It's elementary, my dear reader

Your iPad can be one of your best productivity tools, both in the classroom and in your personal life. You can use them like a small laptop, like an e-reader, and so many more ways. With the applications available for iPad, you can really expand its capability, and customize it just to fit your lifestyle. You’ll even find applications specifically designed for teachers and other education professionals. In addition, there are plenty of productivity apps that can really make life easier.

You’re sure to find plenty of ways to use your iPad every day, especially once you download these 19 apps we think are just great for educators.

1. Full Screen Web Browser: Does just what it says: lets you browse on your iPhone in full screen.
2. ReaddleDocs: This app can grab documents from almost any source, including computers, web sites, email attachments, MobileMe iDisk, online file storage apps and other iPhones and iPads.
3. iBlueSky: A great brainstorming application for getting ideas out of your head an into a document.
4. OmniFocus: This task management application allows you to create to do lists, as well as sync with documents on your desktop.
5. Google Calendar: Check your Google calendar from anywhere. You never have to worry about being out of touch.
6. AirSharing: A great way to share files: AirSharing allows you to mount your iPhone or iPod Touch as a wireless drive on any computer, drag and drop files and then view them on your device.
7. Full Screen Web Browser: Does just what it says: lets you browse in full screen.
8. iBooks: Download books to read and keep track of all your online books in this great app for the iPhone and iPad.
9. BlogPress: Rich text editor, landscape editing, photo uploading and posting to multiple types of blog software. This one is great, and works with nearly any blogging platform you might be using.
10. WordPress: The official WordPress iPhone app. You can write drafts and publish on the go. Works just like the real thing.
11. Wikipanion: This is a great reference app for your iPad. It displays Wikipedia information in an easy to view format.
12. School Rack: The app allows teachers to build colorful, customizable websites, while storing mailing lists and moderating private discussions with students and/or parents.
13. Evernote: You’ll never take notes on paper again. It’s so easy to take notes on your phone and save them or file them.
14. Dictionary.com: This is a dictionary and thesaurus for iPhone and iPad.
15. Remember the Milk: This is a great app for making electronic lists and keeping track of the things you have to do.
16. TED: TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design: This app is great for finding out plenty of interesting information. You’ll get access to lots of great speakers and speeches here.
17. Keynote: The iWork Keynote app is ideal for on-the-go presentation development. You can also import Microsoft Powerpoint slide decks with ease.
18. Stanza: Read books on your iPad with this great digital reading interface. You won’t believe how clearly you can read with Stanza.
19. Box.net: This is an ideal app for curating, organizing, and sharing everything you write or documents that you create with other teachers. This is the most productive method for dealing with papers, reports and other document artifacts that help you might use in the classroom and share with other teachers. It provides public and secure folders and many social networking features that allow you to push your content out to colleagues.

Whether you use your iPad in the classroom or just to help you get prepared for teaching when you’re away from the classroom, you’re sure to find these applications helpful. They can keep you organized, give you additional resources and ensure that you’re in touch with everything you need, even when you travel.

Keep in mind that new applications are created every day for the iPad, iTouch and iPhone. If you keep researching, you’re sure to find even more great applications you want to use on your iPad.

There are few things in life as rewarding as watching little minds develop into great minds. Elementary school teachers have the chance to watch this transformation all the time. Teaching elementary school is a tough job, but with these great challenges also come great rewards. You might be surprised at how fulfilling it can be. If you are interested in helping your elementary education students excel, you can get ideas, inspiration and teaching tips from the teachers that are already there. Here are 50 great blogs by elementary teachers: [click to continue…]

If you’re interested in early childhood education as a career, you no doubt want to learn more about the field. Early childhood education is a growing field, and there are more opportunities than ever for early childhood teachers who have a degree in teaching very young children. Here are 17 excellent videos from YouTube to help you get to know the early childhood teaching profession as a career.

1. Montessori Education for the Early Childhood Years: This video explains the Montessori method of education for young children. The Montessori style of educating is very different from traditional early childhood education, but it is a very effective way of teaching young children, by allowing them to be self directed and by using play as a primary teaching tool.
2. Developmentally Appropriate Early Childhood Education: Learn about developmentally appropriate education, which focuses on playing and doing as learning activities in the early childhood classroom.
3. Early Childhood Education in Bilingualism: Learn the benefits of having your child learn a second language at an early age, in terms of how it affects their overall education and learning ability.
4. Early Childhood Educators are Professionals: Video about the importance of having early childhood educators who have been professionally educated in their field.
5. Importance of Early Childhood Education: This video discusses the importance of appropriate early childhood education programs in terms of making a city a desirable place to live. This video is a roundtable discussion in Houston, Texas that focuses on the needs for these resources.
6. Childhood Development, Early Learning, the Brain and Society: This video from the Research Channel discusses the innate learning abilities of infants and young children.
7. Wired for Life: Early Childhood Education: This video discusses the importance of early childhood education on a child’s overall future.
8. What Children Learn in Pre-k: This video discusses the goals of pre-kindergarten. Learn how pre-kindergarten is used to take advantage of that period in a child’s life before age five where the brain is still developing.
9. Challenging Behavior in Young Children: Learn about the challenges that early childhood educators face in behavior issues, and how they can inadvertently make the problem worse.
10. Kindergarten Centers: A look at the use of learning centers in a kindergarten classroom.
11. Perfect Literacy Centers: Improve your learning and literacy centers in your early childhood classroom.
12. Modeling Guided Reading: Guided reading is an important reading support tool. Learn the importance of guided reading and how to perform it with your students.
13. Reading Strategies: Learn reading strategies that work for children from the early days of reading through several higher grades.
14. Early Childhood Reading Strategies: Learn the reading strategies to use with beginning readers.
15. Reading and Writing with Preschool and Primary Children: Learn about the right strategies for reading and writing with young children.
16. Learn to Write at an Early Age: Strategies for teaching writing to very young children.
17. How Reading and Writing Begin: Learn the skills needed to teach writing to very young children. Many people think that children cannot be taught to write before they learn to read, but this video helps to explain how you can teach writing skills to a child even before they are reading.

