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"know that confusion doesn't feel good. Because it seems like an obstacle to learning, we try to arrange educational experiences and training sessions so that learners will encounter as little confusion as possible. But as is so often the case when it comes to learning, our intuitions here are exactly wrong. Scientists have been building a body of evidence over the past few years demonstrating that confusion can lead us to learn more efficiently, more deeply, more lastingly-as long as it's properly managed."

"If you've looked into 3D printing, you know there are a lot of options - some good and some not so much. Since the technology is just beginning to enter classrooms and is new for most schools, choosing a good partner and printer is important when diving head first into this new world. There are plenty of schools which have experienced problems from purchasing machines that are no longer serviced or weren't made well, and avoiding these missteps can save everybody a lot of time, money and headache."

"Teachers may offer up a killer classroom library and carve out class time for silent reading, but these two things do not guarantee prolific reading, or even moderate reading from your students. One of my goals when I was teaching high school was this: to have students fall in love with reading while they were in my classroom (or at least like it a little more). So how do you motivate secondary students in a deeper, lifelong reader way? It's not just about helping a student find that right book, as teachers often see as the ultimate mission, but it's about giving reasons for reading -- and really good ones. Because let's face it, there's plenty of stuff we all have to read that we may not be crazy about, but we know it's good for us. The following motivators are inspired by educator Kelly Gallagher's book, Reading Reasons: Motivational Mini-Lessons for Middle and High School."

"We frequently hear students (and even teachers) make comments such as "I'm not good at math" or "I'm just not a math person." Interestingly enough, we rarely hear adults say "I'm not good at reading" or "I'm just not someone who reads." Math, like reading, is a basic life skill that we use on a daily basis in almost everything we do. According to growth mindset, no one is simply "bad at math." Just as you learned to read, ride a bicycle, or have a conversation, you can also learn to solve equations and apply mathematical concepts. In an effort to support student growth mindset in math classrooms, Amazon Education has teamed up with Common Sense Education, Edutopia, Teaching Channel, Stanford University's PERTS (Project for Educational Research That Scales), and others to develop and share meaningful resources for teachers to access anywhere."

"Here is a handy visual for librarians featuring 12 of what we think are very good iPad apps they can use in their daily work. The visual is based on a post we shared here a few months ago. For more app suggestions for librarians, we recommend  Nicole Hennig's book : Apps for Librarians: Using the Best Mobile Technology to Educate, Create, and Engage which covers in more details over 100 Android and iPad apps. You can also check this infographic featuring 30 good web tools for librarians."

"About a week ago I was asked if I could write a post about tools for making infographics with students. A well constructed infographic can convey a lot of information in a compact, visually-pleasing manner. The process of creating a good infographic requires students to analyze and succinctly summarize data and facts that they've gathered through research. Here are some good tools that students can use to create infographics."

"Here is a collection of some good iPad apps for teaching kids and students sign language and American Sign Language (ASL). The collection which we have curated from iTunes App Store and App Advice, embeds some of the most popular sign language apps out there.  We have based our selection mostly on user reviews and ratings. Whether you are a parent, a teacher dealing with deaf or hard of hearing students, or simply interested in learning an extra important communicative code, the collection below is definitely a great place to start with."

"If you're a teacher, or teaching assistant there are plenty of great blogs out there to help you with everything from coming up with teaching plans, to implementing technology in the classroom. Where to start though? The internet is crowded with blogs. We decided to go through some of them for you, so that you can find the blog(s) covering the topics you're looking for and be sure it's quality content. Generally, there are four key qualities of a good teaching & learning blog: Activity (25%). Information should be updated regularly Originality (25%). It should add value with content that's different from all the other blogs out there Helpfulness (25%). A good teaching & Learning blog should teach you a new skill, direct you to a useful resource, or at least get you to think in a new way about something Authority (25%). The author/authors have the authority and credentials to blog about the topic of teaching & learning Each category was assigned an equal weight in our evaluation. They were averaged together to determine the final score in order to come up with our list of the top 68."

