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"A key element to ensuring any successful pedagogy is student engagement. However, keeping students motivated and actively involved can be difficult. Besides the basic challenges of maintaining students' interest and participation in class, today's teachers also have to deal with growing numbers of students and the increased distraction from smart phones and other personal devices. One good way to keep students engaged in the learning process is by varying class exercises to include a combination of lectures, individual assignments, group work, computer activities, videos, and other pedagogical tools like games. Games are interactive, fun, and appealing to most students, and they also offer a number of specific benefits to the learning process."

The basic operation of the Apple TV involves connecting the device to the existing organization network. With the AirPlay feature found on iPads and Apple computers, one connects in wirelessly to the Apple TV. This technology allows not only the streaming image of the iPad or airplay enabled computer, but also carries the audio signal as well. This makes for a quick way to share media that provides both the video and sound in one signal to the television or projection device.

"Each morning as we start our day together, I draw attention to things that my students may have missed or mentions from our Twitter feed. This short time together each morning discussing our Twitter feed has resulted in rich discussions that prompt thinking, cause us to wonder and lead us to seek out further information. There are many opportunities during the school day to incorporate the use of twitter. A good place to start is to read the tweets from the other classes you follow, ask questions or provide comments as a whole class. The following examples will give you some ideas on how to involve Twitter in literacy, math and science. All of the Twitter activities explained can be done as a whole group, small group or by individual students. "

"Students feedback can sometimes host a treasure trove of new insights not only about their own comprehension but also about our teaching. Giving students the opportunity to share their own response on the learning taking place in the classroom is highly beneficial to them particularly in the way they position themselves vis a vis the content being taught. They also feel empowered because they know their voice does matter and therefore become more engaged and involved in the learning/teaching process."

"Each time a new iOS version is released, users prepare for problems associated with bugs, but also look for novel ways to exploit the new functionality to their advantage. At The iTeach Hub we have developed a practical means to effectively prevent users from manipulating Settings in iOS7. It is essentially a means to lock Settings and we want to share it with you. This relatively simple process is outlined below. Technically, it is not a Settings lock, but our trials with this approach involving students have proven to be very effective at keeping them out of Settings."

"If you perform a basic Google search using terms such as 'iPad' and 'education' you will find that most of the results come from blogs and news sites. The success of iPads in schools is still highly anecdotal and often unconfirmed, but that is changing as more researchers and educators publish their findings in scholarly journals, which undergo peer review and a raised level of scrutiny. I spent the last few days tracking articles published through Elsevier's various journals as listed on ScienceDirect.com, and it is clear that the iPad is on track to be the focus of more articles in 2014 than any year previously."

"Teachers are always looking out for new ways to motivate young children to write; ways to give their writing purpose and meaning. If you have access to mobile devices, why not try building in opportunities for children to create an ebook. There is a breadth of activities and experiences involved - from the planning stage, to the writing and then sharing their creation with the wider community. It is also a great way for sharing work with parents…many apps allow you to save ebooks created onto a secure site which can be accessed via a link or by sharing a QR code. Here are some of the best apps I've found to create eBooks with your iPads in the classroom:"

"Recently, I completed reading, Embedded Formative Assessment by Dylan Wiliam. To say it is an important read would be an understatement. What I think I liked most about the book was that it is grounded in research and a true understanding of what is necessary to improve student achievement. I think teachers will love that this book is filled with practical suggestions each teacher can make changes to their every day teaching practise to help involve students more in their own learning - helping students learn to think."

"The paperless classroom is a great ideal to work towards, but the journey to get there may still involve some printing. So, just how do you print from an iPad? Well, there are several ways, and it may depend on your individual circumstances, but the information below outlines the most common solutions. "

"Having been involved with student robotics programs for many years, I feel that robotics just may be the most perfect instructional approach currently available. It offers classroom activities that teach high-value STEM content as well as opportunities to powerfully address ELA Common Core Standards. In fact, there are connections to robotics across the full spectrum of the curriculum. Robotics is also a highly effective way to foster essential work skills like collaboration, problem solving and project management. It does all this while keeping kids so motivated and engaged that getting them to stop working and move on to the rest of the school day can be a challenge -- a good problem to have! "

"The video consists of three sections. It starts introducing Gardner and the main problem of education versus different individual skills. Then it turns to present the eight intelligences as proposed by Howard Gardner, including a suggested learning strategy for each of these intelligences. Then in the third and final part it presents the concepts of personalization and pluralization, defined in respect of the multiple intelligences theory, as the guiding principle for a more including and developing educational strategy. Regardless of what type of student, their age, level, or subject you're teaching, awareness and understanding of the theory of multiple intelligences will help reach more and deeper in the teaching effort. Even for people not directly involved in education, this theory will help in getting a more nuanced and deeper picture of human skills and personalities."

