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I have the privilege of teaching my gifted elementary students for multiple years. At my one school, I have them in class for a full day each week, and each year I have special thematic days for which the students get very excited, e.g., Halloween and Day of the Dead "Wars," Valentines Day, Book Celebrations, and Pi Day. I love planning a variety of interdisciplinary activities for these days and I love watching how 100% are fully engaged for the entire time.

"In a perfect world, all of our students would come to school every day well rested, well fed, clean, healthy, happy, feeling good about themselves and ready to learn. But some of the time, and perhaps for a significant segment of our students, that is not the reality. So yes, schools need to be clear on their priorities and make tough choices in supporting students while making sure their basic and psychological needs are met before we can aspire to assist them with their self-fulfillment needs. It's a delicate dance schools must do in supporting students with their varying needs; a balancing act of sorts that comes with great consequence. What complicates this even further is the reality of the very dynamic, digital world our students are growing up in. With a shifting world, comes shifting needs. And along with shifting needs comes a shifting role that schools must take on in order to best prepare students moving forward. We must revisit the graphic above to explore and best support students with their changing needs in our DIGITAL WORLD. In some cases, students get these emerging needs related to our shifting world met at home, but for others, this is not the case for a variety of reasons."

"ometimes, your average tape just won't do. Sometimes you need a tape with attitude. Maybe you have a craft that needs to be more colorful, or you want to add a little bit of a pattern to that DIY project. And yes, sometimes you just want a tape that's more, well, bacon-y. Whatever the occasion, we've got a tape to match. Our new Duck Tape prints come in a wide variety of fun colors and styles, perfect for any creative project or home repair."

"Just glance at your inbox and odds are you'll find at least one variety of phishing scam or email hack. Whether it's spear phishing, spoofing, account takeovers through embedded malware, or that time-honored plea from a Nigerian prince, there's no doubt that our schools' email systems are under near-constant attack. One careless click of a link can turn a teacher's account into a spam factory, landing your email system on a blacklist and cutting off communication with the rest of the world. Providing employee tax information to a phisher posing as your superintendent, for example, can result in the identity theft of hundreds of employees. The sad truth is that phishing and spamming scams are now part of life in this digital age. But through more engaging education, more authentic practice, and more creative protection practices, schools have a much better chance of mitigating the impact."

"I've said before that listening is one of my biggest challenges when learning a language. My Speak from Day One approach to learning langauges, means I'm usually stronger at speaking than listening. With that in mind, I've collected over 50 resources to help Spanish learners improve their listening skills. I've organised this collection into five categories: Videos: Watching videos helps you understand body language and provides valuable visual cues for your listening practice. Podcasts and Radio: For covering a variety of topics and speaking styles, podcasts and online radio can't be beat. Music: Listening to music gives you a look at the creative and poetic side of a language. News: This provides you with more formal, standard use of the language, combined with contemporary topics. Lessons: It is helpful to listen to Spanish in a structured environment, especially when you are first starting out. These Spanish listening resources are for everyone, regardless of your level. So, let's get started!"

"Teaching news literacy is more necessary and challenging than ever in a world where news is delivered at a constant pace from a broad range of sources. Since social media and filter bubbles can make it challenging to access unbiased, factual information, we must equip students to be critical as they access news sources for a variety of purposes. This live, interactive edWebinar will give an overview of the phenomenon of fake news going viral and tools educators can use to help students develop news literacy skills."

"Math Playground is a great website containing hundreds of mathematics games appropriate for K-8 students. I first reviewed the site back in 2008. Whenever I have returned to it since then, more games and other helpful features have been added to it. Math Playground offers a huge variety of math games for students. You can locate games according to suggested grade level, by topic, or by question type. Students who need a refresher on a skill, can probably find one in Math Playground's video library. Math Playground's video library offers more than 100 instructional videos organized according to topic. To the right side of each video students will see some suggested games aligned to the topic covered in the instructional video."

