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"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." ― Calvin Coolidge Growing up, I had a copy of this quote on my wall. It is one of those things that stuck with me over the years. For a long time I might not have truly appreciated its wisdom. Now as a teacher in times of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, its significance seems to have grown. When we can instantaneous consumers of the all of the worlds information, as we access anything and everything at the speed of light, how do we learn the value of persistence?

"The workouts we completed years ago may continue to influence and improve our health today, according to a fascinating new study of the current lives and health of people who joined an exercise study a decade before. The findings suggest that the benefits of exercise can be more persistent than many of us might expect, even if people are not exercising to the same extent as they previously did. But the impacts also may depend on the types and amounts of exercise involved."

"I'm trying hard to adopt the language of iteration, persistence, experimentation and play and consciously stop using the word "failure" when I teach design."

"Three Goals of Technology in Education"

"Many educators are aware of Carol Dweck's research on growth mindset. The Stanford psychologist has found that the way students think about and approach challenge makes a big impact on their learning. Students who believe that they were born with a certain amount of intelligence that cannot be changed - a condition Dweck calls a fixed mindset - are often afraid to seek out challenging tasks and are resigned to one's perceived set of abilities. Students who see intelligence as something that can grow and change with effort - known as a growth mindset - tend to persist at difficult tasks, trying new strategies and ultimately performing better in school. Many schools have begun to focus on building growth mindsets in students because of this research. Helping students develop growth mindsets is made even trickier because mindsets about learning can change depending on context. And unfortunately math class is a time when many students have preconceived notions about their abilities. Many adults, including teachers, grew up receiving negative messages about their math ability and can unintentionally pass on unhelpful messages to students through casual words or actions. That's why it's impressive that educators at Two Rivers Charter School in Washington, D.C. recognized a culture of math fear among the staff and worked hard to change teachers' relationships to math as part of their broader strategy to improve math achievement. The school's Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Jeff Heyck-Williams, described their efforts in an Education Week article:"

Earlier this year a group of teachers I work with explored the 'Eight Cultural Forces' identified by Ron Ritchhart of Harvard's Project Zero. In doing so we decided to focus on our use of the term learning instead of the word work. Our goal was to bring our language choices into the spotlight and explore how a more deliberate focus on learning might alter the culture of our classrooms. Two terms later this focus persists and it is worth reflecting on the effect that this has had.

"During my early days of teaching coding to sixth graders, my immediate reaction was to feel apologetic for a lesson that was not going smoothly for students. I would rush over and show them exactly what they did wrong. They would fix it, the code would run and there would be satisfied smiles as they moved to the next part of the project. As you can guess, this is not a sustainable or a desirable approach to teach coding. A large part of learning to code is "debugging," fixing mistakes in the code written so that it runs as desired. Debugging is difficult. It requires patience, persistence and an almost scientific approach-skills that are not easy to teach in one class. Debugging is particularly challenging for young students who are driven by the end product, such as a game. They often do not perceive the intermediate debugging stage as a learning opportunity; they just want to fix the bug and move on! "

There is an assumption that persists in the educational community that more mature teachers are much more difficult and reluctant to be trained on the effective use of educational technology. To some degree, I think this assumption has been built on by the digital native vs digital immigrant myth. But as someone who has trained teachers of all ages all over the world I would say that, from my own experience, this hasn't been the case.

"School libraries are starting makerspaces all over the world. It's an exciting time in education as we rediscover the power of creativity. But many schools rush to start makerspaces so quickly that they neglect building the maker culture. Developing a maker culture is a lot like developing a love of reading, it takes time and persistence and it's totally worth it. Here's a few ways that you can work to cultivate a love of making and creativity in your students."

"Bloom's Taxonomy can be a powerful tool to transform teaching and learning. By design, it focuses attention away from content and instruction, and instead emphasizes the "cognitive events" in the mind of a child. And this is no small change. For decades, education reform has been focused on curriculum, assessment, instruction, and more recently standards, and data, with these efforts only bleeding over into how students think briefly, and by chance. This means that the focus of finite teacher and school resources are not on promoting thinking and understanding, but rather what kinds of things students are going to be thinking about and how they'll prove they understand them. This stands in contrast to the characteristics of the early 21st century, which include persistent connectivity, dynamic media forms, information-rich (digital and non-digital) environments, and an emphasis on visibility for pretty much everything. What does this mean for how you use Bloom's Taxonomy in your classroom? What kinds of adjustments should you make-if any-in light of these shifts in the 21st century?"

"Some users have noticed that certain older iPhone and iPad models feel slower after updating to iOS 7. We've offered a variety of tips to speed things up, but one persistent issue that has we've been contacted about regards the mysterious keyboard lag and typing delay that seems to only apply to older devices, where there is a sizable delay between tapping a key and the character appearing on screen."

