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"Cooperative learning is as much a skill for students to develop as it is a reflection on how we work and interact in any career or group situation. With an endless number of different techniques and strategies, try using some of the below examples to group and encourage cooperation with your students. Mix and match techniques, take from one, add to another and venture forward to invent and create your own. Each of these strategies has been sourced from the Creative Commons text 'Educational Psychology' authored by professor of educational psychology at the University of Manitoba Kelvin Seifert and Dr. Rosemary Sutton."

"If there is one thing I truly understand about educators it is that they are slow to change. It might be from decades of people jumping in with the "latest and greatest" answer to a better way to do things in education, or some legislative mandate to fix it all through legislation, only to find it to fizzle out and fall way short when actually implemented. If teachers learned one thing from these experiences it is that, if you wait and ride it out long enough, all of these initiatives will all go away. The problem however is that many educators want to apply this sit and wait posture to anything that requires them leaving their zones of comfort. The mindset of a 20th Century educator is very comfortable for most educators since they were trained for the most part by 20th century educators. A majority of educators are very comfortable with the methodology and pedagogy of that time. Structure and student compliance matched to a focus on lecture and direct instruction are the common experiences of most educator"

"There is a difference between personalized learning and differentiation. Differentiation is a kind of personalized instruction, where teachers adjust process, & product, according to a student's readiness, interest, & learning style. Planning of the learning starts with the content, and the content remains the same for all students. This is a school and curriculum-centered approach that attempts to amend the delivery of the content to match the student's needs, strengths, and general readiness. Personalized learning starts with the learner and asks the question, "What does this student need to understand, and how best can that happen?" This is a student-centered approach, and is built around the idea of recognizing the vast differences in students-not just in terms of literacy or schema, but an authentic need to know."

"StoryMap JS is a nice tool for creating mapped stories. On StoryMap JS you create slides that are matched to locations on your map. Each slide in your story can include images or videos along with text. As you scroll through your story there are simple transitions between each slide. "

"Within YouTube there is a free tool for creating audio slideshows. You supply the images and YouTube supplies the audio track. You can pick from thousands of audio tracks to match to your slides. After adding your slides and selecting an audio track you can add speech bubbles to your slides. I demonstrate all of these steps in the video embedded below."

"Technology is critical for innovation, yet schools struggle to get students interested in this area. Could teaching robotics change this? The Queensland government has just announced plans to make teaching robotics compulsory in its new curriculum - aimed at students from prep through to year 10. Robotics matches the new digital technologies curriculum, strongly supported by the university sector and states, including Victoria. But while, worldwide, there are increasing initiatives such as the Robotics Academy in the US to teach robotics in schools, Australia isn't doing enough to get it taught in schools. To explain why we should teach children how to program robots in schools, we first need to understand what a robot is. "

For educators, parents and learners Carol Dweck's research on the benefits of a Growth Mindset is naturally appealing. Those who have a growth mindset achieve better results than those who don't, are more resilient and accept challenge willingly. After two years of incorporating a growth mindset philosophy we are finding that the reality of shifting a student's disposition away from a fixed mindset and then maintaining a growth mindset is significantly more complex than at first imagined.

"For educators, parents and learners Carol Dweck's research on the benefits of a Growth Mindset is naturally appealing. Those who have a growth mindset achieve better results than those who don't, are more resilient and accept challenge willingly. In response schools have embraced the notion and classroom walls are adorned with posters identifying the characteristics of growth versus fixed mindsets. Teachers make efforts to shift their students towards a growth mindset and parents consider how they may assist in the process. After two years of incorporating a growth mindset philosophy we are finding that the reality of shifting a student's disposition away from a fixed mindset and then maintaining a growth mindset is significantly more complex than at first imagined. Numerous forces and influences play a role and progress is unlikely to match a linear curve. Where schools have made steps in the right direction, is in raising awareness of the two mindsets. In this regard the placement of posters and discussion around the role that our mindset has in our learning are steps in the right direction. Demonising the fixed mindset is perhaps an unnecessary step and our students may be better served by understanding that we all have times when we fall into a fixed mindset. Education of how we may recognise such times and apply strategies of mindfulness and metacognition would avoid shifting already vulnerable learners on to the circle of shame. Awareness is however far form the end of the journey towards reaping the benefits of a Growth Mindset."

"When you were growing up, what did you enjoy playing with? If you were like me, maybe it was Tinker Toys, an Easy Bake Oven, or Lite Brite. I liked designing and creating things. As a teenager, my imagination ran wild as my ideas turned into sketches which later covered the walls of my bedroom. (Thanks Mom, for never painting over the walls-even 25 years later!) My own children love building and messing around with things, too. It's amazing how long a few cardboard boxes or toilet paper rolls and some duct tape will keep them entertained. (We've built forts, spaceships, and garages for all their Match Box cars.) It's the nature of these learning experiences that allow young people to think creatively and use their imagination. With a focus on standards, accountability, and assessment over the last decade or so, it seemed that these opportunities disappeared from our schools. However, within the last few years, the tide is beginning to turn. I believe an exciting shift is happening in education as schools across the country are embracing the Maker Movement and returning creative, hands-on learning opportunities to their classrooms. Additionally, STEAM education has come to the forefront with an emphasis on preparing students for college, career, and beyond, focusing on the 4 C's: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. STEM has transformed into STEAM as the arts become an integral component to meaningful learning. In many schools, the STEAM and maker education are colliding. Hybrid models are being created that embrace the integration of STEAM components and the creative spirit of the Maker Movement. At the intersection between STEAM and making, powerful learning occurs. I would argue that a new movement is emerging-STEAM Makers."

