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"Once you get your iPhone upgraded to iOS 9, you might be overwhelmed. While iOS 9 doesn't pack a lot of grand new visual features, the update does include tons of little tricks that make using your iPhone and iPad even more ridiculously easy to use. Here are all the secret iOS 9 tricks every users should know:"

"Whether your kids' summer days are jam-packed with activities or left wide open for leisurely exploration -- or something in between -- chances are some of those days will involve a smartphone, tablet, or other device. Now more than ever, you can use these powerful tools to enhance the activities that kids are already doing -- or to help create brand-new experiences. We've chosen the best apps, games, and websites for learning while doing this summer. Get ready to have the Best. Summer. Ever!"

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.

Website has 3 sections: Math Playground - an action-packed site for elementary and middle school students. Practice your math skills, play a logic game and have some fun! Math TV Problem Solving Videos - Each math problems comes with step by step video solution, follow up problems, an online calculator, and sketch pad. Thinking Blocks - interactive math tool developed by classroom teachers to help students learn how to solve multistep word problems.

"Hot Apps for HOTS is an excellent guide packed full of apps and activities to support higher order thinking skills (HOTS). I learned about this eBook from a post by Tony Vincent in Learning in Hand almost a month ago and since then I downloaded the guide and read it from cover to cover and was really thrilled by the depth and practicality of the learning materials provided by the authors: Lisa Johnson and Yolanda."

"Imagine an iPhone app that can instantly translate written text between languages in real time. It sounds like science fiction, but Word Lens (free) does exactly that. We were wowed by the app back in 2010 and now its parent company, Quest Visual, has been purchased by Google. The immediate result is that World Lens is now free. Additionally, Language packs that were formerly available via in-app purchase are now free as well."

"The first day of school is upon us. It's a time for everyone to frantically pack up their pencils, books, and iPads. Whether you're a teacher, student, or an administrator, this pep talk is for you. It's from the self-proclaimed 'Kid President' and he lays out exactly why you should be inspired to be in the world of education right now. He has a special message for all the people who want to make the world a better place, too:"

"Five or more hours of sedentary sitting, according to Dr. David Agus, is the health equivalent of smoking a pack and a quarter of cigarettes. Yikes. Yet, sitting around is something we get plenty of practice at. Reading and writing and creating on a computer makes for big chunks of sedentary time. If you're reading this post right now, are you sitting down? How long have you been sitting?"

"Tired of your iPhone or iPad running out of storage space? If you're an avid music listener and use your iPhone or iPad as such with an extensive list of songs packed into your device, head on after the jump to check out how you can easily shrink the footprint of your audio files on your iOS device's internal storage. You may already know that higher the bit rate of an audio file, the larger the file size will be. Typically iTunes purchases max out at 256 kbps, with CD rips topping out at 320. On average, a user is likely to find all kinds of bit rates in their library and chances are that the average Joe wouldn't even notice the quality difference, until or unless you have a God gifted ability to differentiate between the slightest change"

"There has been a huge buzz recently on Twitter about the new YouTube Kids app. There are thousands of great videos to search for on this new platform. The app opens up in a very clean and inviting menu that breaks down content into four categories: Shows, Music, Learning, and Explore. Each of these sections has designated channels packed with amazing video content. The YouTube for Kids App is FREE and is certainly one that I will be recommending at future conferences I present at. Where we couldn't fit all of the great content into this post, we certainly welcome you to use the comments section below to share your favorite YouTube for Kids channels."

