Education

  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    DetentionSlip.org

  • Skinny pants banned from schools in Texas

    Hall Monitor
    19 Nov 2009 | 4:20 pm
    Story: Odds of wearing skinny pants in Mesquite ISD: slim to noneWhile baggy pants are a problem in some parts of the country, skinny pants are causing principals' heads to roll in others. I'm thinking that these pants are so tight, and so hard to put on, that maybe students are arriving tardy everyday because it takes them longer to get ready in the morning. Oh, and they look ridiculous...especially on teenage boys.

  • Teacher Accused of Using a Jump Rope to Tie Up Misbehaving Students

    Hall Monitor
    19 Nov 2009 | 9:57 am
    Story: Hickory Substitute Teacher Accused of Using a Jump Rope to Tie Up Misbehaving StudentWhat is troubling about this story, is that while bound, the teacher told the children, "This is what it’s going to be like when you’re in jail." The nerve of this lady to give out such inaccurate information to our youth! Even though jails are over-crowded, I don't think it's ever been common practice to tie up prisoners with a jump rope when they are causing trouble in the yard. Either they get shanked by another inmate or they're put in solitary confinement. No wonder kids haven't been scoring…

  • Student sues school over dodgeball injury

    Hall Monitor
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:26 am
    If you can dodge a ball, you can dodge a lawsuit!Story: Injured kid hits school in dim gym lawsuit after dodgeball accidentDodgeball was unofficially banned from schools about three years ago. That left gym teachers to be creative. That's why this class decided to use harder, less-giving soccer balls to launch at kids. The result? Busted teeth and a trip to court. Haven't schools learned that anything that was fun 10 years ago is now considered a dangerous threat to child safety? Who would have thought a game that encourages athletic kids to whip balls as hard as they can at the faces of…

  • Teacher Accused of Showing Nude Photos

    Hall Monitor
    18 Nov 2009 | 4:38 pm
    Story: Teacher Accused of Showing Nude Photos"What's your bra size?" Usually when your after-school tutoring session begins with that question, you're not gonna be getting a lot of calculus done.

  • Board considers texting ban for school bus drivers

    Hall Monitor
    18 Nov 2009 | 8:17 am
    Story: Board considers texting ban for school bus driversMiami schools are "considering" banning bus drivers from texting. Considering! What the F do school bus drivers need to text message for?! When you're behind the wheel and your cargo is 40 school children, texting should be the LAST thing you're allowed to do. Hey Miami- way to be proactive with these ground-breaking decisions.
 
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    2¢ Worth

  • Qualities of an Effective Teacher

    David Warlick
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:50 am
    From the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation web site. Brenda forwarded this AP article to me while I was on the road. Gates Foundation gives $335M for teacher quality SEATTLE — Three school districts and a coalition of charter schools have agreed to be test kitchens for some radical ideas for improving teacher quality – from paying new teachers to spend another year practicing before getting their own class to letting student test scores affect teacher pay.1 The foundation will deal out $290 million to school systems in Tampa, Memphis, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh and another $45…

  • Too Fresh to Test

    David Warlick
    18 Nov 2009 | 9:38 am
    As some of you know, I like to begin my presentations with something that I’ve just learned — something that I didn’t know yesterday. It usually starts with a blog entry that comes into my RSS reader or a newspaper or magazine article that comes into Google News. Often it’s one of a number of ongoing Twitter searches I have going, but I usually do a little more research to learn more about the topic, so that I can talk about it. Sometimes, it’s to no avail, because the story is so far above my head that all I can say is, “I don’t understand this, but…

  • The World has become A Lot More Interesting

    David Warlick
    18 Nov 2009 | 3:46 am
    It’s not a scoreboard that’s going to keep us prosperous and fulfilled. It’s working to make our children into the people they need to be, to carry us into a future we can’t even see, people who will invent that future… A while back, I did a little work with the Wake Education Partnership, for whom I delivered a 43 minute keynote for their members, including executives from IBM, SAS, RCB, a full dozen area chambers of commerce, etc. – I was in high cotton that day. Their work is flowing through a document developed by a members committee, Suspending…

  • A Few Shifts that I See Happening

    David Warlick
    16 Nov 2009 | 4:34 am
    This was definitely one of the most interesting places to present — and I’ve presented in some strange places.  There was no real sense of the front of the room, which worked well, as I wanted participants to be just that, actively engaged in the conversation. If you’ve been missing my blog, well I have too.  The last couple of weeks have had me either preparing, traveling, or conducting workshops, keynotes, or presentations — in some of the farthest flung points of North America — at least from the perspective of this small town boy.  I…

  • Opening up the Networks to Learners

    David Warlick
    9 Nov 2009 | 7:44 am
    Brenda had promised that travel would be scaling back after last week in Edmonton — and when you look at the calendar, it certainly looks that way.  I just didn’t know that I’d be headed back up to Canada just barely more than 24 hours after landing from Alberta on Saturday.  It’s OK, though, because I have been looking forward to my work in Windsor (Greater Essex County Schools), because it will be a small part presentation and then a lot of conversation about achieving classroom 2.0 within 1.0 structures. iPod Touches are an established part of learning at…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Chronicle of Higher Education

  • Nebraska Regents, Just Barely, Endorse Research on Embryonic Stem Cells

    11-20-2009 The University of Nebraska's Board of Regents, despite heavy lobbying by religious groups, narrowly voted on Friday to uphold the expansion of research on human embryonic stem cells, as permitted by the Obama administration. The regents, meeting at the university's Lincoln campus, voted 4 to 4 on a proposal that the system observe limits on stem-cell studies imposed by the Bush administration, a tie vote that meant the resolution failed. The regents, an elected body, were... ...

  • Lincoln U. Requires Its Students to Step on the Scale

    11-19-2009 At Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania, students who are deemed too heavy must pass a physical-fitness course. As part of the university's core curriculum, campus health educators weigh and measure all freshmen during the fall semester, and later calculate each student's body-mass index, or BMI. Those with a BMI above 30, which suggests obesity, must enroll in a one-credit course called "Fitness for Life" before they graduate. Students can satisfy that requirement if they "test... ...

  • Friends and Colleagues Search for a Missing Scholar, Philip Agre

    11-19-2009 Philip Agre was an associate professor of information sciences at the University of California at Los Angeles, and for years he ran a popular technology e-mail list with thousands of subscribers. But one day the 49-year-old scholar just stopped showing up on the campus, and now colleagues have deployed Twitter, Facebook, and the Web to try to find him. Last month the university police department put out a missing-person alert for... ...

  • Video: At UCLA, Tuition-Hike Protests Turn Raucous

    11-19-2009 Tempers flared and Taser guns came out when students at UCLA protested a decision to raise tuition throughout the University of California. Josh Keller, The Chronicle's California correspondent, explains what happened in Los Angeles.... ...

  • Report Highlights Characteristics of Colleges With High Transfer-Success Rates

    11-19-2009 A new report by the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education may provide clues on how best to shepherd students from two-year to four-year institutions. The findings come at a time when the Obama administration has put out a clarion call to community colleges to educate an additional five million students by... ...
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Teacher Leaders Network: Teacher Voices

  • Should a “Lesson Plan Marketplace” Concern Us?

    John Norton
    19 Nov 2009 | 2:06 pm
      [click to enlarge image]Teachers in the TLN Forum had lots to say about a recent New York Times article reporting on the growing tendency of teachers to sell lesson plans and other teaching materials they’ve developed via the Internet. A selection of comments from our discussion appeared in a recent post at Teacher Magazine, titled “Should Teachers Sell Their Class Materials?” If you’re interested in this topic, be sure to read this story.We had more insightful comments than we could possibly fit into our Teacher space, so we thought we’d share more of them here. We do…

  • A Compelling Case for Detracking Schools

    John Norton
    23 Oct 2009 | 10:56 am
    Detracking for Excellence and Equity
By Carol Corbett Burris and Delia T. Garrity(ASCD, 2008)Reviewed by Sherry L. AnneeBiotechnology TeacherBrebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School (IN)Teacher Leaders Network What are the indicators that a book has made a significant contribution within its discipline? It’s one that challenges and moves the reader to take notice of the information, internalize it, and act upon the new knowledge and one the reader quotes and reflects upon long after reading it. Detracking for Excellence and Equity by Burris and Garrity is such a book! For example, read these…

  • A Book to Inspire a Culture of Trust and Build Teacher Community

    John Norton
    21 Oct 2009 | 6:36 am
    Protocols for Professional Learning (The Professional Learning Community Series)By Lois Brown Easton(2009, ASCD)Reviewed by Michael FisherInstructional Coach and Consultant (New York)Teacher Leaders Network I appreciate the opportunity to read and review Lois Brown Easton’s book on Professional Learning Protocols. It is a book that I know will have an impact on my own practice as a staff developer, and I’ve already used and shared many ideas from the text.    Because I work with schools helping teachers to set up Professional Learning Networks, both in-house and…

  • I Want to Belong to This Club!

    John Norton
    19 Oct 2009 | 9:31 am
    A Sense of Belonging: Sustaining and Retaining New TeachersBy Jennifer Allen(2009, Stenhouse Publishers)Reviewed by Marti SchwartzTeacher, Novice-Teacher Educator (Rhode Island)Teacher Leaders Network I loved this book! When I began reading it in early September, I approached it through the lens of a coach/mentor for a group of novice teachers who spent a week with me in a seminar this past summer. From that perspective, I found the subtitle intriguing and hoped for good advice. Shortly thereafter, in a moment of optimism, I agreed to come out of semi-retirement and signed on for a totally…

  • You Can Be a Change Leader

    John Norton
    16 Oct 2009 | 7:22 am
    Leading Change in Your School: How to Conquer Myths, Build Commitment, and Get ResultsBy Douglas B. ReevesAssociation for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) (2009)Reviewed by Elizabeth SteinSpecial Education Teacher (New York)Teacher Leaders Network My interest in this book was first sparked by the title. After all, with words like "leading change" and "conquer," any action-minded educator is likely to get drawn in. It was the author who caught my attention next. Being familiar with Douglas Reeves's work on change leadership, including his monthly column in…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    LeaderTalk

  • Excessive? I Guess Not

    Nancy Flynn
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:34 am
    It was revealed on the evening news that there were multiple warning signs that the shooter at Fort Hood might have been mentally unstable and capable of violence. Last month I wrote about the precautionary lockdown we experienced due to a disgruntled, mentally unstable former employee. While that article focused more on the information disseminated to the public regarding the situation, this article addresses the actual events that led to the lockdown and the subsequent actions taken by the school district in response to the "warning signs." What led to this lockdown was a series of events,…

  • Zydeco Hellraisers

    LeaderTalk Contributor
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:25 pm
    What happens to Attention Deficit Disorder when it grows up? Sometimes it is channeled into extraordinary gifts. So Michael Phelps Picasso JFK James Carville Robin Williams... ...are all reputed ADHD guys. This is hardly an exhaustive list but it's enough to give you a flavor. I think if they named every person ever diagnosed with ADHD we would be surprised by some of the folks that were on the list-- and yet not surprised at all. We would recognize the extraordinarily talented individuals who have managed to channel the annoying distractability, the daydreaming, the incessant fingers tapping…

  • Making Time to Think

    LeaderTalk Contributor
    16 Nov 2009 | 6:05 am
    I heard the CEO of a Fortune 50 company speak about what the organization expects of senior leaders. One of the points he made was that once you move to an executive role, you are expected to be able to dig into deep issues that will affect the organization both in the short term and the long term. His next comment struck home: "You MUST make time in your calendar to think. That is what the organization expects of you. If you simply move from event to event, you are doing yourself and your organization a disservice." I'm sure I'm not alone in that I am guilty time to time of moving from one…

  • Thank Heavens for EASYBIB

    LeaderTalk Contributor
    14 Nov 2009 | 12:21 pm
    (Cross posted at drjansblog.com) Well, as I have mentioned before (yes, yes, I am proud), I get to teach (adjunct) for Kaplan University.  Now it's been more than a couple of years since I got my doctorate from Vanderbilt (1986, to be specific-- I was a child).  Now, I am teaching graduate students in education about the incredibly wonderful field of education.  And, in the time honored graduate exercises requirements, my students have to write research papers and do it RIGHT.  At Kaplan, that means no plagiarizing and always using APA formating and referencing.  I…

  • Leading With These Two Words: I Notice

    LeaderTalk Contributor
    13 Nov 2009 | 9:04 pm
    A teacher's language is a powerful teaching tool. Our language can build children up or tear them down. It can model respectful and caring social interactions or just the opposite. Effective language encourages and supports students in their learning, rather than criticizing them for their mistakes.  Effective teacher language also: Is clear, simple, and direct Is genuine and respectful Gives specific positive feedback rather than general praise Focuses on the child's action or behavior rather than generalizing about the child's whole person Avoids qualitative or personal judgment…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Education Perspectives

  • Effective School Administrators

    Michael Sporer
    11 Nov 2009 | 9:51 am
    As some of you may know, I’m Chief Financial Officer at a local career school.  As far as school administrators go, the CFO/Business Manager is considered in a separate category from educational school administrators.  Generally, my job requires business acumen and a degree in accounting, business or management.  Educational administrators, however, generally come from the ranks of teachers.   And it has been my observation that a considerable number of educational administrators don’t become strong managers and leaders.  That of course depends on…

  • Facts are Stubborn Things

    Michael Sporer
    25 Oct 2009 | 8:55 am
    I place a great deal of importance on one word; credibility.  Because when you think about it, almost everything we do in our business, educational and personal lives revolve around seeking and attaining interpersonal credibility.  Credibility is important to people, whether they are choosing a physician or choosing a spouse.  And it is essential for positive change, from the negotiating table to the supper table; from the board room to the classroom! I believe credibility is the equilibrium in all human relationships. John Adams hit upon the foundation of credibility when…

  • Hands-On Learning with Video Games

    Michael Sporer
    18 Oct 2009 | 9:25 am
    Here is a great video about hands-on learning through video games. Thanks to Dan Pink for this great piece. 

  • Educational Leadership

    Michael Sporer
    10 Oct 2009 | 1:24 pm
    The career school where I work is the CTC of Lackawanna County located in Scranton, Pennsylvania.  The building is the Henry J. Dende Center, named after a truly incredible man.  He was an admired community leader and he laid the groundwork for the school which opened its doors in September, 1973.  Henry actually left public office in 1970, but he passed the torch to another proponent of vocational education, Alfred Sporer (my Dad).  He and my Dad were very close friends.  Henry Dende passed away in 2001, and my Dad passed in 2006.  This was a wonderful…

  • Hands-On Learning

    Michael Sporer
    2 Oct 2009 | 5:18 pm
    In a prior post, I briefly touched on the Career and Technical Education (CTE) methodology of "Tell me...Show me...Let me do it."  This multi-sensory method of teaching doesn't work in a straight line, rather it's a self-reinforcing process.  I've seen it in action, and I can tell you that it is en-grained in every CTE program.  The training facilities are set up in a way which is conducive to the process, with a classroom adjacent or very near the hands-on instructional area.  Let me illustrate this using a few…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    National School Boards Assn: BoardBuzz

  • School Board News Today headlines

    Joetta Sack
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:04 pm
    In the news this week, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded several districts and entities grants–a total of $335 million–to explore ways to make teaching more effective. Three members of NSBA’s Council of Urban School Boards—Pittsburgh, Memphis, Tenn., and Hillsborough County, Fla., received grants to experiment with issues such as teacher tenure, training, and evaluations. Speaking of teachers, the New York Times reports on an interesting trend: teachers are selling their lesson plans on the internet, either through a handful of companies that have sprung up or…

  • Flu outbreaks within schools: ensuring the continuity of learning

    Daniela Espinosa
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:48 pm
    The H1N1 virus is spreading rapidly across the country.  According to the CDC, flu activity is already higher than what is seen during the peak of many regular flu seasons and almost all of the flu viruses identified this season so far are 2009 H1N1.  People are scrambling to combat the virus. Businesses around the country are making hand sanitizers available to encourage people to clean their hands often, and then there are the famous H1N1 vaccines, which, believe or not, are still hard to find… And schools?  How are they managing all this?  So far, they seem to be coping well.  They…

  • The best education blogs of 2009

    Andrew Paulson
    20 Nov 2009 | 10:57 am
    BoardBuzz came across this Washington Post item asking for readers to help select the best education blogs of 2009. As the Post’s Jay Mathews writes: I have put out a best education blogs list the last two years, but I wasn’t a blogger myself then, and really didn’t know what I was doing. Now that I face personally, each day, the pressures of being both interesting and true, I face this responsibility reborn, determined to make this the golly-whiz best list of the best education blogs ever. Fortunately Valerie Strauss, czarina of the Post’s The Answer Sheet blog, has…

  • The Great American Smokeout – what will your district do?

    Daniela Espinosa
    19 Nov 2009 | 12:50 pm
    BoardBuzz readers have seen a lot of changes in tobacco use prevention this year — the Food and Drug Administration was finally granted oversight of the tobacco industry, and a report released in October from the Institute of Medicine underscored the link between exposure to secondhand smoke and subsequent heart attacks or strokes.  Nonetheless, tobacco remains the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S., and the tobacco industry remains innovative in its insidious marketing efforts — continuing to reach children with new “e-cigarettes,” menthol flavored additives, and…

  • Steve Wozniak: A passion for innovation and education

    Barbara Moody
    19 Nov 2009 | 7:34 am
    When the Department of Education released the final application for more than $4 billion in Race to the Top Funds earlier this month, ”innovation” became the leading buzzword in education. To receive a share of these funds, states need to demonstrate innovative reforms that have raised student performance and have the capacity to accelerate achievement gains in the future. That got BoardBuzz thinking about famous innovators, and one name at the top of our list was Steve Wozniak. In 1976, Wozniak, along with Steve Jobs, founded Apple Computer, and helped shape the computing industry with…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Angela Maiers Educational Services

  • Chalk Talk - 11/20/09: The Augmented Reality Edition

    Angela Maiers
    20 Nov 2009 | 7:13 am
    Chalk Talk Friday represents conversations and brilliance I've discovered traversing my way through the Blogosphere.  From professional to personal development, these are the posts and links have in some way touched my head or my heart. One thing that has been on my mind a lot this week (besides 'What time do we land?') is Augmented Reality (#AR). Some people I trust, including my son, say this is going to be big! Laptop Magazine: What is it, How we use it, What it will Become Esquire Magazine dedicates their current issue to Augmented Reality:  Here are a few video examples of…

  • I'm Outta Time, All I Have is 2 Minutes

    Angela Maiers
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:23 pm
    We're strapped for time. We face budget cuts, which makes time all that more important.  But what if... What if all we had was two minutes? Two minutes a day. Two minutes to change the world?  What could you do?  What if...

  • Real Readers are Driven By Real Life Meaning

    Angela Maiers
    18 Nov 2009 | 4:06 am
    I picked up the drivers manual book and found it extremely difficult. It is a procedural text, it’s technical, the vocabulary is incredibly advanced, it’s sophisticate and is at times, inconsiderate writing. It is not organized and it’s a thick book. My son recently began preparing for driving by reading this text. On his own, he got a team of kids together. Created a study group, created methodologies, employed advanced skill sets, devices, and techniques to get that content without any of my help. Do you know why? Because of the urgency, and gravity and privilege -- the life-changing…

  • Great Readers Have Strategies

    Angela Maiers
    17 Nov 2009 | 9:10 am
    "The process of reading is not a half-sleep process.  It is in the highest sense an exercise; a gymnastic struggle that requires the reader to do something for himself." - Walt Whitman There is no ONE way to define comprehension (unless it's that comprehension is NOT a commodity), but the past two decades have produced for us a very substantial body of research on the habits and behaviors that exist inside the mind of a proficient reader.(Pressley)  We can with great confidence and conviction state that great readers have very identifiable and definable behaviors.

  • Chalk Talk - 11/13/09

    Angela Maiers
    13 Nov 2009 | 5:06 am
    Chalk Talk Friday represents conversations and brilliance I've discovered traversing my way through the Blogosphere.  From professional to personal development, these are the posts and links have in some way touched my head or my heart Whether you're just getting started or a seasoned vet, here's a fantastic listing of Web 2.0 Literacy tools The Common Craft team has issued another super-simple video lesson -- Cloud Computing in Plain English Kevin Jarrett  and Kelley Tenkley introduce us to a Cool Tool -- Picture Book Maker.  Write the book, then print the book! "What you…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    PILOTed

  • Promising Practices in Online Learning: Practical Strategies for Maturing Online Programs

    Mitch Weisburgh
    15 Nov 2009 | 8:52 pm
    iNACOL Virtual School Symposium 2009 Pre-Conference Workshop   Initially, I signed up for this program because I thought it was going to review best practices in online learning, specifically what are the things that most impact student learning. The session was instead geared for online schools that had been in existence for a few years; what problems have they faced and what have they done about them.   Instead of a presentation, each attendee became part of a group that then analyzed four different questions. Each question had a facilitator to lead the discussion for that…

  • Promising Practices in Online Learning: Practical Strategies for Maturing Online Programs

    Mitch Weisburgh
    15 Nov 2009 | 8:51 pm
    iNACOL Virtual School Symposium 2009 Pre-Conference Workshop   Initially, I signed up for this program because I thought it was going to review best practices in online learning, specifically what are the things that most impact student learning. The session was instead geared for online schools that had been in existence for a few years; what problems have they faced and what have they done about them.   Instead of a presentation, each attendee became part of a group that then analyzed four different questions. Each question had a facilitator to lead the discussion for that…

  • Mapping State Proficiency Standards

    Mitch Weisburgh
    29 Oct 2009 | 11:45 am
    Today the National Center for Education Statistics released its Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto NAEP Scales report. The full report is available here. The goal of the report is to highlight any changes in the way states report levels of academic proficiency in fourth and eighth grades. The report does not include Nebraska or Utah, neither of which has reported any data for 2007. In grade 4 reading, 31 states set the standard for Proficient lower than the Basic level of the NAEP; in the grade 8 tests, 15 states did. Math was not quite so skewed, only 7 states did this in grade 4 math…

  • Education Executives Day at Computers for Youth

    Mitch Weisburgh
    13 Oct 2009 | 7:37 pm
    I had a great day on Monday, October 13, 2009. I attended the Computers for Youth Education Executives day. The purpose of the day is for Title I Middle School students from New York City and education executives from around the country to evaluate learning software for the home. At the end of the day, three titles become finalists based on the following criteria: improves students' academic competencies promotes family involvement in education develops students' life-long learning skills (such as planning and reflection) motivates students to learn increases students' social…

  • New Writing Teacher Webinar

    Mitch Weisburgh
    25 Aug 2009 | 7:30 am
    Webinar Title Why Can't Suzie Write? Designing a Writing Program for the At-Risk Student Webinar Description With almost half of all students entering college needing remediation to bring them up to college level reading and writing, many colleges are struggling to support at-risk students. Dona Young, author of Writing from the Core and Which Comes First, the Comma or the Pause?, will describe the five steps that make a difference in designing a writing program for at-risk students. This webinar will help you structure your remediation programs around proven techniques. Why Can't…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Cool Cat Teacher Blog

  • WaterShed Moment in the History of Online Safety Education

    12 Nov 2009 | 5:51 am
    In Larry Magid's Brief, Poingnant Overview of the recent third annual conference of the Family Online Safety Institute, he called it a "WaterShed Moment int he History of Online Safety Education" I felt buoying hope.  Below are the extracted annotations from his article from me but I'd like to add something that I just emailed to Larry. Wow, Larry. Just a note that your current article in the San Jose Mercury News is SPOT ON - http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_13723472?nclick_check=1 We've been seeing this in our Digiteen projects where the kids determine their own ACTION…

  • Blessings and Stressings: Reflections from Home

    11 Nov 2009 | 8:16 pm
    A Break from Traveling Since July I gave myself five months off from travel. There were simply some things to attend to. My youngest son needed to be tested in more detail (he has dyslexia and a form of ADHD) and my older two - one in high school and one in middle school needed a chauffeur and a cook each night.  Life begins at home and if I should raise children who do not contribute to this world in a positive way then no matter what else I do, in my own mind, I'd be a failure. Also, we have had the Eracism project to kick off and have been struggling and trying to raise money for the…

  • The Conference for Educators and Students to Change Your Life

    9 Nov 2009 | 5:32 am
    Last year, we had our first Flat Classroom conference in Doha, Qatar during which the students invented global collaborative projects that they believed would improve a social issue.  Out of that conference, the students invented and voted the Eracism Project as their winner, a project to hold weekly debates around creating an understanding of race and culture.  The first week into Eracism, I'll say the student vision was amazing and as teachers we are so excited about what we see with the potential for "simulated sychronous" environments to bridge gaps. Now, Julie Lindsay and I are…

  • Daily Spotlight on Education 11/07/2009

    7 Nov 2009 | 1:30 am
    Innovative Learning - Free Newsletter Fall 2009This phenomenal special interest group of ISTE has a great quarterly newsletter which is really the best of innovative learning in all of education. On pages 15-17 there are three pages of an article from two of my students and I about teaching in a virtual world including my "quick tricks for teaching in a virtual world." Print this, share it, and learn - so many great things in this newsletter!tags: education, opensim, reactiongrid, ipod, iphone, iste, learning, edu_news, edu_trendsTeachingWithContests.comThis blog shares contests to use and…

  • Daily Spotlight on Education 11/05/2009

    5 Nov 2009 | 1:30 am
    TICAL - Technology Information Center for Administrative LeadershipWill be speaking in Arkansas on February 17th at their TICAL conference. I'm so excited! This is information if you are in the area so that you may plan to attend. If you do, please plan to say "hi" - it really means a lot to meet the people from cyberworld, I guess it makes it all more "real."tags: education, coolcatteacher, inthenewsNetSmartzKids: TunesUse Clicky's Raps to teach your kids Internet safety. Lisa Durff recommended this site on Twitter. Cool tool.tags: education, digitalcitizenship, digiteenPosted from Diigo.
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Eduspaces: Christopher Sessums

  • Teaching, Learning, and Dance: Thinking About Movement and Learning Environments

    17 Nov 2009 | 5:27 am
    When I think about a classroom one of the first things I think about is movement.A classroom is a small hive buzzing with energy and diversity. And in this hive, when you pay attention closely, you can see a host of dances taking place. In a recent post, Ways to think about movement, Celine Llewellyn-Jones shares her thinking about the connection between dance and classroom activity. According to Llewellyn-Jones, dance embodies four specific elements that she learned from the work of Anne Green Gilbert, Director of Creative Dance Center Seattle, Washington, :Space1. Place self space (personal…

  • Within Reach: Current Readings

    13 Nov 2009 | 6:46 am
    Some old, something new; something borrowed, something blue. Here's what's on/open/brewing on my desk.LensesBruno Latour    Reassembling the Social: An introduction to Actor-Network-Theory    Oxford University Press    2005    A how-to trace associations through accounts of activity: defining social, sociality, how-to interlude, examine the facts, the situation, and redistribute "knowing"                           …

  • Social Media as Punk 2.0

    9 Nov 2009 | 10:09 am
    I saw this video recently on Richard Darell's Bit Rebel's site. When done well, I enjoy video/animation explanations of social media and/or complex participatory enterprises. This video "Social media is the new punk rock" offers a new interpretation of how social media shifts the opportunity to listen and more importantly be heard to the masses. I feel it does so at the cost of working through some of the finer points, e.g., ethics, responsibility, intent, social action, citizenship, social justice, etc., that are equally important. Nonetheless, the video provides a starting point…

  • 10 Levels of Intimacy in Today's Communication

    8 Nov 2009 | 7:20 am
     via The Work of Ji Lee http://pleaseenjoy.com/admin/uploadedpics/picture_6_copy11.png

  • Educational Technology Professor Position Announcement

    27 Oct 2009 | 5:38 am
    Assistant/Associate Professor in Education TechnologyCollege of EducationThe School of Teaching and Learning in the College of Education at the University of Florida (Gainesville, FL), a comprehensive land-grant research university and member of the Association of American Universities, invites applications for an Assistant or Associate Professor in Educational Technology to begin August 2010. This is a nine-month tenure-track position with a strong possibility of supplementary summer employment. The Educational Technology program facilitates studies and disseminates the ways in which…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Student Affairs Blog

  • Current Tech Challenges & Creative Solutions: 11/19/09 #SACHAT Recap

    nope
    20 Nov 2009 | 7:26 am
    Last night's #sachat on Twitter was about current tech challenges and creative solutions in student affairs. In case you missed it, here's a quick recap:Full TranscriptView as webpageTop Contributers@reyjunco@debrasanborn@tomkrieglstein@cindykane@ARL275@gdgrouch27@jacksonj@beekayroot@markgr@willistjQuestions Needing AnswersWhat PAID tech tools you are using on your campus? (click here to help answer)Does anyone do any kind of online orientation for new students? (click here to  help answer)Does anyone else have difficult implementing new technology because of "old timer" resistance to…

  • Tuesday Tally - How Much Respect Does Your Department Receive From The Administration @ Your Institution?

    nope
    17 Nov 2009 | 10:24 am
    If you cannot view this poll click here. And here are the results from the last poll.

  • Professional development... what's your definition?

    nope
    16 Nov 2009 | 12:49 pm
    In this era of budget reductions we are struggling to find new ways to continue to challenge our professionals and providing them with ways to keep current in their thinking without being able to fund costly conference travel.  After a long and complicated conversation about conference attendance, we ended up sending a group of students and staff to attend the NACA Northeast Regional this week.  We had a great group and aren't we snazzy at the closing banquet:As an experienced NACA Volunteer, this wasn't my first conference. I attended just for two of the days, but during my attendance I…

  • Using Facebook Insights to Assess Your Facebook Page

    nope
    13 Nov 2009 | 11:32 am
    Facebook Insights is an application available to all page administrators.  It measures exposure, actions, and behavior related to your page.  Insights gives you almost instant data––it is updated 12 hours after the end of each day.  Available data includes: geographic and demographic information about your fan base, a record of interactions (comments, wall posts, photo/video views, “likes”), and the growth of your fan base over time.  All of this information is displayed in the Fan Dashboard, and most of it can also be downloaded into a spreadsheet so you can…

  • So You Want To Make A Facebook Page

    nope
    13 Nov 2009 | 11:19 am
    This summer I created our department's Facebook Page and Twitter account. Since then, other offices on campus have asked me for advice on Page creation, gaining departmental buy-in, and increasing student interaction. Although I can talk for hours about the intricacies and possibilities of social networking, a beginner really only needs to learn three simple steps. If you're unaware of the difference between Pages and groups, learn more here. Three Keys to a Successful Facebook Page: Keep administration in the loop. At the very least, make sure your direct supervisor knows you're creating the…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Swift Kick Central

  • Your New Best Friend, Social Networking in the First Year Experience (Part 3)

    Kevin Prentiss
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:36 am
    The following is the third draft slice (here's part one, and two) of an upcoming curriculum supplement I am writing for Bedford / St. Martin's press. While I'm numbering these parts 1,2,3, etc., the sections themselves won't be in this order in the actual curriculum, this is just the order in which I'm finishing them. This section is towards the front. Please forgive my process : ) Your comments and critique, as always, are appreciated. Keeping Up With The Students Preparing Them for the World of Today As society gets more connected, and technology gets cheaper, we collectively switch our…

  • Highered Technology, From 1.0 to 2.0 in 8 Mins: Do It For The Students

    Kevin Prentiss
    17 Nov 2009 | 12:53 pm

  • Your New Best Friend, Social Networking in the First Year Experience (Part 2)

    Kevin Prentiss
    17 Nov 2009 | 10:14 am
    The following is the second draft slice (here's part one) of an upcoming curriculum supplement I am writing for Bedford / St. Martin's press.Long time readers of this blog will recognize these ideas.  Swift Kick, and Red Rover, have been focused on social capital and engagement for sometime. As the overall curriculum comes together, we're tying all of the pieces into one framework. Your comments, as always, are highly appreciated. The Dance Floor Theory Engagement Model Engagement is essential to progress at every level of the student success pyramid. If the…

  • Your New Best Friend, Social Networking in the First Year Experience (Part 1)

    Kevin Prentiss
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:26 pm
    The following is a draft slice of an upcoming curriculum supplement I am writing for Bedford / St. Martin's press. I will be using the blog to post chunks of the supplement and open up discussions on the topics. While the supplement is aimed at FYE instructors, the ideas will be broadly applicable in education. An extra big welcome to all the FYE folks I met at the national conference this last spring. Thanks for stopping by. I'm very excited to have this conversation with you, the hoped for readers of this curriculum supplement. As always, change is coming, and FYE, again, is a big part of…

  • Making Them WANT To Do It (Apathy vs Engagement)

    Tom Krieglstein
    9 Nov 2009 | 12:01 pm
    If you have ever attended a conference with us, you know we enjoy mixing stuff up through the use of Flashmobs and Blender Events, both of which stem from our Dance Floor Theory Leadership Training. The goals are to:Have FunIncrease EngagementBuild RelationshipsCreate Pattern InterruptsInduce Positive Confusion (one reason why)While some activities are repeated from conference to conference, others come from brainstorming sessions with the participants.At a recent conference in New York, the associates (a.k.a. people/companies who pay money to attend with the intent of selling their product)…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

  • Why Audience Matters

    Dean Shareski
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:46 am
    Cross posted at The Tech Learning Blog This facebook/twitter posting by Chris Lehmann got my attention. It's hard to argue with that statement and it raises some interesting questions and implications. It reminded me this cartoon by Hugh MacLeod (warning, Hugh as an affection for the f-bomb) It's powerful statement warning about our ability to connect and yet wallow in shallowness and fluff. While I concur with Chris's concern I also think it's important to explore the nature and purpose of audience. Placing a clustr map on your blog or receiving a comment from someone on the…

  • Robbing Students and Teachers of Joy

    Dean Shareski
    2 Nov 2009 | 10:02 am
    Maybe I'm just too lazy or unimaginative so I stole the title of my last post to make this one. Whatever. I'm not sure why but this topic runs pretty deep with me. I found Alfie Kohn's article this morning on twitter (I like the fact that he brings back stuff from the archives, I wish more people would do that. Old is not bad) and thought I'd highlight a few gems found inside it. While I recognize many peoples opposition to Kohn's highly progressive, Deweyesque slants, I find myself more in agreement with him than opposition. In the case of this article, I find it hard to…

  • Robbing Students of Recognition

    Dean Shareski
    30 Oct 2009 | 3:44 pm
    Cross Posted at the TechLearning blog Our district uses its front page to post success stories from our 40 schools. These range from academic achievements to athletic accomplishments of school teams. Schools post the stories to their own Website and submit them to me to post to the district page where generally there is more traffic. This one was sent to me earlier in the week. Tanner Spencer from Craik, SK, attended team Canada's World Junior top 35 camp in Orlando, Florida from October 5th to October 15th.  Tanner is the youngest Saskatchewan player ever chosen to go.  The…

  • Podcast 47…When You’re Not the Smartest Person in the Room

    Dean Shareski
    29 Oct 2009 | 6:00 am
    This is the audio and the slides from a presentation for SIAST Virtual Campus. When You're not the Smartest Person in the Room View more documents from shareski. You can subscribe to my podcasts in itunes.  

  • Follow up to a Rant

    Dean Shareski
    26 Oct 2009 | 8:41 am
    Last week I posted a rant entitiled, "We have to Stop Doing This to Teachers". I lamented about a number of conversations with teachers about the struggles of doing good work and dealing with change. Anytime you tag your post with the word "rant" it usually means there is some unfinished thoughts. (I guess you could say that about every one of my posts) Rather than commenting on each person, I thought I'd highlight some of the more salient remarks and perhaps add some commentary of my own.   Alan writes: I am less sanguine about the consensus for change. Competing…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    CogDogBlog

  • The Bright Lights of Doha

    Alan Levine aka CogDog
    15 Nov 2009 | 12:54 pm
    cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog I arrived in Doha, Qatar, after the 4+ hour trans USA flight, and then another long 13 hour hop on Qatar Airways- which I have to say for even in coach class, had amazing service on the giant 747- everything from hot towels to cold beer to meals like shrimp paella, on demand movies at your seat. This trip came as one of those invites that you may first glance at and think is just spam, but it is for real- an invite from Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned– for the World Innovation Summit on Education has invited 1000…

  • It’s Kind of Like That

    Alan Levine aka CogDog
    14 Nov 2009 | 1:12 am
    cc licensed flickr photo shared by Darren Larson I’m feeling many parallels between my current training to run a half marathon and trying to crank out 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo. Obviously a regimen is needed, the goals are both things I question (or have questioned) whether I can do, falling behind the schedule– puts you behind the schedule, sometimes in a spiral of self-criticism. I’m not saying I Hate Writing, but it is damn hard, especially when there is little time to be un-inpsired. Just when you think you’ve done a good run, the damn clock on a treadmill or the…

  • Webinar Re-runs?

    Alan Levine aka CogDog
    13 Nov 2009 | 11:48 am
    cc licensed flickr photo shared by Darko Pevec While I acknowledge the value (and usually am responsible for) being able to publish archived recordings of webinars, I must admit the grand total of recorded webinars that I have gone back to watch is… (drum roll, counters flipping) Zero. Partly its laziness, but I never seem to carve the time to go back and watch webinar re-runs. I fully expect people to reply in comment form, and let me know they do, so I am not discounting the value. I was more wondering what the viewings are on re-runs. I took a peek at the stats on some of our recent…

  • Suffer Me No Inefficiency

    Alan Levine aka CogDog
    8 Nov 2009 | 11:07 pm
    Follow me through this path of incongruities. We live in this hyper-connected modern age, where larger than every managed before information is retrievable, sharable, around the world. All that Did You Know stuff. Standing at the precipice of the Web of Data possibly soon accessible via one of those hand flying Minority Report interfaces. Perhaps. The fly in the ointment, the kink in the gear shafts, is that, it feels, like almost on a daily basis, I face an increasing amount of inefficiencies in the things we have to deal with in daily life. Perhaps it is just taking longer, but I see so…

  • YMMV? MMDV! noticin.gs

    Alan Levine aka CogDog
    4 Nov 2009 | 8:33 pm
    Nothing is more sweeter than the serendipity of finding something online that grabs a breath from you, and such that you drop what you are doing to dig deeper. This has only happened to me, oh, estimating (counting on fingers…) maybe 18672 times. One more. A day or so ago, on scanning the flow of tweets, I saw this message from Roland Tanglao Who knows why one tweet grabs your mouse as opposed to another? But with that I was fallen into a fun time of exploring the noticings site which taps into many of my interests- flickrs+daily photos+geolocation+a bit of gaming, with a simple premise…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Educause

  • Tune In November 23: Complying with P2P Mandates in the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008

    pkurkowski
    19 Nov 2009 | 3:34 pm
    The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008 requires all campuses to certify that they have plans to "effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including through the use of a variety of technology-based deterrents" and to "offer alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property." After months of drafting, debate, and discussion, the Department of Education has issued the final regulations for enforcing these requirements.

  • November/December EDUCAUSE Review Now Available Online

    cluckett
    10 Nov 2009 | 11:02 am
    The November/December 2009 EDUCAUSE Review is now available online. This issue offers IT leaders' ideas and insights on campuses and the greener future, climate change and higher education, low-carbon computing, above-campus IT services, the role of technology in service delivery, and good communication for successful IT organizations. Click the orange RSS sidebar graphic on the EDUCAUSE Review homepage to access the XML required to subscribe.

  • EDUCAUSE 2009: Select Session Recordings Now Available

    cluckett
    9 Nov 2009 | 12:07 pm
    Thank you for joining us last week in Denver for EDUCAUSE 2009. Select session recordings are now available online. We will send participants an e-mail in the coming weeks, which will include access information for many more resources including webcasts, podcasts, slide presentations, various social media summaries, and more.

  • EDUCAUSE Joins Identity Management Federation: InCommon

    cluckett
    9 Nov 2009 | 8:40 am
    EDUCAUSE announced last week during the EDUCAUSE 2009 Annual Conference that it has joined the InCommon Federation, the U.S. identity and access management federation. In an identity federation like InCommon, participating identity providers (such as colleges and universities) and resource providers (like EDUCAUSE) agree on a set of shared policies, processes, and technology standards. This greatly streamlines collaboration among multiple organizations because federation members agree on these policies and processes once, rather than each time they sign a contract with a new partner. Read…

  • Rio Salado College President Joins EDUCAUSE Board

    cluckett
    5 Nov 2009 | 2:41 pm
    EDUCAUSE announced the appointment of Linda Thor, president of Rio Salado College, to a four-year term on the EDUCAUSE Board of Directors effective January 1, 2010. Thor’s appointment was confirmed by a unanimous vote of the board at its November 2 meeting. Read more in the press release.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Techlearning

  • Together, putting the pieces together

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    The jigsaw approach, a cooperative learning technique developed by Elliot Aronson, is said to promote better learning, improve student motivation, and increase enjoyment of the learning experience.The "official web site of the jigsaw classroom" provides tips on implementation and links

  • Language achievement tests assess students K-5

    19 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am
     Ballard && Tighe, Publishers released new formal assessment components for Carousel of IDEAS, 4th Edition-an English language development program for elementary grades

  • Winners of $15,000 school energy challenge revealed

    19 Nov 2009 | 4:40 am
     The grand prize winner, Tavan Elementary School in Phoenix, AZ, will receive a Lutron Greenovation energy efficient classroom lighting upgrade and a cash prize to enable the purchase of other materials used to implement their sustainability project.

  • Threes new classroom solutions promote technology use

    19 Nov 2009 | 3:20 am
    HP today announced three education solutions, specifically tailored to encourage teaching with technology while reducing overall costs.

  • Keeping Flash Drives Secure By Conn McQuinn

    19 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am
    My USB flash drives (or thumb drives or whatever ) are really handy, but also really easy to misplace.  Is there a way to protect the files if (or when) I lose it?The good news about USB drives is that
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    NPR: Education

  • Chicago School Board Chief's Death Raises Questions

    20 Nov 2009 | 9:54 am
    Michael Scott was found shot in the head Monday, his body partially submerged in the Chicago River. The medical examiner ruled the death a suicide, but so far police have not reached that conclusion, and there's widespread disbelief among the mayor and others that Scott would have killed himself.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Students Rail Against University Of California Fees

    20 Nov 2009 | 4:47 am
    UC regents, meeting at UCLA, approved fees that will bring the average annual cost to about $10,300 — a threefold increase in a decade. In protest, University of California Berkeley students barricaded themselves in part of a campus building on Friday.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • Students Protest University Of Calif. Fee Hike

    20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am
    Thousands of University of California students converged on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles Thursday, as regents adopted a 30 percent fee hike. It's one of the latest signs of California's continuing economic crisis. UC officials say, faced with a huge deficit of their own, they have no choice but to raise the fees. Many students say they can't afford to pay more.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • University Of California OKs 30 Percent Fee Hike

    19 Nov 2009 | 3:07 pm
    In Los Angeles, University of California regents adopted a 30-percent increase in tuition in the face of a huge system-wide deficit. The vote came as thousands of angry students converged on the UCLA campus in protest.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

  • U of Cal. System Boosts Fees 32% To Fill Funding Shortfall

    19 Nov 2009 | 1:41 pm
    Struggling to operate the nation's largest public university system as state lawmakers have failed to meet requested funding needs, the University of California Regents approved an overall 30 percent fee increase that will be spread over the current and following academic years.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    elearnspace

  • The brain chip…

    gsiemens
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:06 am
    Our ability to do things with technology far exceeds our ability to understand implications. Consider the brain chip: “Intel researchers in Pittsburgh told journalists today that brain implants are harnessing human brain waves to surf the Internet, manipulate documents, and much more”. This got me thinking about how far I would go to adopt technology. Or humanity as a whole. Do you have a limit? Is there a point at which you would say “no more”. And if you (we) did, would it matter? Would it abate development? Is transhumanism our future? Will technology always lead…

  • Chrome OS

    gsiemens
    20 Nov 2009 | 10:27 am
    Lots of reaction to Google’s Chrome OS (web operating system, in theory, a means to do away with Windows, Mac, Linux). Running Chrome OS at this stage is no easy task (see steps required here) – it’ll be a while before it will be available for most users. And, once available, it’s geared to the netbook market. Not surprisingly, since Chrome started its life as a browser, applications run as tabs. Without being able to cite any research, I think most people seem more comfortable with a browser than any other application on their computer. Google is targeting ease of…

  • Salesforce Chatter

    gsiemens
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:37 am
    Salesforce, like many other companies, is jumping onto the enterprise social media bandwagon with the soon-to-be-released Chatter. Basically, Chatter introduces some of the functionality found in Facebook and Twitter into a secure enterprise system. Reactions vary (have a look at the comments on the article), including: “everyone’s on Facebook already – why bother with Chatter”, “this is great – just what I needed”, and “Elgg does this better already and its free”. Still, the best way to determine if a software has gained traction is to…

  • Video Games: Modern Warfare

    gsiemens
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:27 am
    Controversy aside, Modern Warfare 2 is an interesting “sign of the times”. In its first week of release, the game generated $550 million (in UK and North America). What other media even comes close? What’s a big weekend for a new movie release? $50-60 million? I’ve been looking for something approaching an authoritative figure on the cost of developing MW2. Figures range between $30-50 million. Again, considering block buster movies can cost in excess of $100 million to make, the movie industry is being significantly upstaged by the gaming industry. Plus, games run on…

  • LearnTrends recordings

    gsiemens
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:14 am
    After three days of 5+ hours work of presentations, we’ve (Jay Cross, Tony Karrer, and I) wrapped up our third annual LearnTrends conference. Scott Skibell of Skillcasting has completed and posted recordings of the event. Topics include: convergence, mobile learning, design, social learning, managing information, microlearning, enterprise 2.0, and many others. A great event – congrats and thanks to all involved in presenting/planning/attending! For some reason, these intensive online conferences are more exhausting than face to face events.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    A Difference

  • Google Never Forgets

    27 Oct 2009 | 7:23 am
    Copied in it's entirety from Seth Godin's blog this short post will be featured prominently in the next conversation I have with my students around digital ethics. A friend advertised on Craigslist for a housekeeper. Three interesting resumes came to the top. She googled each person's name. The first search turned up a MySpace page. There was a picture of the applicant, drinking beer from a funnel. Under hobbies, the first entry was, "binge drinking." The second search turned up a personal blog (a good one, actually). The most recent entry said something like, "I am applying for some menial…

  • New Math 10 Curriculum

    25 Oct 2009 | 1:48 pm
    There's a new curriculum coming. Gave a little talk about it and the text book that supports it. Here it is. You can download it if you like. All the links I shared in the session can be found by clicking around on the slides below. MHR Math10 WorkshopView more documents from dkuropatwa. UPDATE Joe, one of the folks who attended the session on Friday, has shared the Graphing Calculator Lease Form he uses in his school. You can see it here. Feel free to copy and edit or or just print it as is. Thanks Joe!

  • Social Media Counter

    22 Oct 2009 | 8:32 pm
    Thanks to a tweet from Alec I stumbled upon Gary's Social Media Count over at Gary Hayes blog. Interesting.

  • Scribes Spreading

    21 Oct 2009 | 5:48 pm
    Thanks to some blog love from Roland I put together a small, inadequate list of how the scribing blog love is spreading; check out these wonderful teachers: Chris Harbeck's class blog hub (innovator par excellence!) Ryan Maksymchuk's suite of class blogs (more scribing class blogs than you can shake a stick at!) Derrick Willard's class blog Jim Homan's Cathoilic Morality wiki Mr. Marti's precalculus class blog Reversearp's (an alias I believe) precalculus class blog Mrs. Everard's AP Calculus class blog Image by dkuropatwa via Flickr Every new day brings more new math (and non-math) bloggers.

