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One year ago, I began blogging. It was my first attempt to try something new in quite a while; to share some ideas with the world and to learn for the sake of the students who learn from me.

the first part not so relevant for PS children but the rest is fine, showing the reason for IMLD

This past week, my first-born became legal. Not to drive, vote or drink, though; that comes later. My son turned 13 years old, making him eligible under terms of service to have his own social media account. That isn't to say he hasn't been on those sites for years, though. His social media cred is older than our daughter, who turns four in a couple months. He has had moments where he used Facebook too much, only to self-censor like a boss when he found it was cutting into his reading time. These days, his activity is largely limited to liking Doctor Who content on my geeky Pinterest board and collaborating with peers on Google (despite his original account there being deleted due to age restrictions). He has never had much interest in tweeting, but he got a video camera yesterday that may signal the beginning of a new vlog.

"As the Council on Foreign Relations reported recently, America continues to slip down the international rankings in education, falling during the past three decades from first to tenth in the educational level of those leaving high school, and from third to 13th for college students. Education technology could reverse this trend-if it is not jinxed by politics, bureaucracy and outdated institutional structures. Countries where it is not now have the chance to race ahead. "

Summary via The Scout Report (May 2012): "Fashion Institute of Technology: Teaching & Learning Resources ---- Located in New York City, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is known for its excellent programs in fashion design, marketing, and related fields. What people may not know is that FIT also has a great collection of materials for teachers, courtesy of its Center for Excellence in Teaching. The site includes sections such as Printable Resources, Syllabus and Student Learning Outcomes, and Podcasts, Videos and Powerpoints. In the Printable Resources area, visitors can view 15 different handouts, including "Good Teaching Practices for Software" and "Classroom Feedback Questionnaire." Moving on, the Syllabus and Student Learning Outcomes area includes sample syllabi and information on evaluating student learning. Finally, the site also includes helpful videos titles "First-day Icebreakers" and "Tips for Teachers." [KMG]"

Summary via The Scout Report (May 2012): "Mocku.ps is a tool created to help designers share their mockups quickly via the Internet. Visitors don't have to sign up to create an account, and they can get started by just uploading their images to the desktop. After this, they can annotate their mockup, and share the URL with other interested parties. First-time users can look at the example offered here and also look over the FAQ area. This version is compatible with all operating systems. [KMG]"

Summary via The Scout Report (April 2012): "The Sumanas Corporation was created in 1994 to help design accurate and interesting products for higher education. Along on the way, they have seen fit to create a range of complementary online animations for students and teachers interested in biology. On this page, visitors will find 37 helpful animations that cover a range of topics. The first two on the site address meiosis and mitosis and they are a good place to start for any student of general biology. Each one of the animations includes audio narration, along with a step-by-step tutorial and a short quiz. Other favorites here include "The Scientific Method" and "Simple Stimuli Trigger Fixed Behaviors" Overall, the site is well-designed and it may pique the curiosity of those who haven't thought much about biology in some time. [KMG]"

a free program that lets you take a photo and make it into any size wall posters. At first glance it looks good and it is free.

The question of how to use technology in the classroom can often divide a school. Some teachers will embrace what's available to them, designing innovative multimedia projects which use all the gadgets at hand. Others, perhaps as a reaction to the first group, will resolve to do things the way they've always done, at best sending students to the computer lab to type up a final paper. Technology is present, but it's tokenized. The digital divide continues to thrive, not just across geographic and socio-economic boundaries, but from one classroom to the next.

This post is the answer to the first question that any new Mac user will ask: which apps are the best? 

Use the contents of this Kit when you need help understanding an information fluency method. 

We invite you to join us for the first annual Google Apps for Education Singapore Summit to be held at the Singapore American School on September 8 and 9. This high intensity two day event focuses on deploying, integrating and using Google Apps for Education to promote student learning in K-12 and higher education. The program features Google Certified Teachers, Google Apps for Education Certified Trainers, practicing administrators, solution providers, Google engineers, and representatives from the Google Apps for Education team. 

An example of using Storify to collect all the tweets about the first day of the Tech Mentors' Retreat

The conventional wisdom today is that copying is bad for creativity. If we allow people to copy new inventions, the thinking goes, no one will create them in the first place. Copycats do none of the work of developing new ideas but capture much of the benefit. That is the reason behind patents and copyrights: Copying destroys the incentive to innovate. Except when it doesn't. 

When it comes to professional development, Kathy thinks of it in two ways: from her perspective as a classroom teacher and from her perspective as a staff developer. "As a teacher, I was eager for professional development and opportunities to think and talk about how to improve my work and craft....I want to find an environment where professional sharing is the norm rather than the exception," Kathy explains. "As a staff developer, my first instinct is to try to figure out where teachers are with regard to their knowledge-base and their attitudes towards the topics we are studying together. I try to build a relationship with teachers characterized by trust and mutual respect so that we all feel comfortable taking risks and asking questions of each other."

"And lucky you, this is just the year to do it. It is Code Year, actually, according to Code Academy, which helps people learn to code. "Sign up for Code Year to start receiving a new interactive programming lesson every Monday," touts the web site, and "You'll be building apps and websites before you know it!" I tried out the first few lessons, and it strikes me as a gentle way to learn to program. The lessons are small, focused, and introduce concepts with demonstrations that are easy to understand. It is therefore likely your best chance to learn to code if you aren't in school. "

"Telling a brief story around a single photograph seems like such a simple idea. Add to that a sharing element and you think: another clever web platform to distract and amuse us. But there's a lot more to Cowbird.The interface is beautiful, as one would expect from Jonathan Harris, Cowbird's creator. The Web artist and programmer behind the 2006 Web project "We Feel Fine," Harris thinks big. His goal with Cowbird: nothing less than to create "the world's first library of human experience," according to the site.While you can add audio, the focus is on the image, which floats front and center, full screen, with the accompanying story beneath in plain text. To get a feel, you'll need to spend some time with the stories posted thus far, as the site suggests."

Libguide on Six Reading Habits to Develop in your First Year at Harvard

Word Walls are an effective strategy for building vocabulary with students, especially for subject-specific terms. These lists are usually posted on classroom walls and sometimes have a definition attached to them. A more interactive word wall that includes images requires students to be more active learners as they attach meaning to each of the words in the list. Teachers may post these in the classroom after first using them as teaching tools when introducing a concept.

Video from YIS about what kids wish they knew in G6 when they first got their laptops.