You may have missed it last week but the Encyclopedia Britannica is going all digital from this point forward. Let’s all stop and think about that for a minute. The Brit was a good friend of mine in elementary school. Somewhere around the middle of second grade my teacher figured out that the best way to manage my behavior was to let me read the encyclopedia while I waited for the rest of my classmates to finish their work. She evidently passed that bit of knowledge on, because all the rest of my elementary teachers had the encyclopedias waiting for me on the first day of class. My third grade teacher even gave me the ‘C’ volume at the end of the school year with a note of encouragement. Which surprised me, because most of our interactions revolved around the words, “Stop, Quit, Sit down, Be quiet, They don’t need your help,” and the like. My point? Now my teachers would have said, “Get out your I-pod, log on to the encyclopedia and read about something you want to teach me.” Now instead of being limited to the “Gi – He,” volume, the world would be my oyster. Plus, no need for a library pass. Like it our not, our students now have the ability to hold the world in the palm of their hand. The question is will we let them do that from 8:00am to 3:00pm, when we can be a part of that? Or will we limit that access to after 3:00 in the afternoon where their learning journey will, for us, be out of sight and out of mind? A number of you in the LYS Nation are now using your own bootleg technology devices to follow Twitter. If you haven’t done so yet, we want you to join us. To let you see what you are missing, here are the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of March 18, 2012, as tabulated by the accountants at Price Waterhouse. 1. New Code: “Parents should be more responsible” = “I don’t want my tax dollars funding ‘those’ kids. (By @DrJerryRBurkett) 2. Texas subsidizes drilling while cutting funds for education, seems fair? (By @RYHTexas) 3. Vouchers will likely make our problems worse. As Sean Cain says, vouchers are tax breaks for wealthy at expense of the poor. (By @txschoolsupe) 4. The STAAR Test – The genius of our current politicians. Increase accountability. Decrease funding and instruction. 5. Gifted and talented in elementary? Seems contrary to modern neuroscience. (By @txschoolsupe) 6. How can a professional educator not agree with the Fundamental 5? These are the basic keys to excellent classrooms. (By @Lanthony79) 7. It doesn’t matter how long you have taught. If you haven’t read Marzano, you don’t get to debate the attributes of Marzano. 8. Vocabulary in Isolation (definition) – A waste of student time and effort masquerading as an instructional activity. 9. Nothing disappoints me more than purposefully lazy practice. 10. There is a world of difference between observing ‘Nothing Bad’ and observing ‘Nothing Good’. Think. Work. Achieve. Your turn…