"What we've tried to do in the following list is provide an evidentiary-based counterpoint to the lingering persistence of the textbook in education. We've collected ten apps from across the content areas, from Shakespeare to the Elements, that each serve as compelling argument against textbooks. Only one of these apps is a game; the rest are examples of how-when properly designed-content can be refracted digitally, with a user-centered touch interface, full multimedia capabilities, while still maintaining a focus on delivering content to students. Or rather, providing access in a way that's more compelling than any textbook could ever imagine."

"Implementing maker education is less about space than it is about mindset. A core component of making is empowering students to create something meaningful and to see the impact of their work in the world around them. If we are committed to creating this kind of learning for all students, then we need to cultivate the conditions for adults who work with them to adopt a maker mindset that promotes risk taking, creativity, persistence, and reflection when working through challenges. The key to district-wide implementation is providing multiple entry points for educators to engage in maker-based activities and professional development, reflect on their experiences, and share their inspirations and hurdles with colleagues."

"As educators, we know that learning is not one size fits all, and what's best for some students may not be for others. Yet differentiated instruction (DI) remains elusive as a major part of formal planning. Myths about DI persist despite work by respected advocates such as Carol Tomlinson, Susan Allan, Rick Wormeli, and Gayle Gregory. What follows are prominent misperceptions expressed about DI, presented here so that we can separate myth from truth."

"Looking for ways to engage your students in deep learning? Hoping to hone your ability to help students truly understand what they are learning? Integrating making into your practice engages students, provides a true context for character development (think persistence), and most importantly, gives students experiences to learn core content and practices more deeply. Making is learner-centered. It is based on Seymour Papert's theory of constructionism (yes, based on Piaget's constructivism), which says that learners build their understanding more deeply if they create something to share with the world."

"Over the course of the weeks not only did my students learn how to code, but they learned so many important life-skills.  Students participated in "Plugged" and Unplugged" activities.  Months ago, I took a code.org class which was a turning point in my "World of Code". With some guidance and little help, my students began their journey into coding and programming. What did my students learn? Persistence Collaboration Problem Solving Logical Reasoning Critical Thinking Cause and Effect Being Inquisitive Communication Skills Having Fun "

"Old people are out of touch with technology. That's the stereotype, anyway. With adages like "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" and "He can't change, he's already set in his ways", many of us assume that certain pursuits are for young people only - and programming is no exception. It's easy to see why this mentality is so pervasive. As a relative youngster myself, the programming world evolves so quickly that even I find it difficult to keep up. Most of what I learned in school was obsolete by graduation. So if youngsters like me have trouble, is there any hope for the older generation? Yes! If you - or someone you know - have ever wondered if you're "too old" to start learning how to program, the simple answer is that anyone can pick it up as long as they have determination, persistence, and an open mind. The real question is, should you give it a shot? I think you should, and here's why."

"Innovating thinking is one of those awkward concepts in education-one that is often espoused, but isn't measured, reported on, trained around, or celebrated. It's just sort of there. Innovative thinking in students will flower when we design classrooms that absolutely can't survive without it. Same with critical thinking, self-direction, creativity, and so on. Until we reach that point, it's on the shoulders of the classroom teacher to tease it out of students through a combination of inspiration, modeling, scaffolding, and creating persistent opportunity. The following graphic by Mia MacMeekin offers 27 ways to think about this idea. As usual, some of the tips are better than others-"Flip: Start from the End" makes sense, but may or may not promote innovation. The same with "Grow: Grow with each approach.""

This research began with the premise that video game play, especially as it relates to participation in persistent virtual worlds, provides fictional spaces where players engage in cognitive and communicative practices that can be personally transformative in prosocial ways. Players' experiences with these worlds are as much defined by the technical design and construction of these spaces as they are influenced by the socio-cultural arrangements that develop. In support of this belief, we collected data on children's experiences with a range of technologies germane to the Digital Age, including their participation in the Quest Atlantis environment, an immersive space for learning that is intended to engage children ages 9-12 in a form of dramatic play comprising both online and real-world learning activities. By enlisting this innovation to nonintrusively collect data about children's participation as well as their engagement with media more generally, the research team was able to move beyond an ethnographic study of what already exists in the world and develop a grounded appreciation for what an innovative technology-rich context might make possible in the future.

"Carol Dweck's famous book, "Mindset", was one that was (is) hugely popular with educators, not only in helping shape their work and thoughts on students, but also pushing learning in educator with their peers.  There were two simple concepts shared that resonated with many readers; the "fixed" mindset and the "growth" mindset. Here is how the two differ according to Dweck: "In a fixed mindset students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that's that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. In a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don't necessarily think everyone's the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it." The great thing about Dweck's work is that she found that you can move from one to the other.  You may have a fixed mindset, but it is not necessarily a permanent thing.  The other aspect is that you do not necessarily have a "fixed" or "growth" mindset and fall into one of those two categories in all elements.  I have a growth mindset on (most things) education, but have a fixed mindset on fixing things around my house. So what I have been thinking about lately is the notion of the "innovator's mindset".  This would actually go one step past the notion of a growth mindset and is looking at what you are creating with your learning.  SImply it would go look this:"