  • I've Got 5 Minutes

    10 Oct 2009 | 11:15 am
    actually, it was 11 minutes and 45 seconds. This is the slidecast from one of three talks I gave on Friday October 9, 2009. I was in Virden Manitoba participating in the NIBBLE Conference for the Fort La Bosse School Division. More coming soon. Everything will be aggregated on the Senior Years Information and Communication Technology wiki I'm maintaining to share all the work I do in Manitoba with teachers across the province ... and you. I've Got 5 MinutesView more documents from dkuropatwa.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Dangerously Irrelevant

  • UCEA Week 01: I gave a bad presentation yesterday

    dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)
    19 Nov 2009 | 8:01 am
    I gave a bad presentation yesterday. It wasn’t bad because I had poor content or delivery. It was a bad presentation because I didn’t sufficiently account for the needs and understandings of my audience. Let me explain… I’m in Anaheim, California for the annual conference of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), which is the primary association for educational leadership faculty members at large research institutions. In other words, UCEA is the organization for professors that prepare school principals and superintendents. I currently serve as UCEA’s…

  • "You're fired. I only want people who already know how to do their jobs."

    dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)
    16 Nov 2009 | 3:09 am
    Back in July I said that I was concerned that we never seem to hold folks accountable for being self-learners. I also noted that In many job sectors, employees are expected to keep up with relevant technologies or risk job loss. When do we require that of K-12 and postsecondary educators? At what point do we say to them “No, we’re not training you how to use this. It’s easy enough for you to learn on your own. And if you don’t, we’ll find someone else who can.” Many of you chimed in and shared your own thoughts on this topic. Apparently, now Dilbert has too: When will we,…

  • 3 MINUTE SURVEY: Why isn't your school organization making more progress?

    dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)
    13 Nov 2009 | 3:51 am
    Why aren’t schools making more progress when it comes to effective implementation and integration of digital technologies? Here’s what K-12 educators usually tell me when asked (list is in no particular order): Lack of adequate funding Unsupportive state / federal legislators Teacher / union resistance Lack of professional development Ineffective leadership Lack of time / space within curriculum Accountability demands of NCLB Parent / community resistance I’m curious about your own situation. So I created a 3–minute survey! Simply click, drag, and drop the items to reorder them. Take…

  • The (un)certainty of professional persistence

    dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)
    6 Nov 2009 | 7:13 am
    There has been a lot of good discussion on my post about the future of books, libraries, librarians, and schools (thank you, everyone). In addition to the comments on the post itself, there are some excellent thoughts elsewhere as well: Flat World Library Corporation Dangerously irrelevant libraries Ten hard questions Random questions on future libraries by Scott McLeod I was struck, however, by something that Erin Downey said in her own post: What has, does, and will distinguish us from [coffee shops, community centers, and Internet cafes] are LIBRARIANS. Your barista doesn't know…

  • Data-driven decision-making resources from CASTLE

    dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)
    4 Nov 2009 | 3:32 am
    I have done a lot of work over the years on various data-driven decision-making projects. I've taught courses, given workshops, delivered multi-day institutes for state departments of education and corporate partners, and written book chapters and white papers.I collected some of the highlights of that work on my new DDDM page here at Dangerously Irrelevant. Resources include some of the products from my work with Microsoft, the American Psychological Association, the Chicago Public Schools, the Minnesota Department of Education, and others. I hope these are useful to you. Happy reading!
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    edu.blogs.com

  • Links for 2009-11-19 [del.icio.us]

    Ewan McIntosh
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    The Daily Start-Up: The Year Of Social Gaming - Venture Capital Dispatch - WSJ RockYou Like A Hurricane - If 2007 is considered the year of social networking, 2009 might be the year of social gaming. Companies that make games for social networking sites are already proving their worth - Playfish was just acquired by Electronic Arts for at least $300 million, Zynga is making tens of millions of dollars in revenue and Playdom raised a hefty round of financing. Now there’s news that RockYou, one of the earliest developers of so-called widgets on social networks, has raised a giant-sized $50…

  • Links for 2009-11-17 [del.icio.us]

    Ewan McIntosh
    18 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Clicker - What's On Online More social TV Germany gets personalised print newspaper made up of blog posts and newspaper articles Today I should have received my first edition of Niuu, a personalised print newspaper comprised of articles taken from various blogs and newspapers. Delivery time should be between 4 AM and 6 AM so that people can read it over breakfast. Niiu has contracts with mostly German newspapers like Bild, Frankfurter Rundschau and Handelsblatt but also with the Washington Times and The International Herald Tribune. Readers can use the Niiu website to customise which page of…

  • Links for 2009-11-16 [del.icio.us]

    Ewan McIntosh
    17 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Left vs Right (World) | David McCandless & Stefanie Posavec | Information Is Beautiful Lovely visualisation of what it means to be "on the left" or "on the right" Cell Size and Scale Beautiful visualisation showing relative scale Research: Readers Favour News Micropayments—But They’ll Only Pay Pennies | paidContent:UK Sure, some readers will pay for online news content via single-article micropayments, but only if the price tag is very low. That’s according to a report from analysts at Continental Research, which found that 63 percent of a 500-person…

  • Links for 2009-11-15 [del.icio.us]

    Ewan McIntosh
    16 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    How to Ship Anything - Joel on Software National Gallery of Art NGAkids STILL LIFE interactive NGAkids Still Life (Shockwave, 8 MB) helps you create interactive compositions that mirror the paintings of the old masters. This Art Zone activity is suitable for all ages. Young children can explore spatial arrangement, perspective, proportion, and balance while creating engaging, interactive still life compositions that mix everyday objects with elements borrowed from famous works of art. More advanced artists will enjoy creating complex arrangements, and then switchng to the painting mode to add…

  • Links for 2009-11-14 [del.icio.us]

    Ewan McIntosh
    15 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    And if only 1% of those people... | Derek Sivers “He forgot there was a number lower than one percent.” Tapity — How to build successful iPhone apps Hi, I'm Jeremy. Learning and sharing strategies to build successful iPhone apps. MustExist | What Twitter Lists Say About ewanmcintosh Studio 1a.m. MeasureMe Stick MeasureMe Stick transforms the traditional ruler into a playful, modern object. Display as an original graphic piece or use to chart your child's growth through the years. Each piece is handmade in Chicago.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    College Admissions Counseling

  • How to Find Test Optional Colleges

    Todd Johnson
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    Many students have recently received their SAT and ACT test scores and for many of you these are your final scores. If you did well, congratulations. If not, all is not lost. Not everyone is aware that there are over 800 colleges in the US that are test optional. In other words, you don’t need to submit either the SAT or ACT for admissions.  And if you think only non competitive colleges don’t require test scores, think again. There are some great colleges that don’t require tests. Bowdoin, Bates, Mt. Holyoke and just three examples of very strong, competitive colleges that…

  • Why 2 Year Colleges May Not Be the Best Option

    Todd Johnson
    17 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    Inside Higher Ed recently reported on the National Survey of Student Engagement. This survey of college students measures various qualitites involving students that may result in better learning outcomes.  These qualities include such things as the rigor of student assignments and faculty student interactions. One of the interesting things that the survey examined was the experience of students transferring from 2 year colleges compared to students who began at a college and stayed.  In particular they looked at certain “high impact” experiences that are likely to make a student…

  • New Website Provides Detailed Information to Find the Right College

    Todd Johnson
    12 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    There is a new website available from the Institute for College Access and Success. The site, called CollegeInSight,  allows students to search for information on a variety of topics including Affordability, Economic Diversity, Student Success, Racial and Ethnic Diversity and Enrollment. The Affordability section allows you to see a number of statistics related to financial aid such as the average debt of graduates,the average percent of need met, the average need based grants and the costs of attendance for each college. The Student Success section allows you to see the total number of…

  • 100 Best Values in Private Colleges

    Todd Johnson
    5 Nov 2009 | 5:25 pm
    Kiplinger has recently announced the 2009-2010 version of their 100 Best Values in Private Colleges. The list is broken down into the 50 Best Value Private Universities and the 50 Best Value Liberal Arts Colleges. You can sort the colleges on the list by overall rank, cost, quality measures or financial aid measures.  You can also search by state to see which colleges near you made the list. This list is a great way to find a private college that has strong academics and strong financial aid. Share on FacebookRSS Feed Content © Todd Johnson and College Admissions Partners100 Best Values…

  • Insider’s Guide to Financial Aid

    Todd Johnson
    5 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    Vanderbilt University has released a video entitled the “Insider’s Guide to Financial Aid“. This financial aid video is presented by Vanderbilt’s Dean of Admissions, Doug Christiansen, and is a follow up to his previous video “Insider’s Guide to Admissions“. I thought Dean Christiansen’s “Insider’s Guide to Admissions” was wonderful and have recommended it in the past. Unfortunately, I don’t think the the “Insider’s Guide to Financial Aid” is as strong a video. The video asks some good questions which…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Steve Kinney

  • Tim Brown on Creativity and Play

    Steve Kinney
    26 Oct 2009 | 9:03 am
    At the 2008 Serious Play conference, designer Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play — with many examples you can try at home (and one that maybe you shouldn’t).

  • Noble Desktop Offering Free Digital Media Training in SoHo

    Steve Kinney
    29 Sep 2009 | 3:50 pm
    For those of you who live in New York City, Noble Desktop is offering free workshops on a number of different topics concerning digital media and web design. Most, but not all, deal with the Adobe Creative Suite. It’s a great opportunity at a great price. Click here to register.

  • Professors Avoid SMART Boards

    Steve Kinney
    13 Sep 2009 | 9:22 am
    Some Yale professors are giving up on SMART Boards. They claim that the boards often cause more problems than they solve. “The best kind of technology will be the invisible kind of technology,” [Justin Neuman, an assistant professor of English] explained in an interview before his decidedly opaque encounter with the SMART Board in class. “You want, to the extent possible, your technological prosthetics to fade into the background.” (via Yale Daily News)

  • Stanford Study: Media Multitaskers Pay Mental Price

    Steve Kinney
    9 Sep 2009 | 7:21 am
    We’re not built for multitasking and anyone who tells you they are is lying to you. There are some really smart people at Stanford who’d like to prove that to you. People who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention, control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time, a group of Stanford researchers has found. That’s a good summary, but here’s my favorite quote from the article. “They’re suckers for irrelevancy,” said communication…

  • Smart Ed-Tech Strategies for Tough Times

    Steve Kinney
    8 Sep 2009 | 4:53 pm
    Go see some smart people talk about how to spend your technology budget better in Jersey City (or Chicago, if you have the frequent-flyer miles to burn). Join other superintendents, assistant superintendents and ed-tech leaders to discuss innovative technology solutions and proven techniques to drive student achievement, lower the cost of teacher professional development and maximize the use of your technology budget. (via EdWeek Leadership Forums)
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Creating Lifelong Learners

  • Blog Technical Troubles

    Mathew Needleman
    15 Nov 2009 | 5:32 pm
    My blog has been having technical trouble since my web host has updated their software after being taken over by another company. At first they wiped out my last few posts, then they wiped out my sidebar. I got tired of waiting and decided to take the problem into my own hands. I managed to get back the sidebar but now I wiped out all of my posts! Luckily I kept a backup. It’s kind of liberating having nothing at all here, like a blank slate. Although I’m trying to avoid the slightly panicked feeling of having two years of work wiped out. I hope to be able to reinstall everything…

  • Film School with Me Online Today

    Mathew Needleman
    26 Sep 2009 | 7:02 am
    Sorry for the short notice but if you have 30 minutes to spare today I’ll be a guest on Ed Tech Talk to promote the upcoming free K12 Online Conference 2009. They will be showing a selection of some of the best previous K12 Conference presentations (but they’ve also included mine : ).  After the presentation, I’ll be there live to answer questions and talk about the project. My preso is the first one up.  I’ll be there at 11:00 Pacific Time.  You go to http://www.edtechtalk.com to see it/hear it.  Here’s a link for more information.

  • Beginning of the Year Pre-Assessments

    Mathew Needleman
    18 Sep 2009 | 7:40 am
    Here are a few tools to use when assessing students at the beginning of the year: The Basic Phonics Skills Test (BPST) This is helpful in identifying specific areas of phonics need (short vowels, long vowels, digraphs, etc.) San Diego Quick Assessment It’s also important to know students’ knowledge of sight words which is an almost completely separate skill from decoding and an almost equal predictor of reading success. Yopp-Singer Test of phoneme segmentation DIBELS provides several free fluency passages as well as comprehension assessments What pre-assessments do you use?

  • Questions About Independent Work Time

    Mathew Needleman
    14 Sep 2009 | 10:39 am
    Independent Work Time, a time when students are working on their own while the teacher works with small groups.  It’s an official part of our reading curriculum but should really be a part of every teacher’s day in some form or other since it is one of the few times you can differentiate your teaching.  It also pays off in dividends if you’re able to teach your students to work independently. I’ve answered some questions about Independent Work Time before: IWT FAQ What Do I Do During IWT? Additional Articles on Independent Work Time Here’s a new question about…

  • Back to School Week: It's a Marathon Not a Sprint

    Mathew Needleman
    25 Aug 2009 | 12:59 pm
    As you are getting ready to meet your new students, remember that getting to know them is more than just silly ice breakers and bingo games.  I’m not disparaging those activities, I’ve even posted several of them.  However, know that the process of getting to know your students doesn’t end when you’ve found out who’s visited a foreign country. I’ve never believed that you have to like your students in order to teach them.  However, over the course of a year, I do try to find one thing I appreciate in each  of them.  Some things like charm, a sense of…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    GlobalHigherEd

  • Developments in world institutional rankings; SCImago joins the club

    globalhighered
    18 Nov 2009 | 3:18 am
    Editor’s note: this guest entry was kindly written by Gavin Moodie, principal policy adviser of Griffith University in Australia.  Gavin (pictured to the right) is most interested in the relations between vocational and higher education. His book From Vocational to Higher Education: An International Perspective was published by McGraw-Hill last year. Gavin’s entry sheds light on a new ranking initiative that needs to be situated within the broad wave of contemporary rankings – and bibliometrics more generally – that are being used to analyze, legitimize, critique,…

  • Learning from London?

    globalhighered
    10 Nov 2009 | 5:11 pm
    I sometimes wonder if it is worth drawing lines and generating comparisons between two seemingly disparate processes that are at work at different scales, and in different countries, but why not – I’m jetlagged with some late night time to spare. First, the US Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) released a new report (Findings from the 2009 CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey, Phase III: Final Offers of Admissions and Enrollment), and associated press release, that flags the challenges the US has in attracting foreign students at the levels it once did. The full report…

  • From rhetoric to reality: unpacking the numbers and practices of global higher ed

    globalhighered
    5 Nov 2009 | 12:26 pm
    Numbers, partnerships, linkages, and collaboration: some key terms that seem to be bubbling up all over the place right now. On the numbers front, the ever active Cliff Adelman released, via the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), a new report titled The Spaces Between Numbers: Getting International Data on Higher Education Straight (November 2009). As the IHEP press release notes: The research report, The Spaces Between Numbers: Getting International Data on Higher Education Straight, reveals that U.S. graduation rates remain comparable to those of other developed countries despite…

  • Measuring the economic value of Canada’s international education “industry”

    globalhighered
    29 Oct 2009 | 10:34 am
    Yesterday, Canada unveiled a report assessing the economic contributions that international students make to the country. Entitled Economic Impact of International Education in Canada the report was presented by Stockwell Day, the Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, at a meeting of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC). Highlights from the report include the following: In 2008, international students to Canada contributed $6.5 billion (CAD) to the national economy, provided 83,000 jobs, and contributed $291 million (CAD) in…

  • Graphic feed: INDIA – Research and collaboration in the new geography of science

    globalhighered
    28 Oct 2009 | 5:50 pm
    Source: Adams, J, King, C., and Singh, V. (2009) INDIA: Research and collaboration in the new geography of science, October, Leeds: Evidence Ltd/Thomson Reuters, p. 5.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Jose Vilson: The Blog

  • At The End of the Day [The Letters Series]

    Jose
    This week, I’m writing a few more letters to different people, whose names shall be removed from the post, but who nonetheless are amalgamations of real characters. I won’t be mincing words this week, and in these letters, I hope to address some issues I find in education as a whole through these letters. If need be, I’ll apologize later. Actually, I probably won’t. Barack Obama at School Dear Barack Obama, It’s me again, hoping you’ll soon respond to my letters. As always, I have respect for you and what you’ve done thus far in office (most of the stuff anyways). At…

  • G-d Takes Care of All [The Letters Series]

    Jose
    This week, I’m writing a few more letters to different people, whose names shall be removed from the post, but who nonetheless are amalgamations of real characters. I won’t be mincing words this week, and in these letters, I hope to address some issues I find in education as a whole through these letters. If need be, I’ll apologize later. Actually, I probably won’t. P.S. – As a special note regarding this particular note: any immature or ridiculous comments concerning my relationships with my students will get rebuked. There’s a reason I left my last blogging environment,…

  • No Hammocks, No Papers [The Letters Series]

    Jose
    This week, I’m writing a few more letters to different people, whose names shall be removed from the post, but who nonetheless are amalgamations of real characters. I won’t be mincing words this week, and in these letters, I hope to address some issues I find in education as a whole through these letters. If need be, I’ll apologize later. Actually, I probably won’t. Wimpy Asks for a Bailout Dear Mr. Sleep-a-Lot, In the smaller scheme of things, you really don’t matter as far as my work with the math department or my work with my kids. You come briskly in and…

  • Short Notes: Day and Age (and My Radio Show Appearance)

    Jose
    Sammy Sosa: Before A few links: Long overdue shout-out to the latest edition of Education Carnival courtesy of I’m A Dreamer. [ImADreamer] Mom101’s response to the LA Times’ article about mommy bloggers is the best I’ve ever read regarding blogger relationships with marketers. [Mom101] Want a really cool poster to use in class detailing the difference between Left and Right ideology? Got it for you right here. [Flickr] On True/Slant, Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone fame discusses how Goldman Sachs’ representative Brian Griffiths’ misappropriated JESUS CHRIST…

  • A New Moon (My First Kiss)

    Jose
    Full Moon It’s been a long time since I’ve shared any work from the Acentos workshops on Sunday. I didn’t share this at the workshop because I got shy. Yes, I have that emotion in my arsenal. Follow: My first kiss was the sweetest “Shut the F*k Up” I’d ever gotten from the first of many curvy, sassy, infuriating, mostly-older women I’d ever met liplocked with this brotha with no way of experiencing anything like this until he traveled physically and mentally to places he never thought possible like his mother’s place of ancestry at a time when…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Teachers Teaching Teachers

  • Looking Forward to the National Writing Project’s Annual Meeting with 3 Presenters - TTT#175 - 11.04.09

    Paul Allison
    15 Nov 2009 | 7:46 pm
    Download LLooking Forward to the National Writing Project's Annual Meeting with 3 Presenters - TTT#175 - 11.04.09If its November, it must be time for the National Writing Projects (NWP’s) Annual Meeting. This week, many Writing Project teachers from across the United States (and some around the world) will be gathering in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for our [...]

  • EBSCO, BrainyFlix, Online Research, and More! - TTT173 - 10.21.09

    Paul Allison
    11 Nov 2009 | 8:17 am
    Download EBSCO, BrainyFlix, Online Research, and More! - TTT173 10.21.09Ron Burns from EBSCO joined us on this podcast as we continued the conversation about using databases for research, how to share research using Diigo and how to incorporate the EBSCO resources into these goals! Being big EBSCO fans, we always welcome any chance to learn [...]

  • More about diigo, annotations and on-line, ongoing research - TTT169 - 9.23.09

    Paul Allison
    1 Nov 2009 | 10:55 am
    Download More about diigo, annotations and on-line, ongoing research - TTT169 - 9.23.09Chief Diigo Ambassador, Maggie Tsai joined us on this Wednesday evening, late in September. About a month before, we had a lively conversation about research and diigo: Teachers Teaching Teachers #165 - 08.26.09 - Meet Lisa Dick and George Haines: Talking about research [...]

  • Troy Hicks and The Digital Writing Workshop, Part 3 of 3 - Helping Students Craft Writing - TTT172 - 10.14.09

    Paul Allison
    18 Oct 2009 | 7:49 pm
    Download Troy Hicks and The Digital Writing Workshop, Part 3 of 3 - Helping Students Craft Writing - TTT172 - 10.14.09In this final episode of our three part series, our guest-host once again is Troy Hicks, author of The Digital Writing Workshop, and Director of the Chippewa River Writing Project at Central Michigan University. He [...]

  • Mapping Main Street in Flushing, Salt Lake City, and Brevig Mission - TTT168 - 9.16.09

    Paul Allison
    17 Oct 2009 | 8:00 pm
    Download Mapping Main Street in Flushing, Salt Lake City, and Brevig Mission - TTT168 - 9.16.09Teachers whose students post at Youth Voices are pretty excited about the “Mapping Main Street” collaborative project. Mapping Main Street is a collaborative documentary media project that creates a new map of the country through stories, photos and videos recorded [...]
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    So You Want To Teach?

  • 20 Free Tech Tools for Learning and Communicating

    karen
    14 Nov 2009 | 5:40 am
    Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online school for OnlineSchool.net. Nearly everyone is familiar with Moodle, the learning management system that allows teachers to communicate and share learning resources online. But Moodle isn’t the only free platform that can accomplish these tasks. There are many other free tech tools and sites that offer similar capabilities. Here are 20 tools worth exploring. Engrade – Over 150,000 teachers use Engrade’s suite of tools to manage their classrooms…

  • How Do We Show Our Students That We Love Them?

    Joel
    8 Nov 2009 | 7:25 pm
    When I was struggling to find hope early in my career as a teacher, I came across a few pieces of advice given by King Solomon from the Proverbs: He who spares his rod hates his son,But he who loves him disciplines him promptly. — Proverbs 13:24 This one jumped out at me as I realized I overlooked way too much misbehavior. I came to understand that by continually letting the students misbehave because I wanted them to like me was actually counter-productive and instead it made them respect me less. More than that, it showed me that whereas I thought I was being loving, I was actually…

  • 85+ Cool Sites I Found In October Via Twitter

    Joel
    8 Nov 2009 | 2:49 pm
    I have been getting more and more into sharing information via Twitter recently. With 1,300 RSS subscribers, and only 850 Twitter followers, I know that not all of my readers are getting all of the links that I share. I thought it might be fun to share with you some of the links that I came across last month and shared on Twitter. If you aren’t following me on Twitter yet, you should start: @sywtt Also, if you’re on Google Wave and would like to add me, feel free! My address is soyouwanttoteach.com@googlewave.com 5 great resources to find out about Google Wave 5 Reasons Google…

  • 10 Books That Rocked My World

    Joel
    7 Nov 2009 | 5:40 pm
    Over the last decade, I have read a handful of great books that forced me to think and consider a lot of things about the way I was living. I’ve mentioned some of these books before on the blog, but this week I read another one of those kinds of books and thought I would share more with my readers about some of these amazing books. 1999 – How To Win Friends And Influence People (buy on Amazon) Back when I was in college, I didn’t know much about social interactions at all. I was horrible with remembering names, I didn’t really make much eye contact, and I just sort of…

  • Latest Carnival of Education Posted

    Joel
    3 Nov 2009 | 5:59 pm
    I have been asked to pass along a request. Unfortunately, I had a pep rally this morning and a football game this evening. I’m hosting the next EduCarnival at my blog (http://imadreamerteacher.blogspot.com/), and there aren’t a ton of submissions.  Since you have a widely read blog, I was wondering if you could post a short thing about how people could still submit today?  It’s too late to do it through the form, but they could email me links directly at imadreamerteacher@gmail.com. EDIT: It’s now too late to submit…but check out the EduCarnival V2 Issue 11…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Reading Workshop

  • A Brown's Fan's Thanksgiving Thoughts

    20 Nov 2009 | 8:06 am
    I am thankful that the Browns only play 16 games. That way the most they can loose this season are 15 games.I am glad that Eric Mangini is the coach of the Browns because that gives the fans someone to hate more than the players.I am thankful that the Browns traded their two best receivers. That way other teams don't have to spend a lot of time worrying about playing defense.I am thankful that the Browns are losing a lot of games that way the Bengals fans finally have something the brag about after 20 years as losers.I am thankful for Jamal Lewis because that provides fans at least one voice…

  • Reading Workshop Student Survey

    19 Nov 2009 | 10:02 am
    Please answer the following questions. The details you provide, and the honesty of your answers will make Reading Workshop better for everyone.  Please put your name so that I can contact you with any questions that I might have about your comments.<p><p><p>Loading...</p></p></p>

  • Harry Potter Fans, Check This Out

    18 Nov 2009 | 5:10 am
    If you are a Harry Potter fan, or are considering reading J.K. Rowling's series, Bethanie has a lot of information on her site, Bethanie's World.  There are detailed descriptions of all of the characters, with enough facts to help understand the books.As students in Reading Workshop, continue to build their blogs, post by post, Bethanie's site clearly demonstrates the value and benefit of student blogs.  She has maximized the opportunity, finding her voice as a writer while sharing interesting information for Harry Potter fans everywhere.Image from…

  • Are You Getting Ahead, or Left Behind?

    16 Nov 2009 | 11:51 am
    Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, "You stay here. I'll go on ahead.We had an Award's Assembly today for the first nine weeks.  Many students received recognition for the hard work they put forth.  In fact, 73% of the sixth grade students got their name announced, walked to the front of the gym while the audience applauded, and got a certificate that told of their success. What about the other 27%?  I guess they need to kick it up a notch and work a little harder.  They are probably not the ones that are getting ahead (working to…

  • Does Sportsmanship Fit in the Classroom?

    13 Nov 2009 | 6:26 am
    Sportsmanship, kindness, fairness--this video demonstrates all of the characteristics that we hope to teach, to model, and to see as teachers. What would you do in a similar situation? What kind of opportunities are there in the classroom to show the same traits as the Central Washington players?Thank you to Mrs. Stevenson for the heads up about this video.
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    apophenia

  • Call for descriptions: online safety programs

    zephoria
    18 Nov 2009 | 6:01 pm
    The Risky Behaviors and Online Safety track of the Youth and Media Policy Working Group Initiative at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University is creating a Compendium of youth-based Internet safety programs and interventions. We are requesting organizations, institutions, and individuals working in online youth safety to share descriptions of their effective programs and interventions that address risky behavior by youth online. We are particularly interested in endeavors that involve educators, social services, mentors and coaches, youth workers, religious leaders,…

  • Web2.0 Expo Talk: Streams of Content, Limited Attention

    zephoria
    17 Nov 2009 | 12:04 pm
    I prepared a new talk today for Web2.0 Expo that I wanted to share with you: "Streams of Content, Limited Attention: The Flow of Information through Social Media" The talk is about the shifts in information flow thanks to new kinds of technology, focusing on some of the challenges that we face because of the shifts going on. Unfortunately, my presentation at Web2.0 Expo sucked. The physical setup was hard and there was a live stream behind me. I knew something was wrong because folks started laughing in the audience. Unable to see anything (the audience, the stream), I found myself closing…

  • Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out

    zephoria
    8 Nov 2009 | 11:59 pm
    I am delighted to announce that "Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media" is now in the wild and available! This book was written as a collaborative effort by members of the Digital Youth Project, a three-year research effort funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California. The project was spearheaded by Mimi Ito and my late advisor Peter Lyman. I had the honor of being one of the members of this group and led one of the chapters in this…

  • Choosing the Right Grad School

    zephoria
    28 Oct 2009 | 12:16 pm
    Lately, I've been getting all sorts of emails from folks applying to grad school who are seeking advice. I noticed that I was starting to say the same thing over and over again so I thought maybe it'd be better off to write some of it down in a more publicly consumable way. So here goes... Choosing the Right Grad School If there are faculty or students out there reading this, I'd love your comments and suggestions too. I know that we all have different advice we give to potential grad students so I know that this isn't the end-all-be-all. Please feel free to comment, send links to your own…

  • Some thoughts on Twitter vs. Facebook Status Updates

    zephoria
    25 Oct 2009 | 1:24 pm
    The functional act of constructing a tweet or a status update is very similar. Produce text in roughly 140 characters or less inside a single line text box and click a button. Voila! Even the stream based ways in which the text gets consumed look awfully similar. Yet, the more I talk with people engaged in practices around Twitter and Facebook, the more I'm convinced these two things are not actually the same practice. Why? Audience. There are two critical structural differences between Facebook and Twitter that are essential to understand before discussing the practices: 1) social graph…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Smart Solutions K-12

  • Leo Baubata from Productivity Habits Misses the Mark on Leadership

    Nitin
    16 Nov 2009 | 6:46 pm
    I’m generally a big fan of Leo Baubata’s Productivity Habits blog, but his recent post ”the little rules of action” misses the mark. Though Leo’s guidelines may make sense of individuals who are mostly managing themselves (e.g., writers, freelancers, etc.) I think they could be downright disastrous for leaders who need to manage other people. 9. Meetings aren’t action. This is a common mistake in management. They hold meetings to get things done. Meetings, unfortunately, almost always get in the way of actual doing. Stop holding those meetings! Meetings…

  • Random Quotes and Links

    Nitin
    7 Oct 2009 | 11:14 pm
    greatest essays ever Rohit Bhargava on the Future of Business The future of business isn’t about leveraging Twitter or weathering the storm, or even finding the next great groundbreaking product. The ones who really change our world for the better will be the ones most passionate about doing it. 3 Minute Personality Test A Radical Plan for Helping Poor Countries Romer, an economist, is a leading expert on the dynamics of economic growth, and he sees the tale of Hong Kong not merely as a historical irony, but the answer to one of the knottier problems of our time: the great global chasm…

  • Four Seasons of Hope – Eli Manning Education Announcement

    Nitin
    21 Sep 2009 | 5:36 am
    I recently received this in my mail: Hi, Today, New York Giants Quarterback Eli Manning announced his partnership with Samsung’s Four Seasons of Hope – a goodwill program designed to minimize the technology gap in the U.S. educational system – by announcing a 100-word essay contest that calls upon parents, students, and teachers across the U.S. to improve technology in classrooms by submitting an essay for the chance to win a portion of over $1million in technology from Samsung’s Four Seasons of Hope. You can submit your 100-word essay by going to:…

  • Latest Delicious Links

    Nitin
    2 Sep 2009 | 5:51 am
    Here are a few of my latest delicious links for your perusal: Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn: Surrender to this Algorithm The Sification of America Scientific Speed Reading: How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes The Kaiser Family Foundation

  • Hole in the Wall Education Experiment

    Nitin
    16 Aug 2009 | 7:33 pm
    Sugata Mitra Shows How Kids Teach Themselves In 1999, Sugata Mitra and his colleagues dug a hole in a wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi, installed an Internet-connected PC, and left it there (with a hidden camera filming the area). What they saw was kids from the slum playing around with the computer and in the process learning how to use it and how to go online, and then teaching each other. In the following years they replicated the experiment in other parts of India, urban and rural, with similar results, challenging some of the key assumptions of formal education. The “Hole…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Flux

  • ‘We are the people we’ve been waiting for’

    Sarah Grier
    20 Nov 2009 | 7:39 am
    Billed as an ‘Inconvenient Truth’ for education, a new documentary from Lord Puttnam and Sir Michael Barber is exploring the UK education system. The film asks current students, education experts and high-profile figures about their experiences of education and explores key questions about future of education. The full website launches on Monday 23 November, but the online buzz around the trailer for ‘We are the people‘ is building following the premiere this week. Free copies of the film will be available to readers of The Guardian newspaper on Saturday 28 November.

  • The Impact of the Harnessing Technology Strategy

    Bob Harrison
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:59 pm
    Published today at the BECTA Research conference in Bristol. Will it be enough evidence of the value of BECTA to counteract the negative press they have had recently? Some strong evidence of progress but wide sector differences and rates of improvement in technology enhanced learning. Have a read and what do you think? http://publications.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=41329 —

  • BSF Awards

    Bob Harrison
    16 Nov 2009 | 5:31 am
    Pictured: Dara O Briain host, Nina Woodcock, Head of Capital Programmes BECTA, sponsors of the “Best ICT Partnership in BSF “Award and the team from Civica who won the award for the Sheffield BSF project. Tim Byles from P4S is on the right of the group. Who says you cannot innovate in a managed service? “Not us” would be the answer from some of the Sheffield schools in the early waves of BSF and CIVICA who last week won the “Most Effective ICT Partnership” award at the 2nd annual Partnerships for Schools BSF Awards evening held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London.

  • Virtual trenches immerse students in First World War poetry

    Bob Harrison
    2 Nov 2009 | 1:03 pm
    With Armistice Day fast approaching a JISC project team has taken an unusual approach to ensuring that people continue to learn about the First World War. The First World War Poetry Digital Archive and the Learning Technologies Group at Oxford University have collaborated on an exciting new project in the 3D virtual world Second Life to simulate areas of the Western Front 1914-18. The team believes this is the first time anything of its type has been done on Second Life. This project, which is funded by JISC, has arranged a range of digitised archival materials like poetry manuscripts,…

  • Shakespeare 2.0

    Sarah Grier
    2 Nov 2009 | 4:12 am
    Secondary school pupils can now access a live performance of Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ thanks to an audio recording from the National Strategies. A performance of the play, produced by Globe Education at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, has been captured as an audio recording to help pupils experience this tale of ‘star-crossed’ lovers. It can be downloaded free onto an MP3 player, iPod or computer and it appears on a dedicated teaching Shakespeare area which also boasts Secondary National Strategies resources on the Bard and his works. Alternatively, for those…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Stephen's Web ~ OLDaily

  • What will Higher Education look like in a 2050 -80% +2c 450ppm world?

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:08 pm
    A lot of futurists simply straightline or exponentiate existing trends. But the future always combines trends. This post looks at the future of learning as impacted by global warming. I think it's conservative. Joss Winn, learninglab, November 20, 2009 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]

  • My first infographic competition

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:53 am
    The subject of infographics greatly interests me, being as it is a mixture of art, design and critical thinking. Doug Belshaw - from his new blog location - links to a number of infographics blogs, including Flowing Data, Cool Infographics, Datavisualization.ch, Information Aesthetics and Simple Complexity. Here's more from Belshaw on infographics. Doug Belshaw, Weblog, November 20, 2009 [Tags: Information, Visualization, Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

  • 25 practical ideas for using Mobile Phones in the Classroom

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:46 am
    Good list of ideas, credited to Doug Belshaw (here is his new blog location). A lot of people promote the use of mobile phones in learning. But here's my take: I want to see something like a cost-analysis on this. How much does using a mobile phone (with unlimited data transfer, at decent (3G or better) speeds) as compared to using (free?) wifi and a netbook? Or as compared to a typical desktop with DSL or cable? Also, I would like to see a study of how much freedom a mobile phone user has to use software and access content as compared to a computer user. We're getting a lot of promotion for…

  • Scaling up Innovation

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:38 am
    The next time someone throws the "does it scale?" line at you, show them this diagram and ask them to be more specific - what sort of scaling was it they were worried about, exactly? Another tidbit, "The Microsoft UK Education team has a dozen people in it (surprised?) who are focused full-time on education..." - and with even more in North America, I would expect to see a lot more of blogging and writing out of them. Where are they? Ray Fleming, Microsoft UK Schools News Blog, November 20, 2009 [Tags: Schools, Great Britain, Microsoft, Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

  • Twitter New Retweets Are Terrible Because

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:28 am
    I actually got a Twitter retweet today - it was the Twitter main account retweeting a Dave Winer post on how Twitter retweet is great. Well, I am so glad I subscribe to exactly one Twitter account, because the deluge is well and truly upon us. As Randy Thornton says, "violate the fundamental rule of the timeline that I only see who I follow - instead I now see strangers I do not follow whether I want to or not." Randy Thornton, Metamedia, November 20, 2009 [Tags: Twitter] [Link] [Comment]
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Power of Educational Technology

  • Rethinking Professional Development

    Mrs. Davis
    20 Nov 2009 | 10:08 am
    I have been thinking about effective means of professional development for teachers for a long time. I started my edtech career as a Professional development specialist at Tom Snyder Productions. They still use my picture on their website. Not to bite the hand that still occasionally feeds me (I freelance for TSP), but lately I have been questioning the effectiveness of the group training model. On the surface it seems like the most efficient way to reach the largest number of people with the most information. In reality however, it doesn't quite work that way. I find it hard to get people to…

  • Making Meaningful Connections

    Mrs. Davis
    14 Nov 2009 | 5:25 pm
    NEIT2009 Days 2 and 3At the closing keynote, Michael Wesch (@mwesch) posed this essential question: "How can we create students who can create meaningful connections?" At this conference I made dozens of meaningful connections. I learned about school to school collaborations, tried to figure out Google Wave (still don't get it), introduced more folks to Twitter and had a great discussion about effective professional development.I talked and danced with many new faces including more people I had only known previously online. These included Bill Campbell (@BillCamp), Karen Blumberg…

  • Reflections on NEIT2009 - Day One

    Mrs. Davis
    14 Nov 2009 | 8:58 am
    I could hear my heart beating in my chest as I drove up to the Mohonk Mountain House, the site of the NEIT (New York State Association of Independent Schools (N) Education (E) Information (I) Technology (T) conference. I was excited, but also nervous at the end of my 3.5 hour drive.I learned about this conference from the tweets of two independent school educators, Alex Ragone and Arvind Grover, whom I greatly respect, but had never met.It has been a while since I have attended a conference without knowing lots of people. I remember back to my first Educon 2.0 when my Twitter network first…

  • Twitter List Screencast

    Mrs. Davis
    3 Nov 2009 | 9:51 am
    Recently Twitter introduced the ability to create and subscribe to lists. I've been playing around with this new feature and I think it has a lot of potential. I created this screencast to show a few of the things I've learned.In addition to my screencast, @_stevewoods wrote a great post describing Twitter lists. And, here is the direct link to the Twitter Gadget for embedding your list on a website.Please share your tips. What have you learned about lists? Do you like them? I'm still trying to figure out how to subscribe to a list in a reader. Does anyone know how to do that?P.S. This is the…

  • Article for Alumni Magazine

    Mrs. Davis
    31 Oct 2009 | 4:23 pm
    I just finished writing this article for the Belmont Hill Alumni magazine.What I've been up to for the last year and a bit..."Respecting tradition yet alive to innovation..." These words from the Belmont Hill mission statement illustrate the unique way that Belmont Hill marries technology with pedagogy. In a school where face to face relationships are primary, the faculty at Belmont Hill seek out technologies to support this mission, while remaining true to the traditions that have been at this school for decades. In my second year at Belmont Hill as the Director of Academic Technology, I…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    eduStyle Blog

  • Research, Tweak, Repeat: The Elusive Art of Incremental Redesign

    Stewart Foss
    15 Nov 2009 | 7:45 am
    This presentation was given at Stamats SIM Tech this last week. Research, Tweak, Repeat: The Elusive Art of Incremental Redesign View more documents from Stewart Foss. Links from the presentation: Articles/Presentations: Death of the Relaunch Incremental Redesign – A More Manageable Approach to Improving Your Website Agile Manifesto Site evolution The Three Hundred Million Dollar Button Tweak of the Week Good Designers Redesign, Great Designers Realign Books/Resources: The eduStyle Guide to Usable Higher-Ed Homepage Design Homepage Usability – 50 Homepages Deconstructed…

  • EDU Checkup: Indiana University East, George Mason University, Carroll College

    Nick DeNardis
    14 Nov 2009 | 8:06 am
    Overall this was a great week for site reviews, almost all A’s across the board. Each site had a distinct look and emphasized their university colors and smiling faces. It was apparent these sites were redesigned recently and the redesign had a professional approach. Indiana University East had the most social media presence on their homepage than I have seen on any other university site. George Mason University School of Law had a different approach to their footer content, giving it a more stylized feel. And last but not least Carrol College had a very clean and concise navigation…

  • EDU Checkup: Claremont McKenna College, Tasmanian Academy, Duke University

    Nick DeNardis
    31 Oct 2009 | 10:15 am
    Another full week of episodes, three sites with completely different strategies. The first, Claremont had great intentions but when it came to executing it didn’t pan out so well. The homepage was overtaken by large graphical tabs with news and events in mixed columns. Last but not least cutting off their news titles won’t help users decide if the article looks interesting. Their site review got picked up by their online newsletter, CKC was great about responding to my comments and are on their way to solving existing issues. Tasmanian Academy took a non-traditional route to their…

  • EDU Checkup: Colorado State, Fairfield, Grove City College

    Nick DeNardis
    24 Oct 2009 | 8:11 am
    Last weekend marked the first birthday for EDU Checkup! With this exciting milestone comes a few goodies. The most important is a regular schedule and the return of the weekly wrap up on eduStyle. The others will be coming shortly. This week I reviewed three sites, Colorado State University, Fairfield University and Grove City College. Great stuff going on with all three especially in the area of design. My favorite was Colorado State, it was the most contemporary and spacing was very well defined. The use of photography really set the tone and identity for these schools, the weakest use of…

  • 5 Lessons from the eduStyle Awards

    Cody Foss
    1 Sep 2009 | 12:38 pm
    It’s been over a month now since the eduStyle Awards. I just wanted to share a few lessons we can learn from the nominees and winners. These are things that I think all higher-ed designers and web workers can take heart in. 1. Small Schools Can Rock Last year Boston University walked away with a lot of awards. Because of that, some assumed you had to be a big school to compete. Looking at this year’s list of the nominations it’s clear small schools can not only compete, they can win. You could argue that as a rule, small schools are generally better at creating great…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Hall Monitor

  • Art exhibition at Purchase College

    Noreen O'Donnell
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:38 pm
    Clay Ketter, one of Sweden’s most prominent artists and a 1985 Purchase College alumnus, is featured in a David Schwarz Project 11 exhibition at the Purchase College School of Art + Design. Ketter moved to Sweden 20 years ago from New York City.  The exhibition includes works created from 1996-2009 that reflect everyday domestic interior and [...]

  • Schoolhouse news from Carmel

    Noreen O'Donnell
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:33 pm
    School news from Carmel: “Our annual Community Open Forum is set to take place on Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 7:00 p.m. at George Fischer Middle School. This is your opportunity to provide the district and the Board of Education with feedback on such priority topics as Curriculum and Instruction, Communication, Facilities and Transportation and Budget and [...]

  • Honor Society inducts students

    Noreen O'Donnell
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:27 pm
    Fifteen Hastings High School students were inducted into the National Honor Society at a ceremony on Thursday. They were: Lauren Berke, Anna Bernstein, Niko Gelfars, Aliana Heffernan, Daphne Lee, Jordan Lerner, Eleanor McQuistion, Hannah Murphy, Stephen Pecylak, Maud Reavill, Ben Roif, Catherine Smyth, Nicolee Spiller, Miya Tsudome and Charles Zahn.

  • Movie tackles depression

    Noreen O'Donnell
    19 Nov 2009 | 9:04 am
    Here’s an event about teen-age depression, how it manifest itself and where to seek treatment. The movie More than Sad will be shown at the Chappaqua Public Library tomorrow night, followed by a panel discussion with mental health professionals. Teenagers, parents, school psychologists and social workers are invited. The evening begins at 7:30 p.m. The library is at 195 [...]

  • Students hear real life talk

    Noreen O'Donnell
    18 Nov 2009 | 1:25 pm
    When Monecia Samuels wanted her students at the College of Westchester to hear a well delivered speech, she took them to hear Sal Capiello, the owner of Tuscany Cafe in White Plains. Here’s a description of the field trip courtesy of Jessica Del Balzo. Capiello gave a speech on persuasive speaking that students from the Oral Communications [...]
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Consultants Blog

  • Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth Launches New Center for Leadership

    Clear Admit
    20 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am
    The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth this week announced the creation of a new leadership center to build upon existing leadership initiatives at the school. Founded by Tuck professor Pino Audia, the innovative center will focus on students themselves rather than using case studies to analyze how others lead. The new Tuck Center for Leadership will provide a range of leadership development activities for students that expand upon the initiatives of the Cohen Leadership Development Program, which was established in 2003. With the launch of the new center, every Tuck student will now be…

  • Fridays From The Frontline

    Clear Admit
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:14 am
    Welcome to the latest edition of Clear Admit’s Fridays From The Frontline! Every week we take a tour through the many blogs of those hoping to gain entry into an MBA program, and current students, whose application process is thankfully behind them. This week many MBA hopefuls were taking a collective breath as the last of round one deadlines passed. Students continue to be engaging in all sorts of activity, from watching classmates sing for a marketing competition to accepting  job offers, current MBA bloggers are certainly a busy bunch. Madalogue shared some of her favorite passages…

  • Chinese Students Come to U.S. Universities in Record Numbers

    Clear Admit
    19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am
    Chinese undergraduates are enrolling at American universities in record numbers and may soon outpace Indian students, who for the past eight years have come to the United States in greater numbers than any others, according to a recent article in the New York Times. Overall, international enrollment at U.S. schools was the highest ever in 2008-9 and showed the largest percentage increase year over year in more than 25 years. These and other figures were released as part of the annual Open Doors 2009 Report, published by the Institute of International Education with support from the State…

  • Twitter Thursdays: News from MBA Programs

    Clear Admit
    19 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am
    Welcome to another installment of Twitter Thursdays, a weekly column in which we highlight the updates of the top MBA programs on Twitter!  If you’re not following Clear Admit already, be sure to check us out on Twitter for updates, special prizes, admissions tips and breaking news.   We’ve also created a list of MBA programs to ease your daily access to breaking news from the top MBA programs, as reported by admissions committee members themselves. UCLA / Anderson’s Dean, Judy Olian, recounted her weekend Q & A session with 60 prospective students visiting UCLA’s campus for…

  • Campus Chronicles: The Wharton Journal

    Clear Admit
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:56 am
    We return to this week’s Campus Chronicles with a perusal of Wharton’s student newspaper, The Wharton Journal, to learn about the latest events on Wharton’s campus.  Our hope is that this summary of the latest happenings at Huntsman Hall is helpful for Wharton applicants in the midst of R1 interviews as well as for candidates targeting R2! With the culmination of the six-week Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative Speaker Series, this fall offered ample opportunities for Wharton students to learn about the fashion and retail business.  Wharton’s campus was visited by three top…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Moving at the Speed of Creativity

  • Oklahoma Bears, Tar Pits, Mountains, Girls Circles, and Marriages of 70+ years

    Wesley Fryer
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:31 am
    Cross-posted to the Storychasers blog. This week Oklahoma educators participated in our 29th “Celebrate Oklahoma Voices” workshop since 2008, and created some fantastic digital stories about the history, geography, and people of our great state. Did you know Oklahoma is home to a growing black bear population and just had its first open hunting season for bears this year? Brad Hill used photos from his own game camera to create the 1 min, 17 second video, “Bears of Leflore County.” Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices! When you think of tar pits, you…

  • Thoughtful teachers need to engage students collaboratively across the web

    Wesley Fryer
    18 Nov 2009 | 6:31 pm
    This is an excellent thirteen minute video of ideas from Alan November about transforming our schools into the learning spaces we need in the 21st century. Find more videos like this on NL Connect Among many things, Alan says: We need to redefine learners as contributors. This requires a fundamental shift in our thinking about schools. The toughest part is not teaching teachers to use technology… What I can’t do in an afternoon is help people become comfortable with shifting control… Global communicator, global researcher, tool builder, and internal collaborator (with Google…

  • K12Online09 LAN Party #3 Tonight! (22:30GMT/ 3:30pmPST/ 4:30pmMST/ 5:30pmCST/ 6:30pmEST)

    Wesley Fryer
    18 Nov 2009 | 2:02 pm
    Please join educators worldwide TONIGHT/TODAY on November 18, 2009 at 22:30GMT/ 3:30pmPST/ 4:30pmMST/ 5:30pmCST/ 6:30pmEST for a live event of the 2009 K12Online Conference On November 18, the K12Online Conference is hosting a LAN party from 6:30PM to 8:30PM EST. We invite everyone to gather at the LAN party site with colleagues in order to view two past conference presentations and then engage in lively discussions in the EdTechTalk chatroom. The following presenters will be in attendance. 6:30 – 7:15pm Second Life: K-20 Educators Exploring Virtual Worlds – Panel Kevin Jarrett…

  • We must re-imagine our school cultures and end the madness of high stakes testing / standards-based reform

    Wesley Fryer
    18 Nov 2009 | 12:50 pm
    Greg Thompson in his post, “The Landscape of Educational Culture” has it right. We must re-imagine our schools and end the madness of high stakes testing as well as “standards-based” educational reform. He writes: We can’t have both. We can’t create a thriving, innovative, creative, vibrant learning environment and pair it with common standards supported by textbooks and assessed by standardized tests. The two ideas are diametrically opposed. To waste time and money attempting to force these two into a relationship would be as futile as Romeo and Juliet’s parents…

  • Google Buys Gizmo5: More VoIP calling and videoconferencing power headed our way soon

    Wesley Fryer
    17 Nov 2009 | 9:46 pm
    Last week Tom Krazit reported for CNET that Google has confirmed its purchase of Gizmo5. This was confirmed on the official Google Voice blog the same day. The old Gizmo Project website (www.gizmoproject.com) now directs to Google (www.google.com/gizmo5) and new memberships have been temporarily suspended. According to Tom’s article: Gizmo5 is a Web-based VoIP client that lets you make phone calls over the Internet, similar to programs like Skype. It’s based, however, on an open standard called SIP that fits a little better into Google’s worldview, rather than Skype’s…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Thinking Stick

  • Make students your fans!

    Jeff Utecht
    17 Nov 2009 | 8:12 pm
    Teachers face a dilemma with Facebook. Do you or don’t you become fans with students past and present? It’s a topic that has come up in some of my sessions and a discussion that we’re having here at our school at the moment. But, I think I’ve found the answer to having your private Facebook stay private with your friends and family and also allow students to connect to you in the most popular social-networking site to date. The solution: Start a fan page Jeff Utecht on Facebook It’s rather easy to do and it allows students to still feel connected to you, their…

  • When kids lead the way

    Jeff Utecht
    17 Nov 2009 | 12:21 am
    I believe that part of my role, or any role of a teacher with a Personal Learning Network, is to use that network to spread the word when good things happen with your students. The Operation Smile group here at ISB continues to find ways to spread their message about their trip, about what they learned, and what you can do if you want to take part. Last weekend Ciel, a student on the trip sat down and decided to create a video. But as she said on the Women of the Web 2.0 podcast “I put it on YouTube because I wanted to spread the message.” This is the now third video created by…

  • Why Facebook is Unblocked at ISB

    Jeff Utecht
    12 Nov 2009 | 11:07 pm
    I thought I would share an e-mail that was sent from our department today to a parent who had raised a concern about Facebook being unblocked at school. A very well thought out e-mail from the group. Chad Bates did most of the work with Dennis, Kim and I adding our two cents in as well. Dear Parent, Thanks for your email, you raise an issue that schools, teachers, parents and workplaces are currently grappling with i.e. weighing the benefits of social networks against the concerns. When considering the relative merits of Facebook, there are some very obvious negative uses as well as positive…

  • When did content trump learning?

