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"Who doesn't want to improve the tone of the whole day in 5 minutes or less? What better commitment to make in the new year than to positively impact your own life, the lives of those around you, and your school's culture? The science of character strengths and social emotional learning (SEL) is well-documented and quite actionable. All that is needed is a bit of intentional leadership. Click here to download the 5 to Thrive Toolkit! Mayerson Academy, a non-profit professional learning organization, launched the "5 to Thrive Challenge" to encourage education leaders to dedicate five minutes each day over the next month to engage in simple activities that will reframe their thinking and improve the culture in their school. To help get started and frame your thinking, Mayerson Academy provides a free "5 to Thrive Toolkit" that will get you started."

"December is one of the most exhausting months of the year for teachers. The days are shorter. The weather grows colder and (at least here in Oregon) wetter. Students are anxious - whether it's a buzzing excitement for vacation or a sense of dread that some kids feel in homes that are unsafe during the holidays. And teachers are tired. They're tired of redirecting behaviors and tired of the mid-year pressure of the test and simply tired of the sheer energy it takes to be a teacher. It's no wonder that so many teachers begin playing holiday movies around this time of year. They want to create a sense of fun and escape and enjoyment, and a motion picture promises exactly that. Maybe that's okay. Maybe that's a part of creating a culture of joy. But for me, movies always fell flat. For my first few years, I showed a movie the day before the winter break. However, within minutes, kids were disengaged. They were passive. It wasn't special. My students could go home and watch a movie whenever they felt like it. It had me wondering . . . was there something that they could do in my class that they couldn't do anywhere else? Was this actually the chance to do something epic and make something memorable?"

"Today I'm sharing what is easily the BEST playdough recipe ever. Once you have the recipe, you'll want to find out about the 3 essential play dough tools (that you probably already have). If you've been here for the recipe before, scroll down for a July 2016 update -  you will LOVE it, I promise. My plan was to make a simple batch of play dough to replace the sparkly dried out purple stuff that happily met our cookie-making, glitter infusing, practice cutting, snowman-making needs over the past two months. I asked my daughter what color she would like this time around, and she answered with…"

"Megan Morrone and Leo Laporte have a few apps that will make studying the civil rights movement fun. Now you can utilize your smartphone and take a look back at some of the hardships that African Americans faced during one of the United States greatest freedom movements."

""Maker spaces"-facilities designed to encourage hands-on activity and experimentation-have become an increasingly exciting part of many schools' digital-learning and career-tech offerings. With their focus on inventiveness and collaboration, they also offer new ways of looking at classroom or learning-space design. To showcase the composition and variety of these facilities, Education Week is asking educators to post short videos of their schools' maker spaces to YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram over the next month, using the hashtag #ShowUsYourMakerSpace. (Photos are OK, too.)"

"Is the school year winding down? Do you need a reboot to help get through a challenging month? Inspiration can come from many places. From the smile on a student's face, to a great conversation with parents, to an episode of a favorite television show that provides an idea for the next day's lesson, small moments can be game changers when we need to reboot and recharge. When I was a classroom teacher, those days after a long break or in the midst of a period without a moment to catch my breath could make it hard to find inspiration in everyday moments. In this list of resources for teacher inspiration, you'll find a handful of different websites and apps to energize your lesson, lighten your mood, and inspire you to persevere through a challenging part of the school year. These might become part of your daily or weekly routine, or something that you turn to for a dose of inspiration to reboot during a tough time of year. If you've tried one of my favorites or have another to add to the list, share your top resources for finding inspiration in the comments at the end of this post."

"This is the kick-off post in a 4 part series where we will cover each stage of implementing computer science in elementary school based on thousands of conversations with educators. While the month of June brings a lull to the toil from the school year, we're working hard to set you up with the resources you'll need this summer as you prepare to do it all over again. Over the next four weeks, we'll be taking the lessons we learned from our teachers this school year and sharing their coding implementation stories from beginning to end. Over the past 3 years, computer science in elementary has come a long way. Trailblazing schools who were just getting started, have now fully integrated Computer Science into their curriculum. While the majority of schools are on their way to that point. At Kodable, we focus on talking to as many people as possible and working hard to meet their needs regardless of the stage of implementation. In these thousands of conversations, the four stages of implementing computer science in elementary school have become very clear."

"Engaging students with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education is more important today than ever before. There's a large gap in today's job market between the skills demanded by growing fields and the amount of potential workers that possess those skills. All of us at STEM Village aim to empower all youth to take a passion for STEM subjects and to continue building their skills for the future job market. However, we also recognize the growing gap between women and girls who choose to take on a STEM career. Read more about why girls need STEM and why STEM needs girls in this article by Today's Parents. Our team aims to find the best STEM resources available so we can bring them to the Technology, Math, Science, and Discovery sections of our STEM Village app. We celebrated International Women's Day this week and are continuing to celebrate the power of women and girls for Women's History month, by sharing our favourite Women in STEM education resources on social media. Here's a list of our top 10 picks to empower girls in STEM!"

