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	<title>Lesson Upgrades &#187; General</title>
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	<link>http://lessonupgrades.com</link>
	<description>Education for the 21st Century</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 15 Aug 2011 04:23:28 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>How Do U.S. States Stack Up With Other Countries? : The Two-Way : NPR</title>
		<link>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/how-do-u-s-states-stack-up-with-other-countries-the-two-way-npr/</link>
		<comments>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/how-do-u-s-states-stack-up-with-other-countries-the-two-way-npr/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 15 Jan 2011 03:52:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Curt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://lessonupgrades.com/?p=1577</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is a very interesting interactive map that compares the GDP of U.S. states with the closest corresponding nation.  You might find it useful when talking about GDP and international economics within your classes. Check it out! How Do U.S. States Stack Up With Other Countries? : The Two-Way : NPR. Share]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Draw and Fold Over: Dan Pink&#8217;s Play and Design</title>
		<link>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/draw-and-fold-over-dan-pinks-play-and-design/</link>
		<comments>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/draw-and-fold-over-dan-pinks-play-and-design/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Jan 2011 10:06:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Curt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daniel Pink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Play]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[A Whole New Mind]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://lessonupgrades.com/?p=1467</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This looked like fun so I thought I should share. You remember that old game where you draw something on one half of the paper and then fold it over so someone else can draw and not see it? Well here&#8217;s the digital version.  Just click on &#8220;Start a New One&#8221; and your kids are off. What would I use it for?  I always have kids who get done early in the computer lab.  Instead of fighting them to keep off of the game sites, I think I will have them develop their Design aptitude.  Plus when I did it, it seemed an awful lot like Play! Draw and Fold Over. Share]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>A New Year&#8217;s Wish</title>
		<link>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/a-new-years-wish/</link>
		<comments>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/a-new-years-wish/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 29 Dec 2010 05:38:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Curt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://lessonupgrades.com/?p=1522</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;For last year&#8217;s words belong to last year&#8217;s language And next year&#8217;s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.&#8221; - T.S. Eliot As we prepare to welcome in the new year, I thought I would share some of my personal thoughts with you about the future and our role in preparing our students for that future. The above quote from T.S. Eliot really got me thinking &#8211; What will be next year&#8217;s language?  What beginning will this ending of 2010 offer our students? To be sure, our kids will need to be instilled with a respect and love of knowledge.  As their standard of living begins to decline, will they turn to education as their salvation, or will they turn inward and indulge in bitterness and fear? I think this is the &#8220;voice&#8221; for next year&#8217;s words: Rediscovering the desire to learn.  Igniting the curiosity that has been dormant in so many of our students.  Think about it, how much of your time is spent trying to teach kids who don&#8217;t want to learn?  We call ourselves &#8220;edutainers&#8221; and attend in-service after in-service telling is that we must engage our students. WE must [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Percussion Search Engine</title>
		<link>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/percussion-search-engine/</link>
		<comments>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/percussion-search-engine/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 25 Dec 2010 17:42:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Curt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drum stores]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drums]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[percussion equipment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[percussion search engine]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://lessonupgrades.com/?p=1504</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a former drumline teacher I had a wild-haired idea that might help out drummers everywhere.  I created a free specialized search engine that compares prices at the top online percussion sources.  Let me know what you think!]]></description>
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		<title>How Teen Experiences Affect Your Brain for Life &#8211; Newsweek</title>
		<link>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/how-teen-experiences-affect-your-brain-for-life-newsweek/</link>
		<comments>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/how-teen-experiences-affect-your-brain-for-life-newsweek/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Dec 2010 15:26:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Curt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daniel Pink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Empathy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[A Whole New Mind]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brain compatible learning]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://lessonupgrades.com/?p=1475</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is a great article that helped me to remember the unique situation of the students I teach every day. As research indicates, our brains are only about 80% complete by adolescence.  So many of the &#8220;adult&#8221;-like actions that we expect from teenagers, like thinking about consequences for their action, are not connected and developed yet within their brain structures. And even more alarmingly, our brains may be permanently affected by trauma that we receive as adolescents.  So if our kids are getting picked on or bullied, not only are there the immediate and long-term psychological effects, there are actual physical effects that can be passed down to the next generation.  Yes &#8211; There is evidence that the brain adapts to high school drama and changes its physical structure.  Then when that victim of bullying has kids of their own, they pass down DNA that creates the same physical brain traits that resulted from the parents&#8217; high school experience. Wow!  I always kept an eye on my kids for signs of bullying or other abuse, but I always did it for their own sake.  Now I know that not only am I protecting my students, I am protecting their children [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>Calling All Science Teachers: Google&#8217;s Body Browser</title>
		<link>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/calling-all-science-teachers-googles-body-browser/</link>
