In this edition, we remind you of upcoming online education conferences (@FETC, which is beginning RIGHT NOW, and #RSCON4), where our very own Tosca Killoran will be presenting at the Reform Symposium E-Conference this weekend! We share updates on our published books (TED, A is for Action, Destiny Quest), as well as an update on our upcoming series of books (11 books focused on character education and the IB Learner Profile). 

We will also share a TED talk and website created by our very own students at Bonn International School. AND last, but certainly not least, we will offer you the chance to get a FREE E-copy of a Teacher Guide that focuses on kids taking action on domestic and international hunger (a value of $12), and we announce who has interacted the most with our last 4 newsletters, helping us to gain new subscribers, winning a free print version of our book A is for Action: The ABC’s of Taking Action.

Strap in, get comfortable, and Enjoy!

We are very proud to announce that our free TED eBooks have been downloaded more than 2000 times! These books focus on teaching the world about TED, TEDx, TED-Ed, as well as how to organize your very own TEDx event!

Reviews:
Thank you for this wonderful resource! I have been searching for something like this for quite some time, as I am a teacher who has been interested in TED, seen a few of the videos and wanted to find ways to incorporate it into an education setting. This eBook has it all and more! It really synthesizes how interested individuals can get more involved in TED in a meaningful and productive way. 

This is terrific! Admittedly, I did not know a lot about TED, but I have been TED-ucated. The materials were clear and concise, the links were helpful and the audio option was great. Congratulations - you have done a wonderful job!

For more information on any or all of these books, click HERE.

Coming Soon:
-Over the next few months, you will see updates made to these books to keep them current and relevant to any changes that have been made. 
-We will also be releasing a version of TED-ucate Yourself in Chinese!

We were very excited to release our book A is for Action: The ABC’s of Taking Action. It has gained a great deal of exposure and we have received very positive feedback from teachers, students, parents, and action organizations. 

We are extremely happy with the print version of this book - it looks and feels amazing! This is the quality that we strive to provide for our learning community. For the eBook version, we recommend that you purchase the book through Follett (FLR#5167CI5) or DedicatedTeacher. 

In the next few months, we will continue to add to and build www.HelpTakeAction.com,  which is the complementary site to the book. We plan to add case studies to give the HOW (skills and know-how) in the book further context, so you can see what it looks like in practice.

If you haven't seen our A is for Action Rap song yet, you HAVE to check this out!

For schools using Follett’s Destiny Quest, we are proud to say that we are offering the one and only comprehensive guide, Destiny Quest: An Educator’s Guide. Follett has recently released Follett Enlight, and we will be adding updates to our site, www.DestinyQuestGuide.com to keep the contents of this book recent and relevant.

We are SOOOOOOO excited for our next set of 11 books, which we hope to have available within the next few months! Tosca, Janet Hannah, and our illustrative colorist Riva Zietsoff (who has worked for Disney), have been working tirelessly on these amazing books. 

This series focuses on character education, (perfect for the IB Learner Profile), and will support teachers, students, and parents in learning about: being honest, having integrity, showing respect, being open-minded to other’s ideas, using critical thinking skills, believing in themselves, and being empathetic, compassionate and caring citizens.

While focusing on attitudes and behavior attributes, this series tackles relevant issues that kids and youth face everyday, including: bullying, improving the environment, choosing healthy food options, how to be more successful as a learner, or dealing with struggles when learning a new language or being the new student.

We will keep you updated on the release dates for these books!

If you have not checked out the ED-ucation Publishing blog, you are definitely missing out. Tosca Killoran’s poetic writing style combined with her honest and insightful approach, results in a journey of life’s experiences and teaching through the eye of a caring educator.

Here are some of the previously written blog posts, that you should definitely check out:
Teacher Appreciation Day
The Musings of a Vegetarian Teacher
Being a Teacher with a Learning Disability
International Teaching and the mark of Impermanence
The Heart of Teaching
Heroes, Secret Plans and Breaking the Law
Reflections on Family
Job Fair Season
Life, in the Time of Cholera
Reciprocity and Benevolence On the Playground

There are 2 upcoming FREE online conferences that focus on Technology, and on the Future of Education that you should mark on your calendars.

Look at who is Presenting
Register for the Conference  
Check your local time when it all goes down - Just a heads up, it is on RIGHT NOW!!!

