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This teacher chose to have his students create RSA Animate-style videos as "an easy way to make them visualize their information, make connections, and re-tell their facts in a story that had a very tight story line that flowed.  All skills that would transfer nicely to any traditional essay." He really emphasizes the preparation and planning stages, which is great. He also talks about the process, which is useful.  All said, a great resource.

Multitasking feels good because of your brain chemicals, not because you're good at it. Excerpt: "Research has shown that when you multitask 'successfully', you activate the reward mechanism in your brain which releases dopamine, the happy hormone. This dopamine rush makes you feel so good that you believe you're being effective and further encourages your multitasking habit."

"By working together on problem sets in math and sharing their perspectives in roundtable discussions in English, students at The College Preparatory School are making collaboration the driving force in their learning." Some great examples of collaboration -- both in practice and theory.

From USA Today: "The In Your Arms video, which has received nearly 4 million views on YouTube since Grannis posted it in November, required creating 2,460 frames, each of which took between five minutes and three hours to fill in with jelly beans. The entire video took 22 months to make." Great inspiration for an animation project, no?

A good article about how one college history professor used WikiSpaces to help his students become more engaged in the study of history and the writing process. With some modification for age/grade appropriateness this might be an interesting project idea for RCS history classes. This might also work well for learning in English classes (classes create Wikis based on novels/books read?). Key selections from the article: "Students did not agree on the merits of the wiki. Some were deeply offended when other students eliminated or modified their contributions. Others found the chance to pick apart other's words and conclusions exhilarating. Regardless, most students seemed to grasp the important lesson I hoped to share: that history is the conversation we have about the past. History is about the authorial choices scholars make. History is about the evidence included and the evidence excluded. By asking students to participate in a joint-writing exercise, they were compelled to pay attention to the language others used, the phrasings and structure employed, the anecdotes emphasized, the facts obscured." "The wiki, while not perfect, may help us change the way our students think about history. It may help them be more attentive to language and argument. Importantly, it may help them value civil discourse as a civic virtue."

A must read article for all teachers who are interested in making peer assessment and feedback part of their students learning. The author, a high school AP Language teacher, uses Google Drive (especially the forms option) wonderfully to prepare his students for the AP exam. The amount of feedback each student and the teacher receives on each writing assignment is pretty remarkable.

This is an excellent resource for Math teachers in all grade levels and topic areas. Mathalicious helps engage students in the study of math because it uses problems that are related and relevant to students lives. There are some really great ideas in here, along with sample lesson plans, teaching worksheets, and step by step guides. For a great overview of Mathalicious, click the link and watch the short video.

From Education Week: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/sarameads_policy_notebook/2011/05/karim_kai_ani_founder_mathalicious.html "Mathalicious builds high-quality, standards-based math lessons designed to transform how students learn math, and how teachers teach it." "Mathalicious is rewriting middle school math around real-world topics that students care about, from sports to music to technology. By contextualizing math for their students and making math real, teachers can cover more material in less time, and with better results."

"Edutopia.org's Director of Video Programming, Zachary Fink, interviews UC Berkeley professor Dor Abrahamson about how to increase students' understanding of math."

Helpful tips to make group work successful.

Today's presentation.

CuTE Documentation 2013-2014 by Melissa Montalto & Michael Schurr Apps Used: - Dragon Dictation - Penultimate - ShowMe - TouchDocs - VoiceThread - Several Others

From iPad Apps for School: "Doodlecast Pro is an excellent iPad app for creating instructional videos. Doodlecast Pro could be a great iPad app for teachers to use to create instructional videos to use in a flipped classroom setting. Think of each page in a Doodlecast Pro video as a step in a process for solving an equation. Or think of the pages as sections in a short history lesson. Students could also use the app for creating instructional videos or creative short story videos."

Link to Doodlecast review by iPad Apps for School: http://ipadapps4school.com/2013/01/11/doodlecast-pro-makes-it-easy-to-create-flipped-classroom-videos/

Great article that outlines "a number of advanced tips to make finding, sorting, consuming, and creating content on the iPad easier and more efficient."

The .kml files allow for exploring the seafloor in 3D using street view. To use them in Google Earth: 1. Download the .kml file to your computer. (right-click, Save Link As, etc) 2. Launch Google Earth, click File-->Open and select the downloaded .kml file. 3.The new content will appear under "Temporary Places" in the "Places section of the sidebar. Make sure you have the "Explore the Ocean" layer checked under "Ocean" in the "Layers" section of the sidebar for these to work.