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NCTE
   Teachers and Students Together: Living Literate Lives . . . Is the theme of the 2010 NCTE Annual Convention, November 18-21, in exciting Orlando, Florida. Don't miss the perfect opportunity to join thousands of K-12 teachers, college faculty, and other education professionals to hear award-winning speakers, attend idea-packed sessions, share best practices, and test the latest teaching materials, all while enjoying the beautiful Florida sun in November. What are you waiting for? Register today! CLCD will be exhibiting in Booth 1219.

Online Writing Course
Online Writing Course Focuses on Writing, and Isn't That What We've Been Aiming For? Join NCTE for a Web seminar Sign up NOW presented by Scott Warnock, author of Teaching Writing Online: How and Why, on Thursday, September 16, 4:00-5:00 p.m. EDT. During seminar, Scott will provide some examples of specific assignments in this environment to help spur student thinking and writing, and participants will work together in workshop-like exercises to develop additional creative assignments that challenge students and that make writing in this way fun.

Wondering If You’ve Got What It Takes to Keep Up with Your Students?
   Do you ever feel like professional development on 21st century literacies is all too often focused on the technology and tools instead of thinking about the teaching practices that the technology enables? With NCTE’s newest professional development offering, E-Workshops focusing on Blogs & Wikis and Podcasting, it doesn’t need to be an either/or!

10 States Named School Grant Winners
   Winners are Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Washington, DC. The aim of the historic program is to reward ambitious changes to improve schools and close the achievement gap. The competition instigated a wave of reforms across the country, as states passed new teacher accountability policies and lifted caps on charter schools to boost their chances of winning. Tennessee and Delaware were named winners in the first round of the competition in March, sharing $600 million. The applicants named winners Tuesday will share a remaining $3.4 billion. Another $350 million is coming in a separate competition for states creating new academic assessments. The historic program, part of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan, rewards states for embarking on ambitious reforms to improve struggling schools, close the achievement gap and boost graduation rates.

Common Standards
   It was a giant wave: Three-quarters of the states adopted a new set of common academic standards in the past six months. As that wave crests, education groups and publishers are preparing to follow with one of their own—curriculum materials that aim to embody the new standards. An early example comes from the Washington-based advocacy group Common Core, which last week released free online “maps” of the common standards that are intended to serve as a frame upon which teachers can build curriculum and lesson plans. The 2-year-old organization has focused on being a clearinghouse for what it considers high-quality liberal arts curriculum, but the maps mark its first foray into writing its own materials. To learn more visit Common Standards.

Common Core
   Common Core’s Curriculum Maps in English Language Arts were written by public school teachers for public school teachers. The maps translate the new Common Core State Standards for Kindergarten through 12th grade into unit maps that teachers can use to plan their year, craft their own more detailed curriculum, and create lesson plans. Visit Common Core and bring yourself up-to-date.

America’s Best Community Colleges
   Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) data ranked more than 650 community colleges nationwide in order to identify the fifty best community colleges of 2010. All CCSSE results are published on the organization’s Web site, CCSSE and the list of colleges can be found at Communtity Colleges

Understanding Fair Use in the Classroom: A Resource
   The CCCC Intellectual Property Committee reminds all teachers to utilize their Fair Use rights. Read "Understanding Fair Use in the Classroom: A Resource," this month’s Intellectual Property report by Kim Gainer of Radford University. To read the details visit Fair Use

Primary Sources
   The School Talk article "Primary Sources: Portals to the Past" (E) (pages 5-6) encourages teachers to use primary sources to deepen students' understanding of historical events and the people who participated in them.

Writing in the Social Studies Classroom
"Writing in the    Social Studies Classroom" (M), from Voices from the Middle, describes eight writing assignments that were the key activities of a nine-week history unit. In addition to suggesting ways to use primary sources in the classroom, the article concludes that writing helps students comprehend, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information.

Using Primary Sources
   Interested in using diaries, letters, photographs, legal records, speeches, essays, biographies, and autobiographies? Check out "Using Primary Sources to Build a Community of Thinkers" (S) from English Journal to find out how "primary sources and nonfiction [can] offer valuable opportunities for interdisciplinary learning and critical thinking in all fields of study."

Book Print and Media Awards from ALA
   It is not just the Caldecott and Newbery Awards, but many others that make up the very important lsits of books for children, young adults and libraries. Visit ALA to learn all about them. The calendar of the ReadWriteThink.org provides links to and ideas for teaching with winning titles.

AASL Adopts "School Librarian" as Official Term for the Profession
   The AASL board of directors voted in favor of the move on Saturday during the American Librarian Association’s midwinter meeting in Boston. And that means “school librarian” will be used in all of the profession’s advocacy efforts and publications, including reports and press releases. The change comes after those in the profession have spent decades referring to themselves as library media specialists and teacher-librarians. Media specialist was coined in the early 1970s, replacing the traditional “school librarian,” and the word library, was added later to clarify the profession. Teacher-librarian is a title longtime used in Canada and emphasizes the teaching role of the librarian. California has codified teacher-librarian as its official title.

Waiting for Superman
   Waiting for Superman looks at what Gates and director Davis Guggenheim say is a U.S. public school system in shambles. "Waiting for Superman examines the crisis of public education in the United States through multiple interlocking stories—from a handful of students and their families whose futures hang in the balance, to the educators and reformers trying to find real and lasting solutions within a dysfunctional system. The Social Action campaign for Waiting for Superman will work with advocacy organizations, foundations and policy-leaders to offer initiatives for people to explore and be a part of long-term strategies that offer systemic changes. It will also engage audiences in immediate, tangible actions to help students in under-performing schools achieve better educational outcomes." Visit Waiting for Superman to learn more.

Safe and Vital Communities
   The Allstate Foundation supports national and local programs in three focus areas. Safe and Vital Communities programs address catastrophe response, youth anti-violence, neighborhood revitalization, or teen safe driving. Economic Empowerment programs address financial and economic literacy, insurance education, or empowerment for victims of domestic violence. Tolerance, Inclusion, and Diversity programs address teaching tolerance to youth, ending hate crimes, or alleviating discrimination. Maximum award: varies. Eligibility: 501(c)(3) organizations. Deadline: rolling. To learn more visit Allstate Foundation

Free Teaching Resource
   Recently the U.S. Department of Education launched a new and improved version of the much acclaimed web site, Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE). FREE provides educators with lesson plans, primary documents, science visualizations, math challenges, literary works, paintings, music manuscripts and many other vital classroom resources. The tool also combines important educational elements culled from the Library of Congress, Smithsonian, National Science Foundation, NASA, National Archives, and other federal agencies. Free Teaching Resources