"Move away from the drib drab of everyday lessons and get more interactive using a free web-based tool called ThingLink. ThingLink can transform the way you teach, and not only that, but the way your students learn. Enough already? You want to know how this work? ThingLink is free image platform that converts an image into a rich and interactive experience by adding music, video, text, images, and more. The best part about ThingLink is you can jam pack everything onto one page and one image. By tagging your image with content from all over the internet  - YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, or  linking to a PDF to further explain something…you get the idea. "

"Physics 4 Kids is a great resource packed full of basic lessons covering different key concepts of physics. You can use this resource to expand students knowledge of physics and to also initiate them to those physics concepts you are planning to teach them in class. Physics 4 Kids provides students with  guided tours that they can use by themselves to learn about physics. To make things easier, the site embeds visual aids and video tutorials to enhance students understandings. Some of the core physics ideas the site covers include: motion and mechanics, electricity and magnetism, modern physics, light and optics and many more. "

"April is National Poetry Month, and no matter what you teach,  you can transform the first five minutes of every class into an empowering, issues-packed, discussion-based, poetry-friendly space. In 30 Days of Poet Warriors: Young, Diverse Students, Writing for Change, I have compiled 30 poems and 16 videos by first-time poets and students that address race, immigration, moms, Michael Brown, and more."

"Finland's education system, often held up as an exemplary model for the rest of the world, is on the verge of making some major changes. For years, Finland has led the pack in international test scores, becoming a source of fascination for education policymakers and experts. Now, the country is changing the way it teaches students. Going forward, Finnish schools will be placing less emphasis on individual subjects like math and history, and will instead focus on broader, more interdisciplinary topics. The goal, according to Finnish leaders, is to provide students with the necessary skills for a more technological, global society. Here are three things you need to know about Finland's changing education system:"

"Model rocket kits are a fun way for kids to exercise their maker skills by assembling cool, colorful rockets that really fly. I can remember building model rockets as a child, and they are still an exciting project for all ages. In addition to maker skills, model rockets are an educational tool that can teach the concepts of propulsion, flight, and aerodynamics. It's important to note that when purchasing model rocket kits, make sure that you have all of the supplies required to build and fly your rockets. Any building tools, glue, paint, batteries for the launcher controller, and rocket specific items like wadding and engine packs should be on your list. You're also going to need an outside area large enough to fly. Go outside and get flying!"

"I was not one of those LEGO® kids growing up. Sure, my brothers had LEGO bricks, and every so often I'd kidnap some tiny LEGO men for a make-believe game. But I didn't truly appreciate the engineering capacity of those studded plastic bricks. They were just so rigidly rectangular! As an adult, I've come to appreciate LEGO, both for its rectilinear aesthetic, and even more so, for its mathematical might. In the classroom, the tiny bricks are now my favorite possibility-packed math manipulative! Read on for a sampling of math activities that use LEGO pieces to build and reinforce key math concepts."

"Lego is phenomenal super-toy, which helps stimulate kids' creativity, imagination, as well as logical thinking. Yet, school teacher Alycia Zimmerman do not only use it as a toy, but also as a great aid to develop basic math skills among her young minds. Lego blocks, she finds, are good tool to explain fractions, squares and other mathematical concepts. "In the classroom, the tiny bricks are now my favorite possibility-packed math manipulative," she writes in an article for Scholastic that goes more into depth about these bricks' potential uses."

"Chrome browser is packed full of amazing features that can make your browsing experience way more easier and productive. In today's post we have picked out five of what we think are must-know Chrome tips for teachers. Using these tips will enable you to save, sync and access your Chrome data and bookmarks across different devices, easily access and manage your installed apps, use shortcuts to perform quick tasks on Chrome, restore closed tabs and windows, and finally browse the web privately using incognito mode."

"There's a new book available it's packed with practical ideas for teachers from teachers: Meaningful Making: Projects and Inspirations for FabLabs and Makerspaces. And even better it's available as a free download. You can't beat that for a bargain. The book is an initiative from the FabLearn Fellows who are part of a larger project sponsored by the National Science Foundation entitled "Infusing Learning Sciences Research into Digital Fabrication in Education and the Makers' Movement". The FabLearn Fellows initiative brings together experienced educators from all over the world to create an open-source library of curriculum and contribute to research about the "makers" culture and digital fabrication in education."