Here are our TOP 5 favorite educational tweets of the week, which were RT’ed and/or clicked on the most by you!—our loyal Twitter followers. These tweets were originally tweeted by @eyeoneducation and some of our other favorite Tweeters. If you're not yet on Twitter, join today!

The following blog post was written by Lauren Beebe, an Editor at Eye On Education. This post is part two in a series about Gamification. Please click here to read part one.

Imagine what classrooms would be like if all students approached learning with the same excitement and interest that they do video, computer, and handheld games. Gamification presents one way for teachers to motivate students, successfully teaching both the content and a lifelong love of learning.

The following blog post was written by Lauren Beebe, an Editor at Eye On Education. This post is part one in a series about gamification. Check back tomororow for part two!

Imagine what classrooms would be like if all students approached learning with the same excitement and interest that they do video, computer, and handheld games. Gamification presents one way for teachers to motivate students, successfully teaching both the content and a lifelong love of learning.

Are you attending the NCTE Annual Convention 2011 in Chicago? If so, be sure to check out Amy Benjamin's and Joan Berger's day-long workshop: Grammar in the Heart of the Writing Process. Benjamin and Berger are the co-authors of Teaching Grammar: What Really Works. Here's what NCTE had to say about the workshop:

The following poem and tip were written by Annette Breaux and featured in her new book: 101 "Answers" for New Teachers and Their Mentors, 2nd Edition.

When you hear the word rigor, what is your first response? Maybe it's a negative one—rigor means hard. It means more homework, the most failures in a classroom, and high cut scores on standardized testing. Or maybe you think rigor is only for gifted or honors students. A colleague of mine, James Beane, points out that if you look up rigor in the dictionary, it falls between rigor mortis and rigamarole. Isn't that ironic?

True rigor means creating an environment in which each student is expected to learn at high levels, each student is supported so he or she can learn at high levels, and each student demonstrates learning at high levels (Blackburn, 2008). We’ll be exploring this definition in depth over the next few weeks, right here on this blog.

Every year on October 31st, we celebrate Halloween, a day full of mystery and excitement, through activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o’-lanterns, dressing up in costumes, telling scary stories, and watching horror films. With so many activities to choose from, why not bring some to the classroom? Whether you want to share the history of Halloween with your students, or perhaps give them a little fright, we have some great ideas for you!

Here are our TOP 5 favorite educational tweets of the week, which were RT’ed and/or clicked on the most by you!—our loyal Twitter followers. These tweets were originally tweeted by @eyeoneducation and some of our other favorite Tweeters. If you're not yet on Twitter, join today!

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Positive Behavior and Intervention Support (PBIS) programs will be weakened if educators perceive them as only a "warm and soft" approach to handling discipline in their school. Warmth, care, and encouragement are absolutely essential in dealing with student behavior issues; however, these perceived "softer" social qualities must be combined with a respectful and appropriate measure of accountability.

What did you write today? Maybe you wrote a lesson plan, an email to a colleague, a formal memo, a grocery list, or a text message. It is likely that you wrote in a variety of formats to a variety of people. Writing is not just something we have to do in school but is an important part of our lives, no matter what career path we choose. To bring home that point, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has designated October 20 as the annual National Day on Writing. NCTE outlines three main goals for this day: 1) to emphasize the importance of writing instruction in all grade levels, 2) to show that writing is a lifelong process with different audiences and purposes, and 3) to encourage people to write and to enjoy the writing of others.

The following tip by Harry G. Tuttle and Alan Tuttle is excerpted from Improving Foreign Language Speaking Through Formative Assessment. In this tip, you'll learn about an advanced foreign language speaking activity that incorporates internet clips.

Purpose: To narrate or supply one side of a dialogue for a previously unseen TV show, movie, or Internet clip
Level: Advanced
Speaking: Presentational
Grouping: Groups of two

Full Procedure
Show the student pairs a previously unseen clip from a TV show, movie, or Internet video without the sound...

Every fall, I find that "El día de los muertos" (Day of the Dead) intrigues and interests my junior high students. They want to know if the celebration is the same thing as Halloween, if people dress up in costumes, and whether or not there is candy. Once the students hear the words "Sugar Skull" they invariably ask if we can make (and eat!) sugar skulls. Although I was initially intimidated by the logistics of this activity, making sugar skulls turned into a fun, engaging and educational activity that we all enjoyed.

Confession: When I was a kid, I loved Sweet Valley High books. I must have read a hundred of them. My teacher was glad that I enjoyed reading in my spare time, but she wanted me to try classic works and Newbery Medal winners. She'd bring me suggestions, and I’d turn them down. I had to find out if Elizabeth and Todd would break up! Eventually, I grew to love high-quality literature on my own. But did it matter that I wasn’t reading award-winners as a kid? I think the only important thing was that I loved to read. Educators should encourage teens to read for pleasure and not turn their noses at kids’ reading selections.