The 2015 season average U.S. prices were $29.00 per hundred weight for head lettuce and $45.31 for leaf/romaine lettuce

down about 10 percent from ten years ago

In 2015, annual consumption of all types of lettuce was 24.5 pounds per person, of which 55 percent (13.5 pounds per person) was head lettuce

no interest in acquiring one. It struck me as narrow-minded to privilege historical events, simply because things happened to have worked out that way.

I was also uninterested by what I knew of literary theory and history. It was a received idea in those days that "theory" was bad for writers, infecting them with a hostility toward language and making them turn out postmodern; and what did it have to offer, anyway, besides the reduction of a novel to a set of unpleasant facts about power structures, or the superficial thrill of juxtaposing Pride and Prejudice with the uncertainty principle? As for history, it struck me as pedantic, unambitious.

no remix, no culture.

School was a universe of straightforwardly right and wrong answers, of authoritative texts and authoritarian teachers. The underlying lesson of the basics was about the social order and its sources of authority, a lesson which was appropriate for a society which expected its workers to be passively disciplined

. If it could provide either greater equity or equality, it is doing neither. The gap between the rich and the poor is growing, and even when the poor sometimes become slightly less poor, it is rarely because education has improved. Maybe it is a delusion to think education could ever be an instrument that ameliorates society’s most fundamental ills.

Whether their vision is wishful or utopian, nothing less than equality is an acceptable objective, even if in the short term all that can beachieved in education is to pursue an ongoing struggle to reduce the gap between the haves and the have-nots—hence the compensatory programs, the remedial curriculum for children who have been ‘left behind’ and the special efforts made in schools in poor neighbourhoods.

However, inequality is not unjust insofar as education is one of society’s ‘opportunities’. It is free and compulsory, and through education you can become anything you like and succeed on your own terms—if you have the will and the ‘ability’, that is.

new communication practices, new literacies have emerged

A pedagogy of Multiliteracies would need to address this as a fundamental aspect of contemporary teaching and learning.

We also felt that discourse differences within a language had not been adequately taken into account.

The world was changing, the communications environment was changing, and it seemed to us to follow that literacy teaching and learning would to have to change, as well.

none of us could have predicted the reach and the influence the multiliteracies idea would have, way beyond our own circles of personal and professional association

In image, if there is something that we wish to depict, we can depict whatever we want. We don’t ask: ”Is there an appropriate image we can use?” Contrary to common sense assumptions about language, words are vague

All these are social meanings, specific to a particular culture. At the same time they are chosen, put together for their potential to mean, by the deliberate action of the designer.

I am attracted by “Grille”; I am aware that I am particularly drawn by the “e” on “Grille”

All media offer specific possibilities to the designer, and to the reader/user in their reading and / or use.

The choice of mode has profound effects on meaning, and textbook designers, for instance, need to be aware of such meaning effects of different modes.

Three changes are especially noticeable in the English language arts standards of CCSS:1.There is a greater focus on reading informational texts.2.Higher-level thinking is emphasized.3.Digital literacies are integrated throughout the English language arts standards.

The need to conduct research and to produce and consume media is embedded into every aspect of today’s curriculum.

1.The Internet is this generation’s defining technology for literacy and learning within our global community.2.The Internet and related technologies require new literacies to fully access their potential.3.New literacies are deictic; they rapidly change.4.New literacies are multiple, multimodal, and multifaceted, and, as a result, our understanding of them benefits from multiple points of view.5.Critical literacies are central to new literacies.6.New forms of strategic knowledge are required with new litera-cies.7.New social practices are a central element of new literacies.8.Teachers become more important, though their role changes, within new literacy classrooms. (p.1

literacy is not just “new” today; it becomes “new” every day of our lives

We live during a time in which new technologies continuously appear online, requiring additional skills to effectively read, write, and learn, sometimes on a daily basis

educators need to find ways to teach our young people how to process the information they are finding, and how to find it with more precision and understanding.

Hyperlinks, images, audio, and video are usually part of the reading experience.

the act of reading online quickly becomes an act of hunting for treasure, with red herrings all over the place that can easily divert one’s attention. As

Readers read for different purposes. Sometimes they read for pleasure. Sometimes they read for information. Their reason for reading impacts the way they read. They may skim or read carefully depending on why they are reading. Throughout this process, readers monitor the meaning they are constructing. When the text does not meet their purposes, they may switch to another text. Readers expect what they are reading to make sense. They use a repertoire of strategies, such as rethinking, re-reading or reading on to clarify ideas, to make sure they understand what they read in order to accomplish their purposes.1

It’s not about using digital tools to support outdated education strategies and models; it’s about tapping into technology’s potential to amplify human capacity for collaboration, creativity and communication.

