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"I recently found an article on the I Can Teach My Child blog about how to read with your young children. As a speech-language pathologist, I really appreciated some of her tips. I am sharing them with you, along with my thoughts and suggestions on how to use the same tips with some great app books."

"As 2014 draws to a close and we look forward to what 2015 will bring, I'd like to share a simple and fun classroom challenge with you: STEM Curiosity Links. For the past two semesters, I've made a point of sharing several STEM "curiosity links" with my students at least once per week. On days I share curiosity links with students, I try to limit myself to just using 10 minutes of class time. I need to set this time limit, because (depending on the class) we can really get into good discussions with lots of questions, and we could take MUCH more time exploring the ideas the week's curiosity links inspire. While I'd love engaging in long discussions like this with students, and I know they have value, I also understand that my students learn the most when they are actually DOING STEM activities rather than just talking about them or STEM ideas. My students who are working and playing in our STEM "Maker's Studio" are always especially eager to "get to work.""

"It's a controversial topic: do you introduce social media in the classroom or ignore it? Whether you use traditional social platforms or social-focused tools, many educators find that this technology helps increase engagement and excitement with students, many of who are already very familiar with it. "Students communicate, research, collaborate, create and publish online with or without the help of parents or educators. These same students then hop on social media to promote, discuss and share their thoughts with the world. The digital environment is offering us some of the greatest learning opportunities that young learners have ever had," says Gail Leicht, an 8th grade teacher. Bringing social networking into the classroom gives quiet students a chance to shine; sharing their voice online is often easier than speaking out in class. It also opens the doors for collaboration and communication between peers, both inside and outside of the classroom. Not to mention, it gives teachers another opportunity to connect with students. Despite the benefits, many educators still shy away from using social networking in the classroom because they are unsure about how to integrate it successfully. In fact, fewer than 20 percent of U.S. teachers use social media in the classroom, according to USNews.com. Luckily, the process isn't quite as daunting as it seems. Not to mention, you don't need to use traditional social networks to take advantage of social networking in the classroom. Follow these simple steps and watch as your students start sharing, commenting and publishing while learning important lesson material."

"The iPad can be tons of fun for kids, but the trick is to balance hands-off activities like watching a movie with hands-on projects like making your own. Osmo is hands on-it's a set of iPad games played with real-world pieces, and unique stand with a red plastic piece that redirects the iPad's front-facing camera to the game pieces as your child interacts with them on a table or floor."

"With the recent announcement that Google Classroom will be available to all Google Apps for Education schools by the week of August 11th, schools that have also adopted iPads are interested in exploring the platform to determine if it will integrate into their existing deployment to provide a helpful and approachable workflow solution. While there are currently a number of workflow solutions and Learning Management Systems that work well with iPads, Google Classroom will likely become a top contender for iPad classrooms because of the integration with both the Google Drive and Google Docs iPad apps as well as any number of iPad creativity apps. While there is not an iPad app for Google Classroom, the web interface works seamlessly and allows students to turn in any assignment or file that is in their Google Drive account as illustrated by the video below."

"About two decades ago The MIT Media lab introduced the concept of block-based programming. The idea was to develop an interface that allowed computer programs to be built by simply dragging and dropping puzzle blocks to represent complex programming constructs and commands. With this new method for teaching and learning computer science, the hugely popular Scratch platform was born. This approach lowered the bar for experimenting with programmatic thinking, making it possible for students to create interactive animations and small games without writing a single line of code. This simple concept removed the need to learn the syntax of a formal programming language, and made teaching and learning the basics of computer science accessible to younger learners and to teachers with no formal coding background. Outside of the classroom though, coding has always been, and still remains, a process of typing letters, numbers and symbols. This text-based programming, used in programming language such as C, Javascript and Python, requires coders to obey and conform to formal syntax. Despite the pain of dealing with typos in names of variables and inevitable syntax errors, no other coding method designed to be more "user friendly" has really caught on. Tools have been offered for managers to define business logic through a graphical user interface without writing lines of codes. Or for web developers to add interactive behaviors to their websites without learning Javascript. But in reality, neither of those substitute the power and flexibility of text-based programming. And with neither winning significant adoption, the demand for the classic skill of text-based coding continues to grow and grow."

"Spreadsheets can be intimidating to a lot of teachers and students. I have to admit that at one time working with spreadsheets was a daunting task for me too. Fortunately, Google Sheets has made it much easier for the average computer user to work with spreadsheets. Once you get the hang of working with Google Sheets there are a lot of great ways to use spreadsheets as a teacher or as a student. Here's a run-down of some of my favorite things to do with Google Sheets in the classroom."

