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"Renowned educationalist Sir Ken Robinson delivers the long-awaited follow-up to his now legendary Changing Education Paradigms talk. He addresses the fundamental economic, cultural, social and personal purposes of education, and argues that education should be personalised to every student's talent, passion, and learning styles, and that creativity should be embedded in the culture of every single school."

"In the quest to build capable readers, promoting independent, self-selected reading remains key. Creating ravenous, lifelong readers doesn't just happen, it takes a schoolwide culture to help reach that goal. We want kids to read more. We want them to enjoy reading. We know that reading builds vocabulary, fluency, and background knowledge. So let's do our part to promote and encourage independent reading across our schools. Listed below are 25 tips and ideas to help your school or district create a schoolwide reading culture that supports independent reading."

"Mobile devices like iPads and Androids have transformed the way we experience boredom. No longer is a wayward commuter forced to play Snake or Tetris, occupying themselves in a hardly satisfying, and utterly pixelated virtual reality. The tablet or smart phone-wielding travelers can now immerse themselves in an entire library of art and culture-related distractions, finding solace in everything from a Vincent van Gogh game to a digital version of the Louvre. Just this week, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a 140-year-old cultural stalwart of New York City, went the way of the future and introduced an iPhone app. Described as "exceedingly simple and modest" by Forbes, the move to make art more accessible is something we can't help but love. So, in the spirit of the Met's 21st century attitude, we've put together a list of mobile museums and art-honoring programs that will spark creativity in your everyday life. Behold, 18 apps every creative and artist type should download now:"

"Visible Thinking, as a learning approach, makes extensive use of thinking routines in class.These routines, according to Visiviblethinkingpz.org, are are simple structures, for example " a set of questions or a short sequence of steps, that can be used across various grade levels and content. What makes them routines, versus merely strategies, is that they get used over and over again in the classroom so that they become part of the fabric of classroom' culture. The routines become the ways in which students go about the process of learning." To better understand how to use the visible thinking approach with your students and cultivate a thinking culture in your class, Langwitches has this wonderful infographic to share with you.This visual features a number of key thinking routines together with examples of how to use them with learners. Have a look and let us know what you think of it."

" It is a myth that we operate under a set of oppressive bureaucratic constraints. In reality, teachers have a great deal of autonomy in the work they chose to do in their classrooms. In most cases it is our culture that provides the constraints. For individual teachers, trying out new practices and pedagogy is risky business and both our culture, and our reliance on hierarchy, provide the ideal barriers for change not to occur. As Pogo pointed out long ago, "we have met the enemy and it is us." http://www.cea-ace.ca/blog/brian-harrison/2013/09/5/stop-asking-permission-change "

"Traditionally as students come back to school, it is important to establish a positive classroom culture. Today, more and more districts are following the lead of places like New York City where schools are empowered to support students in the responsible use of cell phones and social media. That means that not only must we support the establishment of a positive classroom and school culture, but we must also ensure our students are engaging positively and responsibly as digital citizens.  While students are all familiar with the "social" aspect of social media, teachers have an important new role. That is to help students consider the "power" of social media for academic and career success. If our students want to run for office, run a business, or change the way things are run where you live, work, or play they must be savvy in the use of social media. "

"Makerspaces have made headlines recently. Several weeks ago New York City hosted the World Maker Faire. The White House had its first Maker Faire this summer, and schools and libraries across the country are installing these spaces. It is certainly tempting to start thinking about all the amazing tools you could put into your makerspace. If you know anything about Makers, you are probably thinking that you need a CNC machine, a 3-D printer, Dremels for everyone and a laser cutter since they are the gateway tool for making things. But buying a bunch of tools without first stopping to think about how they will be integrated into the culture and curriculum of your school is a recipe for a dusty and underused workshop. Don't be tempted by the sexy CNC and laser cutters if you don't need them. Just taking apart a blender offers a wealth of learning opportunities. From my experience installing makerspaces in several dozen schools, I've developed a process that helps you think through your makerspace and how it fits into the culture and curriculum of your school. Skipping this process, or one like it, will almost certainly result in tension, missed teaching opportunities, and overspending."

Interlacing lives, culture and learning, Classroom Braids is a metaphor for weaving together lives and cultures. Welcome students. During the year, you will be working together to learn about sailing and a world trip. Let's begin with introductions.

he Salty Chip is a space for teachers and students to share and build upon their work as they develop their use of multiliteracies. It seeks to capture cultural and linguistic diversity and to make use of new and emerging communication technologies that consider pedagogy in a participatory culture.

The mission of the International Children's Digital Library Foundation is to excite and inspire the world's children to become members of the global community - children who understand the value of tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas -- by making the best in children's literature available online.

Our Mission The mission of the International Children's Digital Library Foundation is to excite and inspire the world's children to become members of the global community - children who understand the value of tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas -- by making the best in children's literature available online.