RSCON: Reform Symposium E-Conference
October 11th-13th  

There are some brilliant sessions to take part in over this weekend, one of which will be presented by our very own Tosca Killoran! Click HERE to learn more about Tosca’s session on “Taking Action to make Change to and in the World”.

For this conference, you do not need to register to attend, just click HERE to find the sessions you would like to attend and follow the instructions on the page.

I’ll be rooting Tosca on from Kelowna, B.C., Canada at 4pm on Sunday, Oct 13, but you will need to click the link above and scroll down to find your appropriate time zone and then look at Sunday’s line-up and find out what time you should be taking part.

We have some Amazing students that we have worked with and continue to work with. In the spirit of keeping with this last month’s theme of Technology, we are featuring a few of our awesome students, and can’t wait to share more of what our students are doing in future newsletters!

The following is a TED talk from this year's TEDxYouth@BIS event. Keep an eye on the TEDxYouth@BIS website, where you will see videos from all of this year's speakers appear in the next few weeks!

Paul Appel’s TEDx Talk - "Social Media Develops International Mindedness"
Paul Appel, is a native German and has lived in Germany since his birth but has travelled to all five continents visiting a big variety of countries. Through his talk he will explain how social networks have influenced our world drastically and have helped to make our planet a better place. Paul is very interested in this topic because he attends an international school with students from all over the world and has experienced how social networks can help to build and improve international thinking.

Valeria created a website with a compilation of resources for students, parents, and teachers to teach about Digital Citizenship and Cyberbullying, as well as an eBook with tips to stay safe. She shared what she learned globally using TEDxYouth@BIS 2012 as a platform.

It’s FREE time! We want to thank our good friend Larry Levine, who is the Co-Founder of KIDS can make a Difference, an amazing organization that inspires young people to realize that it is within their power to help eliminate hunger and poverty in their community and world. He has been active in supporting us and we appreciate his help. Here is what Larry would like to offer our awesome subscribers:

Free Copy of Teacher Guide
The Kids Can Make A Difference (KIDS) program has as its centerpiece an innovative teacher guide, Finding Solutions To Hunger: Kids Can Make A Difference. Thousands of books have been sold worldwide.

The 251-page guide provides interactive lessons designed to challenge and engage middle and high school students as they explore the root causes of—and solutions to—domestic and international hunger. Students will examine colonialism, contemporary development projects, the media, and famine vs. chronic hunger, the working poor, and more. The guide also offers helpful examples of community service projects. The Guide is available in English and Spanish.

To take advantage of this free offer send an email to kids@kidscanmakeadifference.org and place EDP Offer in the subject line. Include your contact information including address and email address. You will receive an email containing the link to download the guide (Be sure to specify either the English or Spanish version)

....and the winner is! 

We want to Thank everyone for their engagement in the last month and for supporting us. Many people were very active with this past month’s newsletters, but there was one person that we wanted to thank for their support that went above and beyond.

Congratulations to Ms. Ann Martin! Expect a free copy of A is for Action: The ABC’s of Taking Action in the mail!

In the next month, we aim to look at kids as creators and makers, and creative spaces, both at school and at home. We hope that these themes appeal to teachers, as well as parents, students, and all the great people who follow us.

Next week: Creating using online tools (e.g. Comics, Word clouds, Animations)

SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!

APPlist Builder tool: If you want to create your own personalized APP lists to share with parents, fellow educators, friends, family, or use with your students for specific subjects, skills or for homework, check out this new tool. If you end up making a cool list that you would like to share, please shoot it our way!

AppsGoneFree: Download this free app, and check it daily for a small list of Apps that typically sell for $1.99, $2.99, $4.99 or more, but get them FREE!

iPads for Education: Offers great APPS, organized by Category.

APPList: This tool allows you to share a list of all your iPhone- and iPad-Applications with your friends, your colleagues and your family. Nothing more, nothing less. Here is Jeff's List from a few months ago. Please don't judge ;)

ARTICLE: Why the “Explain Everything” APP is a must-have.

Use Socrative as a student response system in any class (how kids are doing, polls, multiple choice) - check out the video.

eSafe Kids App - $0.99

Garfield's Online Safety App - Free

Netiquette for Kids App - Free

Ecosia: 
Search for what you want...while taking action and helping to plant trees!

