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"So what about assessment as a matter of tone and purpose? If an assessment is non-traditional and non-threatening (or even less traditional and less threatening), how might that impact what it reveals? Does the tone of an assessment matter? Is informal assessment a "lesser" form altogether?"

From Richard Byrne Free Technology for teacher, quoted below:Listen and Read - Non-fiction Read Along Activities Listen and Read is a set of 54 non-fiction stories from Scholastic for K-2 students. The stories are feature pictures and short passages of text that students can read on their own or have read to them by each story's narrator. The collection of stories is divided into eight categories: social studies, science, plants and flowers, environmental stories, civics and government, animals, American history, and community. Applications for Education Listen and Read looks to be a great resource for social studies lessons and reading practice in general. At the end of each book there is a short review of the new words that students were introduced to in the book. Students can hear these words pronounced as many times as they like. Listen and Read books worked on my computer and on my Android tablet. Scholastic implies that the books also work on iPads and IWBs"

"December can be a chaotic time at schools. Between students traveling, all the days off and half days, and kids simply not being able to focus with Christmas around the corner, it's tempting to stick in a movie and call it a day. But there are many non-crafty, non-holiday classroom activities to keep your students engaged and learning (even around holiday breaks)."

The book 'Non Obvious' by Rohit Bhargava present an intriguing exploration of how careful observation and thought can reveal emerging trends and as the subtitle suggest 'predict the future'. For educators the ability to identify the trends which will deliver the best outcomes for our students from the noise of fads is alluring. While the talk of new technologies, of learner centric pedagogies and teaching for lifelong learning play the part of the obvious trends in education identifying the non-obvious trend is a more challenging endeavour.

" Apple has long touted its device's assistive technology as a powerful tool for the educational development of physically and mentally disabled children. The iPad's touch screen makes it easier to manipulate than more traditional educational tools. For children with autism, "the iPad is not a toy, but a tool that works best when there is a 'team effort' between parents and therapists encouraging its proper use," said Marc Reisner, co-founder of Reach for the APPs. "Our goal is to provide schools with iPads so they can reach every child on the autistic spectrum." Reach for the APPs built their site with an initial donation from Managed Digital. Now, they're seeking out donations of money and/or iPads from both individuals and corporations to propel the program forward. According to reports from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 1-in-88 children have some form of autism, up 78 percent from just a decade ago. The demand for augmentative communications devices is growing. But the schools can't meet the demand, so the children are losing valuable time during critical developmental years. Lois Brady, a speech language pathologist and assistive technology specialist, said apps can help develop fine-motor skills, which will in turn make functions like writing and manipulating small objects easier for the students. "I have spent years working with the most challenging students that are considered profoundly disabled," she said. "And I have seen some small miracles when I introduce the iPad into our therapy, as the children have made huge gains in attention, focus, communication, language and literacy skills." Some experts also say that the iPad can lessen symptoms of autistic disorders, helping children deal with life's sensory overload. Brady will be contributing content to the Reach for the APPs website to inform therapists about the latest-and-greatest apps for children all over the autistim spectrum. Apps must be tailor

"he Khan Academy is an online non-profit organization whose goal is to provide a "free world-class education to anyone anywhere." Think of it as TED for everyone, except Khan's videos, resources, and lesson plans can actually help you be one of the TED speakers one day. Currently the Khan Academy is only accessible through a browser, but, John Resig, Dean of Open Source and head of JavaScript development at the non-profit, has shown off a few alpha screenshots of the upcoming Khan Academy iPad app, and it looks awesome"

"Welcome to the ORC Stella website. The core of this collection is a library of more than 600 non-routine mathematics problems known as Stella's Stunners to be launched set by set over the coming months. The problems range from simple visual problems, requiring no specific mathematical background, to problems that use the content of Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II and Trigonometry, up through Pre-Calculus. The Stella problems are not typical textbook exercises. They are considered "non-routine" problems because the methods of attacking them are not immediately obvious. Because these problems can supplement and enliven traditional mathematics courses in a variety of ways, we have included materials to assist in using Stella problems in your teaching: "

"We've discussed the merits and utility of video games in the classroom before, so we won't beleaguer the point. If you're interested in the possibility of video games for learning-that is, teaching and learning with video games to master both academic and non-academic content-than the following collection may be of interest to you. We've discussed before the logistics of how to teach with video games (especially for non-mobile games). What exactly this looks like on a daily basis in your classroom depends on the reality of your classroom: Available technology, WiFi access and bandwidth, grade level, content area, your comfort level with games, and so on. But if this an area you're interested in learning more about, we thought a collection of the best video games for learning-that is, those we'd want our own children playing for their varied utility in teaching and/or learning-might be useful. Criteria"