"Pushing students to go beyond what they think they can do is at the core of good teaching. This Teaching Channel video follows students and educators at Springfield Renaissance School, part of the Expeditionary Learning network. Students at the school understand that struggling with a particular task is part of learning. Teachers have high expectations of students, expect a positive classroom culture and are willing to gently prod students to dig deeper and reveal more. Teachers embed Common Core standards like the ability to use textual evidence to back up arguments, into the culture of class. They also understand that the love of learning takes ownership and self-awareness."

"Here are some great iPad apps to put the world at your kids fingertips. Using these apps, kids will get to explore the geographical and cultural richness of the world and learn interesting facts and information about different continents and cities. Information includes things such as population, languages spoken, flags, cultural mores, and many more. Some of these apps also provide reference maps and 3D imagery."

"In this era of overly scripted, overly tested, overly controlled students AND teachers, there seems to be little or no room for curiosity at school. So what is the cost of curiosity-void schools?  The result , way too often, is a school culture of malaise rather than a culture of curiosity, engagement, excitement and joy for learning. Educators along with their administrators need to be agents of their own teaching and bring curiosity into their classrooms especially if they have the slightest belief that the future belongs to the curious."

"Drexel University's ExCITe Center released Making Culture, the first in-depth examination of K-12 education makerspaces nationwide, revealing the significance of cultural aspects of making that enable learning. The research highlights how makerspaces foster a range of positive student learning outcomes, but also reflect some of the gaps in inclusion common in the STEM fields. Credit: ExCITe Center, Drexel University"

"We have designed a Mathematical Mindset Guide to help teachers create or strengthen a growth mindset culture. This guide contains five Mathematical Mindset Practices along with links to teaching videos.  The videos all show Jo and Cathy teaching middle school students. There are different stages described in each practice to help capture the journey of a mathematical mindset classroom and the evidence teachers may collect along the way for their own reflection or for discussion with colleagues.  The guide has been designed for teachers to use in the process of self-reflection, or for coaches or administrators to use to encourage a mindset teaching culture. In the interactive version of the guide on this web page, you can click on the arrow buttons in the Expanding descriptors to see a short extract of Jo/Cathy teaching in the ways described. Our goal for the guide is to support a mathematical mindset journey of learning and growth. Teachers can work with the guide individually or in collaboration with others. The guide is intended to be non-judgmental, non-evaluative, and iterative in nature. When using the guide consider the classroom community as a whole rather than the teacher alone. It is also important to note that while the goal of the guide is to communicate all aspects of a mathematical mindset classroom, it is not always possible to find evidence of all practices in one lesson. We encourage teachers, coaches, and administrators to use this guide, and our reflection suggestions iteratively over multiple lessons."

"Please, No More Professional Development! By Peter DeWitt on April 17, 2015 8:10 AM Today's guest blog is written by Kristine Fox (Ed.D), Senior Field Specialist/Research Associate at Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations (QISA). She is a former teacher and administrator who has passion for teacher learning and student voice. Kris works directly with teachers and leaders across the country to help all learners reach their fullest potential. Peter DeWitt recently outlined why "faculty meetings are a waste of time." Furthering on his idea, most professional development opportunities don't offer optimal learning experiences and the rare teacher is sitting in her classroom thinking "I can't wait until my district's next PD day." When I inform a fellow educator that I am a PD provider, I can read her thoughts - boring, painful, waste of time, useless, irrelevant - one would think my job is equal to going to the dentist (sorry to my dentist friends). According to the Quaglia Institute and Teacher Voice and Aspirations International Center's National Teacher Voice Report only 54% percent of teachers agree "Meaningful staff development exists in my school." I can't imagine any other profession being satisfied with that number when it comes to employee learning and growth. What sense does it make for the science teacher to spend a day learning about upcoming English assessments? Or, for the veteran teacher to learn for the hundredth time how to use conceptual conflict as a hook. Why does education insist everyone attend the same type of training regardless of specialization, experience, or need? As a nod to the upcoming political campaigns and the inevitable introduction of plans with lots of points, here is my 5 Point Plan for revamping professional development. 5 Point Plan Point I - Change the Term: Semantics Matter We cannot reclaim the term Professional Development for teachers. It has a long, baggage-laden history of conformity that does not

"Today in our Inquiry we are going to look deeply at the affect some of these celebrations have on people. We would like to listen are learn about the Declaration of Human Rights. Many people in different countries and especially Australia have different beliefs about culture. Where immigrants should be allowed in to a country, whether cultures have the right to even celebrate their traditions. Lets take a look at what the Declaration of Human Rights tells us. "

"For the first time in four years, I am without a makerspace.  My new school's library is beautiful and huge and has a school culture that is just ripe for making.  Even though it was tempting, I decided not to change it up and create a makerspace over the summer.  I want to be sure that the library program, including a new makerspace, is responsive to the needs of the school and its culture.  Therefore, I plan on spending at least the first-semester making plans for how this space will work.  It will likely be very different from my previous space, but I'm excited to see what forms. Making plans for a new makerspace can be daunting, so I've gathered together some tips to help get started:"

"With two design thinking practices, you can make small, iterative changes to foster a creative culture in your school or classroom. "