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"How can you create a culture of wellness in your school or classroom? General wellness is an important concept for leading a healthy life wrapped up in a generic term. What does wellness look like and how can you encourage it in a class setting? Sketch-noter Sylvia Duckworth created the graphic above to share tips for supporting a culture of wellness in schools.  Children spend a significant amount of each week day in a classroom, making it not only a place to learn academics but also an opportunity to teach life skills that will serve them beyond the schoolyard, like self-care, community involvement, and fostering a sense of connection and belonging."

"General wellness is an important concept for leading a healthy life wrapped up in a generic term. What does wellness look like and how can you encourage it in a class setting? Sketch-noter Sylvia Duckworth created the graphic above to share tips for supporting a culture of wellness in schools.  Children spend a significant amount of each week day in a classroom, making it not only a place to learn academics but also an opportunity to teach life skills that will serve them beyond the schoolyard, like self-care, community involvement, and fostering a sense of connection and belonging. "

"We published a post last year titled, "Why Good Teachers Quit." Nearly 70,000+ social shares-and scores of comments-later, and it's pretty clear that this idea (captured so well by Kay Bisaillon) is resonating with more teachers than we were aware. We've taken a few different approaches to the idea in the past, including 25 Ways To Reduce Teacher Burnout & Secrets For Teacher Survival, as well as The Best Teachers Don't Do What They're Told, as well as a recent post about "teaching differently." So here we are again, taking another look at teacher burnout, this time trying to understand how it happens. If you're increasingly tired, prone to the Sunday night blues, and have had your July's excitement increasingly replaced by a sense of dread, teacher burnout could be the reason why."

"Much of the conversation around children's use of technology focuses on the potential risks and harms of exploring the digital world. While protecting children is an essential focus, it cannot be the only one. As children's lives become increasingly digital, we also have an obligation and an opportunity to reframe the discussion using a whole child approach, in support of children's ability to learn, create, connect, play, and, more broadly, in support of "well-being" - a state inclusive of happiness, health, safety, and comfort. With this goal in mind, The LEGO Group and UNICEF have brought together a global coalition and initiated a new multi-year project called RITEC - Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children - to empower business and policy leaders to protect and promote children's well-being in a digital age."

"A story I like to tell to get teachers thinking about managing their personal wellness is one I've come to call "My Apple Basket". Every day we carry an invisible apple basket around with us. In it we carry all our "apples", those positive energies we have collected through the things we do for ourselves each day to contribute to our personal wellness. There's the apple for the exercise session I did this morning, the good night's sleep, the healthy breakfast, the time spent in reflection, the one for time spent with family, friends and significant others. You get the idea. If we do things wisely our basket should be getting filled each day."

"Using Google Apps on the iPad can get sticky! Historically, Google and the iPad have not played well together. But we have come a long way in the last couple years! There are now tons of apps for iOS devices that integrate well with Google, and Google has release several official apps for the iPad. There is hope, Obi Wan, Google and Apple can play nice! The infographic embedded below details the most useful Google apps for the iPad. These are the apps that I find most useful not only for teachers, but any Google user. Take a look, download, and explore the wonderful possibilities of using Google Apps on the iPad! (Note: There are a few apps that were designed for the iPhone, but worth mentioning for the iPad as well.)"

"With the recent announcement that Google Classroom will be available to all Google Apps for Education schools by the week of August 11th, schools that have also adopted iPads are interested in exploring the platform to determine if it will integrate into their existing deployment to provide a helpful and approachable workflow solution. While there are currently a number of workflow solutions and Learning Management Systems that work well with iPads, Google Classroom will likely become a top contender for iPad classrooms because of the integration with both the Google Drive and Google Docs iPad apps as well as any number of iPad creativity apps. While there is not an iPad app for Google Classroom, the web interface works seamlessly and allows students to turn in any assignment or file that is in their Google Drive account as illustrated by the video below."