    Jeff Utecht
    9 Nov 2009 | 7:09 am
    I know it sounds like such a stupid question….and maybe content has always trumped actual learning but I continue to find myself in conversations that end with: “I’d love to do so much more, but we have to cover all this content and I just don’t have time.” Why is that? Why is content…which is now available anywhere and everywhere still what we feel like we have to do as teachers. I hate to say it but I think I got out of the classroom just in the nick of time. I would be considered a horrible teacher today. We use to go off on tangents in my classroom that…

  • Videos that speak to the heart

    Jeff Utecht
    9 Nov 2009 | 3:38 am
    Support Operation Smile and the 6th Graders at ISB by donating here http://www.tinyurl.com/isboperationsmile There are days like yesterday when everything comes together technologically that allows you to create some of the most amazing artifacts. Yesterday The Thinking Chick (my wife) sat down at around 2 o’clock and started working on a video that she wanted to create about her recent Operation Smile trip to Surin, Thailand with 9 middle school students. 8 Hours later she had created what I truly think is an amazing video capturing students feelings and reflections about the trip. I…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Open Classroom

  • Great collaborative podcast

    Jo McLeay
    26 Oct 2009 | 2:57 am
    Loving listening to the Spark podcast out of Canada. It is hosted by the mellifluous Nora Young, and she makes it engaging and inclusive. The website describes it as a "blog, radio show, podcast and an ongoing conversation about technology and culture. Spark is an online collaboration." She invites listeners to "leave your thoughts, stories, and ideas here, and together we'll make a radio show." I first heard about it on another podcast (I think it was the Edtech Posse) and after I gave it a listen I was hooked. Through this podcast I have learned about all sorts of things like spin…

  • I love my new job

    Jo McLeay
    25 Oct 2009 | 2:20 am
    There is a lot of pleasure to be had in my new job as Professional Learning Officer for VITTA. I have been there for a bit over 2 months now and it's really been a steep learning curve for me. The job has a lot of variety: writing a course for a new 13 week Certificate in Emerging Technologies to be offered next year (more details when they are available), editing Infonet, the quarterly Journal of VITTA, planning teacher professional development that we will be offering for teachers next year, preparing for the amazing 3 day conference we will be holding in November, and even giving the odd…

  • ICT and Careers Expo Experiences

    Jo McLeay
    4 Aug 2009 | 1:13 am
    On Saturday I went to the ICT and Careers Expo put on by VITTA, “an event designed to present diverse career opportunities in ICT to school leavers.” As usual at this type of event there were many exhibitors and workshops to help students make up their minds about future careers and showing them how ICT is involved in many careers. There were two sessions that I would like to highlight here as I learnt much from them and enjoyed them also.One of the sessions, and there were many to choose from in each time slot, was called “Want to make a difference? Find out how using Twitter and…

  • Life Changes

    Jo McLeay
    1 Aug 2009 | 10:48 pm
    For the last few months I have had some significant changes in my life. At the start of 2009 I started my new job at a new school and within a few days of starting my 17 year old son had a severe head injury which resulted in a brain operation, a stay in Intensive Care at Monash Hospital (a great place to end up if you are in the position of needing Intensive Care) and some time in the ordinary ward, as well as starting Year 12 a month after school started. It was stressful for the whole family, as he couldn’t be left on his own for the first two weeks at home. After a term and a half of…

  • Interview with Jenny Luca

    Jo McLeay
    7 Apr 2009 | 12:54 am
    Visit Working together 2 make a differenceI have just been listening to Jenny Luca being interviewed on the Wicked Decent Learning podcast. It is a very inspiring listen. Among other things Jenny explained about the ning she has set up to "detail the efforts of educators and their students who are doing their bit to think outside of themselves and raise funds for worthy causes. We encourage you to join this space, create a new page for your school and start detailing what you and your students are aiming to do to help others less fortunate than yourselves. Chart your progress on your page and…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Alfred Thompson

  • Creating Games with XNA® Game Studio and C#

    Alfred Thompson
    19 Nov 2009 | 2:37 am
    New High School Computer Science Course Creating Games with XNA Game Studio and C# Fall 2009 Recruit students to your schools’ computer science classes by adding a new game development course! Students will develop computer science knowledge and skills by learning how to program in C# using the MicrosoftXNA Game framework and Visual Studio platform to create games. XNAGame Studio 3.0 enables hobbyists, academics, and independent developers to create video games for Microsoft Windows, the Microsoft Zune digital media player, and Xbox 360. Visual Studio is a professional development…

  • Hacking and Ethics

    Alfred Thompson
    17 Nov 2009 | 9:52 am
    I get a lot of interesting email. Today I received an email from a student in Japan asking me the question “Do you think that hackers will decrease if we improve Information-ethics-education?” My first thought was yes. My second thought was no. My third thought was maybe. Helpful answers? Perhaps not but it is a complex question. By hacking I assume, based on context, that me means the breaking into systems sort of hacking rather than the old-fashioned “trying all sorts of things to see what one can learn sort of hacking” that was the more common meaning in “the old days.” And of…

  • Interesting Links November 16 2009

    Alfred Thompson
    16 Nov 2009 | 2:59 am
    Early in the week last week the @tcea Twitter account tweeted (Twittered?) "They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel." Anonymous That has sort of been my thought for the week. How do we make our students feel? Our peers feel? Other people we interact with? Do we leave them feeling better or worse about themselves, about life, about us, about what we want them to know? It is the sort of thing that makes Twitter a lot more than people saying what they had for breakfast for me. Interesting article called Educators That Rock!: danah boyd danah…

  • Dealing With Complexity

    Alfred Thompson
    14 Nov 2009 | 11:39 am
    I had an interesting conversation with two teachers last week. One the chair of the computer science of a large state university and the other a teacher in a career/technical high school. We were talking about how beginning programming students worked on their programs. I said that time and again I’d seen students trying to fix nested loops by adding end loop constructs in random places until they got a clean compile. Then they were often surprised that the code didn’t work as they expected. The others responded that a lot of those sorts of problems came from students trying to write too…

  • Wait while I look that up on the Internet

    Alfred Thompson
    11 Nov 2009 | 7:25 am
    Recently I have been doing some mock interviews with high school students. I have some business cards with a coded message on the backs with a challenge for students to solve the code. For a number of the mock interviews I handed the student one of these cards and asked them “what’s the first thing you would do to solve this?” The first part of the code looks like “8BF3A13B” and some many students say “that looks like hex. so I’ll convert it to decimal.” Others say they will compare it with a table of ASCII codes. But at least one in four says “I’ll search for it on the…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Edspresso

  • Daily Headlines for November 20, 2009

    Daily News
    20 Nov 2009 | 8:37 am
    NATIONAL Learning to Teach to Bridge the Achievement GapNew York Times, NY, November 20, 2009What is turbo-charging academics at this school? It is never easy to prove a cause-and-effect relationship in education, but three ingredients associated with success in other schools are at work: high expectations for everyone, constant assessment and family involvement. Gates Foundation Gives $335 Million To Raise Teacher EffectivenessWashington Post, DC, November 20, 2009The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Thursday a $335 million investment in teacher effectiveness, funding…

  • Daily Clips for November 19, 2009

    Daily News
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:52 am
    NATIONAL Health Care, Education Reform Both Need CompetitionHernando Today, FL, November 18, 2009Real reform in education should ask the following questions: Is there adequate competition among education providers, do education consumers have enough choices and is the public option the only appropriate way to provide education? Give “American Education Week” Some Real MeaningPacific Research Institute, November 18, 2009The desire to provide every child with a quality education is a laudable one. In order to compete in an increasingly competitive world, American students need…

  • Daily Press Clips for November 18, 2009

    Daily News
    18 Nov 2009 | 8:35 am
    NATIONAL Duncan Hosts Meeting with Rural School Superintendents As He Continues to Seek Input on Education Reform US Department of Education, November 17, 2009U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan met today with a group of rural school superintendents from nine states to listen and learn about their needs and to discuss ways the Education Department can be a partner in helping to find solutions to their educational challenges. FROM THE STATES Florida School Board Votes To Take Gates GrantTampa Tribune, FL, November 18, 2009The district, the eighth-largest in the nation, is the biggest of…

  • Daily Press Clips for November 17, 2009

    Daily News
    17 Nov 2009 | 7:51 am
    NATIONAL States Sprinting Hard in the “Race to the Top” State Net Capitol Journal, November 16, 2009The Obama administration has officially launched its “Race to the Top” competition for states seeking new federal education dollars. But anxious states have already been working for months on their plans for securing a piece of the $4.35 billion pie the program has to offer. The Edsel of Education ReformWall Street Journal, November 17, 2009We hate to say it, but don’t be misled by headlines. The biggest headline in education circles last week was that the Ford…

  • Daily News Clips - November 16, 2009

    Daily News
    16 Nov 2009 | 12:10 pm
    NATIONAL Race to the Top Heats UpSun Sentinel Blog, FL, November 15, 2009Florida is in hot pursuit of the $4.35 billion in federal funding available through the Race to the Top contest, which put in motion a new phase of federal education reform. Obama Gets Inflated Grade on Education Reform Detroit News, MI, November 14, 2009Even as President Barack Obama’s approval ratings continue to slide, folks of all political persuasions are singing his praises on education — though he has done little of substance. Unlikely Allies Advance Classroom InnovationWashington Post, DC, November…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Technology for Learning

  • What kind of digital citizen are you?

    rdrunner
    27 Oct 2009 | 7:46 pm
    photo credit: quinn.anya Some time ago I read a post helping teachers determine what they should and should not post on their classroom websites. It was a very positive list from Mrs. Smoke who posts often with helpful hints. But when Alec Couros had a bad experience with someone favouriting his daughter’s photos on flickr, I [...]

  • GLEU2C?

    rdrunner
    26 Oct 2009 | 10:27 pm
    I had the chance to help a friend get her blog started. What a privilege. And now her blog already has a rich entry, where she explores the excitement of the language we are creating in our online world. She even invented a new word – GLEU2C (glu-tic). Check out her blog – Make a Difference [...]

  • Digital Footprints in the Sands of Time

    rdrunner
    6 Oct 2009 | 8:36 pm
    Footprints in the sand Originally uploaded by Welshdan Jesse Bradley, in his recent post about the invisible audience, touched on the trail of his person that was collecting in cyberspace. He wondered what his children would come to know about him through his digital footprint online. Gottsela touched on similar issues as she explored what should be posted [...]

  • The Social Web? Immerse, Model and Invite!

    rdrunner
    21 May 2009 | 9:14 pm
    I had the good fortune recently to keynote a technical symposium – about 70 IT professionals engaged in supporting technology in K-12 schools. I spoke about the social web and our need as IT professionals to understand the social web and its role in our schools. The call to action is to immerse yourself in order [...]

  • 4 Steps to Personalized Professional Development

    rdrunner
    12 Apr 2009 | 11:17 am
    photo credit: courosa Donna DesRoches recently tweeted about it, Matt Townsley blogged about it, Dr. Alec Couros is passionate about it. Learning for teachers that is open, connected, personal. As 21st century educators we are committed to personalizing learning for our students, so why not for ourselves? Authentic learning is as critical for the adults, yet [...]
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Topix: Education News

  • Jean Chatzky: Cutting costs on college

    20 Nov 2009 | 4:09 pm
    I've used quite a bit of ink over the years on the subject of saving for college.

  • Report: Colorado not expanding economic competitiveness

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:47 am
    Colorado remains a top performer in many areas, with a population that is healthier and generally better educated Colorado is falling behind surrounding states when it comes to winning new jobs and increasing incomes, a report from the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.

  • Our Opinion: Education violation

    20 Nov 2009 | 7:14 am
    In 1998, when 71 percent of Florida voters endorsed a constitutional amendment to make it a 'paramount duty' of the state to provide quality education to students in our public schools, it was anticipated that several years might pass before this well-intended concept had enough meat on its bones to be enforceable.

  • Mass. may get additional $250m from US for education efforts

    20 Nov 2009 | 2:49 am
    The Obama administration said yesterday that Massachusetts could reap up to an additional $250 million to turn around failing schools and pursue other education initiatives as part of a new competitive grant fund.

  • Charter high school plan draws critics in Dublin

    19 Nov 2009 | 10:30 pm
    A plan by Dublin parents to start a college preparatory charter high school is drawing organized opposition from those who say the city should have only one comprehensive public high school.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatsch

  • Student Technology Survey Results

    Kathy Schrock
    14 Nov 2009 | 3:15 am
    I wanted to gather some information from our grade 6-12 students to help me better support them in their use of technology both at school and at home. I sent the 1500 middle and high school students the survey as a Google Form in their Google Apps email account. The survey was open for two weeks and I received 98 responses. I did not do anything additional to convince students to complete the survey, so I was happy with the number of responses I received. I appreciate the students taking the time to respond!Here are the results from the first 8 questions: (Link to full-size online…

  • Camtasia for Mac

    Kathy Schrock
    10 Nov 2009 | 7:23 am
    I just downloaded the 30-day trial of Camtasia for Mac and am quite excited! Of course, most people think of Camtasia as a screen-capture tool for creating tutorials and such, which it does very well in this version, too. (It only captures full-screen, but it is very easy to crop to the selection you want later.) Here is a chart of the comparisons between this first version of Camtasia for Mac 1.0 and the Camtasia Studio for Windows 6.x product.Only having spent a little time with it, my first impression is that, as well as an easy tool to create tutorials and screen captures (including video…

  • Can Twitter replace blogging?

    Kathy Schrock
    11 Oct 2009 | 4:08 am
    I am still trying to figure out how best to send information to support my Personal Learning Network. There are a few hundred people subscribed via RSS to this blog (although that is no real indication of how many others are reading it). On the other hand, I have almost 5000 people following me on Twitter. Even if only 10% of my followers use Twitter on a regular basis, it means that my Twitter posts are getting out to many more educators than the blog posts.Can Twitter, the micro-blogging tool, replace blogging? I don't think so. Since it is hard to say much in the 140 characters Twitter…

  • Wacom Bamboo Touch Tablet Review

    Kathy Schrock
    20 Sep 2009 | 11:27 am
    Based on a post last Thursday by a user who was able to find the new Wacom Bamboo Touch Tablet (Model: CTT-460) at his local Best Buy, I took a chance and visited my local store. There was no sign of it with the other Wacom tablets, but I asked a friendly salesperson who looked it up on the computer, and said they seemed to have one in stock. He went to the storeroom, but came out and said it was on the "new items" end-cap, which, in my store, was kind of out of the way. In any case, the one was there, and I scored! (I guess I might have given him the only hug he will get all day!) It is not…

  • Results from Twitter goals survey

    Kathy Schrock
    24 Aug 2009 | 6:26 pm
    I am preparing an introductory Twitter presentation and am using information from a blog post by Charlene Kingston dealing with setting goals for your own use of Twitter.I asked my Twitter PLN to answer a short survey on this topic. I sent the tweet out to my 4625 followers, and some of my followers re-tweeted the request to 4019 of their followers (who may or may not overlap with my followers.) I received 196 responses, many in the first few hours of posting the request on Twitter.The yes/no questions were as follows:I am a K-16 educator or pre-service educator.I use Twitter to talk to…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Inside Higher Ed

  • Taxing Relationships

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Colleges and businesses often work together, but they’re not always allies on tax policy. A downward economy could test their ties.

  • Independence Urged for Community College in DC

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    The new community college at the University of the District of Columbia needs independence from the university to be "credible and legitimate," according to a report being released today, The Washington Postreported. The study praises the establishment of the community college in a city that had lacked one, but says that UDC has lost the confidence of the business community, a situation that would hurt the development of the community college. Officials of the college said that their institution would be judged by the quality of graduates, not the link to UDC.

  • A Defense of the Lecture

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Adam Kotsko questions the idea that small discussion-based courses are the ideal form of undergraduate education.

  • Doctorate Production Ebbs

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    1.4 percent increase in number of degrees awarded in 2008 is smallest since 2003; growth in biology doctorates accounts for most of the uptick, and humanities continue to dip.

  • A Different Kind of Test

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    One college takes "sound mind, sound body" to a new level, requiring students to lose weight or take a fitness class to graduate.
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    PrincipalsPage The Blog

  • Fired.

    Michael Smith
    15 Nov 2009 | 7:29 am
    When The Suits say it’s not you, it’s them.  It’s you. I’ve been fired.  Axed.  Booted.  Canned.  Discharged.  Dropped.  Given my marching orders.  Received a pink slip.  Handed my walking papers.  Let go.  Sacked.  And officially terminated. This pleases me (it was time… and I have something to blog about). Several months ago, I was contacted my an educational magazine (that I’d never heard of… but I don’t get out much) to see if I would be interested in having my blog posted once a week on their website. After…

  • Maybe It’s Not the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. But It Should Be.

    Michael Smith
    12 Nov 2009 | 5:20 pm
    It’s that time of year. The honeymoon is over. The fat lady hasn’t sung, but she is warming up (is this an insult to fat or skinny people??). If you work at a school it’s very likely that your patience is getting shorter, shorter, and/or gone. We’re a long way away from the happiness the beginning of school brings and an even longer way from the next sweet sweet summer vacation. It’s too early to start the year-end countdown (although I’m willing to bet each and every reader can name the person in their school that will start the countdown… usually by January 1) and it’s too…

  • You Have Email. I Have a Blog. Let’s Work Together.

    Michael Smith
    11 Nov 2009 | 6:32 pm
    Would you like to receive the PrincipalsPage.com Blog via email? It’s easy. Just sign up (next to my cartoon wife’s right elbow) to receive notifications when new blog entries are posted. That’s it. It’s so easy, my dog Buddy could do it. And he doesn’t have thumbs.

  • The Weather is Too Nice to Blog.

    Michael Smith
    8 Nov 2009 | 10:01 am
    I’m taking the day off from blogging.  Laying (lying… whatever) low.  Going incognito if you will. It’s the weekend and I deserve some time off (plus my garage is a mess and Buddy is starting to complain about his unsanitary living conditions). At least for today, no sitting at Larry the Laptop and trying to blog about something amusing and/or entertaining (often failing miserably, but you have to admire my effort). Where I live the weather is perfect.  Sunshine, no wind, and 72 degrees.  In my part of the world, that’s pretty good for early November. …

  • Sick Day. Work Day. Sick Day.

    Michael Smith
    6 Nov 2009 | 6:30 pm
    My Evil Spawn missed 3 days of school this week. Much to our surprise she wasn’t suspended.  Just sick.  Maybe the suspension will come later.  Or maybe she will just be incredibly sneaky and not get caught.  Either way, any chance of her having perfect attendance is gone. Someone will undoubtedly email me to let me know that I’m way too negative when I blog about my Evil Spawn/daughter (odds are the email will be long, angry, hate-filled, use abusive language, and question my ability to parent… and it’s 50/50 that it will be from her mother). I’m not…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Eschool News: Safety & Security

  • Gunman at upstate NY school surrenders to police

    10 Nov 2009 | 5:20 am
    A former student held a New York school administrator hostage for more than an hour on Nov. 10, then surrendered to police without firing a shot, officials said. No one was injured.

  • FCC proposes web-safety education rules

    9 Nov 2009 | 5:20 am
    Schools and libraries receiving federal e-Rate funding would have to submit proof that they have implemented internet safety education programs along with their e-Rate applications, according to a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Nov. 5. Key words: e-Rate, internet safety, internet safety education, Web Wise Kids, educational technology, FCC, internet monitoring, online safety

  • Protecting kids or free speech: Where to draw the line?

    6 Nov 2009 | 5:20 am
    Controlling what children see on TV, online, and in other electronic media requires a delicate balancing act between the First Amendment rights of content providers and the desire to protect kids from inappropriate material, said panelists during a Nov. 2 discussion at the Georgetown Law Center in Washington, D.C. Key words: First Amendment rights, digital media, Georgetown Law Center, Common Sense Media, educational technology

  • Teens sue district in suggestive pix flap

    2 Nov 2009 | 5:20 am
    Two sophomore girls have sued their school district after they were punished for posting sexually suggestive photos on MySpace during their summer vacation. Key words: internet safety, online safety, MySpace safety, MySpace school, sexting, educational techology

  • Schools step up web-safety instruction

    13 Oct 2009 | 6:20 am
    As part of a new federal mandate that requires schools to teach internet safety to obtain e-Rate funding, schools are reaching out to internet safety awareness groups to establish programs that will educate both teachers and students about secure and proper online behavior. Key words: educational technology, Web Wise Kids, e-Rate, internet safety, internet safety education
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Eschool News: Technologies

  • Online college admissions services growing

    18 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am
    With an average of one counselor for every 500 public high school students in the U.S., college applicants are often left without professional guidance--and so internet-based companies offering admissions advice are hoping to fill the advising void. Key words: iAdmissions, college counseling, education technology, school technology, college admissions essays, Brown University admissions

  • 'Credit by exam' expands student options

    13 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am
    Excelsior College, a New York-based online institution, and educational content and assessment company Pearson launched a program this week aimed at increasing the number of students who have access to this more affordable "credit-by-examination" model. Key words: Excelsior College, education technology, school technology, online courses, Pearson Education, college credits, college tuition

  • Schools protest Kindle's setup for the blind

    11 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am
    Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader can read books aloud, but if you're blind it can be difficult to turn that function on without help. Now, two universities say they will avoid the device until Amazon changes the setup. Key words: electronic book reader, e book reader, ebook readers, education technology, school technology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • PC trends in education: Thin is in

    11 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am
    Personal computers are changing in ways that go beyond even the more recent innovations, such as the launch of Windows 7: Several of today's laptops are missing a familiar component, computers can be controlled in various new ways, and portable PCs are slimming down. Key words: school laptops, school computers, educational technology, higher education technology, computing trends, educational technology trends

  • Site simplifies text for students with disabilities

    10 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am
    A new national online database is making it easier and quicker for college students with print-related disabilities, including blindness or dyslexia, to obtain the alternative textbooks they need for their academic courses. Key words: AccessText Network, print disability, reading disability, college textbook, reading disability access, alternative textbooks, educational technology
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Eschool News: Top News

  • School libraries key in teaching information skills

    20 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am
    When school media specialists and educators make an effort to become familiar with the social-networking web sites and technologies that today's students use each day, they can forge important learning connections with their students: That was one of the key messages to come out of the American Association of School Librarians' annual conference, held Nov. 5-8 in Charlotte, N.C. Key words: educational technology, AASL, library media specialist, school library, school media center, 21st century learning

  • Gates Foundation gives $335M for teacher quality

    20 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am
    Three school districts and a coalition of charter schools have agreed to be test kitchens for some radical ideas for improving teacher quality -- from paying new teachers to spend another year practicing before getting their own class to letting student test scores affect teacher pay. Key words: Bill and Melinda Gates, educational technology, school technology, school funding, teacher quality, Gates Foundation

  • Finalists chosen in national student video contest

    19 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am
    In the second stage of the "I Am What I Learn" video contest from the federal Education Department (ED), 10 student videos have been chosen as national finalists--and ED is asking the public to help it pick the winners. Key words: department of education, i am what I learn, video contest, education contest, education technology

  • Student lending landscape in flux

    19 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am
    College administrators face a student lending landscape in upheaval at a time when students are borrowing more money than ever to pay for college. Key words: college software, student lending, direct student loans, direct student loan, Arne Duncan

  • Online college admissions services growing

    18 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am
    With an average of one counselor for every 500 public high school students in the U.S., college applicants are often left without professional guidance--and so internet-based companies offering admissions advice are hoping to fill the advising void. Key words: iAdmissions, college counseling, education technology, school technology, college admissions essays, Brown University admissions
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Graham Wegner - Open Educator

  • Smuggled In To Hear Nancy White

    Graham
    13 Nov 2009 | 4:22 am
    I went out to dinner with a group of “Edutwits” on Wednesday evening – an event organised by the amazing Kerry Johnson. Now, Kerry works for educationau but her influence spreads way beyond her official employment role. This dinner was a great example of that and connected up a dozen or so educators involved in a wide span of areas – project officers, instructional designers, consultants, teachers and general networkers. I enjoyed myself very much. Now the timing of this dinner capitalised on the edayz09 event, a conference focussed on elearning mainly in the VET…

  • Childhood

    Graham
    9 Nov 2009 | 4:06 am
    After reading an extract from a new Nikki Gemmell book about her Australian childhood memories and the contrast with her own children’s lives, I  decided to think back to my own life as a kid in the seventies in rural South Australia. Here’s what memories come floating back to the surface. http://www.flickr.com/photos/blundstoneboy/1357568029/ Icy poles after swimming lessons at the Booleroo Centre pool, Sunday roast chicken with mashed potato and boiled vegetables and playing cricket in the farmyard with my sister and brother (we used a real Kookaburra cricket ball; no pads or…

  • How I Connect To People Online

    Graham
    7 Nov 2009 | 3:40 am
    D’Arcy Norman poses the question, “How do you connect to people online?” This post is my response to that question. It’s this blog that I value the most as a connection point with others. It’s where I started dabbling in this networked way, where I connected to my first edublogger colleagues, people who I hadn’t met but whose words and ideas drew me in and got me writing and sharing my own little piece of the world. Through comments left by others and by responding to comments on others’ blogs, I widened my circle of connections and the network…

  • How To Get Students From Arguing To Debating

    Graham
    2 Nov 2009 | 3:42 am
    In English, I’ve been trying to weave the skills of debating into my classroom. It has been something that the majority have found quite difficult, with many mistaking the ability to argue in a contrary fashion for insightful and clever debate. Their confidence in combining oratory skills and a considered point of view has led me to go back several steps and try and nut out a better way to scaffold their way towards a successful in-class debate. I tried to use engaging topics to draw out their enthusiasm (Sport is more important than Science) but a lot found it hard to get beyond their…

  • Sharing … Eels

    Graham
    28 Oct 2009 | 4:17 am
    It would be no surprise to regular readers of this blog to find out that I’ve been struggling for motivation to write reflectively here of late. I seem to be surprisingly resentful of those colleagues who seem to find the time to vege out in front of the television, read a favourite book or other non-digital and non-education related pastimes. Don’t worry, I’m sure it will pass. So, instead of drafting insightful missives or spreading the comment love, I’ve been delving into online music. I’ve been listening and viewing clips from artists who I’ve had a…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Terence Online

  • A new kind of computer - A new generation of computing - Google Chrome OS

    19 Nov 2009 | 10:52 am
    The power of web apps has ushered in a new generation of computing. Web apps like gmail, youtube, lala, pandora, mint, blogger, wordpress, google maps, netflix, twitter, facebook etc have us all glued to the internet. This is good news for Google. Ever wonder why google gives away almost all of their web apps for free? Because they want you online! Personally, I consider that a fair trade. I

  • The monumental role of social media in everything: Socialnomics

    16 Nov 2009 | 10:53 am
    This video does an excellent job encapsulating the monumental role that social media plays in business, education, and organizations. "You can't buy attention anymore. Having a huge budget doesn't mean anything in social media...The old media paradigm was PAY to PLAY. Now you get back what you authentically put in. You've got to be willing to PLAY to PLAY." - Alex Bogusky, Co-Chairman, CP&B"The

  • Google Wave First Impressions

    6 Nov 2009 | 12:19 pm
    I've been using Google Wave for a couple weeks now and can see how the Wave could be a home run like google's email system, GMAIL or a "swing and a miss" like Google's social network, Orkut. I say Orkut is a swing and a miss, because it's not a strike out. There's still a lot more pitches to hit. A swing and a miss is not necessarily about the idea but about the adoption and whether people will

  • The Social Media Revolution and the Tower

    2 Oct 2009 | 10:10 am
    This short video is worth 5 minutes of your time. It accurately captures the revolution that is social media. The desire to connect, to know, and to be known seems hardwired into our DNA as humans. Social media facilitates those connections. Does anyone else see an eerie similarity between the social media revolution and the Tower of Babel revolution, which took place thousands of years ago?

  • Google's World Changing Project -- You can vote!

    30 Sep 2009 | 6:04 am
    Google started a project last year in which they gathered ideas from all over the world on how to best change the world for the better and now people are voting on them. What idea from the list do you find most promising? Which ones should Google make happen? You tell them. Your vote for one of these ideas will help their advisory board choose up to 5 projects to fund, at which point they'll
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Weblogg-ed

  • What Does “Getting It” Mean, Anyway?

    Will Richardson
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:09 pm
    While my trip to Australia this last week and a half was primarily pleasure with my family, I did get a few days to work with teachers in Brisbane and throughout Victoria (a la our PLP cohort there), and I had some great conversations about the state of the education world with some good friends. Since the trip also came on the heels of my annual two-day visit to Skywalker Ranch as a GLEF board member, these last couple of weeks have provided a lot to think about, but between travel and exorbitant internet fees and surfing expeditions, not a lot of time to write. (As usual, these days.) One…

  • Teachers as Learners (Part 32)

    Will Richardson
    4 Nov 2009 | 3:06 am
    Recently at the beginning of a day long workshop, I used a Google form to get feedback on this question: If there was one part of your personal learning practice that you wanted to focus on today, what would it be? What questions would you seek to answer? Now I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not a perfect question in terms of trying to get some sense of the personal learning lives from the teachers who were participating. But in the context of a discussion we’d been having about the passion-based learning opportunities that the Web now affords, I was hoping to learn what…

  • Teaching, Testing and Counseling

    Will Richardson
    23 Oct 2009 | 2:58 pm
    It’s no secret that many of us who had high hopes that the Obama administration would start a meaningful conversation on re-envisioning education are feeling sorely disappointed these days. All of the hoopla over “The Race to the Top” as a catalyst of real “reform” is getting a bit much to take, and to be honest, I’m surprised that more educators aren’t voicing their displeasure at the idea of being paid based on the scores their students make on standardized tests (among other things.) But I have to tell you, David Brooks’ column in the Times…

  • On Common Standards

    Will Richardson
    16 Oct 2009 | 5:18 am
    So without bemoaning in the fact that I haven’t been able to find any time of late to get to this space to do some reading and thinking and synthesizing and extended writing and that I feel like a truly important part of my life is being slowly and painfully left behind and that there is a post that I really need to write about that at some point sooner rather than later… Tom Hoffman has been bugging many of us to blog about the English Language Arts Standards that are being written by Core Standards group as an attempt to provide some national standardization for ELA (and…

  • Don’t, Don’t, Don’t vs. Do, Do, Do

    Will Richardson
    20 Sep 2009 | 6:11 am
    Recently, I presented at a school on an opening day for teachers where the first thing that greeted everyone on the table in the lobby was an 8-page Acceptable Use Policy which staff members were picking up as they filed into the school. I picked one up too, and when I had a moment I started paging through it, looking at all the ways in which students (and teachers) could get themselves in trouble on the school network. The middle three pages were filled with an A-Y double spaced list (guess they were saving room for one more rule next year) which spelled out the many transgressions that were…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Education Futures

  • Plan Ceibal book unleashed tomorrow

    John Moravec
    18 Nov 2009 | 4:45 am
    Friends and colleagues in Uruguay are invited to attend a presentation of the Plan Ceibal book (on OLPC) tomorrow at 7pm in Montevideo:

  • Curriki: Open source education materials

    Tom Elko
    11 Nov 2009 | 12:29 pm
    Open source collaborative content holds the promise of freely distributed high-quality education materials. Developing and sustaining the community to needed to accomplish that is the difficult part. Curriki, an online community of over 100,000 educators, learners and experts collectively developing curriculum resources freely available to anyone who wants them, seems to be meeting the challenge. The organization behind the web community aims to produce a breadth of high quality education materials that can be globally distributed at no cost. Dr. Bobbi Kurshan, Executive Director of Curriki,…

  • Education Futures in the Netherlands

    John Moravec
    9 Nov 2009 | 3:18 am
    I’m back from a busy week in the Netherlands. First on the agenda was Education Futures NL, an Education 3.0-focused workshop collaboration between Education Futures and Helikon (Fons van den Berg). In addition to our collaboration, the workshop was supplemented with contributions from Cristóbal Cobo and the Knowmads. Meeting space for the event was generously provided by the Creative Learning Lab, a part of the Waag Society. The event attracted 40 of the sharpest minds in the country, most of whom indicated that they were prepared to bring disruptive innovations to education…

  • Jean Piaget on creativity and innovation in education

    John Moravec
    6 Nov 2009 | 2:45 pm
    Piaget: “We can classify education into two main categories: passive education relying primarily on memory, and active education relying on intelligent understanding and discovery. Our real problem is what is the goal of education? Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is already known? Or should we try to develop creative and innovative minds capable of discovery from the preschool age on through life?”

  • Wanted: 30 Knowmads

    John Moravec
    3 Nov 2009 | 3:07 pm
    Remember Knowmads in Society 3.0? Something amazing is brewing in Europe. And, they’re looking for thirty candidates from around the world. Knowmads is a new school for the world of tomorrow, starting in January 2010 in The Netherlands. After two years of learning with and from KaosPilots (International School for New Business Design and Social Innovation) in Rotterdam, a couple of entrepreneurs will join together in Knowmads-land. KaosPilots Netherlands transformed and the body of thought is very much alive! Their purpose is to create a life-long learning community that starts with a…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    dy/dan

  • What Can You Do With This: Dan & Chris

    Dan Meyer
    19 Nov 2009 | 11:29 pm
    [click everything to enlarge] The last few weeks have been pretty profoundly discouraging on all three of my professional fronts. I'm sure it's just the ebb tide of education but it's worth mentioning that I'm specifically losing my mind over this WCYDWT thing, which is just a thing and may be much less than that, some form of digital wankery, I don't know. It's like when you were a kid and you whispered the word "football" over and over again until the compound word separated and both parts seemed weird and meaningless all at once, that's something like giving three conference sessions on…

  • Weekend Reading: Crisis, Questions, College, Post-Its

    Dan Meyer
    14 Nov 2009 | 11:55 pm
    1. Ben Blum-Smith inspires a new anti-jargon edu-slogan: … what happens is that when kids reach a point in their mathematical education where they are asked to prove things, they find that they have no idea how to accomplish what is being asked of them, and that they don’t really get why they’re being asked to do it in the first place. The way out of this is to give them a crisis. We need to give them problems where the obvious pattern is not the real pattern. What you see is not the whole story! Then, there is a reason to prove something. Create crisis. I have become convinced,…

  • The Blue Students

    Dan Meyer
    10 Nov 2009 | 10:22 pm
    These are my people, my students this year. They're averaging just a bit above a 1.5 GPA. I tried to graft a structure onto this post but nothing stuck. Topical bullet points from the failed drafts: a description of what happens to the blue students next, of their regrettable slides further leftward and their occasional, triumphant slides rightward. tortured musings about correlation and causation. (ie. "if I take some credit for their progress, must I then accept some blame for dot dot dot et cetera.") a description of effective motivators for my blue students, none of which include teacher…

  • Good Morning America

    Dan Meyer
    8 Nov 2009 | 2:55 pm
    I was on Good Morning America yesterday, one third of a segment called "The Art of Beating Long Lines." Click through to view embedded content.

  • Clever Hans

    Dan Meyer
    7 Nov 2009 | 4:17 pm
    Ben Blum-Smith: Take-home lesson: never underestimate your ability to fool yourself into believing your students understand something when really what they are doing is watching you. To force them to engage the material it is often necessary to restrict their access to you or systematically confound the signals they get from you. I think this is a central issue for modern math teachers. We need to explicitly develop ways of question-posing and interacting with our classes and individual students that hide or disguise our intentions for how they are supposed to respond. This needs to be part…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Washington Post: Education

  • Book Review: Making the Grades by Todd Farley

    Post
    21 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    As college application season hits a fever pitch and standardized tests become the fixation of high school seniors and admissions boards everywhere, Todd Farley's memoir, "Making the Grades," argues for taking the results of these and other ballyhooed exams with a heavy dose of skepticism.

  • District's unemployment rate reaches record high

    V. Dion Haynes
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:52 pm
    Unemployment in the District soared to a record high of 11.9 percent in October, according to government data released Friday, ranking it among California, Nevada, Michigan and other states with the highest jobless rates.

  • Calif. system votes to raise undergraduate fees by 32 percent

    Ashley Surdin
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:46 am
    LOS ANGELES -- Amid vocal protests, one of the largest university systems in the nation voted Thursday to raise fees for undergraduates by 32 percent over the coming year, impelled by steep state budget cuts.

  • Child's play spurs serious debate

    Emma Brown
    20 Nov 2009 | 9:27 am
    On a recent Thursday, 5-year-old Estefani Lovo Rivera took charge of a make-believe hair salon in her preschool classroom at Oakridge Elementary in Arlington County. Wielding a plastic fork as a hairbrush, dispatching customer after customer with a certain cool efficiency, she looked around the r...

  • 19 alleged gang members in Md. face federal charges

    Maria Glod
    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Maryland authorities announced federal racketeering charges Thursday against 19 alleged members of the violent Latin Kings gang who are accused in robberies, beatings and murder plots.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    NYC Educator

  • To PERB or Not To PERB?

    NYC Educator
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:11 am
    One of my favorite bloggers, Mr. Accountable Talk, is a tad cynical over the decision of UFT President Michael Mulgrew to seek authority to declare an impasse. After all, PERB has screwed us before, and more or less nailed us to the wall in 2005. So why should we go back?Well, one of the ways PERB screwed us was by tying us to the pattern, insisting it be followed even though it was crap and teachers were woefully underpaid. In order to make teachers semi-woefully underpaid, we gave back every gain we'd made in my twenty years teaching and then some. And somehow, 60% of voting teachers…

  • Cooperative Learning

    Miss Eyre
    18 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    So after my last post, I thought we might need to lighten the mood a bit, yes? You may remember that I tend to gather together some kids during their lunch period. They do little chores for me, read, chitchat, do homework, whatever. They're grateful for a quiet, cool place to hang out and I get some things done, so it's a win-win situation. I had quite a lot to do during my lunch period the other day, and while I thought about closing my room, I had closed the room the day before and felt badly doing it two days in a row, so I let my usual gang--Drew, Caroline, Jack, and a few newcomers--join…

  • First Things First

    NYC Educator
    18 Nov 2009 | 1:08 am
    Stop whining about your oversized classes and overcrowded buildings! NYC has some serious issues. That's why we're getting proactive and starting the fight against bedbugs right away. After all, those 500 school aides Mayor-for-life Bloomberg just fired are gonna have to sleep somewhere, and public schools, or at least schoolyards, are pretty much all over the city.The city's also investing in other important commodities, like ravioli. To assure that there's money enough to support these new ventures, Mayor Bloomberg is cutting 1.5% from the education budget.Thank goodness New Yorkers had the…

  • She Still Doesn't Like Anything

    Miss Eyre
    16 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    You may remember my post about Lena, the girl who claimed to not like anything in an interview with a classmate. I haven't posted about Lena in a while because I've been concerned about revealing too much about her, but since I choose to keep myself, my school, my location, etc. private, no one should really be able to identify Lena anyway--which, of course, is not her real name.I wish I could report that Lena is doing better, but she isn't. In fact, things have only gotten worse. Lena is cutting school almost every day, and when she does come, she comes late, sometimes as late as sixth or…

  • Have a Drink, Lose Your Job

    NYC Educator
    16 Nov 2009 | 1:30 am
    Joel Klein doesn't need to look too far when he reminisces about the good old days. The national papers are full of inspirational tips and tidbits for inclusion in the next UFT contract.In Barrow County, Georgia, teacher Ashley Payne has been fired. Ms. Payne maintained a Facebook page, and it contained pictures of her personally holding old demon alcohol in her pedagogical hand. Some virtuous parent found that offensive and complained to the school board.Ms. Payne does not include her students among her Facebook friends. Nonetheless, if it's on the internet, people can see it. Perhaps her…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    LA Times: Education

  • UC regents approve 32% student fee hike

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    The decision was made with little debate after a lengthy committee discussion Wednesday. Thousands of students and labor union activists protested outside the meeting at UCLA. With the chants of protesters wafting into their meeting room and armed police standing guard, the University of California's Board of Regents approved a 32%, or $2,500, increase in undergraduate fees Thursday, but promised more financial aid to keep needy students from dropping out.

  • UC regents approve partnership with L.A. County to reopen King medical facility

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    The regents, some expressing concern about potential pitfalls, said they acted out of a moral imperative to aid the community for which the hospital was once a point of pride. In a unanimous vote that sparked cheers of "thank you" from the audience, University of California regents on Thursday approved a partnership with Los Angeles County that clears the way to reopen the Martin Luther King Jr. medical facility in Willowbrook, possibly by 2013.

  • State's school funding process is failing

    19 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Anyone who has spent time in or around government, from the deeply embedded bureaucrat to the young policy wonk, knows that there are two important issues in funding a public program.

  • 250 men get a voice at school in Watts

    18 Nov 2009 | 7:54 pm
    L.A. city officials are among those who read books to students for an hour at an annual event called Donuts With Dad. 'They were hanging on my every word,' one volunteer says. Sherri Williams, principal of 99th Street School in Watts, said that almost every time she would call the homes of her students, she found herself talking to mothers.

  • L.A. County keeping sugary drinks around -- for now

    18 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am
    Supervisors approve health initiatives to improve the county's chances of receiving federal stimulus funds, but vote against a proposal to discourage the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. In an effort to strengthen their bid for as much as $40 million in federal stimulus funds intended for communities that promote healthy living, Los Angeles County supervisors approved a package of health initiatives Tuesday that included new community gardens and bike paths.
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Fischbowl

  • A Good Day

    Karl Fisch
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:41 pm
    Anne Smith’s English Literature class recently discussed Act III of Hamlet with Debi Ohayon’s AP class. Not that unusual, perhaps, except that Anne’s class is here at Arapahoe in Centennial, Colorado, and Debi’s class is at The Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia.Anne tweeted out that she was looking for classes that might be interested in interacting with her class around Hamlet, and Laura Deisley – who’s the Director of 21st Century Learning at Lovett (great job title, btw) – responded that she knew a teacher that might be interested. Anne’s students are pretty comfortable…

  • Copyright: Living Life Against the Law

    Karl Fisch
    18 Nov 2009 | 1:52 pm
    Lawrence Lessig (now at Harvard) has another thoughtful presentation regarding copyright that he gave at EDUCAUSE 2009. He makes a compelling case about how "things have changed" but that our copyright laws have not kept up with those changes. In the past, "copyright had a tiny role." He quotes Jessica Litman:At the turn of the century [the last century, not this one], U.S. copyright law was technical, inconsistent, and difficult to understand, but it didn't apply to very many people or very many things. If one were an author or publisher of books, maps, charts, paintings, sculpture,…

  • What Makes a Chat a Chat?

    Karl Fisch
    18 Nov 2009 | 1:39 pm
    I had the opportunity last week to participate along with the amazing Jim Burke from English Companion in an Education Week/Teacher Magazine chat on Social Networking and Teacher Professional Development. I hope some people found it useful and I appreciate the folks at Education Week/Teacher Magazine that put this together. None of the rest of this post is meant to disparage those folks, but simply to ask the question: What makes a chat a chat?We used CoverItLive for this and Jim and I were fed questions throughout the hour long chat. People in the chat submitted a question, the moderator…

  • Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation (2010 Edition)

    Karl Fisch
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:03 am
    I'm pleased to announce that the 2010 Edition of Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation will be hosted by Loveland High School on February 20, 2010. Like the original in 2008 and the 2009 Edition, this year's get together is free.What is Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation?Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation is a one day conference/meetup for teachers, administrators, students, school board members, parents and anyone who is interested in education. It will be held on Saturday, February 20th, 2010, from 8:00 am until 3:30 pm at Loveland High School in Loveland, Colorado, USA (different…

  • Diigo Ideas: Results from my Earlier Post

    Karl Fisch
    9 Nov 2009 | 12:53 pm
    I posted a couple of weeks ago asking how you used Diigo instructionally, and asking folks to complete a Google Form to share how they used it. Here’s a quick-and-dirty Google Site I created for a brief lunchtime staff development session on it. It includes the embedded results from the Google Form in that previous post. (Note: that Google Form is still active, so you can still add to the results.)
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    CNN: Education

  • Get a green job in two years

    17 Nov 2009 | 8:07 am
    Community colleges have long held second-class-citizen status in the world of higher education. But they've suddenly become top tier when it comes to one important thing: training for new green-economy jobs.

  • Give Obama A+ for school reform ideas

    6 Nov 2009 | 11:53 am
    President Obama deserves an A+ for his agenda for education reform. His decision to nominate Arne Duncan as U.S. education secretary was inspired, and his comments on holding the system accountable are honest, refreshing and insightful.

  • College: More expensive than ever

    20 Oct 2009 | 2:39 pm
    College costs are higher than ever, according to a new report, putting a degree even further out of reach for many Americans.

  • The CEO educator

    1 Oct 2009 | 9:55 am
    Joel Klein's title is New York City school chancellor, but he's really a CEO. He oversees America's largest public school system -- 1.1 million students -- with more authority than his counterparts in most other major cities, thanks to a landmark 2002 law that was just renewed for another five years.

  • Medical students reckless on Internet, sometimes at patients' expense

    22 Sep 2009 | 6:15 pm
    In 2007, a resident surgeon snapped a picture of a patient's tattoo -- the words Hot Rod on his penis -- and shared it with colleagues, making international news when the story was leaked to the press. At least the resident didn't post the picture on the Internet.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    ASCD: In Service

  • Assessment: A Forward Look (1966)

    David Snyder
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am
    As we consider how best to use multiple measures of assessment to determine the success of our schools, it's instructive to look back at the dawn of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which in its infancy used a...

  • Better Support for and from Middle School Parents

    Laura Varlas
    19 Nov 2009 | 10:29 am
    Ed Week's Debra Viadero has a great new piece profiling the work of Harvard University researcher Nancy E. Hill. Hill writes about how schools can better guide parents in supporting the scholarship of their adolescent or middle school-age children. Hill's...

  • The Many Meanings of "Multiple Measures"

    ASCD Bloggers
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am
    The Many Meanings of "Multiple Measures" Is anything that measures higher-order thinking a "multiple measure"? What about more than one opportunity to take the same exit exam? Is that a "multiple measure"? From how state and federal policy define and...

  • A Novel Approach: Political Debate That Illuminates vs. Obscures

    Melissa McCabe
    18 Nov 2009 | 8:49 am
    Given the uncivil discourse that's dominated most of the health care reform debate, should those of us who place children at the center of our decision making approach the coming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) with...

  • Notes from the School Psychologist

    Ben Licciardi
    18 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am
    Some of the same qualities that make a great school counselor—humor, insight, and empathy—also make a great blogger. In Notes from the School Psychologist, clinical psychiatrist Rebecca Branstetter writes about everything from student motivation to parenting with verve, intelligence, and...
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Scholastic: This Week In Education

  • Video: Elementary School Kid Refuses To Pledge

    Alexander Russo
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:07 am
    Both the Daily Show and the Colbert Report riffed off the news that an elementary school boy was refusing to recite the pledge of allegiance in school.  Just cuz I'm lazy, here's the Daily Show version (the segment starts about 90 seconds in): The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cGaywatch - Peter Vadala & William Phillipswww.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorHealth Care Crisis

  • Movies: A War On Kids? Or Just More Scare Tactics?

    Alexander Russo
    20 Nov 2009 | 8:02 am
    I don't know whether to laugh or cry about this.  There's a new documentary out called The War On Kids which argues that the current culture of many schools is, in essence, a war on children. But from the trailer, at least, the movie seems pretty over the top, juxtaposing interviews with (mostly white) parents angry about how kids are being treated and footage of (mostly black and brown) kids getting arrested or searched for drugs in school.  I'm curious, but I'm not really convinced.  Are there enough ridiculous zero tolerance incidents in schools to call it a war on…

  • Thompson: Gerald Bracey's Concluding Remarks

    john thompson
    20 Nov 2009 | 7:34 am
    The last Bracey Report should be read and reread in its balanced, jewel-like entirety.  Federal accountability schemes, despite their avowed purpose of helping the poor, make no sense unless you also believe that American education as a whole is dangerously in decline.  Bracey's last report again debunked that myth along with the hype surrounding mayoral control of schools and standards as the basis of reforms, concluding: "In my opinion, the Obama/Duncan approach would only exacerbate the problems created by our industrial ... command-and-control model on steroids. Sidwell,…

  • On The Hill: Miller Staffer Alice Cain Leaving In December

    Alexander Russo
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:54 am
    Congrats and condolences.  Word is spreading that Alice Cain, longtime staffer for George Miller, is leaving the Hill and heading to the Hope Street Group.  There she'll be focusing on teacher effectiveness and elevating the teaching profession to drive broader reform of our education system.  "It isn’t possible to overstate how wonderful it has been to work for George Miller," writes Cain.  "I will always be grateful for my time here and all that I’ve learned here over the past 6 years."  No word yet on who's in line to replace her.  

