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The recent Kindle updates over the past few months have quite a few teachers. In particular, if you have a textbook on Kindle, you can collate notes by color, which is a major enhancement.  This article does a nice job of summarizing the features important to educators. "The update also brings some changes that should be especially helpful for students and teachers, like the ability to highlight long passages that span multiple pages. In addition, the Notebook feature for textbooks has new filtering options, which should help you more quickly and easily find all your notes, bookmarks, and highlights by colour"

" Kristy Cooper's insanely rigorous mixed methods study, Eliciting Engagement in the High School Classroom: A Mixed-Methods Examination of Teaching Practices, published in the April 2014 American Educational Research Journal, does an exceptional job of showing what works. Cooper, an award-winning researcher at Michigan State University with an MA and Ed.D from Harvard, examined the impact of three well-supported strategies that teachers employ to increase student engagement. As you read each summary below, try to guess which practice had the greatest impact." Todd Finley shares the three methods and asks which has the most impact: 1) Lively teaching, 2) Academic Rigor and 3) Connective Instruction. A fantastic must-read on student engagement that you'll want to email your staff.

Offering teachers a ten-year development plan, rather than the cyclical 1-year review meeting could be an integral part of keeping teachers in the profession, claimed Sir David Carter today at the GL Assessment conference in Manchester...

"Crucially, the outcome of being digitally fluent relates to issues of responsibility, equity and access. We all have the right to fully participate in a digitally-enabled education system and in an increasingly digitised society. If we work with fluency in the way we use technologies, we are able to keep ourselves safe online and take full advantage of life chance opportunities such as being able to apply for work, manage our finances, or be part of our local community). "In the years ahead, digital fluency will become a prerequisite for obtaining jobs, participating meaningfully in society, and learning throughout a lifetime. (Resnick, 2002, p. 33) [via White, 2013]" As more services - health, civil, safety, even voting - move online, it has never been more important to ensure citizens are not disenfranchised from accessing services that are central to the well-being of all."

Languages are important. We teach them to children. But we ignore computer programming languages - perhaps some of the most important fluencies anyone can acquire. Instead, we black box them and hope they MIGHT look at doing this in college, when in fact, many of the best jobs and opportunities lie in languages: both "foreign" languages and computer languages. Thought provoking blog post about a conversation: "Many interesting and stimulating things were said, but one I remember was from Peter Pham over dinner. It was a simple line, "why do we teach languages in junior high and high school but not a computer language?" that had profound meaning to me."

Looking at Riya P's Freshman project is a joy. The daughter of a pediatrician, Riya wants to go into the medical field as well. She decided to create a video channel to help children be unafraid of medical equipment. Her dad was the cameraman and said he had a great opportunity to teach her all about the equipment. She far exceeded the requirements of the project. This is something that she will use for her life. We're burning a DVD for her to keep for the future, but you can also visit her website or YouTube channel. Such a lovely job she did. The students took 20% of their time working on a special interest project.

"This is an awesome example of what kids can do when they are properly motivated by a skilled teacher. This is an excellent interactive book! Great job and congratulations to all the seventh grade authors and their teacher!!!"

But the excuses and lead is a great post for administrators to read. Spawned as he watched excuse after excuse scroll past his Twitterfall from a Twitterchat, this excellent post is worth a read. Further proof that when we connect, we put our finger on the pulse of changed and have the conversations that need to happen. Read and respond. Great job, Dave!

This is a lesson plan that you can use as a starting point if you choose to involve your classrooms in the movement to end slavery in the world. Could you imagine if we could leave a legacy of this one thing. Our job is to speak for the helpless and to encourage empathy and understanding for others in this generation of children. It isn't all about what you can get, but about what you can give. This booklet is out of the UK. "The antislavery movement was the first major campaign in Britain to involve ordinary citizens across all classes (as well as the slaves themselves) in the struggle to end the practice. As such it is a good example of how change can come about when people work together for a just cause. This booklet More…intends inspire and equip young people to take a stand against the continuation of slavery and injustice in the world today."

A nice website that does a great job of explaining how to teach non fiction writing to children.

Prompt Personnel Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd. is a leading firm in providing Human Resource Management Services. With over 12 years of experience and expertise, Prompt is one of the fastest growing staffing company. Prompt Personnel Consultancy was incorporated in 1997.

Will you help Silvia Tolisano's students by letting them know what screencasts you want them to record? Thank you for taking a moment. This is a great project she's doing for these 6th graders. She does such a wonderful job of helping students develop an authentic audience.

Tom Bigglestone, who explores the benefits of Philosophy for Children (P4C). Chris Healey, who write about homework in the digital Age. John Pearce, advocates that teachers pledge a pedagogical oath. James Abela gives us a global perspective, writing about his experience in Thailand. Andy Knill waves the flag for the SOLO Taxonomy. UKEdChat Exclusive feature asked teachers what jobs they do if quit the profession. Martin Burrett tells of various highlights observed at BETT this year. Sharon Jones debates how debating can benefit pupils. David Moody shares some Stickmen without Arms! Tina Watson explains how she supports pupils to fill the blank pages. Leon Cych gives tips on how to produce professional video and audio with pupils. We review the book "The Philosophy Shop", edited by Peter Worley.

We have name! Nashville teacher Julie Culp used herself as a photography / privacy lesson for her students. Applause, Julie. Great job.

I play Lumosity to help make me smarter, but if you're starting out in a job or just want to learn more, Mind Tools focuses on career skills. Very niche site and toolkit layout. The world belongs to those who are lifelong learners. It has never been easier but learning is never truly easy - it requires time and commitment - but the resources are here.

Pana Asavavatana, @PanaAsavavatana kindergarten teacher at Taipei American School has created an awesome way to combine Aurasma and Chatterpix to use Augmented Reality in her classroom. I love this creativity but also how many teachers around the world are sharing best practices. Yes, you can use this. Great job Pana!