Symbaloo: 
Create a Research Hub using and embed it on your class blog/website or set as a homepage on your class computer. 

Click HERE for an example of what that might look like.

TitanPad: 
Have students work collaboratively, document that process, share tips along the learning journey, and export the completed work as a PDF or Word file.

EasyBib: 
Ensure students are giving credit where credit is due by sourcing what they use (Expert-style!)

Weebly: 
Easily create a class website or have your students create one! Use it for immediate feedback to parents, group work, or as an online portfolio or blog (with a free APP to immediately add content). You can also password protect pages to avoid any privacy issues! 



Fun Fact: This website was created using Weebly!

Alternatives to YouTube: 
Can’t use YouTube in your school? Use this custom created search engine to search for educational videos not hosted on YouTube!

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy: 
29 of the Best online web tools that support "Bloom's Digital Taxonomy"

Wordle Alternatives: 
Many of you know about Wordle, the word cloud generator. Well, here are 9 alternatives that might suit you better! 

Akinator: 
Choose a real or fictional character, and Akinator will guess it, EVERY time! You can also get the APP (well worth the $1.99), but you can use the website for free! This has great potential for an activity in your class. 

Our first newsletter received positive feedback so, we are back for round 2! Thanks for helping us spread the word! We have 40 NEW subscribers and 880 people receiving this newsletter! Most importantly, the feedback that we received from you helped shape this edition.

One recommendation that you offered was, < = > (less equals more....darn it!! That explanation made it longer, but we didn’t want you to be confused!) This edition reflects that concept.

A Special thanks to:
@drdouggreen for including us in his blog: NetNuggets bit.ly/gk4ZEQ 
@AnibalPachecoIT for mentioning us on Twitter
@animationchefs for responding to our tweets “We've reweeted your amazing collection of edtech info to all our followers. We need more like U”
@jennysfen for featuring us in The #pypchat Daily http://paper.li/jennysfen/1332639391
@DavidSpencerEdu for retweeting us

There are more that need to be thanked but in brevity we want to thank EVERYONE for your support! We want to continue to build this newsletter according to your needs and wants, so if you missed it, please take a literal minute to fill out the 8 question survey and continue to help us improve!!

The theme for this month’s newsletter: Take Action, Make a Difference, and “Stuff”

Join us on a monthly ED-venture! Each month, we will provide you with some new and exciting updates on what we are up to, as well as some awesome recommendations (videos to watch, people to follow on Twitter, pages to check out on Facebook, APPs to try out).

If you like what you see, please help spread the word and ask anyone who you think may enjoy this monthly newsletter to subscribe to our mailing list by entering their e-mail below.

Our book “A is for Action: The ABC’s of Taking Action” is now available!!! We have had some awesome people write some amazing reviews:

A is for Action is the most exciting new book that I have seen in years. Hoffart and Killoran have a great product that was influenced by their own work as teacher researchers. Children and educators all over the world will rejoice at this great tool for breaking down the thinking, processes, and habits of mind necessary for taking action and making a difference in the world. IB educators, in particular, will love the connection to inquiry, reflection and the attitudes necessary for increasing student agency. I will be using this resource for years!

-Chad Hyatt is the IB Coordinator at the Center for Inquiry in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is a member of the IB Educator Network with focused work in action and inquiry and an Action in the PYP workshop leader

To read all of the kind recommendations and to find out how you can get a copy today, click HERE.

This book comes with a complimentary website http://www.helptakeaction.com It is filled with curriculum resources, videos and extension activities to help get you started in making a difference in the world today!

More than a company, ED-ucation Publishing at it’s core is two teachers who came together, care about the future of education and want to make a positive difference in the world. Follow our NEW BLOG to get to know us as people and educators: http://www.ed-ucation.ca/blog.html

Here are 2 comments that review the blog thus far:
@CliveSir
Super blog! Really love @toscakilloran's writing... I'm expecting great things of you guys :)

@RentonL
She TOTALLY reels me in EVERY time, ♥ @ToscaKilloran's writing style LOVE that you r sharing ur thoughts w your blog, @ToscaKilloran! Your writing style just truly speaks 2 me!

Give it a read, it may speak to you!