  • NCLB: Alternative Exams Make Schools Look Good

    Alexander Russo
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:47 am
    "Schools or districts that are administering more of these alternative assessments may look better than those who are using fewer, and it may not have anything to do with the quality of the program."  NCREST director Joan Herman
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Ask-Dr-Kirk

  • Tips On Getting Published

    Dr. Delaney Kirk
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:41 am
    This article by Dr. Daniel Feldman (University of Georgia) addresses the issue faced by many faculty. We may have been taught how to conduct research but struggle with how to take these research projects and get them published.   Tips include: Make sure your title accurately reflects the paper topic and isn't too long. Grab your reader's attention in the abstract. Keep introduction to no more than 3-4 pages and provide a framework here as to what the issue is you are investigating and how your paper addresses this issue. Discussion section: Here is where you help "the reviewers see the…

  • Dear Dr. Kirk: Advice For Getting An Adjunct Teaching Position

    Dr. Delaney Kirk
    18 Nov 2009 | 5:12 am
    Dear Dr. Kirk: I just came across your blog today and it seems like a great resource for professors. I am writing to see if you have any advice or tips for someone trying to get started as an adjunct professor. I have an MBA and work experience, but no formal teaching experience. I would love to hear any tips or thoughts you have to help me get started.   Thanks! Would Be Teacher Dear Would Be Teacher: First of all, as I look over the resume you attached, I see you have an excellent educational background and very relevant work experience in your field. These are things that…

  • Understanding Today's College Students

    Dr. Delaney Kirk
    16 Nov 2009 | 5:19 am
    This article discusses today's "new college students," that may include traditional age Millennials who use text messaging rather than emails; Gen Xers who have different expectations from those students either older or younger; and Baby Boomers who are coming back to school while balancing jobs and families. Diana Oblinger discusses the implications of these different learning styles for college faculty in designing their courses.

  • Dr. KirkCat Illustrates Professional Dress For Faculty

    Dr. Delaney Kirk
    12 Nov 2009 | 5:41 am
    Illustration by Istra Fuhrmann, age 11.   I personally believe dressing professionally in class is important as I feel this shows respect for the students and also helps to role model for them how to be professional. A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education gives advice to faculty on how to dress for a job interview.  As noted in the article: Remember, the objective isn't to draw attention to what you're wearing but rather to draw attention away from your appearance and toward the substance of your candidacy. You want to be dressed neatly and appropriately enough that…

  • How To Use Twitter And Facebook To Get Class Participation

    Dr. Delaney Kirk
    10 Nov 2009 | 5:46 am
    Here's an interesting article on how Purdue University is adding Twitter and Facebook to get more class participation in case you were wondering how that could be done. Got this via @mashable on Twitter.
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Learning is Change.

  • Response to Paul (on PD must be better)

    Ben Wilkoff
    20 Nov 2009 | 9:08 am
    This post is in response to a comment on my last post which went something like this: As I read your list I went back and forth agreeing with you. Do you ever question if it is not how we do PD but the audience that we have hired and put into the “seats?” Do you think we could stop “doing PD” if we simply hired a different caliber of professionals? Do you worry that we have to “give(!!!) context, meaning and perspective” to teachers? Here is my response: I do think that it has to do with who we are talking to and what messages they will accept. However, I really do believe that if…

  • Why online PD must be better.

    Ben Wilkoff
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:48 pm
    Right now, we are asking teachers to learn in an unfamiliar and, many times, unintuitive way. Right now, we are asking teachers to teacher themselves without any connection to a network. Right now, we are asking teachers to be experts in course creation without seeing any real examples of good online teaching. Right now, we are dealing with “good enough” tools when we should be pushing for the right tools for the right learning. Right now, we believe that everyone will need online learning in the future without really defining what we want our future to be. We are reacting to…

  • SpeedGeek Learning Version .1

    Ben Wilkoff
    9 Nov 2009 | 7:55 am
    I am pleased to announce the following features within the first prototype at http://speedgeeklearning.com: 57 Videos of Ignite Presentations from around the United States (Boulder, NYC, San Fransisco, Columbus, and many others) 8 Different Sessions answering attempting to answer the following questions: What is your life story? What does it take to create something from scratch? What is possible in health care? How should we be thinking? What can business be? What is the future of education? How does social media change us? What is great design? A single flash user interface for interacting…

  • SpeedGeek Learning Update #2

    Ben Wilkoff
    4 Oct 2009 | 7:03 pm
    I sent this out to all of the interested parties via e-mail today, but I know that a lot more people are following along, so here is the update on SpeedGeek Learning: We have new logo choices: So far, the consensus has been that the first one is the right choice. But, if you believe otherwise, please go to the design page and leave a comment. (Or if you have some extra time this week, make your own logo…) The Development Plan got an upgrade: Our development plan got a big boost this week. We now have a firm date for prototype launch of November 1st with testing going on the two weeks…

  • Easy vs. Hard

    Ben Wilkoff
    3 Oct 2009 | 7:02 pm
    Sharing content has become easy. Video has become easy. Networking has become easy. Meaning is still hard. Context is still hard. Perspective is still hard. I don’t want to do the easy things. They do not have value and aren’t interesting. Now that I have outlined the three things that I would like to do with SpeedGeek Learning, I just have to do them. Stay tuned.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Boston Globe: Education

  • Planes ready to leave Brunswick, Maine Navy base

    David Sharp, Associated Press Writer
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:02 pm
    The rumble of Navy patrol aircraft flying overhead will soon be a thing of the past as the remaining P-3 Orions depart from Brunswick Naval Air Station.

  • Planes ready to leave Brunswick, Maine Navy base

    David Sharp, Associated Press Writer
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:59 pm
    The rumble of Navy patrol aircraft flying overhead will soon be a thing of the past as the remaining P-3 Orions depart from Brunswick Naval Air Station.

  • Flurry of IPOs signals IPO rebound to continue

    Tali Arbel, AP Business Writer
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:41 pm
    The flurry of initial public offerings this week is confirmation that this fall's rebound in the market wasn't a fluke and sets the stage for more companies to raise money through IPOs in 2010. But the response to two of the newly public companies shows that investors continue to be careful about where they place their bets.

  • Planes ready to leave Brunswick, Maine Navy base

    David Sharp, Associated Press Writer
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:13 pm
    The rumble of Navy patrol aircraft flying overhead will soon be a thing of the past as the remaining P-3 Orions depart from Brunswick Naval Air Station.

  • Pa. university students upset about fitness class

    Kathy Matheson, Associated Press Writer
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:42 pm
    A Pennsylvania university's requirement that overweight undergraduates take a fitness course to receive their degrees has raised the hackles of students and the eyebrows of health and legal experts.
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Practical Theory

  • Gary Stager: First We Kill the Teacher's Unions

    11 Nov 2009 | 12:36 pm
    [No... he doesn't really mean it.] A little over a year ago, Gary Stager wrote an article for the Huffington Post about the new-found Democractic fascination with bashing teacher's unions -- and why that is about as counter to Democratic ideals as one could imagine. Today, his words are all the more true. Blaming educational problems on teacher unions is even more absurd when you consider that states like Texas have no teacher unions. Is Texas immune from student achievement challenges? Hardly. The larger question is a matter of leadership and employee relations. How does reducing teacher…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Remote Access

  • Subject Matter Networks

    The other day, I picked up a tweet from Mark Oehlert. He was at a conference and a speaker mentioned moving from "subject matter experts" to "subject matter networks." I was stuned for a moment thinking about the power that this idea has. This is, of course, in the simplest terms ...

  • Infringing Copyright

    I received an email from wikispaces today that read as follows: "Hi, We received a DMCA notice from Martin Treasure Director of TravelSmart Ltd (contact details below) indicating that a file hosted on your wiki infringes on his copyright. The file in question is located on this page: http://creativecities.wikispaces.com/Florence+Italy+-+Sara According to his claim, the ...

  • A Simple Thanks

    Disclaimer - this post has absolutely nothing to do with education. Three weeks ago I thought I had trouble. I was struggling in my class with a challenging class of 29 grade seven and eight kids. My house was upside down due to renovations we were doing and it seemed as ...

  • Calm Before the Storm

    When I was a kid growing up in Snow Lake, there were about 2 100 people here. Over the years (the last 5 or 6 especially), changing technology in mining, the globalization of the industry and falling base metal prices have all contributed to falling fortunes for the town. In the ...

  • Contstructing Knowledge

    I'm heading to Austin Texas in a few weeks to keynote Tech Forum Southwest. I was in Chicago for Tech Forum in April and truly enjoyed the format and the day that I was fortunate enough to spend there. Besides the fact that I'm expecting great conversations again and great ...
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Borderland

  • Alaskan Educators Discuss Common Core Standards

    Doug Noon
    16 Nov 2009 | 10:58 pm
    Although Alaska did not participate in the development of national education standards initiative, it seems that the professional community will have an opportunity to review the proposed standards and render an opinion according to the following message I just received from the Alaska EED: IMPORTANT COMMITTEE RECRUITMENT Common Core Standards Comparison Purpose: ▪ Compare and contrast Alaska Performance Standards and Grade Level Expectations (GLEs) with Common Core of Academic Standards developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

  • This Machine Kills Fascists

    Doug Noon
    30 Oct 2009 | 1:29 am
    “A CRISIS is tearing through the American public education system like a tornado,” writes John Green, a member of the California Teachers Association State Council. “It threatens to uproot and overturn everything in its path.” He asks where the California Teachers Association is while teachers face budget cuts, high-stakes testing, the shredding of collective bargaining agreements, more and more charter schools, and pay-for-performance schemes. He sees his union cutting deals with politicians and paying lip service to effective collective action. It’s a worsening…

  • Terra Nullius

    Doug Noon
    28 Oct 2009 | 12:56 am
    It’s an old story: If anything, the stories of corruption and incompetence serve to mask this deeper scandal: the rise of a predatory form of disaster capitalism that uses the desperation and fear created by catastrophe to engage in radical social and economic engineering. And on this front, the reconstruction industry works so quickly and efficiently that the privatizations and land grabs are usually locked in before the local population knows what hit them – Naomi Klein (2005). The at-risk “local population,” I’m most familiar with would be teachers, school…

  • Owning the Change Process

    Doug Noon
    20 Oct 2009 | 12:35 am
    Today was a professional development day, and as these things go, it wasn’t bad. One thing that helped, I suspect, is that the school district curriculum department piggy-backed onto the Alaska State Literacy Association 2009 conference, so we were able to take advantage of some fresh ideas that weren’t part of the local institutional orthodoxy. The keynote was delivered by IRA president, Katherine Au. According to her philosophy statement on the IRA site, she believes that teacher expertise is more important than programs for sustaining student success. Her talk today addressed a…

  • K’naan

    Doug Noon
    1 Oct 2009 | 10:23 pm
    K’naan is from Mogadishu, Somalia. His family moved to New York in 1991 to escape the Somali civil war, and then later, to Toronto, Ontario. His aunt, Magool, was one of Somalia’s most famous singers. His grandfather, Haji Mohamed, was a poet. K’naan means “traveller” in the Somali language. I heard his song, Wavin’ Flag, today on Democracy Now, and I wanted to learn more about him. He did an interview with Amy Goodman back in August, in which he talked about his music and his country. He performed some of his songs in Democracy Now’s Firehouse…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Drape's Takes

  • Those Content To Lurk

    Darren Draper
    14 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am
    I've added a comment to my recent post about online participation (or lack thereof) that deserves a little focus time on the stage:Upon thinking further about this topic, I've decided to add a few important words to my second category of educator. Originally it read:2. Those content to lurk but still hesitant to contribute.I've edited it to read:2. Those content to lurk but still hesitant (or unable, for whatever reason) to contribute.The fact of the matter is that there exist a very large number of effective educators that are simply not able to contribute in any significantly recurrent…

  • Smart Rooms

    Darren Draper
    11 Nov 2009 | 8:53 pm
    Dave Weinberger was right: The smartest person in the room, IS the room.

  • Librarians: The Three Types I Still See

    Darren Draper
    10 Nov 2009 | 5:04 pm
    One week later, and I'll admit: I'm concerned.Scott McCleod has posted a list of ten incredibly important and equally complex questions about books, libraries, librarians, and schools.Doug Johnson has begun to react to Scott's questions, by stepping back as a (very good) librarian himself and challenging his peers to step up to the plate....how we respond to folks like Scott says a lot about us. Can we explain our values and mission and realities without sounding defensive, self-serving or reactionary? Read the responses to Scott's post, put on your classroom teacher, principal, or parent hat…

  • Why I Share

    Darren Draper
    20 Jul 2009 | 6:59 pm
    David Wiley:For me, for my students, and for the informal students who looked in on or participated in the course outside my university, this “open teaching” was better than a two-for-one. It was a thousand-for-one. When the costs of “open teaching” (freely allowing people outside the university to view course materials and informally participate in the course) are so low, I ask myself a question. Do we professors, who live rather privileged lives relative to the vast majority of the planet’s population, have a moral obligation to make our teaching efforts as broadly impactful as…

  • Formally Learning Informally

    Darren Draper
    27 Jun 2009 | 7:15 pm
    We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birth of a new world is at hand.Thomas Paine, February 14, 1776In reflecting over today's version of EduBloggerCon, I'm struck by how important informal learning is to the educational experience of people - regardless of age, race, and socioeconomic status. Strange that it took an EduBloggerCon to help me see it.Nonetheless, today's didactic experience - for me - was a very good one (and it wasn't because of the "sessions"). Rather, the…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Blue Skunk Blog

  • Be it ever so humble...

    Doug Johnson
    19 Nov 2009 | 4:22 am
    As usual, I woke up this morning at 2:30. It's my best worrying time. For the past four weeks or so, I've spent these dark hours staring at the ceiling and thinking about: Revising workshops and presentations and maximizing school visits. How to minimize the risk of delayed or cancelled flights. If I packed enough clean underwear and socks. How best to support the folks in my district when I am gone. What to do if I caught H1N1. And experiencing flitting general nervousness about zombies, the IRS, and my third grade teacher. This morning I fell back to sleep rather quickly since my worry list…

  • "You no longer have a choice" Guest post: Mary Mehsikomer

    Doug Johnson
    16 Nov 2009 | 9:19 pm
    My friend and colleague, Mary Mehsikomer, a "recovering" state department of education worker and now gainfully employed as a telecommunications cluster director, sent this thoughtful response to "Wherre are the others?" She kindly agreed to let it me use it as a guest post. I was in a workshop a few years ago where a trainer was working with a group of teachers and showing all the wonderful things that can be done with Google Earth and other online tools to make learning more engaging for students. One of the teachers said, with no small amount of exasperation in her voice, "look, I have two…

  • Who owns your lesson plans?

    Doug Johnson
    16 Nov 2009 | 12:05 pm
    In the NYTimes article, "Selling Lessons Online Raises Cash and Questions," Winnie Hu details a niche market I'd not thought much about. (Thanks to Ernie Cox on AASLForum for the pointer to this.) Have you as a great teacher created a great lesson plan or teaching materials? Sell them online to other teachers. I am not quite sure how to feel about this. Our profession seems to be one that shares freely and openly by nature, but has no qualms about buying text books or other teaching resources from commercial vendors. It's easy to say that those materials created during one's off-hours should…

  • Warsaw impressions

    Doug Johnson
    15 Nov 2009 | 9:37 pm
    The guide pointed out these now sealed holes in Lubomirski's bathing pavilion, a lovely 17th century building in Warsaw's Lazienki Park, during the first stop of the tour and asked why they were there. Flag poles? Something from an earlier structure? No. They were holes for dynamite charges placed by Nazi's at the end of WWII meant to completely destroy the building. While they didn't get the chance to set these charges, the Germans did destroy 85% of the buildings in this city and kill over 50% of its civilian population. Building in Wilanow Palace gardens You wouldn't know that 60 years…

  • Scott Adams's questions

    Doug Johnson
    12 Nov 2009 | 8:54 pm
    Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams writes an insightful and humorous eponymous blog. After a day of making decisions with only part of the information he felt he needed, he recently asked, "How do you make descisions with incomplete knowledge?" It made me reflect on all of the little rules one develops over the years for handling decisions without the benefit of sufficient data. You always start with the easy questions, such as... What do the experts say you should do? How much experience do the experts have with this question? Does the expert have a conflict of interest? What's the worst thing…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    open thinking

  • Halloween Lesson

    Alec
    30 Oct 2009 | 9:06 pm
    This is a great example of a teacher using technology to have some fun with his students in his pre-Halloween class. It was made for a Nature of Math class at Biola University by Matthew Weathers, October 28, 2009. Great job, Matthew. Plurk This Post Delicious Digg This Post Reddit

  • Open Internet

    Alec
    25 Oct 2009 | 3:58 pm
    Net neutrality is one of the biggest issues that faces a free and democratic (knowledge) society. Here is a new video that details some of what is at stake. Plurk This Post Delicious Digg This Post Reddit

  • Roots of Connectivism – Siemens

    Alec
    2 Oct 2009 | 12:36 pm
    George Siemens presented “Roots of Connectivism” to our EC&I 831 group on September 29, 2009. George provided a basic understanding of various theories of knowledge & learning (e.g., behaviorism, cognitivism, social constructivism, constructionism, neuroscience) as he led us toward a theory of connectivism. I warned my students beforehand that the presentation would be theoretically heavy, and our presenter (no surprise) provided us with the challenge of (re)thinking of our assumptions on learning. As an aside, a tweet from one of the participants summed up what I have…

  • Pursuing the Elusive Metaphor of Community – Schwier

    Alec
    1 Oct 2009 | 6:59 pm
    Dr. Richard Schwier was our guest in my open course, EC&I 831, on September 22, 2009. Rick’s presentation, similar to the talk that he gave at Ed-Media in Honolulu this past June, raised some incredibly important questions regarding the role of informal learning as it pertains to those teaching (and learning) in K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. And if you’ve never seen Rick present, you certainly owe it to yourself to do so. He has been a great teacher, mentor, and friend to me, and I learn something new with him every time we connect. Greater detail of the…

  • Know Your Meme: David After Dentist Revisited

    Alec
    5 Sep 2009 | 1:34 pm
    Last February, I blogged about the Internet meme “David After the Dentist” and tried to frame the video in the context of media literacy and digital identity. Almost 6 months and 30 millions views later, Rocketboom has put together a short but detailed history of the meme that includes a description of its origin through “user error”, an overview of remixes and parodies, ties to the culture of childhood fame/ridicule, monetization of the meme, and David’s personal story. The short video is worth watching, and I do believe it is important that we better understand…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Kate Says

  • Young Adult and Content Lit

    Kate Olson
    11 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Not only am I doing YA Lit this semester, but I’m doing my second round of Content Lit as well – can’t have too much of that, right? Hmmmm. Anyway, feel free to dig through my Delicious links for YA Lit and Content Lit – all kinds of good stuff there. All you need is a little/lot of time to peruse! Enjoy……..

  • Booktalk: Perfect (Natasha Friend)

    Kate Olson
    10 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Title: Perfect Author: Natasha Friend Publisher: Scholastic Date published: September 2006 Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction Grade level: 6-12 Booktalker: Kate Olson Friend, N. (2004) Perfect. New York: Scholastic. Background note about the author/selection (Script for introduction to booktalk): Many teenagers deal with the issues that Isabelle struggles with in Perfect – body image, eating disorders, friendships, and grief. While there is no perfect solution for teenagers dealing with these issues, there is one thing that can truly help – talking to a trusted adult. That is brought…

  • Book Review: Worst Case Survival – Middle School

    Kate Olson
    9 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Borgenicht, D., Winters, B. H., & Epstein, R. (2009). The worst-case scenario survival handbook: Middle school. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. Title:  The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Middle School Author:  David Borgenicht, Ben H. Winters, Robin Epstein Publisher:  Chronicle Books Copyright date:  2009 Age/grade recommended:  6th – 8th grades I bought this book to have in my middle school classroom and as I read it for my young adult lit class, I realized how perfect it would be for a guidance friendship unit or for a morning meeting kind of environment. Of course, what…

  • Book Review: Math Dictionary for Kids (Theresa Fitzgerald)

    Kate Olson
    8 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Fitzgerald, T. (2007). Math dictionary for kids. Waco: Prufrock Press. Title:  Math Dictionary for Kids Author:  Theresa R. Fitzgerald Publisher:  Prufrock Press Copyright date:  2006 The Math Dictionary for Kids is a great resource for students. It states on the cover that it is for grades 4-9, but I use it quite a bit even in adulthood! Not only does it have definitions and examples, but it has step-by-step instructions for doing many different types of math problems. I would love to see students get this book upon entering 6th grade to have as a required resource for use during middle…

  • Book Review: The Luxe (Anna Godbersen)

    Kate Olson
    6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Godbersen, A. (2007). The Luxe. New York: Harper Collins. Anna Godbersen has created a very enticing and addicting “teen” series – The Luxe. The books are set  in turn-of-the-century Manhattan in the center of high society. The series starts out with the book The Luxe, which begins the drama-filled saga of the Holland sisters and friends, along with the sisters’ lovers. Diana and Elizabeth Holland are at the peak of society, enjoying all of the luxuries that accompany this place of stature. However, in addition to luxuries come social responsibilities and formalities. These…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Bud the Teacher

  • Digital Is. Or Isn’t. Or Always (Never?) Was. Or Not.

    bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)
    18 Nov 2009 | 8:59 pm
    I spent today engaged in some work with the National Writing Project and several of their thinking partners at the Digital Is . . . Convening event, a day of structured thinking and looking and conversation about what it means to write and teach writing at a time of such profound technological change in the world and, perhaps, our schools.  It was a classic NWP event, in the sense that there was a good collection of really smart folks present as well as thoughtful processes and protocols to help us have productive conversation and inquiry time. What follows are a collection of the thoughts…

  • The Week in Tweets for 2009-11-15

    bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)
    15 Nov 2009 | 9:15 pm
    @johrt Good idea. How's Friday look for lunch? I'm available most of the day. in reply to johrt # A nice surprise was waiting for me when I got to work this morning. Thanks, @hickstro. Looking forward to it. http://twitpic.com/ovuor # @brueckj23 Build the subgroups as calendars and attach/subscribe them to the master, perhaps? in reply to brueckj23 # @hickstro Think we should? Tomorrow and Wednesday are very flexible. in reply to hickstro # RT @BadAstronomer: "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." #CarlSagan, 1934 – 1996 # So. Yeah. That was Monday.

  • Superheroes

    bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)
    11 Nov 2009 | 5:18 pm
    Ani reminded me tonight, as we were driving to an event, that today was November 11th. She’s been working on her calendar at preschool. “Veterans Day,” I told her. “Do you know what that means?” “Yeah.” She answered without hesitation from the back seat of the dark car. “It’s the day for when superheroes save our city.” I let that sit for a moment. Not quite. But as I thought about it, and the fact that she’s four, I couldn’t bring myself to correct her. There will be time later for deeper conversations, for more…

  • The Week in Tweets for 2009-11-08

    bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)
    8 Nov 2009 | 9:15 pm
    @wbass3 Likewise. in reply to wbass3 # T-Minus Two days until DLC. Deep breath. # @techsavvyed Digital Learning Collaborative. Although I like yours, too. in reply to techsavvyed # I'd like to talk to the folks who made it dark this early. Soon. # RT @Franki22: RT @buffyjhamilton: Brilliant post: "Robbing Students and Teachers of Joy" by Dean Shareski: http://bit.ly/5n1rY (Yes.-Bud) # @beverson I like driving to work in the dark. It's the driving home that's horrible. And you're welcome. Glad that worked. in reply to beverson # Some meetings look more fun than…

  • The Week in Tweets for 2009-11-01

    bud@budtheteacher.com (Bud Hunt bud@budtheteacher.com)
    1 Nov 2009 | 9:15 pm
    Orange glow behind us lighting up the fresh white snow on the mountains in front of us. # At the doctor's. Time for a physical. There is a gown on the table. Uh oh. # Looks like I'm good for another 30,000 miles. # RT @cshirky: "IT doesnt typically help forge new acquaintances; it mostly helps communicate with existing ones." http://bit.ly/zceII # @vgloucester I always try to tie new accounts to existing authentication services. More accounts, same credentials. in reply to vgloucester # @robwall That's because it is. in reply to robwall # Reviewing DLC applications with…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    A Millennial Professor's View of Higher Education

  • "Technology in Action" - Tweeting During a Conference Session

    Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
    17 Nov 2009 | 11:54 am
    Today, I discovered that "technology was in action" at the National Communication Association Conference in Chicago, IL. There is a VIDEO, an ARTICLE, and a picture from our session on data gathering using new technologies.Here's our interview after the session:Here's our Twit Pic during the session:Here is the article from the session - "How to Collect Data in the 21st Century?"Quite interesting! People were sending tweets during a conference session and other people came to the session because of the tweets they received!  J. Edwards (Millennial Professor)

  • National Communication Association Annual Convention - Nov. 11th - 15th (My Sessions)

    Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
    16 Nov 2009 | 6:19 pm
    I am EXHAUSTED! I attended the National Communication Association Annual Convention in Chicago, IL and presented FOUR sessions! Here are the titles of my presentations:Service Learning Discussion Circles Turns 10: Celebrate Service-Learning in CommunicationClassroomsBuilding: Hilton Chicago, Room: International Ballroom North*Selected Person: Jennifer EdwardsPresenter on Individual Submission: Peer-to-Peer Mentoring in an Interpersonal Communication ClassroomG.I.F.T.S. Session I (Great Ideas for Teaching Speech)Building: Hilton Chicago, Room: International Ballroom North*Selected Person:…

  • "10 Ways Colleges Can Work With Their Communities"

    Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
    9 Nov 2009 | 7:39 am
    Today, I finally had a chance to sort through my pile of articles from Chronicle of Higher Education. One article I saved is titled, "10 Ways Colleges Can Work With Their Communities" (Sarkisian & Taylor, 2009, p. A28). This article focuses on how higher education institutions can build a relationship with their surrounding communities through service learning initiatives. Here is the list from the article:Form partnerships with local non-profit organizations that share its institutional mission and vision.Offer campus spaces for community use.Adopt a public-school district.Adopt a local…

  • The After the Degree, Now What?" Conference - Our Fall 2009 Service-Learning Event

    Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
    21 Oct 2009 | 3:25 pm
    I am so proud of my students! Recently, my wonderful students sponsored a service learning event titled, The "After the Degree, Now What?" Conference. The idea for this conference was conceived last summer when I read a wealth of articles pertaining to the amount of Texans with four-year degrees that were facing layoffs. In addition, since I teach undergraduate students, I was very concerned with our students gaining employment (that they are passionate about) after graduating from our university in next few months. Then, I contacted another professor in the Communication Department and the…

  • Welcome Back! Millennial Professor is Back for the FA 09 Semester!

    Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
    19 Sep 2009 | 1:55 pm
    Hello Everyone!I admit, I have been hiding under a rock for the past couple of months. This past spring, I received a faculty research grant that funded my research during the Summer II semester. Thankfully, I was VERY productive this summer. Not only did I gather research from African American college students, but I also co-authored two publications with a colleague at Southern University at New Orleans. I hope and pray that our publications will be chosen for publication in the next few months.Aside from publishing, we had some wonderful travel plans this summer. During our adventures, I…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Learning In a Flat World

  • What Walls Need Tearing Down?

    Britt
    9 Nov 2009 | 2:38 pm
    Michael Bugeja’s opinion piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Reduce the Technology, Rescue Your Job,” struck a nerve today.  He started by noting that for “most of this decade, professors embraced the pedagogy of engagement, wooing students via technology and ignoring the costs because traditional methods, from textbooks to lectures, purportedly bored students who multitasked in the wireless classroom.”  He then noted the massive cuts occurring across higher education, and suggested that these “facts alone merit an immediate technological and…

  • Faculty Resource Guide for Online Teaching

    Britt
    3 Nov 2009 | 10:45 am
    This week, we launched a project that has been in development for the past five months.  The past few years have seen significant growth in the development of online learning in both K-12 and higher education settings. With an estimated four million college students taking at least one online course this year, and forty-four states (including Virginia) now having significant online programs in their K-12 systems, many university faculty are beginning to explore the use of online instruction in their programs and courses. In response to this growing trend and VCU faculty interest, I worked…

  • Faculty Development in An Open World

    Britt
    28 Oct 2009 | 12:38 pm
    I just finished reading Curtis J. Bonk’s new book, The World is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education. In the spirit of full disclosure, I will tell you that Wiley, the publisher, emailed me after I reviewed Dan Willingham’s book in a previous post and asked if they could send me Bonk’s book for possible review (with no strings attached). I said yes and the next week received a copy of this book at no charge. With that said, this book has resonated with me and I found Bonk’s approach interesting. In many ways, Bonk is as much a fan boy of Thomas…

  • Who Blogs Anymore?

    Britt
    18 Oct 2009 | 10:10 am
    Apparently not me.  When I started blogging two years ago, I was averaging three posts a week.  Now I am down to one a month for the past few months. Luckily, there are those who do blog, as my Google Reader affirms daily!  I still enjoy reading blogs, but I have fallen out of the habit of routinely commenting and blogging myself. A few weeks back, I finished reading a fascinating book by Scott Rosenberg called Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters.  Having spent the past decade growing up with the internet, I found this book timely and full of…

  • Knee 2.0

    Britt
    14 Oct 2009 | 12:16 pm
    I have not posted for quite a while, with the primary reason being an upgrade of my old body.  My colleague Jeff Nugent termed my pending knee replacement as an upgrade to Knee 2.0, which seemed very appropriate. So a little over two weeks ago, the good team at West End Orthopaedic retooled me with titanium parts.  I have been recovering a home for the past 14 days, and see new improvements each day.  It was definitely time for the upgrade! It has also given me some time to think and ponder the retooling that education is undergoing! If you did not catch it earlier this month, Lisa Lane…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Once Upon a School

  • #266 UC Berkeley Anatomy Enrichment Program for Local Elementary Schools

    T Chinn
    Our planUC Berkeley's Dr Marian Diamond has directed the Anatomy Enrichment program for over 30 years. Students who have earned an A or B in the department's Human Anatomy class (IB 131) can sign up for the Anatomy Enrichment Program (IB 133) to teach a unit on Human Anatomy to Elementary School Students. Small teams of students (2-4) develop a 50 minute lecture and activity focused on introducing basic anatomy concepts to 3rd and 4th grade students. This program introduces anatomy concepts to elementary school students in a fun, interactive and enriching way so students get early exposure to…

  • #265 Build Community by Organizing 5th grade Graduation Dance

    Vicki Simon
    Our planA group of parents stepped up to plan a celebration of the moving on of the 5th grade students from elementary school into middle school. With the severe restriction of budget cuts in the 08/09 school year, and lots of teachers being let go because of it, resources were scarce for this community building activity. Three parents got together and planned a "Black and White Ball with a twist".What we didThree parents (Vicki, Sunny, and Maya) found and rented space, organized volunteers to bring black and white themed food and decorations, hired a dj, designed and distributed…

  • #264 The Learning Adventure

    Joe Betts-LaCroix
    Our planChallenge: to meet the writing-education needs of young, highly intellectually gifted kids, whose executive functioning skills typically lag their comprehension abilities. The idea was to incorporate writing education into a framework that the kids were already passionate about: role playing games (RPGs). We got involved because our son fit this category, and we knew others could benefit as well.What we didThrough Linda Silverman, founder of the Gifted Development Center, in Denver Colorado, with which we have had much contact in meeting the need of our son, we learned of a project…

  • #262 From Garden to Plate: Bringing Healthy Eating Habits into Public Schools

    Lindsay Meyer
    Our planAs a volunteer at the Community Health Resource Center ("CHRC") in San Francisco, I've been able to get involved in the various projects that this mission-minded non-profit organization undertakes. Between 2007 and 2008, Tule Elk Park Child Development Center worked with garden educators and nutritionists to develop a classroom curriculum to teach pre-K through elementary age students about nutrition, the environment, and ecological stewardship.What we didAs a small part of a big engine and pre-existing partnerships with with non-profit organizations and philanthropic…

  • #261 MEDIAWORKS: Mentoring Youth the Audio Visual Arts

    Peter Streicher
    Our planI had been volunteering at Goodman Community Center in a design and screen printing program called Mess Hall Press for a number of years. I had just finished my first music video and film when it occurred to me to create a creative youth based audio visual program that would mentor kids in the creative communication professions. It was serendipitous that Becky Steinhoff, Executive Director of Goodman Community Center, had plans to create a media program but didn't have the means to make it happen. What we didI put together a corps of media professionals and together we created…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    HeyJude

  • gr8 lol ~ Great Libraries of Learning

    Judy O'Connell
    8 Nov 2009 | 9:54 pm
    Support for school libraries in Far North Queensland is gr8!  The team at the Far North Queensland FNQ Learning Development Centre – ICT, have put together a fabulous brochure promoting change and essential development to ensure quality school libraries.  They have allowed me to embed the document here, so that you can download a copy for your own school district.   There is also a gr8 lol::Great Libraries for Learning wiki to support the document – making it easy to cross-reference within your own online sites. It’s pretty nice to be quoted in this brochure View this…

  • Mobile Visual Search

    Judy O'Connell
    1 Nov 2009 | 6:29 pm
    Mobile visual search signals a very interesting shift in product marketing. Perhaps this is also a introducing a significant shift in information search  for students too? Right now we can ask:  What is the object? Where can I get it? What it is useful for?  What do others say about it? Does it help me understand (something I’m learning about )  a little better? In the future? more about “Mobile Visual Search“, posted with vodpod   Posted in Digital Media, Search

  • Personal Learning Network – want one?

    Judy O'Connell
    29 Oct 2009 | 1:59 am
    Convince your key stakeholders  of the importance of a Personal Learning Network – with the help of this excellent presentation (videos included)!!   Great work from  Mark Woolley! Posted in Australia, Personal Learning Network Tagged: PLN

  • Sending documents to Your International Kindle

    Judy O'Connell
    28 Oct 2009 | 3:21 am
    The Kindle 2 has a number of cool features that you need to get the hang of to maximize the value of your purchase.  Since I’ve played with my Kindle for nearly a whole week now – I’ve been asked to pass on information about basic document management. Documents to your Kindle Go to Your Account in the top right hand corner of Amazon. Once there, scroll down till you find the Manage Your Kindle Link Click on that link, and sign into your account. This Account Page is an important one for managing lots of things, but for now we’ll just focus on how to set up the email…

  • Kindle-ing discussion about learning

    Judy O'Connell
    25 Oct 2009 | 11:57 pm
    Lots of people have asked for a post about my first reactions to the Kindle.  I started writing this up, but found what I needed to say for people new to the Kindle was rather long -   so here are my first few day’s evalution rolled into a scribd document  ready to print and share with others. View this document on Scribd Posted in Australia, eBook Readers Tagged: Kindle
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Top School Fundraisers

  • 8 Tips from an Experienced School Carnival Organizer

    Jim Berigan
    10 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am
    Recently, I had a wonderful conversation with Barbara Rypkema, who is the organizer of the PTO Carnival for the Tomahawk Elementary School in Lynchburg, Virginia. We spoke for over an hour, and I learned a great deal from her. Below, I have listed eight of the best tips she shared with me for running a carnival that makes a lot of money. If you would like to see an excellent example of a website set up just for a school carnival, check out their site here. Here are a few of the ideas I picked up from our interview: 1. Use older students in the school to promote the carnival to younger…

  • How to boost the sales of your cookie dough fundraiser sale

    Angela Costas
    8 Oct 2009 | 8:15 am
    Let your sellers and supporters know ahead of time about the sale. Make sure they know how much their support is appreciated. Create specific goals for the fundraiser. How much money needs to be raised? How many tubs per person will need to be sold to reach this goal? Set a reasonable time limit for getting all the orders in from participants. Offer prizes for participants who sell the minimum amount. Create a “challenge” to motivate your sellers. Take the catalogs to work. If your organization is short the minimum order, the group can fund the difference and sell them later. Use…

  • Discounted Magazine Subscriptions as a Fundraiser

    Angela Costas
    5 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am
    Offer discounted magazine subscriptions to people who would like to support your school or other group. Parents, families and students just go online to order their favorite magazines and 40% goes to the school. These magazines are all offered at discounted prices – up to 95% off newsstand prices – so it’s a great deal for everyone. Parents or students simply enter email addresses of friends and family into the online system.  A personalized email is then automatically sent out inviting them to order magazines through your group’s customized website. The magazine…

  • 5 Reasons Why a Golf Tournament Can Benefit your School

    Jim Berigan
    28 Sep 2009 | 8:38 am
    Many nonprofit organizations host golf tournaments to raise funds, but it’s not as common with public or even private schools.  Why?  A golf tournament can be a significant fundraiser for your school so I would strongly recommend considering one. Here are five really good reasons to consider hosting a golf event, or partnering with another organization to plan a golf outing. 1. The Earning Potential is High The first reason your school should have a golf outing is that these events are money makers, if they are done right. Here’s a list of eleven ways you can earn money at a…

  • School Halloween Carnival Game Ideas

    Angela Costas
    10 Sep 2009 | 12:14 pm
    When planning a school Halloween carnival it’s important to include lots of fun games for the kids to play. Playing games, competitions and winning prizes make the event so much fun for the students. Many times each grade or class will have their own game booth. The game idea that your group picks should be age appropriate. There are a wide variety of game ideas that are good for each age level. There are some games that students will expect to see each year, such as the bean bag toss. Be sure to include the most popular games that your school carnival had last year. Students also like…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    the Sam Jackson College Experience

  • Pollution in China: Quick Follow-up, 1 photo tells all

    Sam Jackson
    8 Nov 2009 | 10:56 pm
    So, I’ve felt pretty awful the last week, and the ‘weather’ — or, more accurately, the pollution — has been part of the problem. Twitter’s @BeijingAir has been a constantly depressing reminder, nearly always showing “Hazardous” or at best, “Unhealthy” in the last week. Why has it been so bad? Well, because of a specific weather pattern that has trapped pollution, one that is especially perilous in the winter when people start to burn coal to stay warm. A picture’s worth a thousand words here, thanks to NASA: This photo…

  • Dispatches from the Orient, vol 3: Pollution in Beijing and China

    Sam Jackson
    2 Nov 2009 | 4:38 am
    The issue of pollution in China is a very great one, and not a matter than can easily be summed up in one blog post, no matter how exhaustive. However, after several rain and then snowstorms over the weekend, the air quality today is so nice, and the scenery so beautiful as a result, that I just had to stop delaying and start writing a little bit about it. Today the air quality in Beijing, as measured by the US State Department monitoring station at the US Embassy, is at one of its best levels I have ever noticed in my following the reported figures. In fact, at this very moment, the current…

  • I’m no longer a teenager…

    Sam Jackson
    31 Oct 2009 | 10:17 pm
    That’s right, as of October 31st, 2009, I’m 20 years old. Very scary. The question remains as to when this birthday actually happened — was it on Beijing time, where I am at the time, or did it not happen until my birth-timezone, 12 hours behind? Then, do I count the day, or the hour? (A little after 5 o clock). Either way, by now what’s done is done, and two decades have elapsed. If you like to send me presents, cash, internships or other gifts, please either say so in the comments or contact me through the contact form; otherwise, I do have some presents to give out…

  • More about Yunnan Province (brief addendum)

    Sam Jackson
    27 Oct 2009 | 10:14 pm
    I just wanted to share this little slideshow from the New York Times about Heshun, which has been rated in the past the “most charmful village in China.” It’s definitely very charmful, though the NYT slideshow does not do it justice. Still, it’s fun to see the Times validate the charm of someplace that we visited during ourtrip to Yunnan. Click here for the slideshow [photos: Ariana Lindquist for The New York Times] Here are some of my own photos from Heshun: Waterway around Heshun village Public swimming hole next to a village temple sunset over the rice fields…

  • Shortest Scholarship App Ever: The Twitter 140 Scholarship

    Sam Jackson
    26 Oct 2009 | 9:20 am
    The wonderful* people at www.collegescholarships.org have set up an interesting scholarship that I just have to share. The Twitter 140 Scholarship is short and sweet: All you need to do, in 140 characters or less, is write a Tweet highlighting how we can use Twitter to improve the world. Here’s my application: I did put a fair amount of thought into it, but one can only worry so much about something when you’ve only invested 140 characters in it. (In my case, I believe, 139.) Now, what exactly is the motivation for completing this scholarship? Let us count the ways: Since Twitter…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    UT: THE EYES OF TFA ARE UPON YOU!

  • UTMB FACULTY SENATE OCTOBER MINUTES

    George Reamy
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:39 am
    Image via WikipediaThe UTMB Faculty Senate met on October 12th and has posted its minutes.  The minutes are more remarkable for what they don't say than what they do.  First, Provost Garland Anderson, the mastermind of the RIF and RIF appeals processes, the processes that utterly cut faculty out of any input whatsoever, made a statement that UTMB officials had spoken with the AAUP about the RIF, a fact blog readers know well.  Here's the sum total of what the minutes say:Dr. Anderson reported that he met with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)…

  • NEAR-RIOT ERUPTS OVER YUDOF'S 32% STUDENT FEE HIKE AT UC

    George Reamy
    19 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pm
    When one doesn't involve stakeholders, this is the sort of thing that can happen.  This video reports that 14 students were arrested, and one was tasered.  Note the student chant toward the end of the video: "Whose university? Our university!" These poor kids still think "public" means public.  Click on the highlighted text to view this YouTube video. 

  • UNIV. OF CA FACULTY ASKED TO GIVE UP STIPENDS

    George Reamy
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:50 am
    Is asking faculty to give up freshman seminar teaching stipends unreasonable? The Blogmeister doesn't particularly know.  I think it is unreasonable IF UC Davis' administrators aren't making proportional personal, monetary sacrifices, as well.  The general shouldn't be eating steak while his troops slowly starve.  It's called leadership. (As we all recall, UTMB administrators took no salary cuts during the recent 3,000-person reduction-in-force after Hurricane Ike.)HigherEdMorning.com » Blog Archive » Where do professors draw the line?The faculty at one…

  • CNN COVERING UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA PROTESTS

    George Reamy
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:38 am
    Image by EvenLee via FlickrNope, there's nothing like importing that autocratic, Texas-style leadership to get Californians stirred up.  This time, students, staff, and faculty have taken to the street to protest a 32% fee hike.  A faculty member also reels out a long list of other UC arbitrary actions. The Blogmeister's fav quote: "This is a public university; it's supposed to represent the public." Yeah, we have the same problem in Texas. It's the legacy of former UT Chancellor and current head of UC, Mark Yudof. I see he's hard at work on his…

  • UT WRITES AG ABOUT TFA ER CONTRACT INFO REQUEST

    George Reamy
    18 Nov 2009 | 8:49 am
    Back on the 15th, the Blogmeister posted what documentation he had concerning administrators trying to shield the UTMB Emergency Room contract from public view. UTMB said it was appealing.  Then, I said that UT was likely "quarterbacking every play."  Gee willikers.  It looks like the ol' Blogmeister was right.  Open the link below to view a November 16, 2009, letter from the UT System telling the Attorney General what UTMB thinks.  Download Chatterjee-Abbott Appeal 091116Now, let's all recall that part and parcel of UT's argument that…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    FactCheckED.org

  • Term Of The Week: Xenophobia

    19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm
    Xenophobia is an intense fear of foreigners. The word combines the prefix "xeno-", which means “foreigner” or “other,” and "phobia," which means “fear, horror or strong dislike.”  Xenophobia is a term that has surfaced in policy debates over revamping the nation’s immigration laws.

  • New Lesson: Oil Exaggerations

    19 Aug 2009 | 2:05 am
    Ever notice how political speeches and ads always mention “the worst,” “the best,” “the largest,” “the most”? It’s effective to use superlatives, but it isn’t always accurate. For instance, President Barack Obama has said that “we import more oil today than ever before” – but do we? How can you find out? What do the numbers really mean? And why would he say it if it wasn’t true? In this lesson, students will weigh Obama’s superlative claim against the facts.

  • Topical Lesson: Oil Exaggerations

    19 Aug 2009 | 2:05 am
    Ever notice how political speeches and ads always mention “the worst,” “the best,” “the largest,” “the most”? It’s effective to use superlatives, but it isn’t always accurate. For instance, President Barack Obama has said that “we import more oil today than ever before” – but do we? How can you find out? What do the numbers really mean? And why would he say it if it wasn’t true? In this lesson, students will weigh Obama’s superlative claim against the facts.

  • New Lesson: Seeing is Believing

    21 Apr 2009 | 11:30 pm
    You’ve heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, but which words? What are the images we see daily – in magazines, on billboards, on TV – really trying to tell us? Pictures and other visual elements can pack a lot of rhetorical punch, enhancing verbal arguments or making arguments of their own. This lesson gives students some tools for unpacking visual rhetoric in advertising and politics.

  • New Lesson: Building a Better Argument

    24 Nov 2008 | 3:41 am
    Whether it’s an ad for burger chains, the closing scene of a “Law & Order” spinoff, a discussion with the parents about your social life or a coach disputing a close call, arguments are an inescapable part of our lives. In this lesson, students will learn to create good arguments by getting a handle on the basic structure. The lesson will provide useful tips for picking out premises and conclusions and for analyzing the effectiveness of arguments.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    CollegeBlender - Blogwire - Popular Posts

  • Your First Look [Mads Vassar Blog]

    CollegeBlender - College Social Media
    Here is your first look at the stage set-up for tonight's Search Party.Still very much a work in progress, but it looks good. Lots of lights.11.20.09 5:17pm

  • Rule #5-Never, ever, bang your roommate... [The Rules Of Life.. and When You Can Break Them]

    CollegeBlender - College Social Media
    ...unless he is only living with you for the summer.So before we get to the good stuff, I feel as though I should explain my roommate situation to you all.  I live with two other girls; they are my best friend from home, Lauren (who is very importan

  • Vampire Weekend : Cousins Video [The Musically Inclined]

    CollegeBlender - College Social Media
    Vampire Weekend released the video for their latest single, "Cousins," from their upcoming sophomore release, Contra. The feel of both the video and the song are definitely in the vein of "A-Punk," but I suppose that's forgivable. "Horchata" was pret

  • Out of State [Life at Antelope Valley College]

    CollegeBlender - College Social Media
    Most of the universities that I am applying to this year are out of state except for USC and Stanford. I'm still not sure if I want to apply to those two. These decisions are hard when the uni that I really want to go to is MIT. Picking out "what if"

  • #7: Grades [Across the Quad]

    CollegeBlender - College Social Media
    They control you and they control me. I remember a good time of my life (mostly high school) where I was chained to my grades. My grades were a reflection of who I was as a person, and more than that, the ultimate measure of my self-worth. If I got a
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    EQ Planet

  • Every Emotion has a Purpose

    josh@6seconds.org (Joshua Freedman)
    2 Nov 2009 | 6:34 pm
    Every Emotion has a Purpose is a basic tenet of Emotional Intelligence.  I thought of this today when I heard about  a study quoted on national news: “Bad moods can actually be good for you, with an Australian study finding that being sad makes people less gullible, improves their ability to judge others and also boosts memory.” Here’s another quote:  “…research suggests that sadness … promotes information processing strategies best suited to dealing with more demanding situations.” Good to know that my moods can provide some benefits at work! You…

  • Kids and Noble Goals

    josh@6seconds.org (Joshua Freedman)
    30 Oct 2009 | 11:49 pm
    Great experience w my kids discovering a way to make a difference - and how that connection to purpose created emotional transformation.  Wrote it up on family travel blog… http://redsuitcase.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/j-orangutan-heart/

  • Awareness = Intelligence?

    josh@6seconds.org (Joshua Freedman)
    20 Oct 2009 | 11:23 am
    I admit it’s a terrible habit - again sitting in a restaurant listening to the next table… but the guy was so loud I could hardly not!  Three people, “Joe” and 2 friends, Joe says he’s so glad to see them again and launches into a story.  Eventually says, “but I don’t want us to just talk about my stories…” and the proceeds to dominate the conversation for half an hour of virtually nonstop monologue.  Every once in a while the others manage to slip in a word but Joe grabs back the conversation.  It seems like Joe KNOWS he dominates and…

  • Too Much Positive, Caring Nonsense

    josh@6seconds.org (Joshua Freedman)
    16 Oct 2009 | 10:39 pm
    From NurtureShock to Bright-sided, there are several new “anti-feel-good” books coming out, and they seem to be striking a chord with the current state of the world — and they are SO right.  I mean enough of this talking about feelings. As Marge Simpson said (more or less), “take those negative feelings and push them down inside yourself until you’re standing on them!”  What we need is more cold-hearted, analytic critics in the world, and clearly there’s good money to be made selling books that say so.  Look, suppression has worked for generations…

  • You Have a Healing Power

    josh@6seconds.org (Joshua Freedman)
    16 Oct 2009 | 8:57 am
    You have a tremendous power to heal others. Listen to them. Without interrupting. Watch what happens!
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    TCRecord

  • The Routledge International Companion to Multicultural Education

    9 Nov 2009 | 11:27 am
    At the beginning of this century James Banks (2001) confronted the multifaceted challenge to incorporate international perspectives of multicultural education into a globally representative conception.  At that time Banks wrote, “My work on global identification and issues is incomplete and episodic…Global issues remain mostly an unrealized and hoped-for goal” (p. 14).  In regards to the second edition of the Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education (Banks & Banks, 2004), I had observed that international topics overall were generally limited (Vavrus, 2006).  In the same year…

  • The Case for Character Education: A Developmental Approach

    5 Nov 2009 | 8:01 am
    Alan Lockwood’s new book seeks to revamp character education as a valid approach to developing moral character in schools. He provides both a review and critique of two approaches to moral character education, values clarification and character education, and suggests improvements by integrating approaches from the past, Kohlberg’s moral reasoning development and Erikson’s identity development.  Although the book offers some helpful suggestions for converting character education into a more solid approach for forming moral character, Lockwood does not take advantage of…

  • Culturally Responsive Mathematics Education

    2 Nov 2009 | 11:55 am
    As I pondered the title of this admirable collection of essays, I could not help but ask the pertinent question at hand: What, exactly, is meant by (a) culturally responsive mathematics education? Decidedly, this is precisely the question addressed by each of the chapter authors, albeit in ways that are embedded in stories of identity, cultural artifacts, curriculum development, social justice, computer design, semiotics, the environment, and the historical, anthropological, and highly politicized perspectives on mathematics as socially and culturally constructed. I quickly discerned that…

  • Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools: Prevalent, Abusive, and Ineffective

    28 Sep 2009 | 12:45 pm
    Corporal punishment is abusive, ineffective, and violates international human rights law: it should be immediately abolished in the US. Corporal punishment violates children's right to freedom from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, and contributes to a hostile school environment in which students struggle to learn and succeed. Corporal punishment is abusive for all children, but it has particularly severe effects for students with disabilities. Not only is it ineffective in teaching them appropriate behaviors, it can cause lasting mental and physical injury, and it can make students…

  • Call for Proposals - NSSE Yearbooks to Join TCR

    20 Oct 2008 | 8:20 pm
    The editors of TCR announce a call for proposals for future volumes of the NSSE Yearbooks.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Facing History and Ourselves

  • Memphis-Area Parents and Students in Meaningful Dialogue at Facing History Teach-In

    maria
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:37 pm
    November 20, 2009 Parent Student ... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Free Speech for Nazis Limited in Germany

    ilana
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm
    November 20, 2009 Every year, thousands of neo-Nazis come together to march in the town of Wunsiedel in honor of Rudolf Hess, a convicted war criminal and deputy to Adolf Hitler.... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Choosing to Participate on WKYC, Cleveland

    eva
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:28 am
    Video details ... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • “Where I’m from?” Poems

    nicolez
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:39 pm
    Literacy Rationale:  “Who am I?” is a question on the minds of many adolescents. “Where I’m from” poems get beyond aspects of... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Online Discussion Forum

    nicolez
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:28 pm
    Technology Rationale:  Online discussions provide a way for students to communicate with students from other classrooms, and with... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    EdTechTalk

  • Parents as Partners Episode #31 November 16, 2009

    Lornacos
    16 Nov 2009 | 8:35 pm
    Tonight's session was the first in a series of brainstorms about a special project that would creating digital parent courses. Show hosts Matt Montagne and Lorna Costantini welcomed Justin Reeve, Colleen McGuire,  Penny Lindballe to the show. The purposeof this project is to ... 64:57 minutes (29.73 MB)read more

  • Jeff Utecht and Daneah with students from International School Bangkok: Operation Smile

    speters
    16 Nov 2009 | 6:30 pm
    Jeff Utecht and wife Daneah share their students from International School Bangkok with us for an evening of inspiration and hope as their students relate their experiences with a very special project: Operation Smile. Daneah and two of the students have created videos to capture the visit the students had with young patients who experienced facial reconstructive surgery in Thailand.   The Chat:   [18:23] <PeggyG> here we go!!! :-) [18:24] <PeggyG> WOW3 :-) [18:24] == kathym [i=4b452a2c@gateway/web/ 56:22 minutes (51.6 MB)read more

  • Week of November 7 - November 13, 2009

    pgeorge
    16 Nov 2009 | 9:36 am
    Welcome to this week's EdTechTalk (ETT) newsletter! This has been another great week of stimulating, thought-provoking, informative webcasts on EdTechTalk.read more

  • Teachers Teaching Teachers #175 - Looking Forward to the National Writing Project's Annual Meeting with 3 Presenters - 11.04.09

    Paul Allison
    15 Nov 2009 | 7:33 pm
    In connection with the National Writing Project's Annual Meeting, we invited a few teachers who will be presenting in Philadelphia to join us on this episode. Paul Oh, an associate with the NWP joined us as well. In addition, this same cast of characters will be joining us fora follow-up show after the Annual Meeting on December 2. This podcast, co-sponsored by the New York City Writing Project and the NWP Technology Liaisons Network, features: Robert Rivera-Amezola, Philadelphia Writing Project http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/nwp_amsession/1584 Joe Conroy, NWP at Rutgers University…

  • EdTechWeekly #143

    JenM
    15 Nov 2009 | 5:26 pm
    Without Dave ... John, Jeff, and Jen do their best with this week's edtech news and resources. Everyone misses Dave (boo hoo). EdTechWeekly #143 November 15, 2009 This Week's Delicious Links Chat Log Below 44:05 minutes (20.19 MB)read more
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

  • “Learning to Teach to Bridge the Achievement Gap”

    Larry Ferlazzo
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:13 pm
    Learning to Teach to Bridge the Achievement Gap is a nice article about strategies that a California school is using to assist its students learn.  It appeared today’s New York Times. But, as I note in a post I have at my other blog, Engaging Parents In Schools, I have a “bone to pick” with the headline wording. I believe it helps perpetuate a myth that most schools can indeed “bridge” the achievement gap. You might want to check out the post.

