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"I spend a great deal of time looking up stuff. Whether that stuff is blog posts to get a pulse on what is happening in the edusphere or researching new tools to share with teachers, I come across a wide variety of resources that I need to save, catalog and be able to come back to later. Curation is a large part of my day. Wait. What is curation anyway? Think about it in terms of a museum curator. Their job is to tell a story with artifacts. They scour the globe looking for just the right piece to help convey a message. We have to do the same with the resources we gather. For educators and students, curation is a 3-part process. Gathering Resources Organizing Resources Sharing Resources"

"Ten years ago, I walked past a newsstand and out of the myriad of multicolored covers, one jumped out at me: MAKE magazine. As someone who grew up making stuff, this magazine spoke directly to me. I bought copies and immediately brought them to the director of my school. I remember triumphantly exclaiming "We should show this to all of the teachers-think of the projects we can do!" A decade later, well-intentioned schools that create dedicated "maker spaces" worry me. For the uninitiated, a maker space often houses ultramodern tools like a laser cutter or 3D printers, mixed with drill presses, table saws, and soldering irons, or perhaps screen printing equipment or sewing machines. My fear is that stand-alone maker spaces will cause the powerful act of creation to be confined to only certain parts of the school building. I worry that yesterday's centralized computer lab-which we rightly democratized and decentralized by putting computers in every classroom-is today's maker space. When I walk past a new room being outfitted with a laser cutter or a drill press and hear, "This is our maker space!" I am tempted to ask: "What happens in all of the other spaces? What do people do there?" The act of creation is transformative. An individual's self-image is forever changed when he or she can hold up a real object-a real contribution to the world-and say, "I made this." In a time when students' lives are increasingly virtual, abstract and vicarious experiences, it is every teacher's job to make learning, and life, "hands-on." "

"Create. Collaborate. Iterate. Dream. Reflect. Design. Take risks. It's the stuff learning is made of. Not the kind you find in a textbook or in testing practice. The kind you find in the world. The kind that grabs a hold of your interests, ignites your passions, and launches you into a space where there are possibilities. The kind that is messy and tangled and amazing. We all need to be reminded of what true, authentic learning really is. Deeper than standards, into a space where connections are made with each other and with the world. Let's make that happen. Or you could just turn to page 26 and continue following the textbook company's idea of what will engage your learners."

"Even though I'm not a music teacher (nor have I ever been, or will I be), I tend to find technology in music classrooms to be some of the most exciting ways that technology is being put to use in classrooms overall. While there's lots of time-saving-efficient-cool-useful stuff happening in all types of classrooms, there's something particularly awesome about making music and integrating some awesome digital technologies into the process. There are a million and one ways to use an iPad or other tablet in your music classroom, but it definitely doesn't stop there! The handy infographic below takes a look at how technology is revitalizing how musicians compose, record, perform, and distribute music - both in and out of the classroom."

"Exercise has been touted to be a cure for nearly everything in life, from depression, to memory loss, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's and more. At the same time, similar to the topic of sleep, I found myself having very little specific and scientific knowledge about what exercise really does to our bodies and our brains. "Yes, yes, I know all about it, that's the thing with the endorphins, that makes you feel good and why we should exercise and stuff, right?" is what I can hear myself say to someone bringing this up. I would pick up things here and there, yet really digging into the connection of exercise and how it effects us has never been something I've done. Inspired by a recent post from Joel on what makes us happy I've set out to uncover the connection between our feeling of happiness and exercising regularly"

"Last year, at an event where teens showcased apps that they created for a competition, I spoke with the high school boys who won first prize. They expressed surprise at their achievement. "We built something, thought it worked, tested it, only to find out that there were snags," one of them said. "We started again, got a little farther along, and had to stop again. This happened over and over." Their comments highlight what the maker movement is and isn't. It's not about the stuff: the 3-D printers, the soldering irons, the sewing machines, the iPads, or the craft materials. A successful experience is about learning and innovation. That's what those teenagers discovered as they worked through the iterations of their app, and it's something to keep in mind as you consider software for your libraries. Below are three of my favorite maker apps."

"Last year, at an event where teens showcased apps that they created for a competition, I spoke with the high school boys who won first prize. They expressed surprise at their achievement. "We built something, thought it worked, tested it, only to find out that there were snags," one of them said. "We started again, got a little farther along, and had to stop again. This happened over and over." Their comments highlight what the maker movement is and isn't. It's not about the stuff: the 3-D printers, the soldering irons, the sewing machines, the iPads, or the craft materials. A successful experience is about learning and innovation. That's what those teenagers discovered as they worked through the iterations of their app, and it's something to keep in mind as you consider software for your libraries. Below are three of my favorite maker apps."