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"Often times when I talk about effective use of Google search one name always pops up in my posts this is Dr Russell, search anthropologist. I have been following his blog for sometime now and I have learned a great deal from him on how to leverage the power of Google for educational purposes. Just a couple of weeks ago, I shared here the 8 search skills Russell recommended for every 21st century student and today I am sharing this wonderful visual as a follow-up to that post. This cheat sheet features some important tips that students can use to improve their google search skills. I invite you to have a look and share with your colleagues."

"This summer, I was introduced to sketchnoting and challenged to incorporate  the concept of sketchnoting as a means of note taking.  Sketchnoting is the process of creating a personal visual story while listening, reading, or recording an experience as it happens or on a later date. Sketchnoting brings in a variety of cognitive processes, increasing the connection between speaker and listener due to the engagement needed to listen intently while synthesizing the spoken word into drawings and short narratives.  I decided to to take the challenge seriously."

"This article has been making its rounds in social media. I tend to agree with the idea that heavily-decorated, cutesy classrooms are distracting. I've never been a fan of a barrage of brightly-colored signs, Garfield posters and motivational phrases. However, I also see a real danger in district-mandated use of wall space. Here, the issue is less about bright and cutesy and more about things like word walls and anchor charts designed to create visual cues for learning. I see the point to it, but often this creates a text dump that students have to navigate (rather than having a simple notebook or website with tutorials they can access). It starts to feel like an encyclopedia had vomited on the walls. "

"Looking for some resources on inspirational quotes to use in class? Here are a few of my favourite Pinterest boards where you can have access to a wide collection of quotes and visuals that inspire a love of teaching and learning. Browse through the different materials provided there and you will definitely find some to use with your students in class. If you know about other resources to add to the list, please share with us in the comment form below. Enjoy "

"When it comes to high quality education blog posts. Dr Jackie Gerstein is one of my favourite authors. I always find her articles very insightful and full of new ideas and thoughts to learn from. I have shared several of her works in the past and most notably her popular visual on The Educators with a Growth Mindset. However, today I am sharing with you another of her recent works entitled "Growth Mindset: Personal Accountability and Reflection". This is basically a series of questions Jackie developed based on her teaching experience in order to help students "develop and enhance their growth mindsets through personal accountability and reflection". You might want to have a look and share it with your own students ."

"rt has long been recognized as an important part of a well-rounded education - but when it comes down to setting budget priorities, the arts rarely rise to the top. Many public schools saw their visual, performing and musical arts programs cut completely during the last recession, despite the many studies showing that exposure to the arts can help with academics too. A few schools are taking the research to heart, weaving the arts into everything they do and finding that the approach not only boosts academic achievement but also promotes creativity, self-confidence and school pride."

"If you are going on a field trip, it is important to prepare your students by developing their visual literacy, and by integrating the trip actively into your curriculum. However, important as that is, it is not enough. The museum (and field trip) experience takes place in a very different environment from your classroom. That may seem obvious, but let's take a look at the differences, so that you can help your students maintain their focus to insure they have an engaging educational experience."

"Books play an essential role in all makerspaces, whether they are in the library or not.  Instructional books can support students in learning complex skills and tools. Project books can give ideas and inspiration for what to make next.  Art books can provide visual inspiration.   Professional development books can help teachers who aren't quite sure how to incorporate making into their classrooms and curriculum. For all these reasons and more, every makerspace should have some sort of resource shelf or section that students and teachers can access."

"Tweetroot is an interesting app that is free today and only for a limited period of time. Tweetroot allows you to easily generate word clouds from tweets. Source data of your word clouds can be based on Tweets  a particular user shares, a hashtag, or mentions. For instance, creating a word cloud from the hashtag #edtech will enable you  to visualize the prominent words or topics being shared through this hashtag. You can also use the same strategy to analyze, for instance, your Twitter timeline and learn more about the things you have tweeted the most through a word cloud based on your 1000 most recent tweets. To use Tweetroot, you will obviously need to allow the app access to your Twitter account."

"Drew Perkins talks with Reshan Richards, Chief Learning Officer at Explain Everything about their new Collaborative Whiteboard feature, his graduate level teaching, formative assessment and upcoming book. "

"While there is nothing new about utilising technology to brainstorm, using the iPad has added benefits. The touch interface, excellent visuals and portability of the iPad can make it easier and simpler to encourage students to generate new ideas, organize their known knowledge about a topic and make connections with ideas and the written word. There are lots of great brainstorming/mindmapping Apps available, but one that we have found useful at all school levels is Popplet."

"Sphero balls have become a staple part of many schools Makerspaces and mine is no different. They really do offer amazing creativity and deep learning through visual programming with strong links to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Maths) problem solving skills and computational thinking.  CompNow ran a competition this year to promote the use of Sphero's in education and in particular how they can be included in all areas of the curriculum. It was timely that the Olympics were recently held in Rio and provided an interesting cross curricula topic."

"Stephen Hawking's Snapshots of the Universe is a terrific iPad app for students.  This app includes ten experiments for students to work through.  Students will learn about planets and gravity while creating their own solar system and piloting a ship to Mars.  Beautifully designing and visually pleasing, Stephen Hawking's Snapshots of the Universe will grab the attention of students of all ages."

"Besides the multitude of resources we have covering reviews of hundreds of educational apps, from time to time we create lists featuring our favourite picks from the piles. Our purpose is to provide teachers with tested educational iPad apps that they can try out in their instruction. The last thing to ask an overburdened teacher is to spend hours in iTunes apps store searching  for apps to use with students. We do the curation job for you and it is your turn to integrate and make the best of these resources in your teaching. That being said, here is a handy visual we created a few months ago featuring some of the best educational iPad apps to consider in your teaching. We know our selection is subjective and many other wonderful apps are missing but for practical reasons we only included a limited number of 20 apps. More educational apps are to be featured in future collections"

"We're in the heart of our unit on poetry. My students have learned several strategies that poets use including repetition, onomatopoeia, alliteration, visual imagery and line breaks. This week a few students wanted to draft their poems on the iPad. We had not tried this before, so I decided to let my students "have a go."

"Through the arts, students learn to observe, visualize, manipulate materials, and develop the creative confidence to imagine new possibilities. These skills and competencies are also essential to scientific thinking and provide a strong argument for transforming STEM education by integrating the arts"

"For students who dread writing class, a blank page can look a lot like a ten-foot monolith; an imposing, empty slate towering over their homework list. Visual storytelling is one way to break students out of writer's block, and storyboarding apps are a pre-packaged strategy you can use to bring images to the narrative. Whether your students are afraid of writing or you're simply looking for a way to break up a brainstorming session, these 10 storyboarding apps for iOS and Android devices can help inspire-and organize-students of any age. The best part might be the flexibility of these apps. While they can be used for strict storyboarding in the creation of fiction, they can also be used for other tasks, including documenting project-based learning, sharing assignments, or capturing research notes."