Freakonomics podcast connects the thrill of customizing Pandora Radio to NYC experiments with mixed-modality learning. http://goo.gl/i0DIo

Smart, challenging hobbies can improve your work. It helps to count the pleasure you derive from the effort as income. http://goo.gl/UXAR5

Evernote (http://goo.gl/lujXf) now integrated with image annotation app Skitch. Draw on, add text to, or crop images.http://goo.gl/rBd9L

How to balance open-ended and teacher-guided inquiry cycles from science to get kids to notice and explore punctuation. http://goo.gl/trakR

Middle grades persuasive writing tip: use rhythmic anaphora and common terms so least knowledgeable person can relate.http://goo.gl/DOokY

Student readers, like builders, need a foundation and a blueprint to be successful. Here are 12 ways to scaffold texts. http://goo.gl/S9RmL

A kaleidoscopic mind is agile, flexible, self-aware, & tuned to connections that rigid minds miss. How is this taught? http://goo.gl/I0n7K

If creativity is as important as literacy (http://goo.gl/1sxSn), how do we teach divergent thinking & self-reflection? http://goo.gl/MDJ97

Top experts partner with coaches (http://goo.gl/c8Mr2) to move from conscious competence to unconscious competence. http://goo.gl/iM2iv

Lesson plan for 6-8: students explore riddle poems, determine techniques, write as class, individually. ReadWriteThink. http://goo.gl/df7xm

An annotated list of 10 meaningful, mostly old-skool rap songs appropriate for classrooms or carpools. Rakim to Lupe. http://goo.gl/a6tzx

Creative activity where students draw, script, and record audio linked by QR codes. Hope to adapt for Literacy Night.http://goo.gl/w39oW

Professional music made completely with iPad! Short video shows which apps were used, how they were recorded. Wow! http://goo.gl/DjFf2

Using Edmodo with teachers in January to create a microblogging network for our First Days of School book study group. http://goo.gl/Vf6e3

Dewey: the opportunities of intellectual culture have been multiplied so book work lacks the force it used to possess.http://goo.gl/TCjhN

Stress is the only means by which we can expand capacity. Our real enemy is the absence of intermittent renewal. http://goo.gl/OIiwX