Links of the week

Working with "at-risk" students for years has led me to one clear conclusion when it comes to grading; Zeroes are one of the worst grading policies for supporting learners. There's a blog post in that sentiment for sure, but lately my twitter and blog reader have been filling up with post like these.
My former principal and all around great guy, Pete Spencer, wrote a nice post asking Why so few career connections in classrooms? He makes some important points about relevancy and real world connections to careers in schools. 

And if you haven't heard about http://www.edcanvas.com yet then now's the time. This site is getting lot's of buzz lately as a way to curate content on the web for your blended classroom or as an alternative to traditional presentation tools for students. Here's an example of an edcanvas put together by another fantastic ed techie, Kristin Day, on using QR codes in the classroom

Upcoming events

If you are over on Michigan's southwest side you might want to check out the Southwest Michigan iPad Conference on June 20, 2013 at Barrien RESA.

Here's another opportunity to attend an Edcamp. Edcamp Novi is May 18th hosted by Novi schools.

And finally, Todd Bloch, a Michigan educator you should be following, has suggested that #miched start compiling a list of PD and conference opportunities around the state. I totally agree. Especially since my little attempt here to cover these myself is sure to be falling short. If you have an event you would like to promote be sure to share it out on Twitter using the #miched hashtag.

New apps to check out

CK-12 has just released a new app to showcase their open source e-textbooks and learning resources. The app features a digital library for searching and downloading their books. I'm not entirely sure if the app is a better alternative to reading the e-textbooks in iBooks or online at the moment, but it's encouraging to to see how the platform continues to evolve


 Roll your own PD

So this week I didn't create any new resources myself, but that doesn't mean that there aren't tons of awesome ways to keep on learning. The REMC Connected Educator Series features a variety of topics in short digestible chunks presented by educators from around Michigan. The latest in this series is from Gary Abud showing how he has made a Bring Your Own Device policy an integral part of his classroom.