"When we ask kids to read Chapter 3, we're telling them what to know. When we fill our boards with objectives that say "You will learn ____," we're explaining to them the very basis for the lesson we are delivering. When we give out a packet of worksheets that have fill in the blank answers, multiple choice, and matching, we're telling kids to choose answers from our choices. When we ask kids to spend days and weeks in silent classrooms answering test questions, we're telling them that knowing stuff is more important than their voice. But when we ask kids to design?"

"A new whitepaper from personalized learning nonprofit KnowledgeWorks explores how wearables, augmented reality and virtual reality could play out in education. Take one example shared in the report of a fourth-grader: She's wearing a Hello Kitty "smart sleeve" and toting her tablet in a matching knapsack as she heads into the homework center after school and begins to tackle a writing assignment. After 10 minutes of staring at a blank screen and experiencing a rising heart rate, her wearable triggers a "nudge" from an app that reminds her that it's OK to ask for help. She clicks on an icon and receives a holographic image of her coach in a corner of her device, calmly and clearly offering her immediate help."

"ometimes, your average tape just won't do. Sometimes you need a tape with attitude. Maybe you have a craft that needs to be more colorful, or you want to add a little bit of a pattern to that DIY project. And yes, sometimes you just want a tape that's more, well, bacon-y. Whatever the occasion, we've got a tape to match. Our new Duck Tape prints come in a wide variety of fun colors and styles, perfect for any creative project or home repair."

"Recently, my students gave me one of those golden moments in teaching.  Allow me to set the stage. We were over six weeks into a project-based life science unit in which students apply systems-thinking to closely examine the inner workings of a body system and relate that system to others as a subsystem. The set of standards housing our work is juicy with Crosscutting Concepts and ripe with potential for Science and Engineering Practices.  We began the unit exploring how cells themselves, a structure students often initially perceive as an end-all-be-all baseline to life, are instead a very complex system of subsystems.  That particular day, students were outlining components of their selected body system in preparation for writing  a podcast."

"One of the hardest parts of building a career in 2019 is making sure you stay ahead of the curve. It can be hard to anticipate what skills the economy of tomorrow will require and which jobs will disappear thanks to technological developments. In order to make sure that workers stay in high demand among employers today and in the future, they need to constantly be learning new skills. LinkedIn analyzed hundreds of thousands of job postings in order to determine which skills companies need most in 2019. They found that employers are looking for workers with both soft skills and hard technical skills, and matched these skills with LinkedIn Learning courses that are free for the month of January. The most in-demand soft skill in 2019? Creativity. For those looking to cultivate this skill, LinkedIn recommends the following courses: Creativity Bootcamp, The Five-Step Creative Process, and Creativity: Generate Ideas in Greater Quantity and Quality."

""Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." We should learn from experiences, particularly if those experiences show our previous beliefs to be untrue. So why are people so easy to fool when it comes to beliefs about learning? For years, a stream of articles have tried to dispel pervasive but wrong ideas about how people learn, but those ideas still linger. For example, there is no evidence that matching instructional materials to a student's preferred "learning style" helps learning, nor that there are "right-brain" and "left-brain" learners. The idea that younger people are "digital natives" who use technology more effectively and who can multi-task is also not supported by scientific research."

"A Raspberry Pi and a 3D printer are a match made in maker's heaven. Here are the best Raspberry Pi projects you can do with a 3D printer. Got a Raspberry Pi? Need a use case for your 3D printer? Then let us inspire you with some of the greatest Raspberry Pi projects for your 3D printer we could find."

"Although it's difficult to change the way the (school) system operates, it is possible to adjust how you operate within the system. Introducing meditation and mindfulness techniques in the classroom not only allows you to create a calmer environment, the practice has proven to have verifiable benefits on the human brain. A 2011 Harvard study of MRI images showed a thickening in the cerebral cortex (an area responsible in part for attention and emotional integration) in meditation participants in as little as 8 weeks. So, it's more than a good habit and some quiet time in the classroom, you may be helping the brains of your students develop even more than you realize. Where do you even begin teaching meditation when you may not be familiar with the practice yourself? Although it seems like an incongruous match, this is yet another area where technology steps in to make learning convenient, and a variety of apps offer options for every age, ability, and amount of available time. Here are a few to experiment with as you get started."

An important part of the role of any educator is that of planning learning sequences. Perhaps you are tasked with designing curriculum or more likely you are translating a mandatory curriculum into workable units of learning. The task is complex and there are multiple arrangements. The goal is to design units that connect students with learning in ways that are meaningful and relevant. A well-designed unit of learning fits seamlessly alongside other learning opportunities and the overall sequence of learning should match the learners developing expertise. As we plan units of learning we must consider a great variety of factors which impact the learning we design. Our knowledge of our students and where they are with their learning is crucial and a strong place to start. We also need to know what it is we are required to teach and have a grab bag of pedagogical moves that bring this content alive.

Annette Bening is not just a name; it's a brand, a symbol of dedication, and a representation of the finest acting prowess Hollywood has ever witnessed. For many, she embodies the very essence of cinematic excellence, seamlessly blending her roles with an authenticity that few can match. Over the decades, she has firmly established herself as a cornerstone of the film industry, consistently delivering performances that resonate with audiences worldwide.

"Last week, I had the honour of keynoting a talk for The Manitoba Association of Computing Educators called Technology as the Ultimate Equalizer in which I shared accessibility tools students with learning disabilities could use to help their achievement match their potential. This included Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as Rewordify and Quillbot which students could use to simplify dense text  if they have verbal comprehension issues and Dictation.io which can be used by students with slow processing speed to help them get their ideas on paper as well as many others. But never until now, has there been such uproar about the impact of AI in the classroom as with the introduction of an open source AI tool, Chat GPT which has everyone talking about The Death of the Essay and other woes in education."