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"I urge more history teachers to embrace music, including rock'n'roll, as effective and legitimate primary sources. In eight years of teaching, I have found no other way to engage student interest as quickly and effectively -- pushing the door wide open to other types of learning activities and assignments. Consider a few of my examples when teaching the following units."

"The 3D printing industry is expected to exceed $21 billion by 2020. Classrooms are joining in. Kelly Hines' fifth-grade classroom is redesigning a prosthetic hand. Can't buy a drone? Soon, you may be able to print one. You can print robots, math manipulatives, and even parts for a 3D printer. (In fact, Bryan Byer's science classroom in Michigan built their own 3D printer.) What will happen when we can 3D print things from door stoppers to wind turbines to (wait for it) wedding dresses? This past year, my students and I began our journey after I saw the FabLab at Kentucky Country Day School last summer."

"You live in the age of robots. A robot built your car, opened your garage door, and made the espresso that went into your double mocha. In large and small ways, robots are everywhere in our lives. The robots in my classroom amplify learning for my students. Robots are another tool in my high-engagement toolbox. I use the term high-engagement as a description and a warning. In my experience, high-engagement tools need to be matched with high-challenge learning. If we are using robots to support learning goals, the learning goals have to be robust and demanding. Without a carefully crafted learning context to support a demanding learning goal, students end up engaging the learning medium and just playing with robots."

Dave Eggers TED Talk - http://www.ted.com/speakers/dave_eggers.html

"Peace One Day and Skype open classroom doors to the world with launch of Global Education Resource"

Getting beyond your immediate classroom is actually easier by working with someone else online than it is with the teacher next door. Forget changing your school, just change yourself.

"'Kids Apps on the App Store' is a collection of popular apps that have been hand picked by the App Store Editors and are discounted for a limited time only. iTunes has enlisted smartappsforkids.com to help spread the word about the new promotion, so please 'like' this post and share it around your social network pages, email it to your kids' teachers and pop next door and tell your neighbors about it too!"

"The simplest addition of technology to my 5th grade Language Arts classroom made the greatest difference in the level of engagement of my students, especially in our non-fiction unit, in which we rely heavily on paper articles. Even though the material is true, real life, and exciting, I still found my 5th graders, who are bombarded with technology outside of the classroom, bored to tears when I passed out an article for them to read and mark up with a pencil. "

"Social Media isn't the only area in which New York City is paving the way. As announced today in the NY Daily News, the New York City Department of Education will lift the ban on cell phones and other digital devices in March. Instead of banning devices, schools will have options including: Store mobile devices in backpacks or a designated location during the school day. Allow mobile devices to be used during lunch or in designated areas only. Allow mobile devices for instructional purposes in some or all classrooms. While there have been teachers, schools, and districts who have given students the freedom to bring cell phones and other technology to school, New York City is the largest. This will set the trend and help move others to open the doors for student devices in school."

"The iPhone and iPad come equipped with some great accessibility features that open the door to all kinds of functionality for those with hearing and visual impairments. One especially useful feature for those with auditory impairments is the ability to pair their iPhone or iPad with many supported hearing aids. There are even some hearing aids that carry the made for iPhone moniker so you know your experience will be seamless. To get started, you've just got to pair them together! "

"At back-to-school night parents usually end up with collection of papers that they may or may not be saved for reference throughout the school year. Use QR codes to put the odds in your favor of the information in those papers being saved. I figure that if parents and or students scan and save information on their mobile devices, they are far more likely to retain it that way than if I gave them pieces of paper. So create QR codes and paste them on the door to your classroom or on a bulletin board in your room"

"In a first-grade classroom at Peralta Elementary School in Oakland, children concentrate on detailed pencil drawings of scenes from the underground railroad. Safehouses and trap doors appear on paper. One boy is drawing dogs with pointy teeth. Here at Peralta, art is never just about art. These first-graders are learning about history, but they're also practicing math, measuring with their fingers to figure out where to draw horizon lines. Teacher Pam Lucker is helping the students include perspective."

"It's a controversial topic: do you introduce social media in the classroom or ignore it? Whether you use traditional social platforms or social-focused tools, many educators find that this technology helps increase engagement and excitement with students, many of who are already very familiar with it. "Students communicate, research, collaborate, create and publish online with or without the help of parents or educators. These same students then hop on social media to promote, discuss and share their thoughts with the world. The digital environment is offering us some of the greatest learning opportunities that young learners have ever had," says Gail Leicht, an 8th grade teacher. Bringing social networking into the classroom gives quiet students a chance to shine; sharing their voice online is often easier than speaking out in class. It also opens the doors for collaboration and communication between peers, both inside and outside of the classroom. Not to mention, it gives teachers another opportunity to connect with students. Despite the benefits, many educators still shy away from using social networking in the classroom because they are unsure about how to integrate it successfully. In fact, fewer than 20 percent of U.S. teachers use social media in the classroom, according to USNews.com. Luckily, the process isn't quite as daunting as it seems. Not to mention, you don't need to use traditional social networks to take advantage of social networking in the classroom. Follow these simple steps and watch as your students start sharing, commenting and publishing while learning important lesson material."

"The classroom is changing. Well, the students in our classrooms are changing. Our students are connected. This is not about particular devices or apps. Their connectedness is their ability to share and collaborate with anyone at anytime for a given purpose, whether it be to find information or to collaborate on a project. Our students are doing this without adults. As responsive educators, we need to understand this shift. We are asking our connected students to drop their devices at the door, walk into the classrooms we grew up in, and thrive in an ever-changing, connected world. Is this what is best for our students?"

"Teenagers really get a bad time,' says Sarah-Jayne Blakemore. 'It is amazing how it seems to be totally acceptable - even institutionalised - to parody and demonise them. We laugh at things that mock teenagers, but if you applied those sorts of jokes to any other sector of society, it just wouldn't be acceptable.' Blakemore is a professor of cognitive neuroscience and deputy director of the University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. She is sitting in her office behind Russell Square, the heartland of London academia, mounting a strong defence for every teenager in Britain who has slammed a bedroom door, smoked a cigarette, driven a car too fast and even - though she certainly doesn't condone this - given in to the peer pressure that surrounds drugs such as Ecstasy. Society's response to the teenage conviction that 'nobody understands' is often lack of patience. Teenagers, we think, are moody, self-absorbed, reckless, defiant creatures who reject our wisdom in favour of a path of personal sabotage. But the rallying cry from Blakemore - an increasingly powerful voice in the world of international neuroscience, who has given policy advice to the British government - is that teenagers are right. Beyond the world of neuroscientific research, for the most part society does not understand them."

"Ten years ago this month, my six-year-old students and I first dipped our toes into the water of blogging. At the time, I really had no idea what would come of this new venture, no idea of the conversations we would have, no idea of the connections we would be able to make with people beyond the doors of our classroom and no idea of the often serendipitous learning that would take place."

"When I think of 3D printers, I am instantly taken back to the days of watching George Jetson: Imagine pressing a button and opening a magic door to exactly what you had asked for. While 3D printing technology seems frighteningly close to that futuristic memory, the truth is, there is HUGE potential for 3D printing to impact math education in a variety of ways."