Editor's Choice Content Award: February - SmartBrief

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Editor’s Choice Content Award: February

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Edtech

In January, SmartBlog on Education launched a monthly education content award, recognizing content written by educators, for educators that inspires readers to engage, innovate and discuss.

The SmartBrief Education team consists of editors and writers who sift through thousands of sources each day, reading a variety of content, including blogs and commentaries written by you and your peers.

In an effort to recognize some of the innovative voices in the field — quick disclaimer: there is so much wonderful content out there that I’m sure we’ll miss some — we’ve asked our team to nominate their favorite content each month from which we’ll choose two winners for the Editor’s Choice Content Award. Read about our January winners.

In an era of education where much buzz surrounds student-driven learning, this month’s winners offer practical guidance for educators to help students succeed with collaboration, teamwork, flexibility, project management and more.

Heather Wolpert-Gawron for Common Core in Action: The Power of a Checklist, published by Edutopia (Feb. 7)

Like many of us, middle-school teacher Heather Wolpert-Gawron sometimes finds herself in a state of “organized chaos,” especially since she uses project-based learning in her classes. In this blog post, Wolpert-Gawron shows us how checklists — valuable tools for students and educators — can give structure to project-based lessons and teach students valuable skills emphasized in the Common Core State Standards, including organization, preparedness, goal setting and independent learning.

Jody Passanisi and Shara Peters for Taking the Struggle Out of Group Work, published by MiddleWeb (Feb. 15)

Eighth-grade history teachers Jody Passanisi and Shara Peters acknowledge what many of us have experienced at some time in our lives: Group work isn’t easy. “Most of us assign group work. And most students, at one time or another, struggle with it,” they write. In this blog post, they offer three practical ideas to help improve team member engagement.

The Editor’s Choice Content Award is produced in collaboration with SmartBrief on EdTech. Stay tuned for next month’s picks.

Melissa Greenwood is SmartBrief’s senior education editor, with responsibility for the content in a variety of SmartBrief’s education briefs. She also manages content for SmartBlog on Education and related social media channels. Prior to joining SmartBrief, Melissa held a variety of positions in the education field, including classroom teacher and education editor and writer.