Training available through Code.Org partnership. Workshop is one day and could be hosted at Reading if enough people are interested. 20 hour curriculum designed to be integrated.

Training available for our district through code.org partnership. Uses BootstrapWorld.

According to the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the Bay State is home to more than 10,000 technology companies, representing over 20 percent of state GDP. Top-tier names like Google, Microsoft, and Oracle rely on local offices devoted to research and development.

ScratchJr has launched. It is a free iPad app. Five Stars for sure.

I think this is an important read about a local school system and early childhood assessments.

Changing teaching practices with mobile devices is hard. Here is a story of how one teacher stepped out of his comfort zone. BTW 2eyes is not a mobile app.

Northstar Elementary in the Northeast Heights was packed today with students and teachers getting ready for a learning lesson, but it's a different kind of learning lesson. 18 fourth and fifth graders taught their teachers how to use apps. The project was spear-headed by April Requard--the school's technology director.

This is a persuasive blog on what we should strive for in our classrooms each day. The author, Starr Sackstein - a NYC high school English teacher, suggests that we strive to graduate students "life-ready." My favorite sentence: "Proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and listening as well as technology and media integration illustrates a readiness for adult life."

The Google for Doodle Competition has been transformed in to activities and virtual field trips for all grade levels.

Looking for STEM activities for iPads and other tablets? The Concord Consortium has been converting their activities to HTML5 for physics, chemistry, biology, math and Earth and space science.

This week's theme is looking at student work for deeper learning. The resources are outstanding. If you haven't seen it before, watch the video Austin's Butterfly.

This is featured on the Edline Help page http://eec2.edline.com/

Each year, hundreds of visitors--including journalists and researchers--flock to schools like San Diego's High Tech High or Napa Valley's New Tech High to get a glimpse of how teaching and learning can be re-invented and re-imagined.

This set of slides by Richard Wells visually represents their Responsible Use Policy. It can easily be adapted for the BYOD environment as well.

Building on the excitement of Hour of Code, the article asks, "will programming raise math scores?" Answering this in the affirmative has actually been an elusive goal, from a research standpoint. (In the 1980s there were all these studies on learning "transfer" -- how ideas learned in one context can transfer to another. Intuitively, this must happen, but it's been so hard to demonstrate with scientific rigor.) This includes a nice interview with Bootstrap founder Emmanuel Schanzer about this, and how Bootstrap may help. There is a 3 day PD planned for Bootstrap in the Greater Boston area for June 25th, 26th, & 27th, 2014. If you are interested in attending please let me know asap. At this moment a fee of $100.00 per attendee will be charged. Pending funding, you may be reimbursed your fee at the workshop.

Great evidence for the potential for taking visual notes.

A cautionary reminder about crafting presentations from Seth Godin, the prolific author of 21st century ideas for marketing and work in general. Seth's blog has been in existence since the 90's and provides a great deal of insight and humor.

followup: the source of the flag photo is http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsdkrebs/8809391678/