THE

Best & Next

IN EDUCATION

Issue 1.1! January 2014

Editors Note
! Thank You. I mean it. Our team at Best and Next is so thankful to have 274 School Districts signed up to read the first issue. With over 500 schools receiving this magazine and 100,000+ teachers, we are proud to bring the best in education right to your inbox.! A.J. Juliani ! Each issue will include: Steve Mogg ! Our first issue reflects the past two weeks, and it has been a time for teachers, leaders, and learners to reflect on what works and what we can all do better. If you learn anything from this magazine, we hope it reinforces what we stand for: together we are stronger.! ! Thanks for reading, and we want your feedback! ! AJ, Steve, and Anthony! ! Anthony Gabriele P.S.- Share your thoughts about the magazine on social media use the hashtag #bestnext The Best Stories: Our team picks four of the best recent blog posts to share. The Best Books/Tools/Apps: We review new books, apps, and tools for teachers. New Research: The latest research in our field, so you dont have to search for it. Ed Tech: It is always changing. We keep you up to datewith only the good stuff.!

WHATS INSIDE?
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Featured Book, Apps, and Tools Digital Leadership by Eric Sheninger App Reviews Web Tools! ! The Best Posts From Around the Web The Promises I Make For the New Year Smiling as My Students Fail Featured Story: 30 Goals Challenge! ! Whats Next? Ed-Tech Roundup Research Roundup! ! 10 Things Your Students Need From You... A Big Thank You From Our Team

DIGITAL LEADERSHIP
by Eric Sheninger New Milford HS Principal and author Eric Sheninger defines digital leadership as a strategic mindset and set of behaviors that leverages resources to create a meaningful, transparent, and engaging school culture. It takes into account recent changes such as ubiquitous connectivity, open-source technology, mobile devices, and personalization to dramatically shift how schools have been run and structured for over a century.! Leading in education becomes exponentially powerful when using technology to your advantage. Sheningers new book urges digital leaders to give up Visit Erics Blog or Connect on Twitter Get the Book on Amazon control and trust students and teachers to use real-world tools to unleash creativity and a passion for learning. ! Learn more about this book on his blog, and read the amazing reviews it has already received!!

APP REVIEW
Best: Remind 101 Remind 101 is an App that provides a safe way to text your students and parents and it is free across all platforms. Signing up takes less than two minutes on the website, iPhone app, or Android app. Safety is a primary feature, teachers never see students/parents phone numbers, and they will not see the teachers. . Remind101 helps innovative teachers take advantage of technology in a way that frees up their time to focus on what they do best: teach. They also have 750 teachers on an advisory board! Read more about Remind 101 on their website.!

Next: Tell About This The creators of the Write About This app have come out with a new app to capture childrens thoughts and stories through voice: Tell About This. Created by two educators, the app is designed for kids to effortlessly browse and respond to interesting visual and auditory prompts. It also provides families and educators a platform to create a custom experience for storytelling, generating ideas and thinking out loud. Learn more about the App and its teacher creator on their website.

WEB TOOLS
Best: Mastery Connect Mastery Connect is the leading web tool and app for Common Core integration. Through MasteryConnects patent-pending MasteryTracker, teachers can effectively assess core standards, monitor student performance, and report student mastery to parents and administrators. Oh, and our favorite part: It allows for collaboration! Learn about the many features and why thousands of teachers are using Mastery Connect in the classroom right now.!

Next: Slide Speech Slide Speech is a revolutionary new way to deliver content through a presentation tool. It takes your PowerPoints or Keynote presentations and then reads aloud the presenter notes to whomever is watching your presentation. You can access presentations anywhere in the world using any platform or operating system: mobile, laptop or desktop. With SlideSpeech translation you can talk to the world, even reaching those unable to read. Slide Speech is perfect for flipping the classroom, helping students present, and sharing your students work with the world. Learn more on their website.

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THE BEST POSTS FROM THE WEB

In each issue we present four posts that have resonated with teachers online the past two weeks. Its no surprise that each of these posts focus on keeping perspective in the new year and how we can improve as teachers and learners moving forward.

