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I consciously overplan the first few days. The worst possible first-day scenario is to arrive unprepared. Over the years, I've collected a number of first-day activity ideas - far too many to use. I've pared down the activities based on the following considerations: My first goal is to build classroom community, making all students feel comfortable and successful. My second goal is to establish routine. My third goal is to formatively assess students' current levels in all subject areas. It's never too early to begin thinking about parent night. I choose activities that accomplish at least two of the goals stated above.

Can a decent education turn young criminals around? Tony Wilson goes inside Victoria's toughest youth prison to see a remarkable new school in action. The first minute of the first day at Parkville College began with a teacher, Jess Appeldorff, shaking the hands of eight teenage boys and thanking them for coming to class. The school's other four teachers were there, as was their principal, 40-year-old Brendan Murray. The school was Murray's brainchild and it was an auspicious moment: Victoria's highest security youth justice centre - comprising a cluster of buildings collectively known as The Precinct - was about to undertake a bold educational experiment, and these boys from the college's North Remand had just received what Murray called "the three-quarter-time speech of my life".

"Literacy is changing. It really is. Even in my grade one classroom as the students begin to learn their letters and sounds, as they start to put those letters and sounds together into words, and as they take their first hesitant steps to read and write. The change in our classroom was subtle at first. When my students began writing the word we with two i's, I smiled and talked about the more traditional spelling of the word. When students came to school with a clear understanding of what it meant to get to the next level or to have several lives, I took notice of the new vocabulary they had."

John Carty discusses what an anthropologist does. Isn't this what we want our student to do? To become historians and or anthropologists and inquire into the cultural aspects of the first Australians.

The important issue here for us is not so much that change is occurring so quickly when it comes to the prospects of work for our kids. As technology evolves, there's no doubt that more and more traditional jobs are going to be replaced and new, different ones created. Whether you believe that's "progress" or not, it's hard to slow it down.

Ice Breakers are a great way to get people to learn each others names, find out interesting things about one another, and help people begin new relationships. Aside from name games, ice breakers provide a way to establish common ground between participants, get everyone moving, and create a inviting environment. These type of activities are especially important on the first day of camp - in fact, leading fun ice breakers helps counselors set ground rules, ease camper anxiety, and start the day off on the right foot.

One of our most innovative, popular thinkers takes on-in exhilarating style-one of our key questions: Where do good ideas come from? With Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson pairs the insight of his bestselling Everything Bad Is Good for You and the dazzling erudition of The Ghost Map and The Invention of Air to address an urgent and universal question: What sparks the flash of brilliance? How does groundbreaking innovation happen? Answering in his infectious, culturally omnivorous style, using his fluency in fields from neurobiology to popular culture, Johnson provides the complete, exciting, and encouraging story of how we generate the ideas that push our careers, our lives, our society, and our culture forward. Beginning with Charles Darwin's first encounter with the teeming ecosystem of the coral reef and drawing connections to the intellectual hyperproductivity of modern megacities and to the instant success of YouTube, Johnson shows us that the question we need to ask is, What kind of environment fosters the development of good ideas? His answers are never less than revelatory, convincing, and inspiring as Johnson identifies the seven key principles to the genesis of such ideas, and traces them across time and disciplines. Most exhilarating is Johnson's conclusion that with today's tools and environment, radical innovation is extraordinarily accessible to those who know how to cultivate it. Where Good Ideas Come From is essential reading for anyone who wants to know how to come up with tomorrow's great ideas.

Learning in Hand is an educator's resources for mobile and digital learning. It was started in 2002 as part of Tony Vincent's classroom website. At first focusing on Palm handhelds, Learning in Hand now encompasses all kinds of mobile and digital learning. Tony Vincent started teaching fifth grade in Omaha, Nebraska fifteen years ago when it wasn't so easy to publish online.

Last month we posted a free digital citizenship poster for our educator community to download. The response we received after posting it was incredible - more than 20,000 downloads in the first week! After publishing the post, many international educators requested a version of the poster in their native language and today we're please to announce that it's now available in Dutch, French, German, Greek and Spanish. In addition to these new languages, we also created a black and white version for those looking for a more "printer-friendly" version.

My first year teaching a literacy coach came to observe my classroom. After the students left, she commented on how I asked the whole class a question, would wait just a few seconds, and then answer it myself. "It's cute," she added. Um, I don't think she thought it was so cute. I think she was treading lightly on the ever-so shaky ego of a brand-new teacher while still giving me some very necessary feedback.

3D Animation - Landing at Gallopolo