"Using Google Apps on the iPad can get sticky! Historically, Google and the iPad have not played well together. But we have come a long way in the last couple years! There are now tons of apps for iOS devices that integrate well with Google, and Google has release several official apps for the iPad. There is hope, Obi Wan, Google and Apple can play nice! The infographic embedded below details the most useful Google apps for the iPad. These are the apps that I find most useful not only for teachers, but any Google user. Take a look, download, and explore the wonderful possibilities of using Google Apps on the iPad! (Note: There are a few apps that were designed for the iPhone, but worth mentioning for the iPad as well.)"

"Your wallet and your phone are probably the two items you carry around with you the most. What if you can combine the two together and carry just one item? Now you can with the new Q Card Case for the iPhone 5 by CM4. The Q Card Case is a 2-in-1 device that functions both as a protective casing for your iPhone5 as well as a wallet. It has space to comfortably fit 3 credit card sized cards plus cash. The case is made from a special patent pending soft-touch rubber and premium fabric. It also has a cut out slots for quick access to the cards as well for accessing all the buttons on your iPhone. It even has a big cut out at the bottom of the case to allow for in-case charging as well as fully compatible with Apple's Lightning port to 30-pin port adapter. The Q Card Case is available in 4 colors - Black Onyx, Mahogany Brown, Pacific Green and Red Rouge." By-The Xpert Crew @ http://techvedic.com https://www.facebook.com/techvedicinc https://twitter.com/techvedicinc http://pinterest.com/techvedic1 http://techvedicinc.tumblr.com/ https://plus.google.com/u/0/110467075169904075419/

"Regardless of whether you think every infant needs an iPad, I think we can all agree that technology has changed education for the better. Today's learners now enjoy easier, more efficient access to information; opportunities for extended and mobile learning; the ability to give and receive immediate feedback; and greater motivation to learn and engage. We now have programs and platforms that can transform learners into globally active citizens, opening up countless avenues for communication and impact. Thousands of educational apps have been designed to enhance interest and participation. Course management systems and learning analytics have streamlined the education process and allowed for quality online delivery. But if we had to pick the top ten, most influential ways technology has transformed education, what would the list look like? The following things have been identified by educational researchers and teachers alike as the most powerful uses of technology for learning. Take a look. 1. Critical Thinking In Meaningful Learning With Technology, David H. Jonassen and his co-authors argue that students do not learn from teachers or from technologies. Rather, students learn from thinking-thinking about what they are doing or what they did, thinking about what they believe, thinking about what others have done and believe, thinking about the thinking processes they use-just thinking and reasoning. Thinking mediates learning. Learning results from thinking. So what kinds of thinking are fostered when learning with technologies? Analogical If you distill cognitive psychology into a single principle, it would be to use analogies to convey and understand new ideas. That is, understanding a new idea is best accomplished by comparing and contrasting it to an idea that is already understood. In an analogy, the properties or attributes of one idea (the analogue) are mapped or transferred to another (the source or target). Single analogies are also known as sy

"[This is part of the Infographic Design Series. Check out the other posts!] Good visual arrangement for infographics is putting together graphic and visual elements in a manner that draws your reader's attention. The key to achieving simple, elegant and attractive content are ample whitespace and a well arranged layout. What is whitespace? White space is as its name defined-space that is unmarked in a piece of infographic or visual representation. It could be margins, padding or the space between columns, text and icons and design elements. Whitespace matters to create visually engaging content A page crammed full of text and images will appear busy. This makes the content difficult to read. It makes you unable to focus on the important stuff too. On the other hand, too much of white space can make your page look incomplete. It is always crucial to remember visually engaging content is usually clean and simple. Here's an example of what I mean. whitespace-matters Understanding common infographics layouts help ease visual arrangement Infographic layouts refer to the arrangement of your visual elements and your content. When you begin working on a piece of infographic, you should have a story to tell hence, you will need to select a layout that best suits your story. Using the right layout will ensure good readability and convey your message well. We have put together a cheat sheet for your quick reference to the right arrangement to use, here are six common ones you can quickly work with. Infographic Layout Cheat Sheet Useful Bait: Works well with most types of data. Rather than focusing on design, it works more for practicality, thus making it easy to read. For instance, a reference sheet where you can print it out and use it over and over again. If your content has many subtopics to a main subject, this layout enables you to segregate them into clean chunks that are easy to consume. Versus/Comparison: This layout is typically split vertically to