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for resolutions or rather promises I would like to make. !So this year I promise 3 simple things.! ! 1. To be kind. !The mask I wear most days does not show how much turmoil there is in my heart at the moment. !I am a fighter, as is my whole family, but I admit that it does not take much to crack my surface right now and tears come easily. !We never know what

THE PROMISES I MAKE FOR THE NEW YEAR

by Pernille Ripp! ! 2014 has already become a year we will never forget. Between Augustines battles, the arctic winter we are surrounded by, and the incredible love that surrounds us, this year will be the year that follows us.! ! Whenever life gets crowded I think of my classroom and how closely connected my life is to it. !I stopped doing resolutions years ago, after all, I had to write them down to even remember them and then never followed through on them. !This year, though, begs !

other people are holding inside, we never know why a child acts out or acts indifferent. !We never know why a parent does not respond to our contacts, or another teacher gets upset. !So this year I promise to approach everyone and every situation with kindness. !I will think of the human being first and the task at hand second.! 2. To be present. !Taken from John Spencers post, this promise continues to be at the forefront of my mind. !I want to be present for the ups and downs that life throws at us. !I want to be present at the small

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moments that truly shape our lives that my own children and my students have. !I want to notice. !I want to think about what I see. !I want to slow down and take it in. !To be present does not require much, in fact, it is done best by turning everything else off and giving someone the gift of you. !So that is what I will do.! ! 3. To celebrate the small things. !Too often we wait until momentous occasions to celebrate in style. !Life is too short, life is too complicated to hold your breath and wait for those few moments where everything lines up. !This year I will celebrate as much as I can. !Thea learning a new letter, Ida and Oskar learning new words, Augustine gaining even the smallest amount of weight. !My students conquering a task for the day, fellow colleagues trying small new things, and yes, my husband and all of the small things he does to keep our marriage strong every day. Those are the things I will celebrate. ! ! While I cannot control some of the things that I wish I could, I can control myself and my reaction to life. !I can make promises and keep them, so that is what I intend on doing, how about you?! ! ! Pernille Ripp blogs at PernillesRipp.com. She is a proud mother and 5th grade teacher in Madison, Wisconsin. Pernille is the founder of the Global Read Aloud and author of the book, Passionate Learners Giving Our Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today. Connect with her on Twitter. !

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K-12 View

accomplish something instead of having it spoon fed to them or when they have the teacher hold their hand during the entire process. ! ! Some of my fondest memories of school were those times I triumphed over adversity. Studying for the math test and earning that C was a huge accomplishment. I earned that grade and felt good about it because it was not easy. I struggled, I stressed and I overcame. That is how I learned and I want my students to have the same experiences in class. ! ! What I am not saying is that teachers should leave students on their own to figure everything out and sit back and watch them fail on exams or essays. Teachers still need to guide their students and let them explore learning, but you have to let them try new things and learn through trial and error. The error part is the thing people are starting to forget. In the rush to get through content, it's easier to give

SMILING AS MY STUDENTS FAIL

by Nicholas Provenzano! ! I love the smell of failure in the morning. I think that is how the line goes from that famous movie.! ! To the untrained eye, I might seem like a terrible teacher, but I argue that teachers that do not let their students fail from time to time are doing them a major disservice. ! ! One of the things I have learned as I have gained more experience in the classroom that it is more than just ok to let students struggle, it is often a good thing. Our students learn more when they have to strive to

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students the answers instead of letting them discover them on their own through hard work. ! ! As you work in your class this year, try to take a step back when a student fails the first time. Assure them they can come up with the right answer on their own if they try a couple of times. Offer them strategies on how to approach problems in different ways to get new outcomes. Fight the urge to solve the problem for them. Finally, sit back and watch them accomplish the task on their own and see the biggest smile of the day come across their face as they realize that they finally did it. Then, you can smile at their failure knowing it has given the students much more than just the right answer.! ! Bonus Posts: Check out the following posts that also impacted teachers around the world these past two weeks. How a Common Hashtag System Could Change Education for Students by Evan Scherr Wishing You a H-APP-Y New Year: My Top Tech Picks for 2014 by Angela Maiers 10 Specific Ideas to Gamify Your Classroom via TeachThought ! ! Nicholas Provenzano is a HS English teacher and blogs at TheNerdyTeacher.com. He is the 2013 MACUL Technology Using Teacher of the Year and the ISTE 2013 Outstanding Teacher of the Year. Nick is an #EdcampDetroit Organizer and author of the book, The Complete Guide to Evernote in Education. You can connect with him on Twitter.

