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"ll our best strategies, plans, projects, initiatives, etc. will all come to nothing and fizzle out, if we, as educators (Yes, I am also talking about teachers AND administrators) are NOT engaged as leaders and learners."

"Student engagement can be tough all year, but spring fever makes it a bit worse as the weather gets warmer and students' minds wander. After 15 years of teaching, I've learned that a teacher cannot rely on any single solution to keep kids focused on learning. There are so many different ways to get students' attention because there are so many different types of students. However, here are a few ways that have really made a difference in my classes."

"My criteria for picking these tools was pretty straightforward, and will not be unfamiliar to a lot of you who may have a similar criteria of your own: It had to be free, or at least offer enough free services to be useful in the classroom It had to be engaging, interactive, and/or instantly appealing to students. It had to be a multi-platform tool that was accessible on as many devices as possible. The slides from the session are below. If you see something you like feel free to share it with someone else who might benefit from using some of these great web tools in their classroom!"

"Parent Involvement or Parent Engagement?"

Links to a resources and articles on student motivation and engagement.

"Research Findings Released: Engaging Youth in Social Media - Is Facebook the New Media Frontier? "

"Teachers want their students to learn, but they also want them to be interested in learning and excited about learning, which will ameliorate both the experience and the process. If you've ever tried getting students excited about subject material that is less than exciting, you know this isn't always easy. There are a lot of different factors that come together to make a student successful - and the combination varies from student to student. Some rely on natural ability, some rely on the success of their peers to motivate them, others need a huge teacher-parent-peer support system to make any academic success happen. That said, nearly every student can be successful - at least to some degree- if they're engaged."

"Kathy Perez has decades of experience as a classroom educator, with training in special education and teaching English language learners. She also has a dynamic style. Sitting through her workshop presentation with like being a student in her classroom. She presents on how to make the classroom engaging and motivating to all students, even the most reluctant learners, while modeling for her audience exactly how she would do it. The experience is a bit jarring because it's so different from the lectures that dominate big education conferences, but it's also refreshing and way more fun. Perez says when students are engaged, predicting answers, talking with one another and sharing with the class in ways that follow safe routines and practices, they not only achieve more but they also act out less. And everyone, including the teacher, has more fun. "If we don't have their attention, what's the point?" Perez asked an audience at a Learning and the Brain conference on mindsets. She's a big proponent of brain breaks and getting kids moving around frequently during the day. She reminded educators that most kids' attention spans are about as long in minutes as their age. So a third-grader can concentrate for about eight minutes before losing interest. It's a teacher's job to make sure there are lots of quick, effective brain breaks built into the lesson to give children a moment to recalibrate. Perez says teachers must be prepared for a diverse cross section of learners with a large toolkit of strategies for teaching in multiple modalities, with many entry points to participation and content."

"When a school makes the decision to actively engage its diverse community of families, the benefits far outweigh the effort. Check out these eight ways to do it."

"Satisfaction and engagement may not be the most common feelings among students studying introductory calculus. According to Jo Boaler, a professor of math education at Stanford, roughly 50 percent of the population feels anxious about math. That emotional discomfort often begins in elementary school, lingering over students' later encounters with algebra and geometry, and tainting the subject with apprehension-or outright loathing. Professor Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, associate professor of education, psychology, and neuroscience at the University of Southern California has explored how emotions are tied to learning. "Emotions are a piece of thinking," she told me; "we think of anything because our emotions push us that way." Even subjects widely considered to be outside the realm of emotion, like math, evoke powerful feelings among those studying it, which can then propel or thwart further learning."

"ust as interactive white boards and iPads are changing how you interact with students, online applications enhance (and increase!) parent engagement in the classroom. Here are top apps and tech solutions that are trending in the classroom and helping get more parents involved: Skype: Skype for compu"

"I took my handicapped dog of 15 years for a walk in the grass. Maddie has gone from not being able to walk on her hind legs (a neurological problem) to gradually being able to walk with an awkward, back-legs-don't-really-know-where-they're-landing gait. Let me relate Maddie's experience to brain-compatible elements that my teachers implement at New Morning School every day. I provide my dog with the choice to engage in walking every day; she loves it. When children engage in activities they view as pleasurable, and when the projects are ones they have chosen, just as Maddie does, dopamine is released in the brain. This neurotransmitter increases attention and helps information to be stored in long-term memory.1"

