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Have you ever had to explain what a wiki is? Use this blog to answer.

slide show - what is meant by "the semantic web"?

Here are the most popular items in the month of November: 1. Why Teachers Use Twitter 2. 9 Resources for Website Evaluation Lessons 3. 6 Ways for Students to Publish Their Writing Online 4. 12 Ways for Students to Publish Slideshows Online 5. Intro to Wikis Video Created By Kids 6. Ten Trends to Affect Teaching In the Future (and now) 7. Daylight Saving Time Explained

"Stick Around is a new iPad app developed by Tony Vincent and Morris Cooke (the developer of the popular Explain Everything app). Stick Around gets its name of the sticker element of the app. The app contains educational puzzles that students solve by dragging stickers into the correct locations on the puzzles. The puzzles are essentially matching activities that can be customized by the teachers. The best aspect of the app is that teachers can create their own puzzles"

"Science teachers looking for fun videos to show how shockingly exciting science can be, look no further. Molly Michelson, who produces the Science in Action videos for the California Academy of Sciences, has seen a lot of videos explaining the science in everyday life. She's put together her top five favorite science videos."

"Two years ago I began flipping my writing instruction. I created short videos to replace the "mini-lessons" I had traditionally presented in class. I saw value in allowing students the opportunity to control the pace of their learning. As a teacher, I love having a resource I can point a student to if they are continuing to struggle with the structure of an argument body paragraph or how to write a thesis statement. In the past, I had to repeatedly explain these concepts. Flipping my writing instruction also creates more time in the classroom to actually write."

"When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. What's going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians' brains when they play, and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout."

"When you eat something loaded with sugar, your taste buds, your gut and your brain all take notice. This activation of your reward system is not unlike how bodies process addictive substances such as alcohol or nicotine - an overload of sugar spikes dopamine levels and leaves you craving more. Nicole Avena explains why sweets and treats should be enjoyed in moderation."

"Phrases like "random acts of kindness" and "pay it forward" have become popular terms in modern society. Perhaps this could be best explained by those who have identified a deficiency in their lives that can only be fulfilled by altruism. It seems that we just can't get enough of those addictive, feel-good emotions -- and with good reason. Scientific studies prove that kindness has many physical, emotional, and mental health benefits. And children need a healthy dose of the warm-and-fuzzies to thrive as healthy, happy, well-rounded individuals. Patty O'Grady, PhD, an expert in neuroscience, emotional learning, and positive psychology, specializes in education. She reports: Kindness changes the brain by the experience of kindness. Children and adolescents do not learn kindness by only thinking about it and talking about it. Kindness is best learned by feeling it so that they can reproduce it. A great number of benefits have been reported to support teaching kindness in schools, best summed up by the following."

"The idea that we only use 10 percent of our brains has been roundly debunked - but, according to Paul Howard-Jones, an associate professor of neuroscience and education, teachers don't necessarily know that. In an article in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, he reveals the disturbing prevalence of this and other "neuromyths" in classrooms around the world, and explains why they can be so damaging"

"One of the biggest affordances of technology is towards the enhancement of the concept of personalized learning. Internet and more particularly web 2.0 technologies and mobile apps have provided learners with unprecedented opportunities to learn whenever, wherever, and however they want. At its core, personalized learning is all about tailoring the available resources in order to meet personal learning needs. On a macro educational scale, personalized learning addresses different teaching strategies and instructional methods that focus on the adjustment and leverage of the curricula and teaching materials to help meet a diverse set of students learning needs and interests."

"Here is another great find today from Google Apps Action. Davis created this excellent visual illustrating how to integrated SAMR model using Google Apps. She made use of two main apps: Google Docs and Google Hangout, and for each of the SAMR levels (substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition) she provided an example of a task together with the app to do it. To me, the strength of this work lies in the task samples mentioned here. Teachers can repurpose them and try them with their own students in class. I also find the simple explanation of each of the SAMR levels quite helpful and  would help those new to SAMR better understand the philosophy underlying this conceptual framework."

"Happy New Year! I'm beginning a bunch of curriculum design work in districts this year, and I thought I'd share a few things that are emerging from the process. As I explained before the holidays, the teachers that I know are eager to get their hands on simple but powerful units for primary writers. They have little time to unpack lengthy documents, and while many appreciate the sort of tight guidance that fully articulated plans provide, others prefer to craft their own while aligning to agreed upon targets. This first unit engages K-2 writers in research and information writing. You'll find the overview, calendar, and very first lesson in the document below. I'll be adding another each day until the entire unit is complete."

"Blended learning uses both in-person and online methods to teach students, and there are several different models for implementing it in the classroom. These resources explain the basics of blended learning, but they also dig deeper and can help you decide which approach may be best for your students."

"Internet of Things (IoT) is a relatively new concept that is making such a buzz online. I have come across it in several instances but never really inquired deeply about its meaning. However, today I read a really interesting article by Jacob Morgan entitled " A Simple Explanation of 'The Internet of Things'. In this article, Jacob defined IoT as "the concept of basically connecting any device with an on and off switch to the Internet (and/or to each other). This includes everything from cell phones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones, lamps, wearable devices and almost anything else you can think of.  This also applies to components of machines, for example a jet engine of an airplane or the drill of an oil rig.""

"This year I am working at a new school where all the kids are new Dutch immigrants. That means that they have just arrived in The Netherlands and our biggest job is to teach them Dutch as quickly as possible. We are a 1:1 iPad school and we have seen students benefit greatly from all of the rich-media language learning apps. This blog post however does not focus on the apps, but the features that are built within the iPad. Take some time to explain these features in the iPad's settings to make your students aware of how they can benefit their language learning."