lines may have originated.

 

Also check out Plagiarism Detect and WriteCheck for more robust detection.

10. TeacherTube

 

TeacherTube started out as YouTube for teachers, with the idea that video was a great resource for use in the classroom but YouTube was a little hard to sift through to find the best educational content. However, the site now also includes document, photo, and audio sharing in addition to video. For educators, TeacherTube is a great resource for finding educational videos for use in the classroom, or lesson plan ideas and tutorials from other teachers.

 

 

Middle school using cloud computing for down-to-earth education

Jessica Macias missed a day of school recently due to illness but she didn't miss her social studies class.

Macias, a Hobart Middle School eighth-grader, was able to log into class from home using Google Apps, an online document system that allows people to use it just by logging on, much like the Web-based email services Hotmail and Gmail.

Called cloud computing, data is stored on servers at a remote location rather than in their laptops. It's also interactive, allowing teachers to post homework assignments and other information online for students.

The School City of Hobart is using the latest technology, with each student using a computer in the classroom and classrooms using social media like Facebook and Twitter. Several elementary and secondary teachers in the school district are using Google Apps and social media in their classrooms.

Macias said her teacher, Matt Whiteman, puts the assignment and agenda online and students can view it any time. She said when she logged in to the system, she was able to view the presentation like a slide show.

"I could see the other students using the system," she said. "It's really nice the way it works. I was able to stay current with my class."

Hobart Superintendent Peggy Buffington said Google Apps has provided an interactive platform for students with their peers and teachers to learn in real time with instant feedback.

"Students can challenge one another critically with information and facts the moment it shows up in a presentation they are collaboratively working on with each other," she said. "Besides the academic component, the digital citizenship side of this open source product can be used as a tool to show students how to engage in healthy debate and dialogue using media tools respectfully."

Whiteman said technology is an integral part of life, and students need to be able to use computers and other devices because that's what they will see in college and on their jobs.

"This generation needs to be excited about technology and what it can do," he said.

Whiteman said his students also will design Web pages this year to create an online "portfolio" to document their progress during the year. Students also will blog. Whiteman said he'll post a question for students, requiring them to provide more than a yes or no answer in their blog. The blog will give students an opportunity to "debate" questions and improve their critical thinking skills.

Eighth-graders Madeleine Leonard and Jovanni Olavarria like the ability to use laptops in class. They also have computers at home.

"It makes it easy," Olavarria said. "It's faster and much better to do work this way than having to write everything out."

Whiteman garnered a modicum of local fame last January when his question during the Republican presidential debate in North Carolina was broadcast live on national television. He tweeted a question about whether the candidates believed the federal No Child Left Behind law was a success.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich responded the law was a failure. "I think it has led teachers to be forced into a bureaucratic system of teaching to the test," Gingrich said.
 

Amazon Launches Textbook Rental Service

Amazon is trying to lighten the load for college students heading back to campuses this Fall. The company announced today that they are launching a textbook rental service for co-eds to get books on a per semester basis.


Textbook costs have always been a significant portion of a student’s yearly fees, forcing kids and parents to spend upwards of $600 a year at collegiate bookstores just for class required materials.
With Amazon’s new service, students simply search for their required reading books on the site and pay the fee (Amazon says its service can save students as much as 70 percent off the retail price). At the end of the semester, students must return the book — Amazon will even foot the cost of return shipping.


Students will have to pay for the original shipping costs though. Luckily, Amazon offers its’ Prime membership to students so expedited and free shipping become options. Or students can order more than $25 to waive shipping fees — something that won’t be too difficult with usual courseloads.


Last year, Amazon began offering rental digital books on Kindles, but this new service opens up access to students who are required to bring hardcover books to class or who like the feeling of old-fashioned paper and pen studying.


The company allows textbooks to be rented for 130 days, the usual duration of a college semester, but students can renew books for an extra 15 days for an additional fee. The terms and condition are somewhat strict on the condition books are returned in, including no excessive highlighting and writing and no stains or missing pages.


Amazon isn’t the first to take on traditional bookstores and their skyrocketing prices; Chegg is a company solely devoted to textbook rentals and Barnes & Noble has offered rental textbooks for some time now. Apple also sells digital textbooks through its iBookstore.

