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"Over the past couple of weeks I have shared two of Elise Gravel's wonderful non fiction children's books on disgusting critters. We have read The Slug and The Rat. After reading The Rat, and knowing that Elise is on twitter I asked my students if they wanted to tweet her and tell her what they thought about her book. To no surprise the answer was YES! Since I teach a combined grade one and two class I started by modelling how to tweet with the entire class. I ask my grade one students what they wanted to say to her and I typed their tweets as they spoke them. In the process I modelled how a tweet is written and what we needed to include in a tweet. With a few tweets sent, my grade two students were encouraged to tweet to her too while I worked with some of my grade one students. Of course, the rules never change, and I saw each tweet before it went live. Actually one tweet did sneak out without my eyes but it was quickly brought to my attention. This tweeting provided my students an authentic opportunity for writing. "

"There is a difference between personalized learning and differentiation. Differentiation is a kind of personalized instruction, where teachers adjust process, & product, according to a student's readiness, interest, & learning style. Planning of the learning starts with the content, and the content remains the same for all students. This is a school and curriculum-centered approach that attempts to amend the delivery of the content to match the student's needs, strengths, and general readiness. Personalized learning starts with the learner and asks the question, "What does this student need to understand, and how best can that happen?" This is a student-centered approach, and is built around the idea of recognizing the vast differences in students-not just in terms of literacy or schema, but an authentic need to know."

"I believe that every child has the right to invent, tinker, create, innovate, make, and do. The maker movement has created opportunities for all educators to give students authentic learning opportunities that go beyond the typical classroom experiences and to rethink traditional learning environments to include those that nurture the kinds of creativity and innovation that will benefit our students both in school and beyond. We know children learn by exploring and playing and doing and making and that these kinds of things lead to deeper engagement. The maker movement embodies opportunities for experimentation and innovation to occur across all grade levels and all content areas. Physical makerspaces have allowed us the opportunity to pull some of this excitement of the maker movement into our schools. Makerspaces can help set the stage for meaningful student learning, as well as help cultivate a culture of innovation within a school. My makerspace inspires innovation, passion, and personal motivation and interests, and has encouraged students to pursue STEM subjects and careers."

"Lisa Yokana recently shared a useful rubric in her post on "Creating an Authentic Maker Education Rubric." As this post was making the rounds on social media, Edutopia staff received a number of requests to distribute a modifiable version of her sample maker rubric that educators could adjust to the particulars of their own settings."

"Great teaching can be learned. This web site provides a vision of ambitious science instruction for elementary, middle school and high school classrooms. Ambitious teaching deliberately aims to support students of all backgrounds to deeply understand science ideas, participate in the activities of the discipline, and solve authentic problems."

"It's been a heady first month in Northfield Community Middle School's Technology, Engineering, and Design program. Kids are raving, parents are beaming, and it was a great start. But . . . what assumptions have we made that were valid? Or not? What's going well? What could be better? What adjustments are we making now that "Design Experience Zero" in Digital Shop has wrapped up, and our gamified learning management system, Black Mesa, is in full swing? Finally, what's ahead for the program longer-term? Back when our fantastic new learning space was still all gleaming and ready for kids to experience, compliments started rolling in, but I reminded people that creating the space and even building our LMS had been the easy part. The hard part would be (and is!) creating authentic learning experiences that purposefully engage the kids in mindful exploration (the Manifesto, remember?). Our goal: make the kids "life ready" by challenging them to take charge of their own learning -- something that school had never really asked them to do."

"Genius hour is trending in education, and for good reason. It is an attempt to restore the personalization, creativity, and authenticity that has been designed out of many schools and classrooms in the modern testing era of ed reform. We've offered a definition for genius hour in the past, and discussed the principles of genius hour before. Below we've listed 7 strengths and challenges of teaching with/through genius hour (we've used the simpler but slightly less accurate terms "pros" and "cons")."

"In the past couple of weeks, I've been asked the same question multiple times after speaking, "Do you still believe Genius Hour and 20% Projects are the best way to engage students?" My initial response was to shout YES, without really thinking about my answer. But, as someone who ran the 20% Project with my students, wrote Genius Hour into our 9th grade English curriculum, has written a book on the subject, and speaks on its merit around the country…I thought it deserved some more thought. My answer, after much reflection, is still YES but with a small hesitation. A Genius Hour or 20% Time Project involves three of the main components that engage students (for clarification purposes, my definition of student engagement is "high attention" and "high commitment" throughout the learning process). The three components are: Student Choice Authentic Audience Intrinsic Reward When those three traits are present in the learning process students are most likely to have high attention and high commitment."

"So here's the thing, we've all seen the presentations on the value of authentic learning and there is no doubt that creating meaningful learning experiences is paramount. And, incorporated wisely, with intention and forethought, giving students the opportunity to create digitally is a powerful tool. But creating on the devices is only half of the picture - less than half even. Last year, I visited a school and saw a group of Kindergarten students thrilled to show off their understanding using Doodle Buddy. I observed a student create a masterpiece. He looked at me eagerly, "Now what?" We held up the iPad and his peers applauded. Sharing it beyond the class however was not in the cards that day. I was struck by the lightening fast speed with which he lost interest in the whole activity as soon as he realized the sharing stopped at the classroom door."

"This sample rubric from Lisa Yokana can help guide efforts to assess the materials and knowledge students come to understand through the process of making, as well as the habits of mind and qualities they demonstrate. For more information, read the associated post: "Creating an Authentic Maker Education Rubric." For an editable version of this rubric, check out this "Editable Sample Rubric.""

