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The article discusses the need and benefits of implementing Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM). Topics include introduction of teaching standards for each grade level and learning new terminology for old concepts, demands of effective teaching practices in CCSSM, and video clubs involves regular meetings to watch and discuss video clips from actual math classrooms.

Online professional learning websites provide a unique window into how teachers make self-directed choices about their own professional development. This study extends previous research on how teachers use online resource repositories to examine how teachers make choices about resource use on a professional learning website. The website, the Everyday Mathematics Virtual Learning Community, offers teachers two types of professional learning resources: (1) videos that can be played and (2) documents that can be downloaded. Each resource is presented with a wealth of information—such as user ratings, user comments, grade level designation, and a resource description—that could potentially influence teachers’ decisions about whether to use the resource. This study uses multiple regression to understand what information predicts whether teachers download a document or play a video. The results indicate that teachers are influenced by other users’ evaluations of resources, perceived practicality of resources, and brevity and accessibility of information about resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many teachers use online professional development websites, but little is known about what teachers actually learn from them. This study explored teacher use of an online video-based learning website with over 37,000 members. It used web analytics to study user selection of video resources and coding of website commentary to analyze teacher responses to videos. The results indicated that teachers commonly view video clips designed for immediate use rather than reflection and respond to videos by evaluating the pedagogy positively. Videos that feature students as the sole or primary actors provoked the most reflective teacher responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key debate in computer science education is whether and how computational thinking (CT) is used within disciplines other than computer science. Broad definitions provide many avenues for developing integrated instruction, as practices within existing activities can simply be reframed in terms of CT. But such general use of the term CT may confuse its meaning and dilute its power as a tool for bringing CS to all. In this paper, we take the viewpoint that mathematical thinking and computational thinking share common practices, such as using repetition to accomplish tasks, but these shared ideas may develop differently in mathematics and computer science. We use document analysis to analyze the K-5 Common Core State Standards for Mathematics for the presence of these common practices and describe the specific ways they develop in mathematics. We compare these elements of mathematical thinking to related elements of CT to identify synergies and differences between CT and mathematical thinking. We argue that these synergies and differences have implications for the development of integrated instruction designed to bring CS to all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined several potential distinctiveness-enhancing correlates of vowels produced in utterance focus by talkers of American English, French, and German. These correlates included possible increases in vowel space size, in formant movement within individual vowels, and in duration variance among vowels. Each language group enhanced the distinctiveness of vowels in [+focus] context but used somewhat differing means to achieve this. All three groups used spectral differences, but only German talkers used durational differences, to enhance distinctiveness. The results suggest that the amount of distinctiveness enhancement of a vowel property in [+focus] context is positively related to the between-category variation of that property in [-focus] context. Thus, consistent with the theory of adaptive dispersion, utterance clarity appears to vary directly with information content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]