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Feature Story

THE 30 GOALS CHALLENGE

Join over Over 10,000 10,000 educators teachers have in 50 joined the different countries The 30 Goals for this years Challenge 30 Goals Challenge. since January 2010. Join them this year as we prepare by Shelly to Sanchez make aTerrell difference in 2014 and beyond. by Shelly Sanchez Terrell

If your actions in the classroom inspire children to achieve more, question more, and dream more, you are indeed worthy of the title Teacher. Robert John Meehan Being a teacher is one of the toughest jobs in the world. It requires an enormous amount of compassion, self sacrifice, humility, and inner strength. The challenges we face often seem insurmountable, which leads to many teachers feeling burnt out or overwhelmed. However, the average teacher impacts about 3,000 students in their lifetime. Therefore, teachers cannot afford to let the challenges negatively impact their students. So how do we overcome these challenges?! ! The Power of a Support Network Four years ago, I found my answer by developing a Personal/ Passionate Learning Network (PLN). Whats a PLN? A PLN consists of the people we choose to interact with and derive knowledge from in our various !

social networks and online learning spaces. Everyday millions of people learn from each other in the webosphere. They exchange tweets, tag each other on Facebook, pin their peers resources, comment on blogs, subscribe to Youtube channels, or share images on Instagram. These exchanges make us reflect on our beliefs, philosophies, and self-image. They often influence our behavior and decisions. !! The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators In January 2010, I started the 30 Goals Challenge for Educators on my blog, Teacher Reboot Camp. I proposed 30 goals I would accomplish within the year and asked other teachers to accomplish at least one or all of them with me. Four years later, over 10,000 teachers from over 50 countries have joined the challenge. We are beginning Cycle 5: Make the Difference. You have the opportunity to join our community in accomplishing 1 to 30 goals throughout 2014. These

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are short-term goals we reflect on and see how they help us aim towards long-term goals to make us better educators. We support each other through various social networks- our Facebook group, !Twitter (#30GoalsEdu), Youtube, and blogs.! ! How to Participate! ! 1. Accomplish the goal of your choice, post a reflection, and share your reflection with the 30 Goals Community.! ! 2. You dont have to accomplish all 30 goals. Accomplish as many as youd like. You can choose to accomplish the current goal suggested by 1 of our participants at our !

site, 30Goals.com or choose a goal from the previous cycles. ! 3. Post your reflection on your blog, in our Facebook group, Youtube, and/or Twitter (#30GoalsEdu).! ! Join Our Virtual Road Trip This year, the 30 Goals is going on a virtual road trip. We are visiting various participant blogs. They will suggest the goals and introduce us to their countries. We would love for you to join us in this transformational journey.!

Learn more at 30Goals.com.!

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Bonus: Create Your Own Textbook with 400+ Teachers!

! The 30 Goals experience inspired me to develope the Crafting the ePerfect eTextbook EVO Session. This is a 5 week free course for teachers, in which, they create the beginnings of a digital textbook that meets their students needs. They receive feedback and guidance from over 400 teachers worldwide and 15 moderators who have vast experience in e-publishing and materials design. You may recognize our incredible moderators, which include award-winning author Lindsay Clandfield, Chuck Sandy, zge Karaoglu, Jason Levine (Fluency MC), Jennifer Verschoor, Janet Bianchini, Sylvia Guinan, Debora Tebovich, Andr J. Spang, Jackie Gerstein, Terry Freedman, Dave Guymon, and !Rubena St. Louis. Join the Google Community, http://gplus.to/ eTextbookEVO to discover more!! ! Shelly Sanchez Terrell has supported teachers and learners in 100+ countries through workshops, keynotes, and e-learning projects and courses. Connect with her online at her blog TeacherRebootCamp.com, Twitter (@ShellTerrell), Facebook.com/shellyterrell, and GPlus.to/ shellyterrell.! !

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Next Practices

WHATS NEXT?
It can be overwhelming to stay on top of the latest ed-tech trends and educational research. Weve broken it down into two easy sections so you know whats next in education.

Whats Next?