  • Mugurdy Search Engine

    Larry Ferlazzo
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:55 pm
    The Mugurdy Search Engine is a simple visual search engine that is very accessible to English Language Learners. Once you type in a query, search results are show with good size images of the actual websites. It reminds me of the old Page Bull visual search engine, which I rated highly two years ago but then went out of business. It doesn’t have any of the “bells and whistles” of my other highly-rated search engines, but I’m still adding it to The Best Search Engines For ESL/EFL Learners — 2009.

  • “Let’s Celebrate Thanksgiving”

    Larry Ferlazzo
    20 Nov 2009 | 4:59 am
    Let’s Celebrate Thanksgiving is a brand-new online activity by Renee Manfroid, whose main site is on The Best Websites For English Language Learner Students — 2009 list. I’ll be adding this new exercise to The Best Sites To Learn & Teach About Thanksgiving.

  • Ninth-Grade Challenges

    Larry Ferlazzo
    20 Nov 2009 | 4:56 am
    Our school places a heavy emphasis on working with our ninth-graders. As regular readers know, I teach a lot of students in that grade. Stuck in 9th Grade: The Bulge in the Education Pipeline is a report from Education Week which shares recent research showing why that kind of focus is just so important.

  • Best Pearl Harbor Day Resources

    Larry Ferlazzo
    19 Nov 2009 | 9:11 pm
    Just a reminder to readers that I’ve been continuing to update The Best Sites For Learning About Pearl Harbor that I published last year. You might find that list useful.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Millard Fillmore's Bathtub

  • Why more kids should study world history, harder

    Ed Darrell
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:33 pm
    Jon Taplin explains why knowing world history is valuable. The sad thing is that, of course, the story that makes his reason doesn’t appear in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills list for world history, nor in any other social studies course. Now that the Texas State Board of Education has taken off the cloak of education and made it clear that social studies in Texas is considered a political free-fire zone, and that they plan to vitiate anything but the propaganda value for the Republican Party, Taplin’s piece has all the more poignance. The Renaissance, and Florence, were…

  • A Jonathan Alter-cation: Teacher pay-for-performance? How about the same for pundits?

    Ed Darrell
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:35 am
    Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter likes charter schools, and often enough writes about them and his frustration that public schools and their teachers won’t roll over and play dead while charter schools steal money from them (my characterization, not Alter’s). At Public School Insights, Claus von Zastrow suggested that maybe pundits like Alter ought to be subject to having their pay docked when they screw up, too.  Then he went further, and specifically criticized a recent Alter column, point for point. A few comments down, who should show up to make his case, but Jonathan Alter.

  • Leonid meteor scattered showers

    Ed Darrell
    18 Nov 2009 | 8:21 am
    Meteors from the Leonid shower could have been good viewing — generally, as I predicted, it was not spectacular.  At least BBC said so. But if you can make the time, it’s almost always profitable — psychologically and spiritually — to look up at the sky. Some who did look up got great photographs of the not-spectacular views. "A fireball seems to shoot right through a house in Grafton, Ontario. Malcolm Park captured the image as he was setting up to photograph meteors on Monday night." (MSNBC caption) If this isn’t spectacular, can you imagine what…

  • Palin: Ignore the woman abusing the flag and look at those gams!

    Ed Darrell
    18 Nov 2009 | 5:10 am
    Newsweek features Sarah Palin on the cover this week, a couple of weeks after featuring Al Gore.  I thought the Gore cover was interesting, but could be interpreted to make him look sinister. Sexist? Or sac-patriotic? Palin, on the other hand, is featured in a full photo she posed for Runners World last year.  A flattering photo, it also features a U.S. flag, which we’ll get back to in a moment. Palin complains that the cover is “sexist.” Yahoo! News has the story, featuring Palin’s Facebook complaint. “The choice of photo for the cover of this week’s…

  • Brave 10-year-old Arkansas boy refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance, on principle

    Ed Darrell
    17 Nov 2009 | 3:43 pm
    Adults worry about peer pressure.  Kids can goad other kids into doing stupid things, dangerous things, illegal things, and immoral things. Pressure from adults on kids might be just as strong. What about a 10-year-old kid who stands up to peer pressure, and stands for principle against adults who use all sorts of inducements to get him to do something he believes is wrong? I offer a salute to Will Phillips of  West Fork School District, in Washington County, Arkansas. Will believes homosexuals in America are not beneficiaries of  liberty and justice for all.  Will now refuses to stand…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org

  • DiigoNotes - Empowering Principal Leadership Behaviors

    20 Nov 2009 | 4:04 am
    The following are my notes from Maxfield and Flumerfelt's article entitled "The Empowering Principal: Leadership Behaviors Needed by Effective Principals as Identified by Emerging Leaders and Principals" appearing in the International Journal of Teacher Leadership. Too often teachers experience isolation and a lack of opportunity to collaborate with colleagues in taking on the difficult work of improving student learning. Ingersoll (2001) cited this as a major factor in the alarming “drop out” rate of early career teachers. Schools have tended to embrace the traditional stratified view of…

  • The Agony of Defeat - TCEA Area 20 Election Results

    19 Nov 2009 | 6:57 pm
    YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yvkT2uMnIY This is one of those moments that reminds me many a time in my youth when I watched the video above. Of course, it's not really a valid comparison...but it's fun to make the connection. Wednesday morning, the call came in regarding the TCEA Area 20 Election Results. The news? Jennifer Faulkner, the current Area 20 Director, will continue to serve as Director for another two years. I immediately sent her a congratulatory note. Although my initial reaction was relief, I have to admit to disappointment. Both feelings--contradictory as…

  • Update on Moodle Inappropriate Access

    17 Nov 2009 | 6:52 am
    An email came out today to Moodle admins...I've put in bold the areas I found fascinating. The Moodle security issue aside, the bold section raises the question as to whether any organization has a reasonable expectation that exploits will be kept private until they can fix them and announce the problem and solution. Is this really realistic? One of my expectations--perhaps incorrect, and therefore worthy of being challenged--of free open source software is that software is MORE secure because the code is freely available. And, as a result, all programmers--foe or friend--can study it and…

  • Tools - Banned and Mobile

    17 Nov 2009 | 4:05 am
    Thanks to Jane Hart coming up with a list of tools. There is a lot to like in the list but I can't help but ask, "How many of these tools are banned in public schools?" For example, here's the list of top 50 that includes tools that are banned in Texas school districts I'm familiar with...of course, not ALL school districts ban all products at the same time, although some districts sure try to! (smile) Aside from how many of the tools are banned, what does the selection of these by voters mean? If many of these tools are banned, how many are accessible by mobile phone? How many are used…

  • Digital Crescent - How Does YOUR Team Collaborate

    16 Nov 2009 | 8:29 pm
    Source: http://www.earthhistory.org.uk/wp-content/FertileCrescent.jpg Ask me any day of the week what my best work experience has been, and I default to a golden age when I worked on a team that allowed me to be very creative in the situation I found myself. The context or culture of the organization did not limit the creativity, but rather, served as raw materials for that creativity...such experiences, I've found, are rare. They endure for a short time and then slip away...changes in leadership, staffing, the magic only lasts a short time. Although I could work alone--and often did, since…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Steve Hargadon

  • Howard Rheingold Presents "Howard's Brainstorms!" Part 2

    Steve Hargadon
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:30 am
    Part of the Conversations.net interview series.Join us this coming Thursday as Howard Rheingold continues "Howard's Brainstorm," the second in a monthly series of interactive discussions in Elluminate on technology, culture, and education.Learn more about the eclectic Howard Rheingold at http://www.rheingold.com/howard/ and join us for a fun discussion! The topic will be "Thinking about Thinking Tools." Howard will briefly summarize some of the foundational documents in this area, recap via screensharing and TheBrain, and then facilitate a discussion inviting questions from the community…

  • PBS & CR 2.0: Helping Kids Understand Viruses and Vaccinations with Sid the Science Kid

    Steve Hargadon
    16 Nov 2009 | 6:13 am
    Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2009Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am GMT (next day) (international times here)Location: In Elluminate. http://tinyurl.com/pbscr20 If you haven't used Elluminate before, you can make sure your computer is configured correctly to enter the room by going to http://www.elluminate.com/support.PBS Teachers and Classroom 2.0 are hosting a free webinar for educators on Tuesday, November 17th at 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern to share information about a currently airing episode of Sid the Science Kid that helps children better understand the science behind germs, viruses…

  • Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

    Steve Hargadon
    7 Nov 2009 | 5:52 pm
    Part of the FutureofEducation.com interview series.Date: Thurday, November 12th, 2009 Time: 5:00m Pacific / 8:00pm Eastern / 1:00am GMT next day (international times here)Duration: 1 hourLocation: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event.Join me as I talk with Larry Cuban, Emeritus Professor of Education at…

  • Richard Halverson and Allan Collins - Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology

    Steve Hargadon
    7 Nov 2009 | 5:29 pm
    Part of the FutureofEducation.com interview series.Date: Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 Time: 5:00m Pacific / 8:00pm Eastern / 1:00am GMT next day (international times here)Duration: 1 hourLocation: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event.Join me as I talk with Richard Halverson and Allan Collins about their…

  • Henry Jenkins on the Popular and Participatory Culture

    Steve Hargadon
    7 Nov 2009 | 3:57 pm
    Part of the Conversations.net interview series. Date: Tuesday, November 10th, 2009Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 1am GMT (next day) (international times here)Duration: 1 hourLocation: In Elluminate at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event.Steve Hargadon and you spend an interactive hour with Henry Jenkins in the Elluminate LIVE…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Teach42

  • Mobiles to Help Learning? High School in UK says OK

    Steve
    25 Oct 2009 | 10:30 am
    Image via Wikipedia Via @TerryFreedman: Looks like Notre Dame high school in the UK is taking the bull by the horns and moving forward with an initiative to allow the use of mobile phones for educational purposes during class time. Assistant headteacher Paul Haigh said mobiles, MP3 players and gaming devices were “untapped resources” for teaching and learning. “We realise as a comprehensive state school we could never afford to buy every student all the IT and mobile devices we would like them to have. He added: “But most students own many of these devices anyway…

  • If you Tweet, will anybody hear it?

    Steve
    20 Oct 2009 | 10:10 am
    Image via Wikipedia I think that many people (myself included) that share sites like Twitter at conferences inadvertently do our attendees a disservice. In the effort of attempting to demonstrate how wonderful, simple, powerful and dynamic it is, we make it seem much more effortless than it really is. For example… How many times per day do you see somebody say, “Give a shout out to the people in Nepal who are attending my presentation about social networks about using the Luge to teach physics!” And then 30-40 people reply with a hearty “Hello”. So attendees…

  • Ted Talks… for Kids

    Steve
    13 Oct 2009 | 8:01 am
    Looks like TEDxSMU has organized the first ever Ted Talks for kids. TedxKids was the first of its kind and invited local students to share their thoughts in the TED format, as well as attend presentations. The organize of the conference had this to say: “It’s important to get kids interested at an early age and one of the hopes is that TEDxKids will be a meaningful experience for both us and other kids.” The event was a couple of days ago and as of now, there haven’t been any videos released from it, but I did find this blog post mentioning it. On Friday, the TEDxSMU team also…

  • WAVE to the ITEC conference

    Steve
    12 Oct 2009 | 7:57 am
    Not sure if this is going to work, but going to try to embed in a Google Wave for following the ITEC conference. Unfortunately, yes you do need to already have a Wave account to see it, but them’s the breaks. Looks like it works! If you can’t see it, I apologize. But these are the eggs we’re cracking to learn how to make an omlette!

  • CDWG presents: Dembo and Davidson on Web 2.0

    Steve
    9 Oct 2009 | 9:53 am
    Speaking of tools (no pun intended), Hall and I had the pleasure of spending a few days in Discovery’s green screen studio recently to create a series of videos focusing on Web 2.0. They’ve been released as part of CDWG’s Conquering Technophobia mini-site, which has the videos we created as well as a slew of resources for teachers who are looking to learn more about new technologies. I have to admit, we had an absolute blast creating these. Hall is a creative genius and really had some wonderful vision for how to make these fun yet informative. We broke Web 2.0 down into 6…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    History Is Elementary

  • Who the Heck Is Thorfinn Karlsefni?

    Elementaryhistoryteacher
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:26 am
    Quick!Dig down deep into that creaky file cabinet in your mind and pull out the folder labeled “Vikings” and name a few of the more famous ones for me.I’ll wait.No, not the football team. There should be another folder there for the OTHER Vikings. You know, the Norsemen who were explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates.There you go. That’s it. Wow, that folder hasn’t seen the light of day in…..well, just blow the dust off it and open it up.So, what have you got?Erik the RedLeif Ericsson….son of Erik the RedCanute (Knut or Cnut) Sweynsson….better known as Canute the…

  • A Parent's Love....

    Elementaryhistoryteacher
    17 Nov 2009 | 7:55 pm
    Halloween night Mr. EHT and I received a phone call that every parent dreads…one from a stranger identifying himself as an EMT.My mind worked furiously to comprehend what he was saying, but all I wanted to say was, “Surely sir, you have the wrong number.” He just kept rattling off information ---he was with my daughter, there had been an accident, he and his wife ( a nurse) had been driving by, he assured me they would stay by Dear Daughter’s side until she was in the ambulance.Ambulance??????I finally got the words out…..”Is she….is she ok?”The voice on the other end of the…

  • How to Achieve World Domination in One 50-Minute Class Period or the Post in Which I Discuss Diversionary Tactics

    Elementaryhistoryteacher
    15 Nov 2009 | 9:34 pm
    When I was growing up my dad had a constant supply of gravel around our house because he was always using one of his tractors to move the gravel around to fill up potholes that would form on the many gravel drives around the lumberyard. From time to time my friends and I would climb the huge pile of white and grey granite stones and proclaim ourselves kings and queens of the world. That is, until we got knocked off our perch and onto our keisters. To this day I have scars and divets in my shins, knees and elbows from my rather abrupt ousters from being a world ruler.From time to time I need a…

  • Glober Trekker

    Elementaryhistoryteacher
    4 Nov 2009 | 8:22 am
    I have this deep dark secret.I’ve never really shared it with anyone.My secret doesn’t exactly fit the image many have of me….the quiet unassuming married school marm who in the past has lugged home not just one but two large bags each night filled to capacity with papers to grade, materials to review and to plan lessons with, paperwork to complete, and an assortment of other effects that teachers just seem to accumulate.Teachers just have that image...always doing the right thing, always saying the right thing, always being where they are expected to be, but I have this desire…If I…

  • ....If the Creeks Don't Rise

    Elementaryhistoryteacher
    26 Oct 2009 | 7:56 pm
    There are so many interesting points to bring up when discussing the War of 1812 – the writing of the Star Spangled Banner, the tornado that actually killed more British during the Washington D.C. invasion than bullets, General Andrew Jackson’s successful attempt to unite the people of New Orleans for its defense, Dolly Madison’s quick action to save the Gilbert Stuart painting of President George Washington – and the list goes on.It’s sad really that so few Americans know about this time in American history, but I believe our first performance on the world stage defending American…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Infinite Thinking Machine

  • Howard Rheingold Presents "Howard's Brainstorms!" Part 2

    17 Nov 2009 | 6:32 pm
    Part of the Conversations.net interview series.Join us this Thursday as Howard Rheingold continues "Howard's Brainstorm," the second in a monthly series of interactive discussions in Elluminate on technology, culture, and education.Learn more about the eclectic Howard Rheingold at http://www.rheingold.com/howard/ and join us for a fun discussion! The topic will be "Thinking about Thinking Tools." Howard will briefly summarize some of the foundational documents in this area, recap via screensharing and TheBrain, and then facilitate a discussion inviting questions from the community…

  • PBS & CR 2.0: Helping Kids Understand Viruses and Vaccinations with Sid the Science Kid

    16 Nov 2009 | 6:16 am
    Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2009Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am GMT (next day) (international times here)Location: In Elluminate. http://tinyurl.com/pbscr20 If you haven't used Elluminate before, you can make sure your computer is configured correctly to enter the room by going to http://www.elluminate.com/support.PBS Teachers and Classroom 2.0 are hosting a free webinar for educators on Tuesday, November 17th at 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern to share information about a currently airing episode of Sid the Science Kid that helps children better understand the science behind germs, viruses…

  • NotSchool.net - a Proven Successful Alternative to Traditional Education

    9 Nov 2009 | 6:53 am
    Cross-posted from SteveHargadon.com and part of the FutureofEducation interview series.Date: Monday, November 9th, 2009 Time: 10:00am Pacific / 1:00pm Eastern / 6:00pm GMT (international times here)Duration: 1 hourLocation: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event.In this session we'll talk with the UK and US…

  • Henry Jenkins on the Popular and Participatory Culture

    9 Nov 2009 | 6:52 am
    Cross-posted from SteveHargadon.com and part of the Conversations.net interview series. Date: Tuesday, November 10th, 2009Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 1am GMT (next day) (international times here)Duration: 1 hourLocation: In Elluminate at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event.Steve Hargadon and you spend an interactive hour with…

  • Richard Halverson and Allan Collins - Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology

    9 Nov 2009 | 6:51 am
    Cross-posted from www.SteveHargadon.com and part of the FutureofEducation.com interview series.Date: Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 Time: 5:00m Pacific / 8:00pm Eastern / 1:00am GMT next day (international times here)Duration: 1 hourLocation: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event.Join Steve Hargadon as he talks…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    AssortedStuff

  • A Tool Box Full of Hammers

    Tim
    15 Nov 2009 | 3:06 pm
    Seth Godin, whose blog is well worth a daily read, wonders about the old cliche which says that if your only tool is a hammer then all problems look like nails. The practical effect of this thinking is that “when the market changes, you may be seeing all the new opportunities and problems the wrong way because of the solutions you’re used to”. His theme is business, of course, and specifically with how they’re using social media, but Seth’s basic concept still applies to the institution of American education. For starters, we don’t seem to understand that…

  • Teaching Journalism… Badly

    Tim
    15 Nov 2009 | 1:21 pm
    This is a pretty crappy example of the relationship between government and journalism. Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy agreed to speak to students at a private high school in New York and then insisted that he be allowed to review the story written by the kids for the school newspaper before publication. Evidentially, he only wanted “to make sure the quotations attributed to him were accurate”. This coming from “one of the court’s most vigilant defenders of First Amendment values”. However, Frank D. LoMonte, the executive director of the Student Press Law…

  • Censoring History Won’t Work

    Tim
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:24 pm
    Another interesting example of how attempting to filter information coming from the web doesn’t work all that well. This situation has to do with a man who was convicted of murdering a well-known actor in Germany and is now out on parole, and who now wants Wikipedia to remove all mentions of his name from the article about the actor. At issue is an apparent conflict between the U.S. First Amendment—which protects truthful speech—and German law—which seeks to protect the name and likenesses of private persons from unwanted publicity. Sedlmayr’s murderer became a public figure…

  • And The Winners (?) Are…

    Tim
    4 Nov 2009 | 5:53 pm
    Jay Mathews and a colleague at the Post are soliciting suggestions for their lists of the ten best education blogs of 2009. I had the honor of being placed on Uncle Jay’s list of favorites last year, primarily due to my frequent rants about the pseudo mathematics behind his “challenge” index, with side trips into criticism of his regular AP and KIPP fan club postings. So, what might the two of them be looking for in their list of the “best”? Well, Mathews notes that he has a “weak spot for blogs that target me as the spawn of the devil and consign me to a…

  • Cutting the Future to Make the Present Look Better

    Tim
    2 Nov 2009 | 2:38 pm
    Back to the continuing budget mess here in the overly-large school district. The superintendent and others have been holding meetings with employee groups and community members (and distributing poorly worded surveys) to get suggestions on what programs and people should be cut to make things balance financially. However, he’s asking the wrong question. Instead the discussion needs to be framed around what we are all willing to pay for. Just about anywhere you go in the US, it’s pretty much a political given that no elected official would even talk about raising taxes. And around…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    O'DonnellWeb

  • Whatever Happened To The Great American Bubble Factory?

    COD
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:52 pm
    I had long since lost hope of ever seeing another new Drivin’ N Cryin’ record. The fact that new record is maybe their best since 1990’s Fly Me Courageous is just a huge fracking bonus. It’s always hard to categorize them as on any one record they will go from acoustic rock to heavy metal to REM’ish Indie Southern Rock. This record is no exception, and there isn’t a weak song on it. Go buy it at Aime Street for about $4. I See Georgia – Drivin’ N’ Cry…

  • Sweet Root: Bourbon to Broadway

    COD
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:41 pm
    I want to call these guys country, but that is not quite right. If Mellencamp had grown up in South Alabama he probably would have ended up sounding like this. The record definately has strong country influences, but there is just enough rock there to probably make sure nobody in Nashville pays attention to them. Which is a shame, as the album is quite catchy. You can download it from Aime Street for about $2. Who You Are – Sweet Root

  • Blackberry Smoke: Little Piece of Dixie

    COD
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:28 pm
    With ADDReviews shutting down earlier this year, I haven’t been writing reviews, and I miss it. I won’t purposely limit myself to 20 words here, but I’ll try to keep it in the spirit by being brief. Blackberry Smoke: Little Piece of Dixie Surprise, this is a southern rock album, with the emphasis more on the rock end of southern rock. A lot of the record sounds like an updated take on classic southern rock like Skynyrd, while the lyrics very much come straight out of Nashville. It’s an interesting combo that could hit it big in the country world. You can buy it on Aime…

  • In Wisconsin, killing your child is worth only 6 months in jail

    COD
    16 Nov 2009 | 7:03 am
    11 year old Madeline Kara Neumann died of complications from diabetes in 2008. She could have led a long and normal life with routine medical care. Instead she is dead because her parents prayed instead of actually doing something to help their daughter. Their punishment is 6 months in jail, to be served 1 month a year for 5 years.

  • Law enforcement officials in Thurston County, WA still a little confused ’bout those Internet tubes.

    COD
    15 Nov 2009 | 12:26 pm
    If this wasn’t posted on a .co.us domain I would assume it was satire. Let us have some fun. The “Information Super Highway,” which is made up of commercial online services such as Prodigy, America Online, CompuServe, and the Internet, allows millions of people around the world to communicate anonymously in a virtually uncontrolled electronic world. If your child has a home computer, uses a computer at school, or has access to a friend’s computer (particularly if they have an internet connection), please take some time to review this guide. Prodigy? This must have been…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    iterating toward openness

  • Defining “Open”

    david
    16 Nov 2009 | 3:57 pm
    I’ve seen a lot of confusion on the interwebz lately about the meaning of the term open – like people linking to copyrighted videos posted illegally in YouTube as examples of OERs. Since I have a keen interest in people understanding the term “open content” the way I originally intended for them to, I will soon be adding a “definition” section to opencontent.org. (I think of the “open” in open educational resources the same way, though I neither have nor claim special authority to clarify its definition.) Here’s a first draft of what will…

  • When Innovation Gets Difficult

    david
    10 Nov 2009 | 4:10 pm
    A summary of the core argument of my recent keynote at the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (slides at http://slideshare.net/opencontent/). Throughout the late 20th century, and into the early 21st, when we spoke about “innovation” we largely meant impressive technical feats. Think Jobs and Woz creating the Mac, or Larry and Sergey creating Google, or the kinds of things Tony Hirst and Jim Groom seem to pull off regularly. We made heroes of the two geeks working in their mom’s garage… We made heroes of the lone coder, working late at night armed only with Emacs and…

  • Special Issue of IRRODL

    david
    9 Nov 2009 | 12:45 pm
    The new, special issue of IRRODL on Openness and the Future of Higher Education is available now at http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/issue/view/38. Here’s the introduction John Hilton and I wrote for the special issue: Once considered to be mostly hype, the idea of open education has spread to hundreds of universities across the globe – including many of the world’s most prestigious institutions. Open access to teaching and learning materials significantly empowers individuals who are not affiliated with formal educational programs and levels the playing field across competing…

  • A New Kind of Media Comparison Study

    david
    3 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm
    I’ve written about this before, but here we go again… In educational research there is a long and storied history of people conducting studies along the lines of “is video-based instruction more effective than audio-based instruction?” or “is text-based instruction more effective than audio-based instruction?” or “”is video-based instruction more effective than text-based instruction?,” etc. This pointless family of research has a name, the “No Significant Difference Phenomenon,” and even has it’s own website:…

  • Durbin Open Textbook Bill Finally Introduced!

    david
    30 Sep 2009 | 9:23 am
    Earlier this year I blogged about what I thought should go into an open textbook bill (with clarifications the next day). I’m extremely pleased that Senator Durbin has introduced a bill which closely resembles these recommendations and therefore, to my mind, is on exactly the right track. You can read Durbin’s remarks as he introduced the bill, and then study the full text of S. 1714 on GovTrack (where you can also subscribe to a feed of all bill-related activity). The bill creates a competitive grant program supporting the creation of open textbooks, and most importantly requires…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Graham Wegner - Open Educator

  • Smuggled In To Hear Nancy White

    Graham
    13 Nov 2009 | 4:22 am
    I went out to dinner with a group of “Edutwits” on Wednesday evening – an event organised by the amazing Kerry Johnson. Now, Kerry works for educationau but her influence spreads way beyond her official employment role. This dinner was a great example of that and connected up a dozen or so educators involved in a wide span of areas – project officers, instructional designers, consultants, teachers and general networkers. I enjoyed myself very much. Now the timing of this dinner capitalised on the edayz09 event, a conference focussed on elearning mainly in the VET…

  • Childhood

    Graham
    9 Nov 2009 | 4:06 am
    After reading an extract from a new Nikki Gemmell book about her Australian childhood memories and the contrast with her own children’s lives, I  decided to think back to my own life as a kid in the seventies in rural South Australia. Here’s what memories come floating back to the surface. http://www.flickr.com/photos/blundstoneboy/1357568029/ Icy poles after swimming lessons at the Booleroo Centre pool, Sunday roast chicken with mashed potato and boiled vegetables and playing cricket in the farmyard with my sister and brother (we used a real Kookaburra cricket ball; no pads or…

  • How I Connect To People Online

    Graham
    7 Nov 2009 | 3:40 am
    D’Arcy Norman poses the question, “How do you connect to people online?” This post is my response to that question. It’s this blog that I value the most as a connection point with others. It’s where I started dabbling in this networked way, where I connected to my first edublogger colleagues, people who I hadn’t met but whose words and ideas drew me in and got me writing and sharing my own little piece of the world. Through comments left by others and by responding to comments on others’ blogs, I widened my circle of connections and the network…

  • How To Get Students From Arguing To Debating

    Graham
    2 Nov 2009 | 3:42 am
    In English, I’ve been trying to weave the skills of debating into my classroom. It has been something that the majority have found quite difficult, with many mistaking the ability to argue in a contrary fashion for insightful and clever debate. Their confidence in combining oratory skills and a considered point of view has led me to go back several steps and try and nut out a better way to scaffold their way towards a successful in-class debate. I tried to use engaging topics to draw out their enthusiasm (Sport is more important than Science) but a lot found it hard to get beyond their…

  • Sharing … Eels

    Graham
    28 Oct 2009 | 4:17 am
    It would be no surprise to regular readers of this blog to find out that I’ve been struggling for motivation to write reflectively here of late. I seem to be surprisingly resentful of those colleagues who seem to find the time to vege out in front of the television, read a favourite book or other non-digital and non-education related pastimes. Don’t worry, I’m sure it will pass. So, instead of drafting insightful missives or spreading the comment love, I’ve been delving into online music. I’ve been listening and viewing clips from artists who I’ve had a…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Generation YES Blog

  • NAEP Technological Literacy Framework Feedback Opportunity

    Sylvia Martinez
    19 Nov 2009 | 10:19 am
    I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been serving on the NAEP Technology Literacy Assessment Planning Committee. (Post: NAEP Technology Assessment 2012) Now it’s your turn. The current draft of the framework is available for public review and feedback at www.naeptech2012.org. You can download the framework from the Outreach section of the website and provide feedback using the online survey link. In addition to feedback on the framework as a whole, the project is asking for specific input on a title for the assessment. It has been suggested that “Technological Literacy” may…

  • Celebrate creativity and innovation at NYSCATE

    Sylvia Martinez
    16 Nov 2009 | 1:18 am
    The New York state educational technology conference, NYSCATE (Nov. 22-24) always has a top lineup of speakers and keynotes. This year is no exception. The featured keynote is Sir Ken Robinson, a world-renowned advocate for creativity and innovation in learning. I’ll be there as well, participating in the Constructivist Celebration, two sessions, and a panel. My Monday session is on teacher professional development in a “technology ecology,“ and on Tuesday the topic is games in education. The panel will tackle an intriguing question – What does it mean to be literate in the 21st…

  • Speak Up 2009 – add your voice!

    Sylvia Martinez
    11 Nov 2009 | 5:34 pm
    Speak Up 2009 will be open until December 18, 2009! Over the years, the annual Speak Up project has collected and reported on the views of over 1.5 million K-12 students, teachers, administrators and parents representing over 18,000 schools in all 50 states. Speak Up data represents the largest collection of authentic, unfiltered stakeholder input about education, technology, 21st century skills, schools of the future and science/math instruction. Sign up now for student, parent, teacher surveys. This won’t take long and EVERY VOICE COUNTS. Sylvia

  • Students are not the enemy part 2

    Sylvia Martinez
    7 Nov 2009 | 1:29 pm
    The response to the last post Students are not the enemy has been pretty overwhelming. The NYSCATE wiki for this presentation: The Enemy Within: Stop Students from Bypassing Your Web Filters has been edited by several people with very cogent comments asking the company and presenter to rethink a declaration of war on students. My original posting was not a criticism of NYSCATE – which is one of my favorite ed tech conferences. Vendor-led sessions are a fact of life at any conference, often informative, and NYSCATE does a good job of identifying them as such. A quick search on the Google…

  • Students are not the enemy

    Sylvia Martinez
    6 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm
    The upcoming NYSCATE conference includes this session. The Enemy Within: Stop Students from Bypassing Your Web Filters So this session (by a security software vendor) sets up students as the  enemy. The job is not to educate the people who come to this session or help schools provide the best educational Internet experience (by those same evil students.) No, the idea is to create a climate of fear, demonize students, and imply that there is a war between students and IT administrators. And why not? You need weapons to fight a war. Fear the children, buy our stuff. Kids are not the…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    think:lab

  • Academic Warning

    Christian
    7 Nov 2009 | 2:59 pm
    Post written a couple weeks earlier on my papa/family blog. Just a 1/2 day here on campus on this lovely late-October Friday. Homecoming is here.  Classes ended at lunch.  Life is good. Beckett -- back on campus in his preschool for the first time in a full week -- came over to papa's side of campus to have lunch.  Sitting on the floor of papa's classroom indian-style, the Long boys watched "Harold and the Purple Crayon" on the big screen while eating. At some point in time, one of the good people that keeps papa's classroom clean came by with a vacuum…

  • The Importance of Language & Response

    Christian
    7 Nov 2009 | 2:27 pm
    Mmm.  Perhaps rapid, network-inspired change -- even in traditional markets -- is possible.Just noticed the following update in my Twitter feed (thanks to @smartinez' retweet) not long after blogging about it myself: Note:  Even though things may appear to be resolved, it is worth reading Slyvia Martinez' follow-up blog post to the one that originally grabbed many of our attention.  Note her efforts to find balance, which -- in spite of my own note left on the wiki -- is to be appreciated. And also note the first commenter.  I suspect that true resolution will…

  • Ed-Tech Vendors: The Unintentional Enemy Outside?

    Christian
    7 Nov 2009 | 10:12 am
    Been kicking around the idea of jump-staring "think:lab" once again.  Been nearly a year since I had the site shut down for a couple of reasons (focusing more on my classroom, less on consulting; being a father of another new child; time; etc.).  And while I had hoped to wait a bit longer until the good people at Typepad were able to get everything put back together in terms of the template/design bits, something 'woke me up' today.  And regardless of a poorly designed blog, the time to begin writing/publishing again is today.Here's what sparked it…

  • Before I Go

    Christian
    27 Aug 2008 | 9:49 pm
    The Question Dan Meyer recently asked me the question.  If anyone else was curious:  yes, I am.  Effective now. If anyone is curious why, please get in touch.  I'd be happy to chew the fat.  Shifting Priorities Otherwise, it was just time.  Life moves on.  Priorities shift.  And certainly other voices are better suited for this state-of-education conversational game and have more valuable/timely things to contribute than I am able to do at this point in my life/career. My Kids, My Students Don't get me wrong.  I still blog like crazy.  It'll…

  • Finally Shifting the Needle

    Christian
    17 Aug 2008 | 9:07 pm
    3 days: my students return from summer break as my 2nd year (back) begins. 7 months: my wife/son/I will welcome yet another member to our family. Now: it's only appropriate that now is the time to finally re-align the needle. Thank you: for the connections, the lessons, and the vision along the way.  Been truly humbling to have a front-row seat in this remarkable edu-convo. Funny.  Just another 7 days and it would have been three years to the day.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Special Education Law Blog

  • More on Standards of Care for Disability Categories- a Responsible Opposing Viewpoint

    Jim Gerl
    18 Nov 2009 | 10:53 am
    We have some great readers. Hers is just one example: I ran a post a few days back on the recommendations for changes to IDEA by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. You can view that post here. They had some good ideas, I felt, but I took them to task on the idea of standards of care for each disability category. I still believe that I am correct, but I received an email suggesting that there is another side. The response was very thoughtful and well-reasoned, so I thought I would share it with you. As the comment shows, there may be more merit to the principals idea than…

  • Charter Schools & Special Education: Part II

    Jim Gerl
    16 Nov 2009 | 11:23 am
    This is the second in a series of posts on charter schools inspired by the excellent, recent law review article by my friend professor Mark Weber. You can read the first post in this series here. Professor Weber's article may be found here.The number of charter schools is clearly on the upswing. In fourteen communities moImage by gothamschools via Flickrre than one-fifth of all public school students attend a charter school. In three major urban areas, more than 30% of all public school kiddos are in charter schools: Detroit (32%); Washington DC (36%) and New Orleans leads the league with…

  • Service Dog Wins Lawsuit; Illinois Court Rules

    Jim Gerl
    14 Nov 2009 | 8:40 am
    A court in Douglas County, Illinois has ruled that Kaleb Drew, a first grader with autism can have his service dog attend classes with him. The final injunction was issued by the trial court last week. Here is the news story from radio station WGIL. Thanks to alert Facebook special education law group member Julie Kelley for the heads up.Image via WikipediaThis should not be confused with the case in the Illinois appellate court. There the circuit court of Monroe county, Illinois issued an injunction permitting Carter Kalbfliesch to have his service dog with him in class. The appellate court…

  • Changes to IDEA - Principals Weigh In; What Changes Would You Make?

    Jim Gerl
    12 Nov 2009 | 11:54 am
    It is time to begin thinking about what changes you would like to see in the special education laws. IDEA will be reauthorized soon. I know that Congress has been busy with a lot of other stuff, but it is eventually going to come up. In our great democracy, the laws should reflect the input of the people. Too often though, the special interests, who are organized and who have political action groups and paid lobbyists and big time financial contributions, are the only ones communicating with members of Congress and the Administration regarding changes they would like to see in the law. I'd…

  • The Price of Justice: Backdoor Effects of the Recession on Special Education

    Jim Gerl
    9 Nov 2009 | 7:22 am
    Maybe I wasn't looking in the right place. I was expecting that the severe downturn in the economy would cause a movement to permit school districts to argue that expense or cost should be a defense in special education cases. I even ran a poll in this blog to that effect. The result was a resounding no. But as many readers have suggested, perhaps the effects of the recession have been more subtle. Maybe they are silently creeping into the decision making process in ways that are difficult to observe, let alone quantify. Subtlety isn't really my thing, but I think that these effects are…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » Students

  • Web Gadget to View Cell Sizes to Scale

    curiouscat
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:44 am
    Image of cell size gadget from University of Utah The Genetic Science Learning Center, University of Utah has a nice web gadget that lets you zoom in on various cells to see how large they are compared to each other. Above see a red blood cell, x chromosome, baker’s yeast and (small) e-coli bacterium. A red blood cell is 8 micron (micro-meter 1/1,000,000 of a meter). E coli is 1.8 microns. Influenza virus is 130 nanometers (1/1,000,000,000 a billionth of a meter). Hemoglobin is 6.5 nanometers. A water molecule is 275 picometers (1 trillionth of a meter). Related: Red Blood Cell’s…

  • Kids Not Clamoring for Engineering Careers

    curiouscat
    18 Nov 2009 | 7:52 am
    Engineering careers with experiences Engineers are terribly misunderstood. Which might be one reason 85 percent of kids say “no way” to an engineering career. “The stereotype of the engineer is just wrong,” says Warren Miller, a retired Florida engineer who e-mailed me after I wrote about the short supply of workers in science and technology. They think it’s “someone who is half-robot super genius” and “way more interested in machinery or circuitry than people.” … Part of the misunderstanding starts with adults who influence future…

  • Teenage Engineer’s Company Launches Safety Stair

    curiouscat
    14 Nov 2009 | 11:32 am
    Young engineer launches stair aid by Geoff Adams-Spink A young woman from Sheffield has turned a GCSE coursework project into an award-winning stair-climbing device for older and disabled people. Ruth Amos has launched her StairSteady handrail at Naidex 2008 – the annual disability exhibition in Birmingham. She told BBC News that she was inspired to create the device for the father of one of her teachers who had had a stroke. She won an award for her idea and has now set up a company to sell it. The StairSteady is a horizontal rail at 90 degrees to the wall or banister that people can…

  • Science Explained: RNA Interference

    curiouscat
    13 Nov 2009 | 7:13 am
    Explained: RNA interference Every high school biology student learns the basics of how genes are expressed: DNA, the cell’s master information keeper, is copied into messenger RNA, which carries protein-building instructions to the ribosome, the part of the cell where proteins are assembled. But it turns out the picture is far more complicated than that. In recent years, biologists have discovered a myriad of other molecules that fine-tune this process, including several types of RNA (ribonucleic acid). Through a naturally occurring phenomenon known as RNA interference, short strands of RNA…

  • Open Science: Looking at Dust

    curiouscat
    12 Nov 2009 | 7:12 am
    Open access paper: Migration of Contaminated Soil and Airborne Particulates to Indoor Dust. Indoor dust is a mixture of soil tracked into a residence, particulate matter derived from ambient outdoor air, and importantly, organic matter. Indoor dust is about 40% organic matter by weight in residential housing. Particles tracked into a residence are redistributed on floor surfaces account for over 60% of the dust mass on floors. Related: Untidy Beds May Keep us Healthy – Open Science: Explaining Spontaneous Knotting – Electron Filmed for the First Time – Waste from Gut…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    CyberEnglish

  • Dylan at Palace Theater, NYC

    Ted Nellen
    19 Nov 2009 | 9:18 am
    A birthday present from my oldest child, Emily, and her fiance, Greg was 2 tickets to see Bob Dylan at the Palace Theater, one of my favorite venues, on Nov 18 in NYC. I went with my high school friend, John.A special treat was Dion opened for Dylan. He rocked and of course hearing the first 45 I ever bought, "Runaround Sue" was a real treat.Dylan's stage was clean and subtle changes happened between each song, in darkness as the musicians changed instruments. I loved the light show and designs, well done. The outfits of the band was a neat gray suit uniform with black shirts. Dylan had piped…

  • Ages of man

    Ted Nellen
    24 Oct 2009 | 9:01 pm
    I have reached the age of 60 today, an age I never conceived possible.I found this article rather interesting as part of my reflection.

  • The Good Book

    Ted Nellen
    22 Oct 2009 | 10:48 am
    Posted on22 October 2009 at The Uptown Chronicle It means different things to younger people By Sarveen Abubaker Sam Walters* hates Hamlet. If he had his way, he would never have wasted time reading the play in high school. “I don’t like reading very much and I don’t like Shakespeare. The only line I like is ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day,’” the 11th grader said during his school lunch break. Speaking in computer room 227 on the second floor of Edward Reynolds Westside High School on 102nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue, Walters did not hesitate when asked what his…

  • "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night."

    Ted Nellen
    19 Oct 2009 | 9:01 am
    Many years ago, in the mid 80's, I used to teach drama. During one of the semesters, I came upon a play called "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night." It was for high schoolers. It was like Spoon River Anthology. Each character was on stage in bed. Suddenly one of the sleepers would wake and deliver a monologue dealing with the reason for waking up in a cold sweat or troubled. Then s/he would fall back to sleep and another sleeper would rise up. I loved it and the kids loved it. The class would write their own sketches and then we presented them to the school. We would have a week…

  • Sept 11

    Ted Nellen
    12 Sep 2009 | 10:18 am
    A rainy day. Jeter is going to hit his 2722nd hit as a New York Yankee tonight, breaking Lou Gehrig's record.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    eLearning Weekly

  • Exploring the Benefits of Using WordPress for Learning

    B.J. Schone
    20 Nov 2009 | 7:05 am
    Below are the slides from my second presentation at DevLearn 2009. I also co-presented this session along with my colleague, John Polaschek. The presentation covers the basics of blogging and describes the advantages we’ve found with using WordPress. We’ve used it internally at Qualcomm and we’re very pleased with the results. Check out the slides for more info! Have you introduced blogging at your organization? If so, please share a little bit of your experience with us. I’d be curious to hear how it’s going and any tips you can provide to others. Thanks!

  • A Case Study of Micro-Blogging for Learning at Qualcomm

    B.J. Schone
    19 Nov 2009 | 7:46 pm
    Below are the slides from my presentation at DevLearn 2009. I co-presented this session along with my colleague, John Polaschek. The presentation had two main areas of focus: How micro-blogging can be used to help facilitate discussions and knowledge-sharing between employees How Qualcomm is using Yammer to help employees connect across divisions and geographic regions I hope you enjoy it, even though you won’t have our charming personalities to accompany the slides! Please leave a comment if you’ve worked with micro-blogging at your organization. I’d be curious to hear how…

  • DevLearn 2009 – Day 3 Recap

    B.J. Schone
    13 Nov 2009 | 8:35 pm
    Ah, the final day of DevLearn 2009. It’s been so much fun! But all good things must come to an end… If you haven’t caught up yet, be sure to read recaps of Day 1 and Day 2. And don’t forget: You can view photos from DevLearn, too! Keynote: Why New Media Matters – Leo Laporte Leo gave a great keynote without using any slides at all. How refreshing is that?! His stories were engaging, and it’s clear why he’s been so successful as a radio/technology personality for so many years. Cammy Bean did an awesome job (again) of live-blogging this morning’s…

  • DevLearn 2009 – Day 2 Recap

    B.J. Schone
    13 Nov 2009 | 9:48 am
    Day 2 of DevLearn kicked off with a keynote from Eric Zimmerman on Serious Game Design. Cammy Bean did a fantastic job of taking notes during the keynote, so I’ll defer to her on this. You can see her notes here. (Thank you, Cammy!) Session 401: Overview of Latest Learning Trends: What’s Hot, What’s Not, and Why This session was presented by Lance Dublin. In Lance’s typical style, it was full of interesting discussion and TONS of open (and often uncomfortable) questions. He covered everything from eLearning basics to all of the new “2.0″ technologies. Some…

  • DevLearn 2009 – Day 1 Recap

    B.J. Schone
    12 Nov 2009 | 11:41 am
    DevLearn 2009 is off to a great start! Yesterday was the official opening day of the conference, and it was jam-packed with a fantastic keynote by Andrew McAfee, several great presentations, and plenty of breakout sessions/bootcamps (ex. the Social Learning Camp). So much good stuff! Social Learning Camp Mark Oehlert has dedicated 99% of his time at DevLearn to the Social Learning Camp, and we should all say a huge THANK YOU for that. Mark is leading (almost) non-stop sessions on all aspects related to social learning and social technologies. Crowds gather around for each session, and…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    2tor, Inc.