 

How to Set Up the Best Workspace for Homework

Courtesy - Mashable

 

During the summer, my kids and their friends enjoy using technology for fun and games. But as the summer ends, it is time for me, and them, to get serious about a home technology setup that supports the dreaded “H” word: Homework. With the right environment, kids can more easily transition from the fun of summer to the rigors of school and put their technology to work. Here are the five main components of setting up a home technology workspace for students of any age.

 

1. Tablets, Laptops, and Desktops

 

With countless options available, choosing the device best suited for your child’s homework can be overwhelming. My philosophy has been to buy on an “as needed” basis and not overwhelm my kids with options. When my kids were young, they had access to a desktop that was in a public family area. When my oldest turned 12, he needed a laptop for school projects. He then developed a passion for filming and editing video, both as a hobby and for school reports. That required a more powerful desktop computer. When his little brothers started getting assignments online, they inherited the old laptop. Our plan is to one day replace them with something like an Ultrabook, a very thin and light laptop that boots up quickly, includes SSD drives and has long battery life.

 

2. Ergonomics

 

The first step in creating a student workspace at home is finding a well-lit location. This allows for projects, paperwork, and supplies to be spread out, while living in harmony with technology. Proper ergonomics, including sitting position and distance to the keyboard, help to avoid physical strains. Desktops also force kids who like typing in bed to sit in a chair at a desk and exercise better posture (that was our reasoning… and it worked!).

A laptop workspace with a full size wireless keyboard, mouse and monitor can provide laptops the same comfort as a desktop for longer homework assignments. For those kids determined to do homework on their bed (or the living room floor, or the lawn…) a lapdesk with a thick heat shield coating really comes in handy. Some kids prefer using tablets for reading, in which case any comfortable spot will do provided the lighting doesn’t cause eye strain on glaring, glossy, high resolution screens. Tablets also have numerous dock and case options that offer a sturdy position to touch and view as well as wireless keyboards to type.

 

3. Wi-Fi and Parental Controls

 

Wireless routers help spread the Wi-Fi love throughout the house for families with multiple computers and tablets. If your house has Wi-Fi dead spots, such as a room in the back of the house that is far from the router, then a Wi-Fi booster can help extend coverage.

 

Some parents separate “gaming areas around the house from “homework” areas and it’s an idea with merit. In my house, even the most disciplined child cannot resist the draw of a gaming console nearby while doing math problems and grammar worksheets. Similarly, there are also many ways a kid can surreptitiously play games or use social networks online during what should be homework time.

 

Solutions include setting internet time limits using the house’s wireless router as well as using the operating system’s parental controls. These system settings, along with SafeSearch settings on browsers, will help make sure kids are not visiting inappropriate sites. Of course, no amount of software can replace having a family talk about homework time versus social and gaming time on electronics.

If multiple devices are accessing the internet, home bandwidth may suffer and response time may slow. To prepare for the onslaught of internet use, it may be a good idea to check with your internet service provider to verify if your bandwidth is appropriate for your planned number of multiple devices. New wireless routers also offer features such as cloud storage, ports for backup drives, improvements in speed and media switching to prioritize high demand services such as video streaming.

4. Tech Accessories and Peripherals

 

Some kids like to listen to music while they do their homework, so wireless speakers or speaker docks that charge will allow kids to stream their music while they study algebra, Hemingway or chemistry. When siblings share a workspace, some good noise-cancelling earphones can help dual music tastes co-exist in close quarters. To round out the homework spot, add an all-in-one wireless printer. That will let kids print from any device in the house and scan class handouts into electronic form. For kids who plan to scan a large volume of documents, a dedicated wireless scanner can handle multiple documents of different sizes across devices and store them in the cloud. Another handy back to school tech accessory – a graphing calculator for math and science class.

 

5. Storage

 

With schools now using the cloud to store homework assignments and so many cloud storage options available, families can join the parade and use this technology as well to access media from any device. Backup drives, some that can also stream media wirelessly, are helpful for storing files like the videos my oldest son creates for his school presentations. Media and data storage heavy households may want to look into installing a dedicated home media streamer or cloud server. For simple mobile storage, kids may also need a 2-8 GB USB drive that can be personalized with designs such as Star Wars to give your little Stormtroopers the tools they need to succeed at school.

These are the building blocks of a tech and mobile ready workspace for any student. What type of tech workspace do you have (or want to design) in your home?

