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" Apple has long touted its device's assistive technology as a powerful tool for the educational development of physically and mentally disabled children. The iPad's touch screen makes it easier to manipulate than more traditional educational tools. For children with autism, "the iPad is not a toy, but a tool that works best when there is a 'team effort' between parents and therapists encouraging its proper use," said Marc Reisner, co-founder of Reach for the APPs. "Our goal is to provide schools with iPads so they can reach every child on the autistic spectrum." Reach for the APPs built their site with an initial donation from Managed Digital. Now, they're seeking out donations of money and/or iPads from both individuals and corporations to propel the program forward. According to reports from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 1-in-88 children have some form of autism, up 78 percent from just a decade ago. The demand for augmentative communications devices is growing. But the schools can't meet the demand, so the children are losing valuable time during critical developmental years. Lois Brady, a speech language pathologist and assistive technology specialist, said apps can help develop fine-motor skills, which will in turn make functions like writing and manipulating small objects easier for the students. "I have spent years working with the most challenging students that are considered profoundly disabled," she said. "And I have seen some small miracles when I introduce the iPad into our therapy, as the children have made huge gains in attention, focus, communication, language and literacy skills." Some experts also say that the iPad can lessen symptoms of autistic disorders, helping children deal with life's sensory overload. Brady will be contributing content to the Reach for the APPs website to inform therapists about the latest-and-greatest apps for children all over the autistim spectrum. Apps must be tailor

"Catherine Good has experienced stereotype threat herself, although she didn't know it at the time. She started her academic career in pure math, expecting to get a Ph.D. But somewhere along the way she started to feel like it just wasn't for her, even though she was doing well in all her classes. Thinking that she'd just chosen the wrong application for her love of math, Good switched to math education, where she first encountered the idea of stereotype threat from a guest psychology speaker. "As he talked about students feeling that they don't really belong, I had an epiphany," Good said. She realized the discomfort she'd felt studying mathematics had nothing to do with her ability or qualifications and everything to do with a vague sense that she didn't belong in a field dominated by men. Stereotype threat is a term coined by psychologists Joshua Aronson and Claude Steele. They found that pervasive cultural stereotypes that marginalize groups, like "girls aren't good at math," create a threatening environment and affects academic achievement. Good was so fascinated by how powerful psychological forces can be on learning, including her own, that she switched fields again to study social psychology, and she ended up working closely with Carol Dweck for several years when Dweck's growth mindset work was in its early stages and not yet well-known among educators. Good now works at a psychology professor at Baruch College. Originally, Dweck and Good hypothesized that believing intelligence is flexible - what we now call a growth mindset - could protect students from stereotype threat, an inherently fixed idea."

"Earlier this week I shared five good feeds for mathematics teachers and five good feeds for history teachers. These lists were born out of a common request that I get and that is "can you recommend some good blogs for X?" So this week I'm going to publish a short list each day of the blogs that usually come to mind when someone asks me to make a recommendation for a blog related to teaching a particular subject area. Today, I have five good feeds for ELA and ELL teachers."

"Drones do lots of good in the world, and the ways they can be used for good seem to be growing every day. (There's even a "UA Drones for Good" competition held in Dubai every year.) Here is our list of some of the ways that drones are being used for good right now. Know of others? Reach out and let us know on Twitter using the hashtag #dronesforgood. We'd love to see this list grow!"

"[This is part of the Infographic Design Series. Check out the other posts!] Good visual arrangement for infographics is putting together graphic and visual elements in a manner that draws your reader's attention. The key to achieving simple, elegant and attractive content are ample whitespace and a well arranged layout. What is whitespace? White space is as its name defined-space that is unmarked in a piece of infographic or visual representation. It could be margins, padding or the space between columns, text and icons and design elements. Whitespace matters to create visually engaging content A page crammed full of text and images will appear busy. This makes the content difficult to read. It makes you unable to focus on the important stuff too. On the other hand, too much of white space can make your page look incomplete. It is always crucial to remember visually engaging content is usually clean and simple. Here's an example of what I mean. whitespace-matters Understanding common infographics layouts help ease visual arrangement Infographic layouts refer to the arrangement of your visual elements and your content. When you begin working on a piece of infographic, you should have a story to tell hence, you will need to select a layout that best suits your story. Using the right layout will ensure good readability and convey your message well. We have put together a cheat sheet for your quick reference to the right arrangement to use, here are six common ones you can quickly work with. Infographic Layout Cheat Sheet Useful Bait: Works well with most types of data. Rather than focusing on design, it works more for practicality, thus making it easy to read. For instance, a reference sheet where you can print it out and use it over and over again. If your content has many subtopics to a main subject, this layout enables you to segregate them into clean chunks that are easy to consume. Versus/Comparison: This layout is typically split vertically to

