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Children in the Mehlville district may have the chance in two years to attend an elementary school with an alternative curriculum - one that uses real-world problems to help students learn and without the restraints grade levels sometimes place on learning. It would be a school that parents would choose, and there would be no admission requirements. If more children apply than there are seats available, the district would hold a lottery. That kind of competition for classroom seats has largely been limited regionally to the city of St. Louis. There, district magnet and choice schools, along with independent charter schools, offer language immersion education and schooling that focuses on science, engineering, technology and math. Mehlville Superintendent Chris Gaines received preliminary approval from the district's School Board last week to move ahead with a "Choice School of Innovation" that would be the only of its kind in St. Louis County.

With millions of pieces of open education resources flooding the Internet, educators face a "needle in the haystack" problem of epic proportions. Sure, they can find hundreds, if not thousands, of free pieces of content to accomplish their mission with students, but how to find the right one, aligned to the right standard, for the right student, at the right time? That challenge lies at the heart of personalized learning, whether conveyed through teachers, technology, or some combination of the two.

"This is the last generation of students who will carry backpacks to school. For teachers and parents, the realization that education will look very different from our own experience is a major paradigm shift. Never in the history of education has the delivery of instruction been so drastically altered so incredibly quickly. "

"The Common Core State Standards recognize that to thrive in the newly wired world, students need to master new ways of reading and writing."

"Important research compiled on the effects of students multitasking while learning shows that they are losing depth of learning, getting mentally fatigued, and are weakening their ability to transfer what they have learned to other subjects and situations."

"When asked why he became a scientist, Nobel Laureate Isidor Rabi attributed his success to his mother. Every day, she would ask him the same question about his school day: "Did you ask a good question today?" "Asking good questions - made me become a scientist!" Rabi said."

"Using Google to look for text is simple enough, but not until recently did I realize you could use it to search by reading level. And it typical Google fashion, it's slightly more convoluted a process than it needs to be, but is otherwise dead simple."

TONS of Websites for all kinds of 2.0 tools

"This week I'd like you to meet top-notch STEM program developer Dr. Susan Pruet. I was fortunate enough to work with Susan as she developed and directed two remarkably successful NSF-funded school reform efforts involving STEM education: the Maysville/Mobile Math Initiative and, more recently, the middle grades program Engaging Youth through Engineering. Susan - best described as a high-energy dynamo - has a talent and a well-designed process for establishing successful STEM reform initiatives. And she is masterful at joining hands with teachers, administrators, and community & business leaders to make it happen. In this guest blog post, Susan passes along some of her wisdom on how to design and implement a successful, sustainable STEM program. Here are 7 tips Susan thinks you should know up front."

"Just look at the fourth- and fifth-grade students at Dater Elementary School. They participated in a "Global Progressive Story," collaborating with students from 200 schools in 21 states and eight countries on 18 stories that are featured on the website writeyourstory.wikispace.com."

collaborative lesson planning; studying how teachers can publish their lessons online and collaborate

"In the summer of 2011, I was handed an opportunity to design and teach a course loosely based on Apple's in-store Genius Bar. The driving force behind this course was the impending launch of our 1-to-1 iPad environment. That summer, the Burlington Public Schools (MA) tech team was preparing to deliver iPads to every student in the high school. We were a five-person team, and three of those positions covered every school and device in the district. We were taking on these additional devices without additional support. "

" Searching by file type and searching by domains is a great way for students to refine their Google searches. Searching for and within a DOC, a PPT, or XLS file can lead students to resources that they might not otherwise have seen. But increasingly a lot of us are creating our documents, slides, and spreadsheets in Google Drive. Many of us are then publishing those files for anyone in the world to see. Thanks to the Google for Education Google+ page, today I was reminded that you can perform a Google search to look for publicly shared Docs, Slides, and Spreadsheets. The screenshots below illustrate how to do this."

The New Year is a wonderful time to start trying some new things. "You've spent a good amount of time with your students and feel more comfortable exploring new strategies and practices that are more tailored to their learning needs. I want to share some great ideas that you can use to change things up for the second part of the year -- and that can also help beat the winter blues."

"If you share those same goals, then you need to be using social media, particularly Twitter, probably more than you are now. I've got some advice - based on my own recent efforts to use Twitter to broaden my audience - for those who are either new to Twitter or who have only dipped a toe into that particular pool. But before I proceed, a few disclaimers are in order."

"Augmented reality experiences are generally triggered by geographic location or image recognition. In the latter case, apps can be programmed to recognize specific images and then take a series of actions when those image are encountered. For example, when looking at a car engine an augmented reality app may identify where and how to top up fluid levels. Of course that trigger image can also be a printed image in a book or on a wall. Imagine walking around an art museum and pointing your device at a painting on the wall. A video pops up immediately displaying an interview with the artist and explaining the nuances of the painting. Tap on the screen and it shows you other works by the same artist. Another tap and you can order a print. The art becomes a digital doorway to an augmented experience that enables you to explore and learn more. Now consider a similar scenario with a printed image in a book."

" Gen Z is also very entrepreneurial - almost 13 percent already have their own business, and an additional 22 percent plan to own a business in the future. The Internet plays a major role in this aspirational shift, breaking down the walls of possibilities for young students to create and sustain their own businesses. The study found that these teens have a sincere love of learning. They thrive when they are challenged and allowed to be engaged in their education - more than half of the students learn best by doing. Empowered by the Internet, they are remarkably independent and self-reliant, and are comfortable researching, discovering and self-educating through YouTube DIY videos and online learning platforms like Skillshare and Udemy."