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The idea of the Last Lecture, for example, rests on the idea that the professor will give a lecture as if it was his last opportunity to speak to the university community. Last lectures and commencement speeches dispense life lessons not traditionally taught in a classroom, and thanks to the viral power of YouTube, Last Lecture and commencement audiences are growing well beyond their intended numbers. Read below for our list of 10 inspiring Last Lectures and commencement speeches everyone should watch.

"Yesterday was my last class with my 2nd grade GT students. I like them to do some sort of reflection at the end of the year, and we usually spend a lot of time reviewing the events of the past 9 months. (Otherwise, their favorite memory tends to be the very last thing we did.) This year, I decided to try something different. I showed the students how to access the categories of our class blog so they could view all of the posts for 2nd grade for this year. Then they went through the posts, and chose pictures that were meaningful to them. As they were on iPads, I taught them how to hold their finger on an image to save it to the Camera Roll (fair warning - this is a tricky skill for 2nd graders). After about 30 minutes, I showed them the Pic Collage app. They were allowed to add any pictures that they wanted to their collages. Many added text (and stickers, of course!) They loved the activity. When they were finished, each student had a personal poster to remind him or her of the year in GT. If we had more time, we would have made ThingLinks with reflections, similar to last year."

"After some successful science discovery time last week, I was encouraged and motivated to reintroduce math discovery in my classroom. Discovery learning was an effective approach for me last year and I developed/sourced a number of discovery tub ideas (which I've pinned here). Many of last year's discovery tubs focused on math learning and I knew that discovery time was valuable for developing students' numeracy skills. So, when students asked me about "putting numbers on the learning carpet", I decided it was time to get back to math discovery in our classroom. "

You don't need to be a professional audio engineer to record narration. However, you do want to pay attention to what you're doing and do the best job possible. Last week, we looked at some basic tips to record high-quality audio. Those tips leaned more on the technology. Today we'll look at what you can do to get the best narration. I also added some tips from last week's comments section.

Online learning has come a long way in the last few years.Flickr/Laurie Sullivan When I started learning to code, the options were limited-lots of books (not even e-books), some very basic online tutorials, and a whole lot of experimentation. Online learning has come a long way in the last few years. There are interactive courses, tons of online tutorials, and one of my personal favorite ways to practice coding: games. While a game alone probably isn't going to teach you everything you need to know about coding, it can be a really incredible way to practice the skills you're learning. It makes practice fun. And if you're anything like me, you might suddenly realize you've spent the last four hours reinforcing your coding skills without even realizing it. I've tried out some of the most entertaining and useful games for learning to code. Check out my favorites below. View As: One Page Slides

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.

"Last month I was busy visiting local schools ready for when Little N starts reception next year. One thing that really stood out was when a headteacher of one of the schools was talking about their use of technology, and how our children would grow up to do jobs that hadn't even been created yet, because technology is moving and developing so quickly. Even now Little N is learning about coding and he is only in nursery!  I sometimes feel like I am way behind when it comes to technology and the things our children learn, but there are lots of wonderful educational toys available nowadays that can help your children learn these skills, even if us parents haven't got a clue! One of the latest is the Cubetto from Primo, which hit the UK last month, and we were lucky enough to get our hands on one to review. It's the award-winning coding toy that children can use to learn computer programming and it's suitable for ages three and up."

"The world as we know it has fundamentally changed our learners.  It is not that they are learning differently per say, but the environment in which they learn has dramatically changed.  The challenge for educators and schools today is to make learning REAL (relevant, engaging, authentic, and lasting) for all students and aligning it more with their world.  A great deal of emphasis has been placed on personalized opportunities for students.  Whereas there are many benefits with this approach, the reliance on technology platform and human interaction can take away from intended outcomes. REAL learning places a greater emphasis on making learning personal for students.  Image credit: http://pblstem.com/ Below are some quick tips that can make learning more REAL (relevant, engaging, authentic, and lasting):"

"In our last unit most of the inquiry was guided. In our new unit we decided that we would give more freedom to students earlier in the unit. This is an environmental unit. It's new for us this year, although we had a similar one about Climate Change last year. We had a new compelling question, "How long could we live without bees." We asked students what they thought about this question. We used Padlets. This is my class's Padlet. (It's a great way to gather short thoughts and ideas.) "

"For the last ten years, we've worked one-on-one with students from elementary school through graduate school. No matter their age, no matter the material, when you ask what they're struggling with, students almost universally name a subject: "math," "English" or, in some instances, "school." Doubting that all of school is the issue, we then ask to see their last test. After some grumbling, the student digs down, deep into the dark, dank recesses of his or her backpack, and pulls out a balled-up, lunch-stained paper that, once smoothed out, turns out to be the latest exam. "

Over the last ten months since I launched iPadApps4School.com I have reviewed a lot of mathematics apps that are appropriate for elementary school students. These are the ten that have been the most popular over the last ten months (based on total clicks and shares through social media).