Jenna Cumbers has an eye for detail  and a knack for programming language. She has worked to ensure our projects keep children as the focus! She is a graduate of the Kelowna Centre for Arts and Technology and was the illustrator for “A is for Action: The ABC’s of Taking Action”



Connect with Jenna: www.JennaCumbers.com

Should entrepreneurship be taught in school?

The skills of tomorrow stretch far beyond the rote learning of yore, encompassing information and communications technology, digital citizenship, entrepreneurial spirit and beyond: http://bit.ly/12Tuplv

Less is more - Take action in your own life (5:50)
This video is less than 6 minutes and you will get this time back and much more from what you will learn! Graham Hill asks: Can having less stuff, in less room, lead to more happiness? He makes the case for taking up less space, and lays out three rules for editing your life.

The Story of Stuff (21:25)
The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

If Students designed their own Schools (14:26)
A small town in America experiments with self-directed learning at its public high school. A group of students gets to create their own school-within-a-school and they learn only what they want to learn. Does it work? Charles Tsai finds out by spending a week with the Independent Project.

How wonderful is it that no one need wait a single moment before starting to change the world.
 -Anne Frank, diarist

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
 -Margaret Mead, anthropologist

If we don’t change our direction, we’re likely to end up where we are going.
 -Chinese proverb

It’s not that you can make a difference; it’s that everything you do makes a difference.
 -Philippe Cousteau, EarthEcho International

Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference. And we have a choice: What sort of difference do we want to make?
 -Jane Goodall, primatologist and anthropologist

http://freerice.com
What do you get when you combine: Education + Social Good? The answer is Free rice! Free Rice has 2 goals: Provide education to everyone for free and Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

You or your students can answer questions about Humanities, Math, Language, Science, English, Chemistry, Geography or SAT Test preparation questions. Have students practice in class, assign it for homework, start a trend in your school, the possibilities are endless. For each answer that you or your students get right, sponsors of the site donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme to help end hunger!

https://secure1.heifer.org/gift-catalog
Now, we have seen the word “stuff” come up a bunch in this newsletter. Are you one of those people who have received a birthday, anniversary or holiday gift from someone that goes straight to the trash or in a box? Are you someone who struggles to find the perfect gift for that special someone?

Stop giving “stuff” and start giving hope. Heifer.org allows you to give a meaningful gift to give a loved one and help children and families around the world receive training and animal gifts that help them become self-reliant. Examples of gifts are: irrigation pumps, send a girl to school, gardening packages, or farming supplies.

https://twitter.com/volunTEENnation: Teen Nation is a Youth-led national non-profit organization with volunteer, intern & scholarship resources for youth, schools, & nonprofits.

https://twitter.com/Change: Change.org is the world’s largest petition platform. Their mission is to empower people everywhere to create the change they want to see.

https://www.facebook.com/causes 
Causes allows you to share ideas, find like-minded friends, and make an impact using this platform.

https://www.facebook.com/voicesofyouth
Voices of Youth helps you to learn about issues affecting the world, voice your thoughts and communicate your ideas using this UNICEF initiative.

https://www.facebook.com/GOODHQ 
GOOD is a global community of people and organizations who give a damn, and good.is is the platform for its members to share what's good to learn and do in pursuit of individual and collective progress.

https://www.facebook.com/dosomething 
DoSomething inspires, empowers and celebrates a generation of doers: teenagers who recognize the need to do something, believe in their ability to get it done, and then take action.

ED-ucation Publishing believes in the power of communities. Are you an artist, illustrator, writer, app developer, designer or teacher? Would you like to work with us, or give us feedback on any of our projects? Please contact us and become part of our growing community.

We hope that you took the time to fill out the survey at the top of this newsletter. Thus far, technology - apps, sites, articles, as well as online PD or workshops you could partake in as a presenter or learner (for FREE!) is the main areas you have highlighted. 

PSST.....since you are part of our community, we thought we would let you know that we have some VERY exciting new developments, including an App (or two), 10 new books (WOW!!!!), one of our TED books translated in Chinese, and an AWESOME new initiative to have students participate in a writing “contest” that results in students sharing their voice and becoming published! Stay tuned for these updates and more, as well as some awesome TECH resources next month.

Thanks for joining us! See you soon.