If you’re looking to make connections between the AASL Standards and 21st century student learning, take a look at this Boston Globe editorial:

If students are to succeed in today’s complex economy, they need to know more than just English, math, science, and history. They also need a range of analytic and workplace skills. So says an important new report on 21st-century skills, which concludes that though Massachusetts schools have made impressive progress in the last 15 years, many students still don’t graduate with the abilities today’s jobs require.“In our high schools, we need to prepare our young adults to be college and career ready,” says Gerald Chertavian, chairman of the state board of education task force that prepared the report. “Unfortunately we are not in that position today.”Indeed, a depressing new study that headlined Monday’s Globe found that though Boston sent some 64 percent of the class of 2000 to college, seven years later only about 35 percent had actually graduated. Further, according to a recent study by the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, state employers say high school graduates lack essential job skills.Mastering those skills means learning how to think critically and creatively, work collaboratively, use the Internet to do research, and communicate clearly and effectively. Students also need to be responsible and accountable, to be up on the news, and to have a workable knowledge of economics and business.

Responsible? Accountable? These fit in with our AASL dispositions. Collaboration? Critical thinking? We find them in the AASL Standards, too.  More ammo for your toolkit if you need it! 

We’re starting to have a lot of these digital camcorders (Flip or Small Wonder).  It can sometimes be confusing, when doing a class project, to remember what is on each camera.  We now attach these little scraps of paper to each wrist strap. Students write what they have just filmed.  Saves a lot of time on our end!

Could be … turns out teaching’s unique stresses can keep us up later or disrupt our sleep.  According to Teacher Magazine:

According to a study by researchers at Ball State University, many teachers may not be getting enough sleep at night to be fully effective in the classroom.   

Some 43 percent of teachers surveyed said they slept an average of six hours or less per night, according to the study, while half admitted to missing work or making errors due to a “serious lack of sleep.” Nearly one-fourth said their teaching skills are “significantly diminished” due to lack of sleep.

The study, which is currently under review by the Journal of School Health, examined the survey responses of 109 teachers in one Indiana district. It is considered “preliminary and descriptive,” said Denise Amschler, a professor of physiology and health sciences and co-author of the study.

While the study doesn’t correlate teachers’ reported sleep problems with instructional quality or student performance, the researchers speculated that the potential effects on schools could be significant, based on what is known about job performance and lack of sleep.

In a phone interview, Amschler noted that, based on her own and previous research, it appears teachers get less sleep than many other professional groups …

Amschler believes that teachers’ sleep problems likely derive from the unique stresses of the job, including non-fixed hours, continuous grading and planning responsibilities, and concerns about students.

The study also notes that nearly 45 percent of the respondents said they also work part-time jobs in addition to teaching.Amschler said that teachers with sleep issues tend to fall into two categories: 1) those who are overcommitted with work and family obligations and don’t get to bed until after midnight; and 2) those who go to bed at a reasonable time but can’t fall asleep because of worry or stress about school.

Now go to sleep, OK?