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This might be a good time to talk about poverty as superstars are living on just a little. I don't know how they count this because the heating and air on their homes would exceed $1.50 a day. $1.50 a day is the global figure that defines extreme poverty. "Ben Affleck, Josh Groban, Sophia Bush and Debi Mazar are among the celebs who have committed to take the 2013 Live Below the Line challenge issue by The Global Poverty Project. They will live on $1.50 of food and drink a day (no Starbucks for him!) April 29-May 3 to raise awareness about extreme poverty."

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."

A useful maths resource where users estimate an angle and stop the line at the right point. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

It is important to read things even if you know from the title that you'll disagree. This article is sure to spark controversy and be embraced by those who want to keep a traditional classroom in rows where kids listen to lecture. While I'm not in an ivory tower, my experience in the power of the face to face classroom has convinced me that when I teach and integrate all different senses that students learn better. I've also seen (and quoted in Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds in the Choice chapter that discusses differentiation) that dual encoding (listening to words while reading them) improves the ability to learn to read. (I'll have to look in the book for the sources of research.) I do think, however, there are some good points here, although I firmly believe their conclusion that students are going to learn no matter how they relate to content -- is inaccurate. The lines are being drawn between those who want to change and use technology and those who want the status quo. Nonetheless, if you lose your ability to read things you do not agree with, and engage in thoughtful conversation, then you miss the point of being well educated. Look forward to hearing your thoughts on this study.

Students are givin a point on a number line and asked to estimate its value. This is good for number sense / place value.

Make a Text Snowflake with this easy to use online creator. Enter three lines of text, adjust colours and print to make a display or part of a Christmas card. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Winter+%26+Christmas

This is a good Christmas game where you must line up 3 baubles of the same colour to make them disappear. Make as many dissappear as you can to gain points.

Flipping a classroom is not a teaching technique, it is more in line with a philosophy or way of teaching. It involves using technology as a tool, not the main focus, for helping students increase their understanding of science or math concepts.

A simple geometry whiteboard flash resource with a virtual ruler, protractor and more. Show your class how to measure lines and angles. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

University of the people, a site offering free degrees in business administration and computer science continues to gain momentum as leading the effort to "democratize education." Things are underfoot that will radically change the expensive landscape known as higher Ed. The bottom line is that universities without solid online platforms won't be ready for the changes they will need to made. Their greatest commodity will be excellent teachers who can now be beamed from one end of the planet to the other. This crazy upheaval in education is only beginning and the competition is no longer limited by geography.

A fun little art site where your every line grows into interesting shapes. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Art%2C+Craft+%26+Design

An amazing collaborative music maker. Choose your instrument and change the pitch by moving your line up and down. Must be viewed on Google Chrome. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Music%2C+Sound+%26+Podcasts

A fun Tetris-like matching shapes maths game. Line up three of the same shapes to score points. Play full screen at http://www.fuelthebrain.com/Game/swfs/IceBlocker.swf http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

A useful, simple drawing site with pen, line tool and shapes. It also records all the strokes you make and you can replay this and add a message. Then download the result to your computer. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Photos+%26+Images

A beautifully designed set of 20+ maths whiteboard resources aimed at primary aged students. There are resources about addition, multiplying fractions, number lines and more. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

Literature teachers will love these book openings.

This game scores a 19 out of 30 and is a fantastic way to teach students to find the equation of the line slope intercept form. It is highly rated by students and educators. Look at the review to see if it fits your classroom. The game is browser based.

Sentence Scrambler If you have a bunch of sentences and you want to scramble them for use in the traditional exercise of narabikae, look no further than this wonderful tool. ABC Flashcard Viewer Thingy A flashcard viewer, designed for the interactive whiteboard. You can display the letters A to Z in upper- and lowercase, with or without guide lines. All movement can be controlled via the arrow keys and/or the alphabet keys on your keyboard. If you want a local version to use on your own machine, you can download it here. What's this? If you have access to an interactive whiteboard, this is a fun(?) game. A peculiar image is displayed, and students try to guess what it is. You can choose which images you want to show, and you can change the question and answer formats.

Stimulating critical thinking using technology has the potential to create more in depth understanding of science and math content by students when engaged in learning activities which integrate in-class and on-line technology resources. Technology tools support stimulation of both inquiry-based and critical thinking skills by engaging students in exploring, thinking, reading, writing, researching, inventing, problem-solving, and experiencing the world outside their classroom. This is accomplished through learning content through the lens of video to multimedia to the internet (Using Technology to Improve Student Achievement, NCREL, 2005).