Guest post by: Lisa Cooley  Before I talk about how kids will work with independence and enthusiasm when they are pursuing their passions, here is a video of a young woman talking about her senior project. This video is from the What Kids Can Do: Just Listen project. [youtube clip_id="EyxFD4wwNWc"] If you want kids to work independently, if you want to stop having to keep after them, if you want to see them move ahead on the momentum their work without constantly having to tell them why it’s important, then let them decide what they want to study. If it’s important to them to show the world this topic that they love, they will pursue it. If it’s about who they are, they’ll go after it. Give them the chance to study something that is part of them, and accept that topic, whatever it is. Dennis Littkey, in The Big Picture, talks of a student who wanted to do a presentation/gallery exhibit on death. She interviewed funeral directors, toured cemeteries, examined different death rituals. Another student wanted to do a project on Tupac Shakur: his music, his life and murder, and the various posthumous sightings. The teachers didn’t bat an eyelash. For their own reasons, these kids needed to study and present on these topics; each of them found that these interests led them to another, and another. They grew to respect themselves because their teachers respected their need to pursue what they did. In another post I talk about the concept of ignition as a critical factor in learning. Pursuing mastery is difficult; it requires hard work, focus, and nearly always involves some level of frustration. The only thing that can really carry a student through the required work is ignition. With no ignition, no spark, no deeply-felt desire (or in other words, no passion) learning is rote, learning is boring, learning is stupid (let’s face it…it’s not even learning.) Yet the ignition needed to pursue mastery can’t be planned; it comes from within or not at all. I could never have ignited my daughter to want to put on pointe shoes and make her feet hurt on a bi-weekly basis! Hey, they’re not my toes, they’re HER toes! But she loves it, and tells me that her feet are emotionally happy, even if they are not physically happy. She practices at home as often as I let her — and I only limit it out of concern for those poor toes and ankles. She’d practice constantly, if not for that. Those who are skeptical of what I’m saying will (and often have) immediately jump to the conclusion that I don’t think kids should learn anything unless they are passionate about it. No, it’s not what I’m saying; I do think that motivation is complicated and comes from a lot of different directions for kids. They are motivated by what their friends like to do; by a teacher they admire; by a movie about a topic; simple enjoyment; and on and on. But how about this: let’s bring about motivation by allowing kids to know what they are capable of. Let them experience difficulty on their own terms: because they were ignited. I remember being told that the development of a writer is the process of finishing a piece and moving on to the next one; evaluating, judging, criticizing oneself, then starting something new. It’s similar in education; in a sense, learning happens when you complete something and stand back to see what it was you were able to accomplish, take a moment to be proud, then start the next thing. If a student is truly passionate about what she is doing, her momentum pushes her through the difficulties; in the end, she’s done something to be proud of and is ready for the next thing. If motivation is the problem, let passion be the solution. Any other kind of school change is just the same ol’ same ol’. This post was original published The Minds of Kids

There are times when you must make presentations online, but you face a number of challenges: no time, limited budget, limited connectivity, and limited experience / skills. So, what are some quick

Guest post by Lisa Cooley The final problem solved by passion — until I think of more — is about discipline and behavior. As I said in my previous post, adult respect for students, their embracing of who each of them is, is the prerequisite for the best learning environment. Showing this respect and even personal liking for every student is the most effective way to help them build on their strengths, bring out their passions and develop their self-respect. In short, if the learning that students are engaged in is their idea in the first place,supported and encouraged by peers and adults, why would they misbehave? I can hear the scoffs and laughter from here, so go blow your noses and settle yourselves down. Discipline and behavior issues, classroom management, all these things will ever be with us, even in a passion-driven classroom. I do require that weimagine a classroom that we may never before have seen and find it hard to imagine. Consider the happiness in that room, and I challenge you to seek it out. Misbehavior as we currently imagine it should be redefined anyway. Boredom and frustration, indifference and resentment all live within the system that is built to support not kids but bureaucracy (and a bad one at that, if you consider it as responsible for the tests that take the life out of schools). Kids talk when they shouldn’t; but if they are involved in collaboration and mutual help, it works. Eating in class is OK too if kids feel they need to and clean up after themselves. Taking a break from the work to go to the restroom or even, heaven forbid, lean up against the hallway wall to talk to a friend from another class for two minutes, is that a crime? The minor misdemeanors of school are at least half kids just being who they are, and the other half because…when kids walk into class now, they leave their spirit and passion (along with their cell phones) at the door. The scenarios described in this series of blog posts cannot and will not take place as long as we continue as stewards of the industrial model of education. It might take place even if we never get rid of high stakes testing, but it would be a whole lot easier if they went away, replaced by a model of accountability that doesn’t stand directly in the way of real learning. So if you have trouble imagining this classroom, and think I am living in a dream world, you might be right — if you also imagine that it can be overlayed on top of the traditional model of education. Without passion, any school change is just the same ol’ same ol’. This post was original publish on Minds of Kids

It is always useful to have viable options to Photoshop and other expensive image editing software. However, which web-based and mobile friendly image / photo editors really work? This article reviews a few popular (and largely free) image editing software. PicMonkey Picmonkey.com Free version (which has numerous enhancements), which allows photo editing, creating icons, badges, and