Any internet search will show that there are a huge number of online tools available for the creation on polls and surveys. The ones included here are some of the best I have used and show some of the variety of polling tools available.

"Diigo is an excellent social bookmarking tool that enable you to save, annotate, and share bookmarks. The power of Diigo lies in the distinctive features that it offers to teachers and educators. There is a special account for K-12 and higher-ed educators that empower registered teachers with a variety of tools and features. One of the best things you can do with the Educator account is creating a Diigo group for your class. You can do this without the need for students emails. You can also set the privacy settings of your group so that only you and your students can access and see what you share there. You can also alternate moderators for class students can take turns in class moderation. Besides using your Diigo class to share with your students websites and content you find on the web, students can also use it for collaboration on research projects, group bookmarks and annotation."

"Truth Decay - the diminishing role that facts, data, and analysis play in political and civil discourse - appears to result, in part, from an increasingly complex information ecosystem. Technology, in particular, offers continual access to information of varying quality and credibility, information that can blur the line between fact-based evidence and opinion. Not everyone is equipped with the skills necessary to navigate such uncertain terrain. The purpose of this report is to describe the field of media literacy (ML) education and the ways in which ML education can counter Truth Decay by changing how participants consume, create, and share information. One limitation of this research base arises from the variety of ways that literature defines and measures ML outcomes; while a multiplicity of viewpoints can be beneficial, it also presents challenges in terms of aggregating findings across studies. Despite this, the authors describe existing evidence that ML could be a useful tool for combating Truth Decay. They also provide an inventory of ML offerings available to the public. Finally, the authors make suggestions for moving forward, with the specific recommendation that professionals in ML and related fields strengthen their communication and collaboration, considering where there are opportunities for a common approach to researching ML. The authors recommend that policymakers and practitioners increase participation from diverse constituencies in scaling ML efforts"

"This set of tutorials provides instructions on how to record audio material from a variety of sources and then deploy it to CD, your computer or portable music player."

"Please, No More Professional Development! By Peter DeWitt on April 17, 2015 8:10 AM Today's guest blog is written by Kristine Fox (Ed.D), Senior Field Specialist/Research Associate at Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations (QISA). She is a former teacher and administrator who has passion for teacher learning and student voice. Kris works directly with teachers and leaders across the country to help all learners reach their fullest potential. Peter DeWitt recently outlined why "faculty meetings are a waste of time." Furthering on his idea, most professional development opportunities don't offer optimal learning experiences and the rare teacher is sitting in her classroom thinking "I can't wait until my district's next PD day." When I inform a fellow educator that I am a PD provider, I can read her thoughts - boring, painful, waste of time, useless, irrelevant - one would think my job is equal to going to the dentist (sorry to my dentist friends). According to the Quaglia Institute and Teacher Voice and Aspirations International Center's National Teacher Voice Report only 54% percent of teachers agree "Meaningful staff development exists in my school." I can't imagine any other profession being satisfied with that number when it comes to employee learning and growth. What sense does it make for the science teacher to spend a day learning about upcoming English assessments? Or, for the veteran teacher to learn for the hundredth time how to use conceptual conflict as a hook. Why does education insist everyone attend the same type of training regardless of specialization, experience, or need? As a nod to the upcoming political campaigns and the inevitable introduction of plans with lots of points, here is my 5 Point Plan for revamping professional development. 5 Point Plan Point I - Change the Term: Semantics Matter We cannot reclaim the term Professional Development for teachers. It has a long, baggage-laden history of conformity that does not

"Although it's difficult to change the way the (school) system operates, it is possible to adjust how you operate within the system. Introducing meditation and mindfulness techniques in the classroom not only allows you to create a calmer environment, the practice has proven to have verifiable benefits on the human brain. A 2011 Harvard study of MRI images showed a thickening in the cerebral cortex (an area responsible in part for attention and emotional integration) in meditation participants in as little as 8 weeks. So, it's more than a good habit and some quiet time in the classroom, you may be helping the brains of your students develop even more than you realize. Where do you even begin teaching meditation when you may not be familiar with the practice yourself? Although it seems like an incongruous match, this is yet another area where technology steps in to make learning convenient, and a variety of apps offer options for every age, ability, and amount of available time. Here are a few to experiment with as you get started."

