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"Prince of Persia - £335 million at the box office. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - £150 million at the box office. Resident Evil - £200 million at the box office What do all these movies have in common? They are all video games that were developed into films. With other popular video games currently being made into films, such as, Angry Birds, Temple Run and Assassin's Creed, it seems Hollywood is exploiting the popularity and the storytelling potential of video games. Why not do it in the classroom?"

"One of my favorite films is The Emperor's Club, starring Kevin Kline as Mr. Hundert, the Western Civilization teacher at St. Benedict's Academy. In the film's opening scene, the headmaster of the school stands before the assembled student body explaining the meaning of the school motto, Finis Origine Pendet: The End Depends Upon the Beginning. "What you accomplish in life and the significance of your contribution," he counsels, "will depend largely on what you do here. How you begin determines what you will achieve." As the film unfolds, we see this poignant message revealed in the lives of the students. What they do at the school and the relationships they develop powerfully affect the kind of persons they become and the nature of the lives they eventually lead. In the end, we realize that Finis Origine Pendet is the film's central message. The same is true of professional learning for educators. What it accomplishes and the significance of its contribution depend largely on how it begins. This holds true not only for traditional forms of professional learning-seminars, study groups, workshops, conferences, mentoring, coaching, and so on-but also for "new" forms that include face-to-face or online professional learning communities, teacher exchanges, bug-in-the-ear coaching, data teams, individualized improvement plans, and unconferences. The effectiveness of any professional learning activity, regardless of its content, structure, or format, depends mainly on how well it is planned."

"Education-bashing has become something of a national sport in the United States. From hurling criticism about slipping test scores, socio-economic disparity, dropout rates, to raising concerns about poor teaching standards and school resources, the popular narrative is that U.S. schools are failing children. There's good reason for the pile-on: in many cases, the problems are real. While most of the conversation around education reform centers on how to address these existing issues, another point of view has been gaining momentum over the last several years. It's a point of view that is less focused on fine-tuning the current system for high performance-since the system was built in 1893 with the goal of churning out "good workers"-and more about rethinking education entirely and how it meets the world's rapidly changing economy in the information age. This topic is explored in depth in the feature-length documentary, Most Likely to Succeed, which premiered at Sundance and will appear at the Tribeca Film Festival April 24. In the film, director, writer and producer Greg Whiteley casts a light on the shortcomings of established education methods by focusing on one school that's defying convention, San Diego's High Tech High. While following two ninth-grade classes for a year, with classroom instruction unlike anything you've ever seen, the doc offers some inspirational ideas for how to help students rise to the occasion of an innovation economy that requires critical thinking."

"It's about time I add another post about my actual teaching practice and how my kids use iPads. One set of iPad skills that interests all the kids and gives them something fun to do is professional film making tricks. This would work well with students from the age of 10 to 16."

"Inspired by the short film, 'Caine's Arcade,' the Global Cardboard Challenge is an annual event presented by the Imagination Foundation that celebrates child creativity and the role communities can play in fostering it. This September, kids of all ages are invited to build anything they can dream up using cardboard, recycled materials and imagination. Then on Saturday, October 10th, 2015, a day that commemorates the flash mob that made Caine's day in the short film, communities come together and play!"

"Welcome to your new classroom. I am sure you are going to explain and teach in a way that I might never understand. You see, I come from a day of filmstrip projectors that beeped, ditto paper that left my fingers blue and the students enjoying the scent, bells that really did ring out a mechanical melody, 16 millimeter films that, if in color, amazed the kids. In fact, if these films were shown backwards it provided bonus entertainment. In recent years I have heard words that are so strange to me. These words include foreign terms such as twitter, blog, wiki, Skype, web 2.0, clickers, and interactive whiteboards. I have heard all this talk about 21st century skills and I am not even sure if I can tell you what they are. So there you have it. I am not one of those digital natives, nor am I a digital immigrant! I may not even be an analog native or immigrant. So, even though I do not know all the new terms, I thought that I might give you a list of ten items I feel just might ensure success no matter what century it is."

A National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures streamed with essays about the traditions and filmmaking. The site includes transcriptions, study and teaching guides, suggested readings, and links to related websites.

