SLAVConnects

"At Elizabeth Forward High School, the 2015 Pittsburgh FAB Institute was held June 15 - 18, 2015. Sponsored by the Grable Foundation, the 2015 Pittsburgh FAB Institute provided a rich professional development to 75 teachers across the country focusing on digital fabrication. These educators ranged from beginners to experts, elementary, middle and high school teachers, educators from museums, college professors and school administrators and these educators were interested in what aFABLab looks like in schools."

"While you want to encourage teenage students to develop a healthy sense of independence and make their own decision, you also want to protect them from the dangers in the world. In order to make sure their experiences with social media are positive, consider the tips in this post "

"An interactive tutorial from OneNote in Education that covers the basics of how to use OneNote,This one in particular is a tutorial to assist someone to take notes that go so much further than just being words on a page."

"Where should you start to build a makerspace? Here at EdSurge, we've rolled up our sleeves, put on our protective goggles, and built a Maker Guide from scratch, just for you.  There are ideas here from the educators and entrepreneurs who think making 24/7, including what is involved with project-based learning and making in the classroom and tried-and-true lessons from the field on starting your makerspace. If you are making on a budget, there ideas for stocking your space with resources from your arts and crafts closet, plus inspiration from educators working to bring makerspaces to low-income and all-girls classrooms."

"Etiquette is a code of behavior that defines expectations for social behavior. Children who grow up without learning this important code may not develop important social relationship skills for interacting with others and are at a greater risk of conflict when interacting with their peers."

A couple of Chrome extensions explained here that that Richard Byrne uses when he finds himself falling into social media vortex and not being as productive as he should be. These extensions are equally useful to students as they are to adults.

The post offers eight ways to support teachers with the emphasis on what can principals do to support the teachers who want to develop curriculum. "To implement true, rigorous units you need eager, innovative teachers and supportive principals. "

"sources for free images and organizing them in such a way as to help you find what you're looking for. Here are the criteria we've examined: Subjects: Does a site focus on specific genres of images, or is it a mass collection of various image types? High Resolution: Lots of great image resources emerged in the pre-Web 2.0 phase, but it wasn't until bandwidth dramatically increased that allowed for the uploading of much higher resolution images suitable for editing and printing. License: The licenses vary extremely from source to source. Some are listed as Creative Commons (with variations on attribution and availability for commercial use), others are Public Domain, and still others have unique licenses that maintain copyright while allowing users to download or embed photographs. To better understand Creative Commons licenses, check out our post on Images, Copyright, & Creative Commons. Safety: Government sites and many specific subject collections are extremely safe for students to use. But before you start using one of these sites for student blogging, check out our safety note and examine the site to see if you find it appropriate for students. Some sites are terrible for filtering out inappropriate con"

I liked this for the Lego Creation Stationhowever there are more ideas here. "At this station, I have pre packaged 4 different ziplock bags of 100 legos each.  Students will choose the lego bag, and take a planning sheet.  Students are asked to draw and write about what they are planning to create.  (The boys in my class are crazy about lego so I thought this would be a great motivator for them.)  Students then will build their creation using their blueprint.  When they are finished, they will take a picture of their creation, add it to the class book that I have created on the Book Creator App and write a summary of their creation and how it compared to what they had originally planned."

Some great ideas providing themes that could be used with a Lego Club. "Lego Fun Friday is a twice-a-month feature.  Each time, we share photos from the building challenge and then announce the next challenge to take place in two weeks.  "

The post offers a how-to by documenting how it runs in the author's own library. "Lego Club is engaging for kids of all ages, easy to manage from a staff perspective, and enjoyable for everyone involved. I think everyone should seriously consider hosting a Lego Club at the library. "

Digital citizenship is (or should be) about positive behaviours and needs to be an essential topic that is addressed in the classroom. Often dire warnings and trying to restrict student access results in the opposite effect to what you're trying to achieve. Teachers need to find a way to integrate digital citizenship lessons within the school day. post with ideas and links

To assist with motivating readers this site offers some printable reading logs that can be coloured in as books are read.

There have been a few e-Learning frameworks and roadmaps. They can be useful guides and have gained some popularity. The one here is from The National Centre for Technology in Education (@ncteireland) in 2011. it is a good example, although it is contextualised to the UK and Ireland. Offers a few downloadable versions

"a thoughtful reflection from one teacher librarian about what she had done with undertaking makerspaces or making activities in your library/classroom. What worked and what didn't and what might be done better next year.

A good list of display ideas from the "Book Chook". Many could be adapted for specific libraries/schools.

A good list of activities from the "Book Chook". Many could be adapted for specific libraries/schools

Pinterest board with examples of Book faces and related photographs