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"Ask a student what the capital of Burkina Faso is and most will give you a blank stare. Most would be lucky to even tell you the continent the country is a part of. With these 8 must-have apps for geography, not only will students learn the capital of Burkina Faso (it's Ouagadougou by the way), but they will learn a lot of geographical facts, as well as information that will help them navigate and better understand the world."

"More and more children will be read stories about the legacy of residential schools in the classroom this year. Provinces are changing curriculums and educators across the country are developing resource guides in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommendations."

"Every new classroom project must satisfy available resources within three dimensions: 1) time, 2) money and 3) physical space. The 2016 New Media Consortium Horizon Report for K-12 Education anticipates that makerspaces will be highly adopted in schools across the country within the next year. Maker education and makerspaces are the hot topic in STEM education right now. Over the last year I have worked with many teachers in a professional development environment who are simultaneously enthusiastic about the idea of a makerspace, and frustrated by the limitations of space in their schedule, budget and classroom layout. We all want a makerspace, but how do we make that happen within these constraints?"

"There is a world of enormous educational potential with video games. Highly acclaimed simulation and tutorial games such as SimCity and Math Blaster have been continuously employed in elementary schools across the country, but the most common software used in education today is the web, word processors and spreadsheets."

"When I talk to teachers around the country (and around the world) I hear this same story. Students are sometimes hesitant to take on creative work inside of the classroom."

"Anna Young helps nurses get creative when treating their patients. In the last year, she's set up two "maker-spaces" inside hospitals and she's continued to document nurse-made fixes and workarounds that make patients' lives a little more bearable. Examples include glow-in-the-dark pill bottles, bed-shower overlays, and a TV remote control for patients with tremors in their fingers. Since Young cofounded MakerNurse in 2013, she's collected more than 50 device ideas from around the country, publishing how-to guides for each online so that others can iterate on the concepts. The first maker-space is up and running at the John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Texas and another is opening soon at South Shore Hospital, in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Each has an array of pliers, sewing needles, 3-D printers, laser cutters, and medical prototyping equipment like "vital signs" construction sets and biocompatible adhesives. In all, about 1,000 nurses have worked with MakerNurse so far. And, through a related organization, Maker Health, Young now wants to involve other frontline workers, and even patients themselves."

"Who knew one simple Medium post could ignite such a profound movement? #iLookLikeAnEngineer is now being spread globally in over 50 countries. It has received over 170,000 tweets and has been covered in countless news outlets. In addition to an influx of incredibly heart-warming and positive support, many people have reached out to me for advice on how I learned how to code without a formal college education. I wanted the opportunity to give everyone an illustrative and thoughtful response, so that is now my intention with this Medium post. I am most familiar with web application development, so that is what this will be covering."

"As Abby walked into the school building she had a sinking feeling in her stomach. It was November and she had just moved into a new community. She was nervous about starting a new school midway through the school year. This was her first day of school and she kept her eyes down, nervous, not knowing what to expect as she walked into the main office. Suddenly, the office secretary called out to her in a tone that made her skip a breath, "Where are you supposed to be?  Do you have a pass?  Move on now before the tardy bell rings and the vice principal gives you a detention for being late." Each day in school offices across the country this scenario is playing out with regularity.  Although it may come across as somewhat exaggerated, those of you who have spent any amount of time in school have probably at one time or another been witness to such an interaction in the main office area.  It is these defined interactions that has led to us to ponder this question.  Have we reached the point where we are willing to allow negative interactions to drive the level of success of our students, staff and our school? What if we were to pause, step back and view our office culture through the eyes of students, parents, guests or even staff who visit the main office? What would they say?  If we manage our interactions appropriately they will leave feeling valued and cared for and look forward to their next return trip."

"Interactive and collaborative - Whiteboards are a great way for teachers to explain concepts to their students. With the ability of some iPad apps to record, you ensure that students who did not develop understanding of the concept the first time have the opportunity to watch and listen again and again. Working in small groups or brainstorming as a class, collaborative whiteboards are a great way to share ideas. Work in the same room, on the same network or even from different parts of the country. No matter what you are working on these interactive whiteboards are a great way to document or record your thinking process. "

"CS Unplugged is a collection of free learning activities that teach Computer Science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons and lots of running around. The activities introduce students to Computational Thinking through concepts such as binary numbers, algorithms and data compression, separated from the distractions and technical details of having to use computers. Importantly, no programming is required to engage with these ideas! CS Unplugged is suitable for people of all ages, from elementary school to seniors, and from many countries and backgrounds. Unplugged has been used around the world for over twenty years, in classrooms, science centers, homes, and even for holiday events in a park!"

"At its core, the rise of "fake news" is first and foremost a sign that we have failed as a society to teach our citizens how to think critically about data and information. Take that email from a Nigerian prince offering to transfer you ten million dollars if you'll just send him $10,000 to cover the wire costs. Enough people get that email each day and wire those ten thousand dollars that this scam continues in 2016. The Internet has globalized the art of the scam and the reach of misinformation, allowing a single tweet to go viral across the planet, sowing chaos in countries on the other side of the world from the person sending it. At the heart of all such news is the inability to think critically about the information that surrounds us and to perform the necessary due diligence and research to verify and validate. In April 2013 when the AP's Twitter account was hacked and tweeted that there had been an explosion at the White House that left President Obama injured, automated stock trading algorithms took the news as fact and immediately launched a cascade of trading activity that plunged the Dow Jones by more than 100 points in less than 120 seconds. Human reporters, on the other hand, simply picked up the phone and called colleagues stationed at the White House to inquire if they were aware of any such attack and were quick to refute the false information."