  • Race to the Top Competition Inspires much needed Education Reform

    Justin Kloc
    17 Nov 2009 | 2:25 pm
    Think this is a bad time to become a teacher? Think again. America is seeing an unprecedented amount of energy being put into nationwide education reform. Through President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment act, billions of dollars are being poured into our public schools in an attempt to revamp and rebuild our way of teaching American youth. Part of this plan was unveiled on November 12th in the form of the “Race to the Top Competition”. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan released the final application of the $4.35 billion incentive based plan. The idea is to reward the…

  • My Teacher, My Hero Hits the Red Carpet

    Justin Kloc
    25 Oct 2009 | 8:23 pm
    On Tuesday, October 20th, “My Teacher, My Hero” hit the red carpet at the 2009 Angel Ball. In it’s the sixth go-around, the Angel Ball drew a number of celebrities, attending to show support for Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research and to participate in a night of entertainment and auctioning in order to generate money for the cause. The event, initiated with a gala in 1998, took place in New York City at Cipriani Wall Street. Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research was launched in response to actress/model Gabrielle Rich Aouad’s struggle with Acute…

  • My Teacher, My Hero: Honoring the Teachers that Have Changed Our Lives

    Blair Gardner
    8 Sep 2009 | 9:06 am
    My Teacher, My Hero today announced the launch of MyTeacherMyHero.com, its new user-generated video sharing website that allows users to share stories with the rest of the world about teachers that have changed their lives. MyTeacherMyHero.com is the first web site dedicated to allowing anyone with an internet connection to upload user-created videos that highlight the impact a great teacher can have on the life of a student. In addition to user-created videos, MyTeacherMyHero.com has interviewed high profile people from celebrities, leaders of the business world, sports stars, and…

  • New MAT@USC Website Goes Live

    Blair Gardner
    9 Jul 2009 | 11:55 am
    Along with its updated design that offers ease of navigation with a contemporary style, the new MAT@USC Master of Arts in Teaching website has several new features to offer prospective and current students. Included in these new features is a virtual tour of the MAT@USC program. The tour takes you from the basics of the Rossier School of Education, through specifics about the faculty and curriculum of the program. With a wealth of useful information and some great pictures represnting life at USC, the tour is a great introduction for anyone interested in the program. Another big addition to…

  • Welch Bets Education Will Thrive Online

    Blair Gardner
    22 Jun 2009 | 11:26 am
    According to the Wall Street Journal former GE CEO, Jack Welch, is paying $2 million for a 12% share in the Chancellor university System LLC, which will convert the formerly bankrupt Meyer University of Cleveland into Chancellor University. Chancellor University aims to exploit a rising interest in online education by offering most of their classes online, including an online MBA program. This news is in line with some notable trends; after years of serving the non-selective, unbranded college-going market, the for-profit schools are muscling into the turf of non-profit schools. And students…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Stop Trying to Inspire Me

  • The Research Project Question ... AGAIN.

    19 Nov 2009 | 6:33 pm
    "Can I just give you the PowerPoint and not do the presentation?""No. You have to present.""What happens if I don't present to the class?""You get a zero.""Why?""Because you have to present. That's why it's a presentation. It's part of the assignment."I actually had this conversation today in English class. We're in the middle of a large-scale research project and today was the first day in the computer lab. This is right around the time that I've found students sink or swim on doing research projects; they've "done research" in the library and now have to spend several days in the lab to…

  • Because it's who you are.

    15 Nov 2009 | 9:38 am
    The Metro section of today's Washington Post features the article "Boldly Modest Declaration of Faith," which profiles Smar Abuagla, an eighth-grader who is Muslim and as of this year has decided to wear a head scarf to school. The piece itself is more human interest than politically charged, and the writer, Tara Bahrampour, does her best to provide a simple look at what it's like to wear the symbol of a religion that's in the minority in one of the worst possible places for anyone who is "different": a middle school.There's nothing incredibly surprising or shocking in the piece, as Abuagla…

  • Where Accountability and Paranoia Collide

    13 Nov 2009 | 3:01 pm
    I think that my philosophy on doing your work is about to come in conflict with the idea that students should always have a chance. You see, I'm one of those teachers who believes in the concept of the zero (0). If a student doesn't hand in an assignment, I can't exactly give it a grade, so it goes in my book as a zero.This is clearly spelled out in my late policy. Small assignments (your average low-points homework or classwork assignment) become a zero on the second day late (after 50% off the first day). With larger assignments (an essay or paper or project, I take 15% off the grade per…

  • Is this the beginning of the end for Michelle Rhee?

    3 Nov 2009 | 7:48 pm
    Michelle Rhee hasn't exactly been playing well with others lately. Last month, she laid off 388 school employees, including teachers, a decision that continued to make her an enemy to teachers' unions and much of the D.C. City Council.To anyone who is even remotely familiar with the politics of the District of Columbia, this is nothing new. In fact, Rhee's current budget-driven layoffs, conflict with the city council, and vitriol-filled public meetings are so familiar that the Washington Post's Bill Turque outlines the history of D.C. public schools reform efforts and almost offers Rhee and…

  • Number of Runaways Grows with Worsening Economy

    29 Oct 2009 | 7:13 pm
    The current recession seems to have no limit, and the media has been pretty thorough in testing that. In some cases, it's what seems like the millionth Today Show segment on "recession chique" or how buying store brand food can save you money; in other cases, there is the New York Times' recent two-part series on the rise in teenage runaways ("Running in the Shadows", part 1 ran on Sunday and part 2 ran on Monday).Just as people have been losing their homes due to what seems to be a never-ending rise in unemployment, more teenagers have been leaving due to a variety of reasons. What is most…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Science teacher

  • November horseshoe crab

    14 Nov 2009 | 2:42 pm
    Ida blew through here, and took a good chunk of the coast with her.Leslie and I walked down the beach to see what we could see (every one of our walks is different).I found an old, male horseshoe crab turned upside down at the edge of the bay, digging its tail into the new sand, trying to flip itself back over.This is an unremarkable story for most, but it mattered to me, and it mattered to him.Finding a live horseshoe crab is a rare event in November. The fellow has descended through a few million generations of similar critters, and here he was at my feet.I come from a much shorter line of…

  • Dancing with the stars

    14 Nov 2009 | 3:03 am
    When someone says, "Science teaches such and such," he is using the wordincorrectly. Science doesn't teach anything; experience teaches it.Richard Feynman, 1966 NSTA Convention, NYCI live in New Jersey.If you spend an hour or two watching the sun rise, you'll notice that it rises sideways here.If you watch the stars looking east, they rise sideways as well.A huge problem with what we call science education is that we think we've educated our children because they "know" the Earth spins on its axis, and that it revolves around the sun.Yet the few that notice the stars, the curious ones, are…

  • Amygdalin

    12 Nov 2009 | 5:36 pm
    Five years ago tonight, a self-described Christian missionary ran my sister off the road, and a few hours later she was dead.A couple of months ago I finally tore up the letter in which he explained that God's will can be incomprehensible.I get angry when people try to explain the incomprehensible.So I am going to sit here and eat an apple that came from the same place she now rests, and will rest.The apple's existence is inexplicable, as is that of the bee that fertilized it. The stuff of apples, an impossible blend of what we breathe out every few seconds, water and carbon dioxide joined by…

  • Stemming STEM education

    6 Nov 2009 | 3:37 pm
    I am a science teacher; the STEM movement gives me job security. If I wanted job security, I would have remained a pediatrician in north Jersey--given the way we treat kids, especially poor kids, I would have always had business.STEM, of course, stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It has its own coalition, its own journal, and has endeared the folk in power (first Bush, now Obama). It puts the sexay into nerd-dom.But it's a farce.People in power (Presidents, Generals, CEOs) would like to remain in power--it takes a special kind of warped person to gain that kind of…

  • Electrostatic magnetic ion attraction: The ADE 651

    5 Nov 2009 | 5:19 am
    A story ran in the New York Times claiming that the Iraqis are using divining rods at checkpoints--a "small hand-held wand, with a telescopic antenna on a swivel" can apparently detect bombs.Since the device employs the principle of "electrostatic magnetic ion attraction," it must be effective.I'm still not convinced this is not an April Fool's prank with a calendar problem, but I guess if the world's leading expert on bombs (just ask him) tells you a divining rod can detect bombs a kilometer away (as well as ivory and truffles) and only costs $16,000, well, I got to have one!It's worth it…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Teacher Lingo

  • Sixteen five-year-olds at the flu shot clinic and me.

    halpey1
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:21 pm
    Really, what else is there to say? Thanks to our friend, H1N1, our school had a flu shot clinic. Parents had the option of signing a form and their child would receive the vaccine at school for free. Sixteen of my students were signed up and I was to Read More......(read more)

  • Thanksgiving Worksheets

    HaveFunTeachingDotCom
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:51 pm
    Free Thanksgiving activities, worksheets, and coloring pages for kids.  Color Me Good has over 6,000 coloring pages and tons of holiday Thanksgiving coloring sheets. Enjoy!Thanksgiving Worksheets - Click HereThanksgiving Coloring Pages - Click Here

  • A Crusader's Quest to Stop School Bullying

    Teachhub
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:40 am
    We recently sat down with anti-bullying activist Jodee Blanco, author of the New York Times Bestseller Please Stop Laughing At Me… and the recently released sequel Please Stop Laughing At Us: One Survivor’s Extraordinary Quest to Prevent School Bullying Read More......(read more)

  • Vitameatavegamin..for Teachers

    Barbra Stephens
    20 Nov 2009 | 10:33 am
    “Most teachers have little control over school policy or curriculum or choice of texts or special placement of students, but most have a great deal of autonomy inside the classroom. To a degree shared by only a few other occupations, such as police work, Read More......(read more)

  • Rethinking Professional Development

    Mrs. Davis
    20 Nov 2009 | 10:08 am
    I have been thinking about effective means of professional development for teachers for a long time. I started my edtech career as a Professional development specialist at Tom Snyder Productions . They still use my picture on their website. Not to bite Read More......(read more)
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Betty's Blog

  • National Geographic my dad would have loved

    Betty
    17 Nov 2009 | 4:03 pm
    Not having to drive? Not having to put on one's shoes and go to the library? What a wonderful idea! Just grab a beverage, sit down, and enjoy the knowledge. My dad loved to learn. He passed that on to his kids and grandkids. Sometimes I wish I could just grab him and show him some of the awesome things now available for free. My parents guarded a penny like it was gold. My sister and I grew up to appreciate every little thing that money could buy. Our parents worked hard, and we knew it. We miss them. Of course, we didn't always appreciate it at the time. For example, my parents bought my…

  • I remember yellow

    Betty
    15 Nov 2009 | 6:50 am
    For some reason, the color that stands out from my childhood is yellow. My mother told me early on that I looked terrible in yellow and shouldn't wear it. To this day, I don't wear yellow clothes. Then, my parents used to take me to an elderly lady's home to purchase National Geographic Magazines . It was a really big deal because the magazines cost fifty cents each and seemed more valuable than gold. When I close my eyes, I can see the room where the lady who could hardly move kept her magazines. It was all yellow. The woman seemed reluctant to let go of her prizes, but she did. For fifty…

  • Rubber bands must be on the endangered list

    Betty
    11 Nov 2009 | 10:49 am
    The rubber bands in my pickle jar are not aging well. Yesterday, when my daughter called to see if I could loan her a few rubber bands for her kindergarten son's guitar project, I was dismayed when I checked my collection. Some were actually stuck to the bottom and sides of the jar. Others had become brittle with age. In an effort to be Super Bee, I drove to the local Target to buy some new rubber bands. After checking every possible section, not being a man, I asked for help. "Sure, come this way," replied a helpful employee. She was stunned when she arrived at her destination. There were no…

  • Student's dad gets fifteen minutes of fame

    Betty
    7 Nov 2009 | 7:55 am
    My anger welled up inside of me as I read about a teacher's mistake and a parent's reaction in the Dallas News this morning. This is part of the article: The Garland school district was flooded with phone calls and e-mails Wednesday after a parent called a talk radio show to complain that a teacher incorrectly paraphrased the Second Amendment. The episode originated from a homework assignment a sixth-grade history teacher gave to a student who had missed a class, said Reavis Wortham, a district spokesman. The teacher, whom the district would not identify, summarized the Second Amendment this…

  • Gila monster spit and pistachios

    Betty
    3 Nov 2009 | 6:56 am
    My husband loves to read the newspaper. When he reads something of interest, he shares little facts and tidbits along the way. I am more of a computer person and spend my time reading blogs and visiting sites I find useful. Sometimes I filter out his comments because I am deep in concentration. Today's comments consisted of, "I didn't know that Lee Marvin's former wife lived with Dick Van Dyke for thirty years." A few minutes later, "Do you know how they make the drug to treat diabetes? It comes from gila monster spit." My brain wrinkles again managed to keep up with the wrinkles on my face.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    PTO Today Blog

  • Video Tutorial: How to Increase PTO Meeting Attendance

    Lisa Gundlach
    20 Nov 2009 | 9:24 am
    Tim answers the Question: how do you increase PTO or PTA meeting attendance? He also provides some tips on parent involvement. So did it make you feel better to have Tim put parent group meetings in perspective? Hope so. If you are interested in learning about the  basics on running an effective meeting, be sure to check out the Meetings and Robert’s Rules section of our site.

  • Teacher’s Gift Idea – Lowe’s Gift Card

    tsullivan
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:15 pm
    Yup, Lowe’s. Lowe’s has been a huge supporter of schools and of PTOs and PTAs these past few years (their Lowe’s Toolbox for Education program has given millions to PTOs and PTAs these past 5 years), and I’ve really enjoyed working with their whole team on a variety of projects. But when they started talking about Lowe’s giftcards as good teacher appreciation and holiday gifts, even I was a bit skeptical. After all – you can’t exactly buy ceramic apples at Lowe’, right? After they walked me through a few things they’re doing though, I was impressed. And I think it’s…

  • My Tip of the Week: Dues or No Dues?

    tsullivan
    18 Nov 2009 | 1:53 pm
    Now that it’s November, I imagine your membership drive, if you have one, is over. So my question (and tip) for you this week is, why do you charge dues to belong to your PTO? I personally think it’s a bad idea, and I hope you’ll discuss it with your group before next year’s drive rolls around again. I wrote a column called ”Just Say No to Dues” a couple of years back, and I thought I’d summarize it here. My problem with it comes from two perspectives. First, I think dues are anti-involvement and send the wrong message to your parent community. Why do…

  • Tim’s Update on the New PTO Today Community

    Lisa Gundlach
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:48 pm
    Learn how to get the most out of our site, connect with other PTO and PTA leaders, get personalized tips, and receive special product offers for your group… Watch Tim’s latest video blog.

  • Del Valle ISD in Texas PTA and PTO Controversy

    tsullivan
    16 Nov 2009 | 9:50 am
    I’ve been following this story in the Del Valle district in Texas with interest, largely because it is so unusual. The super there is taking a fairly strong stand against the formation of an independent parent group of any kind. Most of the articles on the topic have been referring to PTAs, but I understand that the policy is meant to apply to any independent (from the district) parent group. There was an editorial in the Del Valle paper last week about the PTA and PTO controversy. The district and its schools do have school-organized and run parent committees. In general, I think this is…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Schoolfamily.com blog entries

  • A Helpful Hint to Improve Fine Motor Skills

    20 Nov 2009 | 8:36 am
    “Mrs. McCarthy, I like to color but my crayon just won’t stop at the line!” said Kate.  Some young children have yet to develop the fine motor skills needed to make their crayon “stop at the line.”  This often makes a child reluctant to color, even though coloring is great practice for improving fine motor skills.  Here’s a good trick to help your young child “feel” the line, while making coloring neater. You will need: a pi Read more...

  • Before You Do Anything, Call the Teacher First!

    18 Nov 2009 | 3:12 pm
    Students come home and tell parents the most amazing things. "Today the teacher called us stupid.”  Before you rush off to call the principal, take a deep breath and contact your child's teacher and give him or her a chance to explain. Children- especially small children- often misunderstand adults. (I am sure your kids have misunderstood something you’ve said, once or twice, right?) Instead of starting World War III, you might hear something funny. Read more...

  • Helping Children with ADHD Focus at School

    18 Nov 2009 | 3:08 pm
    Just came across this blog by Kay Marner about sensory objects that help ADHD kids focus at school. Great stuff! Good teachers are always looking for sensible ways to make classroom accommodations for kids with ADHD. "Fidgeting" has been shown to help ADHD children focus in the classroom. E Read more...

  • Quick Tips for Tests and Quizzes

    10 Nov 2009 | 5:07 pm
    For many students, final exams are right around the corner. And while these exams make up a large percentage of final semester grades (and cause a lot of worry), please don't forget about those weekly tests and quizzes. Tips to Share with Students About Tests and Quizzes: Read the entire test and each set of directions before you start. Start with the easiest questions first and return to the others (don't forget to go back!) Read all answer choices for each multiple Read more...

  • How attuned are you to your Kid's Stress Levels?

    9 Nov 2009 | 8:50 am
    A colleague just sent me  a link to this blog about kids and stress. Some interesting statistics for parents to digest...According to a recent survey administered by the American Psychological Association, kids ages 8 to 17 are more stressed out now than they were a year ago. To be exact, one third of the kids who took this surve Read more...
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Education for Well-being

  • Does Real Beauty Create Ugliness?

    admin
    27 Oct 2009 | 12:48 pm
    How are we doing as educators when it comes to teaching media literacy? It’s a topic of much debate. Most people would agree that there’s a need to teach it, but we don’t always agree on what “it” is.  Our social media, deep digital toolbox, and ability to publish quickly and cheaply, help produce hoaxes, infotainment, stunts, and misinformation which can reach larger numbers of people faster than they ever could in the past. Our hypercompetitive media culture places a premium on speed at the expense of accuracy. News is more often hyped than reported. Fact…

  • The Social Web Counter

    admin
    24 Oct 2009 | 6:46 pm
    Sources for stats below can be found here. Related Posts:Does Real Beauty Create Ugliness?Palin, Creationism, and Well-beingThe Other Comedy CentralRethinking Competition - Video - Quotes - CommentsYour Hidden Biases

  • You Ask with the Eyes

    admin
    15 Oct 2009 | 9:14 am
    Coca-cola has been running full page ads in the Wall Street Journal all of last week. The ads state, “Increasingly, Americans are realizing the importance of living a balanced, healthy lifestyle. We see that.” We see it also. Obesity rates, as we all know, are skyrocketing. Diabetes and heart disease rates continue to increase. People need electric scooters for locomotion. It’s not pretty. So Coke is here to provide us with knowledge, portion control options, and school guidelines. (Junk food corporations dictating school policy? But I digress.) I went to their…

  • Possibly, a Different Way to Learn

    admin
    13 Oct 2009 | 11:05 am
    Virtual interactive voyage to Peru and South America. Online course for those interested in a unique and independent way to learn. Related Posts:Doing More With LessA Textbook Kids Might Actually LikeGeneration We VideoVideo - Mix It UpNew Video. Mah or Meh?

  • Doing More With Less

    admin
    10 Oct 2009 | 9:35 pm
    “If success or failure of the planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do… How would I be? What would I do?” -Buckminster Fuller The Buckminster Fuller Challenge from Buckminster Fuller Institute on Vimeo. Related Posts:Possibly, a Different Way to LearnA Textbook Kids Might Actually LikeGeneration We VideoVideo - Mix It UpNew Video. Mah or Meh?
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Core Knowledge Blog

  • “Infantilizing Our Kids Into Incompetence”

    Robert Pondiscio
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:57 pm
    A new revolution is under way, according to the cover story of the latest Time Magazine.  It’s aimed at rolling back “the almost comical overprotectiveness and overinvestment of moms and dads.”    Call it slow parenting, simplicity parenting, free-range parenting, the magazine notes, but the message is the same: “Less is more; hovering is dangerous; failure is fruitful. You [...]

  • Required Reading

    Robert Pondiscio
    18 Nov 2009 | 7:49 am
    My “Blog About This” list is growing like kudzu, so in the interest of time…. Jay Greene “can’t understand the enthusiasm of education reformers for national standards and testing.”  Jay sees plenty of room for mischief.  I’m inclined to agree.  However, if all we end up with is national testing that allows apples-to-apples comparisons of students from [...]

  • Oh Say Can You C.E.?

    Robert Pondiscio
    17 Nov 2009 | 8:01 am
    A Missouri school district has run afoul of some parents for teaching children to identify when historical events occurred by the designations ”C.E.” (Common Era) and “B.C.E.” (Before Common Era) in addition to the traditional B.C. and A.D.   The numbers don’t change one way or the other.  It’s equally accurate to say Julius Caesar was murdered in 44 B.C. [...]

  • Neologism Watch

    Robert Pondiscio
    17 Nov 2009 | 5:49 am
    The New Oxford Dictionary has named “unfriend” as the 2009 Word of the Year.  Unfriend (v.)  The act of “remov[ing] someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.” An unlovely word, unfriend (wouldn’t “defriend” be more accurate?) beat out other tech terms for Word of the Year, including sexting, hashtag, and intexticated–defined as driving while distracted by [...]

  • Core Knowledge Quiz: Springsteen Study Guide Edition

    Robert Pondiscio
    17 Nov 2009 | 5:27 am
    When you’re 60-years-old and living on the road it’s easy to get disoriented.  Surely that explains why Bruce Springsteen shouted out “Hello, Ohio!” to the crowd at the Auburn Hills Palace in Michigan last Friday.  He mistakenly referred to the Buckeye State from the stage several times before one of his bandmates set him straight.  Even [...]
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Recorded Books K-12 Blog

  • Congratulations to our ePrep Winner!

    recordedbooks
    10 Nov 2009 | 6:47 am
    Congratulations to the winner of our giveaway of 25 seats in ePrep, an online SAT/ACT test prep program… Betty said: I teach English to 11th & 12th graders in a small, rural school district. We have offered SAT prep classes in the past, but because of the limited number of students (and teachers) we can not longer offer the test preparation in their daily schedules. Our past efforts have not fostered successful outcomes. The opportunity for the students to use this software individually would greatly increase their scores, I am sure. The immediate feedback and great explanation…

  • FREE Audio and Lesson Plans from Mailbox Magazine

    recordedbooks
    9 Nov 2009 | 6:22 am
    We’re excited to be sponsoring the latest edition of The Mailbox e-newsletter. Featured in the newsletter are activities and free audiobook excerpt downloads for three books from Recorded Books-published Dr. Janet Allen’s Plugged-in to Nonfiction Grades 4-5, Horrible Science: Angry Animals, Abraham Lincoln: The Life of America’s Sixteenth President, and On the Halfpipe with…Tony Hawk. Let us know if you use the audio and activities in your classroom or share your favorite activities using these titles. Don’t forget to sign up to receive future issues of the Mailbox…

  • Free Audio for Halloween!

    recordedbooks
    28 Oct 2009 | 7:06 am
    Frankenstein is back, wishing you a Happy Halloween from Recorded Books! In case you missed it, AudioFile Magazine has a free download of several Edgar Allen Poe stories. You must download before October 31, 2009. You can also check out the free audio downloads and lesson plans we offered last year for a few spooky stories: Dracula vs Grampa at the Monster Truck Spectacular, The Story of Ichabod Crane, and Frankenstein. And don’t forget that there’s still time to enter our ePrep giveaway! Tell us (on that post, not this one!) why your school needs SAT/ACT prep and you can win 25…

  • Win SAT Prep for Your School!

    recordedbooks
    5 Oct 2009 | 4:32 am
    Recorded Books is proud to announce a partnership with leading online SAT, ACT, and PSAT test-prep provider ePrep. Created by long-time private tutor and Princeton University graduate Karl Schellscheidt, ePrep combines video answer explanations with an interactive video-based study hall to help students maximize their scores. The school version of ePrep tracks student progress on an individual, classroom, grade, and school-wide basis. Study hall progress reports allow teachers and school administrators to identify areas of academic strength and weakness across all, or part, of the student…

  • Happy Birthday, Beowulf!

    recordedbooks
    4 Oct 2009 | 10:37 am
    This year the British Library is celebrating the 1,000th anniversary of Beowulf. If you happen to be in London on October 25-28, you can see their copy of Beowulf on display. For those of us who can’t make it to London, listening to the audiobook version of the Seamus Heaney translation is another great way to celebrate this epic poem. The translation by the Nobel Prize-winning author was named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times and Library Journal. AudioFile Magazine awarded our audio recording, narrated by Golden Voice George Guidall, an AudioFile Earphones Award. Pairing…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Consultants Blog

  • Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth Launches New Center for Leadership

    Clear Admit
    20 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am
    The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth this week announced the creation of a new leadership center to build upon existing leadership initiatives at the school. Founded by Tuck professor Pino Audia, the innovative center will focus on students themselves rather than using case studies to analyze how others lead. The new Tuck Center for Leadership will provide a range of leadership development activities for students that expand upon the initiatives of the Cohen Leadership Development Program, which was established in 2003. With the launch of the new center, every Tuck student will now be…

  • Fridays From The Frontline

    Clear Admit
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:14 am
    Welcome to the latest edition of Clear Admit’s Fridays From The Frontline! Every week we take a tour through the many blogs of those hoping to gain entry into an MBA program, and current students, whose application process is thankfully behind them. This week many MBA hopefuls were taking a collective breath as the last of round one deadlines passed. Students continue to be engaging in all sorts of activity, from watching classmates sing for a marketing competition to accepting  job offers, current MBA bloggers are certainly a busy bunch. Madalogue shared some of her favorite passages…

  • Chinese Students Come to U.S. Universities in Record Numbers

    Clear Admit
    19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am
    Chinese undergraduates are enrolling at American universities in record numbers and may soon outpace Indian students, who for the past eight years have come to the United States in greater numbers than any others, according to a recent article in the New York Times. Overall, international enrollment at U.S. schools was the highest ever in 2008-9 and showed the largest percentage increase year over year in more than 25 years. These and other figures were released as part of the annual Open Doors 2009 Report, published by the Institute of International Education with support from the State…

  • Twitter Thursdays: News from MBA Programs

    Clear Admit
    19 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am
    Welcome to another installment of Twitter Thursdays, a weekly column in which we highlight the updates of the top MBA programs on Twitter!  If you’re not following Clear Admit already, be sure to check us out on Twitter for updates, special prizes, admissions tips and breaking news.   We’ve also created a list of MBA programs to ease your daily access to breaking news from the top MBA programs, as reported by admissions committee members themselves. UCLA / Anderson’s Dean, Judy Olian, recounted her weekend Q & A session with 60 prospective students visiting UCLA’s campus for…

  • Campus Chronicles: The Wharton Journal

    Clear Admit
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:56 am
    We return to this week’s Campus Chronicles with a perusal of Wharton’s student newspaper, The Wharton Journal, to learn about the latest events on Wharton’s campus.  Our hope is that this summary of the latest happenings at Huntsman Hall is helpful for Wharton applicants in the midst of R1 interviews as well as for candidates targeting R2! With the culmination of the six-week Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative Speaker Series, this fall offered ample opportunities for Wharton students to learn about the fashion and retail business.  Wharton’s campus was visited by three top…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    DoE: Dave on ED

  • 2,000 Certifications!

    Dave Saba
    20 Nov 2009 | 8:56 am
    ABCTE teachers are a pretty amazing and independent group and it is always gratifying to meet them. This week we issued our 2,000th ABCTE certification to Heather Herd of Branson, Missouri who received her certification in math. A former controller, she is currently substitute teaching and will soon begin looking for a full-time teaching position. read more

  • Virtual Schools = Explosive Growth

    Dave Saba
    17 Nov 2009 | 1:36 pm
    The biggest takeaway from the Virtual Schools Symposium is that this is a growth industry with incredible opportunity - and that is really starting to attract significant private sector investment. But like any growth industry, there will be operators who will not create quality schools. This will be used by some to say that online learning does not work. Another problem with explosive growth will be the variation in schools. Because there have been no large scale studies of students in online learning, the variation in quality will dilute the overall positive effects.read more

  • Great Virtual Teaching

    Dave Saba
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:47 am
    These were the notes that I took from a brainstorming on virtual teacher quality Teacher Quality in virtual teaching: •Role has changed – from developer to implementer •Brick and mortar quality does not equal great virtual teacher •Have to meet federal standards if highly qualified in order •Have to have a great interest in working in an online delivery system •Well trained teachers still need mentor teachersread more

  • Virtual Teachers!

    Dave Saba
    16 Nov 2009 | 6:34 am
    Here at the iNACOL Virtual Schools Symposium and it is THE highest energy education conference I have ever been to. So I am sitting at a reception last night talking to some teachers and I decided to let them know about ABCTE. They chuckled and said that they knew about ABCTE because that is how they became teachers in a virtual school. How gratifying to find two amazing teachers who came through our program on the cutting edge of education innovation, helping students achieve their dreams. read more

  • More Race to the Top Points

    Dave Saba
    13 Nov 2009 | 12:16 pm
    For those state decision makers out there – please take a look. The Race to the Top guidelines are clear about the need for effective teachers in the classroom. As states prepare their applications, we invite them to partner with the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) to help increase your overall point total. ABCTE is a non-profit organization funded in 2001 by the US Department of Education and is already accepted in 9 states as an alternative route to certification.read more
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    nashworld

  • Tinkering: A “Boys Only” Club?

    nashworld
    15 Nov 2009 | 7:55 pm
    Boys only? According to the NCES, since 2004, girls have -in general- been shown to outdo boys in nearly every measure of academic success.  Girls outpace boys on nearly every one of our measures of “winning” when it comes to school.  And yet, when push comes to shove on earning degrees in engineering or computer science, boys still outpace girls by margins of 77% and 85% respectively.  The overarching assertion:  girls don’t tinker. Or at least, they aren’t often encouraged to. Tinker. In nearly every published version, the origin of the word seems to trace back…

  • Prior Knowledge and The Flow of Learning

    nashworld
    18 Oct 2009 | 7:51 pm
    Engagement A friend gives you free tickets to an upcoming concert.  Although the group is fairly popular, you are not familiar with the artist’s body of work.  Assuming you elect to go, what do you do next? Between now and the day of the concert, here’s betting that your old pal Google comes into play at some point. What is the artist’s body of work?  For me, iTunes previews would quickly come into the picture.  I might even scan the reviews.  Then perhaps a dive into YouTube in a quest to actually see the band in action.  Maybe even an interview with the lead…

  • The End of The Line

    nashworld
    2 Oct 2009 | 7:49 am
    According to NOAA, over half of the population of the United States lives within 50 miles of the coastline.  This trend holds up over the vast majority of the world, and many countries in East Asia show an even greater build up along coastlines.  Humans have, and continue to rely heavily on ocean resources for their livelihood.  The continued concentration of human life in these areas creates great stress on marine ecosystems.  This fact alone is enough to suggest imminent and increased stress on the natural workings of the world ocean.  However, what about the other ~50%? If you live…

  • But Math Is HARD

    nashworld
    13 Sep 2009 | 8:30 pm
    Slamming on the brakes Forgive me in advance for the not-so-touchy-feely words regarding our beloved Mother Goose, but this one gave me pause… My two-year-old daughter drug over The Real Mother Goose yesterday as we were playing.  I knew we had the book.  It was a gift at some point in the last couple of years.  However, it has never been one of my favorites.  I guess I’m a prude, and for that I’m sorry, but these sing-songy bits of goofiness never did excite me.  But hey-  what my daughter wants to read… we read.  So we read.  Actually- even at two, she can…

  • From Day One: Information Literacy In Core Content

    nashworld
    3 Sep 2009 | 12:52 pm
    Establishing tone I believe information literacy is the responsibility of all content teachers.  The following piece is a bit about how I tend to kick off a new year, and how to easily aim at info literacy from very early on.  As I have said here before, I do not like to go shy into the new school year.  Our students are learning from us every second of every day.  The real question then is what are they learning.  As the lead learners in the classroom, this is under our control. With this in mind, it is my goal to have my students leave the room on that first day with a few things…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Teaching College English

  • Can Intellectual Property Rights be Carried Too Far?

    Dr Davis
    20 Nov 2009 | 4:13 am
    Professors Claim Copyright Over Lectures says that Harvard profs want notes taken only for a student’s use. Right on the Left Coast says they are taking it too far.

  • Possible Reading

    Dr Davis
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:53 am
    Some chapters [in Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw--And Other Adventures] are master pieces in the art of the essay. I particularly liked “Something Borrowed,” a moving examination of the elusive line between artistic influence and plagiarism, and “Dangerous Minds,” a suspenseful tale of criminal profiling that shows how self-anointed experts can delude their clients and themselves with elastic predictions. So says Steven Pinker in his New York Times review of the book.

  • Mass Literacy’s Roots

    Dr Davis
    18 Nov 2009 | 4:44 am
    According to an article in the Boston Globe, [L]iteracy seems clearly connected with economic development, and mass literacy is a Protestant invention, says Robert D. Woodberry, a sociologist at University of Texas at Austin. He has mapped how missionaries spread literacy, technology, and civic institutions, and finds that those correlate strongly with economic growth. Interesting idea.

  • Disengaged Faculty and Students

    Dr Davis
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:45 am
    A report from Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement is out. Inside Higher Ed had a lot to say about it. “Disengaged faculty doesn’t change students. We hire part-time faculty almost exclusively under the understanding that we’re just paying them to show up for three hours in a classroom. Why is that? Is it possible to hire adjunct faculty with a different set of expectations, including that they participate in professional development and other services? What I don’t have are glib, easy answers, but the survey does raise these questions.” Yes, it is possible to hire…

  • Arthurian Stories to Get Cracking On

    Dr Davis
    17 Nov 2009 | 5:17 am
    I am not sure I will use these for my Southwest Texas Popular Culture conference paper, but I should read them anyway. First, Mercedes Lackey writing on the multiplicity of Guineveres. (I’m guessing this is like Maria for Spanish and various other names.) I have not read this book yet, even though I am a Lackey fan. I’m not as die hard as I used to be, but I still tend to find her works delightful. The other work is a graphic novel. I have been re-introduced to those recently (though I read early ones just to be reading them). I don’t know how good it will be, but some of…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    There is No One Right Answer

  • The Best Platform for School Portfolios

    12 Nov 2009 | 6:18 pm
    Over the last few weeks I've been working with several clients focused on Career and Technical Education. One of the projects involved helping State Directors of CTE craft a vision and a set of principles to guide development of CTE into the future. The other project focused on helping one state understand and define for themselves what it means to be 'college and career ready' (a new jargon that is getting more and more focus and will possibly be made into policy nationwide.During these sessions, as has been the case for more than 10 years now, there was considerable conversation about the…

  • School Violence - Painful Lessons

    12 Oct 2009 | 6:25 pm
    It might seem that I have a negative attitude about schools and schooling. I can understand how it might seem that way since much of what I write about seems to lean in a specific direction. I'd like to offer another perspective or another possible way of seeing the things I write about. In much of what I write about I am advocating for examining our thinking about why schools exist and trying to understand a little more about what we do in schools and schooling. I am not doing this from an academic perspective. I am a concerned citizen that would like the best for each and every young person…

  • A Must See Video - Making Schools the Nexus of Community Activity

    28 Sep 2009 | 6:21 pm
    This link below is a must see video by an architect that designs schools. This is one of the best and most understated presentations I've ever seen about the possibilities for redesigning schools to be integrated into the community and a 'nexus' of activity.http://www.schoolsmovingup.net/mpstudy/movies/movie3.htmlHe describes something that is actually a great opportunity - some day - to do an invitational design process with experts from different domains in a community. He calls it a NEXUS development team with experts in 6 domains (that make up a community). He defines something amazingly…

  • Does Environment Matter? What Do Classrooms Say About Our Philosophy?

    21 Sep 2009 | 4:43 pm
    I just became aware of an architectural contest to design new classrooms. In looking at the winners - it's easy to see why we are still in the mess we're in. Only one of these offers something that might be a little different from what we already have in classrooms that were designed over 100 years ago.Why is that?Environments and structures create behavior and the form of our classrooms are no exception. We can learn a lot about ourselves by looking at our physical environments. Our homes, work places, hospitals, and schools tell us a lot about our philosophy - the way we think and what we…

  • Do Schools Harm Children?

    21 Sep 2009 | 3:52 pm
    Some friends of mine are engaged in instigating a really important conversation in their community. Minority parents and students have been attempting to show how the schools are profiling certain young people as potential gang members and forcing them in one way or another to leave school - primarily to improve their drop-out and graduation numbers. As many as 100 young people have already left one of the schools through these means. The conversation that has begun is about developing something that will although these young people an opportunity to experience more of life and achieve some…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    EurakAlert!: Education

  • Evolution of evolution: An NSF-sponsored webcast featuring Mohamed Noor

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    (National Science Foundation) Please join the National Science Foundation on Monday, Nov. 23, at 10 a.m. ET for a live webcast featuring Darwin-Wallace Medal recipient Mohamed Noor of Duke University, who will answer media questions about current evidence for evolution and modern evolution theory.

  • Examining mathematical abilities in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder

    18 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    (Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research) Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) have a number of cognitive deficits. Mathematical ability seems particularly damaged in children with FASD.A new study supports the importance of the left parietal area for mathematical abilities in children with FASD.

  • Nanotube defects equal better energy and storage systems

    18 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    (University of California - San Diego) Most people would like to be able to charge their cell phones and other personal electronics quickly and not too often. A recent discovery made by UC San Diego engineers could lead to carbon nanotube-based supercapacitors that could do just this.

  • Highlighting racial disparities increases coverage and effectiveness of health news

    18 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    (University of Missouri-Columbia) As media researchers search for better methods to reach audiences, a new University of Missouri study published in Public Relations Review has found that highlighting racial disparities in news releases increases coverage of health stories in black newspapers, which can improve health outcomes in populations at risk for disparities.

  • Microorganism may provide key to combating giant salvinia throughout Louisiana

    18 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    (Louisiana Tech University) A team of researchers at Louisiana Tech University has found that a naturally occurring microorganism acts as a natural herbicide against giant salvinia.
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Mark it Right

  • English-Spanish Dictionary

    delightedscribbler
    18 Nov 2009 | 1:53 pm
    How in the world do you say that? James Reed has gotten a hold of a sizable English-Spanish dictionary of business, technological, and legal terminology. It’s a PDF, so everyone should be able to download it easily. Buy it here. It’s a  2,545 page dictionary by Jaime Aguirre, each page with four columns. This dictionary is not kidding! It’s now part of my arsenal. Oh, and before anyone asks, no one asked me to post this, nor is this an affiliate link. I receive nothing at all in return–that’s the sort of thing I would disclose to you. This link is posted as a…

  • Newsletter from Tanit for 10/26/2009 [del.icio.us]

    DelightedScribbler
    4 Nov 2009 | 9:42 am
    Feature article: Dictionaries: Law and Order?

  • Fanny pack or bum bag?

    delightedscribbler
    12 Oct 2009 | 4:30 am
    by Anna Lamont Now I thought that bum bags (fanny packs) had gone out with the Ark, but lately I’ve seen all manner of reference to them by perturbed Americans who have come to realise that in Britian, ‘fanny pack’ is not something to be said in public (and if said in polite company may cause an elderly aunt to faint quite away). Relax, dearest cousins. If you wish to wear one whilst in Blighty, just call it a bag. “Where’s the camera, dear?” “It’s here, dear, in my bag”. There! Problem solved. Right, now we can all relax. But the subject of stowage is fraught with…

  • The 411 on Business Networking – MIR discount!

    delightedscribbler
    28 Sep 2009 | 2:48 pm
    It’s official. As of a few minutes ago, The 411 on Business Networking is available. I’m rather excited. So far, the feedback from my test readers is positive. They’re using words like “fun”, “easy to digest”, and “quick reference” to describe it. You guys are going to like it. About the most common word by both readers and editors has been “useful.” This word makes me the happiest. The idea is to make networking easy, effective, and painless. As promised, Mark it Right readers get a big discount: 40% off. Here’s your…

  • One year anniversary!

    delightedscribbler
    25 Sep 2009 | 8:48 am
    Thanks to everyone! I was checking the blog’s stats last night, as I always do before I go to bed. Those among you that blog may be familiar with the obsessive checking of the stats. So far, staring intensely at the chart hasn’t magically brought more readers, but it’s kept me focused. Tomorrow Mark it Right will be one year old. To be honest, I don’t have anything prepared, but some sort of birthday celebration is in order. For starters, I want to thank you guys for reading, commenting, sharing the link, and all the things you do to support Mark it Right. Since we are…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    International Higher Education Consulting

  • Links of Interest for Week of November 13th to 19th

    20 Nov 2009 | 8:29 am
    This is my 450th post to IHEC Blog and I'm continuing with my weekly Friday post highlighthing some of the posts I made to Twitter as well as some of the posts others have made to Twitter this past week. My plan to find time in the evenings this week to do some of my own analysis of the Open Doors 2009 data did not happen as I thought. Stay tuned as I hope to find some time in the near future as I'm sure I'll have something to say and post to IHEC Blog. Until then...please enjoy these links:New International Education Blog on the scene! Really good stuff so check it out at…

  • ExchangesConnect Video Contest – Change Your Climate, Change Our World

    19 Nov 2009 | 10:03 am
    Earlier this week ExchangesConnect announced the opening of their 2nd annual video contest entitled “Change Your Climate, Change Our World.” Watch the following video to learn more about this great contest where four creative people will win an international exchange experience sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural AffairsHere is a video of Secretary of State Hilary Clinton announcing the launch of the ExchangesConnect video contest: Find more videos like this on ExchangesConnectCurrently, I’m not planning to participate in this video contest…

  • Video and Text of Judith A. McHale on Release of the Open Doors 2009 Report

    18 Nov 2009 | 8:05 pm
    At the end of my IHEC Blog post yesterday I asked where to find a transcript of Judith A. McHale’s, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, remarks at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Monday opening the tenth annual International Education Week and announcing the significant findings from Open Doors 2009. Well I found the transcript of her comments which you can read here but you may want to watch this video (6:54) of her remarks:

  • President Obama’s Bold Plan to Send 100,000 U.S. Students to Study in China

    17 Nov 2009 | 12:21 pm
    I was reading the transcript of President Obama’s remarks at a town hall meeting held yesterday with Chinese students at the Museum of Science and Technology in Shanghai and was happy to see that he talked about educational exchange between the United States and China. This is not the first time that President Obama has met with students and talked about the importance of international exchanges and I hope it will not be the last time he talks about this issue. What caught my attention was the following statement by President Obama:“..I'm pleased to announce that the United States will…

  • U.S. Department of State press releases on Open Doors Data

    17 Nov 2009 | 8:49 am
    I receive many, many Google Alerts for a variety of search terms related to international educational exchange and it is really great to read all of the news articles (in the international, national & local press) and press releases related to International Education Week, the Open Doors 2009 report and NAFSA’s Economic Impact Statements. I enjoy reading college and university student papers and institutional press releases that highlight the number of international students on their respective campuses and the number of their students that study abroad as well as how they rank in the…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Antonio Viva

  • edSocialMedia Bootcamp Keynote St. John’s Prep

    Antonio
    15 Nov 2009 | 4:28 am
    A word of thanks to the folks over at WhippleHill Communications for streaming my keynote at the edSocialMedia Bootcamp at St. John’s Prep in Danvers, MA. Over 20 independent school professionals in all areas of advancement came together to learn and discuss the power and potential of social media in our schools. Enjoy! You might also be interested in.. Your Neighbor’s Story Are we ready? edSocialMedia Bootcamp, Montclair Kimberly Academy A Conversation About Social Media & Education Social Media in Education Videocast from TABS

  • A Conversation with Michael Stoner

    Antonio
    27 Oct 2009 | 10:44 am
    A few weeks back I was contacted by Michael Stoner, one of the partners at mStoner, a leading edge marketing and communications firm based out of Chicago.  Michael was researching and writing an article for the January 2010 issue of CASE Currents Magazine. We spent part of a late afternoon on the phone talking about topics ranging from social media, to marketing and communications and trends in these areas with respect to the independent school world. I really enjoyed getting the chance to speak with Michael and encourage you to consider reading the post he wrote about WA Mash. Random Posts…

  • Presentation to WA Board of Visitors

    Antonio
    14 Oct 2009 | 7:25 am
    I was recently asked to make a presentation to the Academy’s Board of Visitors on Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century. The focus of the presentation was to provide a context of how has the purpose of school changed, what skills, attributes and experiences do students need to be successful and how do we better understand these digital natives as unique learners. It is my firm belief that schools should focus on fostering creativity, collaboration and courage in our students and provide ways for them to demonstrate what they know and understand beyond the traditional assessments and…

  • Sharing thoughts on 1 to 1 Laptop Learning

    Antonio
    8 Oct 2009 | 8:17 am
    I was recently inteviewed by members of Worcester Academy’s Board of Visitors regarding 1 to 1 laptop learning. You might also be interested in.. “Equity, Access, and Opportunity” – Harvard Education Letter EduCon 2.1 Sunday Morning Reflections 21st Century CIOs for 21st Century Schools Second Life Pow Wow… Presentation to WA Board of Visitors

  • Monday Morning Meditation – A Great Revolution

    Antonio
    14 Sep 2009 | 8:28 am
    I came across this great quote by Daisaku Ikeda, who is president of Soka Gakkai International (SGI), a Buddhist association which claims 12 million members in 192 countries and territories, and founder of several educational, cultural and research institutions. I was searching this past weekend for some inspiration around the idea that change in schools is not a “revolution” but an “evolution.” I think those of us who work in schools often struggle with helping create change. I have heard educators describe schools as “change adverse” and I struggle with…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    School Climate Blog

  • Survey: Spirituality and Emotional Intelligence

    lnaefe@csee.net
    17 Nov 2009 | 12:58 pm
    CSEE is excited to share the work of two leading Emotional Intelligence researchers with our friends and colleagues.  Emotional Quotient, or EQ, is a measure of your Emotional Intelligence (just like IQ or Intelligence Quotient is a measure of your mental intelligence).  Improving EQ is a key factor to all social-emotional and school climate improvement efforts, and the work of Dr. Rock and Dr. BarOn is providing valued insight into how EQ impacts our lives.  Their current research is focused on the relationship between spirituality and EQ, and they are seeking individuals to…

  • Quick and Easy Way to Support CSEE

    lnaefe@csee.net
    12 Nov 2009 | 9:23 am
    Tonight is CSEE’s annual benefit and we’re looking forward to seeing our local friends and supporters at the Helen Mills Theatre!  In case you can’t make it, there’s still an easy (and free) way for you to support all the work we do to help schools across the country. Each time you search the internet with the search engine GoodSearch, a donation will be made to CSEE at no cost to you. Supporting our cause has never been easier — simply download this GoodSearch toolbar and you’re ready to make a difference:Download the Toolbar All donations collected from GoodSearch are…

  • Resource Spotlight: Webcast from HRSA’s Stop Bullying Now! Campaign

    lnaefe@csee.net
    11 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am
    This past Tuesday, November 10th, the US. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools teamed up with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Service Administration to relay a valuable Webcast focused on research-based bully-prevention resources and training. This 60-minute presentation was created to provide the tools and knowledge necessary to effectively train teachers, parents, and staff on the most effective methods in bully prevention and intervention. The Webcast covered a variety of topics including the current statistics and…

  • Supporting the Whole Child E-Book Free Through 11/17

    lnaefe@csee.net
    9 Nov 2009 | 12:52 pm
    ASCD’s newest e-book, Supporting the Whole Child: Reflections on Best Practices in Learning, Teaching, and Leadership, is now available and free for download through November 17. This e-book is a collection of articles from Educational Leadership and other ASCD publications that all explore what it means to support the whole child. Authors such as Carol Ann Tomlinson, Douglas Fisher, and Robyn Jackson share perspectives and specific strategies for shaping instruction, providing scaffolds and interventions, and responding to 21st century challenges. Be sure to read Celebrating Students’…

  • Listen Up Live with Justin Jones-Fosu: CSEE Discusses The Bystander Effect

    lnaefe@csee.net
    30 Oct 2009 | 9:17 am
    “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”-Martin Luther King In light of the atrocious gang rape incident that recently happened in Richmond, California, these words seem to resonate a little deeper with all of us. An onslaught of media attention has been focused on not only the horrible details of the hours-long gang rape of a 15 year-old girl on homecoming night, but more specifically on the dozens of onlookers that seemingly kept “silent,” by failing to stop the rape or even call the police. This incident brings the…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    New Globals

  • 5 Interesting Facts About Uruguay

    admin
    14 Nov 2009 | 11:16 am
    I’m here in Uruguay doing research for my next book. Most people don’t know much about this lovely little heart-shaped country (the second smallest in South America after Suriname). Here are a few things I found interesting: 1) The government of Uruguay recently achieved its goal of providing a laptop to every student and teacher in the country. Education is free through graduate school! 2) Ninety percent of Uruguayans are of European descent–most are Italian. They gained independence from Brazil in 1825. 3) Uruguay hosted and won the first World Cup in 1930, defeating…

  • What I Learned from the Suicides of My Two Brothers

    admin
    4 Nov 2009 | 7:10 am
    I don’t talk about this very often, but lately I have been thinking a lot about how the deaths of two of my brothers by suicide has impacted my life. One took his life at the age of 45, the younger one at 39. Don’t get me started on the mid-life crisis–I don’t believe in it. What I do believe is that there are people who are born with a predisposition for depression (during times of frustration, my younger brother used to say “I’m going to blow my head off”–at the age of three). Also, I believe that people can make choices about how they respond…

  • The Crucial Decision That Helped Me Thrive in a Recession

    admin
    2 Nov 2009 | 6:22 am
    Back in 1982, I had just returned to the US from a year-long study trip through Asia during my senior year in college. I’d had a fantastic experience in a dozen countries, I had some college loans to repay, and I was ready to go home and get a job. The economy had other ideas for me. This was during a terrible recession that made jobs scarce in Oregon, and despite applying for over 75 jobs, I was unable to find one. I was even doing those “information interviews” where you go in and just talk to someone in your field of interest, just to make contacts. No luck. It…

  • Advice for TwentySomethings In a Slumped Economy

    admin
    2 Nov 2009 | 5:30 am
    One thing I love about being in Buenos Aires is seeing how twentysomethings from the US are taking full advantage of the slow economy at home to go abroad and find interesting opportunities. Things may suck in your town, your state or your country right now, but it doesn’t mean you don’t have options elsewhere! You can stay and compete for the same jobs with tons of others who have the same degree and experience you do, or you can get out and make yourself more valuable to employers and the world. My advice to ANYONE is that if you are not thriving, then do something else. There is no…

  • Doug Lansky Tells How to “Get Lost”

    admin
    16 Oct 2009 | 4:59 am
    Doug Lansky is the guru for solo travel. He contributed a nice piece in my book about how he set out on a six-month trip and ended up being on the road for ten years–during which he was paid to write a syndicated column with millions of readers and served as the host for a travel show on television. He also wrote several books, including his hilarious anthology of crazy signs and a guide for those traveling around the world on their own. These days, he has a sweet life in Sweden with his wife and three little girls, and spends time each year in the U.S. offering his hilarious “Get…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    And You Will Graduate

  • Traveling New Mexico

    HART (1-800-HART)
    20 Nov 2009 | 9:39 am
    Traveling New Mexico   $21.45 | Travel Books | Read more... » Post Ad Purchase:  Intext Link

  • Shadows…

    HART KAHUNA
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:41 am
    The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspect of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for self-knowledge, and it therefore as a rule meet with considerable resistance. These shadows are repressed elements of the personality which we choose not to be identified with. - Carl Jung Shadows lurk in the deep recesses of the psyche. It is buried in the heart, in the mind; it is part of us. It…

  • Best Ski out France – skiwhite.co.uk

    HART KAHUNA
    19 Nov 2009 | 11:24 pm
    Holidays geared toward skiing and snowboarding are much more popular these days. The upward movement in the number of airlines operated at a low cost and spurt in the number of holiday home rentals had made this to happen. There are a number of ski chalets, holiday villas, farmhouses and self-catering apartments to select from Europe and remaining parts of the world. The most popular winter sports holiday destination is France. Tourists are going to France during snowboarding weekends and long skiing holidays because snowboarding is so popular. The larger groups of snow boarders may want to…

  • Parenting Your Complex Child: Become a Powerful Advocate for the Autistic, Down Syndrome, Pdd, Bipolar, or Other Special-needs Child

    HART (1-800-HART)
    19 Nov 2009 | 11:30 am
    No Synopsis Available   $13.22 | Kids Books | Read more... » Post Ad Purchase:  Intext Link

  • Your Education

    HART KAHUNA
    18 Nov 2009 | 9:55 pm
    With young people talking so much these days about the gap year, which is the year some take off between high school and going on to further schooling, it’s not surprising that some parents worry about the consequences of such a decision. To them it may sound like an excuse on the students’ part to avoid continuing their education altogether, rather than acknowledging the glowing opportunity it’s made out to be. They fret that their kids will enjoy being away from school so much that perhaps they’ll never return, which could have dire repercussions for the future.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Spinning A Learning Web

  • Frangipani for Night Fragrance

    Kate Foy
    19 Nov 2009 | 12:24 am
    Frangipani aka Plumeria in my tropical corner, originally uploaded by Dramagirl. This shot is from a year ago, but true to its form, my courtyard Frangipani/Plumeria is blooming its little heart out once again. It’s a joy to feel the seasons roll on … here in the sub-tropics it isn’t as dramatic as the change felt in more temperate climes … but I still mark them with the arrival and departure of flowers, birdsong, and the changing light. A thought on the eve of another birthday …

  • They read poetry in the trenches: lest we forget

    Kate Foy
    10 Nov 2009 | 1:17 pm
    A WW 1 trench edition of C J Dennis’ The Glugs of Gosh.