"More than anything else, non-threatening, informal assessment can disarm the process of checking for understanding. The less formal the form, the less guarded or anxious the student might become. Stress and worry can quickly shut down the student's ability to think, which yields misleading results-a poor "grade" which implies that a student understands a lot less than they actually do. In that way, Levy County Schools in Florida's Kim Lambert compilation of 60 Tools for Formative Assessment and Processing Activities can be useful to you as you collect data from all students, from the polished little academics, to students for whom the classroom might be a less-than-comfortable place. If you have trouble viewing the embed below, you can find the original document from LCS here."

"We have designed a Mathematical Mindset Guide to help teachers create or strengthen a growth mindset culture. This guide contains five Mathematical Mindset Practices along with links to teaching videos.  The videos all show Jo and Cathy teaching middle school students. There are different stages described in each practice to help capture the journey of a mathematical mindset classroom and the evidence teachers may collect along the way for their own reflection or for discussion with colleagues.  The guide has been designed for teachers to use in the process of self-reflection, or for coaches or administrators to use to encourage a mindset teaching culture. In the interactive version of the guide on this web page, you can click on the arrow buttons in the Expanding descriptors to see a short extract of Jo/Cathy teaching in the ways described. Our goal for the guide is to support a mathematical mindset journey of learning and growth. Teachers can work with the guide individually or in collaboration with others. The guide is intended to be non-judgmental, non-evaluative, and iterative in nature. When using the guide consider the classroom community as a whole rather than the teacher alone. It is also important to note that while the goal of the guide is to communicate all aspects of a mathematical mindset classroom, it is not always possible to find evidence of all practices in one lesson. We encourage teachers, coaches, and administrators to use this guide, and our reflection suggestions iteratively over multiple lessons."

The Marine Photobank is a leading visual resource that has galvanized people from all over the planet to collect, share and download marine photos, images and graphics that shed light on how humans have affected life in the ocean. The Marine Photobank was founded in response to a lack of readily available, high quality underwater and above water ocean conservation images. These images are available at no cost for non-commercial purposes as well as for media use.

Within this page,the complex processes involved in reading comprehension are divided into three categories (much like the National Reading Panel Report). The categories include vocabulary instruction, text comprehension instruction, and teacher preparation and comprehension strategies instruction. You'll also find useful websites that students can visit to practice their use of comprehension strategies with fiction and non-fiction texts at a variety of reading levels.

"Focusing on these five qualities of thriving classrooms can help foster confident young mathematicians."

A Non-Fungible Token, or NFT, is a type of account that makes a digital impression of any unique asset. Paintings, images, films, music, gifs - in short, anything that claims to be unique in some way - can all be included. They are highly valued by collectors, gamers, and art enthusiasts, and are purchased and sold at auctions.

A Non-Fungible Token, or NFT, is a type of account that makes a digital impression of any unique asset. Paintings, images, films, music, gifs - in short, anything that claims to be unique in some way - can all be included. They are highly valued by collectors, gamers, and art enthusiasts, and are purchased and sold at auctions.

"Chances are high that a recruiter or hiring manager will Google you online before offering you an interview or job. Search insiders tell me that non-celebrity people searches account for more than 10% of Google's search volume. Here are five easy things you can do to manage your online reputation."

"Code.org is a non-profit foundation dedicated to growing computer programming education. Founded by two brothers, Hadi Partovi and Ali Partovi, their vision is that every student in every school has the opportunity to learn how to code. Code.org want computer science and computer programming to be part of the core curriculum in education, alongside other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses, such as biology, physics, chemistry and algebra."

"In his new book To Sell is Human, author Daniel Pink reports that education is one of the fastest growing job categories in the country. And with this growth comes the opportunity to change the way educators envision their roles and their classrooms. Guided by findings in educational research and neuroscience, the emphasis on cognitive skills like computation and memorization is evolving to include less tangible, non-cognitive skills, like collaboration and improvisation"

"To establish how we can maximize the impact of the iPad as a learning tool, we first have to establish what kind of impact we'd hope to have. In this case, we'll settle on understanding (as troublesome a term as that might be): Students being able to think critically about chosen standards or curriculum, and apply understanding in diverse, academic and non-academic environments. With that as the goal, here are some ideas."