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Has anyone ever used something like this in his classroom?  I have students that greatly enjoy having some music playing in the background (I limit it to classical piano, mostly).  Anyone know of a study that demonstrates if this helps students learn?

I've used Simply Noise in my classroom of 5th graders and I have had mixed results. Some kids really like it and some hate it. I tend to prefer the brown noise as opposed to white or pink noise. I think I might make less of a deal of it with my next class next year and just use it for a little longer period of time to get a better read on its effectiveness. I took my students to on a field trip to Environmental Systems Inc in Brookfield, WI and they use brown noise generators throughout their office/cubicle area to mask ambient noise. I found it very soothing. They used to have it timed to go off at 4pm and they found that their employees subconsciously sensed it was time to leave for the day. Not wanting to encourage them to leave early, they decided to gradually bring the volume of the noise down over the course of 30 minutes and that took care of their issue. Not necessarily applicable to what you were asking about, but kind of interesting.

Ran into an issue with students signing in to Chrome on shared computers. This causes major issues when new students log in to the same machine on a shared account. I will be testing this workaround to remove the screen and hopefully avoid the issue in the future!

Interesting episode with a former teacher, now presenter for other teachers on teaching the "gifted and talented" student. The episode isn't so much about the education end, as much as the technology behind Ian's work. Website looks very useful for teachers. http://www.byrdseed.com/

Part of a series on how to use Google Apps in the classroom, both for students and teachers.

TED talks/videos can be a great source of free classroom or individual student enrichment. Naturally, use with caution. TED materials are typically most appropriate for upper grade levels, but expecially visual presentations could be repurposed for the lower grade levels.

Teachers log in at t.socrative.com Students log in at m.socrative.com and input the teachers room number My room number is 69385 Works in any browser - desktop, laptop, netbook, mobile

A safe way for teachers to text message students and stay in touch with parents.

How-to document for setting up RSS feeds for podcasting.

In order to help some of my struggling reading students, I'm having my students record our week's memory work in GarageBand, then distributing it as a podcast. Students and parents can subscribe to the feed and use this auditory support to help with memorization. This page is the tutorial that I'm using to set up the feed.

A teacher's story of how pre-class video lectures are making a huge difference for AP Calc students.

I really like this approach especially with topics that students will have difficulty getting help with at home. Sal Khan is a big supporter of the backwards/flip method too: http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html

Cards with a QR code, 4 possible answers, and anonymity to check student understanding. Awesome.

Good overview of teaching the proper handling of tech equipment - from 2nd grade on up!

HT to Adam Reinhard, one of my students in an online class I'm teaching for MLC, for finding this one! I'm definitely going to make use of this...

Interesting.  Works with Chromebooks and could be a handy tool for students.

I started this Google Group for participants in my EDT 6801 class through MLC. This group is meant to connect Google users of all kinds in our WELS schools to learn more about how these powerful tools can be used with effective teaching to meet the needs of our students and to preach Christ crucified to a dying world.

Recap of this week's keynote at the FETC Conference in Orlando by Jaime Casap, Global Education Evangelist at Google. He told attendees about the ways technology has -- and will continue to -- change K-12 education. Among other things, Casap said technology is causing students to learn in new ways and is providing them with almost constant access to information. The changing landscape, Casap said, makes it even more important for teachers to have access to professional development and for there to be a focus on digital leadership in schools.

Good list to consider for everyone; not a bad list to introduce to students early on.

Create your own Android app - Schools are using it to allow students to design apps - http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130204/NEWS0102/302040049/IN-OUR-SCHOOLS-Local-school-launches-app-class?nclick_check=1

If there are any reading teachers out there that would like to give their students a chance to talk directly to the author of a book they may read in class, here's a list of authors who will Skype with classrooms.