  • 15 Memorable Productions

    Kate Foy
    2 Nov 2009 | 5:38 pm
    Image by Dramagirl via Flickr I hauled this out of the Notes section on my Facebook page, mainly because it got no traction there as far as I can tell. I had responded to one of those memes that go round the web from time to time. Just thought I’d share it here. 1. My first theatre memory – I believe it was a play, probably a vaudeville show which they used to produce at the old Cremorne Theatre in Brisbane. I must have been about 2 or 3. I recall little but the sound, the lights, laughter and general atmosphere. Apparently I could not stay in my seat and danced in the aisle. I…

  • Links for 2009-10-15 [del.icio.us]

    16 Oct 2009 | 12:00 am
    Recreating the Sleek, Orange Subscribe Box on Blogussion Nicely laid out tutorial.

  • Links for 2009-10-06 [del.icio.us]

    7 Oct 2009 | 12:00 am
    Mastering CSS Coding: Getting Started « Smashing Magazine
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Free Technology for Teachers

  • Weekend Workshop - Make a Wiimote Whiteboard

    20 Nov 2009 | 1:47 pm
    If you would like to have an interactive whiteboard in your classroom, but your school can't afford one of the commercial offerings (those things are wicked expensive) don't despair because there is a very affordable alternative. Nintendo's Wii remote can be used to create an interactive whiteboard. The first time I saw a Wiimote Whiteboard was in a TED Talk given by Johnny Lee. The videos and links below will provide you with what you need to know to build your own Wiimote Interactive Whiteboard.Here's Johnny Lee introducing the Wiimote Whiteboard at TED.Here's Johnny Lee showing you how to…

  • Week In Review - The Most Popular Items

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:55 pm
    Last week when I wrote the Week in Review post I said that I was looking forward to watching the Celtics beat the Hawks. The Celtics are playing again tonight, but I'm not making any predictions for fear of jinxing them again.As I do each Friday, I've compiled a list of seven most popular items of the last week. If you've been busy and not able to keep up with your RSS reader or email, the week in review provides a good chance to catch up on the posts that were most popular with other readers.Here are the seven most popular items in the last seven days:1. 6 Ways for Students To Publish Their…

  • The How-to Series

    20 Nov 2009 | 8:50 am
    Back in August I ran a series of five how-to posts. Those posts gave directions on how to use six Web 2.0 tools that can be used in any classroom. Because that series ran in the summer, a lot of teachers may have missed it. Therefore, I've put those posts in the list below.1. Using Wikispaces2. Setting Up a Blog (directions for Blogger, WordPress, and Edublogs)3. Drop.io - Easy Media Sharing (1o Things You Can Do With Drop.io) 4. Building a Classroom Website (Using Yola)5. Using Animoto and VoiceThread

  • Curt Bonk's Flat Classroom Keynote

    20 Nov 2009 | 5:54 am
    I've mentioned how much I like Professor Curtis Bonk's new book The World Is Open a couple of times in the past. You can read those posts here and here. Today, on YouTube I found a video of Curt Bonk in which he gives a quick and entertaining overview of the concepts and people discussed in his book. If you've been considering purchasing his book, watch this video and decide for yourself if you want to read the book. After watching the video I think you will want to read it.FTC Disclosure: I did receive a free copy of Professor Bonk's book "The World Is Open" and a copy of his book…

  • Soda Tax - This Should Get My Students Talking

    20 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am
    Today's episode of CNN Student News concludes with a segment about a proposed federal tax on soda pop. Based on how much soda I see my students consume, I know that this will get my students talking. In my both my Civics class and my US History class we often talk about the role of government in the lives of private citizens. The idea of a soda tax is very relevant to my students' lives and is sure to spark some lively discussion when I show them the video.
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    doug - off the record

  • Adding to the List

    dougpete
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:06 am
    Yesterday, I commented on the list provided by CNN of the top 10 technical events of the past decade.  Their list is pretty good but I have an additional 10 moments that defined things for me. The iPod – For me, it was the iPod and not the iPhone that was the big change agent.  It was the next logical step to the Walkman and allowed for more portability as you listened to music.  The iPod has changed significantly over the years from the first one with the buttons that were really buttons.  It now runs applications and doesn’t have a hard drive inside it.  They also make…

  • links for 2009-11-19

    dougpete
    19 Nov 2009 | 9:05 pm
    The City :: Login "The City is a learning program developed by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) and the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC). It teaches young people financial skills that they can carry with them throughout their lives. " (tags: business financial) Official Google Blog: Releasing the Chromium OS open source project "Today we are open-sourcing the project as Chromium OS. We are doing this early, a year before Google Chrome OS will be ready for users, because we are eager to engage with partners, the open source community and…

  • Where were you?

    dougpete
    19 Nov 2009 | 2:12 am
    and what impact did they have on you? CNN has released a list of the Top 10 Internet moments of the decade.  Lists like this are kind of nice to have because you don’t have to think too deeply and you can more or less go down the list and check off the impact that they’ve had on you. http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/18/top.internet.moments/index.html So, here’s my response to their list. Craigslist expands beyond San Francisco (2000) It’s interesting and, if I’m travelling, I like to browse the location that I’m going to and see what’s up. …

  • links for 2009-11-18

    dougpete
    18 Nov 2009 | 9:03 pm
    Andika Font "Andika is a sans serif, Unicode-compliant font designed especially for literacy use, taking into account the needs of beginning readers. The focus is on clear, easy-to-perceive letterforms that will not be readily confused with one another. " (tags: andika font) Who makes the most reliable laptops? | Crave – CNET "Warranty firm SquareTrade has just released a research paper analyzing the failure rate for 30,000 laptops comparing brands and hardware categories–and the results might surprise you. " (tags: cnet laptops reliability) 50 Google Charts…

  • Seesmic for Windows

    dougpete
    18 Nov 2009 | 3:43 am
    My computer just got faster! Overnight, Seesmic, the developers of Seesmic Desktop and Seesmic Web released Seesmic for Windows.  This is yet another Twitter client – the type of application that just hums away in the background pulling down updates from Twitter, perform searches on the public timeline for terms, and lets you post updates to Twitter from your desk.  Seesmic Desktop and Tweetdeck are two of the large players in this field. Both programs are built on Adobe Air which adds another layer running on your computer between your fingertips and the internet.  With a high…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Recess Duty

  • Congress In Your Pocket

    recessduty
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:39 pm
    Description:  Is there really enough room in a pant pocket for the entire Congress of the United States?  Yes, if you can place them on an iPod Touch first!  Congress in Your Pocket has so many features including names of all Senators and House of Representatives for each state, websites, Twitter accounts if they have them, biographies, and my favorite, a map that shows exactly the area covered by a Senator or House of Representative. Implementation:  We were on day two of our House of Congress study when I showed them the app.  Students were enthralled on finding exactly who our House…

  • 5 + 4 Math Drills

    recessduty
    20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Description: An incredible math fact app!  While not free it is worth the $1.99.  This app allows for an individual student to create a profile – no email or anything required – so that all of their tests are recorded. Three sections that are available include review, practice, and tests.  Each section allows for different means of teaching and assessment.  I especially like the review section that provides four different methods of teaching.  One method of teaching is a number line that actually has graphics that animate problems being completed.  Another option is…

  • Whiteboard – iPod Touch

    recessduty
    19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Description: Yeah, I get it!  This app has been around for almost a year so a description of it has been created in an extremely professional way by AppVee.com  What makes this relative to RecessDuty is the fact that this app finally has a productive place in my classroom.  There is a pay version; we just used the free version.  See implementation below.  In the meantime check out the review. Implementation: We use the CPM mathematical resource and in Chapter 4 of the Foundations book a listening activity requires students to create geometric shapes on a geoboard.  While the iPod Touch…

  • SimpleMindX

    recessduty
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm
    Description: AN IMPLEMENTATION UPDATE. The 09-10 (anyone else think typing 10 will be slightly awkward for a short time?) school year is here. In a few short days, the playground will be open for business. Thus, the first installment of technology used in my classroom. Forgive me for posting on something you may or may not have, but from the beginning the RecessDuty blog has been about what I can directly incorporate with my seventh grade students. Since the 09-10 (again, weird) school year brings 30 iPod touches to my room, I have been seeking out apps that students can use. Finally, the…

  • Number Line

    recessduty
    16 Nov 2009 | 12:31 pm
    Description:  Number line app grants users a blank line and requires users to place 6-10 bubbles of fractions, percents, or decimals in the correct order.  The number line is 0 to 1 or greater than 1 and requires users to get the bubbles green if they are in order or an alarming red if they are not in order.  Different levels challenge students with more complex fractions, percents, and decimals.  Neat Feature:  FREE Implementation:  On day 10 of our 12 day fraction, percent, decimal math unit, students were introduced to the Number Line App.  A really cool experience for me was when…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    ToddlerScholar.com

  • Elmo Says Have a Flu Plan

    Staff
    29 Oct 2009 | 4:48 pm

  • Sid the Science Kid Gets a Flu Shot

    Staff
    29 Oct 2009 | 4:46 pm

  • Happy Mother’s Day 2009

    Staff
    10 May 2009 | 12:38 pm
    Happy Mother’s Day! To every mother, father, grandmother – -anyone… who assumes a mother’s role. Thanks for loving and teaching our children…through thick and thin.

  • First Lady Michelle Obama Visits Sesame Street

    Staff
    8 May 2009 | 5:37 am
    Our First Lady, Michelle Obama visits Elmo to encourage starting healthy habits early! Elmo and Mrs. Obama chat about eating healthy meals and reading–two as our favorites things!

  • GoodGuide Transparency Manifesto Empowers Parents

    Staff
    26 Apr 2009 | 2:20 pm
    Transparency Manifesto If you’d like to know more about the way your food and products are made, then you may want to check out what GoodGuide is working on. If we knew what  was in the product(s) we purchase and food we consume,  maybe we would be empowered to make healthier life choices…and sleep a little better at night!
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    TotalGadha GMAT

  • Cut The Crap!

    Dagny
    30 Oct 2009 | 8:19 pm
    It’s been a long time since I last posted.  Sindhoor came to my rescue again. Dagny Many of the questions in GMAT’s SC section are on pronoun- antecedent agreement or Subject-Verb agreement.  When you look at it, the concept of “Agreement” is very simple to understand. Singular subject should have a singular verb and plural subject should have a plural verb. ‘Team India are playing for pride today as they are already out of the cup’ is wrong. By using both ‘are’ and ‘they’ the test setter tries to confuse you. Because ‘Team India’ is…

  • Discovering MBA in The Netherlands

    Dagny
    8 Oct 2009 | 11:08 am
    You have read articles by Sindhoor, we would like to introduce you to Gargi Mohan. He is a civil engineer from Allahabad who like to read, swim and travel during his free time. He had been  kin d enough to lend me a helping hand when I am busy working for our CAT 2009 members.–Dagny MBA in the land of tulips. Popular for tulips,windmills, and polders (land reclaimed from marshes and fenland), Netherlands is now fastly becoming an important destination for MBA aspirants. This geographically small nation is now among the leading countries in the world in terms of well being, human…

  • The Magic of Thinking Big

    Dagny
    29 Sep 2009 | 8:44 am
    Sometimes we get the best suggestions about life from the places that we are least expecting from. I am talking about movies and comics. Well! we watch movies to get entertained and not gain insight about life, right? I watched ‘The Pursuit of Happyness” the other day. The movie is going in my list of ‘my all time favourite movies’ list. Why I loved it so much? For one, it was a Will Smith movie. Every time I watch his movies, I am left amazed by the greatness of his talent. Apart from that the movie is based on a true story. It leaves you wondering about the kinds of…

  • The Ifs and Buts in Columbia Info Session 2009 - New Delhi

    Dagny
    10 Sep 2009 | 1:02 am
    I attended Columbia Business School’s info session here in Delhi today. I generally like the professionalism in most Business school sessions and how the speakers market their business schools, I would give an A+ to Columbia’s session. I would state my reasons in a while but I think Linda Maheen, Assistant Dean for admissions, was one of the most honest speakers I have come across. She was honest about the information that she was giving. She didn’t try to hide or manipulate things. Last month I also attended the session by Rose Martinelli so I ended up making a clear…

  • Indiana Kelley School of Business Essays and Deadlines 2009-2010

    Dagny
    9 Sep 2009 | 12:36 am
    Kelley/ Indiana Essays 2009-2010: All applicants must answer number 1. You must also choose two of the next three essay questions (2 through 4). Number 5 is optional. Please limit each essay to no more than two double-spaced pages. Finally, please include the essay number and your name at the top of each sheet. We encourage you to be  informative, creative, and concise. Mandatory Essay: Kelley Essay 1 : Please discuss your post-MBA short- and long-term professional goals. How will your professional experience, when combined with a Kelley MBA degree, allow you to achieve these goals? Choose…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Veritas Prep Blog

  • GMAT Tip of the Week

    Brian
    20 Nov 2009 | 8:11 am
    Cleanse Your Palate(This is one of a series of GMAT tips that we offer on our blog.)If you're one of our many American readers, you're most likely salivating at the though of Thursday's Thanksgiving meal, already planning how to make room on your plate for a drumstick, a scoop of potatoes carefully depressed in to a self-containing gravy bowl, a portion-and-a-half of Aunt Joan's sweet potato casserole, and enough vegetables to round out the plate to not appear entirely unconcerned with eating healthy. Ultimately, your carefully planned plate will all blend together in to one pile of…

  • Veritas Prep in the Wall Street Journal

    Scott
    19 Nov 2009 | 9:47 am
    Last week the Wall Street Journal's Diana Middleton wrote a great piece about things to think about while juggling a full-time job and the MBA application process. (Hopefully, in this economy, you still have a job to juggle along with your applications!) In "Getting Back to School," she covers six important things applicants should do.The article outlines six important steps you need to take in the process, from strategically planning the timing of your applications to gracefully departing from your job once you leave for business school. When Diana spoke with us, we emphasized one thing that…

  • How Does a Unique Background Affect Your Chances of MBA Admissions Success?

    Scott
    18 Nov 2009 | 9:27 am
    Continuing our admissions video series, this week we continue to explore the idea of how an applicant with a unique background is at an advantage over applicants who come from more typical backgrounds. First, what is a "unique" in MBA admissions? It's a professional or personal history that admissions officers don't see every day. If you aren't coming from a typical business school feeder industry, such as banking or consulting, then you may already be somewhat unique in admissions officers' eyes. If you come from a part of the world or have had personal experiences that admissions officers…

  • How to Write Great Admissions Essays: Step 10

    Scott
    17 Nov 2009 | 9:09 am
    (This is the final installment in a series introducing our readers to our proven 10-step process for writing great admissions essays. Check back soon to see what else we have in store!)Step 10: RevisionsIt is shocking how often applicants present essays (either to professors, consultants, or even to the admissions committee) that are nothing more than glorified drafts. Crafting an essay is a time intensive process that requires a great deal of revision in order to write with economy, power, and persuasion. You will almost certainly go through multiple revisions with your essays, but the…

  • Three Ways a Letter of Recommendation Can Go Wrong

    Scott
    16 Nov 2009 | 10:07 am
    Recently we talked to a new client who just went through a rough Round 1 of the MBA admissions process. Although the round isn't over yet, the way his interview invitations are going, it looks like he's not going to have much success. Once he saw the writing on the wall, he came to us for help. We took a look at the applications that he submitted to his Round 1 schools, and just about everything seemed to be in order: strong work experience with a history of increasing responsibility, essays that tell interesting personal stories of growth and maturity, a solid undergraduate university, and a…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Certification Map

  • EDU-torial: Race to the Top Inspires much needed Education Reform

    Jkloc
    17 Nov 2009 | 2:28 pm
    Think this is a bad time to become a teacher? Think again. America is seeing an unprecedented amount of energy being put into nationwide education reform. Through President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment act, billions of dollars are being poured into our public schools in an attempt to revamp and rebuild our way of teaching American youth. Part of this plan was unveiled on November 12th in the form of the “Race to the Top Competition”. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan released the final application of the $4.35 billion incentive based plan. The idea is to reward the…

  • Why The Future Is Now: An Interview with Alex Mann

    alexjmann
    16 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am
    Alex Mann, our freelance journalist, who has delivered the “lessons from the field” series of blog posts, has a deep-seeded passion for education and entrepreneurship. Taking a break from running his startup, AM Analytics, and from interviewing teachers from around the country for this blog, he has agreed to do an interview with Stephen Tom of Teacherlinx to share his thoughts on the state of education: How are you involved with education? My involvement with education has evolved since I graduated college in May. This time last year I was attending classes and lectures, arguing…

  • Lessons from the Field: Interview with Stephen Tom

    alexjmann
    13 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am
    This post is part of the Teachers Certification Map’s “lessons from the field”, a series of posts featuring passionate, inspiring educators from across the country discussing some of the lessons that they have learned over the years that would help young teachers as they embark on their careers. – Stephen Tom, who also runs Teacherlinx, has been an eight grade English teacher for 6 years  in Los Angeles CA. Below is our interview with Stephen: What and where do you teach? I currently teach eighth grade English in East Los Angeles. I work for the Los Angeles Unified School…

  • Lessons from the Field: Interview with ‘Elbows, Knees, Dreams’

    alexjmann
    11 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am
    This post is part of the Teachers Certification Map’s “lessons from the field”, a series of posts featuring passionate, inspiring educators from across the country discussing some of the lessons that they have learned over the years that would help young teachers as they embark on their careers. – Kiri, the author of the blog Elbows, Knees, Dreams, is a teacher of fifteen years who teaches preschool in a public school in the Midwest. Below is our interview: What inspired you to teach? My mother was a teacher, and I started teaching when I was a high school student, teaching Sunday…

  • Swine Flu Vaccine Now Available to Students

    Mike Davidson
    10 Nov 2009 | 1:14 pm
    The approaching winter months means three things, fewer daylight hours, holiday cheer, and the flu. This year will be an exceptional year for the Tissue and Kleenex companies because aside from the normal seasonal flu, the infamous swine flu will be present as well. But unlike the seasonal flu, which has a widely available vaccine to everyone, the production of the swine flu vaccine has been lagging in the prior months. It may not be available to everyone yet, but the swine flu vaccine is coming to clinics in New York City and various other urban communities and is free for all primary and…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Dr. Stephen Jones

  • The does and don'ts of motivating your students - Nov 16,2009

    Dr Stephen Jones
    16 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm
    Too many students lack the motivation to excel in their K12 school. They need experiences that will raise their motivation to succeed. It's time to uncover the best way help students to prepare for success in every aspect of school. students | motivation | parent | education | school

  • How to Select a Good charter School - Oct 26,2009

    Dr Stephen Jones
    26 Oct 2009 | 3:30 pm
    During this program we will discuss some of the education strategies that make a charter school successful. We will help the parents by giving them additional advice about charter schools. My goal is to inspire the listeners to get excited about sending their sons and daughters to a charter school. Education | Charter | School | Parent | K12

  • How to apply and get accepted to college - Oct 12,2009

    Dr Stephen Jones
    12 Oct 2009 | 3:30 pm
    The listeners will learn how to make decisions about their college choice. Our goal is to help parents and students with the college application process. This will be an interactive program for the parents and the college bound student. Deneen Brown from Villanova University is the special guest.college | high school | education | parents | admission

  • How to Help Students with Special Needs - Sep 28,2009

    Dr Stephen Jones
    28 Sep 2009 | 3:30 pm
    Gaetane Borders a psychologist will provide information that will help parents with special needs children. She will discuss some of the services which school districts must provide. We will help the parents want to give them emotional support.Education | Parent Student | emotional | K12 | teaching

  • Back to School Eating Good Meals - Sep 21,2009

    Dr Stephen Jones
    21 Sep 2009 | 3:30 pm
    Chef Carl Lewis is the special guest who will talk about how to prepare good back to school meals. Learn how you can save time and money and prepare a healthy meal. Learn how to reduce your calories and prepare good meals for your family Meal | education | back to school | parent | student
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    MBA Admissions Blog by MBA Game Plan

  • Done With Your Business School Applications? Keep Working on Them!

    mbagameplan
    19 Nov 2009 | 7:04 pm
    Have you just finished and submitted your Round 1 applications? Time to finally sit back, relax, and wait for the interview invitations to come streaming in, right? Not exactly! Believe it or not, the months and weeks after you submit your applications can still be very critical in shaping your chances of admissions success. Why? Because whether you are invited to interview (an almost mandatory first step before being admitted to most top MBA programs), get waitlisted, or are rejected, you always want to keep building your resume. That means seeking out new opportunities on the job or…

  • Don’t Make These Three MBA Recommendation Mistakes

    mbagameplan
    16 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pm
    In the MBA admissions process, letters of recommendation can be the toughest part. That’s because they’re the part of the application over which you have the least control. The GMAT is intimidating since it all comes down to how you perform in a few hours in one sitting, and your undergraduate transcripts are in the past, so there’s nothing you can do to change them, but all of these things are determined by you (and can be overcome or mitigated with some work). When it comes to letters of recommendation, however, you’re putting your future in someone else’s…

  • Lifetime Earnings for an MBA? Ask Warren Buffett!

    mbagameplan
    12 Nov 2009 | 7:21 pm
    In today’s CNBC town hall event, Warren Buffet made an impressive offer to the hundreds of Columbia Business School students who gathered to hear him and Bill Gates speak: Right now, I would pay a hundred-thousand dollars for 10 percent of the future earnings of any of you. So, if anyone wants to see me after this is over. If that’s true, you’re a million dollar asset right now, right? If ten percent of you is worth a hundred-thousand? You could improve on that, many of you, and I certainly could have when I got out, just in terms of learning communication skills. It’s…

  • 50 More Interview Invitations Coming from HBS

    mbagameplan
    9 Nov 2009 | 8:39 pm
    Late last week Harvard Business School’s Director of Admissions, Dee Leopold, posted a brief update on the HBS admissions blog regarding the admissions office’s plans for Round 1 interview invitations. The main takeaway is that Harvard is not yet done sending out invitations, but there aren’t too many left: I know I promised an update about interviews. They are in full swing on campus and elsewhere. We are still sending out interview invitations — maybe 50 or so more may go out before December 15 — plus waitlist invitations to some of those who have not received…

  • Recession Hits Some MBA Programs Harder Than Others

    mbagameplan
    5 Nov 2009 | 9:28 pm
    Last week BusinessWeek ran an article titled “MBAs Confront a Savage Job Market,” which painted a pretty rough picture for graduates at many top business schools. At some top schools, as many as 20% of grads were still unemployed three months after graduation, a statistic that economists haven’t seen for decades. Fortunately, the world of top-30 business schools is not universally gloomy. Some business schools’ career offices have been able to direct their students into more stable industries, such as government, health care, energy, and the non-profit sector. While…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Boarding School Blog - onBoarding Schools

  • Holiday Mindfulness

    Brian Fisher
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:43 pm
    I came across Katie Grant’s presentation to the Colorado Rocky Mountain School student body chronicling her involvement with “Face Aids” (Colorado Rocky Mountain School junior inspires student body with Face Aids presentation). Great cause. Katie sounds like a great student. But, I like most her closing exhortation. As we travel home or spend time in comfortable surroundings during the next couple of months, her talk provides a nice framework to think about how and what we’ve done in the past year and how we’ll approach the future. What can we contribute to…

  • Bath Shout: Student Produced Podcasts Capture Hyde School (Bath, ME) Campus Vibe

    Brian Fisher
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:02 am
    Nicolas Figueroa, a senior from Spain, hosts “Bath Shout,” periodic podcasts covering current happenings and life on Hyde School’s Bath, ME campus. The tone and organization of “Bath Shout” nicely captures all of the different things happening simultaneously at Hyde. At school, things don’t happen one event at time. So many events overlap; kids and faculty have to change gears. The unscripted commentary and organization based simply on what’s happening at school when he records give “Bath Shout” a documentary, as opposed to a promotional,…

  • Getting to Know Cardigan Mountain School

    Peter Baron
    20 Nov 2009 | 10:35 am
    Next up in our Getting to Know series, Cardigan Mountain School- an all-boys, junior boarding school in Canaan, NH. Brian Beale, Cardigan’s Associate Director of Admission, talks about the school’s supportive & structured environment, three levels of academic programs and PEAKS – Cardigan’s Personalized Education for the Acqusition of Knowledge and Skills program.

  • Getting to Know Bement School

    Peter Baron
    19 Nov 2009 | 11:29 am
    In this installment of our ‘Getting to Know‘ series, I sat down with Kim Loughlin, Director of Admission, Bement School. We talked about the concept of junior boarding schools and why families select the option, Bement growing its boarding student population from 34 to 40, dorm & student life at the school, and the structure of their academic day.

  • Family Sacrifice Helps Connecticut Private Schools Weather Recession

    Brian Fisher
    19 Nov 2009 | 7:51 am
    The Hartford Courant ran a piece last Thursday (Connecticut’s Private Schools Have Suffered Only A Glancing Blow From Recession) covering the relief that Connecticut schools are finding in many a family’s commitment to their best education options. Yes, enrollment is down a bit. Yes, financial aid requests are up. But, in the Courant’s sample, families are making the choices and sacrifices necessary to make their tuition payments. “…Paul Keyes, a Bloomfield father who lost his job nearly two years ago and only recently found a new one, said it has been a struggle…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Official Thinkwell Blog

  • Chemistry in Action: Differences in Density Due to Temperature

    Hank Cathey
    28 Oct 2009 | 2:00 pm
    Recently, we've presented a few of our demos from Thinkwell's Physics with Prof. Ephraim Fischbach. Now we're going to change gears and look at some of our demos from Thinkwell's Chemistry. As with Physics, these Chemistry videos are full of interesting experiments. In this video, Prof. Gordon Yee from Virginia Tech shows that a material's density will differ depending on its temperature. This simple concept's impact can be seen all around us. Ocean currents are partially maintained through differences in temperature, and we can see this principle at work in hot air balloons and lava…

  • Physics in Action: Conservation of Energy

    Hank Cathey
    19 Oct 2009 | 1:06 pm
    Welcome back for another one of Prof. Ephraim Fischbach's demonstrations from Thinkwell's Physics.Today we'll look into conservation of mechanical energy. One of the fundamental principles of physics, it states that with only conservative forces (for example, gravity) acting on a system, the sum of kinetic energy and potential energy of that system remains constant.In this video, Prof. Fischbach risks life and limb to demonstrate this principle with the Giant Nose-basher. (No noses were harmed in the filming of this video.)

  • Physics in Action: Newton's Third Law of Motion

    Hank Cathey
    28 Sep 2009 | 10:26 am
    Isaac Newton's three laws of motion are the foundation of classical mechanics, one of the main branches of physics. His third law of motion states that if object A exerts a force on object B, object B always exerts a force back, and the two forces are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction to each other. In other words, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.For instance, when a bird flies, it pushes the air downward, and in turn the air pushes the bird upward. In addition, the air pushes the bird upward with just as much force as the bird exerts downward with…

  • Physics in Action: Bernoulli's Principle

    Hank Cathey
    10 Sep 2009 | 11:54 am
    Professor Ephraim Fischbach has an amazing physics lab at Purdue University, and we were fortunate enough to be able to join him for some dazzling demonstrations. In this Physics in Action video, watch as Professor Fischbach discusses and demonstrates Bernoulli's Principle, a phenomenon that allows us to fly airplanes even though they are much heavier than air. He also gets into the science of sports, showing how this physical phenomenon  affects objects in many games. Without it, a baseball pitcher couldn't throw a curveball! Take a look and see what we mean, and keep your…

  • Compound Interest

    Hank Cathey
    19 Aug 2009 | 2:34 pm
    I often felt like my math classes were useless and that there was no way I was ever going to use something like logarithms in life after school. Boy, was I wrong. In fact, here's a great example of math we can use for our real-world situations. We see compound interest in circumstances such as savings accounts and car loans. Here's a way you can use algebra to figure out how much you'll make, or pay, when you're confronted with interest rates. Watch now as Professor Edward Burger shows us how to figure compound interest by using logarithms.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Patrick Malley

  • 27″ iMac i7 Now Shipping

    Patrick Malley
    6 Nov 2009 | 12:03 pm
    I logged into my bank website just a few minutes ago and noticed I have a considerably lower balance in the account I used to order my new Quad-core i7 iMac. I checked my account history and, sure enough, the charge is from Apple Online. So, I called Apple to see if this is any indication that they are shipping the iMac soon. The representative I talked to informed me that their practice to charge only once the products ordered are ready to ship. He followed this by saying that this probably means that my iMac will be on its way within the next couple of days. Now, I’m not typically the…

  • Cell Size and Scale

    Patrick Malley
    30 Oct 2009 | 5:05 pm
    Cell Size and Scale Fascinating use of technology to help students learn from the University of Utah.

  • How Many People Are In Space Right Now?

    Patrick Malley
    21 Oct 2009 | 11:25 am
    How Many People Are In Space Right Now? And, if you’re too busy to check the site, there’s even an RSS feed. Good to know.

  • Great School Websites

    Patrick Malley
    29 Sep 2009 | 6:01 pm
    Great School Websites There’s a lot of good tips in this article by Paul Haigh. Here’s my favorite: The best system is to use one public site as a portal for all stake holders to use. This way the site gets all the traffic through one initial front page and this can be used to promote the ethos and character of the school. Edit: It appears that the author of this article has taken his site private.

  • Why Teachers Should Blog

    Patrick Malley
    15 Sep 2009 | 10:37 am
    Why Teachers Should Blog Best argument I’ve read for an act that is sometimes tough to defend. My blog represents me not as an edited professional voice, but as a human being struggling to express ideas, thoughts, reactions, dreams, and general b.s. via a means that uncompromisingly allows for the immediate feedback of strangers and fellow wanderers.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Dear Librarian

  • Do you know of any good sites about electricity and magnetism?

    Dear Librarian
    15 Nov 2009 | 10:11 pm
    There are many resources to be found about electricity and magnetism.  There’s even a lecture from a professor at MIT that’s been video taped to help understand the connection between these two scientific concepts of electricity and magnetism.  While it’s very long (1 hour and 41 minutes!), it’s filled with clear examples and demonstrations of how electricity and magnetism work. Here’s the video of a lecture given by Walter Lewin to young students taken from MIT World: Along with this video there are many websites offering valuable information. For example try…

  • Can you give us more cool authors’ sites?

    Dear Librarian
    15 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm
    Yes, with the help of ISB’s Fifth Grade I can.  Here are a few (21) more favorites with the link to the author or series’ web page on the picture:

  • Do authors have websites?

    Dear Librarian
    21 Oct 2009 | 12:25 am
    Yes! Many of them do, and many authors have very interactive and informative websites.  It’s always worth doing a search on the Internet either by the author’s name or the series they write. For example when you search for the Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan, you will find this exceptional site filled with a detailed map, quizzes, a widget, and even the ability to become an online ranger’s apprentice. When you search for Madonna’s series called The English Roses, you get linked to a really neat site.  It’s filled with links and character…

  • Is it possible to talk without speaking?

    Dear Librarian
    16 Oct 2009 | 6:36 am
    Yes, it is! Especially by chatting online! Let’s try…. First, please join me by going to this site:  http://dearlibrarian.com. Then link to this Chatzy Room already set up for us to talk without speaking.  I’ll start the first few chats, but feel free to also start one.  When you go to this link, first put in your name or alias and then click on “join.”  You’re in.  Welcome! And start talking;D Remember a couple of things about chatting: Capital letters are used to emphasize, but if used too much they seem like shouting.  Shortened text is all right…

  • Where can I find recipes online?

    Dear Librarian
    12 Oct 2009 | 11:54 pm
    There are many, many excellent places to find recipes online. Here are five different sites to help find the recipe you need. Epicurious.com is an old favorite.  It takes recipes and compiles them from these magazines:  Gourmet, bon appetit, cookie, SELF, PARADE, and Nutrition Data.  Not only does this serve as a database of all the recipes published from the magazines, but there are also menus, activities, and videos. Tastespotting.com is a new favorite.  It’s a simple concept of fellow food bloggers sharing their best recipes.  You don’t have to be a member to take…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    WeboWord-Vocabulary Visually!

  • Tractable – Docile; Easy to control

    weboword
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it. Pronounced as Trak (Emphasized) + Tuhbl {Listen to it here} It comes from Latin root Tractabilis which means to handle. Situational Uses / Sentences: The computation time to perform a complete search is not tractable. The organism can be cultured under defined conditions. It is genetically tractable. Post from: WeboWord Unable to follow the daily updates? Subscribe to WeboWord Express today @ http://www.weboword.com/express and give your vocab building a boost!  

  • Insipid – Dull; Lacking in character; Flavorless

    weboword
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it. Pronounced as In + Sip (emphasized) + Pid {Listen to it here} It comes from Latin insipidus which means tasteless from the root Sapidus which means having a flavor. Situational Uses / Sentences: He has quite a good voice, it’s just a shame they gave him a rather insipid song to sing. I was surprised to find that the fashion designer opted for such an insipid dress to wear. Post from: WeboWord Unable to follow the daily updates? Subscribe to WeboWord Express today @ http://www.weboword.com/express and…

  • Erudite – Having or showing great knowledge through study and reading

    weboword
    18 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am
    Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it. Pronounced as Eruh (Emphasized) + Dite (rhyming with Light) {Listen to it here} or Eryuh (Emphasized) + Dite {Listen to it here} It comes from the Latin root erudire which means to instruct. Situational Uses / Sentences: My parents tend to opt for very erudite books which some of my friends find unreadable. It goes way beyond what even the most erudite scholar could possibly have known about in its entirety. Post from: WeboWord Unable to follow the daily updates? Subscribe to WeboWord Express today @…

  • Inherent – Something that is intrinsic/basic

    weboword
    17 Nov 2009 | 5:31 am
    Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it. Pronounced as In + Heer (emphasized) + Uhnt {Listen to it here} It comes from Latin root Inhaerere which means to stick to. Situational Uses/ Sentences: The longer game length powerfully highlighted the inherent weakness of the design; luck played far too large a part in the outcome. “I think the most important ideas in that song were already inherent in it before we recorded it.” Post from: WeboWord Unable to follow the daily updates? Subscribe to WeboWord Express today @…

  • Enigmatic – Hard to understand

    weboword
    16 Nov 2009 | 5:30 am
    Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it. It is based on Enigma which comes from Greek Ainigma which means fable/mystery. Pronounced as Enigg + Matick (Just as in Automatic) [Emphasized] {Listen to it here} Situational Uses / Sentences: Much of the imagery of this chapel will seem very enigmatic to most of you. The enigmatic stone mounds of Alabama – StonePages.com Post from: WeboWord Unable to follow the daily updates? Subscribe to WeboWord Express today @ http://www.weboword.com/express and give your vocab building a boost!  
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    YouTube: Education

  • President Obama Announces $4 Billion Investment in Education

    whitehouse
    4 Nov 2009 | 8:08 pm
    President Obama Announces $4 Billion Investment in Education The President announces the Race to the Top Fund, a program where states will compete for over $4 billion in Federal funds to strengthen Americas schools and put children first. November 4, 2009. (Public Domain) From: whitehouse Views: 4737 154 ratings Time: 32:03 More in News & Politics

  • Carey Mulligan gets An Education

    itn
    31 Oct 2009 | 1:06 am
    Carey Mulligan gets An Education Carey Mulligan, Emma Thompson and Dominic Cooper star in a coming-of-age drama set in the 1960s. . Follow us on twitter at twitter.com From: itn Views: 2188 5 ratings Time: 03:03 More in Entertainment

  • Initiatives in Education

    googletechtalks
    26 Oct 2009 | 10:24 am
    Initiatives in Education Google Tech Talk October 20, 2009 ABSTRACT Presented by Maggie Johnson, Google Director of Education and University Relations, at the NSF Computer Science Education Leadership Summit. Google believes that all students should have the opportunity to become active creators of tomorrows technology. Through our diverse set of education efforts, we invest in the next generation of computer scientists and engineers, providing opportunities for all students to engage more directly in technology. To ... From: googletechtalks Views: 1669 16 ratings Time: 30:07 More in Science…

  • 'An Education' Trailer HD

    hollywoodstreams
    15 Jul 2009 | 10:17 am
    'An Education' Trailer HD In the post-war, pre-Beatles London suburbs, a bright schoolgirl is torn between studying for a place at Oxford and the more exciting alternative offered to her by a charismatic older man. From: hollywoodstreams Views: 49130 131 ratings Time: 02:23 More in Film & Animation

  • Eric Prydz vs. Floyd - Proper Education

    ministryofsoundde
    2 Feb 2009 | 12:32 pm
    Eric Prydz vs. Floyd - Proper Education Videoclip: Eric Prydz vs. Floyd - Proper Education Label: www.ministryofsound.de From: ministryofsoundde Views: 252085 561 ratings Time: 03:28 More in Music
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Pairadimes for Your Thoughts

  • moments

    Dave Truss
    16 Nov 2009 | 1:41 am
    How would you define a moment? I love how this video takes absolutely random visuals and makes a story out of them… a story about the value of time, or at least single moments in time. This video changes my breathing pattern, it alters my thoughts, moment by moment, in a way that says more than words can. I think too often we let moments slip by when they should be cherished. Take a moment now and enjoy… (for those of you behind a filter who can’t get YouTube: Watch it here.)

  • Cassie and Katie have blogs!

    Dave Truss
    1 Nov 2009 | 12:47 am
    Please welcome my daughters, new bloggers Cassie and Katie to the blogosphere. Cassie has uploaded some photos of our Xi’an trip to tell you a bit about our recent vacation. Katie started her blog with 3 simple introductory sentences and an updated ‘About’ page. I’m not sure how much they will use their blogs yet? My hope is that they will chronicle their adventures here in China, however I don’t plan on making writing on their blog mandatory. They get enough homework here that I don’t want to add anything to their plate that they don’t want to do. I…

  • Caring across the curriculum

    Dave Truss
    14 Oct 2009 | 3:49 pm
    Caring across the curriculum Sometimes I get tired of seeing the school day broken into subject-matter based courses. We don’t teach subjects we teach students, and students of all ages engage in a real life that matters across individual fields of study. Watch the video Miniature Earth: How many different ’subjects’ can we teach with this video? How real is the Math? How relevant is the Social Studies? Can we tie in History? Current Events? Economics? Environmental Issues? Healthy Living? How far can we extend the learning? These are 1990 statistics from the state of the…

  • Facebook Revisited

    Dave Truss
    11 Oct 2009 | 2:40 am
    A 2nd year teacher that I keep in touch with sent me an email yesterday: “Hey Dave! How do you feel about adding students as friends on Facebook?  I use my Facebook mainly as a communication tool. I don’t put anything up that I wouldn’t want people to see.  In the evening, my students have trouble getting in touch with me via [district] email, so I’ve had a few messages via facebook (which they can do without being my friend.) I have had a few requests from legitimate students.  There have been a few requests from students I don’t want on my list…and I…

  • Openness and Acceptance, Mr Deng and his Allegories of Windows, Flies and Coloured Cats

    Dave Truss
    5 Oct 2009 | 3:24 pm
    We just completed a vacation in Xi’an, one of China’s oldest cities and the starting point for the silk road. The silk road was the first gateway to and from the Orient, it was the first real global link to the ‘Eastern’ countries of India and China. Trade of spices and silk, as well as cultural exchanges, started to take shape and lay the foundation for ‘world trade’ long before Europeans ‘discovered’ the America’s (in their quest for a shorter route to the East). This was the first of many ‘windows’ open to a new, more…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Teaching That Sticks

  • Class Tools

    11 Nov 2009 | 7:08 pm
    Just this morning I had an excellent experience using an exciting interactive site called Class Tools which allows you to create games, activities, and diagrams in Flash (without knowing a thing about Flash!).While covering an eighth grade social studies class, I informed students that they would be creating review games for an upcoming test. They were less than enthusiastic (and those of you who are familiar with the typical enthusiasm level of eighth graders will know that causing them to be even less excited was something of a real feat).Hoping to rescue the moment, I asked if some of them…

  • Multiplicational

    1 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am
    You've probably seen this before, but it's new to me! While some math teachers might think it's gimmicky, I think a great exercise for students when confronted with any gimmick is to figure out how it works. And, does it always work?Multiplicational. @ Yahoo! Video

  • Questionaut: Out of This World Game

    30 Oct 2009 | 7:54 am
    Tucked away in the BBC Bitesize KS2 Games section is a quirky little game called Questionaut. It has no flashy intro and no instructions, and that's precisely the way its creator intends it.Questionaut begins with a placid enough scene: a strangely hairy, organic shape floats freely in space, accompanied by some funky synth music. A fish jumps in a pond, a creature sitting in a tree weaves a basket, and a small blue figure wearing pilot's cap and goggles dangles his foot over the pond. But nothing happens. So instinctively, the user moves the cursor about, looking for some clues. When placed…

  • What Student Writing Teaches Us: The Blog Tour

    29 Jun 2009 | 5:17 pm
    Today I have the pleasure of hosting Mark Overmeyer's Blog Tour for his Stenhouse publication What Student Writing Teaches Us. This fabulous new book (see my full review in the post below) answers many of the questions teachers have about using formative assessments to improve student writing. I also challenged readers of this blog to send in questions for the author which might not have been addressed in the book.(For those of you who haven't checked it out yet, you'll find the full book online at the Stenhouse site).I was surprised at the in-depth responses Mark provided for the questions…

  • What Student Writing Teaches Us

    5 Jun 2009 | 7:01 pm
    When conducting my How to Teach a Novel workshop, I’m frequently asked how to best assess reading. I’ve recently noticed, however, that participants ask just as many questions about assessing student writing. For that reason alone, I’m pleased to participate in the Blog Tour for Mark Overmeyer and his Stenhouse publication What Student Writing Teaches Us. This extremely practical yet highly informed book answers many of the questions I’ve asked myself over the past 20 years, or heard from my colleagues in teacher workshops.Prior to Mark’s visit here on June 29th, I encourage you to…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Teach with Picture Books

  • Book Giveaways

    19 Nov 2009 | 5:23 am
    Today I'm pleased to announce the winners of America's White Table by Margot Raven, illustrated by Mike Benny. I'm also pleased to announce another free book giveaway as well.Our first winner is Marcia from North Carolina, who responded:I'm so excited! I teach on a military base and many of my students' parents are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. I see the strength and determination of these wonderful families on a daily basis. My students understand, first hand, the sacrifices that are being made to protect our country. I am sure they will enjoy this book and the tribute it pays to all of…

  • Blueberry Girl

    15 Nov 2009 | 8:19 pm
    I'll be announcing winners for America's White Table tomorrow. In fact, due to the impressive number of requests for that book, I'll also be announcing another giveaway!In the meantime, enjoy this beautiful trailer for Blueberry Girl, a gorgeous picture book from the usually-kinda-scary but nonetheless extremely talented Newbery Award winner Neil Gaiman.

  • Remembering Those Who Served

    8 Nov 2009 | 6:22 pm
    According to the Veterans Day Teacher Resource Guide offered to schools by the United States Department of Veteran Affairs,In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill proclaiming November 11th as Veterans Day and called upon Americans everywhere to rededicate themselves to the cause of peace. He issued a Presidential Order directing the head of the Veterans Administration, now the Department of Veterans Affairs, to form a Veterans Day National Committee to organize and oversee the national observance of Veterans Day.This Wednesday, November 11th, we as teachers must remind our…

  • Top Ten Stories Behind Dr. Seuss

    1 Nov 2009 | 9:25 am
    I'm a latecomer to this, but a post at Mental Floss details ten stories behind some of Dr. Seuss's most popular tales. A quick, fun read for fans!Also take some time to poke around the site for other fun stuff with which to waste your time (yet possibly fine tune your mind as well).

  • Winners for The Listeners

    30 Oct 2009 | 4:33 pm
    Thanks to all entered the drawing for The Listeners by Gloria Whelan from Sleeping Bear Press. I'm pleased to announce that Cindy from Nebraska, Colleen from New Jersey, and Maureen from Massachusetts are our winners.From Cindy comes this message upon receipt of the good news: I am a graduate student in elementary ed after having taught music for 20 yearsor so. My intent is to teach in a low socio-economic, under-performing school,and I would hope to be with fourth graders. Although it seems as if the age level for the book is probably a little bit younger, I think it could be integrated into…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    SensoryEdge Educational Toys and Kids Furniture

  • Winter Vacation from School: Know What?

