We're right in the middle of a season where a lot of us are giving thanks and reflecting on the year we have had. For some of us it is because of American or Canadian Thanksgiving, Japanese Labour Thanksgiving, or Turkish National Day of Thanks, or upcoming holidays such as Hanukkah, Christmas, or Kwanzaa. For some of us, it is simply because the year is coming to a close and we are getting ready to celebrate a new year. In light of this, we wanted to take a moment (or, a blog post!) to thank the guest bloggers who generously donated their time to make this blog such a success in its first year.

In chronological order of first post, we would like to thank the following people who contributed guest blogs in 2016:

Bryan Penfound, an instructor of future math educators and our first official guest blogger, who contributed two-part series about teacher training (Part 1, Part 2). 

Phil Bressler, a teacher in Baltimore County and our first "fan" when we were just getting started, who contributed a post about negative views of testing

Michael Pershan, a math teacher who contributed a post on the mysteries surrounding effective feedack.

Fabian Weinstein-Jones (formerly Fabian Jones), a parent who contributed a post about the utility of homework.

Jonathan Firth, a high school teacher of psychology and PhD candidate who contributed a post about integrating spaced practice in the classroom.

Caroline Creaby and Jonathan Haslam, who contributed a post about Evidence for the Frontline - a service that connects teachers and researchers in the UK.

Dr. Veronica Yan, now an Assistant Professor at UT Austin, who contributed a post on two types of memory strength.

Samuel Sumeracki, a strategic communication expert who contributed a post on the publication process, and also helps with many aspects of the project.

Dr. Paul Kirschner - Distinguished University Professor at the Welten Institute - and Dr. Mirjam Neelen - a Learning Experience Designer at the Learnovate Centre - who allowed us to edit and reblog their post on homework recommendations.

Dr. Richard P. Phelps, who founded and manages the Nonpartisan Education Review, and contributed a post debunking the myth of "teaching to the test":

Erik Kalenze, an educator and author based in Minnesota’s Twin Cities metro, who contributed a post on framing effects in teaching.

Asher Levin, the Director of Inclusion and Teacher of Computer Science at The Nottingham Emmanuel School, who contributed a video of his lecture on effective teaching strategies.

Brook Fulton, now a research assistant Johns Hopkins, who contributed a post about note-taking.

Kelsey Gilbert, now a counselor at The Renfrew Center, who contributed a post about the self-explanation technique in math.

Maia Miller, now an Admissions Counselor at Goucher College, who contributed a post about retrieval practice from a student's perspective.

Martin Winter, alumnus of the University of Massachusetts Lowell Psychology BA, who contributed a post about effective learning strategies for students with dysgraphia.

Dr. Melina Uncapher, an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Neurology at the University of California San Francisco, as well as a MacArthur Scholar at Stanford University, who allowed us to edit and reblog her post about the left/right brain myth.

Adam Hill, a primary school teacher who recently relocated to Hong Kong from the UK, who contributed a post on the impact teachers have on their students.

Dan Williams, a Further Education teacher who contributed a post on the different sources of information we consult to find out about how students learn.

Saga Briggs, who contributed a post on the importance of content curation for students and teachers.

Dan Davis, a PhD Student at TU Delft in the Netherlands, who contributed a post on his study of classroom-based learning strategies at scale.

Dr. Robert Nash, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Aston University, UK, and Dr. Naomi Winstone, Lecturer in Higher Education at the University of Surrey, UK, who contributed a post on their review of 195 publications on feedback.

Syeda Nizami, a student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell who contributed a post on Nova’s School of the Future Segment, which highlighted how research and technology can help close the achievement gap, and a post in which she tried out the 6 strategies for effective learning. 

Dr. Keith Lyle, an Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Louisville, who contributed a post on retrieval practice for engineering students.

Dr. Daniel Willingham, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, who let us edit and reblog his post about a new homework study.

Blake Harvard, a high school AP Psychology teacher at James Clemens High School in Madison, AL, who contributed a post on the effect on problem solving with disfluent fonts.

Dr. Stacey Finkelstein, an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Zicklin College of Business, Baruch College, City University New York, who contributed a post describing two myths about feedback.

Dr. Clare Conry-Murray, an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, who contributed a post about gender bias in young children.

Dr. April Schweinhart, a Post-Doctoral Associate in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Rutgers - Newark, who contributed a post about homework and another post on how children evaluate the reliability of informants.

Mary Kathryn Cancilliere, a student of Clinical Psychology at Rhode Island College, who contributed a post on ADHD and non-heme iron.

James Mannion a final year PhD student at the University of Cambridge and an Associate of the University College London Institute of Education, who contributed a post on the complexity of learning.

We would also like to thank the following people whom we interviewed for the blog:

Amy Ramponi, who teaches AP Psychology

Greg Ashman, a teacher and PhD candidate

Oliver Caviglioli, a visualizer who has illustrated most of our materials

Paul Kirschner, an educational realist and self-proclaimed "grumpy old man"

Jake Hunton, a language teacher

Kristen DiFiore, a teacher and former probation officer