We're offering eleven free apps as well as one hundred twenty (120) Reading A-Z leveled readers available for purchase at Apple'siTunes® App Store as ReadSmart Edition™ Apps. This catalog is the largest release of PreK-6 reading skills and literacy educational materials ever offered on the App Store and designed specifically for the iPhone® and iPod® touch.

The weightless flight experiences are expensive--about $5,000 per person--a price out of reach for most schools and teachers. Northrup Grumman Foundation accepts applications from eligible middle-school teachers for its Weightless Flights of Discovery Program, with the goal of giving them tools to stimulate their students' interest in the sciences. After one flight, teacher Adrienne Manzone pronounced, "My coolness factor will go up 100 percent." Teachers who are selected participate in hands-on science workshops as well as zero-gravity flights and experiments.

Geoffrey Bergen, another teacher on the flight, commented on how hard it is "to teach out of a textbook" when you consider the technological world students live in. The Weightless Flight program "gives you a new tool for Newton's laws." To achieve the weightless experience, the airplane flies in series of parabolas (a sort of curved freefall). The teachers experience zero gravity as well as gravity comparable to that of the Moon and Mars.

Very cool, indeed.

Technically they are playing games at Quest to Learn (Q2L), the first school in the United States with a curriculum focused on video games and game-based learning.

Students might learn about Newtonian physics through PS3's LittleBigPlanet, or design through Gamestar Mechanic. They learn how to research, work as a team, and solve puzzles.

Game-based learning has growing support. Earlier this year, the esteemed professor (emeritus) Edward O. Wilson of Harvard University said, "Games are the future in education." Kurt Squire, of the University of Wisconsin agrees. "We're starting to see agreement that video games are the new liberal arts," he said. "This school is the first implementation."

Q2L, a collaboration of the Parsons School for Design, New Visions for Public Schools, and the Institute of Play (a non-profit organization dedicated to game-based education), is a public (non-charter) school funded by the Department of Education. The school is in New York City, with 72 sixth-graders and six teachers. A new grade will be added each year until it reaches the 12^th grade.

With a 39% drop-out rate, New York City could be the ideal proving-ground for this type of innovation. Katie Salen is Q2L's executive director of design and believes that today's youth are digital kids. "They've already transformed society," she says, "why not education?"

Students not only needed to apply, but also to be chosen by lottery to attend Q2L. "I have friends who are jealous," says 11-year-old Beauchamp Baker. Baker has been diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder and had previous difficulty in school. His mother Lesli admits that it took "a leap of faith" on her part, but that Q2L is "a great match for him. He's really enthused about learning."

"Hugs for Daddy" is a special book--written by a woman whose husband was deployed to Iraq. The story speaks to the special bond that a little girl has with her Daddy, and how she copes without him in her daily routine. We've already given over 500 copies to various branches of the military and promised hundreds more.

Learning A-Z's mission is rooted in meeting the educational needs of all children and in building strong communities. That's why we continually respond to community needs whether providing books to remote schools in Africa and villages of South America or offering timely free resources throughout the world. For example, with the swine flu epidemic hitting school children across the country, we developed a teaching packet with various resources on swine flu. It's free and available for download on all of the Learning A-Z websites: Reading A-Z, RAZ-Kids, Reading Tutors, Vocabulary A-Z, Writing A-Z, and Science A-Z. I hope these resources are appreciated and widely used as it is our intent to continue reaching out to the broader community.

The program, known as Project More (Mentoring in Ohio for Reading Excellence), has been in effect since 2002. The Center for Evaluation Services out of Bowling Green State University has been gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data on the program for each year of its implementation. According to Dr. Rich Wilson, Co-Director for the Center, "Over the past six years, evaluation results have shown that Project MORE students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) have made a one-month reading gain for each month of structured intervention."

Learning A-Z has had the good fortune to be part of this outstanding program. Our involvement began in 2004 when, in collaboration with the principals of Project More, Dr. Jan Osborne, Superintendent of Putnam County Schools, and Amy Freeman, Project MORE Director, we developed the Reading-Tutors.com website to deliver packets of reading resources for use during tutoring sessions. When a volunteer tutor enters a school to tutor a needy student, he or she is handed a Reading-tutors packet that includes a book, a lesson, activity sheets, and a game. These packets provide learning objectives and an instructional purpose to each tutoring session.

I have personally visited Project MORE schools and have witnessed the benefits that Project MORE delivers to struggling readers as students meet with their mentors three to four days a week. I have also witnessed the benefits gained by those who are tutoring children. In particular, middle- and high-school students, who are serving as tutors in many of the schools, are learning the value of volunteerism and community service. This program truly benefits kids, parents, tutors, and the entire community.

