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A good pep talk has three elements according to science 1) "uncertainty reducing language" 2) empathetic language and 3) meaning-making language. This applies to sports and the classroom and life. This is from the Harvard Business Review.

Can you help students motivate themselves? Yes you can! Larry Ferlazzo shares some incredible ideas in this blog post over on Edutopia with more than 25,000 shares as of this time. We can help students motivate themselves.

"Ainsworth, Prain and Tyler  (2011) in a paper in Science argue that  drawing  can play a number of  important roles in learning:, namely: Drawing to enhance engagement - surveys have shown than when students draw to explain they are more motivated to learn compared to traditional teaching of science. Drawing to learn to represent in science - the process of producing visual representations  helps learners understand how scientific representations work. Drawing to reason in science - student learn to reason like scientists as they select specific features to focus on in their drawings, aligning it with observation, measurement and/or emerging ideas Drawing as a learning strategy - if learners read a text and then draw it, the process of making their understanding visible and explicit helps them to overcome limitations in presented material, organise and integrate their knowledge and ultimately can be transformative. Drawing to communicate - discussing their drawings with their students provides teachers with windows into students' thinking as well being a way that the peers can share knowledge, discovery and understanding."

And I'm seeing this too. This generation wants to start their own business. We see this with Shark tank type experiences. This is a cool overview of what one college is doing as they literally help students start businesses in school instead of doing projects that go in the trash.

Tons of free footage, audio, images and 3D models that you can download and use in your projects.

Tackk is a website builder to build a beautiful web page.

Great article from Larry Ferlazzo picked up by the Washington Post. Topping the list: Common Core.

Help your kids submit their idea and work to Quest to matter. This is a great way to showcase what your students are doing. It will also open up opportunities for mentoring. If you know a kid who is doing something cool to change the world - SUBMIT IT. The end date is June 7th. Why not have your class create a quest to matter. If you haven't had a chance to do a genius project or some creative teacherpreneurship with passion projects - USE THIS opportunity. My friend Angela Maiers had this idea and many have joined in (like me) to help create a website showcasing and promoting all the great work that students are doing as social entrepreneurs to change the world. There will be a winning project that is showcased and mentored. 

This is a call out specifically to my friends out there in the Atlanta area or anywhere in Georgia to put in for a poster session at Georgia Tech's conference about the Foundations for the future. I wish I could get away but am a bit tied up at school right now. Here's the information and link: "Foundations for the Future (F3), a K-12 outreach and research program at Georgia Tech Research Institute, knows that Georgia teachers are using technology in amazing ways to inspire and engage students. One of the most frequent comments we hear is that it is difficult for educators to know what's working for other educators because there is so much going on, not everyone can afford to attend conferences, and access to technology is inconsistent across the state. We want to honor and highlight teachers and their projects. What better way to get inspired than through a fellow colleague! What better way to meet other passionate educators and share your experiences! F3 is hosting the 2013 F3 Educator Showcase during our May Explorers Guild meeting. The showcase will include a panel discussion along with a poster session. If you are interested in applying for the poster session, all you need to do is follow the guidelines below. Posters will be chosen by a selection committee of F3 partners and Georgia Tech colleagues. Chosen posters will be printed for participants so that after the event they can take the posters back to their school to continue highlighting the good work taking place there! This event helps support F3's mission to help acquire and leverage instructional technology resources for Georgia's classrooms, schools, and districts, share best practices, and establish a community of learners. We look forward to your submissions and can't wait to see you all at the event in May!   Guidelines for Poster Abstract Submission: Title: Accurately and concisely present your idea in 15 words or less Abstract: In 350 words or less, tell us about how using technology

Gamification is one response. By embedding diverse achievements into activities and assessments, learning progress can be refracted infinitely. These systems would be able to more flexibly respond to unique learner pathways and abilities, and would further serve as encouragement mechanics -- instead of one carrot stick, there are hundreds. And not just carrots, but every fruit and vegetable imaginable.

January is national slavery and human trafficking prevention month. I don't care if this is an unsavory topic to many, there are more human slaves in our world this moment than in the history of this big globe in the sky. Don't criticize the slave owners and people in early US history if you're not willing to speak out now. There are age appropriate ways to broach this topic. Think about how the people of pre civil war times felt when you toss this topic over in your mind. January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking prevention month. Celebrate it well and plan ahead. Yes, there are slaves in this country and you can educate students on how to protect themselves as well as bring awareness to what is happening in other places.

Please tell parents that even losing an hour of sleep will impair their children. "The performance gap caused by an hour's difference in sleep was bigger than the normal gap between a fourth-grader and a sixth-grader. Which is another way of saying that a slightly sleepy sixth-grader will perform in class like a mere fourth-grader. "A loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to [the loss of] two years of cognitive maturation and development," Sadeh explains."

Small Basic is a lighter version of Visual basic. Interesting site to start kids out programming from a problem solving perspective. Demo'ed at #140ed conference to show how programming is not boring for kids.

Another free place to give tests and exams online. Let computers do what they do best. What I do is IF I have a few multiple choice, etc. I may do them online BUT I also do other ways of assessment with my test. I just don't think the bubbles can get it all. That said, if you have to do it, you shouldn't have to grade it unless it is open answer or essay and this is a free tool to help you.

"Big news for little people" this website is targeted news for kids aged 7-14 and may be something you can use in your classroom. What a fascinating discussion you could have about July 13th's topic the "crazy basketball court." 

A google presentation about the interesting ways to use Google+ - it is public and people can add to it. Some great ideas. Remember we still have some privacy testing to do.

Good presentation to review and add to about Google+.

To use or not to use in schools? The +'s and -'s of Google+ integration into Google Apps for EDU

Interesting article found on Google+ via @markwagner