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"As of late it seems that I have been blogging a great deal about our makerspace here at New Milford High School and with good reason. Not only is the space being overrun with students during their lunch periods, but teachers here have begun to explore how the process of making can enhance the learning experience for the students in their classes. Just last week I shared on my blog how physics classes were exploring concepts related to circuitry in a more hands-on, authentic fashion in our constantly evolving space through a collaboration between Mr. Fowler and Mrs. Fleming. It seems that this might have been a catalyst for even more collaborations in order to fully take advantage of what a well-designed makerspace can provide."

"Do you roll your eyes when your friend orders the gluten-free option? While celiac disease is the real deal, an Australian doctor is casting doubt on self-reported gluten intolerance. Some supporters of the gluten-free diet may say that they feel healthier with better digestion since adopting the diet, but the latest findings suggest that if you aren't suffering from celiac disease, your intolerance is likely in your head."

"Have you ever had someone pass you their headphones to hear a song, and had your ears blasted by an outrageously loud volume level? Well, by default, anyone can crank the volume up on music played from an iOS device to 100%. That may sound like no big deal, but there are situations where listening to music that loud could potentially be problematic, leading to inattentiveness to the outside world or even theoretical hearing issues. This is particularly important for kids, who may not realize that the volume level is harmful. Thus, if you or your kids listen to a lot of music with headphones on from an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, you may want to consider setting a maximum volume limit for the Music app."

"I have written a lot about all that being a connected educator has done for me. I have written a lot about how I would not trade it for anything and that I hope others will choose to become connected as well. I have written about how being a connected educator has enabled me to have connected students, which has radically changed the way I teach. And yet, I have not talked about the downfall of being connected much. Not like this, not in this way. Yet, I think in honor of Connected Educator month, (which is a strange month anyway because aren't we always connected?), I think it is time to discuss the downfalls. Those things that I deal with from being a connected educator, because after all, if I am going to encourage others to be connected, I think I need to be honest about all that it entails."

""If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve," Debbie Millman counseled in one of the best commencement speeches ever given, urging: "Do what you love, and don't stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities…" Far from Pollyanna platitude, this advice actually reflects what modern psychology knows about how belief systems about our own abilities and potential fuel our behavior and predict our success. Much of that understanding stems from the work of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, synthesized in her remarkably insightful Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (public library) - an inquiry into the power of our beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, and how changing even the simplest of them can have profound impact on nearly every aspect of our lives. One of the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves, Dweck found in her research, has to do with how we view and inhabit what we consider to be our personality. A "fixed mindset" assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which we can't change in any meaningful way, and success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence, an assessment of how those givens measure up against an equally fixed standard; striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs become a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled. A "growth mindset," on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. Out of these two mindsets, which we manifest from a very early age, springs a great deal of our behavior, our relationship with success and failure in both professional and personal contexts, and ultimately our capacity for happiness."

"The SAMR Model for integrating technology into teaching, developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, has gained a good deal of exposure in recent years. "SAMR" is an acronym that stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. The SAMR model provides a technique for moving through degrees of technology adoption to find more meaningful uses of technology in teaching and move away from simply using "tech for tech's sake"."

"Imagine being able to connect with one hundred million people anytime you want. With that many people on Twitter each day (and that's not counting the additional 184 million users who are on Twitter at least once each month), a great deal of knowledge, perspective, and news is accessible to you, just by clicking a few buttons. It's no wonder educators are harnessing the power of Twitter to bring cutting edge ideas, trends, research, and best practices to use in their schools and classrooms. But just as Twitter can be a treasure trove of information, it can be overwhelming for new users to figure out how to use it effectively. We've compiled this list of the best ways to make Twitter a social media tool that works for you."

