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"If you are looking to start a makerspace at your school or library, there are a wealth of resources available to help you get started. I would be so lost if it weren't for many of these. They also have a lot of research supporting the maker movement. MakerEd.org Makeit@YourLibrary Remake Learning Makerspace.com In addition, there have been a few key individuals whose blogs I follow religiously.  Renovated Learning - blog of Diana Rendina @DianaLRendina Create, Collaborate, Innovate - blog of Colleen Graves @gravescolleen Worlds of Learning  - blog of Laura Fleming @NMHS_lms These resources have been invaluable to me in determining projects, designing the space, and the many planning and logistics that are involved. They've also helped me anticipate and work through any issues that may arise.  What these resources didn't provide was the voice from my students and teachers. No matter how many reputable sources or blogs I consulted, I wasn't getting the input and feedback that really mattered. "

"Getting students started creating videos can seem like a daunting task. There isn't enough time in the day to get your regular subjects done, how are you supposed to give students time to create videos? I am here to tell you it can be done. I hope that this post/presentation will provide what you need to get started.  Students can create videos on a variety within the context of what they are learning right now. Video story problem for math, a how to science experiment, or a book trailer that covers important story traits are all good ideas. Here is a list of apps, PDF Templates, and equipment that can be helpful when creating movies. "

"Last week we shared with you ' Evaluating Apps for the Classroom' a free interactive guide from Apple Education to help you make the best of educational apps in your instruction. Today we are featuring with you some interesting materials from 'Get Started Teaching with iPad' series.These are courses created specifically for teachers. Each of these courses provides tips and resources for integrating iPad in the instruction of one of these subject matters: elementary math, elementary science, and elementary literacy. We have also added two more resources for high school physics and chemistry teachers."

"I fell in love with Periscope, the free live-streaming app created by Twitter, this summer while at ISTE.  Free, instant access to events happening around the world - finally!  The myriad of ways I could see implementing it in my classroom overwhelmed me in a good way.  Kids could periscope our class at any time to bring the world in.  Students could interact with other students around the world.  Students could have a real-time audience at any time we needed.  We could explore every day moments in cultures around the world.  On and on, the ideas went. Yet, when I thought about it some more, I started to second-guess my love for it a little bit.  I didn't fall out of love, but I did start to question my own ideas, as well as the professional responsibility that I carry not just as a teacher, but also as an active conference goer/speaker.  So what has made me slow down?"

"Introducing kids to coding is the hot new thing. Even President Obama is promoting it. By teaching children how to write code, we enhance their understanding about how computer science makes so many things work. Using their new coding skills, budding programmers can create their own games and solve problems, while also practicing logical thinking, math and reading skills. Here are some of the best free ways to start kids down the path of coding."

"Learning by making has been around since long before edtech-just think about what the adventurous explorers or intrepid settlers of yore would have thought of "Do-It-Yourself." But with thousands of kid-friendly tech tools and a whole World Wide Web of resources out there, creative, interesting opportunities for learning-by-making abound for everyone. Okay, so with all those resources, where should you start to build a makerspace? Here at EdSurge, we've rolled up our sleeves, put on our protective goggles, and built a Maker Guide from scratch, just for you.  Read on for ideas from the educators and entrepreneurs who think making 24/7, including what is involved with project-based learning and making in the classroom and tried-and-true lessons from the field on starting your makerspace."

"Makerspaces have made headlines recently. Several weeks ago New York City hosted the World Maker Faire. The White House had its first Maker Faire this summer, and schools and libraries across the country are installing these spaces. It is certainly tempting to start thinking about all the amazing tools you could put into your makerspace. If you know anything about Makers, you are probably thinking that you need a CNC machine, a 3-D printer, Dremels for everyone and a laser cutter since they are the gateway tool for making things. But buying a bunch of tools without first stopping to think about how they will be integrated into the culture and curriculum of your school is a recipe for a dusty and underused workshop. From my experience installing makerspaces in several dozen schools, I've developed a process that helps you think through your makerspace and how it fits into the culture and curriculum of your school. Skipping this process, or one like it, will almost certainly result in tension, missed teaching opportunities, and overspending."

