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"It's the bottom of the ninth with two outs and it's all tied up. You've got a runner on first base and you need to decide who you're sending to the plate. You have a player with a stellar batting average, a player reliable for drawing walks and one who promises they can win it all for you-who do you play? In the fall of 2002, the Oakland Athletics shattered a 55-year-old record with twenty consecutive games won. The A's accomplished this on a shoestring budget and despite losing three of their best players at the start of the season. How, you ask? By applying rich data analysis to the sport, a practice known as sabermetrics. When we set out to design an engaging kickball unit for our middle school students, we asked ourselves how we could learn from the 2002 A's. In short, we wondered how we could combine data analysis, computational thinking and kickball to make the P.E. experience more personal, more academically rigorous and more inclusive to students of all athletic abilities."

"Many American teenagers try to put in a full day of school, homework, after-school activities, sports and college prep on too little sleep. As evidence grows that chronic sleep deprivation puts teens at risk for physical and mental health problems, there is increasing pressure on school districts around the country to consider a later start time. In Seattle, school and city officials recently made the shift. Beginning with the 2016-2017 school year, the district moved the official start times for middle and high schools nearly an hour later, from 7:50 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. This was no easy feat; it meant rescheduling extracurricular activities and bus routes. But the bottom line goal was met: Teenagers used the extra time to sleep in. Researchers at the University of Washington studied the high school students both before and after the start-time change. Their findings appear in a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. They found students got 34 minutes more sleep on average with the later school start time. This boosted their total nightly sleep from 6 hours and 50 minutes to 7 hours and 24 minutes."

"I had just pressed the glowing submit button on my screen. After two and a half years, I finally finished my Masters in Computer Science. As the immediate thrill of being done with my coursework subsided, I had a moment of reflection. How had I gone from a high school student who routinely finished in the back of the class to graduating with a near 4.0 in my second graduate program? I went from a bottom of the barrel student to an elite performer with good study habits. Through this story, I would like to highlight the fundamentals that I find instrumental to improving your learning capabilities."

"For the most part, American children aren't great at math. But Chinese children tend to be excellent. Testing half a million students worldwide, the Program for International Student Assessment is one of the most widely cited measurements of global education, and it's consistently found Chinese students at the top of the academic pile ... and Americans much nearer the bottom. Some experts argue that the PISA assessment, like any standardized tests, primarily measures a student's ability to take the test, not their knowledge, but hardly anyone disputes that the American education has some work to do when it comes to math.  In Lenora Chu's new book "Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve," she begins to unearth the cultural differences that lead to this gap - and it's not just about what happens at school."

The Bebras cards are designed to enable pupils to develop their computational thinking skills, whilst at the same time providing an introduction to more advanced computing concepts. Computational Thinking Each card is aligned to one of the following computational thinking concepts, which are indicated in the top right-hand corner of each card.  Patterns  Algorithms  Logic  Abstraction Task Difficulty The difficulty of the task on each card is indicated by the icon in the bottom right-hand corner.  = Easy  = Medium  = Hard Answers and Other Materials Answers to tasks, ideas for teaching and national curriculum links can be found at: www.bebras.uk Tip: pupils will need an exercise book or a piece of paper in order to record their answers to each activity

"YouTube is the premier destination for music videos today, which also makes it one of the most popular music streaming services. If you use YouTube to listen to music, the experience can be a whole lot better with the right extensions or web apps. We've previously talked about some of the best YouTube music players, but things have changed a bit since then. Browser extensions now give you lyrics with each video, while some apps and extensions will save bandwidth by playing only the audio without video. The bottom line is that anyone who uses YouTube for music needs to check out these cool tools."

The Bebras cards are designed to enable pupils to develop their computational thinking skills, whilst at the same time providing an introduction to more advanced computing concepts. Computational Thinking Each card is aligned to one of the following computational thinking concepts, which are indicated in the top right-hand corner of each card.  Patterns  Algorithms  Logic  Abstraction Task Difficulty The difficulty of the task on each card is indicated by the icon in the bottom right-hand corner.  = Easy  = Medium  = Hard Answers and Other Materials Answers to tasks, ideas for teaching and national curriculum links can be found at: www.bebras.uk Tip: pupils will need an exercise book or a piece of paper in order to record their answers to each activity

"No matter your position in education, you have gone through some form of professional development. In many cases, the act of being "developed" comes in a variety of standard types such as workshops, mandated PD days, presentations, conferences, book studies, or keynotes. Many of these are often the one and done variety or conducted in a drive-by manner. Now, don't get me wrong; some educators find value in the experiences I have outlined above and have gone on to change their respective practice for the better. However, I would say an equal amount have found little to no benefit. The bottom line is that all educators yearn for quality professional learning as opposed to development that leads to sustained improvements in teaching, learning, and leadership. The image below from Katie Martin sums up nicely what educators want out of professional learning.  "

"Using an iPad is simple due to its intuitive interface, elegant touch interface, and user-friendly operating system. Below we've listed 23 different tasks a teacher should be able to perform with their iPad. We've tried to focus on the basics, along with some typical tasks a teacher may be required to complete. We've also (roughly) arranged them from less complicated to more complicated, so consider yourself an Unofficial iPad "Basic Hacker" if you can get to the bottom. For more complex iPad tasks and functions, we're doing a follow-up post. Stay tuned!"

Teacher Interpreters My raw notes on the BLC presentation I just attended remotely. Everything New is Old Again Living and Teaching in Accelerating Times Presenters: Darren Kuropatwa Clarence Fisher http://adifference.blogspot.com/ http://remoteaccess.typepad.com/

Orisinal.com game. Release the diver at just the right moment so that he can safely jump from rock to rock. Mouse control game.

There are many tools... (explanation to be completed...) There is a tension between following many people to broaden your information pool and being overwhelmed with the flow of tweets. It's an individual decision on how many to follow - why not start small and experiment? Most teachers prefer to network with other educators, but there is great value in having a diverse set of people to follow within Twitter. Below, you will find a number of tools and resources that can help you find interesting people to follow.