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"How would you feel if someone described you as being colorless? Yeah, it's not exactly a compliment. Being called colorless is basically an unsubtle way of being told you are dull, uninteresting or boring. And just as some people are 'colorless', so is a lot of the content we deliver to our kids. But luckily it is a lot easier to inject a bit of color into a curriculum than it is into a personality. In a recently published slideshare titled 'Colour in Mathematics' Math teacher and blogger, Colleen Young, shows how she uses color to add clarity and engagement to her lessons:"

"The iPod Touch can function as an important educational tool inside and outside the classroom. With the increased purchases of netbooks this last year, there seems to be a push for schools to put more machines into students hands. At a price point even lower than current netbooks the iPod Touch is a great compliment to any classroom. "

"During the month of June, I took a hiatus from blogging so that I could do some fun things and perform professional development. The fun things were: Watching my daughter graduate PreK. Watching her win the "Symphony" award. :) Taking both my girls to great places like the beaches and zoos.   The professional development opportunities included: Finishing my free resource iBook titled Help! I am an Elementary Music Teacher with One or more iPads! This book is the second in my Help! Series. These free resource iBooks are books for elementary music educators to use to assist them with integrating technology into their classrooms or teaching situations as well as access to numerous lesson plans. My first book was Help! I am an Elementary Music Teacher with a SMART Board! This new book compliments two courses that I am teaching in the next few weeks."

"Teachers might see the Internet as the enemy of old-fashioned books, but the two entities can actually compliment each other nicely. Websites devoted to reading and literacy help children connect with other readers, delve deeper into what they are reading, and discover new books of interest. And they provide teachers with ideas for the classroom. Your students could start an online book group, write reviews on a website, or use Internet tools to research a favorite author. We've gathered ten of the best free, reading-related websites to inspire you and your young readers."

"It's been a heady first month in Northfield Community Middle School's Technology, Engineering, and Design program. Kids are raving, parents are beaming, and it was a great start. But . . . what assumptions have we made that were valid? Or not? What's going well? What could be better? What adjustments are we making now that "Design Experience Zero" in Digital Shop has wrapped up, and our gamified learning management system, Black Mesa, is in full swing? Finally, what's ahead for the program longer-term? Back when our fantastic new learning space was still all gleaming and ready for kids to experience, compliments started rolling in, but I reminded people that creating the space and even building our LMS had been the easy part. The hard part would be (and is!) creating authentic learning experiences that purposefully engage the kids in mindful exploration (the Manifesto, remember?). Our goal: make the kids "life ready" by challenging them to take charge of their own learning -- something that school had never really asked them to do."

"I share during many talks that creativity is a mindset not an art set. The elephant in the room is once you buy into the mantra, what steps can you take to act on the mindset? There are so many cool ways to build up our creative abilities. What I am striving to do with all my work on the Educated By Design project, is to discover ways in which creative exercises can compliment development of fundamental literacies and competencies to make our students and ourselves more capable of doing great work. For those who have yet to see the work from Stephen McMennamy, you are in for a treat. His ability to look at the world around him and find creative connections in seemingly divergent of objects is uncanny. "

"I cannot count the number of times I've heard a colleague advise a student to do what makes them happy. Yet I wonder often how many teachers are happy in their jobs. In a 2012 survey, job satisfaction was at a 25-year low, teacher turnover is alarmingly high and costly, and morale is constantly under assault by social and political commentary. But who needs statistics? Just look around during a staff meeting to see the weight educators carry. In an effort to counter these patterns, stakeholders need to build systems of support for each other. It's even better when those support systems are grassroots efforts instead of mandated. One way I've done this for the past several years is through what I call the Hump Day Bump, a compilation of staff-to-staff notes of gratitude and compliments (bumps) emailed to staff each Wednesday."

"The iMovie app could possibly be my favorite app on my iPad.  It's a versatile app that can lead to a whole lot of creation in your classroom  Yes, I know that iMovie on my MacBook Pro has all the bells and whistles, but I believe that the app has all the ingredients to make some pretty powerful products in your classroom. I love the fact that the app allows our students (and us) to make thinking visible.   There are so many ways that you can use iMove in the classroom.  From knowledge to comprehension, every level of Bloom's taxonomy is easily addressed using the iMovie app.  I plan on teaching our K-5 students how to use the iMovie app in the coming weeks and I can't wait to see the creativity that is generated! The best thing about iMovie is that you can use it with a lot of other apps! App Smashing?  Try using iMovie as the final app to display your app smash.  Just drop your products in from the photo library, do a voice over and you have created a product that allows you to showcase the learning happening in your classroom! I have created a folder on my iPad of apps that I use to supplement some of the videos that I produce. Here are some of my favorites:"