Q & A Collections: Education Policy Issues is the title of my latest Education Week Teacher post. It contains all my posts from the past four years on Education Policy Issues - in one place! Here’s an excerpt from one of them:

Ancient whistle language uses whole brain for long-distance chat is an article from The New Scientist, and here is the language in action: I’m adding it to The Best Resources For International Mother Language Day.

Richard Byrne has created a gift for us all in his newly-published, and free, The Practical Ed Tech Handbook. Here’s how he describes it: In The Practical Ed Tech Handbook you will find resources arranged in seven categories; communication with students & parents, web search strategies, digital citizenship, video creation, audio production, backchannels & informal assessment, and digital portfolios. I’m adding it The Best Places To Learn Web 2.0 Basics.

© 2007 cole24_, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Though I had some doubts back in June that we could do it, Katie Hull Sypnieski and I are just putting the finishing touches on our forthcoming book, tentatively titled Navigating The Common Core With English Language Learners. Our 110,000 word "opus" will be completed by its September 1st deadline, and will be published by Jossey-Bass in March, 2016. It’s a sequel to our previous book, The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide. I think, and hope, that teachers will find it helpful. Between now and the publication date we’ll, of course, be posting the Table of Contents and other excerpts on this blog and elsewhere. This is my eighth book in eight years, and it’s clear to me that, though I think I’ve got several more books in me, I’ll be looking forward to a more sane writing and publication schedule - perhaps one every two years

Every month I make a few short lists highlighting my choices of the best resources I through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. I’ve already shared in earlier posts several new resources I found on Twitter — and where I gave credit to those from whom I learned about them. Those are not included again in post. If you don’t use Twitter, you can also check-out all of my "tweets" on Twitter profile page. You might also be interested in The Best Tweets Of 2015 - So Far. [View the story "August’s (2015) Best Tweets — Part Three" on Storify]

I’m adding this very useful video to two lists: The Best Resources For Learning The Advantages To Being Bilingual Or Multilingual The Best Resources For Showing Students That They Make Their Brain Stronger By Learning

© 2013 Howard Lake, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio The Gates Foundation has committed to matching contributions to any teacher’s project on Donors Choose - for today. It’s late today, but the Donors Choose website is still saying the offer is open. I don’t know if they literally mean up until midnight tonight, or if they’ll even consider going on through the weekend. I shared this info on Twitter earlier today, but didn’t get a chance to blog about it until now. If you have a project on Donors Choose, or if you’re thinking of starting one, tonight’s a good time to encourage your friends and family to throw some money your way. You might also be interested in The Best Resources On - & Advice For Using - Donors Choose. Help teachers get ready for #backtoschool. We’ll match your donation to @DonorsChoose today: http://t.co/dNvihqhxWP pic.twitter.com/5xXO1IxBPf — Bill Gates (@BillGates) August 21, 2015

© 2008 Cliff, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio As Sarah Garland from The Hechinger Report recently wrote: In the fight over how to close the racial achievement gap in education, you rarely hear about the only policy that’s ever worked on a national scale: desegregation. I thought it would be useful, and important, to begin a related "Best" list, and hope that readers can contribute more suggestions. You might also be interested in: A Collection Of Useful Posts, Articles & Videos On Race & Racism - Help Me Find More The Best Resources For Learning About The "Achievement Gap" The Best Commentaries On The 60th Anniversary Of Brown vs. Board Of Education Here’s a few articles to start off with on this new list.  Again, I look forward to reader contributions: Separate. Unequal. Still. How public school segregation plagues New York City, and why it matters is by Sarah Garland. The Problem We All Live With is the must-listen to (or must-read transcript) from This American Life, and produced by Nikole Hannah Jones . Here is how it’s described: Right now, all sorts of people are trying to rethink and reinvent education, to get poor minority kids performing as well as white kids. But there’s one thing nobody tries anymore, despite lots of evidence that it works: desegregation. Nikole Hannah-Jones looks at a district that, not long ago, accidentally launched a desegregation program. This Florida School District Is Failing Black Students at a Shocking Rate. That’s Exactly What It Chose to Do. is from Slate.

This video, from Canada’s CBC, would be a great model for a student project where they offer advice to younger people: Thanks to Vox for the tip.

Humility Boosts Learning is a short report from The John Templeton Foundation. It describes a study that showed learning about a growth mindset encourages "intellectual humility," and that increases student intrinsic motivation. I was particularly struck by how they defined the term "intellectual humility" - basically as recognizing that you probably don’t know everything. It seems to me that this piece might be particularly useful in an IB Theory of Knowledge class when we discuss "knowledge." I also thought all of us could benefit from reviewing its short report and findings to reflect on our own attitudes. Here’s an excerpt: Thanks to Brainlogy for the tip. I’m adding this post to The Best Resources On Helping Our Students Develop A "Growth Mindset."