		<comments>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/calling-all-science-teachers-googles-body-browser/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 18 Dec 2010 14:35:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Curt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[21st Century Skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brain compatible learning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marzano Strategies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://lessonupgrades.com/?p=1480</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you teach science and you haven&#8217;t played with Google&#8217;s Body Browser, you need to do so right now! You need to have Google Chrome, but I think it will be worth it. Basically you can cruise through the layers of the body, similar to those old transparencies we all had in our high school biology books.  But man is this one thousand times better! Check out this video to get a glimpse of what it can do.  It&#8217;s amazing! Free Technology for Teachers: Google Body Browser = Google Earth for Anatomy. Share]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Robot Avatar Lets You Go to Meetings without Actually Going There</title>
		<link>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/robot-avatar-lets-you-go-to-meetings-without-actually-going-there/</link>
		<comments>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/robot-avatar-lets-you-go-to-meetings-without-actually-going-there/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 May 2010 20:32:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Curt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://lessonupgrades.com/?p=1106</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I thought we could all use a little fun.  This robot just struck me as funny.  Imagine just logging in  to your computer and virtually attending a meeting.  Or in teacher-speak, a professional development session. Or, in this particularly stressful time of year, what if we could just log in from home and teach our kids remotely?  Do you think this robot could conduct activities for us during May?  We could be grading at home while we monitored our classrooms from our laptop! But of course I&#8217;m just joking&#8230;.for now. Robot Avatar Lets You Go to Meetings without Actually Going There. Share]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>Success Gets into Your Head-and Changes It &#8211; Harvard Business Review</title>
		<link>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/success-gets-into-your-head-and-changes-it-harvard-business-review/</link>
		<comments>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/success-gets-into-your-head-and-changes-it-harvard-business-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 05 May 2010 10:27:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Curt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daniel Pink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brain compatible learning]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://lessonupgrades.com/?p=1078</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is an interesting article with evidence that should fundamentally affect the way we teach. Research by MIT neuroscientists shows that our brain actually rewires in response to success.  Now that may not seem groundbreaking, but the corresponding finding might surprise you.  The brain does nothing in response to failure. In other words, if you perform a task and are successful at it, your brain physically changes.  And furthermore, those changes linger for several seconds, making a repeated success much more likely. This article caught my eye because I have always subscribed to the business mantra that &#8220;we learn more from our failures than our successes.&#8221;  But that is not true of your brain.  It actually learns more from success than from failure. The first person that made me question the validity of focusing on your mistakes was Dan Pink in his book Johnny Bunko.  It was Lesson Two: &#8220;Think strengths, not weaknesses&#8221;.  I think that many times I do the opposite.  I focus on my shortcomings.  And as an unfortunate result, I often encourage my students to focus on their own shortcomings.  &#8220;There&#8217;s no need to practice what you&#8217;re good at, practice on what you need to improve.&#8221; As [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Marzano&#8217;s Instructional Strategies and Dan Pink</title>
		<link>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/marzanos-instructional-strategies-and-dan-pink/</link>
		<comments>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/marzanos-instructional-strategies-and-dan-pink/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 24 Apr 2010 10:55:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Curt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daniel Pink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Empathy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lesson Plans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marzano Strategies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Play]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Story]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Symphony]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[A Whole New Mind]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Free Lesson Plans]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://lessonupgrades.com/?p=976</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is a great site for resources on Robert Marzano&#8217;s instructional strategies. If you are familiar with Marzano, then you will find this site particularly interesting as it connects instructional technology resources with each of his strategies.  If you are not familiar with Marzano, each strategy is briefly defined so that you can implement the technology while knowing which instructional strategy you are using. I also sorted out a few of Marzano&#8217;s strategies and applied them to Dan Pink&#8217;s aptitudes from A Whole New Mind.  Here are a few of the obvious connections that I made after reviewing the strategies on the Marzano website: #3 Complex Cognitive Tasks (Symphony) #4 Cooperative Learning (Empathy) #8 Graphic Organizers, #12 Non-linguistic Representations (Design) #11 Interactive Games, #12 Kinesthetic Activities (Play) #19 Summarizing (Story/Design) I&#8217;m sure there are any number of parallels that can be drawn between Marzano and Dan Pink&#8217;s aptitudes, but I thought these were the easiest to implement. So if your district is asking you to utilize the Marzano startegies, don&#8217;t worry.  You can still develop your students&#8217; right-brain aptitudes at the same time! Marzano&#8217;s Instructional Strategies. Share]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/marzanos-instructional-strategies-and-dan-pink/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Futurity.org – Are teens just a bunch of selfish slackers?</title>
		<link>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/futurity-org-%e2%80%93-are-teens-just-a-bunch-of-selfish-slackers/</link>
		<comments>http://lessonupgrades.com/general/futurity-org-%e2%80%93-are-teens-just-a-bunch-of-selfish-slackers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:18:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Curt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://lessonupgrades.com/?p=1011</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I ran into this article and just had to pass it along. It seems like this time of year is an especially cranky time for teachers.  I know that when I come home during the Spring, my stories dwell more and more on this entitled, lazy generation of teens. But this article helped me to put things in perspective.  According to a Michigan State University study, today&#8217;s teens are about the same as teens from the mid-1970&#8242;s.  They are no more self-absorbed and they do not have a disproportionately high self-esteem. Instead, today&#8217;s teens are worried about their place in the world.  How will they fit in?  The same concerns that all of us had when we were younger. This article&#8217;s timing is perfect for me.  I was in danger of becoming the cranky old man that complains about how spoiled these kids are today.  But instead, I am now asking myself &#8220;How can I help?&#8221; There is no question that the world has changed and it will be immensely challenging for this generation to succeed in our global economy.  But we are the ones that can help.  Even in the Springtime, when our patience is limited and our students [...]]]></description>
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