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"Let's get one thing straight here. I love my morning cup of joe. I'm not alone in saying my day doesn't start without it. Sixty percent of American coffee drinkers claim they need coffee to start their day. But when I came across an infographic by Ryoko Iwata, a Japanese coffee-lover with a blog titled "I Love Coffee" who followed research on the 24-hour circadian clock gathered by Steven Miller, a PhD candidate at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesada, I decided to change my ways. The infographic shows the early morning hours are the worst time to drink coffee."

"BYOD (and its initialistic cousin, BYOT), 1:1, and other trends are symbolic of (at least) three things: 1. Schools, teachers, and students want technology in the classroom 2. Technology is expensive 3. Schools are looking for solutions The following excellent graphic from byodsandpit.weebly.com offers a plan to begin guiding your school towards a BYOD policy or plan that works for you. In that way, it is better than copy/pasting another school or district's policy, making sure whatever you come up with is, at worst, personalized for your application."

"It's a query that can give an ill-prepared job seeker pause: So, do you have any questions for me? Interviewers will judge you by your questions. Almost all employers wrap up job interviews by turning the tables and offering candidates an opportunity to showcase how well they understand the role, how interested they are in the opportunity and what plays to their passions points. When the time comes to flip roles and grill your interviewer about the potential job, it can be tempting to ask pressing questions about salaries, hours and workload. But asking questions about vacation time, salary reviews and benefits might be red flags - and worst-case scenario, they might cost you the job. When asking your interviewer questions regarding compensation or scheduling, there's an imminent risk of being perceived as self-serving. Questions that are more focused on achieving results, helping the company grow and showing how well you've researched the role are the most wow-inducing. The goal is to end with a bang and leave a solid impression. We asked managers what they actually want to hear candidates ask during an interview. Below are a few of their responses."

"While doodling has often been seen as frivolous at best and distracting at worst, the idea of sketchnoting has grounding in neuroscience research about how to improve memory. When ideas and related concepts can be encapsulated in an image, the brain remembers the information associated with that image. William Klemm, a professor of neuroscience at Texas A&M University, says the process is akin to a zip file. "This is a way to get your working memory to carry more," Klemm said at a Learning and the Brain conference in San Francisco."

"I should teach my students how to learn about using technology rather than simply having them learn content via technology."

Cell phones have long been anathema in the classroom, banned as a potential distraction, at best, and as a possible vehicle for cheating, at worst. But lately, educators have begun changing their tune on mobile phones.

"Entrepreneurship is often associated with people who assume the risk of starting a business venture for financial gain. However, entrepreneurs exist in many forms: They may be writers, carpenters, computer programmers, school principals or fundraisers, to name just a few examples. What they have in common is an "entrepreneurial mindset" that enables them to see opportunities for improvement, take initiative and collaborate with others to turn their ideas into action. Everyone is born with some propensity for entrepreneurship, which at its core is about solving problems creatively, according to Yong Zhao, a professor at the University of Oregon's College of Education. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? Why China has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World." "We overemphasize the deficits of children, and that's not a good starting point. … If we let people flourish in their own ways, hopefully everyone will find something they want to do." Unfortunately, the current education system doesn't support the development of an entrepreneurial mindset, Zhao says, because of its reliance on standards, tests and a prescribed curriculum, which are all fundamentally incompatible with entrepreneurial thinking. Studies have shown an inverse relationship between countries' academic test scores and entrepreneurship levels, and between years of schooling and entrepreneurship levels."

"According to an article on Time.com about the best and worst learning techniques, active learning methods (e.g. writing) are far more useful for long-term retention than passive learning methods (e.g. highlighting or underline words). One of the best ways? Surprisingly enough: flashcards, according to research from the Association of Psychological Science."

"Skills like vocabulary and foreign language speaking are right in the sweet spot of what unattended and automated-often considered the very worst kind-can do. But it needn't be that way. Handing a student a tablet as they practice basic skills with an app-especially one with adaptive design-is a perfectly legitimate use of edtech as far as we're concerned, and language learning is very much a part of that. So with that in mind are ten of the best language learning apps for 2015, updated to include those with social dynamics, like HelloTalk, recent entries like Rosetta Stone, and stalwart Duolingo. We've also made an effort to include multiple languages, including Mandarin, French, Spanish, and English."

"Two schools are both alike in dignity. Part of our story takes place in Jersey City, NJ while the other part takes place 32 miles away in Roslyn, NY. Some would argue that this is the best of times and the worst of times in education. This case study will celebrate what is good about education today by presenting two stories that illustrate how Green Screen technology on iPad can be used to support authentic student voice in learning environments on different ends of the educational spectrum."

"Well, it's been a long time coming and probably the worst kept secret around the Minecraft in education community but our book on Minecraft is just about to be published/available!"

"Since its humble beginnings as a crank newspaper put out by college students in 1988, satirical news source The Onion has been cracking Americans up with headlines like "Kitten Thinks of Nothing but Murder All Day" and "Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job" (to mark the inauguration of President Obama). How has it managed to come up with so many hilarious headlines for so many years? According to fascinating recent TED Ideas post by ex-Onion staffer Brian Janosch, the answer is a really, really good brainstorming technique -- one you can totally steal."

"I was listening to Chris Molanphy's excellent Hit Parade podcast this week, which is based on his equally great Hit Parade column for Slate Magazine. In this episode, he details the circumstances that lead the Beatles to hold the still-unbeaten record of having the top 5 spots on the Billboard charts all at once. More remarkably, it's not that this feat was achieved through their own talent - it was almost entirely a snafu caused by the lack of interest in the Beatles by major labels. Indeed, much of the feedback they had received from labels and the American music industry was tepid at best and negative at worst. Dick Rowe at Decca Records cemented his place in history by declining to sign the Beatles, saying "Guitar groups are on the way out." He wasn't wrong - the data he had showed that there wasn't likely to be much of a return in signing the Beatles. Instead, Decca signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, who would cost them less money. And so, you're probably wondering how in the world this connects to education. When I look at this moment in history, I see a lot of talented people making choices which are informed by data. As teachers, we too need to look at data. It's how we understand our students better, and when used properly, can be influential in shaping our practice to make our teaching more effective. Certainly data is used as a summative tool, but it is most useful as a formative tool for students and teachers alike. How does the use of data in regards to the Beatles relate to teachers?"

"No one learns without making mistakes. Quite the opposite-we learn when we make mistakes. But in the classroom, making mistakes and taking risks can be at best unrewarded, and at worst ridiculed and unnecessarily penalized. I asked my 21-year-old son the other day what high school class had made him feel safe to make mistakes. He said that he never made mistakes. Really? He explained that he only did the work if he knew he was going to succeed. That made me think about my own teaching: Do I create a classroom where students will be risk takers?"

I am wanting to take a slightly different approach to this weeks post. The past week has seen the latest round of PISA results and the media has had a field day. Headlines have routinely attacked students, educators and education systems in equal measure. The Canberra Times reported that "Australian school scores plummet on world stage", the Sydney Morning Herald led with "Alarm bells': Australian students record worst result in global tests" and The Weekend Australian went with "PISA global educational rankings: Schools fail on maths, science".