 

Northern Ireland education turns to the cloud

 

One of the largest cloud education projects in the UK is in Northern Ireland, where monthly billing has smoothed the path to acceptance

It’s just ten years since Apple launched the iPod (and unveiled iTunes), creating a DNA code for the foundation for the iPhone and iPad, devices that are having a significant effect on all manner of established IT infrastructure.

 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the areas where this revolution in devices is being most keenly felt is education. Ten years ago, few students would have owned a personal computing device of any type but now a significant proportion own a smartphone, tablet or laptop.

 

The bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon is often discussed as a means of accommodating users at a corporate level, some times in terms of matching the expectations of graduates joining the workforce accustomed to using their own devices. But this tends to overlook the point that those graduates were once students and increasingly students are bringing their own devices into school expecting to be able to use them for their studies.

 

This creates similar types of pressures for schools as those faced by the workplaces. In addition to enabling access from personal devices, they are faced with the requirement to provide networks and infrastructure with strong connectivity and security that support media-rich content, document creation, video editing, collaboration, communication, email and messaging. These are all activities that students are accustomed to in their life outside school and are beginning to expect from their school environment as well.

 

One way to make this happen is by using the cloud. That’s the approach being adopted by C2k, the organisation established to help schools in Northern Ireland get the best for teaching and learning from education technology.

 

One of the largest and most comprehensive educational ICT initiatives in the UK, C2k provides schools in Northern Ireland with a comprehensive managed ICT service. The service includes a LAN in each school with access to a Northern Ireland WAN, administration and management systems for schools, access to the Learning NI managed learning environment (including filtered access to the internet and e-mail), the Virtual Classroom secure videoconferencing system and full service support.

 

The contracts for the managed service were previously split across a number of lots provided by different suppliers and when those contracts expired in 2009, C2k extended them for a further period while it set about the procurement process for a single education network managed by a sole provider.

 

The five-year £170m contract, awarded to Northgate Managed Services (NMS), is designed to give students and teachers increased access to learning resources via a cloud-based network that allows them to use mobile devices, such as tablets, laptops and smartphones, for their work.

 

The Education Network Northern Ireland cloud-based network, which C2k claims is Europe’s first education cloud, will also centralise education materials for 1,200 secondary and primary schools and 350,000 teachers and students in Northern Ireland, making it the largest project of its kind in Europe.

 

NMS has taken responsibility for all aspects of the service, including the WAN and LANs, while connectivity to the cloud will be delivered by Eircom. NMS is using VCE’s Vblock Systems that converge Cisco’s networking, EMC’s storage and security and VMware’s vSphere virtualisation software for the private cloud infrastructure.

 

Commenting on the network, Andy Ross, chief executive at NMS, says it has "built a very modern, very flexible hybrid solution that takes advantage of private cloud and public cloud to create a big hybrid cloud. We’re providing something that’s platform independent, operating system independent, browser independent and device independent." Having a single education network means NMS can provide schools across Northern Ireland with “a standard service using a standard interface and at a standard price."

 

Cloud-based content, including a personal learning environment for students, a learning management system, collaboration and communication tools and a learning content management system, is provided via the Pearson Fronter virtual learning environment on a SaaS basis.

 

Other public cloud services available to students include Office 365 and Google Apps. Pupils and teachers have a single sign on to access applications, educational resources and toolsets, via Northgate’s My-School portal, backed up by Novell Identity Manager.

 

Stuart Gunning, regional director at NMS, says the portal enables personalisation for pupils using school IT equipment, giving them access to a chosen text editor, for example, whether it’s installed on the machine they’re using or not. They will also be able to use their own personal device because once they have signed on to My-School the machine is part of the network with the same level of security and access to schools-based content.

 

The system can be personalised or customised for whether the user is a pupil in primary or secondary school, a teacher or parent or someone with special needs. Personalisation can follow the individual wherever they log on with whatever device they happen to be using.

 

One significant area of concern was around the use of Web 2 and collaboration tools. Gunning says having “any time anywhere” access can create its own teaching issues. For example, instances of cyber-bullying via instant messaging or SMS. With My-School, these messages can be trapped and something can be done to address the problem.