We continue to learn that early childhood education is a critical part of ensuring that children get develop appropriate learning skills and get the education they really need. As an early childhood educator, you will have the opportunity to teach children during the time when their brains are still developing and when they are most open to learning.

In years past, there was little focus on ensuring that the earliest childhood educators were properly trained and educated. In fact, they were often thought of as little more than babysitters. But, as we have learned more about how a child’s brain develops, we have learned the importance of very early learning and have developed appropriate educational programs to teach early childhood educators how to take advantage of this critical time in childhood brain development.

We all know that reading to our children is important, but it’s good to remind ourselves exactly why. Here are six reasons why that bedtime story is a can’t-miss event.

1.  Children who are read to learn to love reading. When kids love reading, they read by choice and they read a lot. Reading has been shown to drastically improve SAT scores, comprehension and writing skills all essential for success in school.

2. By reading to your kids, the TV and computer are no longer doing babysitting duty. Children’s growing minds need interaction and conversation to progress, which television and the internet can’t provide. Studies link watching too much TV and video game playing to learning disabilities, attention deficiency, and speech defects.

3. For the short time you read to your children, they will stay clean and quiet! Isn’t that reason enough?

4. Improve your child’s listening skills and attention span. Television is full of distractions; even home-life is full of things that pull attention in many directions. But when a child is read to, they have to listen and focus – skills that will serve them well in class.

5. The majority of the brain is developed by the time a child enrolls in first grade. The University of Chicago did research on the effects of reading to children and found that thousands of cells are formed, activated and strengthened in the brain when they are read to.

6. If your kids see you read, they will think reading is important. Making literacy a part of your life will help your kids choose to make it a priority in theirs. It’s a way to pass on your values.

Taking 15 minutes a day to read to your children is time well spent and an excellent investment in your child’s future.  It is a relaxing, loving endeavor that you will both enjoy!

Heard about the little girl who told her friend: “I’m never having kids. I hear they take nine months to download.” Well, it may be a joke but the fact of the matter is that because of nuclear families young parents are not blessed with the company of grandmas to give them invaluable tips on child care and child rearing.

With so many crèches and daycare centers around, the working woman feels secure about her baby being taken care of. However, it is important that parents try to learn as much as they can about child rearing so that a baby’s growing up days are free from discomfort and full of love.

Here we present nine blogs that center around taking care of babies and are worthy of being read by new parents and parents to be.

1. Baby parenting – A blog on the About.com network that is run by Stephanie Brown, toddler guide extraordinaire. Parenting toddlers is particularly hectic, these bundles of energy can scarcely think for themselves and are so dependent on others. The blog offers general tips on parenting, potty training a kid, and related stuff.

2. Baby toolkit – A blog that brings to your attention all the various knick-knacks, toys, and items that can bring a smile to your child’s face, educate it, stimulate its curiosities, and maybe give you a breather when the little one is occupied. The stuff that appears on the blog covers the entire gamut of things related to child care. Informational and detailed. A sure help to make parenting easier.

3. A mommy story – A peek into the life of Christina, a mother of two staying with her kids, hubby, and two cats in Columbus, Ohio. While not an out and out blog on child rearing tips, her posts on her child rearing experiences are sure to strike a chord with other parents.

4. Parents blog – A nice blog updated regularly; the authors touch upon the myriad issues related to parenting – for example dating and teen depression. There’s humor too as one post mentions a “cruel” news report that dared to state that parenting helps reduce blood pressure. The blog also has links to other relevant blogs on toddlers, babies, special needs children, etc.

5. Parent dish – Perhaps the single-most exhaustive repository on all things related to child rearing. The blog frequently posts nuggets such as the one in which one hapless mom and dad couple ground their daughter, Tess, who promptly launched a Facebook Group “1000 to get tess ungrounded”. Sleep, nutrition, gay parenting, potty training, bringing up teens and tweens, and more such issues covered here.

6. Adventures in autism – A sensitive blog chronicling the efforts of the father of an autistic child in bring him up. A place where other parents bringing up specially enabled children can find empathy and the majority blessed with normal children can get an understanding of what it means to rear a differently enabled child.

7. Mom-101 – Follow the adventures and travails of Liz, (that’s as much of her name as she’ll divulge) as she dives head-on into the world of parenting and tries to make the best of the situation. A late bloomer, she conceived at the age of 36, Liz has a dedicated following and her own funny takes on parenting.

8. The Smart Mama – The lady here is indeed one smart mama and dishes out useful information about products that are good for your kid and those that are purportedly safe but carry harmful substances. The blog carries the kind of information that is indeed of value to all parents rearing up children, particularly young parents with infants.

9. Moms and Dads – A nice blog that carries real-life tales told by moms and dads as they have experienced them. The chronicles are straight from the heart and you can empathize with the day-to-day child rearing incidents that are put up here.