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"For those who do not know, here are two basic Twitter principles: 1. If you only follow ten people, you will only see the general tweets of those ten people. 2. If only ten people follow you, only those ten people will see your general tweets. Although some might argue that the right ten people might be enough, I would argue that ten educators is a very limited professional learning network. The never-ending task of building a PLN is to continually follow really good educators to get the information they put out."

"I teach in a small rural school, and more than half of my students arrive and depart by bus everyday. So how do I maintain strong communication with parents when I rarely see them face-to-face? I send home a monthly calendar, and you may have read past posts about using clipboards with weekly sheets and Twitter, but my quickest and easiest tool for disseminating information quickly is Facebook! After posting daily to my classroom Facebook group for two years now, I've gleaned a few tips that I'm happy to share with you."

"There are so many virtual iPad tools that I love using with my students (base ten blocks, sticky notes, geoboard, atlas, glossary, dry erase board…). One free app that can substitute a ruler is Ruler for iPad and iPhone. Have students place an item on their iPad screen or measure distance between two points they tap on the plane."

"For the past few days, I've been playing with a Chromebook. Though I have been an advocate of Google's myriad web products since the beta-test Gmail account that I was invited to open over 10 years ago, I had not previously put my hands on one of these devices. I may be in love. This may come as a shock since I have spent the past two years completely immersed in iPads. I love my iPad too, and my iPhone, and my mostly retired iPod Touch. However, as mobile devices go, I don't see the need for a monogamous relationship."

"Two of the essential characteristics of the 21st century teacher is adaptability and innovation. By adaptability I mean the ability to adapt your teaching methods to the new and emerging learning needs in the different learning environments. As for innovation it is tightly related to creativity. An innovative teacher is one who is able to constantly come up with new ideas and insight as to how to render his/her teaching more engaging and goal-oriented."

"Since I was wake at 5 AM on a Saturday (don't ask), I figured it was a good time to update my Personal Learning Network on Twitter. For years, I've been saying Twitter is the best free professional development tool available; I even teach an online course at two colleges on the subject."

"McGonigal's remarks included a bevy of interesting facts about gaming, as well as a group play exercise - what she called "massively multiplayer thumb wrestling" - and peeks at two of her recent alternate reality games: EVOKE (2010), a "crash course in changing the world"; and Find the Future (2011), which challenged 500 student authors to write a book in one night while inside the New York Public Library. Here are five key things McGonigal wanted ISTE 2013 attendees to know about gaming and education:"

"In my classroom, each of my grade one and grade two students has their own blog. These blogs also serve as digital portfolios. Throughout the school year, the children post artifacts of their learning from all subject areas, including writing samples, podcasts of reading fluency,photos of artwork, explanations of mathematics concepts and videos that summarize their learning in science, health and social studies. (Note: The videos linked to in this blog post work best when played through Google Chrome.)"

"Creating picture stories can be a very effective activity in unleashing students creativity. There are now some great apps that students can use to create and narrate their stories on iPad. I have picked for you two of the most popular apps in this regard. related: Excellent iPad Apps to Create eBooks To create a picture story, students will either use the pictures they have in their camera roll or take new ones and do some customization to them then add audio narration and text before sharing them with others via emails or through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Here are the titles I have for you today:"

"In the last few years iPads and Chromebooks have both seen astronomical growth in education becoming two of the most popular devices for classrooms and one-to-one programs. In light of that it's only natural that power users and fans will compare and contrast their merits, given that so many schools have limited funds for devices. That's basically the setup for this spirited debate by Jennifer Gibson, CEO of PD Learning Network and an iPad connoisseur and Rich Dixon, vice president of professional learning and a devoted Chromebook user. "Sometimes you're forced to have one or the other," Gibson said. Together the pair dissect everything from price - $400-$600 for an iPad mini; $250 for Rich's basic Chromebook - to mobility, weight, screen resolution, apps, and camera quality."

"On July 11 and 12, 2013, Grant Wood AEA will be hosting a conference to celebrate and expand upon innovative classroom integration strategies for the iPad. Join us for two days for workshops that will guarantee exciting, hands-on learning experiences that you can use to enhance teaching and learning in a K-12 classroom."

After two days of talking about curriculum, integration, STEM, STEAM and HASS I am left with more questions than I started with. In some respects, the concept of curriculum integration is simple. It is after all something that Primary teachers almost take for granted. But for Senior and Tertiary educators the question of curriculum integration is inherently complex. At all levels questions emerge of what curriculum integration might achieve, what purposes it serves, what it could and should look like and how it should be supported by curriculum planners. In the current climate, with its debate around the role of education within an innovation economy, shaped by technology and confronting demands for a STEAM enabled workforce the shape of our curriculum is under pressure. 