Project MORE has demonstrated that one-on-one volunteer tutoring programs can have EARS--that is, they can be effective, affordable, replicable, and sustainable. This program can be implemented anywhere in the country. If you are interested in more information about Project MORE, contact Amy Freeman, Project MORE Director, at 888.319.3560, email afreeman@pm.noacsc.org, or visit ohioprojectmore.org. I would encourage you to learn more about the project and ways in which it can help your school or district's reading program. The Project MORE team is a tremendously dedicated group of educators with a burning passion to help children with disabilities as well as others who struggle to read.

The challenge, of course, is finding a book that will appeal to a wide range of people and reading abilities.

"That's very much a challenge," said Allentown principal Christopher Nagy. "We said: Will this be good for all ability-level students? Will this meet students' interest? Is it a book that can be read across all disciplines? I want to have a conversation about one book taking place among all students."

Schools vary in how strongly they enforce reading the selected book. "We wanted to create that shared experience. We didn't want to make it something punitive," said Hunterdon Central Regional High School superintendent Lisa Brady. She estimated that 75 percent of the 3,200 students read their school's One Book selection.

Student reaction varies as well. "At first I thought, 'This is ridiculous.' But you see people reading it," said Michael Thomas, 17. "It means some kid I don't know is a little bit more like me, and me a little bit more like him."

To me, that sure sounds like building a community.

Reading A-Z books could easily be adapted for an elementary school One Book program. There are over 1,000 titles spanning 27 levels of reading difficulty with 50 of these titles written to multiple levels of difficulty. Subscribers can print out enough books for all participants, and students can assemble them. Best of all, students can keep the books they read, which fosters ownership and interest in reading even more.

NASA is retiring the Space Shuttle Program in 2010 after its last scheduled mission. They are sharing the wonders of space exploration through donations to eligible educational institutions, museums, and libraries.

They are donating small items such as astronaut helmets, gloves, and boots, as well as large items, such as shuttle Motion Based Simulators and Crew Compartment Trainers. The artifacts are free, but recipients must cover shipping and special handling fees.

Organizations must meet eligibility requirements and register to preview the items. Download the free information pamphlet   for additional information as well as links to pertinent agencies.

The end of the Space Shuttle Program does not mean an end to space travel, however. The next generation of exploration, called the Constellation Program, promises some pretty exciting missions.

For the latest information about the NASA shuttle transition and artifacts, visit www.nasa.gov/transition.

Approximately 50 percent of our nation's public school teachers are baby boomers who are 50 years of age or older. Many are considering retirement; others want to stay in the classroom. The Experience Factor (from Teacher Magazine's free e-newsletter) includes anecdotes from a handful of teachers over 50 who talk about how much they love teaching and how their years of hard work are now reaping rewards. Susan writes, "I teach alongside colleagues who are younger than my own children and some of whom are my former students. . . . They have energy and technology skills that I don't, but I have pedagogical skill and experience that I can share and that they want."

Kathie shares that she started teaching special education students in her 60s. "When I gave up instructional coaching to teach again, I worried if the kids would still relate to me and vice versa. What I've found is that my years of experience (most of the time since 1970) and the patience I've learned on the job is just what these students need. Even my most hyperactive boys seem to wander in before class or hang around after class to share stories with me."

Certainly, school systems plan for some retirements and bringing in new teachers with new ideas and practices. But imagine the impact of a wide-scale retirement if the boomers left en masse. Imagine losing the teacher down the hall.

Education Week reports that legislation was recently introduced in both the Senate and the House to authorize $2.35 billion to improve reading and writing in kindergarten through twelfth grade. This legislation would replace Early Reading First, Reading First, and Striving Readers. A federal study of Reading First found that while an increased number of students recognized letters and words, comprehension levels were unchanged. A similar evaluation of Striving Readers found significant improvement at only three of eight sites two years after program implementation.

While this comprehensive literacy bill is being introduced separately, if passed it will likely become part of the ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) reauthorization. The new bill proposes at least 10% of the funds for early childhood, 40% for K-5, and 40% for grades 6-12. If the bill makes it through the House and Senate intact, it will be an unprecedented federal commitment for adolescent literacy.

Bravo.

However, some schools out there skirt the uniform approach. Over the past five years, the EducationTrust has studied high-achieving schools that have large low-income populations. How do they do it? As one teacher said, "It's not rocket science. You figure out what you need to teach, and then you teach it."

For example, educators using the prescribed reading program in Fairfax County, Virginia, noticed that their students, most of whom do not speak English at home, had a great deal of difficulty deciphering words they hadn't seen before. Now teachers in kindergarten and first grade supplement their normal reading instruction with phonics, and students are meeting or exceeding state reading standards.

