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"In order to prepare students for effective learning in an increasingly global and digital society, educators are seeking innovative communication tools that inspire student curiosity through investigation and reflection. Periscope is a powerful new tool that is inspiring teachers and students to create content together and share their worlds in impactful ways."

"Even though we only get the newspaper once a week, we always seem to have a pile of it lying around the house or tossed in the recycle bin. In fact, that was my inspiration for our DIY Eiffel Tower project! Why go out and spend money on building materials when you have some great stuff around the house, right! So, since I know that newspapers are easy to come by and usually just recycled once read, I thought we'd share some inspiration for a few high fun, low cost summer projects for kids!"

""People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it." This is the mantra of leadership expert Simon Sinek in one of the most popular TED Talks of all time (Watch: Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action). In his talk from TEDxPugetSound, Sinek looks at Apple, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright brothers - and examines why they were so successful at getting people to follow them. Who were the thinkers that inspired Sinek on his own path to leadership? Below, find five books (and two documentaries) that made a difference in his life."

"10 Go To Blogs To Make You Think"

"As an educator, I am constantly looking for new ideas to shape my educational philosophy and pedagogy. While I don't always have the time to read a book on current trends in education, I can always find a few moments each day to peruse the blogs that I follow and read a few posts to get my mental wheels spinning. Here are 10 of my favorite sources for inspiration:"

Whether you're new to the teaching field yourself or a seasoned veteran, you can find inspiration, advice and shared experiences by reading the blogs of other teachers. Both established bloggers and those new to the game like the bloggers listed here can offer some interesting and sometimes entertaining reading material for anyone involved in the education field. Check these new bloggers out the next time you're looking for something educational to read.

George's collection of inspirational reads from the week that was including: * 7 Kinds of Thinking Keeping Your School or District from Transformation * Why Kids Need School to Change * 7 Basic Types of Stories

"Welcome to your new classroom. I am sure you are going to explain and teach in a way that I might never understand. You see, I come from a day of filmstrip projectors that beeped, ditto paper that left my fingers blue and the students enjoying the scent, bells that really did ring out a mechanical melody, 16 millimeter films that, if in color, amazed the kids. In fact, if these films were shown backwards it provided bonus entertainment. In recent years I have heard words that are so strange to me. These words include foreign terms such as twitter, blog, wiki, Skype, web 2.0, clickers, and interactive whiteboards. I have heard all this talk about 21st century skills and I am not even sure if I can tell you what they are. So there you have it. I am not one of those digital natives, nor am I a digital immigrant! I may not even be an analog native or immigrant. So, even though I do not know all the new terms, I thought that I might give you a list of ten items I feel just might ensure success no matter what century it is."

"Spark your students' curiosity in engineering and technology by introducing them to the designers, inventors, and clever thinkers featured in PBS LearningMedia. Use their stories to illustrate various themes of study like the engineering design process and the impact of technology."

"Sometimes we just need to forget the curriculum, the standards, the test prep and interject some fun, some inspiration, some motivation into our daily routines. Well, I can't think of a better way to do so than via the super popular Kid President videos."

"A major shift in the force of education has emerged as teachers have become self-directed, independent designers of their own learning. Embracing social media, blogging, and learning from one another in digital spaces, they have forged a new era of professional development that is changing classrooms from the ground up. Simultaneously, and perhaps because of their online interactions, teachers also have begun to re-energize the professional learning in their brick-and-mortar professional spaces."

A lovely blog post about the daily search for inspiration to write a poem.

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"Summer is just around the corner. What a perfect time for kids to get swept away in the plot of a great page-turner. Our latest research report, Children, Teens, and Reading, shows that adolescents aren't reading much for fun. A third of 13-year-olds and 45% of 17-year-olds say they've read for pleasure one to two times a year, if that. However, we know that kids read on their devices all the time -- whether to check their social media feeds, look up a random fact on Wikipedia, or keep up with text messages from friends."

"When I put together this list of top-rated games of 2015, I noticed that though the tools varied in target grades and subjects, they shared some key things. As Mitch Resnick of the MIT Media Lab has argued, if you want to know if a tool is good for learning, first look to see if it aids kids' creativity and expression. I think many (if not all) the tools on this list get kids there, but they don't all take the same path. Some of these tools explicitly help kids make things while others foster thinking and reflection skills that complicate and expand their understanding of themselves and their worlds. They show us how great games can be for learning and inspire others to follow their lead."

"I've spent much of the summer working with teachers who are eager to integrate making and writing but uncertain where to begin. This is what I tell them:  I tell them that making must elevate writing, otherwise it will merely replace it. And writing matters. I tell them that we need frameworks that help us see how making and writing can connect inside of our classrooms and workshops. Making writing looks like play, but it's purposeful. Intentional. I tell them that we need tools and strategies and protocols that inspire complex, creative, and high quality work. I tell them that for all of these reasons, planning matters. Planning really matters. So, this is where my return to blogging will begin."