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""By the way kids, from today onwards you can bring your iPads to school!" - Done. I just launched a BYOD iPad program… Yeah. I'm afraid there's a bit more to it than that. In fact, there is a great deal more to it than that. A lot of thought and communication must to go into defining a program before students, parents and educators can really begin to reap the rewards that BYOD can bring. In a recently published SlideShare and blog post by educator and speaker, Chris Betcher, he shares the public launch of their school's BYOD iPad program, shedding some light on what their school has put in place."

"There are holidays like Mother's Day, Earth Day, Thanksgiving Day. Even a Talk-Like-Shakespeare Day. But Friday is Pi Day. Really! It's official. The date March 14 (that is, 3/14) was designated Pi Day by House Resolution 224 of the first session of the 111th Congress of the United States. It begins "Whereas the Greek letter (Pi) is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter," and is followed by 11 more whereases before it resolves to support the designation of "Pi Day" to encourage "schools and educators to observe the day with appropriate activities that teach students about Pi and engage them about the study of mathematics.""

"As a teacher, delving into the world of education technology can be daunting. There is SO MUCH out there. How is a busy teacher to know where to begin? Fortunately, Glenda Stewart-Smith of Surrey School District #36 in Canada has put together this collection of essential teaching tools. Each has been shown to be effective in the classroom. There is no need to dive in head-first. If you are drowning in a sea of edtech, wade in this proven pool first."

"All of my classes, regardless of student age or demographics - elementary gifted students or graduate students, begin with ice-breakers and team-building activities. I recently developed a passion for using students' mobile devices to do so as this devices have become natural and personalized extensions of students' "selves.""

"Most children enter kindergarten as technology users, but their knowledge of how to use it safely and appropriately varies as widely as their abilities to print their names and tie their shoes. As their first teachers, it is unquestioningly our duty to develop digital citizenship alongside scissor skills and sharing. Collaborative, project-based learning experiences provide many authentic opportunities for students to acquire and practice digital citizenship skills that will see them safely into adulthood as they begin to develop and manage their first digital footprints. In Manitoba, we have a Literacy with ICT Developmental Continuum that fosters critical and creative thinking skills as students learn to use ICT safely and responsibly. How does this actually look in kindergarten? "

Before we begin, let's lay some groundwork. Vocabulary (or word study) isn't done in a vacuum. You don't pass out lists and have students memorize words and definitions (you don't do that, do you?). If you used to, that's changed with Common Core. Now, you are expected to integrate vocab into learning. Every time students run into a term they don't get, you need to pause and help them decode it. It may be obvious from context, its parts (roots and affixes), but always-always-pay attention so students know unfamiliar words are not skipped. With Common Core, every nuance is important. It's about uncovering knowledge.

"As schools change leadership must as well. With society becoming more and more reliant on technology it is incumbent upon leaders to harness the power of digital technologies in order to create school cultures that are transparent, relevant, meaningful, engaging, and inspiring. In order to set the stage for increasing achievement and to establish a greater sense of community pride for the work being done in our schools, we must begin to change the way we lead. To do this, leaders must understand the origins of fear and misconceptions that often surround the use of technology such as social media and mobile devices."

"Google has recently released several updates to some of its major services including its search functionality. Being the top search engine on the web, Google is trying hard to sophisticate the way it filters and respond to users search queries through including some important features like customization, personalization, and localization. Google has also been investing in the power of social media particularly its tool Google Plus to recommend search results to searchers. Whether this is the beginning of a social revolution in web searching is too early to answer."

"BYOD (and its initialistic cousin, BYOT), 1:1, and other trends are symbolic of (at least) three things: 1. Schools, teachers, and students want technology in the classroom 2. Technology is expensive 3. Schools are looking for solutions The following excellent graphic from byodsandpit.weebly.com offers a plan to begin guiding your school towards a BYOD policy or plan that works for you. In that way, it is better than copy/pasting another school or district's policy, making sure whatever you come up with is, at worst, personalized for your application."

"Staff meetings were something that I dreaded in my beginning years as a teacher. We would often spend the majority of our time together discussing rules and policies, and would debate, on end, things that are seemingly significant. Hours have been spent in schools talking about whether kids should wear hats or not in school. Really?"

"Classroom discussions have been a staple of teaching forever, beginning with Socrates. I have taught using discussions, been a student in discussions, and observed other teachers' discussions thousands of times -- at least. Some have been boring, stifling or tedious enough to put me to sleep. Others have been so stimulating that I was sad to see them end. The difference between the two is obviously how interesting the topic is, but equally important is the level of student participation."

"Planning for Earth Day 2014 is well underway around the world. Bring environmental issues to your classroom with resources from PBS LearningMedia. Highlights include an animated video from Loop Scoop using orange juice consumption to teach about biodegradation, a lesson tracking waste in neighborhoods from America Revealed, and a QUEST video transporting viewers to the beginning of the environmental movement. PBS LearningMedia allows 3 resource views before it will ask you to create a free account to gain full access."

"o describe them simply, makerspaces are community centers with tools. Makerspaces combine manufacturing equipment, community, and education for the purposes of enabling community members to design, prototype and create manufactured works that wouldn't be possible to create with the resources available to individuals working alone. These spaces can take the form of loosely-organized individuals sharing space and tools, for-profit companies, non-profit corporations, organizations affiliated with or hosted within schools, universities or libraries, and more. All are united in the purpose of providing access to equipment, community, and education, and all are unique in exactly how they are arranged to fit the purposes of the community they serve. Makerspaces represent the democratization of design, engineering, fabrication and education. They are a fairly new phenomenon, but are beginning to produce projects with significant national impacts."

"Here at the end of the year kids tend to be a bit "squirrely", and we as teachers might find that we are letting things slide that we would not have at the beginning of the year. When it comes to technology in our classrooms - iPads, computers, SmartBoards etc - it's time to double down our efforts to keep our kids and technology safe. "

"We started Made with Code because even though increasingly more aspects in our lives are powered by technology, women aren't represented in the companies, labs, research, creative arts, design, organizations, and boardrooms that make technology happen. If girls are inspired to see that Computer Science can make the world more beautiful, more usable, more safe, more kind, more innovative, more healthy, and more funny, then hopefully they will begin to contribute their essential voices. As parents, teachers, organizations, and companies we're making it our mission to creatively engage girls with code. Today, less than 1% of girls are majoring in CS. Tomorrow, we can make that number go up."

"With math equations that analyze brush strokes, new discoveries about the world's greatest art are possible. It took X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and a painting algorithm to reveal the hidden portrait of a peasant underneath the painting of Vincent Van Gogh's "Patch of Grass." And that feat, accomplished in 2008, was just the beginning."

"I've been a fan of Glogster since its beginning back in 2007.  A couple of weeks back the Glogster app launched. Built specifically for iPad and for Glogster EDU users, the interface is easy and elegant and allows for simple placement and linking of media objects on an intuitive drag-and-drop Glog canvas. Especially nice is the app's handy interaction with your camera (to shoot images and video), your camera roll (for easy import), and your microphone.  You can record your own audio and video, import content from your libraries, or from YouTube, Google Images, Google Video, Khan Academy and Wikipedia."

"Please join the organizers of the 2014 K12 Online Conference in congratulating our selected presenters for this year's conference! As in past years, our conference is organized into four strands. Each strand has an invited keynote speaker and additional selected speakers. Our conference begins October 13th with a pre-conference keynote presentation. Strands for 2014 are: Week of Oct 20 - 24: Stories for Learning and Games and Gamification Week of Oct 27 - 31: Passion Driven Learning and STEAM"