This year, in conjunction with October's Connected Educator Month, Common Sense Media is hosting Digital Citizenship Week from Oct. 21-25. Throughout the week, there will be a webinars and other ways for schools and educators to get involved. But really, now is the perfect time to discuss digital responsibility, safety and citizenship with students, and there are plenty of valuable events and resources that you can use. Here are six of my favorite:

"We all know that from September 2014 the national curriculum is changing to include Computing as a programme of study and I am sure I speak for a lot of teachers when I say "but I know nothing about programming or coding?!" Before we panic too much about how we teach this new area its important to note that the subject of Computing is not solely about coding and importantly involves a whole range of areas that we may already be delivering in other subjects such as maths and science without realising it. The skills that encompass computer programming are those that will also transfer into the real world such as problem solving and thinking logically, which will obviously transfer into the world of work and are useful skills for learners to develop moving forward in their careers irrespective of the job area."

"What medium is delivering the best learning experience to your children? Just because a child is engaged on an iPad, are they learning more than they would with a picture book? In this intriguing TEDx talk, author of Screen Time: How Electronic Media Affects Your Young Child and Director of the New America Foundation's Early Education Initiative, Lisa Guernsey, discusses the research she has been involved with, as well as some the practical outcomes of her work exploring learning and screen media."

"Stan Davis has devoted a long career to the well-being of youth, in particular their empowerment through voice and their safety and dignity through bullying prevention. With Charisse L. Nixon, Davis recently published a study of 13,177 students in fifth through twelfth grades from 31 schools and in 12 states, focusing on giving students a chance to speak about school connection, peer mistreatment, and student and adult actions. The Findings Writing in the report of their work, Youth Voice Project: Student Insights into Bullying and Peer Mistreatment, they state: "We are concerned that too much work in this field has focused on adults telling youth what bullying is and what to do to address bullying behavior. In reality, youth are the primary experts on what is happening at school and on what works best to prevent peer maltreatment....We see authentic youth involvement as key to success in bullying prevention." Lessons learned from surveying the students can be summarized in the following don'ts and dos:"

"When app-smashing on iPad, students and teachers use multiple apps to create individual pieces of content that are then merged or smashed together into one culminating product. Applying this concept dramatically increases creative potential, and the rate at which apps are developing allows for new, unique, and dynamic creations to consistently challenge what seemed possible only a few months or weeks ago. The final product involved in app-smashing often lends itself to video, so to kick off the school year, here are a few app-smashing video projects."

" "At the end of the day, what qualifies people to be called 'leaders' is their capacity to influence others to change their behavior in order to achieve important results." Joseph Grenny In a time where the only constant in education is change, people involved with education need to become "change agents" more now than ever. You can understand pedagogy inside out, but if you are unable to define "why" someone should do something different in their practice, all of that knowledge can be ultimately wasted. People will take a "known good" over an "unknown better" in most cases; your role is to help make the unknown visible and show why it is better for kids."

"Do you cringe when a student's reaction to every problem involving fractions is "cross multiply!"? It doesn't matter whether you teach elementary or high school, whether you're a parent or a tutor, having a student yell out a trick without stopping to think is painful. This book is filled with alternatives to the shortcuts so prevalent in mathematics education and explains exactly why the tricks are so bad for understanding math."

"The main arguments behind the push for students to learn to code, usually center around preparing students for future jobs. There is a skill shortage in the computer science industry which determines skilled job seekers can walk into lucrative contracts. This trend is predicted to rise. The other aspect to the usual argument is that even students who do not work in the technology industry will also benefit throughout their life and careers by learning computer science, as all industries now involve some component of programming. While these arguments are perfectly valid, there are many more reasons why kids should learn to code. They include:"

"As we head towards a world where coding is considered a necessary skill, teaching pupils the basics of programming has never been more crucial. Unlike the common belief that coding is a specialised skill only applicable to selected areas, programming is actually used in almost all industries. Coding is not for young adults and 'geeks' anymore; even elementary students can easily dive into this complex world with the use of modern day technology. The qualm that people have against teaching coding so early usually involves lack of space in the current curriculum and the lack of confidence (in the child or teacher's) ability to code themselves. Thanks to the rise in popularity of mobile technology and apps, even the most inexperienced user can easily learn the core concepts of coding. Below are great apps which you can utilise to learn and teach basic programming."