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"When students can bring or access devices for learning, teachers want to figure out the best resources. To do that they have Graphite™. Graphite is a free service from Common Sense Education designed to help preK-12 educators discover, use, and share the best apps, games, websites, and digital curricula for their students by providing unbiased, rigorous ratings and practical insights from our active community of teachers."

"Common Sense Media's service Graphite, which offers independent ratings and reviews of learning apps and websites, has compiled this list of apps to get young students started on the road to coding. For complete reviews, and for each app's "Learning Rating," visit the Graphite website."

"Common Sense Media's service Graphite, which offers independent ratings and reviews of learning apps and websites, has compiled this list of the best arts apps for students. For complete reviews, and for each app's "Learning Rating," visit the Graphite website."

"Game-based learning, and the developers who identify with it today, have come a long way since then and gotten much closer to closing the gap. And there's still a need to communicate core content through games, a need that the consumer market just doesn't have incentive to fill. Yet at Common Sense Graphite, when we evaluate games for learning, what we find is that many of the highest scoring 'learning' games aren't aimed at the educational market. They're more at-home, consumer-oriented games. Because these games are free from the constraints of school standards and traditional curriculum, they flourish, featuring rich cross-disciplinary and truly 21st century learning experiences. Here are just a few favorites that reviewed well on Graphite this year:"

"You've no doubt read countless blogs and articles about the incredible impact makerspaces can have in schools. You may even have started rearranging your space, or perhaps you've created an Amazon wish list. But after being a maker-librarian for nearly two years, I can assure you that you should really stop thinking about starting a makerspace ... and just do it.  I spent a solid year planning my makerspace. I developed a vision statement and set goals. I made an infographic for my administration, listing standards that would be addressed. I weeded my library like crazy and made mock-ups using Google Drawings to help them envision the new space. At conferences I went to everything with the word "maker" in the title. I set up a filter on TweetDeck to see everything posted on #makered and #makerspace. And while I learned a ton and met a lot of amazing people, I really regret not having my own space already established before going into all these learning experiences. Which is why I strongly recommend you stop thinking about starting your makerspace and just get started."

From Common Sense Media - resources

We teamed up with @graphite on Pinterest to create this list of the best apps: http://t.co/f4eEc9jTAO. #ipaded #EdApp

"Shhh! You're in the library! As the great-granddaughter of a librarian, I was brought up to know that the quiet of the library was sacred space. Fast-forward 30 years. In the media centers of the Cherokee County, Georgia schools, where I train as an instructional technology specialist, quiet is no longer the chief value. Instead, makerspaces are bringing books to life, and the new mantra is, "Innovate, create, collaborate." Many media specialists still struggle with this transformation from silent reading space to innovative makerspace; with that in mind, I interviewed six women who seamlessly flow from rockin' librarians to Creative Directors of Making in the same day to ask how they do it."

"An ever-present worry for teachers through the summer months is that students will relax a little TOO much over the break. While it can be tempting to try to micromanage students' summer learning with packets and reading lists, there are tons of resources available online that can keep your students' brains active and their enthusiasm high. Take a step back and let students drive their own learning this summer. Here are five ways you can help students' excitement, motivation, and passion for engaging activities fuel their learning through the summer months."

"For more than six hours each day, we aim to seize every teachable moment. Our schedules, carefully crafted and refined, often resemble a flight schedule at a busy airport: whole-class math lessons here, reading groups there, and one-on-one conferencing/counseling/cheerleading sessions squeezed in everywhere else. But we all know learning isn't confined to the school day. Extracurricular activities, from soccer to chess club, have been around as long as school itself. When I was young, few after-school activities appealed to me, so hosting an after-school club as a teacher didn't occur to me until a few years ago when I began to look at after-school learning through a new lens. Having started two after-school clubs in the past three years, I now realize I can create rich learning opportunities that would have appealed to me when I was a student, and simultaneously appeal to the teacher I am now."