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"Aah February; a month of love, of reading, of waiting for spring if you in the Northern Hemisphere.  While February may  be the shortest month of the year sometimes in teaching it can feel like the longest of them all.  While I love this month for the work I can do with my students, I find that sometimes the dark nights and cold Wisconsin winters can be positively slump inducing.  Rather than dread the slump, why not do something pro-active? So this year I plan on doing my very own unslumping challenge and you are more than welcome to join me.  Every day for the month of February, I plan on doing something to either reinvigorate myself or make a difference to others.  It will not cost me much money but will hopefully instead lead to a deeper level of gratitude for the incredible job I have, the amazing students I get to teach, and the wonderful people in my life. Here is what I plan on doing"

"On the hunt for some of the better new iOS apps to arrive on the scene over the past month? Look no further. Here's 15 of the best to hit the App Store in February."

"On the morning of Wednesday, February 22, 2017, my cell phone rang at 5:30 a.m. The caller ID told me that the call was from our school district. Even before I swiped to answer, the pop-up notification on my phone told me the nature of the call. School had been canceled for the day. That's not such an odd occurrence in February in southwest Missouri. Snow and ice have canceled school as late in the year as early May. However, we'd been enjoying a stretch of record high temperatures, and while I wasn't really awake enough for my rational mind to rule that out, I knew something was off. There has been a lot of construction to and around a few of the school buildings in our district. In December 2016, I happened to be privy to a conversation regarding low water pressure at one of the schools due to a water main issue at a construction site near that particular school. So, non-functioning utilities was certainly a possibility for canceling school that zipped through my not-yet-awake mind. I was not prepared for what the recorded voice of our district superintendent told me. School had been canceled because of the threat of violence."

"Organized by the New York Academy of Medicine Library, #ColorOurCollections returns next week. From February 6th through February 10th, you and your students/community will be able to discover, download, print and color pages shared by more than 200 libraries, museums and special collections from around the world-among them: Biodiversity Heritage Library, Bodleian Libraries, Cambridge University Digital Library, Europeana, Medical Heritage Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Library of Medicine, and New York Public Library"

"From a press release: As part of a national movement called the Tech Timeout Academic Challenge, a San Francisco school will shut down their tech devices for three days beginning February 12. SAN FRANCISCO What happens when over 1,100 students in grades K-12, at a school that prides itself on ubiquitous access to technology, power down their electronic devices for three straight days? That question will be answered on February 12-14 when students at Convent & Stuart Hall in San Francisco take The Tech Timeout Academic Challenge. It will be the first school in the greater Bay Area to take the challenge and just the third in California."

February is Black History Month. Here's a word list to add to your lesson plans! This list can be used to play all of the games and activities on our site. http://www.spellingcity.com/view-spelling-list.html?listId=2851114

Please join us in making February 4, 2015, the first annual Global School Play Day for students in schools around the world, grades Pre-K to 6 or ages 1-12. In his TEDx lecture, Peter Gray clearly argues the case that today's kids do not grow up playing and this has negatively impacted them in many ways. It's time we return the gift of play to this generation.

"Next Tuesday (February 5, 2013) I will be a guest on a free webinar hosted by Pearson's Online Learning Exchange. The webinar is titled Ten Easy Ways to Participate in Digital Learning Day. The copy below was written by the OLE team. I'd never call myself a "guru." "

"Back in February, an EdWeek Market brief reported that Amazon Education was starting to beta-test a new platform with educators, helping teachers navigate the jungles of open educational resources (or OERs, for short). Well, that platform-Amazon Inspire-has officially launched today in tandem with the ISTE conference in Denver, Colorado. A free, mostly-OER platform (see below for why it's "mostly OER"), Amazon Inspire works like a search engine for educational videos, lesson plans and games. Users can search by criteria like topics (say, "fractions" or "the Constitution"), standards, grade level, and time to complete, as shown below; additionally, they can rate materials with 1 to 5 stars."

"Understand key programming concepts and apply them using Scratch, with this introductory course for primary or K-5 teachers." Starts in February 2017

"Celebrate Black History Month with these twenty-eight ideas, one for each day of February, that recognize the heritage, accomplishments, and culture of African Americans in the United States."

"The countdown is on! This year World Read Aloud Day is February 16. Over the past few years I've had the opportunity to work with the amazing team at LitWorld, who are the folks behind #WRAD. Their signature event is right around corner so I wanted to share a few resources to help make your celebration of World Read Aloud a success!"

"The third annual Digital Learning Day is on February 5, 2014. We've compiled some useful resources to help you celebrate the day with your class and support digital learners all year long. (Updated 1/2014)"

"Today, February 5th, 2014, is Digital Learning Day. According to its website, the focus of this awareness campaign is "about giving every child the opportunity to learn in a robust digital environment everyday, with the goal of success in college and a career." To celebrate, here are 5 of the best, must-follow #edtech curators on Scoop.it."

"The Managing Complex Change model puts language to that which makes some schools successful while others struggle. The model looks at five components necessary to create a desired environment. These include vision, skills, incentives, resources, action plan. If any one piece is missing the model indicates results schools will experience including change, confusion, anxiety, gradual change, frustration, and a false start. When thinking of successful schools such as Science Leadership Academy, The MET, The Island School, The iSchool, you will find they have all those components in place. On the other hand, when I hear teachers lamenting about their school failures, the model brings clarity to the fact that one or more of these components are missing. Below is the chart that lays this out. Following the chart, I'll take a look at what each missing component might look like in a school environment. As you read, consider which, if any are components, are missing at your school. save image Lack of Vision = Confusion When I hear exasperated teachers spinning their wheels, working so hard to get ready for all the various mandates and requirements, but never feeling a sense of accomplishment, it is clear there is not a tangible school vision that has been communicated. In some cases this is because what is being imposed does or can not reconcile with what the school wanted for their vision. Skill Deficit = Anxiety My heart goes out to those with a skill deficit. They are required to implement a curriculum they are not trained in using or being evaluated via measures with which they are not familiar. Or…they are put into a position they were not trained for or prepared to embrace. Social media provides a great medium for helping these teachers get up to speed, but when the outreach occurs, the anxiety is abundantly clear. Lack of Incentives = Gradual Change It is not unusual for innovative educators to feel like and be perceived as misfits. Islands onto their own

Heard the Latest About Podcasting? FEBRUARY 4, 2008 Engagement via headphones. Ever since podcasting was introduced, the question has been the same: Will anyone listen? The answer is definitely "Yes."

"Social Media Explosion - Implications for the Classroom - February 8, 2011"