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"The summer is a great time to explore new-to-you iPad apps that you might want to add to the iPads that you have in your classroom. Each day this week I'm going to share a selection of apps appropriate for four ranges of pre-K-12 grades. Yesterday, I shared 21 apps for Pre-K through 2nd grade. Today, I have apps 3rd through 5th grade students. Apps for grades six through eight will be shared tomorrow. Apps for 9th through 12th grade will be shared on Thursday. "

"The province is drafting plans to make coding a part of the curriculum in every grade. Education Minister Karen Casey told a room of more than 600 students at the Big Data Productivity Congress in Halifax on Wednesday that learning coding will help prepare them for future careers. "We know that coding promotes problem-solving, teamwork, critical thinking, innovation and creativity," Casey said. "And we also know that those skills are directly related to industries like computer programming, manufacturing, communications and more. And those are the industries that you will be going to." The Education Department will finalize its plans over the course of the 2015-16 school year, and will introduce formal coding instruction in some grades in September."

"It's no secret that fractions are a very difficult concept for students to understand. But why is that? Fractions are an extremely abstract concept, and without adequate concrete and representational experiences, students do not develop mental images of what the abstract symbols mean.   In Texas, students begin formal fraction instruction in 2nd grade under our newly adopted TEKS, but the symbolic notation for fractions (1/4, 2/3, etc.) is not taught until 3rd grade. The 2nd grade standards include: partition objects into equal parts and name the parts, including halves, fourths, and eighths, using words explain that the more fractional parts used to make a whole, the smaller the part; and the fewer the fractional parts, the larger the part use concrete models to count fractional parts beyond one whole using words and recognize how many parts it takes to equal one whole Let's take a closer look at each."

" According to the latest EQAO report, half of Ontario Grade 6 students don't meet the curriculum standard in math. That's a problem. But it's not the only one. What worries me is that only 13 per cent of students who didn't meet the provincial standard when they were in Grade 3 manage to catch up so they meet the standard for Grade 6. That's the lowest number on that indicator in five years. If you fall behind in math you stay behind. That's why it's important to get it right, not just at some vague moment in the future, but for kids who are in Ontario schools right now. Fortunately, every parent in Ontario is sure they know how to teach math. Many parents want to get rid of "discovery math," broadly defined as "doing it weird." If only that loopy Liberal government would teach math the way we learned it when we were kids, the theory goes, there'd be no problem. Sure, great, except for one thing. Very few parents I've met can perform more than the most rudimentary arithmetic for themselves. If you all learned math so well, why do you inch toward Junior's algebra homework with a cross and a bulb of garlic?"

"Every Tuesday and Thursday from 11-12:30, we have an open makerspace time for students to sign up to explore the world of making.  This time supports students from many of our grades, but it doesn't support all students.  In addition to weaving makerspace into projects, I've been trying to host times for grades who can't come at our normal makerspace hours to come and explore Kindergarten is one of these grades. The Kindergarten teachers came to a maker professional learning session I did in the new year, and they really wanted to work out times for small groups of students to come to makerspace. We made a plan to have a couple of days each week where 3 students from each class came for a 30-minute maker time.  That equals 12 students.  For now, the students are different each time until we see the students who really get hooked into some of the maker tools. That means I have to offer the same experience multiple times so that all students get to try it."

"So this collection wasn't as easy to curate as it'd seem. It wasn't a matter of simply choosing the best apps across content areas-math, science, social studies, etc. The title says "every iPad," which seems to imply universal needs. Every. iPad. Same with age and grade level, reading level, and gender. So we took at look at apps that could be used in any content area, and at (almost) any grade level K-5. (Phonics Genius likely wouldn't be as necessary in later elementary grades as it might in K-3, for example.) The focus is on literacy, content, and play. An argument could be made that elementary school students may be better served with an Encyclopedia app rather than Google Search. You almost may want something with a subscription as Brainpop has, or a slightly more child-friendly word processor than Pages. Substitute away!"

"As both a teacher and administrator, I often heard from parents whose children were exceptionally good at math. "My daughter already knows how to multiply four-digit numbers, so third grade math is too easy for her. She needs to be accelerated." There's lots of research to support acceleration as a strategy for gifted learners. The Acceleration Institute, part of the Belin-Blank Center at the University of Iowa, recently produced a report entitled "A Nation Empowered" which details the enormous benefits to accelerating a student when he or she is performing well above grade level. Researcher Jonathan Wei of Duke University says, "All students deserve to learn something new each day." In math, the obvious way to learn something new is to accelerate the instruction, letting the student go on to the next topic or grade level. But "learn something new" is not the same as "learn the next thing on the district's scope and sequence.""

The same revision schedule I used to get an A* in GCSE maths a year early! It can be used by any GCSE/IGCSE maths student, regardless of the examining body. It covers the new UK GCSE Maths specification (9-1) released in September 2015. The fatal mistake thousands of students make in their maths revision and how YOU can avoid it. The most important area of your revision yet it goes widely unnoticed. This is where the A/A* grades are achieved. 3 unique memory retention techniques you can use to remember all you need to know for your exam. What process to follow a few days before your exam and why there is NO need to do any past papers at this point. A simple technique that will allow you to spend up to 50% of your time doing the things you enjoy! How to revise for all your other GCSE exams and achieve a top grade in each one. Tips on how to score up to 100% in your exam. A neat little trick to eliminate stress & anxiety on exam day. How to enter the exam if you're a private candidate with a tip on saving on the entry cost.