"Today as I was sifting through some of graphics created by the Visual Communication Guy, I come across this interesting visual on plagiarism. This could be a very good document to use with your students in class to teach them about plagiarism : what constitutes an act of plagiarism and the different types of copyright violations involved in it. Unfortunately, as I was looking for a download link I found out that the visual is not free. You can access and read it in large version by clicking on the image there but if you want to have a copy you  need to pay. If you are looking for web tools to help you detect plagiarism in your students works, this list is a good place to start with. Enjoy"

"Here is a handy visual for librarians featuring 12 of what we think are very good iPad apps they can use in their daily work. The visual is based on a post we shared here a few months ago. For more app suggestions for librarians, we recommend  Nicole Hennig's book : Apps for Librarians: Using the Best Mobile Technology to Educate, Create, and Engage which covers in more details over 100 Android and iPad apps. You can also check this infographic featuring 30 good web tools for librarians."

"It is common for people to group themselves into two categories; those who are good at art or design, and those who are good at math or science. The reason for this is that many people believe that the skills needed to be successful in creative services do not relate to the skills that are required to be successful in the analytical. Even though mathematics is in the list of the most difficult college classes, in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Many design concepts, such as symmetry, have direct ties to mathematical concepts and discoveries. So, if you are an artist or a designer, there is a good chance that you are already incorporating math into your work, you just may not be doing it consciously. Here are some very specific ways that mathematics has not only influenced design but has acted as a true game changer."

"Editing video on the go with the iPad and iMovie is pretty simple. Below I've grabbed three different free tutorials from Youtube that show you how to use the app. While the tutorials can give you a good of how to use the app, they are free so there are some limitations. If you are looking for really good, thorough tutorials on everything from iMovie to WordPress, I'd recommend subscribing to Lynda.com. These are a good starting point for you though if you've never seen iMovie on the iPad."

"It's not hyperbole to say that we're in danger of losing a generation of children to a world that, at the moment, cannot find its way forward without violence, conflict, and despair. It's not just war and violence that threaten, but a crumbling of the infrastructure of good thinking. That sounds vague, but we witness its impact daily. What we see around us is an increasing inability to collectively define and outline a satisfying vision of the future. Fear is rapidly replacing hope-and that's not a good formula for growing up whole. The news is particularly poignant as we transition into a new year, when much of the world aims to turn love and good will from slogans into reality. So here's a question for educators to consider: How do teachers help heal the world in 2015 and beyond?"

"The digital revolution, globalisation and demographic changes are transforming labour markets at a time when policy makers are also struggling with persistently slow productivity and wage growth and high levels of income inequality. The new OECD Jobs Strategy provides a comprehensive framework and detailed policy analysis and recommendations to help countries promote not only strong job creation but also foster job quality and inclusiveness as central policy priorities, while emphasising the importance of resilience and adaptability for good economic and labour market performance in a rapidly changing world of work. The key message is that flexibility-enhancing policies in product and labour markets are necessary but not sufficient. Policies and institutions that protect workers, foster inclusiveness and allow workers and firms to make the most of ongoing changes are also needed to promote good and sustainable outcomes. "The OECD's latest Jobs Strategy is a smart and sensible updating and rethinking of how countries should advance the goal of shared prosperity. I hope policymakers around the world not only read it but take its important advice." Jason Furman, Professor Harvard Kennedy School and former Chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers   "Inequality, economic insecurity, economic exclusion, are making the headlines.  Anger is high, populist rhetoric is on the rise.   What can be done?  What strategies to adopt?  These are the challenging questions taken up by the new OECD Jobs Strategy report.  I hope the report triggers the very serious discussions these issues deserve."    Olivier Blanchard, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute, Emeritus Professor at MIT and former Chief Economist of the IMF "

