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"For subjects like math and foreign language, which are traditionally taught in a linear and highly structured context, using more open-ended inquiry-based models can be challenging. Teachers of these subjects may find it hard to break out of linear teaching style because the assumption is that students can't move to more complicated skills before mastering basic ones. But inquiry learning is based on the premise that, with a little bit of structure and guidance, teachers can support students to ask questions that lead them to learn those same important skills - in ways that are meaningful to them."

"One way to promote engagement and learning is to consciously create pauses throughout the day. We can create a sense of spaciousness in our classroom by slowing down the pace of our speech and punctuating our lessons with silence. Introduced well, this practice can improve classroom discourse."

"Akihiko Takahashi is a professor of math education at DePaul University. Before that, he was an elementary school teacher in Japan. He first came to the United States in the early 1990s looking for all the great approaches to teaching math that he and his colleagues in Japan had learned about from American researchers. When he couldn't find these approaches being used in classrooms, he soon realized why: There was no lesson study in the United States. Lesson study is a form of professional development Japanese teachers use to help them improve and to incorporate new ideas and methods into their teaching. "If there's no lesson study," Takahashi says, "how can teachers learn how to improve instruction?""

"Math teacher Laura Kretschmar gave students a rubric with specific goals around collaboration, communication and instructions to use various functions in the program, but not a lot else. She's intentionally giving them a lot of freedom to play with the program, create cool designs and figure out what the functions do. "I think "y" means, like, going up," says Juritzy Maldonado. "So to pull it up, I'm going to try to change the number." She punches in 200 for "y" and watches the image she's creating shift upward. Another group discovers that if they hit "repeat" multiple times, they can create a parachute-like design that they've figured out how to color in various ways. That wasn't their original plan, but they're running with it now."

"If there's any video game that has successfully made its way into the classroom, it's Minecraft. There's a small subset of teachers using all kinds of digital games in interesting ways, but the blockbuster hit Minecraft and its educational counterpart MinecraftEDU have reached much wider audiences. But getting started with MinecraftEDU can be intimidating for teachers who don't consider themselves "gamers" and aren't sure how to harness the engagement and excitement of Minecraft. Luckily, there's a robust and global Minecraft teacher community to supply tips, support and even lesson plans."

"Parents who are uneasy about their own math skills often worry about how best to teach the subject to their kids. Well … there's an app for that. Tons of them, in fact. And a study published today in the journal Science suggests that at least one of them works pretty well for elementary school children and math-anxious parents."

"Digital classroom tools like computers, tablets and smartphones offer exciting opportunities to deepen learning through creativity, collaboration and connection, but those very devices can also be distracting to students. Similarly, parents complain that when students are required to complete homework assignments online, it's a challenge for students to remain on task. The ubiquity of digital technology in all realms of life isn't going away, but if students don't learn how to concentrate and shut out distractions, research shows they'll have a much harder time succeeding in almost every area."

"When educator Lynn Koresh hears from kids that they want a career doing something with computers, she asks, "To do what with computers?" Adults often encourage kids to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills, and computing classes are usually a first stop. But Koresh knows it's the real-world applications of computational thinking and coding language skills that bring such knowledge to life. She reasoned that most middle school students are already playing video games and might respond well to a unit on how to design, create, test and promote video games. Along the way, she's also teaching them about digital citizenship and entrepreneurship. "I wanted to give kids exposure to what it means to have a career using computers," said Koresh, technology coordinator at Edgewood Campus School in Madison, Wisconsin."

"The list of apps that educators favor this year shares some commonalities with last year's favorites. Teachers tend to drop apps if they become too expensive or sometimes if the updates are so overwhelming that they no longer know how to use the product. Luhtala explained it's a delicate balance: "If it doesn't feel different than it did a year ago, that's alarming. It should feel the same, but better.""

""Work that matters" has significance beyond classroom walls; it's work that is created for an authentic audience who might  enjoy it or benefit from it even in a small way. It's work that isn't simply passed to the teacher for a grade, or shared with peers for review. It's work that potentially makes a difference in the world."

"It started with a move by resourceful students who were able to unlock security settings on their iPads. The disastrous $1 billion iPad rollout by the Los Angeles Unified School District in September 2013 provided a cautionary tale to districts looking to spend public dollars on technology and digital curriculum. But below the surface of the news stories were thousands of kids feeling hurt by the way they were portrayed by the media and the school district's lack of trust in them. To explore the aftermath of the scandal that put them front and center of that cautionary education technology tale, students at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights conducted their own research on how the rollout was handled, talking to peers and family members and ultimately painting a very different picture of the lasting consequences."

"More teachers are using digital games in the classroom, and they're using them more frequently, according to a new teacher survey just released by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. But more surprisingly, the study reveals that teachers are finding that one of the most impactful use of games is for motivating and rewarding students, specifically those who are low-performing. The survey, which interviewed 694 K-8 teachers with an average of 14.5 years of teaching experience, aims to understand how and why teachers are using digital games in the classroom."

"Putting kids to work on meaningful projects can transform classrooms into beehives of inquiry and discovery, but relatively few rigorous studies have examined how well this teaching method actually works. An encouraging new report describes preliminary, first-year outcomes from a study of 3,000 middle school students that shows kids can, in fact, learn more in science classrooms that adopt a well-designed, project-focused curriculum. "

"Extended-learning opportunities are finding favor in more U.S. high schools as educators look for ways to give teenagers avenues to explore what they might like to do with their lives. By thinking outside of the classroom, kids who may not have thrived in traditional academic settings can find opportunities in the field. In this Atlantic article, Emily Richmond describes a school in Pittsfield, New Hampshire where students get class credit for completing internships in the community. "

"Dougherty hopes that if students raise their voices, parents demonstrate support and passionate teachers are willing to champion the cause at individual school sites, maker spaces could become a fixture of school. They don't have to include the fanciest 3D printer, they just have to be spaces for exploration, hands-on learning and a playful attitude towards discovery."