"Mention robots to many English teachers and they'll immediately point down the hall to the science classroom or to the makerspace, if they have one. At many schools, if there's a robot at all, it's located in a science or math classroom or is being built by an after-school robotics club. It's not usually a fixture in English classrooms. But as teachers continue to work at finding new entry points to old material for their students, robots are proving to be a great interdisciplinary tool that builds collaboration and literacy skills. "For someone like me who teaches literature by lots of dead white guys, teaching programming adds relevance to my class," said Jessica Herring, a high school English teacher at Benton High School in Arkansas. Herring first experimented using Sphero, essentially a programmable ball, when her American literature class was studying the writing of early settlers. Herring pushed the desks back and drew a maze on the floor with tape representing the journey from Europe to the New World. Her students used class iPads and an introductory manually guided app to steer their Spheros through the maze. Herring, like many English teachers, was skeptical about how the Sphero robot could be a useful teaching tool in her classroom. She thought that type of technology would distract students from the core skills of reading, writing and analyzing literature. But she decided to try it after hearing about the success of another English teacher across the country."

"Fake news, unreliable websites, viral posts-you would think students who have grown up with the internet would easily navigate it all, but according to a study done by Stanford researchers, that couldn't be further from the truth. Researchers describe the results of the study done on middle school, high school and college students across the country as "bleak." Students were asked to judge advertisements, social media, video and photographic evidence, news reports and websites. Though researchers thought they were giving students simple tasks, they say that "in every case and at every level, we were taken aback by students' lack of preparation." As if that weren't bad enough, researchers go on to say, "At present, we worry that democracy is threatened by the ease at which disinformation about civic issues is allowed to spread and flourish." So what can educators do about the spread of fake news and our students' inability to recognize when they have been fooled? Lesson plans that explicitly address the new media literacy and task students to be responsible consumers and disseminators of news are a good place to start. Here are eight things that students need to know about fake news and the new media literacy:"

"After sending out a survey over the space of 2 weeks on Twitter and through other Social Media Platforms, we had 258 book suggestions from 123 educators from 13 different countries around the world, spanning several continents and every corner of the globe. The global reach here has magnificent and the professional reading shared was detailed and diverse. I know you are going to love this list and be totally inspired by it. Summer is almost here (for those in the Northern Hemisphere). If you are like most educators, this is your time to rest, relax and for many, delve into some professional reading and learn about all those exciting strategies and resources that will reinvigorate learning in your classroom when you return after the break."

"Last year I took a group of students to Cuba to produce documentaries about the island nation's culture and history. The main objective was learning how to produce documentaries, but one of my students learned a much more powerful lesson through the process. After completing her project, she posted it publicly to YouTube and received critical comments from someone living in Cuba. The feedback from an audience member in another country profoundly affected her, making her aware of what she was missing in her piece, and the impact that her work can have on others. No test, grade, or teacher evaluation could have come close to helping her learn that deeply, and it made clear to me how important it is for teachers to reexamine why and how we grade our students if we truly care about their success."

"I've been traveling the country speaking on the power of a student's voice in his or her own educational experience along with the need for transforming learning spaces in today's schools. Both topics are very important to me not only for my own passion as an educator, but as a parent of two children. I've personally seen the impact a learning space can have on a child's experience within the classroom. Additionally, I've been fortunate to have my children surrounded by caring educators who value the importance listening to students. This week I have the pleasure of speaking at Blackboard World in D.C. When I arrived at Blackboard World, I knew the first stop I had to make, the student maker space. Blackboard invited students from all ages to participate in a day of creating their ideal learning environments. The company partnered with the Smithsonian to provide resources and guides to help facilitate the activities. Children would rotate between 5 stations throughout the day - each station lasting roughly thirty minutes."

"Does the thought of doing long division, or solving a bit of algebra give you the shivers? You're likely to have maths anxiety. In our recent research, my colleagues and I found that in 80% of countries, girls have more negative feelings towards maths than boys. But this higher level of maths anxiety in girls is not justified by their actual level of performance and may put them off continuing a career in maths-related subjects, such as physics and computer science."

""Makers and builders and doers - of all ages and backgrounds - have pushed our country forward, developing creative solutions to important challenges and proving that ordinary Americans are capable of achieving the extraordinary when they have access to the resources they need." - President Obama, National Week of Making Proclamation"

"For those of you interested in learning and exploring an aboriginal language, the collection below has you covered. Curated from iTunes 'Explore an Aboriginal language' collection in App Store, this selection features 16 great iPad apps to introduce you to a wide variety of aboriginal languages spoken by First Nations in countries like Canada, Australia, USA and New Zealeand. More specifically, the languages covered are: Innu, Nakota, Ojibway, Denesuline, Atikamekw, Maskwacis and Manitoba Cree, Tlicho Dene, Mi'kmaw, Michif, and Saulteaux. "

"Our 3rd grade classrooms love to mystery Skype.  Have you tried it? In a mystery Skype, 2 classrooms connect with one another but don't say where they are from.  The two organizers of course know, but the students don't.  By asking a series of yes or no questions, students try to narrow down to a country, state, city, and even school if there is time.  Mystery Skypes work best when students are prepared in advance and every student has a job to do.  There are many example of jobs to assign in a mystery Skype such as greeter, researcher, questioner, scribe, and photographer."