GREAT SITES FOR EDTECH INFO

ED-TECH ROUNDUP
! Think of this list as your way to get caught up on the big things happening in educational technology. Want more? Look to the left!! ! TED-Ed Launches"TED-Ed Clubs" for Students via TEDEd! ! What Teachers (and students) Must Know About Cyberbullying by Katie Lepi! ! Options Increase As Google Enters the Market Place by Andrew Marcinek! ! What to do after Hour of Code? Try CodeCombat Open Source Code via Edsurge! ! Study Finds That Tablets Increase Homework Completion by 29% via Edsurge and the Making Learning Mobile Project! ! Have an ed-tech story for us to share? Email team@bestnext.org

EdSurge: Sign up for Edsurges newsletter and get the best of ed-tech straight to your inbox each week.

Edudemic: We are big fans of Edudemic and they are one of the leading site for ed-tech.

TeachThought: This site has done a great job of merging ed-tech and learning environments.

Edutopia: The leader in education, we always look to Edutopia for great edtech articles and features.

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RESEARCH ROUNDUP GREAT SITES FOR

Get caught up on the latest educational research

EDUCATION RESEARCH

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OPINION PIECE

10 THINGS YOUR STUDENTS NEED FROM YOU THIS YEAR

by Justin Tarte

! ! 1. Your students need you to recognize and accept that the world they are growing up in is quite different than the world you grew up in. As a result, classroom instruction and learning must be and should be different than what may have happened in the past.! ! 2. Your students need you to trust them. Your students want to be given the chance to prove themselves. Just as you want your students to trust you, they want that trust to be reciprocated.! ! 3. Your students need to know you see them as more than just students. Your students need to know that you see them as individuals with needs that are changing often and frequently. Your students need to know they are more than just a 'number.'! ! 4. Your students need to see you fail and they need to see you take chances by doing things you've never done before in your classroom. Appropriately ! ! ! ! !

modeling failure for your students can be extremely empowering for kids.! 5. Your students need you to provide them autonomy and flexibility to do things their way. Obviously this may not be possible with every single activity, but giving students more freedom in how they demonstrate their learning is absolutely critical.! 6. Your students need you to accept that fair is not always equal. Your students are getting to a point of frustration because they recognize that things are rarely 'black and white,' thus what happens in the classroom shouldn't be treated as such.! 7. Your students need you to recognize that your classroom instruction should be geared toward how your students learn best... not how you learn best.! 8. Your students need you to be organized and need

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to know you are planning with purpose. This isn't to say that those 'teachable moments' are avoided, but students need and want smooth transitions as a result of planning rather than disorganization and uncertainty on the part of the teacher.! ! 9. Your students need to know the work they are doing serves a purpose and is relevant. Your students need and want to be a part of something bigger than themselves, and they want their time to be validated.! ! 10. Your students need you to be your best every single day. There are some careers that allow for 'bad days' and allow you to fly under the radar so to speak... education is not that career. Your kids need your 'A' game every single day. ! Justin Tarte is the Director of Curriculum & Support Services in the Union R-XI School District in Union, Missouri. A former Principal and Assistant Principal at Poplar Bluff Junior High School in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, he also taught German at Seckman High School in the Fox C-6 School District in Arnold, Missouri. Connect with Justin on Twitter or on his blog at JustinTarte.com.

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You Made It!

THANK YOU
Thanks for reading! If youd like to drop us a line about the magazine please send all email to team@bestnext.org. We are so excited to see educators passionate about learning and growing together. If you enjoyed this magazine and want to help keep it running, send a quick $2 donation to the team. Thanks for the support!

RESOURCES All of our pictures were found on Compfight & listed as Creative Commons Commercial License. Photo Credit: One Laptop per Child via Compfight cc Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks via Compfight cc Photo Credit: Pink Sherbet Photography via Compfight cc Photo Credit: Johan Larsson via Compfight cc Photo Credit: WorldIslandInfo.com via Compfight cc Photo Credit: 96dpi via Compfight cc Photo Credit: josef.stuefer via Compfight cc Photo Credit: saturn via Compfight cc Photo Credit: Krystal T via Compfight cc Photo Credit: Nomadic Lass via Compfight cc Photo Credit: jpalinsad360 via Compfight cc Photo Credit: j.o.h.n. walker via Compfight cc Photo Credit: Joel Bedford via Compfight cc

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