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"Great teachers strive to make learning engaging, interactive, and fun for students. Certain subjects like the visual arts and hands-on sciences may lend themselves well to this. Language learning, on the other hand, has rarely been grouped with "the cool subjects." As technology advances, more and more tools have become available that when used correctly can make language learning anything but boring. As a teacher, you've already established a curriculum and methods for teaching your language, so instead of re-writing all of your work, pull from the myriad supplemental opportunities that can be found online to make lessons more engaging and therefore memorable. Here are five great websites that supplement your lessons, making language learning more interactive and fun."

"Our CREATE Education Project champions partner organisations who share our ethos for making 3d printing as easy, accessible and affordable as possible for everyone. In the name of open source we find synergies with many pioneers who understand that sharing is the way forward to developing and seeding innovation for new technologies. When we find these pioneers it is our mission to provide access to our community so that everyone can enjoy the progress and even add to it themselves.  One of the more challenging aspects of introducing 3D printing into schools is the complexity of 3D modelling software and the general cost of having computers that can handle such software. A good majority of schools have adopted a cheaper method of computing which is the tablet. iPads are fast becoming common in the classroom and this is where Gravity Sketch comes in."

"Ever want your students to slow down and notice details when they read - whether they're perusing a book, a poem, a map or a political cartoon? Young people often want to hurry up and make meaning via a quick skim or a cursory glance when a text can demand patience and focus. Closely reading any text, whether written or visual, requires that students proceed more slowly and methodically, noticing details, making connections and asking questions. This takes practice. But it certainly helps when students want to read the text. We've selected 10 photos from The Times that we've used previously in our weekly "What's Going On in This Picture?" and that have already successfully caught students' and teachers' attention. These are some of our most popular images - ones that may make viewers say "huh?" on first glance, but that spark enough curiosity to make them want to dig deeper. (Please Note: You can quickly learn the backstory about any of these photos by clicking the link in each caption that takes you to the original post, then scrolling down to find the "reveal.") Below, we offer ideas from students and teachers who have engaged with these images for ways to use them, or images like them, to teach close reading and visual thinking skills."

"Makerspace is a relatively new method of teaching students in a space where they can get hands-on experience working with concepts they recently learned. The point of the space is to make, create, and invent new things. There are many advantages to giving students a place to apply concepts, and those benefits are true for all areas and fields of study. If you have been thinking about creating a maker space in your classroom, here are a few things to consider to help you understand why you should go ahead and do it."

" A common tie between all these apps is Readability. The company provides a method to show content of Web site posts on the iPad without all of the extra distractions you have to sort through when viewing via a Web Browser. Now, Readability has released a Universal app for your iPad and iPhone. With the free app on our iPads, we need to examine how our time is best spent."

"With the rise of new trends such as a flipped classroom and whole brain teaching, there is an emphasis on getting students more actively involved in learning in the classroom. And whether or not you choose to fully embrace either of these methods, we can all agree that we want students participating as much as possible. When students are actively participating, they are learning. In math classes we typically involve students in the problem-solving side, but we don't often expect them to provide explanations."

"Screenshots are a useful, if not essential, skill for both students and teachers to have, but with so many devices out there, it can be hard to remember how to take a screenshot on an iPad, a Chromebook, a Mac or whatever else you might be using in your classroom. So, here is a quick rundown of all the native methods to do this, as well as a couple of recommendations for third-party services that will give you even more options."

"Bookworms everywhere mourned the state of our country when Pew released a poll that found 23 percent of Americans didn't read a single book in the previous year. Things aren't looking particularly encouraging for future generations, either. Experts estimate that only 1/3 of parents regularly read to their children, even though reading plays an immense role in cognitive development. Despite these depressing statistics, there is reason to take heart. With a greater emphasis on literacy research and advocacy, teachers have more information than ever about how to best cultivate a love for literacy in the classroom. There are numerous methods, but most fall under "the three E's of literacy." "

"No matter how old the profession, those who work in a particular field have always had the ability to communicate with one another to compare notes and improve services. The form of communication began with face-to-face contact in early civilization and evolved to a more digital form in today's age of technological advances. Technology has always improved communication methods by enabling all-not just professionals-the ability to consult, collaborate, and learn from others. This has progressed from the earliest printing presses to the most recent smartphones."

"Guided by research, educators at Cochrane Collegiate have homed in on ten top teaching methods, and teachers receive weekly PD to help them implement the practices"

"In part one of this series, I shared how I use freely available video in my reading and literacy methods course to help my preservice teachers understand close reading instruction at a level that could not be attained through reading and discussion alone. In part two, I shared my curated collection of videos for general Common Core info, as well as videos to teach the close reading, text complexity and informational texts standards. "

"I just came across this handy graphic on creativity and want you to have a look as well. The visual features a variety of ways and techniques that can inspire your creativity and drive you to act creatively.These ideas seem simple and common sensical but are often overlooked. You can share them with your students and try them with your kids, just remember whatever method you use, you need to be consistent and repeat it everyday. Habituation is a key element in the creative process."

"I'm a big fan of mind mapping as a method for organizing thoughts, connecting concepts, and visualizing the big picture of concept. In fact, I think the mind mapping process is so valuable that I created an entire workshop about it. One of the mind mapping iPad apps that I often recommend is Popplet. Recently, I tried BigMind and I think that it could challenge Popplet in popularity."

"When we pack our children off to school, we envision them embarking on a lifelong career of learning. Yet one thing they typically never study is the art of studying itself. Our intuitions, it turns out, do not always map to reality. In "Psychologists Identify the Best Ways to Study" by John Dunlosky et al. we comb through the vast scientific literature on learning techniques to identify the two methods that work best."

"Your credential could be elementary or secondary. Your classroom could have algebra all over the board, or pictures of the Civil War on the wall. Your students could be taking Cornell notes on the scientific method. You are still a reading teacher."

"I wish geometry was taught in this way when I was in school. Curriki's new Project-based Learning (PBL) high school Geometry course is now available. For so many students, it's difficult to make a real-life connection between math and their everyday lives. By adopting a Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach, students learn that geometry is not only theoretical, but practical and necessary. Students will move beyond a basic understanding of concepts to an enjoyment of discovery. This free Geometry course not only leverages the popular PBL "active" approach but is also aligned to Common Core State Standards. Thom Markham, Ph.D., President of PBL International, is the designer of the course. He notes that Project-Based Learning points us toward the future of education. "It's a proven method for integrating the 21st century skills of communication and teamwork into the delivery of core subjects.""

"A couple of years ago NOVA aired a program called How Does the Brain Work? The show explored what scientists currently know about the human brain and the research that will help us to know more about the human brain in the future. One of the online supplements to How Does the Brain Work? is this interactive collection of images of brain scans. The collection of images, titled Mapping the Brain, allows you to choose from six imaging methods and choose the part(s) of the brain that you want to see highlighted in the scans."

"A new study by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) shows that students grasp the unimaginable emptiness of space more effectively when they use iPads, rather than traditional classroom methods, to explore 3-D simulations of the universe."