Promote Mastery Orientations

Embrace Collaborative Learning

Provide Autonomy Support

Foster a Sense of Competence

Make It Meaningful

Every English class starts with a moment of quiet after which students are asked to share their energy and stress levels.

n English, juniors are grouped with seniors, which helps the younger students learn how the process works by watching and learning from the older students. Additionally, pairs of students are invited to lead the discussions. The English discussions are also held online, and students are required to participate and comment on at least two other student comments.

While students participate in the group discussions around the Harkness table in English, the teacher selects one student to be the moderator and another to be the discussion tracker who records the flow of the conversations. The moderator can look at the discussion tracker’s notes and see which students he should invite to chime in.

In English, the discussions are open-ended, allowing for multiple right answers.

In English classes, students sit around a Harkness table (a large wooden table capable of seating the entire class), which allows every student to see the teacher and all the members of the class as they speak. The foundation is that students come prepared to discuss and collaborate.

assigning students to groups to review their homework, do daily class worksheets, participate in moderated discussions, and complete hands-on projects. Often, teachers give students group tests, which, like the class worksheets, are designed to be harder than the individual assignments. Students quickly realize that they are able to solve problems as a group that they would not be able to solve as individuals. Some of the other ways teachers foster a collaborative-learning environment follow

teachers must be willing to “cede the floor” to the students. Other things to consider are the need to create an effective classroom geography, focus on the process, build accountability, let students teach one another, and encourage students to be in tune with one another.

The collaborative-learning style incorporated into the fabric of the school helps students to be resilient by aiding them with identifying their resources (peers) and testing their theories to see if they are on the right track all while developing habits of mind that form the foundation of scholarship

Starting with a good toolkit is essential for designing learning experiences that reach the Modification and Transformation level of the SAMAR model.

the real learning gains result from engaging students in learning experiences that could not be accomplished without technology.

TPK is an understanding of how teaching and learning can change when particular technologies are used in particular ways. This includes knowing the pedagogical affordances and constraints of a range of technological tools as they relate to disciplinarily and developmentally appropriate pedagogical designs and strategies.

FITness goes beyond traditional notions of computer literacy to require that persons understand information technology broadly enough to apply it productively at work and in their everyday lives, to recognize when information technology can assist or impede the achievement of a goal, and to continually adapt to changes in information technology.

how can teachers integrate technology into their teaching?

Pedagogical knowledge (PK) is teachers’ deep knowledge about the processes and practices or methods of teaching and learning.

Content knowledge (CK) is teachers’ knowledge about the subject matter to be learned or taught.

At the heart of good teaching with technology are three core components: content, pedagogy, and technology, plus the relationships among and between them.

integration efforts should be creatively designed or structured for particular subject matter ideas in specific classroom contexts.

Many teachers earned degrees at a time when educational technology was at a very different stage of development than it is today. It is, thus, not surprising that they do not consider themselves sufficiently prepared to use technology in the classroom and often do not appreciate its value or relevance to teaching and learning.

Teaching with technology is complicated further considering the challenges newer technologies present to teachers

knowledge of student thinking and learning, knowledge of subject matter, and increasingly, knowledge of technology.

effective teaching depends on flexible access to rich, well-organized and integrated knowledge from different domains

Powered with possibilities made available by today’s social media, this peer culture can produce learning that’s engaging and powerful.

Connected learning isn’t a burden that one organization shoulders on its own, and is about building connections across different sites of learning.

Traditional education is failing to engage many students as they enter their middle school, high school, and college years.

Young people learn best when actively engaged, creating, and solving problems they care about, and supported by peers who appreciate and recognize their accomplishments.

The most engaged learning happens while doing something for a meaningful goal or purpose, whether that is creating something, contributing to a community, or engaging in a friendly competition.

Teachers are designers. An essential act of our profession is the design of curriculum and learning experiences to meet specified purposes. We are also designers of assessments to diagnose student needs to guide our teaching and to enable us, our students, and others (parents and administrators) to determine whether our goals have been achieved; that is, did the students learn and understand the desired knowledge?