 

The nature of Northern Ireland’s society and the unique demographic there places a very strong emphasis on ensuring there is no inequality of provision to schools, down to the smallest rural primary school. Gunning estimates there are around 35-70 "hard to reach" schools where it has been especially difficult to install broadband connections and alternatives, such as microwave or satellite, have been deployed instead.

 

The service provides C2k and the schools with more predictable budgeting because they pay a monthly charge that can never be above an agreed maximum. “They know exactly what the maximum monthly charge is for the next five years,” Gunning says. And if a school doesn’t receive the service for a certain period of time, NMS will not receive payment from the affected school for that month.

 

According to Gunning, the New Education Network should enable pupils to complete every task they are required to achieve to meet the Northern Ireland national curriculum using video editing, document creation, communication, research and collaboration. "There shouldn’t be a limitation to it," he claims. "If there is, it’s because we haven’t thought about it yet."

 

With the official launch of My-School for post-primary schools taking place in September, one thing pupils returning from their summer break to Northern Ireland’s secondary schools shouldn’t be stuck for is somewhere to compose their "what I did in my summer holiday” essays.

10 Must-Have Apps for Successful High School Students

A high school student’s plate isn’t just filled with classes, but also sports, clubs, SATs and a social life of proms and pep rallies. Don’t head into the classroom unarmed — turn to your phone or tablet. There are plenty of apps to help keep your hectic life organized.

In high school, your courseload will tip the scales and the pressure of college apps and AP classes will challenge every moment. Use these 10 apps to make sure you’re on top of homework assignments, ensuring studying is effortless and efficient rather than stressful and unproductive.

Do you use any other apps to make your high school courseload a little lighter? Share them in the comments below.

1. The Chemical Touch

This app's touch-sensitive periodic table will help make chemistry class much more interactive.

Select different elements to learn more about their properties and get definitions of nucleobases, as well. You can even sort the table with different colors to identify periodic trends — and hopefully, make your chemistry homework less complex than amino acids. If you need in-depth explanations of different concepts, the app will open Wikipedia entries.

The Chemical Touch costs $0.99 and is available for iOS devices.

2. Essentials by AccelaStudy

Learning a foreign language is a core part of high school curriculum. Whether you've enrolled in fourth period French, Italian, Spanish or Chinese, this app will be your study guide. It provides pre-made flashcards for learning vocab and audio quizzes to help your speech and pronunciation.

Plus, it's free.

3. Evernote Peek

Making flashcards is a tedious process that most students don't have time for. Evernote Peek takes the work out of the process. The app turns your iPad and Smart Cover into makeshift flashcards. And don't worry, if you don't have a cover, the app creates a "virtual cover."

Strengthen your memory easily and for free

 

4. Frog Dissection

Slicing open a frog in biology class is fun for some, but for others, it can be messy and uncomfortable. This app removes the formaldehyde. You can still learn about the ins and outs of a frog's anatomy, but without the amphibian juice. Vivid 3D imaging also lets you study detailed internal organs.

It's $3.99, but worth it if you prefer to stay animal-friendly.

 

5. Graphing Calculator

Graphing calculators are expensive, but it's almost impossible to get your calculus homework done without one. Consider investing in this app instead.

It quickly plots and traces multiple equations on the same graph, using a custom keyboard to speed up entry. It even supports graphing polar and parametric equations and much, much more. Plus, you can take screenshots of your calculator to email graphs to yourself.

It only costs $2.99, a bargain compared to a real calculator.

 

6. Math Formulas

Struggling to keep your trigonometry formulas separate from your algebraic formulas? This app is your math savior.

It stores frequently used forumlas for easy access and lets you favorite the apps you reference the most. It even delves into calc, geometry and probability, and displays images so you can put the formulas into perspective.

It only costs $0.99.

 

7. Easel SAT Prep Lite

The SAT is one of the most important tests in a high schooler's career. This app makes preparation easy and hassle-free, so you can keep your sights on test day.

The app features three sections with 25 questions each and a "show me" function, which explains how to arrive at the right answer.

Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on SAT prep test books, you can use this app for free.

8. Shakespeare

High school wouldn't be complete without the complete works of William Shakespeare. However, understanding the intricate passages of Romeo and Juliet is no easy task.

This app will help ease your English class pains. It contains 41 Shakespearean plays and 154 sonnets to view on your iPhone or iPad. The app supports a glossary of common Shakespearean phrases and will provide detailed scene breakdowns of locations and characters in each act.

