HI AnnMarie, I got your email. My blog is my book - no need to work with editors and marketing departments. I suggest you explore the site. Here's a good post for elementary critical thinking. "How to Teach Summarizing: A Critical Learning Skill for Students" - http://bit.ly/3rE3ZI Cheers ~ Peter

Hi Cesar, iTunes does not store contacts. Contacts are designed to be synced with a supported address book application on your computer with iTunes serving as the sync conduit between your iPhone and the supported address book application on your computer. With a Mac, this can be with the Address Book application. Or you might have a PC running an Outlook address book. Are your contacts available on your computer?

Marion, i'm pleased that you were able to apply this model to your work with teachers. Best, Peter

Frank, Thanks for sharing the links to the website - "Action-Reaction." Great stuff! I especially like the "Angry Birds Physics Lesson" Best ~ Peter

Jingwoan Chang, Thank you for sharing how the central message of this post applies to your work with Chinese language students. I'm fascinated by how ideas can be applied in different settings. Cheers ~ Peter

Mratzel, I love that chant - it should become a universal practice. Not long ago I did a post that illustrates the problems our students face because we don't require them to observe and recognize patterns. "Stop Worrying About Shanghai, What PISA Test Really Tells Us About American Students" http://bit.ly/eChNoY I used a sample sequencing question from the PISA test. We spend a lot of time in school getting students to learn sequential information - timelines, progressions, life cycle of a moth, steps for how to. Typically the teacher teaches the student the sequence and the student correctly identifies the sequence for teacher on the test. Thus we treat a sequence as a ordered collection of facts to be learned, not as a thinking process for students to use. This memorization reduces the student's "mastery" of the chronology to lower order thinking. When students are asked to observe a process and develop a sequence they have an opportunity to use a full spectrum of higher-order thinking skills - they must recognize patterns (analyze), determine causality (evaluate) and then decide how they would communicate what they've learned to others (create). Sequencing can be taught across the curriculum at a variety of grade levels - we simply have to ask the students to observe and do the thinking

How true - I guess we learn the simplest things last. I was asked by the Smithsonian to demonstrate my "student as historian" approach using some objects from their collection. My goal was to let the student be the observer and in this case discover continuity and change in historic designs of bicycles. No graphic organize to limit them. Kids can figure it out for themselves I put it together as a Prezi - a very cool zooming presentation platform. Here's the result "The History of the Bicycle: A Prezi DBQ" http://bit.ly/965LAO

Holly, Here's useful summary courtesy of the Marshall Memo of an article "Four Questions That Should Drive Professional Development" by Hayes Mizell. (BTW - I strongly recommend you consider subscribing to the Marshall Memo.) “Most educators struggle with how to focus their attention and effort,” says Learning Forward senior fellow Hayes Mizell in this article in The Learning System. One of the most difficult challenges is organizing deep professional development experiences that are appropriate and useful. Mizell says that four questions should guide this effort: • What do the performance data of our students reveal about the learning needs of our teachers and principals? “Understanding the gaps in students’ learning should inform the content of educators’ professional development,” says Mizell. This works best when teachers use data from their own students to shape PD. • How are we organizing professional development so it causes our educators to take greater responsibility for their students’ learning? Teachers and principals shouldn’t be passive recipients of PD. If professional learning stems from a close analysis of students’ learning problems, educators will get invested and commit themselves to continuously improving results. • How are we organizing professional development so it causes our educators to learn from each others’ successes, and collaborate to learn from experts elsewhere? “In all school systems,” says Mizell, “some teachers are more effective than others… Professional development that draws on the expertise of these educators will in most cases be more relevant, credible, and cost-effective than contracting with an external consultant.” • What is the evidence that our professional development is increasing educators’ effectiveness in ways that also raise levels of student performance? “Collecting and publicizing evidence about the results of professional development is essential to improve and sustain it,” says Mizell. “Four Questions Focus Learning on Expectations and Accountability” by Hayes Mizell in The Learning System, Spring 2011 (Vol. 6, #3, p. 2), http:/www.learningforward.org

Hi Jamie, I hope the year is wrapping up nicely for your school. Your Holt connection reminds me of "School's Out" by Perelman. He envisioned schools as intellectual food courts where we could go select the education we needed and share them at our table. A just-in-time learning banquet which extended throughout your lifetime. I agree - the times they are a changin'

I think the pricing is still being refined. I've seen a number of plans (and prices) quoted. I used the example of $180 / school year per student based on the $20 per month pricing. Over the course of a 3 year contract the same Chromebook could be used by different students during the school year and shared with students (or teachers) during the summer months. Since the data is on the cloud, multiple users could share the same unit.

Vasu, that's a good point about the servers. I used to back up to a local hard drive, but when my last one died, I moved my back ups to the cloud. I guess I'm putting my trust in someone else's servers. I do use 2 different backup services to lower the chances that I'll lose essential data.

Good point Denis. I know one of the people who was part of the production of this. I'll pass that along.

Hi Will, I'm not sure that this will apply to your situation. But by best suggestions is to [Go to Settings, click on Mail, Contacts, Calendars>hit/click Import SIM Contacts.] I hope that does the trick. ~ Peter

Rich, Thanks for that helpful reminder. It makes me recall a friend's child who had an undiagnosed hearing problem that inhibited his speech development. Fortunately, when it was detected - he rapidly got up to speed.

Amil, Thanks for your comment. I think your distinction between primary and secondary devices is an interesting one. It's certainly true that the desktop - app continuum is rapidly evolving. It's always interesting to see how people actually choose to use a technology (despite the designer's intension.) I remember how I used to call my old telephone answering machine to leave myself reminders!