"Why is it that sometimes we only see the extremes in our work? Picture your strongest lessons, activities, and projects juxtaposed against ones that just didn't work, and that's how it's been so far with our Digital Shop capstone projects. Some experiences make me want to high-five the entire class all at once. Others deserve an epic facepalm. As of this writing, we still have a month of school left. How will the remaining capstones go? What have we learned in the process? Can we "fail up" and finish strong, sending kids into summer vacation with school-year memories that will last forever? As I explained in my April post, I wanted the capstone projects to: Be genuine design thinking experiences. Allow kids to showcase the skills and dispositions they worked to acquire all year. Be based on and help people from the community and the world. The results have been mixed, as this post will illustrate."

"Could you really run a makerspace that is fun, dynamic, engaging, thought-provoking and inexpensive?  Take the twice a month "5 In a Bag" challenge using only household and easily obtainable items.  Add pics and videos of your creations on the padlet, and particpate in the Twitter chat using #5inabag.  Who knows what you will come up with!"

"Here is a handy visual for librarians featuring 12 of what we think are very good iPad apps they can use in their daily work. The visual is based on a post we shared here a few months ago. For more app suggestions for librarians, we recommend  Nicole Hennig's book : Apps for Librarians: Using the Best Mobile Technology to Educate, Create, and Engage which covers in more details over 100 Android and iPad apps. You can also check this infographic featuring 30 good web tools for librarians."

"Welcome to The Art of Curriculum Design. In this six month series we are exploring the why and how of curriculum design via an Arts Appreciation course created through an arts collaboration. The first few weeks were devoted to the how and why of the curriculum design process. During the current portion of the series we are looking at weekly objectives, outcomes, and assessments designed for the Arts Appreciation course. Links to the entire series can be found below. The full curriculum including daily lesson plans, handouts, and assessments will be available at the culmination of the series."

"If I had a dollar for each and every time someone has asked me to suggest a great PDF to Word converter, I'd probably be able to shop at Whole Foods every day for a month. It's one of the conversion types topping the formatting pile. My love of organic fruit and veg aside, here are some of the best free PDF to Word converters around."

"My post last month on Why a Makerspace isn't a Magic Cure-all for Your Problems gained a lot of notice.  I've seen a vibrant social media conversation take off since then.  I have heard many people say in the conversation about making and libraries that they have reservations.  Many are worried about sacrificing literacy or reading when they create a makerspace.  They feel that traditional library programs and values will suffer.  They worry that the makerspace will replace the reading programs that they love. But I feel like they're missing out on something - the beautiful connection that can happen between making and literacy.  You don't have to give up your literature and reading programs when you start a makerspace.  Rather, makerspaces can help to bring a new dimension of literacy into your library.  There are so many elements and activities in makerspaces that fit perfectly into the types of library programs we all know and love."

"Besides the multitude of resources we have covering reviews of hundreds of educational apps, from time to time we create lists featuring our favourite picks from the piles. Our purpose is to provide teachers with tested educational iPad apps that they can try out in their instruction. The last thing to ask an overburdened teacher is to spend hours in iTunes apps store searching  for apps to use with students. We do the curation job for you and it is your turn to integrate and make the best of these resources in your teaching. That being said, here is a handy visual we created a few months ago featuring some of the best educational iPad apps to consider in your teaching. We know our selection is subjective and many other wonderful apps are missing but for practical reasons we only included a limited number of 20 apps. More educational apps are to be featured in future collections"

"At Burlington High School in Burlington, MA, we are entering our eighth month of a 1:1 iPad initiative that began in September 2011. Don't get me wrong, we think the iPad is a great device for learning and gives each of our students a dynamic learning tool that can be used across the content areas and to accomplish a variety of tasks. Many of the critics claim that we are backing our students into a corner by giving them one brand and one skill set to learn exclusively on one device. This is not the case at Burlington. Furthermore, I have support. "

"Experts at a panel discussion in New York last month entitled "Baby Brains and Video Games" urged parents to set limits on electronic device use - while acknowledging the magnetic appeal of iPads in particular."

"After months of development, I am pleased to share a brand new iPhone/iPad/iPod app with you that should prove to be extremely useful in practical sessions. The app idea came about after I realised that their needed to be a more user friendly and mobile way to research and plan games and activities to play in your class. With this in mind I decided to make the PE Games app a reality."

"The e5 Instructional Model was recently introduced in Victoria and Vermont Secondary College has been trialling it for the past 12 months. We are also on the first phase of a 1:1 iPad program beginning with Year 7 in 2013. As one of the Teacher Librarians I am keen to evaluate and recommend resources of any sort to support quality teaching and learning so last year I began reading blogs about apps for education."