"ViewPure is absolutely an excellent tool for teachers and students. It allows you to watch YouTube videos in a clean and distraction-free interface. All the distractive features such as ads, related videos, and comments are removed providing students with an ideal environment for watching educational videos. Inappropriate content accompanying YouTube videos lead many teachers to shun away from incorporating YouTube videos in their instruction but with ViewPure this is no longer a problem and teachers are able to provide students with an enhanced YouTube experience with the minimum distraction possible. We said minimum because some ads are integrated with YouTube videos and ViewPure can not remove them."

"Here at Make: we see new, ingenious projects from our community every day. Many of these projects are made possible with the use of development boards. However, if you're new to the whole idea, it can be confusing to parse out the differences between boards and the advantages of using one over another. We've created this super simple guide to help you get started. Then, when you're ready, head to the Maker Shed to check out Arduino and Raspberry Pi Starter Kits, which come with all the goodies you need for your inaugural projects. Not sure you want all those peripherals yet? Start with the essentials: Grab the board of your choice and guide yourself with our Getting Started With series for Arduino and for Raspberry Pi."

"iPad provides endless learning possibilities for students. From apps to help with learning math and science to apps for doing 3D anatomy and virtual field trips, you name it, the educational app store has probably an app for it. The theme for our list today is motivation. We believe that motivation is the backbone of learning and with motivation comes engagement and better performance. To this end, we are sharing with you some excellent iPad apps with huge motivational potential. You can use these apps with students to engage them in hands-on learning activities across different disciplines. We have particularly focused on creation apps that allow students to create learning materials using a mixture of multimedia content."

" ANJALI MULLANY 03.30.16 8:20 AM Two years ago, model Karlie Kloss enrolled in Flatiron School's two-week pre-college coding course and caught the programming bug. She started taking regular private coding classes with Flatiron dean and cofounder Avi Flombaum (who she already knew socially) and enjoyed the experience so much that she decided to underwrite 21 Kode with Karlie scholarships so other young women could take the same two-week pre-college coding course at Flatiron that had kicked off her own programming education. This summer, Kloss is taking it up a notch by launching her own Kode with Klossy coding camps for young women aged 13-18 in Los Angeles, New York, and her hometown of St. Louis, using Flatiron's Learn.co curriculum and learning platform. Unlike last summer's Kode with Karlie program, this year's 80 scholarship recipients will participate in their own program, separate from other Flatiron School students. By the end of the camp, which is being taught by independent instructors, students will have learned the fundamentals of Ruby on Rails and built their own web app. Kloss is not underwriting this latest round of scholarships herself but instead, in partnership with Flatiron School and CSNYC, has pulled together a number of partner brands as fiscal sponsors for the program."

"Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is effectively a set of 'complex disorders of brain development'. Most of us in education have dealt with students struggling with ASD and we know exactly what these students go through in their learning. But while ASD poses some learning challenges it should never be viewed as a crippling condition. Several ASD students, according to Autism Speaks, ' excel in visual skills, music, math and art'. As teachers, we need to work hard towards fighting the social stigma unfairly associated with ASD and the first place to start this fight is in classroom. There is a lot of misconception and misinformation surrounding ASD that should be unmasked to students.  To this end, we have curated for you a list of some great TED talks on autism you can watch with students in class.  You can also check these resources for apps and tools to use with autistic students."

"Some makerspace components are so commonly known that I can even use them to explain my job to non-educators: "I'm our makerspace coordinator. You know, the person who supports the kids with 3D printing and basic electronics and stuff like that." Then they know exactly what I mean. (I can tell because they respond with "Wow! That sounds like the best job ever!" They're right!) Educators planning makerspaces know they can start small with simple circuitry materials, cardboard and hot glue guns. Or they can go bigger with soldering capabilities and power drills. Or they can go to the biggest with 3D printers and laser cutters."

" TWEETSHAREEMAIL Over the summer, academics debated the impact of growth mindset, the belief that one's intelligence can be developed with hard work and effort, and whether it can move the needle on academic performance. Even Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck, who is often credited with the term, chimed in with additional research supporting the efficacy of mindset interventions. An Education Week survey found that the vast majority of educators believe that a growth-oriented mindset can help improve students' motivation, commitment and engagement in learning. But the study found that applying those ideas to practice, and helping students shift their mindset around learning, remains an elusive challenge. Those findings largely coincide with my observations as an administrator, coach, technology implementer, and now founder of an education company. Over the summer, my team ran a series of professional learning community sessions with dozens of educators across the country, focused on instructional practices that foster and support growth mindset. At these events, almost all teachers said they get the big ideas around growth mindset, but over 80 percent said their schools don't implement them well."