A New York middle school was expected to teach a curriculum that focused on skills rather than a set content. The teachers worked hard, yet the results were poor. The students at this middle school just didn't have the content knowledge to make the skills relevant. The principal brought the Core Knowledge program to the school and provided teachers with professional development to teach skills with content. Again, students are excelling.

I am impressed that these schools adapted their teaching to their students' needs. And, not to sound like a broken record, but isn't that what differentiation is all about?

During his yearlong sabbatical, he'll travel the country to bring greater public awareness to the dropout crisis. Says Tony, "More than one million students will drop out of school this year . . . and that's a travesty." His well-written blog  chronicles his travels around the country, where he is talking to educators about this important issue. Covering topics such as teen suicide and teachers who feel marginalized by their lack of inclusion in the national standards discussions, he also reports poignant stories that others have shared with him.

This is well worth the read.

President Obama recently shared that excitement with about 150 middle schoolers at a star party on the White House grounds. In addition to the children, his guests included Sir Isaac Newton and Galileo (local science teachers in costume), four astronauts, and two student-astronomers. The astronomers--one in junior high and the other in high school--each recently made a rare space discovery: a stellar explosion slightly smaller than a supernova, and a rotating radio transient (similar to a pulsar).

All were there to help celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first observation of Jupiter and its moons, as well as to encourage students' interest in science, math, and technology at an age when many lose interest. While I'm sure there was considerably more light pollution in Washington, D.C., than in the sparsely populated Australian outback, the president and his guests enjoyed their view of Jupiter, Gannymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa.

 "What will your great discovery be?" President Obama asked the group of students. "Galileo changed the world when he pointed his telescope to the sky. Now it's your turn. Don't let anyone tell you there isn't more to discover."

Panelist Robert Root-Bernstein of Michigan State University suggests that teachers can use scientific unknowns--or even student questions--to generate student excitement and curiosity. "You shouldn't be a teacher if you can't say, 'I don't know,' " Mr. Root-Bernstein said, adding that it should be followed by, "Let's find out."

One panelist, 18-year-old Louis Wasserman, remembers the excitement he felt as a student while inventing something he was sure was original. "Students get excited about creating new things--it doesn't matter if it's actually new." Said Wasserman, the "joy of creating something is extraordinary."

Committee members have heard from speakers that U.S. science and math classes don't stress the kind of skills that could nurture innovation. Without understanding how to quantify that talent, it will be hard for the U.S. educational system to design a program to develop innovative skills.

We hear a lot about 21st-century skills that place an emphasis on critical and creative thinking. The work of the National Science Board further advances that discussion as well as the examination of the skills students need now and in the future. As we look to overhaul standards, these discussions will be more important. I'm curious about your position on this discussion. Do we need more emphasis on creative thinking in the classroom, even beyond science and math?

In 2002, ESEA was reauthorized and amended under George Bush's administration as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The pillars of the bill were accountability, to ensure that disadvantaged children achieved academic proficiency; flexibility for the schools in using federal funds to improve student achievement; research-based education, to ensure that schools used programs and practices that have been deemed effective; and parent options, giving parents of students in Title I schools more choices.

Now, in 2009, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan hopes to have ESEA   reauthorized and amended again.

Duncan's version seeks to ensure effective teachers and principals for underperforming schools, expanded learning time, and an accountability system that will measure individual student progress and use data to inform instruction and teacher evaluation. Duncan credited No Child Left Behind for "exposing achievement gaps, and requiring that we measure our efforts to improve education by looking at outcomes, rather than inputs. . . . [However] it places too much emphasis on raw test scores rather than student growth."

Secretary Duncan has already been to thirty states as part of his "Listen and Learn Tour." More meetings are being scheduled this fall with Duncan's top deputies and the policy community, hopefully again to listen and learn.

One of the best resources for new teachers is a veteran teacher--that teacher down the hall who always seems to know the right answer. It may take some time in your new school to find the right person to mentor you, so how do you handle the first few weeks?

Subscribers to Teaching Magazine's free newsletter can check out Teaching Secrets: The First Days of School, which is a compilation of hints from teachers, former student teachers, and mentors. One useful suggestion is to make quick notes about student behavior during the school day. These dated observations can be helpful if you have a student with special needs or disruptive behavior.

Other sites that offer some terrific new-teacher resources include TeachersFirst  (downloads include "Survival Guide for New Teachers" and "Baptism by Fire: 100 Essential Tips and Resources for Student Teachers") and TeacherVision (downloads include "Top Ten Things Every Teacher Needs in the Classroom" and "Tips from Veteran Teachers on Dealing with Parents").

I invite veteran teachers to complete the sentence from the first paragraph: "When I was a new teacher, I wish I'd known . . ."