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"Will Smith once told a story from his childhood in which his father broke down the brick wall at his business and told him and his brother to rebuild it. It took them a year, but they finished the job and learned a powerful lesson contained within a memorable metaphor. He explains, "You don't set out to build a wall. You don't say 'I'm going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that's ever been built.' You don't start there. You say, 'I'm going to lay this brick as perfect as a brick can be laid. You do that every single day and soon you have a wall." This story from Will Smith captures the very essence of the Slight Edge philosophy that we will discuss in this article. Applying this idea within the classroom will help students develop a strong long term sense of accomplishment that is necessary to achieve their goals."

"It is always such a pleasure to see student creativity. To watch their creative muscles grow and see their fantastic imaginations blossom into works of art. Technology is a great medium through which students can craft their wonders. It offers abilities that aren't possible in other media. Here is a recommended collection of creative iPad and iPhone apps from Glenda Stewart-Smith of Surrey School District #36 in Canada. It is a diverse collection covering creativity in art, photography, music, writing, and more. What apps would you recommend to foster creativity in students?"

"As a teacher, delving into the world of education technology can be daunting. There is SO MUCH out there. How is a busy teacher to know where to begin? Fortunately, Glenda Stewart-Smith of Surrey School District #36 in Canada has put together this collection of essential teaching tools. Each has been shown to be effective in the classroom. There is no need to dive in head-first. If you are drowning in a sea of edtech, wade in this proven pool first."

"Sally Hurd Smith, a veteran teacher, held up her brand-new tablet computer and shook it as she said, "I don't want this thing to take over my classroom." It was late June, a month before the first day of school. In a sixth-grade classroom in Greensboro, N.C., a dozen middle-school social-studies teachers were getting their second of three days of training on tablets that had been presented to them as a transformative educational tool. Every student and teacher in 18 of Guilford County's 24 middle schools would receive one, 15,450 in all, to be used for class work, homework, educational games - just about everything, eventually. "

"Historic Maps in K-12 Classrooms. This resource for K-12 teachers and students developed by the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography at the Newberry Library is designed to bring historically significant map documents into your classroom. Inside are high quality images of historic map documents that illustrate the geographical dimensions of American history. "

"recent Gallup poll of 170,000 Americans - 10,000 of whom were teachers - found that teaching is the second most satisfying profession (after medicine). Ironically, the same Gallup poll found that in contrast to their overall happiness with their jobs, teachers often rate last or close to the bottom for workplace engagement and happiness. "Of all the professions we studied in the U.S., teachers are the least likely to say that their opinions count and the least likely to say that their supervisor creates an open and sharing environment," said Brandon Busteed, executive director of Gallup Education, at the Next New World Conference. This is a troubling trend at a time when schools need to continue to attract high quality educators. "If the perception in our country is that teaching is not a great profession to go into, we certainly aren't going to be encouraging really talented young people to be thinking about the profession of teaching," Busteed said in an interview with Stephen Smith on the American RadioWorks podcast."

"None of this would have been possible without the hard work and dedication of Director/Theatre Arts Teacher Scot Pankey & his classes with help of Camera crew- Bryan Urraca, Albert Robledo & Johan Cruz, Edited and produced by Jonathan Vega AKA #TrippyJ. "

"Some lessons are better learned earlier in life -- and kindness is no exception. That's why teachers like Kimberly Smith and Pamela Jung are beginning to teach a compassion-based curriculum in their kindergarten classrooms -- and as a result, they're finding that the lessons are helping their young students in a multitude of ways."

"Have you noticed more discussion recently about Artificial Intelligence or AI? When first hearing "Artificial Intelligence" is there an image that pops into your mind? Is it something that you can easily define? Perhaps your understanding/reference point is something you've seen in the movies. For myself, being an 80s child, my initial frame of reference is Star Wars, I immediately think of R2D2 or C3PO. My mind then wanders to thoughts of "I, Robot" starring Will Smith, in which the robots developed the capacity to think like humans, to feel and to take action on their own. And more currently, I think of the Alexa, Echo, Siri and others that have gained popularity, even more so recently. But what is the true meaning of AI and how do we see it in daily life?"

"Games can be a great tool for teaching students about complex topics like digital citizenship, politics and even science. With about 47 percent of kids aged 4 to 13 playing digital games every day, game-based learning is poised to further engage children in the classroom. One classroom in Tampa, Fla., has discovered that digital games can help some children with mathematics. Gregory Smith, a fifth-grade teacher in Hillsborough County, tells Education Week that after incorporating math-strategy games - think word problems with corresponding interactive elements - his students' math-skills scores went from an average of 49 percent to 83 percent. The students themselves also reported more enjoyment from math."

"Is math ability genetic? Sure, to some degree. Terence Tao, UCLA's famous virtuoso mathematician, publishes dozens of papers in top journals every year, and is sought out by researchers around the world to help with the hardest parts of their theories. Essentially none of us could ever be as good at math as Terence Tao, no matter how hard we tried or how well we were taught. But here's the thing: We don't have to! For high-school math, inborn talent is much less important than hard work, preparation, and self-confidence."

"Becoming a coding teacher doesn't need to be intimidating. I've tried to convert real programmers into after-school coding teachers and it completely bombed. Trust me -- as a well-trained teacher, you have all of the skills you need to be successful. Plus, it's not like you have to know enough to make the next Facebook, just enough to teach the basics! So let's get started."