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Creativity is the act of thinking. Whether you are deliberately engaged in thought for the purpose of making novel connections or in a state of incubation where the creative process is happening somewhere in the deep unconscious it is thinking that you are doing. Making thinking visible is a must read and have for all schools who are wanting to promote thinking. The thinking  routines outlined in this book are easily implemented and have robust research from Harvard Graduate School Of Education that demonstrate their effectiveness.  

Awesome blog post on Movie making and literacy skills. Some great pedagogy happening with this group of students. I really like Kynan's philosophy of letting the students learn rather than intervening with teacher direction. Final cut express is a rather complicated piece of software but it looks like these kids have eaten it for breakfast

I was even more intrigued when he made reference to the work of Bernard Suits that claims there are three constituent parts that make up games: To play a game is to attempt to achieve a specific state of affairs [prelusory goal], using only means permitted by rules [lusory means], where the rules prohibit use of more efficient in favour of less efficient means [constitutive rules], and where the rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity [lusory attitude].

I was even more intrigued when he made reference to the work of Bernard Suits that claims there are three constituent parts that make up games: To play a game is to attempt to achieve a specific state of affairs [prelusory goal], using only means permitted by rules [lusory means], where the rules prohibit use of more efficient in favour of less efficient means [constitutive rules], and where the rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity [lusory attitude].

Online doof doof making music machine/generator. It works make sure your students are using head phones. Looks like you can record on the fly could be useful for a pre garageband lesson.

This is great. A huge #stopmotionanimation made using a 8Mp smartphone camera mounted on a cherry picker and a bank of Apple Macs. The making http://vimeo.com/27019750 and the finished product http://vimeo.com/26877221

great overview of different approaches to integrated  Curriculum

"Art does not solve problems, but makes us aware of their existence," sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz has said. Arts education, on the other hand, does solve problems. Years of research show that it's closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity.

Some great information for Harmony Day! You can make an E-Card or look at the lesson plans. Pauline and Amy   

This website allows kids to 'make' their own stories in several different genres. There are also other pages worth looking.

Some ideas around why we created @motmedu Looking for a conference with a difference? What story do you have to tell? The #motm13 Unconference is built around stories for the purpose of making strong connections with other passionate educators who are integrating ICT with pedagogy.

These are great template for some of the thinking routines from the "Making Thinking Visible" book from project zero. Team leaders all have a copy. 

We can't understand the humanities without understanding the cognitive processes that make them possible. Sociobiologist E.O. Wilson on the evolution of culture. E.O. Wilson is Pellegrino University Professor emeritus.

Interesting post from a prolific Ed blogger who has always written about Ed and the "bleeding edge" worth following and very readable. This post posits that if we are to introduce a non Americanised version of PBL then we should expect systematic change over a long period of time so that it becomes ingrained in the learning culture of the school. I particularly like this position because it takes into account the longevity of the teachers capacity not only to with stand the change but also to be part of the new paradigm.

Another amazing Google Project. From the archaeological areas of Pompeii to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Google's World Wonders Project aims to bring to life the wonders of the modern and ancient world. By using our Street View technology, Google has a unique opportunity to make world heritage sites available to users across the globe. Street View is a hugely popular feature of Google Maps which is already available in dozens of countries. It allows users to virtually explore and navigate a neighborhood through panoramic street-level images. With advancements in our camera technologies we can now go off the beaten track to photograph some of the most significant places in the world so that anyone, anywhere can explore them.

Everyone loves paper planes. These are ace! Says my 3 year old. It was a great morning of paper plane making and testing. 

This looks good. Could be very useful when making movies etc. 

The title says it all and it make sense. 

As games, particularly virtual worlds, become increasingly popular and as they begin to approximate large scale social systems in size and nature, they have also become spaces where play and learning have merged in fundamental ways. More important is the idea that the kind of learning that happens in the spaces of these massively multiplayer online games is fundamentally different than what we have come to consider as standard pedagogical practice. The distinction the authors make is that traditional paradigms of instruction have addressed learning as "learning about," while these new forms of learning deal with knowledge through the dynamic of "learning to be." It is the authors' contention that the experiences offered within virtual worlds provide a fundamentally different way of thinking about

Pisa Sample Questions for those interested in some of the finer details of what makes up a PISA test.