"Educators are beginning to see the potential of using mobile devices and apps for ongoing professional development as well as to improve literacy and cognitive development for learners. Apps are equipped with several features that motivate learners to create stories, presentations, and projects that are hands-on and use their creativity as well as their critical thinking skills. Once an app is downloaded, many features can be accessed without an Internet connection. Educators can also use various apps at conferences to connect with other educators or capture a presentation. Below are the various apps nominated by teachers for an Edublog Award so they must be worth checking out. Each has a link and a description. Make sure to check out the Edublog Awards for blogs, wikis, and web tools that teachers worldwide have recommended."

"The Education category of the App Store features an overwhelming number of apps, great for both parents and teachers. Each subject search displays a diverse and colorful selection of apps to cover just about anything you'll be adding to your digital curriculum. However, with so many choices, it's hard to discern a download-worthy app from the next. (A simple search for math apps yielded well over 200 results.) Here is a list of educational iPad apps by subject matter that you may not have heard of before, but are certainly worth a look."

"Now that you have understood the basics of Digital Citizenship and have read the digital footprint guide, you night be in need of a handy graphic to share with your students to wrap it up all. Well, I have one for you. The graphic below features some wonderful tips and pieces of advice on how to develop good manners online. Look at it as a code of online ethics to recommend not only to your students but to your kids as well. You can also print it and hang it on your classroom wall to constantly remind students of what is expected from them while using the world wide web. Enjoy"

"Infuse Learning is a new assessment service which works very much like Socrative. It allows teachers to set up quizzes which the students can answer via any device which can connect to the internet - whether that's a laptop, netbook, iPod, iPad or other tablet device. Like Socrative it is a fantastic addition to a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classroom. As well as the quizzes you can set up and save, you can also add Quick Assessment questions which can be given to the class at any point in a lesson. These can be quick True/False, Multiple Choice and Numeric answers and Likert Scale answers. There's also the option for students to draw a picture as their response to a question, which is an interesting addition which would work well for students with touchscreen and tablet devices."

"I was teaching a math class probably about 10 years ago, and I remember one of my top students (academically) goofing around and distracting others. I talked to her about her behaviour, and how although she understood the material, others were having issues and she was disturbing their work. During the same class, I remember one of my struggling students, who was often a distraction in class, doing extremely well on an assignment. I went on to praise the student for the effort and how well he worked on this particular assignment. After class, the "high flyer" in my math class came up to me and said something that has stuck to me for awhile."

"Words are the primary tools we use to convey meanings , of course there are non verbal tools as well but particularly in formal educational settings like schools and classrooms, words take the lion share of our language.  Can you imagine yourself delivering a lesson with no words in it ? will it work? Well Peterson has an answer." Peterson is a guy who used to have dyslexia when he was young and he did not learn how to read till he was in grade five. As an adult now, he designed some great applications to help teachers teach students without having to say a word. These are basically interactive learning games based on formative feedback. Watch the 8 minutes video to see the revolution Peterson triggered by the use of his free-language teaching approach. Enjoy

"Yesterday, I co-presented a workshop with a well respected colleague of mine on special education iPad apps that can be used for reading and writing. It was a one-day workshop that was well attended by local educators who were looking to further integrate the iPad into special education classrooms to help further Language Arts goals for their students."

"I am a bit mobile keyboard challenged. While I type like a maniac, I'm what anyone would call a slow texter.  I have trouble with tasks others find simple-finding the perfect emoji, as well as basics like copying and pasting.  So, for me Gboard is a major keyboard shift. Last week, the Official Google Blog announced Gboard. Available at the App Store for iPhone and iPad, Gboard is the essential keyboard app you didn't know you needed.  (Well, I kinda did.)"

"The CSER Digital Technologies MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) are free online courses, designed to support Australian teachers with implementing the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies. These are free online courses that provide teachers with background knowledge about concepts and topics in the curriculum, as well as practical examples that can be tried in the classroom. We bring together existing resources, our own developed resources as well as existing teacher ideas."