"This blog post includes a 5 minute video, a lesson plan and examples of student that show integration of visual art curriculum and Computational Thinking in my grade 3 classroom. Thank you to Bea Leiderman, Carolyn Skibba, Douglas Kian and my experience at the Apple Institute in Berlin for this idea.  Using Keynote and Kandinsky is Bea's idea. It's brilliant. Bea, Carolyn and I went to the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin where we saw Kandinsky's work. We also had in depth workshops on Keynote. The combination of these experiences at the Apple Institute in Berlin lead to this idea and a project. Bea, Douglas and I are currently working on a project where we are investigating how these ideas of art, coding, and Computational Thinking might fit together. This is the early stage of this team project. This video gives an overview of the lesson and a chance to peak inside my grade 3 classroom:"

"3 Reasons Why Faculty Meetings Are a Waste of Time By Peter DeWitt on April 10, 2015 6:50 AM Faculty Meeting.png Many school leaders walk into a faculty meeting with a single idea of how they want to move forward and walk out with the same idea. That's telling... John Hattie talks a great deal about the Politics of Distraction, which means we focus on adult issues, and not enough time...if ever...on learning. That is happening around the U.S. for sure. Recently the Assembly of NY State only furthered those distractions, which you can read about here, which means that school leaders and teachers have to work harder to maintain a focus on learning. Quite frankly, well before mandates and accountability, school leaders focused on the politics of distraction and not on learning. Compliance is not new in schools. Faculty meetings were seen as a venue to get through and something that teachers were contractually obligated to attend. During these days of endless measures of compliance, principals can do a great deal to make sure they don't model the same harmful messages to staff that politicians are sending to teachers. Jim Knight calls that "Freedom within form." In Talk Like Ted, Carmine Gallo quotes Marissa Mayer (CEO of Yahoo) when he writes, "Creativity is often misunderstood. People often think of it in terms of artistic work - unbridled, unguided effort that leads to beautiful effect. If you look deeper, however, you'll find that some of the most inspiring art forms - haikus, sonatas, religious paintings- are fraught with constraints. (p. 190)" Clearly, constraints have a wide definition. There is a clear difference between the constraints of compliance and the stupidity of the legislation just passed by the assembly in NY. As we move forward, principals still are charged...or at least should be...with the job of making sure they offer part...inspiration, part...teacher voice...and a great deal of focus on learning. There is never a more important tim

"This week, Grade 5 began a unit on Volume, Capacity and Surface Area. On a weekly basis, I take combined groups from the 4 grades consisting of the higher achievers, while the classroom teachers concentrate on the mainstream group and students needing more individual instruction to achieve success. I made a conscious decision this week to focus on using iPads with my group to explore both volume/capacity as well as surface area."

"Our 5th grade is currently studying the impact on American life that several famous inventors had. When I was brainstorming with Shelley Olin, 5th grade social studies teacher, we began to wonder about connections these standards had to makerspace.  It started as an idea seed and grew into a set of experiences for all 5th graders to engage in. I wanted students to put themselves into the shoes of an inventor so that they could begin to understand the perseverance and curiosity that inventors have. We focused on 3 of the inventors: Thomas Edison (electricity), Alexander Graham Bell (communication), and the Wright Brothers (flight)."

Read online, or download this book from NASA. Also a teacher's guide for K-2 and 3-4. "The IMAGERS (Interactive Multimedia Adventures for Grade School Education Using Remote Sensing) Program is NASAÕs comprehensive Earth science education resource for the introduction of remote sensing and satellite imagery to children in grades K-8." ""The Adventures of Amelia the Pigeon" was launched in the fall of 2002. Amelia is IMAGERS second interactive web site with multimedia components to engage the K-4 audience and illustrate Earth science concepts. The Pigeon Adventure presents science concepts through metaphors and analogies that relate to inner-city life. The use of a pigeon as the vehicle for the web site provides a metaphor familiar to inner-city children, and Amelia is utilized to introduce the concept of perspective. Through aerial photography created by Pigeon cameras, the web site focuses on the benefits of a birdÕs eye view. Throughout the interactive adventure portion of the web site, aerial and satellite imagery are used to demonstrate the advances of remote sensing through the century. Amelia the Pigeon presents new insights into habitats as she explores the urban environment of New York City."

"I'm now a little over a month into my new role as the coordinator of our brand-new makerspace in my PS-8th grade school here in Seattle, and I'm honestly loving it every bit as much as I expected! Over the course of this month, 450 students made prototype boats for their stuffies (PK), built "doodle bots" (K and 1),  "hacked" their notebooks with surface-mount LEDs (2), made dioramas powered by Hummingbird Robotics kits (3 and 4), designed and laser cut labels for their new classroom spaces (5), made postcards using the greenscreen of themselves visiting exotic locales (5 French), built casino games for math class (6), and built symbolic representations of their personal core values (8). 7th grade will be building turbine-driven generators next week! And, that's not even a comprehensive list… In the process of collaborating with my colleagues to develop and implement these projects with our students, I've figured out a few tips to pass along to educators at other schools initiating similar programs."

"STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) is more than just an acronym or a collection of letters. Rather, it is an instructional movement that embodies cross-curricular concepts from four fundamental disciplines, as well as a research-based strategy that addresses the future needs of a technology-driven work force and sustaining a global economy. The importance of STEM is further validated by its prominence in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). One of the most effective instructional approaches toward the implementation of STEM in grade-level courses is through project-based learning (PBL). In this approach, instruction occurs through student-centered investigations focused on a specific topic driven by a set of objectives, culminating in a broadly-defined product or technique. Projects foster an environment of discussion, creativity, problem-solving, inquiry, modeling, and testing, and are applicable to students in all grade levels and subjects, but particularly within the STEM arena."

Through podcasting and web video, we hope to connect kids in Grades 3 through 8 with books that will make them excited about reading. Bookwink was selected by the Association of Library Service to Children (ALSC) to be included on their list of great websites for kids.