"Why coding? And why now? Many of us would quickly respond that learning to code is a necessary skill in today's world with the vast amount of technology tools available. However, it is a little more difficult to define why or how it is applicable in our daily lives. As an educator, ask yourself: What are the underlying skills that coding teaches students? What are the learning outcomes we want for students as a result of bringing coding into the classroom? Computer science is more than just coding. Thinking like a computer scientist involves more skills than just being able to write code. Educators need students to bring their creativity and ability to think collaboratively to a problem in order to solve it. The computer will not solve problems without a human first working through how to approach the problem."

"The popularity of mindfulness in the western world has skyrocketed in recent years. It's on the cover of magazines and appears on the evening news. Celebrities swear by it, scientists study it, monks still practice it and business leaders use it to thwart burnout. "

"We all want our kids to emulate qualities of bravery, strength, and intellect. Modeling these characteristics for our kids is ideal but books can also help to solidify the lessons we want our kids to learn. In fact, according to the 6th Edition Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report, families seek out books featuring characters who display these traits. "Characters who are 'smart, brave or strong' or 'face a challenge and overcome it' are the most popular among kids and parents," according to the report.  Here are nine books featuring characters who show strength, exhibit bravery, or are incredibly smart."

"Sandy Welbergen loves geocaching, but especially loves sharing her passion for discovery with her students. She has been teaching for about 15 years and currently instructs grades 5/6 at Beaumont School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where she uses geography as a lens through which kids can learn about their own communities and understand the local issues that affect them. Outside the classroom, Welbergen has served on the board of the Manitoba Geocaching Association for six years as their training coordinator, and despite stepping aside this year, she is still involved with the community. Recently, she has been helping out the Assiniboine Park Zoo with a big geocachi"

"As you can tell from our video, there are many ways to describe formative assessment. Simply put, Formative Assessment is taking a pause in learning to ensure students are where they need to be for a particular lesson. The best formative assessments are subtle, giving teachers an overall picture of how students are learning and adapting to their immediate needs. Think of it as a GPS for the teacher-knowing where students are in their learning and where you should head in your teaching."

"If you've stuck with iOS through the years, you know that each new iteration brings a slew of incredible new features."

"Why is it that some people seem to make constant progress in their professional and personal lives, while others appear to be doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over? While the answer isn't cut and dry, I've noticed an interesting mindset difference between these two groups: they approach obstacles and challenges very differently. The first group approaches life with an open mind-an eagerness to learn and a willingness to be wrong. The second group digs their heels in at the first sign of disagreement and would rather die than be wrong. The way each group approaches obstacles, it turns out, defines much of what separates them."

"Invasion. Takeover. These are the kind of words that have been bandied about in news headlines about robotics and artificial intelligence in the last few years. The coverage has been almost relentlessly negative, focusing on the threat to jobs, squeezing out the human component. While such potential is there, if robotics and AI do become a threat, then we believe this would be a threat of society's own choosing."

"Creating, remembering, using and protecting passwords. It's all part of everyday life but are you and your students managing passwords well? Poor password management can lead to minor annoyances, like someone changing your blog theme, to life changing issues, like identity theft. The divisions between your online and offline world are blurring and many of your most valuable possessions and information are now housed online. So much of what we do online is password protected, from your blog to your email, bank account, social media and more. The advice around passwords has recently been updated and while there are varying opinions, this post will help you learn about the current best practices."

"Imagine a parent telling a child, "I'm just not a reading person." Sounds odd, doesn't it? Now reread the same cartoon, substituting "math" for "reading." Suddenly it doesn't seem so absurd. But it should! As a society ever more reliant on technology and STEM-based careers, we must shatter the myth that math skill is inborn and reinforce that it is the result of intention and practice. It's common to hear well educated adults declare themselves "not a math person," sometimes proudly. Indeed, many people of all ages believe that mathematical ability is something you are either born with or not, rather than something to be mastered with focused effort. This belief is wrong. What's more, it's harmful to kids as they have their first experiences learning math; the attitude that "I can't learn math" quickly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. As a society ever more reliant on technology and STEM-based careers, we must shatter the myth that math skill is inborn and reinforce that it is the result of intention and practice. Reforming these perceptions needs to be a priority for teachers, parents, and creators of new learning tools that align to the way these digital-savvy students learn."

"Are you wondering what coding means for your classroom? Join us for a look at how to include computational thinking into your teaching. Explore the vocabulary of coding and the opportunities for offline activities. Showing cross-curricular links and real world application, this webinar will use both Discovery Education Coding and freely available resources to support the teaching and learning of computing."

"Data scientists are in high demand, and command a median base salary of $110,000. Here are the skills you need to break into a career in the field, according to Glassdoor."

"Being a good digital citizen is more than knowing your way around the web. It's about connecting and collaborating in ways you didn't even know were possible. "

"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?"

"Information literacy has been a hot topic of recent conversation. Many folks believe that web sites that traffic in false information and 'fake news' may have influenced the last United States presidential election. Traffic on the Snopes web site, which debunks false rumors, has never been greater. Ideological separation also is being driven by the ways that we sort ourselves in our schools, neighborhoods, friendship groups, political affiliations, and faith institutions. Already often isolated from the dissimilar-minded, we then also self-select into individualized news media and online channels that can result in walled-garden 'echo chambers' or 'filter bubbles.' To combat our growing concerns about fake news and filter bubbles, we're going to have to take the task of information literacy more seriously. And that means rethinking some organizational and technological practices."

"As some of you may have realized by now, Dean Shareski and I have a new book out. Titled Different Schools for a Different World, it describes 6 key relevancy gaps between today's schools and what students and society need from them:"

"Evaluating a student's understanding of a topic is like taking a measurement. However, it requires measuring something that is difficult to see. It's not like I can stick a ruler into a student's brain to determine the size of their physics stuff. Now, most teachers use indirect means, usually a multiple-choice test or an exam in which students work through a problem. These are poor measures of student understanding. Someone could simply guess, or flub the answer through a silly mistake. So how can I accurately assess a student's understanding of physics? Until someone invents a way of reading a student's mind, I must do something else. I use a combination of written tests and video assessments."

"As a school librarian, I always thought of the notion of collection as expansive. Collections might include any of the experiences we discover, as well as any of the people we meet who might enhance learning for our communities. Among those experiences are virtual field trips. Opportunities now abound for connections to curriculum and student interests. And easier strategies for video conferencing, combined with new types of interactions, make virtual field trips even more affordable and engaging. You don't risk weather conditions or losing any wandering kiddos who can't find their way back to the bus. You can ignore issues of distance relating to both space and time. And these escapes from daily classroom routine can result in very sticky learning."

"Remember the Oregon Trail? Of course you do, it's the game the internet won't let you forget. Thirty-two years after the first full-color graphic version hit the Apple II, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt-the current owner of the Oregon Trail franchise-is teaming up with Microsoft on a new world that ports many of the landmarks and features of the original game into Minecraft. Announced this morning in a Microsoft blog post, the new world, called The Oregon Trail Experience, is exclusive to Minecraft: Education Edition, the version that replaced the popular MinecraftEdu late last year. Microsoft acquired Minecraft from Swedish game developer Mojang in 2014."

"The collection of prompts below asks young writers to think through real or imagined events, their emotions, and a few wacky scenarios. Try out the ones you think will resonate most with your students.  As with all prompts, inform students that their answers should be rated G and that disclosing dangerous or illegal things they're involved in will obligate you to file a report with the administration or school counselors. Finally, give students the option of writing "PERSONAL" above some entries that they don't want anyone to read. We all need to let scraggly emotions run free in our prose sometimes."