"It's been more than three years since Caine Monroy's elaborate cardboard arcade in front of his dad's used auto parts shop was catapulted to fame by Nirvan Mullick's short film. But last summer, after two years and tens-of-thousands of customers, Cain "retired" on his eleventh birthday and closed Caine's Arcade to the public. The last day was probably a first step for Caine, though. The film has been seen 8 million times and counting, and it has spun into a movement that's spawned numerous think pieces, a scholarship fund, and a TEDx talk. Most notably, it spurred the creation of the Imagination Foundation, which aims to find, foster, and fund creativity in kids through programs such as the Global Cardboard Challenge and pop-up learning spaces called Imagination Chapters."

"I'll admit I'm a bit biased here since I'm a filmmaker by trade, but I truly believe the process of planning and making videos can offer tremendous learning opportunities for students of almost any age. Not only is the idea of telling stories with video really engaging for many kids, filmmaking is ripe with opportunities to connect to almost every academic subject area. As the technology to shoot and edit films becomes more ubiquitous, where is a teacher with no experience in video production to begin? I've shared some resources below to help you and your students get started on making blockbusters of your own."

"These resources are suitable for use with pupils aged 13-16. BBC Radio 1 presenter Dev looks at how computational thinking can help solve problems in the real world. Practical solutions, abstraction and algorithms, and encouraging digitally competent citizenship. Alongside each short film, there is more information about the content of the film, and suggestions of how it could be used in the classroom."

"When 11-year-old blogger Malala Yousafzai began detailing her experiences in the Swat Valley of Pakistan for the BBC, she had no idea what momentous changes were coming in her life. Her father, Ziauddin, a school founder and dedicated teacher, was outspoken in his belief that girls, including his beloved daughter, had a right to an education. As they continued to speak out against restrictions imposed by extremists, Ziauddin received constant death threats, so many that he began to sleep in different places. But it was Malala who was almost killed, shot in the head by a gunman on her way home from school. Her survival and recovery have been little short of miraculous. Instead of being cowed by this horrific attack, Malala began to use the international attention she attracted to advocate for the cause of girls' education worldwide. Through her speeches, her autobiography I Am Malala, the work of her fund, and her travels to places where girls' education is in crisis, she has continued to focus on the effort to give all girls safe schools, qualified teachers, and the materials they need to learn. The film He Named Me Malala both celebrates her dedication to this cause and gives the viewer insight into her motivation. It begins with an animated portrayal of the teenage folk hero for whom Malala was named, Malalai of Maiwand, whose fearlessness and love of country turned the tide of battle for Afghan fighters. From those opening scenes, live action and animation tell the story of Malala's life before and after the attack. We see her at various times of her life: severely wounded in the hospital, teasing her brothers in her new home in England, giving a speech to the United Nations, teaching a class in Kenya, and more. Her efforts are ongoing and they are realized through her organization, the Malala Fund, which "empowers girls through quality secondary education to achieve their potential and inspire positive change in their communities.""

"No matter what you call it - chroma key, green screen or blue screen - it's the film and video technique that gives your local TV weatherperson something in common with the Avengers movies: artificial backgrounds inserted behind the action. You simply record your subject in front of a solid green or blue screen, and then add a touch of software magic to change the background. Dozens of free or inexpensive apps allow you to use the technique on your own clips. It's a great way to jazz up your presentations and other videos - or to keep children busy with a weekend project filming their own toys in action scenes. Here's how to get started."

"You've read about the Holocaust in books and seen it portrayed in films. But it's another experience entirely to walk through the site of a concentration camp in virtual reality, led by a survivor who lost his entire family there. The Last Goodbye, which debuts at the Tribeca Film Festival this week, follows Pinchas Gutter as he makes his final pilgrimage to Majdanek, a former Nazi Germany extermination camp in occupied Poland. It's a trip he's made many times, but this one has a specific purpose: to capture his account of the Holocaust so we never forget that it actually happened. "

"What does it mean when people talk about "student voice and choice" in education? Educators are always thinking on how best to engage the young people we work with; perhaps one way to capture their attention is right under our noses. If students feel that that their opinions and ideas are heard and valued by their peers and teachers, they're much more likely to be engaged with their education. These 7 videos offer up strategies for giving your students more agency in their lessons and day-to-day classroom life."