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Katrina Schwartz and Ki Sung at MindShift started a podcast titled "Stories Teachers Share". It highlightst the many varied and interesting work teachers do daily. It gives teachers the opportunity to help the larger community better understand what it really means to be a teacher.

"The game Minecraft is an emerging way to teach and learn basic concepts of collaboration in the classroom. Minecraft rose to popularity due to elaborate pop culture recreations and the ability to explore other people's lands. With Minecraft, students can learn about survival, experience history digitally and create models of cells for biology class. If you are using Minecraft in your class, follow these magazines to get new ideas for your lesson plan."

This offers some research-based evidence about how Twitter can be useful to educators. "In order to convince teachers of the possible benefits of using a new technology, such as Twitter, we decided to look for evidence of its qualities. What in particular, does Twitter offer educators? Is it worth getting involved?" 30 leading educators (with an interest in educational technology) were identified. They were the ones who were currently using Twitter. The study analysed samples of their tweets in order to determine their purpose and the possible benefits of the tweets to their followers. Also examined were a sample of tweets from the twitter streams of two popular educational hashtags: #edchat and #edtech, in order to determine what 'followers' may gain."

"Five free services that you can use to add an audio message to your blog or website."

Educators have always needed to master the understanding of at least two fields of endeavor to be successful. First, they needed to master their content field. They are required to be experts of content. Second, they needed to master the field of education with a clear understanding of the latest and greatest methodology and pedagogy available. The 21st Century has now further complicated the teaching profession by requiring an additional third area of mastery, digital literacy. This is required to accomplish many of the necessary tasks in the space occupied by our nation in a computer-driven world. It is the mastery of this third element that educators struggle with today. It is this third element that also directly affecting the evolution of content and education.

"the Gates Foundation released a report surveying 3,100+ teachers (and 1,250+ students) on what they want from digital instructional tools. The report, entitled "Teachers Know Best: What Educators Want From Digital Instructional Tools," suggests that while many teachers support tech, only 55% of teachers reported available resources sufficient in helping students meet college- and career-ready standards. Educators also spoke to four instructional areas that lack usable digital tools..."

Thanks for sharing this Tony. Looks very interesting - Python reminds me of Microworlds. Might look into running a lunchtime programming club for grades 5-6. Although still trying to get a Minecraft Club started! - unfortunately my school techs don't know Minecraft and although it has been on their 'to do' list from last year limited time makes it really hard for them to get it up. :-( Cheers - Chris Trimnell

From the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning blog - post "the apps cover a wide variety of skills including writing, presentation making, mind mapping, referencing, and many more. In fact, I could not offer you any better than this great list for back to school. "

Nicely explained!

"Reflective practice occurs when teachers step back and evaluate the learning environment. The teacher looks at himself or herself. They ask, "How can this be better?" They identify what went right or wrong. It occurs both during the learning events and after."

Here are my choices for The Best Funny Clips Of Bad Teachers: