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Google just announced you can print Google forms in the way that makes it simple for them to fill in the form online (or for you or your staff to enter them.) This is great.

Some rules have changed as I've been reading up on having Kindles at schools. (Back in February I read a spate of posts mentioning that Amazon said that having 6 kindles share one account was just for "personal use" and that libraries can't do it.) But Amazon does have information on Whispercast which lets you handle distributing books. It is a "free self-service online tool" and I'm thinking that it is something we need to be using. It looks like you can also distribute many of the free ebooks onto Kindles. 

There continues to be a problem that not all books in the Amazon kindle store have real page numbers. If students are expected to cite sources and not allowed to use location numbers, then Amazon can expect the pushback seen on this forum post. Meanwhile, a helpful person on the forum has noted how you can know what to read on the Kindle if your professor or teacher says "read page 80-92" - you can dive into the table of contents on the website and save a copy. This is the only solution. It is time for Amazon to get their act together and have all Kindle ebooks display page numbers if there is a printed copy of the book. If there is not a printed copy of the book, there needs to be a consistent reference point or "page" that all can use for sourcing and citing content. "1. Look up the book in the in the Amazon Kindle store (where you purchased it). 2. Click on the book where it says "Look Inside." You want to look at the table of contents, which will have the pages numbers for each chapter. 3. It defaults to the "kindle edition," which does not have the page numbers in the table of contents. However, there is a tab above that says "Print Book." Click on that. 4. Once you're on the "Print Book" display, it shows the page numbers in the TOC. By doing the above, I was able to determine that "the first 26 pages" = Chapters 1 & 2. I used Evernote to take a screen capture of the entire TOC, which I'll refer back to."

I think every literature teacher should participate in National Novel Writing month in November. It is a great free program that is gamified and electrified by students writing together. Sign up now and plan this into your writing curriculum. You set the goals for your student writing.

This is a popular list on list.ly given by a teacher about iProductivity in the classroom. You can see how the listly tool works and also some great information on using ipads in the classroom. I like how you can drill down to different views including "curated" order - crowd rank and alphabetized. This is like Diigo lists but with crowd enhanced capabilities. Cool tool and informative list.

Chronofencing is the principle of delivering contextually important information at the right time. It is like geofencing (triggers of contextual information at a location) but perhaps more useful. Learn to understand this term as it has important implications in education. For example, students can have triggers before leaving school reminding them what books to take home - or reminders of what to take to school - these time based reminders could be combined with location as with the iphone reminders.

Many students are not globally competent. This includes geography, current issues, and how to connect globally and is all what flattening the classroom is about. It is essential that your students connect with the world. This infographic is one to share with your school board and parents, both of whom are often reticent to connect students because of fear. They are asking the wrong questions. Not, "what are we keeping out" but "who are we bringing in?" Where are we connecting? It is time to flatten the classroom. (See flatclassroombook.com for more info.)

All students and educators participating in the challeng will have their name flown on the Exploration Flight Test-I mission as a member of the virtual crew. This mission will be unmanned and will launch in late 2014. So, kids can be a "virtual explorer." There are 4 challenges, age appropriate, to help design protective radiation protection for astronauts. We need to get students interest in space travel for a variety of reasons. This is a lovely real world project for students to join or could be a project for one of your #geniushour teams. "The goal of the Exploration Design Challenge is for students to research and design ways to protect astronauts from space radiation. NASA and Lockheed Martin are developing the Orion spacecraft that will carry astronauts beyond low Earth orbit and on to an asteroid or Mars. Protecting astronauts from radiation on these distant travels is an important -- and very real -- problem that needs solving. NASA would like your help!"

This website will sweep through your inbox and help you unsubscribe from the many mailing lists. Although Google does filters, I find it much nicer to just have this stuff swept out of my inbox and to unsubscribe. I'm on mailing lists I know I didn't sign up for so this is a blessing.

From my friend AJ Juliani - if you want to do 20% time - perhaps you should join in this MOOC right now - it isn't too late. "In the past year we have seen a boom in 20% projects and Genius Hour projects happening in the K-12 classroom. Amazing educators have pushed this movement forward, and Angela Maiers Choose2Matter campaign is another way for students to find their passions and learn with purpose. This July we are running a "20% Time MOOC". The course offers two outcomes. Teachers will learn about the research behind Google's 20% policy and how it can be applied in K-12 education; and, learners will also participate in their own 20% project throughout the course and present as a final product. I want to encourage you to join this MOOC and connect with so many teachers who are giving their students the power to choose (Access Code for the course is ZXQ2B-8CWMV). We'll be using the #20timeacademy hashtag throughout the course to share with each other!"

Retired teacher looking for advise on a model to change primary and secondary education. E-MAIL ME THROUGH THE SITE WITH SUGGESTIONS http://www.textbooksfree.org/Educating%20the%20Class%20of%202030.htm

Cool trick to archive and keep what you've read in Google reader. Here's how you can do this trick -- that is if you ever used Google reader - or used it a lot (like I did for quite a period of time.) Very cool hack.

Listen up: nothing is ever free! If you're gong to take a MOOC or other course, you have far less accountability and must have far more discipline. Maybe paying for college classes is more paying for someone to hold your feet to the fire. But the failure rate in these MOOCs is atrocious. If you look at the cost per passing student, it might just be back up there at the regular credit price. Nothing, I repeat NOTHING is free and that ESPECIALLY includes education. Read this article and discuss. What do you think, what is the place for MOOCs? (If you write on your blog, please leave a link in the comments so others can see.)

60 examples of how Twitter is being used in the classroom today. From sharing with parents quick takeaways from the day to empowering class discussions, Twitter is a tool you can use. I'm announcing a hashtag for my class on the first day! ;-)

Nice examples and instructions if you're wanting to use Google Hangouts for Teaching and flattening your classroom.

Watch out Silicon Valley. You may just need to relocate to... you might guess it.. Ok - maybe not -- the UNITED KINGDOM. This country gets it. Kids will start learning programming at age 5 in the UK. This is a big deal and something visionary schools will wake up to and understand.

Google now is worth installing on iPad and iPHones and you can get it even if you don't have a Droid phone. This instruction at PC mag tells you how, but it is part of the Google Search app. Download that and follow these instructions to set it up. There are privacy concerns so I wouldn't do this with students. Educate yourself but you might just get a handy personal assistant.

Must read letter over at Edweek from a mom of one child who died at Sandy Hook and one who survived... if you want to be affirmed and remember why you teach, this is the post you should share with everyone. "Your courage will support students who are left out and overlooked, like the isolated young man who killed my daughter. At some point he was a young, impressionable student, often sitting all alone at school. You will have kids facing long odds for whom your smile, your encouraging word, and your willingness to go the extra mile will provide the comfort and security they need to try again tomorrow. When you Google "hero," there should be a picture of a principal, a school lunch worker, a custodian, a reading specialist, a teacher, or a bus monitor. Real heroes don't wear capes. They work in America's schools. "When I asked my son's teacher why she returned, she responded, 'Because they are my kids.' " Being courageous requires faith. It took faith to go back to work at Sandy Hook after the shooting. Nobody had the answers or knew what would come tomorrow, but they just kept going. Every opportunity you have to create welcoming environments in our schools where parents and students feel connected counts."

This app converts study notes to speech. This might be an app that some of you are interested in trying out for your special needs students. "OutlinesOutloud takes the sting out of studying by converting your study outlines to spoken audio. Super-flexible playback controls let you vary speech rate; jump forward and backward with ease, skip rows or whole sections, loop-and more!"

You can now edit files in your dropbox from a web browser. If you 're at work and need to edit the files, Textdrop might be for you. It does cost 20.99 per year to sign up for this but for some of you who don't have access to dropbox at work, this might help you. This is also a model for what we may see Dropbox do itself, as cloud syncing and cloud editing move closer together in all apps that want to compete in the space.

There are many apps you can add to Google Drive including wevideo (collaborative video editing), Mind Meister (for brainstorming) and hellofax (for sending and receiving faxes) and more. Learn how to be more productive with Google Drive.