Part of the problem, he suggested, is the time it takes educators to move from learning about a piece of technology to actually integrating and manipulating its specific uses for the classroom. "If you take the five stages from the evolution of thought and practice," he said, "starting with 'entry' and moving through 'adoption' to 'adaptation' to 'appropriation,' and finally 'innovation,' research shows it takes seven years on average to go from the top of that list to the bottom. That's a long time." Too long, according to Benno. Which is why, as educators, "we have to figure out how to close the gap."

HeyTell® is a cross-platform voice messenger that allows you to instantly talk with friends and family. No account needed-just start the app, choose a contact, and push the button to start talking!

"My advice to new teachers at the start of the school year"

School Starts Next Week--Time to Get Real About Innovation

""Whether at the start of the school year, the re-start of school after the New Year, or at any time when we want to strengthen our students' engagement in school and learning, it is valuable to have tools at our disposal that help us effectively reach students.""

"As the end of the 2012-2013 school year draws near, it may be advantageous for teachers to clean up their Google Drive. Not only will it be a new start for the 2013-2014 school year to delete files that are not needed that the teachers created, BUT removing student creations that were shared with the teachers will certainly provide for a clean start in the coming school year. As a added help, five videos have been created to help in this task. I urge teachers to take an hour of their time and remove items that are not needed in their Google Drive."

"Reiff introduces his students to the language of the play by reading it together as a class, working through several close reading activities that help students start to decode Shakespeare's lines. By beginning with the play's unfamiliar and sometimes difficult language, the class has a shared starting point for the journey they are about to undertake - experiencing, interpreting, and performing Romeo and Juliet, and truly engaging with the play."

"Not quite sure how to get started? No worries -- let's take a look at everything you'll need to turn your iPad into a full-fledged Office companion. First up: an iPad. The Office apps are compatible with any iPad that can run iOS 7, which, alas, leaves out first-generation models."

"Thanks to some professional development work I'm starting with a new grant project, I was able to setup a new iPad Air 2 this weekend with all the apps I use for personal productivity, content creation and sharing. As is the case with a laptop, it's often beneficial to do a "clean install" of applications rather than restore from a backup. In the case of an iPad or iPhone, I frequently end up with lots of installed applications which I try once or use infrequently, but never get around to actually deleting from my device. A clean install is a "fresh start" and can provide a good opportunity to get rid of apps which are rarely used."

"Wikipedia is one of the most famous sites on the Internet. The world's favorite encyclopedia made a humble beginning in 2001. Today, it's informative, as well as controversial, and having a page there is highly sought after. It's quite simply the Encyclopedia Britannica on steroids, covering every conceivable subject. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia in which anybody can start a page, or edit one, on any subject. The page is then examined by an editor who decides whether or not the page stays. The site is currently available in many languages, so you don't have to speak English to use the site. It is one of the most frequently accessed sites - normally when you search for something on Google, the Wikipedia page is quite often the first page in the search results. With that, let's dive into the crowdsourced wonder of Wikipedia and start exploring many of its wondrous facets…"

"Many teachers and schools have already 'gone Google' so what better way to figure out how to actually get started with the powerful tools than from an effective checklist that lets you quickly discover and check off new ways to use Google Apps For Education in your classroom, school, or district. We're working on building a powerful interactive guide to Google education tools as well as many other useful products so check back soon for the launch of Genius Guides. In the meantime, use this below visual as a means to start experimenting and implementing Google-built education apps in ways you may not have considered before reading this post on Daily Genius."

"Entrepreneurship is often associated with people who assume the risk of starting a business venture for financial gain. However, entrepreneurs exist in many forms: They may be writers, carpenters, computer programmers, school principals or fundraisers, to name just a few examples. What they have in common is an "entrepreneurial mindset" that enables them to see opportunities for improvement, take initiative and collaborate with others to turn their ideas into action. Everyone is born with some propensity for entrepreneurship, which at its core is about solving problems creatively, according to Yong Zhao, a professor at the University of Oregon's College of Education. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? Why China has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World." "We overemphasize the deficits of children, and that's not a good starting point. … If we let people flourish in their own ways, hopefully everyone will find something they want to do." Unfortunately, the current education system doesn't support the development of an entrepreneurial mindset, Zhao says, because of its reliance on standards, tests and a prescribed curriculum, which are all fundamentally incompatible with entrepreneurial thinking. Studies have shown an inverse relationship between countries' academic test scores and entrepreneurship levels, and between years of schooling and entrepreneurship levels."