"The week after my dad passed, I decided to come back. Bereavement time was up and I felt that getting back into my classroom would help. I was wrong. By the third day I was still feeling lost, overwhelmed, and exhausted. I ended taking the last two days of the week off. I came back, what I felt as "refreshed", the following Monday. Only still feeling lost, overwhelmed, and exhausted. As soon as I walked into the school I immediately met with the principal and told him that I couldn't continue. I needed more time away to deal with my emotions and to understand the scope of what took place. I could hear words of my dad echoing in my ear - "take care of yourself… if you don't, you'll end up sick." While my dad's health wasn't that great, and he knew it; he always made sure that everyone else took better care of themselves. Exactly like me. I make sure that others are always put before me. I could not longer do that. I needed to take care of myself before I ended up lying on the floor unable to move, like Izzy in Grey's Anatomy. Those four extra days was what I needed. I processed his death, I cried, I slept (for nearly two whole days), and I remembered the good times. I sat on the couch catching up on missed shows, Netflix, and Days of our Lives. We stress the importance of good mental health to our students, but I wasn't heeding my own words. I knew that being in the classroom too soon after his death wasn't making me a good teacher for my students."

Online classes may be a relatively young instructional practice for K-12 schools, but experts already generally agree on one point: Research shows that virtual schooling can be as good as, or better than, classes taught in person in brick-and-mortar schools.

"If you're a teacher, you probably don't have oodles of free time on your hands (unless you've thrown lesson planning and grading your students' work out the window!), but when you do, a good book recommendation is almost always welcome (trumped only by a good wine/beer/food recommendation!). I always enjoy a good 'beach read' when I need something brainless (read: flaky, easy reading), but sometimes I'm up for something with a little more substance. What better than something that can help you out in your classroom or professional life?"

"In a job search, you need to know what you are good at. Which can feel daunting at first if you have been taught not to brag about yourself, right? Often the default is to talk about your degree or how many years you worked for a company. But that doesn't tell people what you are good at."

"Teachers may offer up a killer classroom library and carve out class time for silent reading, but these two things do not guarantee prolific reading, or even moderate reading from your students. One of my goals when I was teaching high school was this: to have students fall in love with reading while they were in my classroom (or at least like it a little more). So how do you motivate secondary students in a deeper, lifelong reader way? It's not just about helping a student find that right book, as teachers often see as the ultimate mission, but it's about giving reasons for reading -- and really good ones. Because let's face it, there's plenty of stuff we all have to read that we may not be crazy about, but we know it's good for us. The following motivators are inspired by educator Kelly Gallagher's book, Reading Reasons: Motivational Mini-Lessons for Middle and High School."

"The Internet is an amazing resource for people of all ages. A solid awareness of Information Fluency coupled with a sense of good digital citizenship will keep any Web user on the straight and narrow. But what about beginners? What are the best basic Internet safety rules we can give to young ones who are venturing into cyberspace on their maiden voyage? That's what this infographic from Pumpic focuses on. It features 10 timeless and trusty Internet safety rules for kids exploring online for the first time. While we here at the GDCF don't believe that the Web is strictly a dark place for cyber-criminals that act in shadow, we still encourage everyone to recognize that some online perils exist. A good dose of common sense goes a long way in keeping us safe online. The Internet safety rules in this infographic are ones that not only kids can benefit from, but that all of us can. The folks at Pumpic seem to agree: "Our infographic with 10 guiding principles aims to ensure your child is both safe and responsible online. The Internet needn't be a dangerous place if treated with caution and respect.""

"The source for innovative or creative thinking is as much as mystery as that of curiosity or particular genius. In a traditional classroom, "having a good idea" is strangely not valued as much as the ability to demonstrate proficiency with a specific assessment form. In fact, "good ideas" can often be disruptive to a tightly-sequenced and outcomes-based learning process."

"Education-bashing has become something of a national sport in the United States. From hurling criticism about slipping test scores, socio-economic disparity, dropout rates, to raising concerns about poor teaching standards and school resources, the popular narrative is that U.S. schools are failing children. There's good reason for the pile-on: in many cases, the problems are real. While most of the conversation around education reform centers on how to address these existing issues, another point of view has been gaining momentum over the last several years. It's a point of view that is less focused on fine-tuning the current system for high performance-since the system was built in 1893 with the goal of churning out "good workers"-and more about rethinking education entirely and how it meets the world's rapidly changing economy in the information age. This topic is explored in depth in the feature-length documentary, Most Likely to Succeed, which premiered at Sundance and will appear at the Tribeca Film Festival April 24. In the film, director, writer and producer Greg Whiteley casts a light on the shortcomings of established education methods by focusing on one school that's defying convention, San Diego's High Tech High. While following two ninth-grade classes for a year, with classroom instruction unlike anything you've ever seen, the doc offers some inspirational ideas for how to help students rise to the occasion of an innovation economy that requires critical thinking."