"Earlier this year, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York, visitors paraded through the fifth floor to see a retrospective dedicated to the abstract expressionist Frank Stella. Although many of the works on display were four or five decades old, in some ways the show felt tailor-made for the Instagram age: a riot of vibrant colors and textures, 20-foot-long reliefs, and sculptures as jagged and dynamic as 3-D graffiti. Visitors one busy Saturday afternoon stopped in front of artworks, lined up shots on their phones, snapped a few photos, and then moved on to the next piece. Some paused briefly to consider a particular painting; more stared down at their screens, furiously filtering. Few noticed an elderly gentleman sitting on a bench in one of the smaller rooms, watching the crowd engage with his work. The only visitor in the gallery not clutching a phone was Stella himself. Museum directors are grappling with how technology has changed the ways people engage with exhibits. But instead of fighting it, some institutions are using technology to convince the public that, far from becoming obsolete, museums are more vital than ever before. Here's what those efforts look like."

"When you can get students talking and teaching each other, adding movement or gestures into the process, the students learn and retain more. Whether you call this process "Brain-Based Learning" or "Whole-Brain Learning," the concept is the same. The goal of brain-based learning is to "engage your learners and do it with strategies that are based on real science" (Jensen). Their learning increases because they are engaging more parts of their brain during the teaching process."

So, if restricting access to these devices isn't the answer, how do we address their presence in the classroom and use these devices to engage rather than disengage students' attention? Here are a few suggestions…

"Inquiry-based learning is more than asking a student what he or she wants to know. It's about triggering curiosity. And activating a student's curiosity is, I would argue, a far more important and complex goal than the objective of mere information delivery. Nevertheless, despite its complexity, inquiry-based learning can be somehow easier on teachers, too. True, it's seemingly easier because it transfers some responsibilities from teachers to students, but it's really easier because releasing authority engages students. Teachers who use inquiry-based learning combat the "dunno" -- a chronic problem in student engagement.  Let's face it, when you ask a student something like, "What do you want to know about _______?" you are often met with a shrug, or a, "dunno." Inquiry-based learning, if front-loaded well, generates such excitement in students that neurons begin to fire, curiosity is triggered, and students can't wait to become experts in answering their own questions."

"CS Unplugged is a collection of free learning activities that teach Computer Science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons and lots of running around. The activities introduce students to Computational Thinking through concepts such as binary numbers, algorithms and data compression, separated from the distractions and technical details of having to use computers. Importantly, no programming is required to engage with these ideas! CS Unplugged is suitable for people of all ages, from elementary school to seniors, and from many countries and backgrounds. Unplugged has been used around the world for over twenty years, in classrooms, science centers, homes, and even for holiday events in a park!"

"The world as we know it has fundamentally changed our learners.  It is not that they are learning differently per say, but the environment in which they learn has dramatically changed.  The challenge for educators and schools today is to make learning REAL (relevant, engaging, authentic, and lasting) for all students and aligning it more with their world.  A great deal of emphasis has been placed on personalized opportunities for students.  Whereas there are many benefits with this approach, the reliance on technology platform and human interaction can take away from intended outcomes. REAL learning places a greater emphasis on making learning personal for students.  Image credit: http://pblstem.com/ Below are some quick tips that can make learning more REAL (relevant, engaging, authentic, and lasting):"

"What does it mean when people talk about "student voice and choice" in education? Educators are always thinking on how best to engage the young people we work with; perhaps one way to capture their attention is right under our noses. If students feel that that their opinions and ideas are heard and valued by their peers and teachers, they're much more likely to be engaged with their education. These 7 videos offer up strategies for giving your students more agency in their lessons and day-to-day classroom life."

"What does it mean when people talk about "student voice and choice" in education? Educators are always thinking on how best to engage the young people we work with; perhaps one way to capture their attention is right under our noses. If students feel that that their opinions and ideas are heard and valued by their peers and teachers, they're much more likely to be engaged with their education. These 7 videos offer up strategies for giving your students more agency in their lessons and day-to-day classroom life."