"Around the world, there is a new movement to use the new tools and technology of the Maker Movement to give children authentic learning experiences beyond textbooks and tests. The Stanford FabLearn Fellows are a group of 18 educators who are working at the forefront of this new movement in all corners of the globe. They teach in FabLabs, makerspaces, classrooms, libraries, community centers, and museums - all with the goal of making learning more meaningful in the modern world. In this book, the FabLearn Fellows share projects, assessment strategies, lesson planning guides, and ideas from their learning spaces. In over 200 pages illustrated with color photos of real student work, the Fellows take you on a tour of the future of learning, where children make sense of the world by making things that matter to them and their communities. To read this book is to rediscover learning as it could be and should be - a joyous, mindful exploration of the world, where the ultimate discovery is the potential of every child."

"eaching kids to code is the big topic at the moment. But how do we make it an authentic experience for our students? Certainly in the Primary/Elementary schools, there are many strong connections with other curriculum areas. Let's take a look at some:"

"In this post, I would like to review a thinking processes that can be applied across the curriculum providing a process for authentic understanding of standards. The cognitive process I am referring to is Computational Thinking (CT). This type of thinking is important not just in high stake testing, but also success in that world after school. Perhaps you have come across the idea of computational thinking in education. The best way to describe computational thinking is to look at the way a computer thinks… or at least runs a program. This is actually the most important concept a student learns through coding and developing computer programs. We must keep in mind that it is not the coding that is important… but the thinking process. After all… one can use a computer, but not actually use computational thinking skills. "

"Jacqueline Prester was a self-proclaimed hustler in middle school. Mowing lawns, babysitting-she took the initiative to earn her own money. But she was also a responsible moneymaker, using the envelope system to budget every cent before she knew it was an actual budgeting strategy. Back then, her friends rolled their eyes when she tried to share her financial savvy. Fast forward two decades and Prester is a popular business and technology teacher at Mansfield High School in Massachusetts, working to give students real-life financial skills. Only this time her audience is keen to learn. (Her Personal Finance classes always reach their 28 student capacity.) Students are learning about personal finance, but not just because that's the name of the class. They're making it personal. Prester's passion is infectious, and the content she chooses-like Pathway To Financial Success created by Discovery Education and Discover-immerses students in authentic lessons with videos, interactive modules and real-world connections. Pathway To Financial Success Video: Being Financially Responsible EdSurge caught up with Prester to find out how she packs her classes with willing learners and to uncover her secret to finding compelling financial literacy content. She also shared how and why she helped pass a new Massachusetts bill focused on financial literacy."

When tech giant Amazon announced its search for a second headquarters site, cities across the country scrambled to produce persuasive pitches. In Loudoun County, Virginia, fourth-graders from Goshen Post Elementary School took up the challenge personally. To create compelling video arguments, student teams interviewed experts in economic development, researched state history and geography, and even wrote poems to sing the praises of their region. When Northern Virginia was ultimately picked as a new HQ site, students were as proud as any civic leaders from their community. The story offers a good example of how education is shifting as we wrap up two decades of the 21st century. Instead of relying on textbooks and teacher direction, these students had to think critically about unfolding events, collaborate with peers and adults, and make creative use of digital tools to communicate their ideas. In the process, they also learned plenty about social studies and civic engagement. For Loudoun County Superintendent Eric Williams, what makes such authentic learning experiences worthwhile is how they prepare students "to make meaningful contributions to the world."

"Since the days of Star Trek, we've always wanted to talk to computers. Recent advancements in voice technology, AI and IoT have now made that a reality. Smartphones, smart speakers and other devices can now be controlled by voice assistants like Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa. To help us understand the future of voice, let's first examine the popularity of voice assistant devices, the best places to use them and how our voice will be used as a biometric authentication tool to combat identity theft."

"Just glance at your inbox and odds are you'll find at least one variety of phishing scam or email hack. Whether it's spear phishing, spoofing, account takeovers through embedded malware, or that time-honored plea from a Nigerian prince, there's no doubt that our schools' email systems are under near-constant attack. One careless click of a link can turn a teacher's account into a spam factory, landing your email system on a blacklist and cutting off communication with the rest of the world. Providing employee tax information to a phisher posing as your superintendent, for example, can result in the identity theft of hundreds of employees. The sad truth is that phishing and spamming scams are now part of life in this digital age. But through more engaging education, more authentic practice, and more creative protection practices, schools have a much better chance of mitigating the impact."

"The mot recent Facebook hoax making its rounds has prompted me to remind everyone about the importance of using strong and varied passwords (don't use the same password for Facebook as you do for your bank account). Creating a strong password is a just the first step in protecting your email and social media accounts from hackers. To really protect your account there are some additional steps you should take like using two-factor authentication. In their most recent video Common Craft explains how to protect your online accounts. Click here to watch the video or you can view it as embedded below. "

"A math trail is an activity that gets students out of the classroom so they can (re)discover the math all around us. Whether out on a field trip or on school grounds, students on a math trail are asked to solve or create problems about objects and landmarks they see; name shapes and composite solids; calculate areas and volumes; recognize properties, similarity, congruence, and symmetry; use number sense and estimation to evaluate large quantities and assess assumptions; and so on. This is one of those creative, yet authentic activities that stimulate engagement and foster enthusiasm for mathematics-and so it can be particularly useful for students in middle and high school, when classroom math becomes more abstract."