"Students learning to create apps with Apple's Swift programming language now have a way to validate their skills with a new certification program. App Development with Swift is a new academic certification course created by Certiport in partnership with Apple that measures students' ability to program with Swift after completing a year-long program. 9to5Mac Happy Hour The new Swift certification program will be available starting this fall:"

"A recent MindShift article highlighted some things teachers should be aware of if they're bringing mindfulness into their classrooms. Students may have experienced trauma that makes sitting silently with their eyes closed feel threatening, and teachers can't assume it will be an easy practice for every child. That awareness is important to create an inclusive environment, but it doesn't mean that teachers shouldn't cultivate their own mindfulness practice or use some techniques with students. Often mindfulness is used as a way to help students build self-regulation skills and learn to calm down when they become frustrated or angry. Cultivating those skills can be powerful for students, but many teachers say mindfulness is crucial for themselves, helping them take an extra moment before reacting to students. "The best way to practice trauma-informed mindfulness is [for teachers] to have their own practice and interpret the behavior of the youth through a trauma-informed lens, even if they never do mindfulness training with the kids," said Sam Himelstein, a clinical psychologist, trainer and author who has spent most of his career working with incarcerated youth. He's received a lot of questions about how to be trauma-informed while still using mindfulness in classrooms since the first article. He suggest nine guidelines for teachers that he uses to make sure mindfulness practice with youth is helping, not hurting."

"Having a growth mindset allows you to believe that you can improve and change with practice and determination. With a growth mindset, you view challenges with excitement and look forward to the opportunity to overcome them because you know you will get something out of the process and learn from your mistakes. Those with a fixed mindset, who believe their traits, talents, and abilities are permanent and cannot be improved, are less likely to enjoy as much success in school, work, and life in general. When teachers foster a growth mindset in the classroom, it helps students understand their full potential. Teachers with a growth mindset teach their students that intelligence is moldable and expandable, which keeps students inspired to learn, even if they are facing failure."

"Over the past few months, I've had the opportunity to run a number of sessions for teachers, which started as sessions entitled, "Tools for Engagement." For the session, I'd model a handful of tools for efficiency, management, and engagement, and then give participants time to explore and then crowdsource their favorite digital tools as well. Upon leaving the collaborative session, all participants would leave with a copy of the creation we had developed together. This past week at FETC, I had the opportunity to do this session again, alongside about 100 educators from all over the country. Upon completion of the session, a participant asked, "Can we share this document with those we work with?" My response? "Better yet, share it with every educator that you know that can benefit." In an effort to try and practice what I preach, I want to share the crowdsourced resource with YOU ALL as well. So, here it is…"

"Billy's history with littleBits started in 2015 when he heard about littleBits at an ISTE conference and won a free kit later that Summer at an education conference. That fall, Billy applied for a Donor's Choose grant and was able to start his small collection of littleBits which he used with his Gifted and Talented students. Billy slowly built his collection the following year with a donation from the Home and School Association. Students loved exploring and learning with the kits. Billy and I were thrilled to as being selected as one of 20 participants in the littleBits Lead Educator program that took place back in May and June of this past school year. As a result, we were one of the very first educators in the world to get the new littleBits Code Kit and had the opportunity to test the kit with their students and create resources and activities to use in the classroom."

"Excerpted from Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies For Joyful Classrooms (c) 2017 by Timothy D. Walker. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton.  Schedule brain breaks Like a zombie, Sami*-one of my fifth graders-lumbered over to me and hissed, "I think I'm going to explode! I'm not used to this schedule." And I believed him. An angry red rash was starting to form on his forehead. Yikes, I thought, what a way to begin my first year of teaching in Finland. It was only the third day of school, and I was already pushing a student to the breaking point. When I took him aside, I quickly discovered why he was so upset. Throughout this first week of school, I had gotten creative with my fifth grade timetable. If you recall, students in Finland normally take a fifteen-minute break for every forty-five minutes of instruction. During a typical break, the children head outside to play and socialize with friends. I didn't see the point of these frequent pit stops. As a teacher in the United States, I'd usually spent consecutive hours with my students in the classroom. And I was trying to replicate this model in Finland. The Finnish way seemed soft, and I was convinced that kids learned better with longer stretches of instructional time. So I decided to hold my students back from their regularly scheduled break and teach two forty-five-minute lessons in a row, followed by a double break of thirty minutes. Now I knew why the red dots had appeared on Sami's forehead."