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"Puppet creation requires making mistakes. Your first puppet will always be very, very special. Students learn fairly quickly that what they see in their mind is not the same as what they can make with their hands. Abraham Lincoln turns into a Rastafarian cyclops. Taylor Swift becomes a married older chicken. Mistakes in puppet making allow kids to fail in a very low-risk way. They get a practical lesson in imperfection. They also get a lesson in following directions. Some students cut a hole, rather than a straight line, for their mouth. Helping them fix their mistakes reinforces the establishment of a growth mindset."

"Are you looking for the best apps for toddlers? We have found some of the best toddler apps - all tested on my very own toddlers! I don't advocate letting your toddler spend a lot of time playing apps on tablets and phones, but as an educator and parent, I can definitely see the value in supervised play with some of the fantastic educational apps that are available. The biggest problem is finding the best apps for toddlers among the thousands, if not millions of toddler apps out there. After being overwhelmed with the options available (a large percentage of which were low quality, filled with ads or had very little educational value), I recently asked for YOUR favorite toddler apps. You can read the responses to that thread here . There were several apps that were recommended many times, along with some great new suggestions. After having a closer look at your recommendations I have compiled a list of Apps your toddler will love! You will notice that the list contains a mix of free and paid apps. While I could have focused on only the free apps, I feel that there are some excellent toddler apps that are worth paying a few dollars for (especially if it means no adds and excellent content)."

"Learning by making has been around since long before edtech-just think about what the adventurous explorers or intrepid settlers of yore would have thought of "Do-It-Yourself." But with thousands of kid-friendly tech tools and a whole World Wide Web of resources out there, creative, interesting opportunities for learning-by-making abound for everyone. Okay, so with all those resources, where should you start to build a makerspace? Here at EdSurge, we've rolled up our sleeves, put on our protective goggles, and built a Maker Guide from scratch, just for you.  Read on for ideas from the educators and entrepreneurs who think making 24/7, including what is involved with project-based learning and making in the classroom and tried-and-true lessons from the field on starting your makerspace. Making on a budget? We surely do. We've got ideas for stocking your space with resources from your arts and crafts closet, plus inspiration from educators working to bring makerspaces to low-income and all-girls classrooms."

Formative assessment is a process that takes place during the learning experience. When it is done right, the findings immediately inform feedback and instruction. Grades are never taken, and the stakes remain very low. I see formative assessment as the ultimate best practice, but I may be part of a small group of educators who feel this way. It's not uncommon, after all, for some teachers to sandwich formative assessment into their already packed lesson plans simply because someone else has expected them to do so. Some just "get it done" because they're afraid of "getting dinged" on their teacher evaluations."

"Coding is having it's 15 minutes of fame. Journalists regularly quote facts about the shortage of computer programmers in the US, entrepreneurs fund coding camps for low opportunity kids and even the President has given learning to code a thumbs up. For many parents and teachers this new focus on learning to code feels like an overhyped fad that will be replaced any day now by "learning particle physics" or "learning solar energy storage." And does anyone really believe that turning a whole generation of kids into programmers would be a good outcome for society? What about artists, doctors, musicians and mechanics? What about chefs, writers, electricians and plumbers? Why exactly do kids need to learn to code?"

The entire concept is really quite simple.  The Mobile MakerSpace carts that line the hallway leading into our Media Center are capable of transporting new opportunities and tools to virtually any space in our school.  Whether it's high-tech 3D printing and modular robotics or low-tech knitting and plastic construction blocks…the carts contain tools that elicit collaboration and unleash student creativity."

"The entire concept is really quite simple.  The Mobile MakerSpace carts that line the hallway leading into our Media Center are capable of transporting new opportunities and tools to virtually any space in our school.  Whether it's high-tech 3D printing and modular robotics or low-tech knitting and plastic construction blocks…the carts contain tools that elicit collaboration and unleash student creativity."

"rowing up poor has long been linked to lower academic test scores. And there's now mounting evidence that it's partly because kids can suffer real physical consequences from low family incomes, including brains that are less equipped to learn."

"Our foundational belief is that teachers teach how they are taught. If we want teachers to teach from a foundation of learning by doing, then we want to provide professional learning in that same, or a very similar, way. STEAMmaker Camp is intentionally designed to replicate the highs and lows teachers might encounter with students over a year­ long program. Therefore, each camp is best­ designed as a multi-­day event with each day running longer than the typical school day. This causes students to "hit the wall" that typically surfaces in the third quarter of school and teachers can experience how to remain positive and supportive in this type of environment, especially when they are also very tired. A trainer balances the fine line of guiding, role modeling, and directly instructing the participants, based on their individual and unique needs."

"Soundplant turns your computer keyboard into a versatile, low latency sound trigger and playable instrument. Via drag-and-drop, easily assign sound files of any format and length onto 72 keyboard keys, creating custom soundboards that put hours of instantly-playing audio at your fingertips with no extra hardware needed. Soundplant is used for live music and sound effects, as a drum pad, as a unique electronic instrument, as an educational aid, and just for fun - in radio, television, theater, podcasting, presentations, studios, classrooms, arenas, clubs, museums, and churches - by DJs, musicians, engineers, sound designers, composers, teachers, magicians, puppeteers, comedians, public speakers, gamers, and more."