"Welcome to the second installment of 21st Century Educator's teachers-in-the-field interviews! We first interviewed a high school history teacher to discover his favorite digital tools. This time we interviewed a science teacher, Mrs. M, who has spent the last two years making a full 360 degree flip of her physics and chemistry class. She shares what she's learned from the last two years, how to start 'flipping', and our favorite part - a nice huge list of her tried-and-true EdTech tools that help her 'flip' be a success. "

"I have been sharing several visuals on Bloom's Taxonomy over the last couple of years but I never came across a graphic that captures the essence of the three versions of Bloom's taxonomy as the one below. Actually, Bloom's taxonomy comes only into two versions, the original which was created by a committee of educators chaired by Benjamin Bloom sometime in the 1950s of last century. During the 1990s another group of educators and cognitive psychologists led by Lorin Anderson ( a former student of Bloom) updated the original version to make it convenient with the learning needs of the 21st century."

"If you've read my previous post about how we've been using Instagram in kindergarten, you'd know that we've been avid Instagrammers for the last couple of months. #mathphotoaday and #eduphotoaday have provided the basis for many terrific mini-lessons, and captioning photographs has provided authentic early writing practice. I've been amazed at how successfully my students have used Instagram and supporting apps such as Pic Collage, InstaCollage, and Color Splash. Last week, we were viewing our Instagram pictures on our SMART Board, and the kids were commenting on how beautiful a lot of them were. One little boy put up his hand and said, "Mrs. Caldwell, our Instagram pictures are so beautiful. I think that we should print them out and sell them and make money for our new playground." And just like that, a new project was born! Why does this always happen at the end of the school year when we have a million and one other things to do? But their enthusiasm was contagious and I agreed that it was a fantastic idea! And when a 6 year-old shows entrepreneurial spirit like that, who am I to stand in his way?"

"There has been a proliferation of online classes and resources for learning coding over the last couple of years. With all that's out there, one might think there's no need for a Computer Science teacher or program in schools anymore. However, I've found many of these resources can be great tools for teachers, both for professional development and for the classroom. The four resources below are ones I've had great success with over the last couple of years."

"Last year at this time, I was trying not to think about kindergarteners. I was still teaching ninth grade English and had just accepted a job teaching technology to K-5. I was excited about the challenge, and I knew that I'd bitten off more than I could chew. Developing the tech curriculum challenged me to teach programming or at least computational thinking at each elementary grade level. Our school is mid-pivot in technology -- we're in our second year of a middle school 1:2 iPad program, our first year of having a cart of iPads available for elementary, and our last year of two PC labs for the students to use (next year we'll have only one lab). Knowing this, I wanted to design a program that mostly used tablet-based tools."

"It was the summer of my disconnect… I've decided to try for a different focus this summer.  I want to spend a LOT less time online and tinker with technology that doesn't revolve around a 2D computer screen. Last year at this time, I was wrapping up my look at teaching computer programming to primary students.  I had just finished submitting in my Coetail Final Project and this was the subject-matter that I had chosen for my final project.  My investigation was done mainly through the 2D environment of the computer screen.    My own children and I spent last summer participating in two online "kids camp" programs that were an extension of my Coetail Final Project.  They were Scratch Programming and Minecraft.  We worked through several weeks of challenges, earned digital badges, and posted our creations online.  Some of them were featured in a weekly Show and Tell that was streamed over the internet by Pursuitery (has some connection with Connected Learning Alliance  and Mimi Ito of "Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out"). That was a huge amount of fun but it was all pixels."

"Twelve years after landing my first teaching job, I was invited to interview for a position in a nearby school. Job interviews had been in my rearview mirror for so long that I wasn't sure what to expect. But it didn't matter; I had a job already, and this changed my perspective completely on this one. I decided that I was going to ask the interviewers a few questions of my own. Principals routinely end job interviews by asking candidates if they have any questions. Most teachers struggle with this. Many will simply say, No, or ask when they can expect a decision. Some ask questions they believe will be endearing; things like, "Are there committees I can join?" or "Can I get into my room early?" I realized in the last job interview I ever had that my questions were the most important ones, and the last thing I was concerned with was sucking up to the principals. After all, in a way, I was interviewing them. Walking back to my car that day, I knew I wouldn't take the job if they offered it to me, because they struggled to answer the questions I asked to my satisfaction."

"Last year, I wrote this post on 21 Things Every 21st-Century Teacher should do and it became an instant hit (with the help of Sean Junkin's Infographic).   As tech tools come and go, I felt the need to update and refresh it for this school year.  However, I ran into a problem.  When I got done with my updated list (removing a couple of ideas, adding several more) I was up to 36 different ideas.  As luck would have it there are 36 weeks in a standard school calendar so this actually works out wonderfully.  While these aren't necessarily listed in the order you should do them, they are listed from least difficult (#1 - Selfies) to the most difficult (#36 - Creating an in-class incubator).   The last few challenges are especially geared toward real-world problem solving and will hopefully make a dent in those "Tech Problem-solving" stats in the future"

"A few months back Verizon Wireless visited New Milford High School and we had a fantastic meeting. The end result was the formation of a pilot program where students and a teacher would be given a tablet device and then be tasked with developing a plan to extend learning beyond the school day. About a week later the devices arrived at my office. Each of the ten tablets (5 iPads and 5 Samsung Galaxy tabs) came with free 3G access for the duration of the pilot program, which was to last approximately 90 days."