A Happiness Researcher Relates The Ten Things You Should Do If You Want To Be Totally Miserable. Clearly, you do the opposite to be happier. See how many you and your kids can guess. @MsHelenRussell @TEDxOdense

From ‘Minecraft’ to mixed reality, Microsoft is preparing students for the future. The research highlighted several themes, including a new focus on social skills and emotional competencies and an ongoing need for personalized learning. @DeborahBach1 @MSFTNews @kevinhoneycutt @JWalterEDU

Four Strategies Designed to Drive Metacognitive Thinking – Metacognition is defined as thinking about one’s thinking or learning. Does it happen at your school? @Catlin_Tucker @TeachOnTheEdge

Social/Mobile Media Education

The Best Online Learning Games – 2019 (Part One) – There are a lot of resources here. @Larryferlazzo

Learning

How to Measure Distances in Google Maps – This looks like a fun activity for upper elementary and middle school students. @rmbyrne

Leadership/Parenting

Making Kids Read Fast is NOT the Goal of Fluency Instruction; Making Meaning Is. The real goal of phonics instruction – to get kids to the point where they don’t have to use phonics much in their reading. @ERobbPrincipal @AprilleHurst

Inspirational/Funny Tweets

@mraspinall

Humor, Music, Cool Stuff

This Is What Old English May Have Actually Sounded Like. English teachers should be able to use this. @BoingBoing

Recent Book Summaries, Original Work, and Guest Posts

The Leadership Mind Switch: Rethinking How We Lead In the New World of Work by D. A. Benton and Kylie Wright-Ford

Wise Guy: Lessons From a Life by Guy Kawasaki

From Teacher to Leader: Finding Your Way as a First-Time Leader—Without Losing Your Mind by Starr Sackstein

Being Digital 23 Years Later by Nicholas Negroponte

The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success by Albert-László Barabási

Should We Be Teaching Optimism? by Dr. Doug Green

Token Ideas for Guest Speakers by Jenna Smith – If you need a high quality plaque check out EDCO Awards and Specialties.

Get It Done: The 21-day Mind Hack System to Double Your Productivity and Finish What You Start by Michael Mackintosh

All Children, Including Those with Learning Disabilities, Benefit from the Arts by Lillian Brooks

Seven Things That Can Spoil Your Relationship with the Students by Kate Khom

Hacking Project-Based Learning: 10 Easy Steps to PBL and Inquiry in the Classroom by Ross Cooper and Erin Murphy

Be sure to try the bottom right translate button for your favorite language or one you are trying to learn. If you don’t see it check your ad blocking software.

In addition to the education and leadership resources I post daily, I always end with this grab bag category so you can have some fun, and maybe still learn something. So read through the list and have some fun. The greatest hits of my other categories were posted on previous days along with my best book summaries from 2013. Have a happy new year and thanks for your continued support.

11/27 Key and Peele’s Substitute Teacher bit – If you are new to these guys be sure to watch some of their other videos. @DrDougGreen

11/27 Regina Dugan: From a mach 20 glider to a hummingbird drone. The nerd as a hero and how we all have nerd power. Be sure to at least watch the humming bird drone at 9 minutes. @TED_TALKS

11/26 A quadriplegic gives a TED Talk using a robot. This is amazing, extremely cool, and inspirational. [10:22] Be sure to watch until he flies his drone. Students need to see this. @TEDx

11/22 Google Street View Team traumatized by Florida’s nude beaches. Lesson for kids: you never know when you are on camera. @HuffPostMiami

11/21 14 school mascots that may be more offensive than the Redskins – Nothing says team sprit better than Hobos. @sara_bee

11/19 All mammals that weigh as much as cats on up take the same amount of time to pee. This is real science and young students will probably get a kick out of it. (It’s the “Other Golden Rule” story.) @scifri

11/18 Princeton is the top school on Trojan’s list. Yes it’s the condom maker. @HuffPostCollege

11/13 Product Testing – The Rollie by Glove and Boots. After watching this, the ad for the real product will probably seem funny. @Fafagroundhog

11/10 Man returns to burning house to save beer. Don’t worry, it’s a happy ending, sort of. @NYDailyNews

11/9 Glove and Boots sing their version of All Together Now. This is so cute and funny. @sbarness1

11/6 Now we have robot baristas. The joke on NPR was now we finally found work for robots who majored in English. Don’t get me wrong, I think English is a fine major. My dear departed wife was one. @qz

11/2 Freestyle Finger Snapping – This starts with a tutorial and goes on to an amazing demonstration of this art. [4:05] @reddit_tv

10/31 The nine most-hated Halloween treats – This is pretty funny. @HuffPostBiz

10/17 Bacon lowers sperm count while white fish increases it. Who knew you could use bacon for birth control. :) @theage

10/15 Dilbert creator Scott Adams discusses his new book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. Passion and goals are way less important than process. Watch the video [5:13] first. @millermarinellc @WSJ

10/10 The difference between porn sex and real sex – This is informative and funny. There is no sex, just food, but it may not be appropriate for kids who haven’t had a reasonable amount of sex ed. If you plan to have an Internet porn conversation with your kid, this might be useful.