And the best part — it's free.

9. Studious

Instead of organizing your daily class schedule and homework assignments in a planner, turn to Studious to keep you on track. The app lets you set due dates for assignments and will remind you when big exams are approaching.

Forget to silence your phone before class? The app will silence your phone during times you've scheduled on your calendar.

It's available for free in the Google Play Store.

 

10. World Atlas

This is the app you need to succeed in geography class. It provides high-res images with detail and accuracy beyond any Google image.

For help in history class, the app provides world flags and facts about each country, including government types and capitals. Switch between three different map styles, including classic, antique and satellite. Bookmark your favorite places, as well.

World Atlas costs $0.99.

 

Public Schools Adopt Microsoft IT Training Program

The Microsoft IT Academy program, meant to prepare students for a career in the growing IT industry, is now being implemented in more than 13,000 locations in 160 countries, according to Microsoft.

The program is designed to integrate into new or existing curricula for all ages and learning needs so that students can become better prepared to compete in today’s technological workplace.

“Students will be able to graduate high school with industry credentials that are globally recognized in the business world.” —Cameron Evans, Chief Technology Officer for U.S. Education, Microsoft

 

A Microsoft Certification is one of the best endorsements a student can have going into a career in IT, according to Microsoft, making certified students more employable.

 

The program provides complementary resources and training for educators and staff, so teachers can further develop their own technological skill sets. The complimentary resources provided by Microsoft save time and money that would otherwise need to be spent seeking out this training, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft IT Academy includes lesson plans, Office software licenses, DreamSpark developer tools, E-Reference online libraries, vouchers to pay for IT certification exams, hosted communication and collaboration, and professional training for teachers. It also includes marketing materials and the right to use the Microsoft logo.

North Carolina was the first state to adopt the program in 2010, and now has Microsoft IT Academy in each of its 628 high schools. North Carolina educators insisted that the program must be equally accessible to all students.

“So whether North Carolina students are in one of the smallest, most remote high schools or in one of the larger urban high schools, every student will have the same opportunities to benefit from this program and become Microsoft trained and certified,” according to Claudine O’Leary, Global Business Development manager for Microsoft Learning, in a statement on the Microsoft website.

Georgia was the sixth state to broadly adopt the program. The Georgia state superintendent, Dr. John Barge, visited Fayette County High School in a rural area south of Atlanta on Sept. 5 to announce the expansion.

The Georgia Department of Education is working with Microsoft to offer classes to high school students that can lead them to formal technical certification. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, students in a few school districts were already able to take the courses, but other districts could not afford the program. The state picked up the bill, paying $600,000 to bring Microsoft IT Academy to every public high school.

“We are committed to giving Georgia students the skills they need to be ready for whatever they want to do after high school, whether it be college or a career,” said Barge in a press release. “We want to produce a technology-savvy workforce by ensuring access to these resources in every school across the state.”

By Sept. 6, nearly 200 of Georgia’s high schools had expressed a wish to join the program, according to an announcement from the state department of education. All 463 public high schools and all 460,000 public high school students in Georgia will have the chance to participate.

Starting in 2013, Georgia schools will offer Career Pathways, in which students will choose a career area while in school and take classes tailored to their intended professions. Microsoft IT Academy will be part of that initiative.

“The IT Academy will help build a pipeline of innovators in Georgia as the program helps students gain interest in STEM subjects—science, technology, engineering, and math—and spur ideas for how they can be applied in the real world,” said Cameron Evans, Chief Technology Officer for U.S. Education, Microsoft, in a press release. “Students will be able to graduate high school with industry credentials that are globally recognized in the business world.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 77 percent of jobs will require IT skills by the end of this decade. Today, more than half of all jobs require the skills.

5 Tools Every Student Needs to Know

It’s back to school time, and though most of us have mastered the use of social media to enhance our personal lives, what about mastering Internet and tech that can make us more productive instead of easily distracted? We rounded up the best apps, tools and websites for you to streamline your school life and be more successful.

Google has given you a leg up though this year on that looming avalanche of paper assignments with its Google Docs research feature. It easily allows you to search online while writing and — the best part — footnote the paper with the click of a button. But be prepared to spend more time actually writing your paper since you now have no excuse.

