Even after 20+ years of teaching, it seems that no two start of semesters is ever the same. Some classes gel immediately, some create polarized groupings, and some just look at me. Silently. Or, the classes start great, but then the momentum drops unexpectedly. The two following blog entries are from one of my all-time favorite teaching and learning sites, Edutopia.org. I find that the underlying principles and activities are as applicable to higher ed as they are to the k-12 students targeted in this site. After all, the movement towards active learning is partially based on the research from k-12 on how ALL humans learn best:)

1. Surefire Strategy for Building Classroom Community
2.  Want to take over my class? Be my guest