"Maker education (often referred to as "Maker Ed") is a new school of educational thought that focuses on delivering constructivist, project-based learning curriculum and instructional units to students. Maker education spaces can be as large as full high school workshops with high-tech tools, or as small and low-tech as one corner of an elementary classroom. A makerspace isn't just about the tools and equipment, but the sort of learning experience the space provides to students who are making projects. Maker Ed places a premium on the balance between exploration and execution. Small projects lend themselves to indefinite tinkering and fiddling, while larger projects need complex, coordinated planning. Often, small projects can organically grow into larger and larger projects. This deliberate process strengthens and enriches a learner's executive functioning skills. Additionally, communication and collaboration are two of Maker Ed's fundamental values. Making allows learners to practice their social communication skills in a variety of groupings, whether affinity-based, role-specific or teacher-assigned. It's important for all different groups to be present in student learning spaces so that all students can practice their social skills in multiple settings. Lastly, Making presents unique opportunities to generate flow learning and allow the teacher to leverage high-interest projects and activities and turn them into learning objectives within a curriculum. Maker education provides space for real-life collaboration, integration across multiple disciplines, and iteration-the opportunity to fail, rework a project and find success. The benefits of a cooperative learning environment are well documented in a makerspace. If you are wondering how to connect these projects back to the Common Core Standards, check out PBL Through a Maker's Lens and Woodshop Cowboy."

"Learning by making has been around since long before edtech-just think about what the adventurous explorers or intrepid settlers of yore would have thought of "Do-It-Yourself." But with thousands of kid-friendly tech tools and a whole World Wide Web of resources out there, creative, interesting opportunities for learning-by-making abound for everyone. Okay, so with all those resources, where should you start to build a makerspace? Here at EdSurge, we've rolled up our sleeves, put on our protective goggles, and built a Maker Guide from scratch, just for you.  Read on for ideas from the educators and entrepreneurs who think making 24/7, including what is involved with project-based learning and making in the classroom and tried-and-true lessons from the field on starting your makerspace. Making on a budget? We surely do. We've got ideas for stocking your space with resources from your arts and crafts closet, plus inspiration from educators working to bring makerspaces to low-income and all-girls classrooms."

"More teachers are using digital games in the classroom, and they're using them more frequently, according to a new teacher survey just released by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. But more surprisingly, the study reveals that teachers are finding that one of the most impactful use of games is for motivating and rewarding students, specifically those who are low-performing. The survey, which interviewed 694 K-8 teachers with an average of 14.5 years of teaching experience, aims to understand how and why teachers are using digital games in the classroom."

"Imagine spending every day in a physical space designed for people much bigger than you. To wash your hands or get a drink of water, you'd have to drag a chair over to the sink or ask a friend for a boost. Your feet would dangle in mid-air when you sat down and you'd have to crane your neck and stand on tiptoe to read the bulletin board. After the novelty wore off, it's likely that you'd end up feeling uncomfortable, insignificant, and out of place. Unfortunately, this is how many children feel every day in their classrooms. Whether it's because the chairs are too big or too small, the aisles too narrow, the tables too low, or the displays too high, the message is clear: "This room was not made for you." The sad fact is that most classroom spaces are far from ideal. Perhaps they were originally designed and built with little or no consultation with the teachers who would be working in them. Or maybe they were designed for another purpose, or with tight budgetary restrictions. And while teachers probably won't be able to transform an inadequate classroom space into an ideal one, they can make dramatic improvements. So, where to begin? The most obvious place is by thinking about the students. Before moving a single piece of furniture or clearing a wall for a display, learn as much as you can about the particular needs of the children you'll be teaching by talking with families and former teachers. Below are some general guidelines to help you create a physical environment that makes children feel comfortable and significant and that best serves their needs."

From the site - "The courses are designed so teachers can apply what they've learned immediately to the classroom. In addition, each course is designed to be completed in 90 minutes or less so teachers can stay focused on learning one topic at a time." Some courses are FREE others are at a pretty low cost.

Edusim is a free opensource 3D multi-user virtual world specifically for your classroom interactive whiteboard (Smartboard, Activeboard, Interwriter, Mimio, eBeam, or WiiBoard). Edusim is extendable allowing multiple classrooms to connect their interactive whiteboards for collaborative learning session. Read more about Edusim and turning your classroom interactive whiteboard into a low cost single walled CAVE based virtual world platform here.

So the question is, how do you ensure that students are truly taking their writing to a new level? How do you make sure that instead of just participating in low-level recall, students are moving on to the higher levels of analysis and reasoning that we want them to reach? One way is to rethink how you pose your writing topics. Here are some ideas and examples:

MathTrax is a graphing tool for middle school and high school students to graph equations, physics simulations or plot data files. The graphs have descriptions and sound so you can hear and read about the graph. Blind and low vision users can access visual math data and graph or experiment with equations and datasets.

Cinch is a voice to RSS service. It was designed as a low-threshold API for developers.