Bookrenter.com will help you in the financial and academic realms. The site is one of many that lets you rent the books you need on a per semester basis for much smaller fees than purchasing them at school bookstores.
 
And for those annoying group projects, when organization is the hardest but most key part, use Trello to keep on track. It uses a set of boards and cards to assign tasks to specific people. All the members can be aware of what others are working on. It also lets you set priorities and due dates for each task. Trello can be accessed from your laptop, iOS device or Android device.

Group projects also require lots of file sharing. Instead of trying to pass around flash drives, head to Dropbox. Dropbox lets you easily upload anything from video and audio files to slide presentations and access it from anywhere. And it’s got a great free mobile app. The Dropbox desktop app and mobile app have no upload cap, but the website will only let you upload file sizes under 300 MB.

If Dropbox’s upload limits get you frustrated, CloudApp has a similar concept but offers unlimited uploads for files under 250 MB.

And we all know the first ingredient to a great school year is having a good teacher, so check out Rate My Professors before scheduling your classes. It works like Yelp, but just for academics. It rates teachers on easiness, helpfulness, clarity and even their looks. And other students can leave in-depth comments about their experiences in the class.

And just for good measure here’s another study app: Evernote Peek. It turns your iPad‘s SmartCover into a flashcard. No more stacks of index cards needed to memorize those geometric equations. It’s available for free in the App Store.

Check out the video above to learn more about each of these tools.

What tools or sites do you use to keep organized and productive in school? Tell us in the comments.

 

Enter the world of mathematics

Dots ‘N' Digits offers an opportunity for children to explore and discover maths in a playway method.

One cannot escape the feeling that these mathematical formulas have an independent existence and an intelligence of their own, that they are wiser than we are, wiser even than their discoverers. - Heinrich Hertz.

Somehow, somewhere down the line, we have got this larger-than-life image of mathematics — the numbers, lines, shapes and angles. If one sets aside the prejudices and take a closer look, Dean Schlicter's words — Go down deep enough into anything and you will find mathematics — seem to hold the truth.

“Every problem has a solution,” says Vijayalakshmi Raman, a renowned mathematics teacher with 35 years of experience. She adds that maths is to be enjoyed and not to be feared. Ms. Vijayalakshmi, a lover of maths and math teaching, has started a maths activity centre — Dots ‘N' Digits at T. Nagar. The Centre offers an opportunity for children from four to 14 years to explore and discover maths in a playway method.

The Centre provides hands-on experiences to children through games and activities that seek to stoke up their interest.

Ms. Vijayalakshmi has designed a number of fascinating games, math kits, and puzzles that intend to explore the basics of mathematics.

With an extensive knowledge in the subject, she has conceived a methodology and developed books that approach mathematics logically. The materials are also aligned to school curriculum (all boards) and help to reinforce school-based learning. Activities at the centre will also address concepts that may be missing in the primary textbooks but are fundamental to understanding more abstract concepts at the higher level.

The math lab at Dots ‘N' Digits facilitates a positive approach to teaching and learning, where one is allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. The colours, figures and practical concepts captivate the learner. The students will be taught about Indian mathematicians, on how the basic concepts can be extended and simple logics and nuances in solving mathematical problems.

Even in the course of a conversation, Vijayalakshmi, throws puzzles that keeps one motivated.

As a school teacher in well-known city schools, she had composed poems, songs and choreographed dance drama to explain various concepts. She was lauded by former President of India Abdul Kalam at one of the presentations of dance drama by her students.

Dots ‘N' Digits will enrich, engage, explore and extend mathematics, says Ms. Vijayalakshmi adding that children are shrewd in solving problems and one must not underestimate their potential. When they learn the basics now, mathematics will be fun, she adds.

Ms. Vijayalakshmi has won many awards such as the Best Teacher Award by Sri Ramunajan Academy of Math for Talents. She has innovated many game models and was team leader for the Project on ‘Time' and won International Standard Award in Maths.

The Centre has plans to conduct math fair, seminar, workshops and parent connect programmes in the future. It also plans to launch a website exclusively for posting and solving puzzles. Dots ‘N' Digits will accept students based on a diagnostic test. The centre is located at 9/17, Mylai Ranganathan Street, T. Nagar. For details, contact 98842 16213.