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"I talk and share what I do with a lots of teachers. When these educators hear about the ways their colleagues are using blogs and Twitter in their classrooms they are intrigued. Most of them are interested enough to want to look further, but the idea is a bit overwhelming. I find this to be especially true of primary teachers. "What would that look like with young children?" they wonder. "What do the different blogging tools look like if you teach six year olds?" "How could you use Twitter in a kindergarten classroom?" "Yes, I can see what that would look like with older students, but my students are young. Most of them can't yet write. What would THAT look li"

"Teaching primary and secondary students how to program has become a hot topic lately. Even people like United States President Barack Obama to actress Angela Bassett to music artist Shakira have spoken about the value of computer programming in an initiative called Hour of Code. With good reason too. Technology is a major part of our lives. Knowing how to build new technologies means having the ability to shape its direction. So let's encourage students not just how to program, but how to write programs that can help our world. And to start, technology coordinator Holli Scharinger has curated a set of web, desktop, and mobile apps that students can use to learn computer programming."

"Here is a wonderful little visual I came across through Edudemic which outlines the 8 skills students need in order to live up to the expectations of the future job market. These skills which are highlighted in the recent report "The Learning Curve"  by Pearson are a big departure from the conventional literacy skills : Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic.That being said, the report also underscored the fact that for kids (in developing countries) to get a grasp of the 21st century skills, they need to first master the basic literacy skills. Developing countries must teach basic skills more effectively before they start to consider the wider skills agenda. There is little point in investing in pedagogies and technologies to foster 21st century skills, when the basics of numeracy and literacy aren't in place."

"Are you looking for the most impactful, the most inspiring, the most beneficial books that will help you succeed in the classroom? Perhaps you need ways to improve the way in which you motivate students. Perhaps you want to build a better classroom culture. Need new ways to teach reading and writing across the curriculum? Or, you might be curious about trends like Genius Hour and project-based learning. Boy, do I have a list for you."

"The myth about social media in the classroom is that if you use it, kids will be Tweeting, Facebooking and Snapchatting while you're trying to teach. We still have to focus on the task at hand. Don't mistake social media for socializing. They're different -- just as kids talking as they work in groups or talking while hanging out are different. You don't even have to bring the most popular social media sites into your classroom. You can use Fakebook or FakeTweet as students work on this form of conversation. Edublogs, Kidblog, Edmodo, and more will let you use social media competencies and writing techniques. Some teachers are even doing "tweets" on post-it notes as exit tickets. You can use mainstream social media, too."

"The Foos is part of a trend toward increasing emphasis on code as a fundamental literacy. You may have heard about the Hour of Code nonprofit initiative, which claims tens of millions of student participants; or New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio's recent announcement that he intends to require teaching of computer science in all grades for all students. "A computer science education is literacy for the 21st century," the mayor said at the announcement. Educators, researchers and entrepreneurs like Hosford are taking that analogy very seriously. They're arguing that the basic skills of coding, such as sequencing, pattern recognition and if/then conditional logic, should be introduced alongside or even before traditional reading, writing and math."

"Below is a selection of some good text to speech iPad apps that you can use with your students. Text to speech apps can be used for teaching all the four skills: listening, writing, reading, and speaking. They are also good for language learners and for special education students. You can also access the web version of text to speech tools here. Enjoy"

"While not every student might want to write their own software, understanding the big ideas of coding is a skill that all students would benefit from, even the very young ones. Understanding the key ideas of computational thinking - identifying patterns, thinking algorithmically, manipulating data, solving real problems, etc - is an important step in helping our students build mastery over their world. This presentation aims to take you on a guided tour through some of the resources available to your students to help them learn the principles of creating code. It starts by looking at a range of desktop and mobile apps suitable for teaching very young students to program, right through to tools and websites that can help your older students learn to hack code, and much more."

"Like myself, other students with learning difficulties-from dysgraphia (a difficulty with writing, mainly in spelling) and attention disorders like ADD and ADHD-respond well to visual or tactile learning and activities that allow physical participation, according to the U.S. Department of Education. And these learning impediments are not as uncommon as you might imagine. In the US alone, approximately eight percent of children were identified by a health professional as having a learning disorder, according to a 2014 study. As these types of difficulties become more recognized every day, the importance of adjusting teaching methods has started to increase accordingly."

"Visual content is a powerful tool. As children, we learn to recognize visual cues before we learn to speak or write. We're wired to rely on these cues to understand the world and to use visual content to communicate our thoughts and feelings. Teachers can integrate graphic design into their classrooms to facilitate instruction and to prepare students for success. Here are four ways teachers are using visual content already. Try them and discover how visual content can positively impact teaching and learning. "

"Thankfully, the design community and teachers such as Jane Hewitt are doing their best to provide alternatives to the cheesy and the costly - stylish and high-resolution stock photos that are completely free to do what you like with. Gone are the days of doing a quick Google Image search and cut and pasting an image without really considering who it belongs to. On the back of our post on digital citizenship, we've been meaning to write this as a follow-up. What good is an encouragement to cite your sources, respect copyright and give credit where it's due without any help to do so? Here, then, is your help… Half-decent stock photos are not always easy to locate, but here are the best we've found. What's great about this list is that for the vast majority, you don't need to include attribution - the photographer has provided them for you to do what you like with - whether that be the background for your TED talk (!), a story-starter for your English lesson or for your students to use in their project work."

"Introducing kids to coding is the hot new thing. Even President Obama is promoting it. By teaching children how to write code, we enhance their understanding about how computer science makes so many things work. Using their new coding skills, budding programmers can create their own games and solve problems, while also practicing logical thinking, math and reading skills. Here are some of the best free ways to start kids down the path of coding."

"Augmented Reality is a hugely engaging phenomenon that has never been more accessible. Explaining what Augmented Reality is, is a bit like trying to describe the difference between a 3D shape and a 2D shape. Seeing it and using it will give you a much better understanding of what it is. Essentially, augmented reality creates a three dimensional animation that can be viewed through the iPad's camera. This creates the effect of the animation being a physical structure in the room with you that you can interact with through an app. Again, to show is much easier than to describe, and so this blog will do just that. Before I dive in to my personal favourites, I feel that it is important to highlight the educational implications of augmented reality apps. Yes, the ability to use this kind of technology is impressive and engaging, but what does it bring to teaching and learning? Well, there are a number of ways that it can help to spur on creativity, story writing, research, computing skills and so on. I will explain each app's potential and educational impact as we go along…"

On TLN we are playing a game- Six-Word Memoirs- if you were writing a mini-memoir of your teaching life, what would your six words be?

A video of Tim Ryland'suse of the computer game Myst in the classroom in his creative writing class. Watch for the ecellent teaching practices in the video.

You are welcome to use the resources and activities on this site to teach kids about today's marketplace. The site is intended for students in 5th through 8th grade and can be used to complement lessons in critical thinking, writing, language arts, media literacy, business, civics, and social studies.

Here are the most popular items in the month of November: 1. Why Teachers Use Twitter 2. 9 Resources for Website Evaluation Lessons 3. 6 Ways for Students to Publish Their Writing Online 4. 12 Ways for Students to Publish Slideshows Online 5. Intro to Wikis Video Created By Kids 6. Ten Trends to Affect Teaching In the Future (and now) 7. Daylight Saving Time Explained

"Crunchzilla is a service that students can use to learn to write Javascript programs. There are two versions of Crunchzilla; Code Maven and Code Monster. Code Monster is designed for students of middle school age. "