"Apps for Good is no ordinary course. We don't just "teach a subject". We help young people ready themselves for employment, self-employment and entrepreneurship in the real world."

"Promote Good Digital Citizenship: 10 Ideas For Rich Academic Student Discussion Online"

"The breakthrough happened after the student took the Bartle's Gamer Profile Quiz and we found out that he was a "killer." Off-the-charts killer, but achievement meant nothing to this student. Just like grades. No, we haven't identified the next school shooter, and I sure wish that Bartle hadn't named one of the four gamer profiles "killer" -- but nonetheless, this student identified with this profile. Jane McGonigal mentioned it in her Gaming Can Make a Better World TED Talk when she discussed an epic meaning. My so-called "killer" student (and we really should rename this when applying it to education!) simply saw things as a battle between good and evil and wanted to fight on the side of good in an epic quest to make the world a better place. Points don't matter in gameplay, and grades don't matter, either. But when we tweaked the kinds of work he was doing in our Gamifi-ED project to focus on "world-changing games," he was suddenly engaged. Now his face lights up when he sees me. He's one of the first kids to class. He's an engaged gamer and, finally, an engaged student. "

Asked to assess their students' performance on nine specific writing skills, teachers tended to rate their students "good" or "fair" as opposed to "excellent" or "very good." Students received the best ratings on their ability to "effectively organize and structure writing assignments" and their ability to "understand and consider multiple viewpoints on a particular topic or issue." Teachers gave students the lowest ratings when it comes to "navigating issues of fair use and copyright in composition" and "reading and digesting long or complicated texts."

What makes an effective teacher? It's difficult to tell, but when you've had one, you know. Some states are trying very hard to measure "good" teaching, but how can we do this? It's been argued that it's hard to pinpoint just what good teaching is. Margaret Danielson is an expert on this subject and the creator of a popular rubric which explores excellence in the classroom.

"So you want to be able to create and access your digital portfolios on the go. There are apps that allows you to do that and some of don't cost a dime. There is also the possibility to work on your digital portfolios on Google Drive, in fact EdTech did a great video tutorial on how to use Drive as a portfolio solution in your iPad classroom. Below are some of the good apps you can try on your iPad to create digital portfolios and as always if you know about another good app to add to the list, please share with us in the comment form below. Enjoy"

"For the Burlington, MA Public Schools (BPS), the district's 1:1 iPad initiative isn't so much about the devices as it is about changing the classroom environment and creating more hands on learning opportunities. The focus behind the technology is the same as it's always been: good teaching practices. The only change is the workflow."

"The web is teeming with good places where your students and kids can get help with their homework. Sometimes it does take a lot of time to find such good resources, however, to save you time and to provide you with some excellent platforms to start with when recommending homework help websites, I compiled the list below featuring a variety of web resources for this purpose:"

"Evernote is an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Stay organized, save your ideas and improve your productivity. Evernote lets you take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, record voice reminders--and makes these notes searchable, whether are at home, at work, or on the go. Below are three good ways to tap into the full potential of Evernote."

We know y'all love a good list of Bloom's Taxonomy tools. And the one we're highlighting below isn't only good - its growing, because it is crowdsourced by awesome teachers like you! Created by NJ Superintendent Scott Rocco, this list is chock-full of tons of different apps that can fill out just about every category of Bloom's Taxonomy. It includes the name of the tool, what level of Bloom's Taxonomy it addresses, where you can find it, what it does, and last but definitely not least, how you've been using it in your classroom. As of this writing, there are 83 tools in the list."

"The end of the school year will soon be upon us. This is the time of year that we think about activities that we can do to help students review the school year. At this time of the year I start to get a lot of requests for suggestions for tools to create review activities. Here are twelve good options."

"Looking for the next great book to sink your teeth into? Look no further. As summer rolls on, you may find yourself with free time to catch up on reading. We have good news for you virtual bookworms - you can get in a good read without spending a dime."