"The use of rubrics in the classroom falls in and out of favor, as do other trends. This infographic demonstrates why rubrics, unlike other trends, should be here to stay. Rubrics, in essence, are an easy way to score student work objectively. They are succinct scoring charts that allow for student work to be fairly evaluated. Therefore, it can improve teaching methodologies and ensure unbiased assessment. Rubrics can also be used to help increase student agency and intrinsic motivation, a constant struggle in today's reward based culture. This infographic is neatly split into two sections, "Why Use Rubrics?" and "How to Use Rubrics?" This allows the use (presumably a teacher) to easily refer back to relevant information as needed to help deliver quality education, regardless of experience or expertise."

For Halloween 2016, I did a version of Halloween Wars (a Food Network show) with my two classes of gifted elementary learners. I am sharing this lesson through my blog post as it reinforces how I approach lesson planning and teaching. Background Information Principles that drive my instructional approach. regardless of theme, include: Instructional challenges are hands-on and naturally engaging for learners. There is a game-like atmosphere. There are elements of play, leveling up, and a sense of mastery or achievement during the instructional activities. The challenges are designed to be novel and create excitement and joy for learners. There is a healthy competition where the kids have to compete against one another. Learners don't need to be graded about their performances as built-in consequences are natural. There is a natural building of social emotional skills - tolerance for frustration, expression of needs, working as a team. Lessons are interdisciplinary (like life) where multiple, cross-curricular content areas are integrated into the instructional activities."

"The year I started teaching seventh- to twelfth-grade English in Minneapolis, Prince launched his song about urban ruin, "Sign o' the Times." That song was an apt musical backdrop for the lives of my students, most of whom lived in poverty and challenged me daily. That year also afforded me the opportunity to be assaulted with a stone, two chairs, a Rambo knife, a seventh-grade girl's weak jab, and dozens of creative swear words. Fortunately, classroom order improved when I learned that successful classroom management depends on conscientiously executing a few big strategies and a lot of little ones"

"Hello, I am Sam Patterson and this is Beyond The Hour of Code, a podcast dedicated to helping teachers use programming and creative self-expression in the learning experiences they design for their students. This episode is about . . . Chapter seven of my book exploring the instructional models most useful for robot-based learning in the primary grades. This is the last in a mini-series of "how to teach with robots" posts. Robot as Constant Robots used in a lesson should be used to their full potential. What does a robot do? Exactly what you tell it to do. Pedagogically, to capitalize on this, think about the robot serving the role of "constant" in an experiment. Ask a robot to roll forward at fifty percent power for two seconds and that is exactly what it will do. How far will it go? That depends on so many things outside of the robot and its programming. This space, just outside of the robot and its programming, is where teachers build the learning experience."

"As Kristin Berbawy packed projects into her car, she lingered over one in particular. Two 3D-printed Makerbots with wire hooks-a pair of earrings. They matched the white braces on her teeth and the white strands in her hair. Her students had made them-as they had all the projects in her car-in their high school makerspace. She was proud of them. She was going to display their work to other teachers. Smack in the middle of AP exams, a growing group of teachers is pouring time, creativity and energy into activities for which there are no standardized tests: makerspaces. The movement is avowedly grassroots and candidly quirky, and its main gathering is the Maker Educator Convening in Oakland, CA, where Kristin Berbawy was headed with a trunkload of laser cut wood and 3D printed objects. "

"Anna Young helps nurses get creative when treating their patients. In the last year, she's set up two "maker-spaces" inside hospitals and she's continued to document nurse-made fixes and workarounds that make patients' lives a little more bearable. Examples include glow-in-the-dark pill bottles, bed-shower overlays, and a TV remote control for patients with tremors in their fingers. Since Young cofounded MakerNurse in 2013, she's collected more than 50 device ideas from around the country, publishing how-to guides for each online so that others can iterate on the concepts. The first maker-space is up and running at the John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Texas and another is opening soon at South Shore Hospital, in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Each has an array of pliers, sewing needles, 3-D printers, laser cutters, and medical prototyping equipment like "vital signs" construction sets and biocompatible adhesives. In all, about 1,000 nurses have worked with MakerNurse so far. And, through a related organization, Maker Health, Young now wants to involve other frontline workers, and even patients themselves."

"It is common for people to group themselves into two categories; those who are good at art or design, and those who are good at math or science. The reason for this is that many people believe that the skills needed to be successful in creative services do not relate to the skills that are required to be successful in the analytical. Even though mathematics is in the list of the most difficult college classes, in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Many design concepts, such as symmetry, have direct ties to mathematical concepts and discoveries. So, if you are an artist or a designer, there is a good chance that you are already incorporating math into your work, you just may not be doing it consciously. Here are some very specific ways that mathematics has not only influenced design but has acted as a true game changer."