New Year, New learning from Teachers First

Why not start off the New Year with a chance to learn for free? OK2Ask® sessions resume in January, providing online professional development "snack sessions" for teachers everywhere. Register NOW for all sessions in January and February (all at 7:00pm Eastern time). Please be sure to READ the descriptions to be sure you have the prerequisites (if any) and/or technology comfort levels:

• Great Timesavers; Mon. Jan 6, 2014
• Sharing and Solutions for Technology Coaches; Thurs. Jan 16, 2014
• Google Series (Part 3): Google for Every Classroom Tues. Jan. 21, 2014
• Building Ethical Digital Citizens; Thurs. Jan. 30, 2014
• Be the Best: Professional Resources; Thurs. Feb. 6, 2014
• Google Series (Part 4): Using Google Templates; Tues. Feb 18, 2014
• Juggling the BYOD or 1:1 Classroom; Mon. Feb 24, 2014

 
 Retrieved12/22/2013 from TeachersFirst

Computer Science Education Week

 A campaign launched by an organization called code.org, to challenge students to participate in one hour of coding, is being promoted by President Obama as well as several famous "techies" such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg!

Link to video of President Obama's "call to action": http://quietube6.com/v.php/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XvmhE1J9PY
Link to video of "famous techies" 1-min. version: http://quietube6.com/v.php/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYZF6oIZtfc
Link to video of "famous techies" 5-min. version: http://quietube6.com/v.php/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKIu9yen5nc
Computer Science concepts provide a foundation for virtually any career and all people can benefit from learning the basics. Coding strengthens the important skills of logic and sequencing, which are beneficial in many aspects of our lives.

Here are some links to developmentally appropriate coding application:
Kindergarten - Kodable iPad app (iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kodable/id577673067?mt=8)
1st Grade - Tynker (http://www.tynker.com/hour-of-code/) Beginner Levels: Puppy Adventure and Puppy Play Time
2nd Grade - Daisy the Dinosaur iPad app (iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/daisy-the-dinosaur/id490514278?mt=8)
3rd Grade - Blockly (http://learn.code.org/hoc/1) Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies inspired
4th Grade - Light Bot Hour of Code Challenge iPad app (iTunes Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/light-bot-hour-of-code/id749337888?mt=8) Also available on Android or at http://light-bot.com/hocflash.html)
5th Grade - Scratch (scratch.mit.edu)

Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE)

“Perhaps one of the biggest shifts in thinking about the brain occurred with the eradication of the dogmatic belief that at birth humans are endowed with our full count of neurons, and that no new neurons produced in adulthood. Historically, research on the production of new brain cells into adulthood, i.e. adult neurogenesis, had been recognized for years in both rat hippocampal dentate gyurs (Altman & Das, 1965; Altman &Das,1967) and specialized regions of the bird brain (Nottebohm, 1981). Unfortunately, the belief that the bird brain or rodent brain needed to produce new neurons due to its size helped maintain the idea that adult humans and higher mammals did not produce new neurons in adulthood (Rakic, 1985). It wasn’t until 1999 when Elizabeth Gould published an article in the well-respected journal, Science, that this dogma was shattered forever (Gould, Reeves, Graziano & Gross, 1999). Gould demonstrated not only that adult neurogenesis occurred in the monkey brain, but that it occurred in the cortex, the region of the brain attributed to higher conscious processes, as well as the hippocampus. To further advance this idea that new neurons continue to be produced into adulthood, researchers at UC San Diego published findings of adult neurogenesis in the human hippocampus (Eriksson, Perfilieva, Bjork-Eriksson, Laborn, Nordborg, Peterson & Gage,361998). This paradigm shift changed the way we looked at neural circuitry and has found relevant connections to our understanding in relation to education.” Retrieved 12/2/2013 from Abigal Larrison Dissertation.