"There are an amazing variety of robot kits available, but which one is right for you? There is no such thing as the best kit, just the one most suitable for your purposes. Still, the number of choices can be confusing. Why start with a kit? Well, there are several advantages. Generally, kits will be cheaper than buying all the same parts. The companies that put kits together buy parts in quantity, usually passing the savings to you. You also save on shipping costs, since you buy one box from one supplier. It is often a challenge to get all the parts you need for a robot from a single source, so you end up paying a significant amount in shipping costs."

"Below is an infographic we created for the post we published last week featuring some of the best YouTube channels for Math teachers. 'These channels provide a wide variety of  videos, tutorials and animated courses covering different mathematical concepts from Algebra to Geometry.'"

"When it comes to organizing one's workflow and enhancing productivity iPad can do wonders. There are a wide variety of wonderful apps you can utilize to transform your digital experiences and be more productive. The collection below features some of favourite picks in this regard. These are apps that can help facilitate your workflow, manage your tasks and to-do lists, create, share  and sync your files and documents across different devices and platforms. We invite you to check them out and share with us your feedback in our Facebook page."

"Are you wondering which devices will support iOS 11? While iOS 11 includes a variety of new features and refinements to the Apple operating system, only certain model iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices will support the iOS 11 release. Fortunately the compatible devices list for iOS 11 is fairly sprawling, and while a few devices did not make the list you will find that most modern iPhone and iPad hardware will support the latest release when it debuts in the fall."

"Below is a collection of some new educational websites we unearthed from the accumulated  piles of emails in our inbox. These are tools that you can use for a variety of educational purposes including: provide students with engaging arithmetic exercises to practice multiplication tables, easily create animated and explainer videos to share with students, develop educational apps appropriate for your own students or kids, upload and share large files, enhance students critical thinking and spacial awareness skills using a number of challenging puzzle games, and many more."

"Available as a web-based tool or an iPad application, Padlet allows teachers and students to create virtual bulletin boards where collaboration, reflection, publishing and sharing of information can occur. As a synchronous learning environment, Padlet supports interaction, sharing, and collaboration in real-time or as an asynchronous learning environment allowing students to learn at their own pace and time. When using Padlet, users can display information in a wide variety of file types, including: links to Google Docs, display images of student work, text, audio reflections, and videos from the camera roll or YouTube. Padlet's formats  allow for a more customized experience for users. A mind-mapping format called Canvas provides the opportunity to move sticky notes to facilitate the creation of mind maps. Users  create visual connections among concepts, facts, and thoughts while providing a way to organize and synthesize information. Recently, I've begun to use Canvas as my "go to" mind-mapping tool. The Canvas format enables teachers and students to work collaboratively across devices and settings while helping learners to see relationships between concepts.  Canvas gives students a way to visually represent their thinking while providing teachers insight into a student's understanding of a specific concept or idea."

The K-12 Computer Science Framework was developed for states, districts, schools, and organizations to inform the development of standards and curriculum, build capacity for teaching computer science, and implement computer science pathways. The framework Computer science is powering approaches to many of our world's toughest challenges. The K-12 Computer Science Framework informs standards and curriculum, professional development, and the implementation of computer science pathways. 2 K-12 Computer Science Framework Executive Summary promotes a vision in which all students critically engage in computer science issues; approach problems in innovative ways; and create computational artifacts with a practical, personal, or societal intent. The development of the framework was a community effort. Twenty-seven writers and twenty-five advisors developed the framework with feedback from hundreds of reviewers including teachers, researchers, higher education faculty, industry stakeholders, and informal educators. The group of writers and advisors represents states and districts from across the nation, as well as a variety of academic perspectives and experiences working with diverse student populations.