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Yes! Applause to the always innovative, always helpful National Writing Project for joining in the Hour of Code celebrations coming up. Have you signed up your school? Are you ready to participate? If you want to use writing as it relates to Computer Science, realize that this is important to all of us. "The National Writing Project is joining Code.org to support the Hour of Code . The largest initiative of its kind, the Hour of Code is a campaign to recruit 10 million students to try computer science for one hour during Computer Science Education Week (December 9-15). Join the National Writing Project, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and over 100 other individuals and organizations to make history. Start planning the Hour of Code for your classroom (or school) at http://hourofcode.com/ ."

This is an amazing online maths playground with a huge number of tools to help learn and demonstrate every area of maths. Create animations and even embed videos. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/maths

Here's a vimeo about how Mrs.Yollis Mystery skypes with her third graders including responsibilities of each person during the call.This can be used with Google Hangouts. Thank you Sylvia Martinez for sharing and putting this helpful video together.

Plan now to join in on an "hour of code" December 9-15. Even if you don't have computers or have limited access, there are options for you to host an event. (As a bonus, educators who register will receive 10GB of free storage for Dropbox.) Plan an event and plan now. There are great tutorials and information for all ages about this event December 9-15. Join in. "Even if you aren't a student, you can take the Hour of Code yourself during Dec. 9-15. And you can help us recruit others to join the movement - at school, in your workplace, in the community. If you are an educator, host the Hour of Code as an activity in your classroom. If you're an organizer or employer, host an Hour of Code event as a team-building exercise, after-school activity in a club, or elsewhere in your community. Click the appropriate tab, and start planning your Hour of Code!"

I noticed that Wikispaces included Dogo books under a new "Education" category in the widget menu. (This looks like a television on the edit bar when you click to Edit a wiki.) So, Dogobooks is a place where kids ar writing book reviews about everything. Very cool. You can see the most popular books and ti also has book clubs and other ways for kids to connect. This is a very cool site for helping kids love learning and may also augment Accelerated Reader programs nicely.

This is very true. Online tutorials can only get us so far. This is why I'm learning Scratch and brushing up on Java. I may even have to learn Python before I'm done. We need Computer Science but who will teach it? If we only rely on videos, it would be like asking kids to teach themselves math using Khan Academy without a teacher who knew how to work the problems. "The vast majority of my students do very well on their first hour or two of coding using structured lessons, but when they start to write code for a new problem, or hit the first set of bugs, they get frustrated and need help. Sometimes, all they need is a hint, a pointer to a similar problem, or my assurance that they can solve it. In some cases, they need someone to just re-explain it a little differently."

PISA Scores help and hurt... of course, the world won't be happy until every country and every child and every system is at the 100th percentile - something that won't happen. From Valerie Strauss about what Finland should do as the result of their "slipping" scores. In the Washington Post. "Finland should also continue to let national education and youth policies - and not PISA - drive what is happening in schools. Reading, science, and mathematics are important in Finnish education system but so are social studies, arts, music, physical education, and various practical skills. Play and joy of learning characterize Finland's pre-schools and elementary classrooms. "

Share this article with your principal and superintendent - not to pressure them but as many start seeing the wisdom that wise leaders tweet, you'll want to help them along. Principals no longer question the wisdom of writing for the school newsletter - this is just a newsletter but in shorter form and much more personal. It is something you can do. "Great schools (online, blended, and traditional) act as nurturing centers that foster creative development and high-quality art, math, and science skills; and school is the medium to advance human development and better society. The internet took our society into hyper speed and successful schools will quickly follow."

Peggy Sheehy is the matron of gamification and she's one upped her own groundbreaking work in Second Life. She's gamified the Common Core Learning Standards. Wow. One more reason you can't use standards as an excuse to do nothing. "They are also learning to be mighty gamers because Sheehy is gamifying the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS). With the command "Go forth and be epic," students pack away drafts and log on to 3D Game Lab where A Hero's Journey awaits. WoWinSchool: A Hero's Journey is a curriculum based in World of Warcraft (WoW), a massively multiplayer online role-playing game in which players assume characters and interact within an ever-changing, virtual world.  Sheehy helped to frame the curriculum developed by Lucas Gillespie and Craig Lawson with whom she collaborates on the award-winning WoWInSchool project.  "

This is a useful choosing board Apple app to help with communication. Make your boards using the preloaded images or take photos to make your own. Record a word or phrase which is played as each button is pushed. Download the app at https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/soundingboard/id390532167. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Special+Educational+Needs

Excellent article on email and how to get people to join you and learn from your organization via email. Written by Help Scout.

Edtech to help improve behaviour in schools

Visual recognition and intelligent identification of objects is making progress. Soon, just a picture of a child could tell everyone that child's name if simple facial recognition is used. This is more than just facial recognition but is rather, trying to teach a computer to learn. This is an interesting article. "The aim is to see if computers can learn, in the same way a human would, what links images, to help them better understand the visual world. The Never Ending Image Learner (NEIL) program is being run at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States. The work is being funded by the US Department of Defense's Office of Naval Research and Google. Since July, the NEIL program has looked at three million images. As a result it has managed to identify 1,500 objects in half a million images and 1,200 scenes in hundreds of thousands of images as well as making 2,500 associations."

Help pupils make connections in their learning with a metro/underground map.

Birth to Five: Watch Me Thrive! is a set of resources that include developmental screening tools; toolkits with resources and tip sheets; guidance on finding help at the local level; and a "screening passport" that allows families to track a child's screening history and results.

I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I looked at this Fakebook - I love the video and you could really have students do their own videos and embed. This is awesome.

Kim shares her presentation from GEC13. I've worked with Kim and she's been so helpful to me through the years. Hope this enlightens those of you wanting to participate in global projects.

Awesome content idea generator to help you craft blog post titles that will attract attention.

A great flashcard Chrome extension tool to help users learn something new by popping up a card each time a browser tab is opened.

So, teachers think it would help but are afraid to connect to their students and parents via social media. "The survey finds nearly half (47 percent) of all K-12 teachers and 58 percent of high school teachers believe that participation in social media with their teachers can enhance a student's educational experience. Despite the perceived benefits, only 17 percent of K-12 teachers encourage their students to connect with them via social media and only 18 percent have integrated it into their classrooms. Adoption is only slightly greater for high school teachers, with 21 percent encouraging their students to connect with them via social media and 19 percent incorporating it into classroom learning."