"Good morning! Stay six feet away. Pull up your mask. Don't forget to wear it at all times, even outdoors. Wash your hands. Go straight to your desk. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200 germs. Goodbye! Wash your hands. Pull up your mask. Leave one at a time. Don't touch anything or anyone on your way out. See you tomorrow! This is pandemic education. It can feel so cold, so impersonal. The safety restrictions are necessary to keep COVID at bay, but what is this distance doing to our students? Plenty of research indicates that there are both physical and mental health benefits from hugging and other physical contact. Hugs reduce the negative effects of stress on the brain, by deactivating the part of the brain that responds to threats. They increase levels of oxytocin, the feel-good hormone, and ironically, may even boost the immune system. So this year's lack of contact could be taking a toll, especially on those students who don't receive much affection at home."

"Most of us use web browsers out of habit. If you surf the web with Microsoft Edge, that may be because you use Windows. If you use Safari, that's probably because you are an Apple customer. If you are a Chrome user, that could be because you have a Google phone or laptop, or you downloaded the Google browser on your personal device after using it on computers at school or work. In other words, we turn to the browsers that are readily available and familiar. It's easy to fall into browser inertia because these apps are all fast, capable and serve the same purpose: visiting a website. So if the differences are minimal, why bother looking for something else? By the end of this column, I hope to persuade you to at least try something else: a new type of internet navigator called a private browser. This kind of browser, from less-known brands like DuckDuckGo and Brave, has emerged over the last three years. What stands out is that they minimize the data gathered about us by blocking the technologies used to track us."

"Instructional videos can help students learn at their own pace, but only if they know how to use them."

"The Definition Of Bloom's Taxonomy, I said, "In one sentence, Bloom's Taxonomy is a hierarchical ordering of cognitive skills that can, among countless other uses, help teachers teach and students learn." Bloom's Revised Taxonomy is simply an update to the original taxonomy that made expanded on the vision of the original while revising the language and hierarchy of the popular Cognitive Process Dimension (what are referred to as the 'levels' of Bloom's Taxonomy)."

"Math anxiety refers to intense feelings of apprehension in the face of having to solve mathematical problems and can have important consequences both academically and professionally. Indeed, many basic life skills, like setting and sticking to a budget or filing one's taxes are, for many people, an endeavor fraught with anxiety and discomfort."

Anti Asian-American hate crimes, harassment, and bullying have been on the rise nationally, and as educators we have the responsibility of having to address the recent events with our students, with our colleagues, while at the same time, we may be looking for ways to process and educate ourselves. There are many organizations that have already compiled strategies, research, and personal perspectives that we hope will help you.

"Illness from the COVID-19 coronavirus can be deadly, but those whose symptoms persist for several months to years - called "long-haulers" - can suffer at least four lingering neurological effects, including headaches, brain fog, and the loss of sense of smell and taste, despite undergoing hospitalization for the initial contraction of the virus, according to a recent study published in the journal Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology."

"When teachers are given time to work closely with other teachers, and have achievable goals-school culture thrives."

"Preschool teachers can use these activities to promote six early reading skills even as the kids enjoy themselves."

"It's hard to feel connected to someone who's gone through a static photo. So a company called MyHeritage who provides automatic AI-powered photo enhancements is now offering a new service that can animate people in old photos creating a short video that looks like it was recorded while they posed and prepped for the portrait. Called Deep Nostalgia, the resulting videos are reminiscent of the Live Photos feature in iOS and iPadOS where several seconds of video are recorded and saved before and after the camera app's shutter is pressed. But where Live Photos is intended to be used to find the perfect shot and framing that may have been missed the exact second the shutter was pressed, Deep Nostalgia is instead meant to bring still shots, even those not captured on a modern smartphone, to life."

"It can be a challenge to get middle schoolers interested in reading. The thought of tackling a thick novel can be overwhelming, especially during distance learning. Short stories are always a great choice."

"The latest major Windows update brought some new tricks for your browser, Start menu and more. Here's how to use them."

"I've spent a lot of years talking with and listening to some very smart people, and one thing I've noticed is that the people who are legitimate experts in their fields rarely spout off facts like they are the final word. Their assertions don't back you into a corner or embarrass you into silence. Their delivery is often quieter. More nuanced. The smartest people in the world are least likely to have singular, one-note answers to difficult questions. They're more likely to respond with "It depends," and then, if you're willing to stick around and listen, share ideas that take a little more time to develop. And I want to take a moment to elevate that, because I believe that if we spend more time practicing this kind of thinking, if we honor the true elegance of that gray area, we'll all be a lot better off."

"A year into the pandemic, the instructional sands keep shifting from in-person, to remote, to concurrent (or hybrid) and back again. And almost every conversation I have with educators regardless of whether they are classroom teachers, instructional specialists or administrators is around student engagement. Sometimes these conversations are with administrators concerned about the increasing numbers of students on the schools D-F list or with teachers disconsolate about students who won't turn on their cameras, turn in work or participate in discussions and whose attendance (virtual or in-person) is sporadic at best. All of them are asking, with some urgency, about how we can boost student engagement under these difficult and fluctuating circumstances. From my vantage point, the causes and symptoms are multi-faceted. We need to partner with students-individually and collectively-to discover the root causes and empower them to be their own antidotes."

"Early intervention services can make a big difference for students who are at risk for learning disabilities. What should teachers look for?"

"And so last night I made the decision that I have been pulled toward for a long time. The Global Read Aloud will be back, albeit a bit more streamlined, but it will happen in 2021. I feel a bit like a flake, like I played with a lot of people's emotions, but in June it didn't feel possible, now it does. And I hope you can forgive me for that."

"The Windows desktop isn't meant to be a folder for your files. Here are some of the better options to store your files."

"2020 was - to borrow a phrase from a popular kid's book - a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. And for parents, one of the year's hardest jobs was trying to explain current events to young kids. "We are living in challenging times," says children's book author Matt de la Peña - and kids are taking a lot of it in. "While you and I read the news, watch the news, listen to the news - our young children are watching and reading us, and so they're not getting the whole picture," he says. De la Peña believes books can explore deep or difficult issues without hitting them head-on. "I don't think the job of a picture book is to answer questions," he says. "I think it's just to explore interesting topics.""

ÈAs educators and curators of educational technology we know that technology is a tool that complements instruction. As such, the strength of the tool is predicated on its use by a skillful educator. There are certainly some exciting and revolutionary innovations and technology as a tool can be quite powerful if it encourages creative discovery or reinforces foundational knowledge."