When I was in school we called them "webs", now they are mind maps. No matter what you call them, they can be a fun way to get ideas out of your head and into something visual that you can share and use as a planning reference. Mindmeister is a good app that is available on a variety of devices. https://www.mindmeister.com/

They do offer a paid tier, but the free product works well for most classroom activities. Students will need an account, but they can sign in with their Google Apps accounts and if you are using Chrome browser and signed in there is an extension that can be allowed access to your basic authentication info and will sign you in automatically.

Augmented reality works a bit like a QR or barcode in that you scan something, but then it gets really fun. While you can simply have the scan take you to a video or web link, you can also overlay a virtual transparency onto the real world. This post from Educational Technology and Mobile Learning features an AR app from Aurasma, but another company Daquri has some pretty fancy stuff as well. One of the cooler AR toys I've seen is the Elements 4D blocks http://elements4d.daqri.com/
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/10/5-ways-to-use-augmented-reality-app.html

This is a wonderful collection of recorded debates.

Our mission is to provide a new forum for intelligent discussion, grounded in facts and informed by reasoned analysis; to transcend the toxically emotional and the reflexively ideological; and to encourage recognition that the opposing side has intellectually respectable views.
http://intelligencesquaredus.org/

I've always had mixed feelings about testing. On one hand we need not only to know how our students are doing, but to be able to share that knowledge with others in a meaningful way. Numerical data can paint a clear picture, but it isn't always an accurate picture. Now even an administration that once actively promoted more testing under the guise of rigor and accountability, now recognizes that the current profusion of testing is counter productive.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/study-says-standardized-testing-is-overwhelming-nations-public-schools/2015/10/24/8a22092c-79ae-11e5-a958-d889faf561dc_story.html
Standardized testing has been around for generations and it isn't going away any time soon. Technology has made testing more productive in some ways, but it has also made it more pervasive. The craving for data along with a breauacracy that supports that desire will keep testing around for a long time, but we can minimize the damage and possibly even find some benefit in prudently using some of the data that we collect.

While the plethora of testing and the faux accountability has driven some teachers to quit and made it, in some circles, fashionable for those teachers to publicly enumerate their reasons for doing so, this letter has a slightly different tone. http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/11/a-not-quitting-letter.html

I particularly enjoyed the reference to edu-tourists. Those sometimes well-meaning meddlers who have little, if any, experience in out field and yet feel that they have something to teach educators about education. I would not walk onto a construction site and tell someone how to properly pour concrete, nor would I walk into an attorney's office and tell her how to properly draft a will or other legal document. Why then do construction workers, lawyers, and all manner of people seem to think they know how teaching should be properly carried out? Because they went to school? Because they have children? I have a house with a concrete walkway. I have a will and have worked with lawyers for a variety of reasons. I even have a fair handle on the law as it relates to education. Still I will stick to what I know.

How Being Busy Makes You Unproductive

I came across this post on Linked in yesterday and it really hit home. This is the same discussion that I've had with a couple of friends over the last week and another friend posted a short rant on Facebook that was essentially about the same thing. All of these people are teachers. Teachers are very busy. Mostly because they choose to be, but that choice is often driven by pressure. Another friend (also a teacher) commented on the Facebook rant that she had a principal tell her that good teachers work beyond contract hours.

This isn't necessarily true. Good teachers come in many shapes and sizes, literally and figuratively. I've known some very busy people who weren't especially good at their jobs, in some cases because they were so busy. Personally, I find myself falling into that trap more often than I'd like. I feel pressured by the disappointment and even frustration that a response like, "I can't do that right now" solicits. Teachers in general want to help students. They want to be the person who makes a difference, or at least they don't want to be the person that caused a child to plunge headlong into a downward spiral of apathy and malaise.

Teachers, I have news for you. Unless you are belittling, bullying, or berating children, or outright ignoring your responsibilities as an educator it is quite unlikely that you will be the cause of a child's abasement. While it is admirable that many teachers are able to connect with students on a level that inspires those children, that is not the only mark of a great educator. Some teachers connect with a few students, others with many. Some teachers impart knowledge in a way that leads to life-long learning, and others are able to get children through subjects that are not of any interest to those children. Still others are able to spark interest in new ways. One thing almost every teacher I know has in common, they want their students to learn, and to enjoy learning. They don't come to school every day with the goal of making children miserable, or of ruining lives, or even of giving up because they have a tough job.

Educators need to stop allowing others to set the bar so high that they are asked to sacrifice their own lives, their own families, their time with their own children, and their personal goals and leisure "for the children". They also need to stop putting that same pressure on themselves. Yes we all do it because we want children to be successful, but some of that responsibility needs to lie with the children, their parents, and their communities. Educators did not sign up to be foster parents (some may have, but they filled out different forms). More importantly, by setting this expectation, we are making educators worse at the job we actually hired them for.

That is where this post really struck a nerve for me. Education is about teaching children the things they need to know to be successful in the world. Yes, sometimes that includes things that aren't reading, writing, and arithmetic. Things like manners, note-taking, paying attention, and prioritizing. Often that takes modeling. We are modeling for our children a lifestyle where we push ourselves beyond the point of diminishing returns. We can only be so busy before we burn out or at least become less productive. We are also sending the message that for those who aren't interested in doing their own work, they can always count on someone else to get the work done.

Bradbury also points out that some researchers found we use "busyness" to hide from laziness and fear of failure. Just another excuse we are modeling for our children when we could instead be modeling good time management skills, professionalism, and the ability to prioritize. The point is, we need to stop being so busy. Get the job done, and do it well, but be judicious with your time. Don't allow the pressure of "being great" to force you into being so busy that your health and even productivity suffer. Remember, could actually be more productive if you weren't so busy.

"How Being Busy Makes You Unproductive" on @LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-being-busy-makes-you-less-productive-dr-travis-bradberry

In King George we use Calendarwiz for our publicly shared calendar. It is a pretty good calendar application, but one drawback is that if you want to see school events you need to go to a separate location to look at school events unless you want to enter them all by hand into your calendar. If your calendar is capable of supporting iCal links you actually add the calendar so that it will update itself. The updating only occurs once every 24 hours, so the updates aren't instantaneous, but they do happen.

Calendarwiz doesn't make the process especially easy, but I've written some instructions on how to make it happen. I have several of these calendars working with my Google Calendar and they work flawlessly. It's handy to be able to look at school events in my calendar without switching back and forth.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QS3hAjliLNh7RC4pInyaCRDmtVtb_2_5tJNsfb0Nfpc/view

Video: When to choose iPads vs. Chromebooks

This is a short video from a collaboration between Lesson Planet and eSchool News that compares iPads to Chromebooks. If you are considering purchasing a device, this has some good information. http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/10/12/video-ipad-chromebook-239/