10/6 Professional kayaker rides down drainage ditch at 35 miles and hour. This could be bad for your kayak and/or your body. @dailydot

9/27 Mac Story – This is a short parody of Toy Story [2:24]. I gave it the funny rating. @digg

9/26 Glove and Boots test products you can only buy on TV. Gorilla using the Slap Chop brought tears to my eyes. @Fafagroundhog

9/17 Young American tourist shows off features of a Japanese vending machine. Looks like they are a few steps ahead of us with this technology. @digg

8/28 The places that European explorers really did discover first. @GuyKawasaki

8/23 Overcoming obstacles: This is a short inspirational TED Talk [4:22] by a physically disabled student who made the varsity basket ball team as a freshman. All students should see this. @rmbyrne

8/22 iPhone app rates your performance in bed. The [1:24] video is funny and probably PG rated. @mailonline @TheImusShow

8/22 Mickey Mouse in a Bad Ear Day [3:51] – This is very clever. Show it in class and have students critique. This can promote some critical thinking. @ValmontGod

8/9 The fries that bind – Here is a cool infographic on where you find or don’t find McDonald’s. No two countries that both had a McDonald’s have ever fought a war. Your students should find this interesting. @digg @foodbeast

8/7 Ten reasons to drink coffee. @GuyKawasaki

8/2 Pupils at David Bowie’s alma matter make a tribute video [10:01]. This is pretty arty. Perhaps it will inspire other kids to get creative. @SchoolsImprove @eveningstandard

7/31 Kid solves a Rubic Cube while juggling it. [1:35] This is officially Awesome!

7/30 London firefighters notice an increased use of handcuffs. @USATODAY

7/25 Tom Thum: The orchestra in my mouth – [11:41] This guy is amazing. @TED_TALKS

7/22 Yuck Movie – A 4th grader does a documentary exposing the truth about his school lunches. Lesson for adults: not only are the kids watching, they just may be filming. You also may be interested in the story I got this from in the @NYPost.

7/21 Drumming grandma (possibly great grandma) really rocks it. [1:25] @iEducator

7/16 San Francisco TV station reports names of pilots on Asiana flight 214 that recently crashed. Here is a news story that explains how it was a racist prank that made it on air. Don’t feel bad if you think it’s funny. @TheImusShow

7/3 This is a great TED Talk [18:06] by an autistic kid. “Instead of being a student of your field, be the field.” Also see his 60 Minutes piece from 2012 when he was 13. @millermarienllc

‘6/22 Eight-year-old sings opera (Queen of the Night from Mozart’s Magic Flute). This is one of opera’s biggest show off pieces. [3:08] @DrDougGreen

6/18 Manal al-Sharif: A Saudi women who dared to drive. This is very inspirational. Make sure your kids see this. @TED_TALKS @Montberte

5/21 The lighter side of Sweden from the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. The you can’t understand all the lyrics, here they are. This makes fun of Swedish culture and it’s right on. I’m a Swedish-American and have been there many times. @GuyKawasaki

5/21 One high school’s epic ending to the school year – This video features every kid in school and what seems like the entire facility. Every sports team and activity in the school in their uniforms are also represented. What end-of-year tradition does your school have? @Guykawasaki

5/17 How Irish dancing got started – This is hilarious. Be sure to watch it all. Thanks to my Swedish cousin Morgan Johansson

5/15 Visit the International Space Station while an astronaut sings the David Bowie classic. This is pretty awesome. ISS astronaut Chris Hadfield wows with Bowie’s Space Oddity. @adambellow

5/8 Bohemian Rhapsody parody by Syracuse students – This is very well done. @millermarinellc

5/3 The Evolution of Music by the Pentatonix – This is a great history of music lesson. @catmiller2 @millermarinellc

4/26 It’s Monday – A parody of the Rebecca Black Friday song – This is pretty funny. @adambellow

4/24 World Yo Yo champion tells his story and shows off. The lesson here is to follow your passion. @TED_TALKS

4/14 The gorillage people – I love these guys. @ValmontGod @FafaGroundhog @MarioGlove

4/5 The 40 hottest women in tech list – Should women on this list be offended? You could title this list Accomplished Women in Tech for my money and run it as is. I got this from This Week in Tech which has many of these women as guests. They are all smart, hard working, interesting, and great role models.

3/14 Three minutes of fun for any French class with Mickey Mouse. This would be excellent for beginners. @ValmontGod

2/19 Nine-year-old banjo wiz with his brothers on guitar and fiddle. This is what can happen when kids don’t have video games. Thanks to Douglas Thaler, retired rock star manager

1/16 Two BBC Trailers with Monty Python songs. Love this stuff. @FastCompany

1/16 Porn study scrapped due to lack on men who don’t watch it. It also notes that most boys watch it by age ten. Parents take note. If you don’t provide sex ed your kid will probably get it online. @MailOnline

Hello from the Adirondack Mountains where Internet access is spotty at best. I’ll be back with my daily Net Nuggets on Monday. Until then I’m referring you to my Net Nugget archives on the left side of my home page, and my 100+ book summaries available under the BOOK SUMMARIES tab near the top of my home page. The summaries contain the key concepts from the books, but lack the detailed evidence and interesting stories that support the author’s claims.

If you are reading this, I would like to thank you for your support. If you click a book item at the bottom of any page, it will take you to Amazon where you can purchase the book. I encourage you to do this to support the authors who often give me their books. I will also get a small payment. I hope you find my work valuable and please consider sharing it with your network. Thanks so much.