"Writer's block is  a crippling condition in which one's creative process slows down to the minimum. It's a symptom of 'creativity blockage' which hits writers. People differ in how they deal with their writer's block but one effective way we have at our hands is the use of technology. There are several iPad apps that can provide writers with all kinds of prompts and incentives to write creatively.  Below is a sample of some of the best iPad apps to help you with writer's block. We invite you to check them out and share with us if you have other suggestions: "

"Protecting student privacy and making sure online environments are safe and secure is a very big deal. We have digital landscapes that are constantly evolving and students who are more and more confident exploring online without instruction or supervision. The below five tools are not just a starting point to help your students manage and maintain their online privacy, they should be the beginning of an ongoing discussion detailing the importance, consequences and risks associated with online privacy and security."

"At first glance, authentic learning may seem like an unrealistic approach for elementary learners, but nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout this year, I've had the opportunity to design curricula with numerous teachers who will tell you that in fact, authentic learning is elementary! It all begins by embracing the fact that even our youngest learners have a great deal to teach others."

" 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 "

"I spend a great deal of time looking up stuff. Whether that stuff is blog posts to get a pulse on what is happening in the edusphere or researching new tools to share with teachers, I come across a wide variety of resources that I need to save, catalog and be able to come back to later. Curation is a large part of my day. Wait. What is curation anyway? Think about it in terms of a museum curator. Their job is to tell a story with artifacts. They scour the globe looking for just the right piece to help convey a message. We have to do the same with the resources we gather. For educators and students, curation is a 3-part process. Gathering Resources Organizing Resources Sharing Resources"

"To prepare students for college and careers, reading comprehension needs to be a part of all subject areas. Students cannot master complex scientific concepts, comprehend historical treaties, or follow complex logic problems without it. Content areas deal with complex texts that require analytical reading skills. Students in social studies, science, and math classes have to be able to compare and synthesize ideas, and use specific academic vocabulary. In 2002, Fisher, Frey, and Williams compiled this list of literacy strategies for the content areas. Today, we're going to add to the list and suggest certain reading comprehension strategies to try in your content area classroom"

"Summer is a busy time for many. Vacations. Family time. Housework. Yardwork. Painting. Hobbies. Reading. School book studies??? Summer is an opportunity when many educators dedicate time to read, find new ideas to implement in their classrooms, and brainstorm strategies to use the in fall. Teachers want to read, share, and learn together. There is actually now time to collaborate and share! Traditionally, book studies are done in face-to-face meetings. Teachers choose a book to read together, plan which chapters to read, and then decide on meeting times to discuss those chapters. However, with varying schedules and planned commitments, finding a common time to come together to discuss a shared book multiple times throughout the summer is quite difficult. Families take vacations, their children have camps and other commitments, and thus meeting together with everyone is infrequent and often not well-attended. So, with interest in having book studies from my staff, but dealing with tricky schedules, a different solution was necessary."

"The iPad is a great tool for coding.  Particularly for developing the skills and concepts in the junior years around directional language, understanding sprites and developing the building blocks of coding before moving onto traditional desktop coding software. Here is a list of great apps on the iPad to assist coding and robotics in the classroom.  If you would like to learn a great deal more about coding and robotics in the classroom I an strongly recommend getting a copy of this excellent eBook."

"t started my first year of teaching, and although things have improved dramatically over the last two decades, I've never completely overcome Sunday night stress. I deal with it far more often than I'd like to, and I know that many of my teacher friends do too. One of them just happens to be my neighbor, and when I tiptoe downstairs in the wee hours of a Monday morning to read myself back to sleep, I often notice the glow of lights in his living room too. It's good to know I'm not alone, but I'd rather be sleeping. If you're reading this post, I'm thinking you would be too. Perhaps these ideas will help you."

"When students tell me about some of the things that they deal with, even at such an early age, I think about how strong they are to show up to school every single day, and how privileged we are to be able to serve them.  Not only should we have high expectations for our students, but we need to also have high beliefs in what they can accomplish.  Innovation does not happen in schools if a child does not feel loved.  This can't be the job of some teachers; it has to be all.  I will take a teacher that loves and believes in their students over one that is extremely innovative yet lacks the aforementioned qualities."