[youtube clip_id="uLCLBP_XKwQ"]   Related articles Permission to Play, Please? The Sandbox Manifesto: Life, Learning and Success on the Social Web  Lessons from the Sandbox

I'd like to start by confessing that I am a huge audio quality offender, but I'm trying to reform. I've recorded hundreds of podcasts and videocasts, and have cheerfully distributed them, thinking that pops, stumbles, background noise, and long pauses did not matter. After all, they were just going to be listened to via smartphone from a podcast or cloud-hosted file (SoundCloud or YouTube, for

Passion says, "I believe in this. I own this. I think about it even when I’m not on the clock. I know we can do this better than anyone else can." This sense of ownership becomes a responsibility- the mission to pursue excellent work. The Passion Driven Classroom, 2011 Summer is a perfect time to reflect on, revive, and reclaim your passion. Consider the questions in this free study guide as a jumpstart to your upcoming passion-driven conversations. Enjoy! Study Guide The Passion Driven Classroom pdf Found at ebookbrowse.com Go to Study-Guide_The-Passion-Driven-Classroom.pdf Related articles Exercising the Mind(teachthrutech.com) "People are more creative when they feel passionate about their work. Whether they are driven by…"(digital-diva.co.uk) Visionkeeper - Finding What Works For You - 11 June 2012(lucas2012infos.wordpress.com) Passion Solves Problems! First in a series(angelamaiers.com) Passion Solves Problems! #5: Kids can’t behave themselves.(angelamaiers.com)

Cloud-based file storage and transfer solutions change all the time, and it's often hard to keep up with their new features and plans. Here are seven excellent providers of cloud file storage and transfer, and each one has scalable solutions. I've made a quick list of their main attributes, but I encourage you to visit each site. Please share your own user experience, and let me know what you

Speaking of Passion-Driven Learning, Beth Schmidt sent us this guest post about the program she started to help passionate students reach their dreams! More and more educators are recognizing the vital role that passion plays in a student’s education. Even the brightest, most energetic kids can lose their interest in school, and it happens regularly when their classes don’t speak to their authentic passions. An aspiring engineer can be bored senseless in her algebra class even as she daydreams about an electric car she wants to design. The numbers don’t lie, either: 81% of high school dropouts report that they would have stayed in school if it had felt relevant to their lives.* How can we bridge this relevance gap in our education system? We created Wishbone, a new non-profit organization, for this very purpose. Wishbone sends at-risk and low-income high school students to out-of-school programs so that they can pursue their authentic passions. We aggregate funding from foundations, corporations, and micro-donations on our website to send these students to their programs of choice at no cost to their families. Here’s how it works: first, we identify promising low-income students with specific passions. We then help these students find and apply to high quality programs that fit their needs. We publish these students’ wishes on Wishbone.org, where donors can search by location or by a common interest to find students to support. Finally, once the wish is fully funded, the student will attend the program and keep donors updated with blog posts about his or her experience. Wishbone serves all sectors of learning, from math and science to athletics and the arts. For many of our students, this is an opportunity to dive into an advanced topic that their school doesn’t have the resources to support. For instance, Jesus wants to attend the LEAD Computer Science Institute to study electrical engineering. Deshawna wants to attend the Health Sciences program at Ithaca Summer College to pursue her dream of becoming an obstetrician. Through Wishbone, they have their first opportunity to get outside of the standard curriculum and study exactly what inspires them. Meanwhile, donors have the chance to directly and transparently contribute to a student’s education and his or her life goals. Our students have called these opportunities "a dream come true," "the experience of a lifetime" and "essential for finding the right college and the right job." For these students, their program experiences go far beyond summer fun. They recognize that this is their chance to learn the skills that they crave, meet a new community of peers and mentors, and take major steps toward college and their dream jobs. Wishbone exists to help underserved students meet these personal goals. But even though we’re a mission-driven organization, you can also think of Wishbone as an experiment in compassion. Some of our students have never had the opportunity to travel outside of their hometowns. What will happen when a student attends a program in a new part of the country, maybe even on the campus of her dream college? Some of our students have had to face incredible hardship with very little support. How will their outlooks on life change when complete strangers help send them to a new community that shares their passions? How much positive change can grow from the small seed of a single donation? We’re here to find out. It’s our passion to connect motivated students to the opportunities that will keep them engaged in learning, launch them toward college, and bring them closer to their dream careers. We’re betting that when the authentic passions of students are fueled by the compassion of donors in the public, education will take on a whole new dimension. Join us on Wishbone.org to try it out for yourself! Thank you Beth, for doing your part to inspire young learners to reach their genius potential! Check out this amazing video about all the work Wishbone has done. [vimeo clip_id="38342797"] ________________________________________________________________________________________ * http://www.ignitelearning.com/pdf/TheSilentEpidemic3-06FINAL.pdf   Related articles Wishbone Taps Power of the Net to Help At-Risk Kids(pcmag.com) Colbert County Schools Program Aimed At Struggling Students(whnt.com) IB program gets boost(timesunion.com)