    SensoryEdge
    18 Nov 2009 | 9:52 pm
    The holidays are meant to be fun for kids and adults alike, but before you rush out and buy the latest and greatest toys this year, stop and think. You want to choose toys and games your kids will love, but since these may make up the bulk of his playthings for the coming year, you want them to have some educational value as well. Don't worry, you can find great gifts that will stimulate his brain without being blatantly educational. Your kids won’t even know the difference! Our favorite kinds of toys for both learning and hours of fun? Memory Games: These can be as simple as a few cards…

  • Holiday Gift Ideas for Kids

    SensoryEdge
    15 Nov 2009 | 10:30 am
    Picking out gifts for your children can be a real task, but picking out gifts for someone else's children can be downright tricky. How do you know what they already have? What they like? This can be an especially daunting task if you rarely see the child's parents or feel uncomfortable asking what you should buy. In this situation it is important that you choose toys that are suitable for children in multiple age groups and that are fairly generalized and timeless. For example, most children love coloring books but your may fair better picking one without any popular cartoon characters or…

  • Pretend Play in the Classroom

    SensoryEdge
    12 Nov 2009 | 7:59 am
    Pretend play brings out the creativity in children while encouraging them to invent their own ideas and learning cooperative play. Teachers love to see their students engaging in this kind of play because it makes the day go smoother. Having the right items in your school room encourage dramatic play at school. This hub will review some items that will help you enjoy each day as an educator.Toy Link: Standard Unit BlocksThe possibilities with blocks when it comes to pretend play are endless. One of the most insightful activities a teacher can do with blocks is to dump out some blocks in front…

  • 9 Nov 2009 | 9:29 am

    SensoryEdge
    9 Nov 2009 | 9:29 am
    Thanksgiving is right around the corner! Although you and your family are probably getting excited, buying ingredients to cook up the annual feast, and taking stock on all the things you have to be thankful for; kids often don't fully understand the meaning of this special holiday. They may even become restless and bored while you are busy with preparations. Thankfully, you can make Thanksgiving more enjoyable for your own kids, as well as any children who will be visiting with friends and family members, by keeping them in mind as you make your holiday plans. We've listed a few items to get…

  • 7 Nov 2009 | 7:14 pm

    SensoryEdge
    7 Nov 2009 | 7:14 pm
    As your kids get older you may find yourself being constantly bombarded with new toys, games, and other necessities to put away. And while your child's collection of fun things may continue to get bigger, your home may not. Not to worry. All it takes is a little time and preparation, and you can get your home more organized and tidy before the Christmas mother load takes over. Best of all, you may just teach your kids and thing or two about helping others and the true meaning of while you're at it!Toy Link: Plastic Storage ShelvesHere are a few great ways to free up more space in your home…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Empowered High Schools

  • Video Presentation Available Through Illinois Association of School Administrators

    Charles
    2 Nov 2009 | 8:10 pm
    The Illinois Association of School Administrators which is the Illinois superintendent’s group contracted with me to put together a short video about RtI implementation at the high school level.  They were the recipients of RESPRO grant funds and are putting together a wonderful library of resources for superintendents. This video is a quick shot of just a few of the things that we cover in our presentations on RtI.  I was trying to avoid the 30 minute threshold and actually went longer than intended.  It should give you a sense of some of our material. It was a fun experience.

  • Great Link - St. Croix, MN

    Charles
    2 Nov 2009 | 7:47 pm
    I found a great site today that is full of much of the essential reading for RtI.  Check out the St. Croix River Education District’s RtI Site.  It’s well worth your time.  I would recommend it to anyone who is just beyond the early learning stages and looking forward to sinking teeth into some of the more theoretical and systems implementation articles. Let me know what you think. Chalres

  • Web Traffic

    Charles
    31 Oct 2009 | 7:34 am
    We’ve had a nice spike in web traffic from around the country. We’d love to engage people in a conversation from around the country. There is so much great work being done that we would like to help facilitate spreading it around.

  • Illinois State ACT Conference

    admin
    24 Oct 2009 | 5:29 am
    Howard and Charles will be presenting at the Illinois State ACT Conference on December 1 and 2, 2009.  They are scheduled for 2 presentations on each day.  Their program is a perfect fit for aligning curriculum to the ACT College Readiness Standards without sacrificing preferred content.  If you are attending the conference, please stop in and seem them.

  • Our Webinar is Available at the IPA Site

    Charles
    14 Oct 2009 | 5:15 pm
    You can access a recording of our recent webinar at the Illinois Principals Association web site. This is the first episode in what will eventually be an 8 part series.  In this episode, we provide an overview of our 9 step model. Hope you enjoy.  Let us know what you think. Thanks, Charles
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    International Education Blogs & News

  • 19 Nov 2009 | 9:25 am

    19 Nov 2009 | 9:25 am

  • IHEC Blog now has a Facebook Fanpage

    22 Oct 2009 | 11:36 am
    This past weekend I created a Facebook fanpage for IHEC Blog. My intent when I first opened a Facebook account was to create a page for IHEC Blog but I experienced a few difficulties in this endeavor so my Facebook account became simply a personal account. Only in the past 2-3 months have I become more active in my Facebook usage and have started to become a fan of and/or joined various groups including:350.orgAcademic Programs International - APIAmerican DiplomacyAsiaLearnAspire by API - High School and Gap Year Study AbroadAustraLearnDAAD North AmericaEducationUSAEuroLearnFoundation for…

  • IHEC Blog will Participate in Blog Action Day 2009 Focusing on Climate Change

    29 Sep 2009 | 10:37 am
    October 15th will be Blog Action Day 2009 and International Higher Education Consulting Blog has registered and will participate. The theme of Blog Action Day 2009 is Climate Change and my plan is to highlight the various efforts and resources in the field of international education that focus on climate change. Examples of what might be included in my Blog Action Day post are:- Social networks/listservs for international educators that focus on sustainability and greening the field- study abroad/exchange programs with significant course content focused on climate change/the environment-…

  • Interviewed about being an International Education Blogger

    10 Sep 2009 | 12:34 am
    During the NAFSA: Association of International Educators conference in Washington D.C. (May 2009) I was interviewed on video by Ruth Marie Sylte of Manitou Heights (Conversations about Crossing Cultures and Bridging Divides in the Information Age) about being a blogger. Here is our conversation:I want to thank Ruth Marie Sylte for making and posting my first and only video to YouTube! You can view Manitou Heights YouTube channel here

  • Compiling List of Movies/Television Programs where the Characters go Abroad

    13 Aug 2009 | 10:33 am
    I’m creating a list of movie and television programs where the characters go abroad as part of the storyline. You can access this growing list here: http://tinyurl.com/ql4h9g. I’m not specifically looking for international education experiences. International education experiences of characters in movies and television programs are of course desired but I’m looking more broadly at any character(s) that cross borders as a part of the storyline. If you know of any movies and/or television programs that should be added and have a free minute please visit http://tinyurl.com/ql4h9g to…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    full agenda

  • Women Rising. What's next?

    misha
    12 Nov 2009 | 5:50 pm
    According to a recent article in the Monitor, of the 130 students admitted to Makerere University's faculty of law this year, 106 are women. Of the 100 law graduates admitted to Uganda's Law Development Centre, through which all lawyers must pass before practicing, 58 are women. Reflective of a recent trend in Ugandan legal education, these numbers are becoming increasingly typical in many countries. In South Africa, nearly 56% of all university students are women. In the U.S., women have comprised the bulk of college entrants for years.A story on NPR's Morning Edition yesterday called…

  • The Incredibly Precarious Status of University Professors

    misha
    11 Nov 2009 | 7:10 am
    Concerned about what it perceives as new threats to academic freedom of speech, the Association of American University Professors (AAUP) has launched an action campaign called Speak Up, Speak Out: Protect the Faculty Voice on Campus. Complete with a website, action toolkit and comprehensive report just released, the AAUP has mounted a major defensive against the application in higher education settings of the 2006 Supreme Court ruling in Garcetti v. Ceballos.Without exploring the fact that this is a great strategy on the part of AAUP for reasserting its relevance--the organization has been in…

  • Can Someone Say Anachronism?

    misha
    8 Nov 2009 | 7:05 am
    I know I am not the only person shocked by the recent row at Hampton University, a historically black university in the U.S., over the crowning of the first white Miss Hampton. I could not care less that Miss Hampton is white (or even that she appealed to President Obama to school her classmates on racial tolerance!), but I am appalled that Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) still hold beauty pageants.In her article titled "Miss Who?" Elizabeth Reed, a student writer for the North Carolina State University Spartan Echo, does not even come close to questioning the tradition…

  • Adding Value: Higher Education and New Technologies

    misha
    6 Nov 2009 | 5:47 pm
    Yesterday, I attended a luncheon discussion headlined by Gwen Ifill, moderator and managing editor of Washington Week, a popular show on U.S. public television. The event honored woman leaders and Ifill's remarks were both insightful and inspiring. When asked by a member of the audience what issues she thought most deserved to be covered in the media, but were not, she said that there were many, but had recently heard President Barack Obama state that he wished more attention would be paid to his efforts to promote and improve education. Indeed, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been…

  • Social Media and the University

    misha
    30 Oct 2009 | 6:46 pm
    I mindlessly made the following remark a couple of months ago to a colleague--an avid blogger, tweeter and iPhone user-- as he prepared to deliver remarks before an undergraduate convocation:"Now look, you cannot use your iPhone to tweet while you are on stage sitting next to the president."After closing my mouth, I paused and thought to myself: why ever not? Because it would be a rude distraction? Or because tweeting was inappropriate in sacred academic spaces, amid the gowns, gonfalons and other regalia? Or because I'd never seen it done before? Well, it would certainly have been a bit of a…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    TradePub: Education

  • Student Group Tour Magazine

    27 Oct 2009 | 11:20 am
    Every issue contains information focusing on student oriented destinations, itineraries, travel trends, and information covering all aspects of student travel. With the regional breakdown, articles and advertisements are placed within their respective section of the magazine for easy reference.Request Free!

  • Tech & Learning

    1 Oct 2009 | 12:20 am
    For almost 30 years, Tech & Learning has served the K-12 education community with cutting-edge news, practical resources and expert strategies for transforming education through integration of digital technologies. No other resource helps educators get up to speed with the emerging technologies and products in order to best prepare students for the global digital workforce.Request Free!
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    tweenteacher.com

  • Open Letter to Obama – Facebook Campaign

    heather
    15 Nov 2009 | 8:30 pm
    My fellow Teacher Leader Network colleague, Anthony Cody, recently began a Facebook campaign which has lit a fire in teachers from around the country. Open Letters to President Obama asks teachers to write a letter to our president and Secretary Duncan in the form of a discussion post about our concerns in their current educational policies. Cody explains his mission in his Living in Dialogue post as well as on the Facebook page which has, to this date, inspired over 400 educators to voice their concerns about the direction of this current administration. Each week, Anthony Cody send the…

  • What Kind of Relationship Will I Have With My Child’s School?

    heather
    15 Nov 2009 | 8:30 pm
    This year is unlike any other in that for the first time, I am on the other side of the desk. My 3 year-old started pre-school this year and it has become a lesson in parenting and teaching like no other. Ms. E is my son’s appropriately bubbly teacher. She has smiles in her eyes and hugs for all. But you can also tell she’s no push over and seems to know each kid for who they are. The classroom environment reflects the learning going on, and quotes from each kid pepper the walls in response to critical-thinking questions, predictions, and emotional temperature taking. When I pick him up…

  • Teaching From Afar: Using Twitter While Absent

    heather
    8 Nov 2009 | 9:04 am
    I’ve always been a multi-tasker. It frustrated my own teachers at times in that I always needed to be doing two things at once in order to be fully alert. My brain worked like riding a bicycle: if I only moved slowly, my attention span fell over. And during my most recent Edutopia meeting, I was no less occupied. As I sat in meeting at Skywalker Ranch listening to some of the greatest minds dedicated to education, my head was also in the classroom. It’s true. While I was learning, I was also teaching. Edutopia’s National Advisory Council consists of multiple classroom…

  • Teacher by Day, WOW Warrior by Night

    heather
    3 Nov 2009 | 10:33 pm
    My name is Morigold. I am a dwarf paladin from Ironforge. My traveling companion, Balrong, is a night elf who hails from Darnaccus. Now let me translate: My name is Heather Wolpert-Gawron. I am a teacher and blogger who, once my toddler is asleep, plays World of Warcraft with my husband, Royce. Yes, it’s true. I’m a teacher who plays WOW.(...)Read the rest of Teacher by Day, WOW Warrior by Night (773 words) © heather for tweenteacher.com, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: education, online games, RPG, Second Life, world of warcraft, wow Feed enhanced by…

  • My Struggles with Tenure

    heather
    21 Oct 2009 | 9:48 am
    I’m really struggling with my feelings about tenure. Currently, the conversation goes as follows: “Hey, I got tenure.” “Cool, pass the mustard.” When, in fact, it should be: “Hey, I got tenure!” “Are you kidding? That’s fantastic! Holy %^$#@, you must be great at what you do!” It’s true. How can our current system be effective if just about anyone can receive a reward as incredible as the equivalent of a job shield? Heck, even in World of Warcraft you have to be at a certain level, and prove a certain amount of ability, before…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    El Milagro Weblog

  • ZYDECO HELLRAISERS

    Kevin W. Riley
    20 Nov 2009 | 10:57 am
    What happens to Attention Deficit Disorder when it grows up? Sometimes it is channeled into extraordinary gifts. So Michael Phelps Picasso JFK James Carville Robin Williams… …are all reputed ADHD guys. This is hardly an exhaustive list but it’s enough to give you a flavor. I think if they named every person ever diagnosed with ADHD we would be surprised by some of the folks that were on the list– and yet not surprised at all. We would recognize the extraordinarily talented individuals who have managed to channel the annoying distractability, the daydreaming, the…

  • WHAT IF HOPE WAS A NATIONAL PROMISE?

    Kevin W. Riley
    14 Nov 2009 | 9:28 am
    So we are down in Georgia attending a community charity event for Intuit. I didn’t bring my laptop so I am writing this post from my phone. No pics today… just this thought: what if the “free and public education” system extended into college? Like here in Georgia. Clay told me that every graduating senior in the state is eligible for the Hope Scholarship; if they maintain a minimum GPA, and get accepted into a university in Georgia, all tuition is covered! An awesome program. I wonder how many states offer their kids the same promise? How many kids take advantage of…

  • CHILDREN GROOMED TO SOW OUR FATHER’S PEACE

    Kevin W. Riley
    7 Nov 2009 | 12:23 pm
    My father was a  member  of the “greatest generation”.  Salt of the earth.  Bright.  Self-educated.  A patriot.  As an officer of the United States Navy he saw action in both World War II and Korea.  He was on the blockade in the Mediterranean when Krushchev’s missile-bearing fleet tested JFK’s courage.  All those brave Americans from Massachusettes and from Camden… and not one of them blinked.  And so Russia was turned back and it was the beginning of the end of the USSR. My father’s service to his nation was not provided for political purposes…

  • CHEATING OUR KIDS

    Kevin W. Riley
    1 Nov 2009 | 8:01 am
    This past week the National Center for Education Statisticsreleased a report that may have been a shocker for people outside of the education industry:  when it comes to student achievement, many of our states are cheating!  Or at the very least, they are cheating their kids. According to an article in Education Week, their results suggest that between 2005 and 2007, various states made their standards less rigorous in one or more grade levels or subjects in at least 26 instances. “I think as 2014 looms, … clearly what a lot of states are doing is changing the bar so that a lot…

  • CALIFORNIA, THINKING, AND THE WILD WILD WEST

    Kevin W. Riley
    25 Oct 2009 | 8:22 pm
    Corporate CEO’s and forward thinkers like to use the Wayne Gretzky analogy.  Gretzky scored 940 some goals in his 20 career in the NHL.  But he never skated to the puck in order to take his magic shots.  If he skated to a hockey puck angling off the boards at 100 mph, it would be gone by the time he got there.  So Gretzky was as good as any hockey player that ever played the game… at skating to where the puck was going to be. That’s forward thinking. Broad vision. So in light of the Wayne Gretzky analogy, this week’s lead story in TIME Magazine is reassuring.  California, it…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Pensamientos

  • Companion Website for ¡Buen Viaje! 1

    [Marcy Webb]
    16 Nov 2009 | 6:55 am
    I really admire language teachers who can construct websites to extend the learning of the textbook they are using.  This link will take you to one such website.  I happened upon it as I was looking for a worksheet on the Spanish contractions, al and del. What do I like about the aforementioned website? It offers a variety of interactive online activities, and taps into multi-sensory learning and teaching. Please use and share! ¡Mil gracias, Mendy Colbert!

  • A Gentle Reminder...

    [Marcy Webb]
    10 Nov 2009 | 4:29 am
    "I wouldn't say I invented tacky, but I definitely brought it to its present high popularity."  Bette Midler for those who drop by my blog, and advertise their product or service in the comment section of blog posts: My blog is not free advertising space for products or services.  Furthermore, please do not leave comments to posts, asking me to post this, that and a third, for a product or service.  BTW: I work hard to construct my posts.  Dropping a comment to advertise a product or a service which has nothing to do with the post in question is rather tacky, and…

  • A Man Who's Not Even in the 20th Century, Never Mind the 21st

    [Marcy Webb]
    26 Oct 2009 | 6:54 am
    "I came into this landmine of Anglos versus Spanish versus Mexicans versus Indians versus everybody up here. I'm just doing what I've always done."  Larry Whitten  This clown, in order to turn around a failing hotel, wanted Latinos to change their names.  But, folks weren't having it.  Read the story here. You're a racist, Larry.  It's the proverbial truth.

  • Funny Spanish Versions of Two Popular TV Infomercials

    [Marcy Webb]
    21 Oct 2009 | 3:37 pm
    Here's Vince of Sham Wow! and Slap Chop fame talking in Spanish.  Yes; it's really him speaking.  For whatever reason, I wasn't able to embed the videos.  Although the Spanish isn't pristine, it's good entertainment for your Spanish classes, nonetheless.  Enjoy!  

  • Columbus Day

    [Marcy Webb]
    13 Oct 2009 | 5:31 am
    Hispanics have a particular concern when it comes to the celebration of Columbus.  It used to be that Hispanics would argue with Italians over who had more of a claim to the Columbus expedition.  While Columbus was Italian, his expeditions were funded and powered by the Iberian nations of Spain and Portugal.  These two nations would dominate the European exploration the Western hemisphere in cooperation with the talents of other Latin nations.  Today, it seems as if it's everyone versus the American Indians on whether to celebrate the life of Columbus.  From, Las…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    TotalGadha GMAT

  • Cut The Crap!

    Dagny
    30 Oct 2009 | 8:19 pm
    It’s been a long time since I last posted.  Sindhoor came to my rescue again. Dagny Many of the questions in GMAT’s SC section are on pronoun- antecedent agreement or Subject-Verb agreement.  When you look at it, the concept of “Agreement” is very simple to understand. Singular subject should have a singular verb and plural subject should have a plural verb. ‘Team India are playing for pride today as they are already out of the cup’ is wrong. By using both ‘are’ and ‘they’ the test setter tries to confuse you. Because ‘Team India’ is…

  • Discovering MBA in The Netherlands

    Dagny
    8 Oct 2009 | 11:08 am
    You have read articles by Sindhoor, we would like to introduce you to Gargi Mohan. He is a civil engineer from Allahabad who like to read, swim and travel during his free time. He had been  kin d enough to lend me a helping hand when I am busy working for our CAT 2009 members.–Dagny MBA in the land of tulips. Popular for tulips,windmills, and polders (land reclaimed from marshes and fenland), Netherlands is now fastly becoming an important destination for MBA aspirants. This geographically small nation is now among the leading countries in the world in terms of well being, human…

  • The Magic of Thinking Big

    Dagny
    29 Sep 2009 | 8:44 am
    Sometimes we get the best suggestions about life from the places that we are least expecting from. I am talking about movies and comics. Well! we watch movies to get entertained and not gain insight about life, right? I watched ‘The Pursuit of Happyness” the other day. The movie is going in my list of ‘my all time favourite movies’ list. Why I loved it so much? For one, it was a Will Smith movie. Every time I watch his movies, I am left amazed by the greatness of his talent. Apart from that the movie is based on a true story. It leaves you wondering about the kinds of…

  • The Ifs and Buts in Columbia Info Session 2009 - New Delhi

    Dagny
    10 Sep 2009 | 1:02 am
    I attended Columbia Business School’s info session here in Delhi today. I generally like the professionalism in most Business school sessions and how the speakers market their business schools, I would give an A+ to Columbia’s session. I would state my reasons in a while but I think Linda Maheen, Assistant Dean for admissions, was one of the most honest speakers I have come across. She was honest about the information that she was giving. She didn’t try to hide or manipulate things. Last month I also attended the session by Rose Martinelli so I ended up making a clear…

  • Indiana Kelley School of Business Essays and Deadlines 2009-2010

    Dagny
    9 Sep 2009 | 12:36 am
    Kelley/ Indiana Essays 2009-2010: All applicants must answer number 1. You must also choose two of the next three essay questions (2 through 4). Number 5 is optional. Please limit each essay to no more than two double-spaced pages. Finally, please include the essay number and your name at the top of each sheet. We encourage you to be  informative, creative, and concise. Mandatory Essay: Kelley Essay 1 : Please discuss your post-MBA short- and long-term professional goals. How will your professional experience, when combined with a Kelley MBA degree, allow you to achieve these goals? Choose…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Teachers Love SMART Boards

  • SMARTBoards and Creating Your Own Holiday Lessons

    James Hollis
    19 Nov 2009 | 2:11 pm
    It's so much fun for me to see teachers creating their own interactive lessons for the SMART Board and sharing them with other educators. Teachers seem more willing to share their skills and knowledge compared to other people in other professions. This is probably why "Sharing Is Caring" is such an appropriate sign-off for each of my blog posts. Here are three U.S. Thanksgiving custom word search Notebook files that I created last year. Students use the highlighter pen to find the words and then they try to solve the riddle using the remaining letters in the puzzle. Please feel free to…

  • SMARTBoards and Extending Themes in Notebook

    James Hollis
    17 Nov 2009 | 3:29 pm
    Here's a short video tutorial on how to extend a Notebook theme farther down on the page.  If you're unable to view the video, you can view it here. I have lots of other free Notebook Video Tutorials on the Teacher Online Training site.If you want to learn how to use the Notebook Software, Teacher Online Training is currently offering teachers a 15% discount on the first month of a monthly subscription.Sharing Is Caring!

  • SMARTBoards and U.S. Thanksgiving Resourses

    James Hollis
    16 Nov 2009 | 7:48 am
    Last year, I created an entire page of U.S. Thanksgiving holiday resources so my readers could find everything in one place. It includes games, puzzles, historical interactive sites, clip art, quizzes, and a few custom word search puzzles created by yours truly. I've tested and updated all the links and everything looks good to go. If you know of any other Thanksgiving-related interactive websites that work great on the SMART Board, let me know and I'll add them to the page.I'll also add some additional custom Notebook files throughout the week and continue to add images to the Thanksgiving…

  • SMARTBoards and the Halloween Safety House

    James Hollis
    29 Oct 2009 | 7:06 am
    Here's one more Notebook file that you can share with your students for Halloween. It's a fun application to help educate your students about important safety tips for Halloween. I call it the the Halloween Safety House. To use the application, students would come up to the SMART Board and touch on one of the Halloween characters. If they find the right one, it will show them a new Halloween safety tip. If they touch the wrong one, the witch will scream with delight. If they make it to the end, they can touch Frankenstein to hear the Monster Mash song. Here's a short video to show how it…

  • SMARTBoards and Inserting Sound Into Notebook

    James Hollis
    27 Oct 2009 | 7:31 am
    I have had a few inquiries about how to insert the Halloween sound files located on the Halloween resource page into the Notebook software. The easiest way to demonstrate how to do this is to create a short video tutorial.This tutorial demonstrates how to save a sound file from the Internet and insert it into Notebook so it plays when an object is touched. Notebook only uses sound files that are in the mp3 format. If you have a sound file that is in a different format, you can convert it using the Media Convert website. The sound file used in the video comes from the SMART Boards and…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Teaching Palette

  • Museum Manners

    Art museum visits and art history discussions can be great learning opportunities for students.  However, it just takes a few negative student attitudes to change the experience for the entire class. The following Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) video addresses many art conversations and museum etiquette issues in an entertaining format ...

  • Artsonia: More Than Just An Online Art Gallery

    If you're an art educator, chances are that you have heard of or even have been using Artsonia as a place to "digitally hang" student artwork.   When I started using Artsonia six years ago, I knew it would be good for my students; what I didn't know at the ...

  • LiveBinders to Manage Digital Clutter

    I try to organize all the paperwork that lands on my desk, but somehow sculptural forms (OK . . . I'll just admit it, piles of paper) take over.   I'm not sure I am going to change the way my desk looks anytime soon, but I have found a ...

  • Whole Brain Teaching

    The following is a guest post written by Katie Jarvis. She has been teaching art for nine years and currently teaches at Cameron Elementary in Alexandria, Virginia. At the beginning of every year, art teacher's everywhere make up a "rules poster" to review with students on the first day of classes. ...

  • Happy Birthday Teaching Palette!

    We made it!  One year old and we have grown in so many ways. Here's a little history on how our blog started: Email from Hillary to Theresa (Labor day weekend 2008): "What do you think about starting a blog where we can post all our classroom management stuff ?" Yea, we've come ...
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Teaching Social Media Marketing At UCLA Extension

  • Behind Coca-Cola's Biggest Social-Media Push Yet

    18 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am
     This is a good continuation article on the Coke Social Media case study we've been following throughout this semester.  We'll discuss it in tonight's class.  by Natalie ZmudaPublished: November 17, 2009 ATLANTA (AdAge.com) -- Coca-Cola is gearing up for its largest social-media project ever, one that will test its own internal flexibility and force a number of its global markets into the digital and social-media space. Expedition 206 will send three 20-somethings to 206 countries and territories where Coca-Cola is sold in 2010. The trio sets off on their 275,000-mile tour from…

  • 5 Hot Social Shopping Trends to Watch For

    11 Nov 2009 | 11:43 am
     We just talked about social shopping in our last class - using the example of both sharing and niched video sites like ShoeTubeFrom Mashable:What Is Social Shopping? Many consumers are turning toward social networks like Facebook) and Twitter), coupon aggregators like RetailMeNot and CouponCabin, and deal blogs like FatWallet or Dealfinder to find the best discounts and bargains – and they’re sharing these deals with friends, family, and the wider web. This social shopping behavior, in its nascent stages last year, is out in full force this holiday – which is why some 47% of…

  • How Ford Uses Social Media (Video)

    4 Nov 2009 | 1:13 pm
    Good best practice from Ford via Social Examiner: In this interview I talk with Scott Monty—head of social media for Ford Motor Company—and the man in charge of Ford’s social media presence and initiatives like TheFordStory.com.When you think of Ford, you might think “old American car company.” However, under the direction of Scott Monty, Ford has become one of the leading big businesses in America using social media to connect directly with consumers. And it certainly seems that Ford is on the right track to success, recently reporting 1 billion dollars in profit!In this…

  • Social Media Tips from 10 Corporations

    3 Nov 2009 | 12:03 pm
    GREAT INFO FROM BUZZSHIFT:Do you need to establish Social Media Guidelines for your company? Establishing a Social Media Handbook, Online Communication Guidelines, and Training employees on the appropriate use of social media within those guidelines, are fundamental in running a successful company. The following provided Social Media Policies and Online Communication Guides are meant to be used as a starting ground for your organization to ensure you are protecting your companies integrity through Social Media efforts. As you know these guidelines will continue to evolve as web participation…

  • Hands-on with Twitter Lists

    29 Oct 2009 | 11:36 am
    FROM CNET:When Twitter announced its new Lists feature late last month, I was excited. As someone who follows everyone who follows me, it does become difficult to see only those tweets from certain people. Lists promises to change that.Twitter's Lists feature allows you to make a themed list of Twitter users. So, let's say you wanted to create a list of only CNET writers. After you add us all, you'll be able to view only the tweets from those you added to the list. It's a nice way to edit out the noise. It helps you see only what you want to see. Twitter Lists is coming to Twitter.(Credit:…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    More Than a Test Score

  • Thanksgiving Creative Geniuses Scholarship

    David Blake
    18 Nov 2009 | 11:55 am
    We are grateful to our Zinch students and know no better way to show it than scholarships.  So, we would like to invite you all to join us for a little fun in our Creative Genius Scholarship. We are looking for the top THREE creative geniuses.  For this scholarship we will award three $1,000 winners.  The deadline is Monday, Nov 30, midnight MDT. The winner will be announced here the following Friday, Dec 4.  This scholarship is open to ANYONE who would like to participate. This scholarship requires you do two things: post an image or video PLUS a link to your zinch profile on our…

  • Happy Thanksgiving from Zinch

    David Blake
    18 Nov 2009 | 10:23 am
    Dusted this one off from the Zinch archives. Happy Thanksgiving!

  • College Admissions Tips

    Marisa
    13 Nov 2009 | 10:04 am
    There may be a lot of things looking grim about college (acceptance, tuition, student loans) but the good news is that smart applicants have more and better choices. As you begin to turn in your college applications for next fall remember some of these tips to being smarter about your college applications. 1. Apply as early as possible. Many colleges read applications as they come in. As you can imagine deadline day sees a lot of applications. Allow your application to be set apart by arriving early. 2. Try to keep C’s off your transcript. C’s tend to have the pop off the page effect…

  • Black Friday Bargain Hunting

    Marisa
    12 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am
    The day to get all your Christmas gifts has got to be on Black Friday which is the day after Thanksgiving. Finding the killer deals on all the gifts you plan to buy will save you so much money. There are some easy steps to follow as you prepare to get all there is to get out of Black Friday. First. Decide what is that you want to purchase. Decide what you want to get mom, dad, the sibling and maybe your BF or GF. If you know what you are after you can hunt down the best price. Be sure to do this for you more expensive gifts, these are the ones you want to get for cheaper. Second. Go online…

  • College Applications: 3 Tips for Writing Better College Essays

    David Blake
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:53 pm
    So you’ve done all the research. You now know where you’re applying, your SAT scores are stellar, and your list of extracurriculars is a mile long. But how do you make yourself stand out amongst the thousands of other students all fighting for the same spot at your top choice school? Writing a strong college essay is perhaps the best way to ensure that admissions officers see the student behind the cold numbers. So don’t hide who you are! Here are three tips for getting in. 1. Choose a topic that is specific to you. Students often make the mistake of choosing a topic that is too broad…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    University of Michigan-Dearborn News

  • 'Tales of Three Cities'

    12 Nov 2009 | 8:01 am
    DEARBORN / Nov. 12, 2009---The mayors of the cities of Detroit, Southfield and Dearborn will come together at the University of Michigan-Dearborn on Friday, Nov. 20 for a "Tales of Three Cities" panel discussion on a wide range of topics, including the effects of demographic and other forms of social change on their cities and the wider metropolitan community.Bankole Thompson, senior editor of the Michigan Chronicle, will moderate the discussion between Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence and Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly as part of the campus’s…

  • Free financial aid workshop

    12 Nov 2009 | 6:14 am
    DEARBORN / Nov. 12, 2009---The University of Michigan-Dearborn will host a free Financial Aid Workshop for local high school and community college students and their families on Tuesday, Dec. 1 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. inside the University Center’s Kochoff Hall, located at 4901 Evergreen Rd., on UM-Dearborn’s main campus.  Students who are interested in attending college will learn about financial aid opportunities, scholarships and the financial aid process, as well as explore options available to families facing difficult financial circumstances. Representatives from the…

  • A conversation with Nikki Giovanni

    6 Nov 2009 | 12:52 pm
    DEARBORN / Nov. 6, 2009---Poet, writer and activist Nikki Giovanni will visit the University of Michigan-Dearborn on Friday, Nov. 13 to discuss race and social justice as part of the campus’s “Conversation on Race” discussion series.    The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Kochoff Hall inside the campus’s University Center.    UM-Dearborn’s Conversation on Race, which began as a collaboration between the campus and New Detroit, is an ongoing series of forums geared toward promoting open and honest…

  • Beta Alpha Psi is 'superior chapter'

    6 Nov 2009 | 10:41 am
    DEARBORN / Nov. 6, 2009---The University of Michigan-Dearborn's Beta Alpha Psi-Kappa Sigma chapter was recognized as an international “Superior Chapter” at the national meeting of Beta Alpha Psi (BAP), the International Honorary Organization for Financial Information Professionals. To be eligible for this honor, chapters must demonstrate successful professional meetings, regional competition success and community service. UM-Dearborn’s College of Business (COB) BAP chapter earned the honor by organizing meetings on campus with accounting and business professionals, hosting various…

  • Conference on digital information management

    2 Nov 2009 | 8:56 am
    DEARBORN / Nov. 2, 2009---The Fourth International Conference on Digital Information Management, sponsored by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), will be held Nov. 2-4 at the Michigan League on the U-M Ann Arbor campus.     William Grosky, professor and chair of the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, is coordinating the conference.    “The aim of this conference is to bring together people in academia, research laboratories and industry and offer a collaborative platform to address the…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    stickylearning

  • Why do I write a blog?

    Michael Eury
    16 Nov 2009 | 3:46 pm
    I've been blogging for a year now, time flies! But with one year down my mind has turned to the question I'd imagine many bloggers ask themselves "Why do I write a blog?" I've written on books I've read, webinars, design thinking, presentation skills, twitter, informal learning, personal learning spaces and more. Am I an expert on all these areas - the answer is simple, no, I am not!  So what value is there in blogging?  Putting fingers to keyboard and then publishing your thoughts isn't always the easiest thing to do, you do make yourself vulnerable. Some things you write may be good, some…

  • Learning styles and fixed ideas

    Michael Eury
    14 Nov 2009 | 7:23 pm
    Where am I coming from?Over the last few months I've read a number of blog posts about learning styles (see references at end of post). So, do learning styles indicators measure what they say they do? (for what it matters, I'm in the 'no they don't' camp) However, this post isn't so much about whether or not they do measure actual learning styles, rather I'm more interested in why people believe so strongly that learning styles indicators do in fact provide a measure of how an individual learns best.Let's put aside our opinions for a moment!Just for the sake of it, put aside your personal…

  • Twitter for learning

    Michael Eury
    25 Oct 2009 | 4:28 pm
    Why wouldn't you use Twitter?!I've only been actively participating on Twitter for 4-5 months now. I tweet (as @stickylearning) mainly about learning related topics and follow people who also have learning as their main focus. I'm also interested in how design thinking impacts upon learning and the use of visuals to communicate ideas and knowledge. In the few months that I've been active on Twitter I have been exposed to more ideas from more sources than in whole years previously. The people I follow find links to articles and research that I'd never come across, I can't always find time to…

  • Designing successful learning - walking 'a fine line'

    Michael Eury
    21 Oct 2009 | 5:35 am
    Designing a way forwardDesigning - the first word of this post's title and the overall focus of this post! Over the last couple of months I've read and re-read Hartmut Esslingers book, 'a fine line'. It's rare that I re-read a book straight after reading it, however my mind was drawn back again and again to the book. Upon each re-visit I left the book ever more certain that the design lessons contained within it were essential for successful learning design.My recent post, Scared of first, finished with ten reasons why businesses are not fully embracing new learning technologies and…

  • Breaking the learning drought

    Michael Eury
    11 Oct 2009 | 9:52 pm
    In the city I live in, Melbourne, Australia, we have been in drought for most of the last decade. Water storages had recently fallen to just over 25% full. A few weeks ago however it rained and rained and rained, not drought ending rain, but the best anyone could remember in ages. Each day in the local papers are updates on the state of the city's water storages, the updates show how many megalitres the storages have gone up or down from the previous day. During the recent rainy period the first couple of days showed no increase in water levels, but after a few days of rain water levels…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Teaching with Contests.com

  • BECAUSE TEACHING IS AN ADVENTURE

    Ed Conti
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:25 pm
    Surviving the first year of teaching can be rough! That’s what New Teacher Survival Central is all about and proof is in the prizes. Each month we’ll give away a classroom survival pack, chock full of useful supplies and valuable technology products. PLUS, each time you enter you are registered to win our grand prize. Tell a friend! If she wins you’ll win a trip too. Check out all the exciting details below and enter today and every day to improve your chances of winning. DETAILS: CLICK HERE ShareThis

  • TARGET - LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE

    Ed Conti
    19 Nov 2009 | 1:20 pm
    Books have wings. You can’t see them, but they are there just the same. On books’ wings, readers can soar to new places where they meet intriguing characters and experience exciting adventures. But a book’s wings can also help a reader rise above difficult situations - like peer pressure, bullying or prejudice, or to cope with disappointment and loss. Have you ever felt the power and lift of literature? Has one book - or perhaps one author - inspired you to change your view of yourself or your world? If so, we encourage you to enter this year’s Letters About Literature…

  • Pasta Tales

    Ed Conti
    14 Nov 2009 | 9:20 am
    Reading, writing and arithmetic — no matter the subject, teachers often leave their mark on students, inspiring them to strive for success and reach their goals.  In recognition of teachers across North America, Olive Garden has announced the topic for its 14th-annual Pasta Tales essay writing contest: “Describe a teacher who has inspired you in school and how they have impacted your life.”.  more… Full details: CLICK HERE ShareThis

  • Nominate your school to win computers…

    Ed Conti
    6 Nov 2009 | 1:49 pm
    More than $1 Million in computers, technology and cash will be awarded to schools this year in the Samsung Four Seasons of Hope Education Nationwide Contest. In Samsung’s 2009 “National Tech in The Classroom” survey they discovered that 77 percent of Americans think the K-12 schools in their communities lack the technology access needed to help kids succeed in the 21st Century. Respondents to the survey further named technology teaching tools among the top three needs for companies to meet in local classrooms. Now you can make a difference for your school - nominations are being…

  • Brainyflix Video Contest

    Ed Conti
    6 Nov 2009 | 1:29 pm
    We’re running our annual Brainyflix Video Contest starting JANUARY 1, 2010. We’ll be awarding a Grand Prize of $600 to the video that receives the most number of votes. Half will go to the maker(s) of the video and the other half will go to his or her school. And to make this viral, we’ll give out 1 free iTunes download for every 3 videos you submit or referrals you provide. (iTunes downloads available for first 900 videos only). Rules Make a video about any SAT/ACT vocabulary word of your choosing from this list. Please pick a word without any videos submissions! 1 video…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Network Video + Education

  • New York School Safety Data Unreliable

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:50 pm
    How reliable is the school safety information contained in the New York State Department of Education’s software application designed to track schools across the state (Source: Poughkeepsie Journal, November 16, 2009, Schools’ safety data unreliable since 2006)? Unfortunately, it’s not very reliable according to a Poughkeepsie Journal investigation. In addition to failing schools incorrectly, the report indicates that data from more than 5,000 schools in the state are useless. What’s more, “despite a law mandating it, the state also never contacted districts whose schools had these…

  • SRO Shares Her Views on Continuing Education

    9 Nov 2009 | 12:22 pm
    This week's blog post comes from our guest, Elizabeth Harper, 2009 Winner of the Wren SRO Scholarship.  While this post is longer than our normal posts, it provides insight into the work of SROs, as she encourages SROs to apply for this year's awards program. Last year at this time, I was balancing two positions. By day, I was the School Resource Officer (SRO) for Fallston Middle and High Schools (working through the Harford County Sherriff’s Office). After hours I was a student, pursuing my criminal justice degree at Harford Community College. So, when I received the news that the…

  • "Principal for a Day"

    4 Nov 2009 | 6:35 am
    Last Tuesday I participated in the 10th annual “Principal for a Day” event, shadowing Principal Peter McKnight at the South Atlanta School of Law and Social Justice. Over 160 business leaders followed principals around for the day across Atlanta Public Schools, so that we could learn and appreciate the level of effort principals put forth during a typical day. Moreover, the program enables community business leaders to initiate and build relationships with their school counterparts, providing insight from the business world, while also gaining perspective from observing the similarities…

  • Identifying Risks Outside the School

    30 Oct 2009 | 1:19 pm
    Earlier this month a West Virginia county gathered first responders together for a table-top exercise to focus on its emergency response procedures. The county used a mock chemical spill as its emergency (Source: WVNS-TV, October 17, 2009, “First Responders Gather for Table Top Exercise"). The mock chemical spill targeted an area near a school, along with a hospital and several businesses, to simulate the kind of chaos that can ensue in the case of an emergency. Training drills help emergency personnel determine how prepared they are and what areas require additional practice. Concerning…

  • Do "Culture of Honor" States Have More School Shootings?

    23 Oct 2009 | 11:53 am
    Education Week’s “Inside School Research” blog had an interesting post this week about school shootings. Instead of highlighting school shooting issues, such as preventing them or mitigating their impact, the blog focused on a study that will be published this week in Psychological Science that says “school shootings are more likely to occur in states with a strongly rooted ‘culture of honor.’” According to Debbie Viadero, the blog’s author, the report describes “societies that exhibit a culture of honor put ‘a high premium on strength and social regard in connection with…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    EducationGrant.com

  • 4 Ideas for Single Moms Going Back to School

    TheEditor
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:06 pm
    EducationGrant often hears from single moms who are looking for ideas about going back to school and the financial aid that can help them accomplish this goal. It’s inspiring to see how many single moms are determined to get the higher education they need to create a better quality of life for their families! Single moms have many factors to balance when it comes to going back to school: scheduling, child care, transportation, time management, college tuition and fees, money for schoolbooks, and keeping children fed, clean, and rested while mothers work, study, or both. (Not sure how…

  • College Grants and Interest-free Loans for Kentucky, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia Students

    TheEditor
    18 Nov 2009 | 1:47 pm
    News stories this week reported that contributions from wealthy donors will result in new college grants and loans for students in Kentucky, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia. The money probably won’t be available until next year, but the opening bell for the 2010 FAFSA is only 6 weeks away, anyway. One happy recipient of a generous financial aid donation is the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky. The Charles E. Schell Foundation awarded the University a $100,000 grant to be used for interest-free student loans. To be eligible, college students will need to be…

  • 4 Financial Aid Myths

    TheEditor
    17 Nov 2009 | 8:22 am
    Here’s an excellent quick overview of financial aid from yesterday’s Tampa Bay Informer (”The Good News Newspaper”). Written by María Corral, “College and Financial Aid: Myths and Facts” distills the longwinded complexity of college funding down to 4 financial aid myths and myth-busters. Once these facts are clear, the details are easier to grasp.

  • Unusual Ways of Paying for College

    TheEditor
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:50 am
    It may just be from the chronic strain of the recession, but recent news stories have featured students who have found unusual ways of paying for college. These college finance solutions are not for everyone, but they’re interesting. “In the Altogether,” an article in the New York Times, describes one Penn State student’s job as a nude model for art classes (you may need to create a quick NYT log-in to see this article). At $15 an hour, the part-time modeling work is double the pay of any other typical work-study job. It sounds as though the worst part of this unusual…

  • College Education Benefits for Veterans

    TheEditor
    16 Nov 2009 | 1:26 pm
    Between the start of the school year and Veterans Day, there’s been a lot in the news about improving college education benefits for our veterans and their families. The Post-9/11 GI Bill was launched in August, but it’s gotten off to a rocky start in spite of welcome new features such as the transferability of benefits. The database problems will get fixed, but both funding delays and program loopholes have left veterans in the lurch. On Veterans Day, four veterans enrolled in online college education programs wrote eloquently in The Huffington Post about their frustration and…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    NurtureShock

  • How Not to Helicopter

    Po Bronson
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:23 pm
    I’ve never bought macrobiotic cupcakes, or hypoallergenic socks. Nor have I hired a tutor for pencil-holding deficiency, or put covers on the stove knobs, or used a leash on a toddler to be safe in a busy airport. At the grocery store, my kids are often in other aisles, but they’ve never felt lost. When they were babies, we weren’t scared to leave them with babysitters. Their preschool didn’t teach Mandarin, nor even worry about teaching them to read. Nor have I ever questioned a teacher about one of my children’s grades. In fact, nobody I know has done these things. The only…

  • What Do Preschools Have in Common with Bridges and Airports?

    Ashley Merryman
    19 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am
    If you are heading into Manhattan, off the George Washington Bridge, you can't miss the Bridge Apartments, a cluster of four 32-story apartment buildings built right over the interstate. The buildings' 4,000 residents seem like nothing compared to the 300,000 cars that go whizzing underneath the buildings each day.   Built in 1964, the Apartments were to be a shining (aluminum-sided) monument to efforts in easing New York's chronic housing shortage. Nearly all the apartments were reserved for middle class families. But almost immediately, the development was controversial;…

  • At What Age Do You No Longer Have to Check your Children’s Homework?

    Po Bronson
    18 Nov 2009 | 2:24 pm
    Every Tuesday, my 3rd grader has a spelling test for twenty new vocabulary words. Driving him to school, I usually check in – “do you need any review for your test today?” There’s time on the drive to have him spell them out, if necessary. The relevant question is, can I trust his answer? In NurtureShock, we wrote: “Kids who are doing well in school know it; when they write down their answer, they know whether or not their answer is correct. They have a subtle sense, a recognition of whether they’ve gotten in right. Children who are struggling are genuinely unsure; they might get…

  • Is Fantasy Too Uncool for Middle Childhood?

    Po Bronson
    17 Nov 2009 | 3:43 pm
    One of the dimensions of children I’m fascinated with is the role of fantasy, and how it finds outlets during the middle phases of childhood. During early childhood, fantasy is expressed actively, through role-playing in pretend scenarios. The entire body is involved, and kids share authorship in the scenario and how it unfolds. It’s immersive and social, and often the more fantastical the better. However, this kind of shared pretend fantasy play is so closely linked with early childhood that it quickly becomes uncool during the elementary years. It’s recognized as something little kids…

  • Kids' Food Allergies are Skyrocketing – Is the Spike Real?

    Ashley Merryman
    16 Nov 2009 | 9:27 am
    A couple years ago, I found out that I'm allergic to peaches. I've had a handful of food allergies for my entire life, but they have been mostly petty annoyances─stomachache after eating cherries, that sort of thing. And I had eaten peaches for my entire life with no apparent difficulty. However, one afternoon, I took a single bite of a peach. As the fruit traveled down my throat, my throat felt like it was collapsing. My voice disappeared to a raspy whisper. I was told later that I should have gone to the hospital, but I didn't know that at the time. Instead, I just took a Benadryl and…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Smart Classroom Management

  • How To Create A Zen-Like Classroom In One Minute

    Michael Linsin
    14 Nov 2009 | 11:22 am
    It happens occasionally. You wake up late, eat something on the run, get stuck in traffic, and arrive at school feeling harried. When the students begin filing into your classroom, you’re still not quite yourself. Your brain is working overdrive. You talk faster, move faster, and fluster more easily. Before you realize it, you have become… excitable. Your students [...]

  • Why Routines Make Classroom Management Easier; Plus One Great Idea

    Michael Linsin
    7 Nov 2009 | 11:08 am
    Before every shot, professional golfers follow a very specific procedure, unique to them, called a pre-shot routine. From the moment they pull a club out of their bag to the moment they take their swing, they follow the exact same set of movements. Like a well-choreographed dance, these pre-shot movements are repeated dozens of times throughout a [...]

  • How To Get Students To Stay Seated And Quiet In Time-Out

    Michael Linsin
    31 Oct 2009 | 11:35 am
    A reader posted a question this week asking what to do if a student, in this case a kindergartner, crawled on the floor and under tables after being sent to time-out. Playing, straying, and not sitting quietly in time-out can happen regardless of grade level. And this problem can be especially frustrating. It pulls the teacher [...]

  • How To Get Control Of Any Classroom

    Michael Linsin
    24 Oct 2009 | 2:08 pm
    When confronted with a difficult class—whether a new class in the beginning of a school year, a class you’ve had for a while and lost control of, or one you see once a day in your subject area—the best thing you can do is slow things down to a glacial pace. Too many teachers have the [...]

  • A Classroom Management Strategy Every Teacher Should Use

    Michael Linsin
    17 Oct 2009 | 12:15 pm
    What do you do when your students perform an everyday procedure, like entering the classroom, in a way that doesn’t meet your expectations? How do you respond when they appear to ignore your instructions about how you want a classroom procedure completed? Less effective teachers typically respond in one of two ways. They either let it go and [...]
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    The Choice

  • Answers on Community Colleges, Part 5

    By KAY M. MCCLENNEY
    20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am
    In the fifth installment of a Q&A, a community college expert counsels a parent wondering about the wisdom of her son transferring to a four-year college, and muses about what two-year institutions might teach four-year colleges.

  • Fears for the Future of the University of California

    By JACK KADDEN
    20 Nov 2009 | 7:27 am
    With costs to students rising and budgets being cut, many are worried about the future of the University of California system.

  • Answers on Community Colleges, Part 4

    By KAY M. MCCLENNEY
    19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am
    In the fourth part of a series, an expert on community colleges acknowledges the difficulties some students encounter in attempting to transfer to four-year colleges.

  • An Expert's View of College Costs

    By JACK KADDEN
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:47 am
    An economist with the College Board answers questions about the cost of higher education.

  • Leaving College to Start a Business

    By JACK KADDEN
    18 Nov 2009 | 1:56 pm
    A look at two college dropouts who have started a business focusing on college admissions.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Al Jamiat Magazine

  • Halloween Crazy: 2009 Recap

    hannah
    10 Nov 2009 | 8:17 am
    With permission, EmilyShuki American college students love dressing up for Halloween. You will find costume parties on university campuses all across the country in the month of October. The outfit choices range from strange, scary, hilarious or risqué. Ohio University in Athens, Ohio is known for its history of wild Halloween parties. According to the Athens County CVB, attendance estimates are anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 each year for the party and the number fluctuates depending on the weather. Many come out of town to join the celebration. Emily Shuki, a senior at Ohio University says…

  • New City in UAE Added to Fall College Fair

    aljamiat
    22 Oct 2009 | 2:43 am
    We’re excited to announce a NEW city added to our Fall 2009 US College Fair in the Middle East. Our universities are so excited to meet you all in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE on Tuesday November 10th, 2009 11 am – 3 pm Location: Auditorium of Higher Colleges of Technology Men’s College – Ras Al Khaimah Fair Flyer and More information Register And don’t forget, if you can’t make it on Tuesday in Ras Al Khaimah, be sure to catch us in Dubai on Wednesday November 11th, 2009 6pm – 9pm Movenpick Bur Dubai Fair Flyer and More information Register Want to see learn more…

  • Five Things You Should Know About the GMAT but Don’t

    aljamiat
    16 Oct 2009 | 8:17 am
    Recently we conducted an informal poll of business school applicants preparing for the GMAT. We wanted to learn more about what GMAT students know — and what they don’t know — about the exam. Some of the results surprised us. It turns out that there are some critically importance details about the GMAT that many students do not know, and, even more dangerously, there are some myths out there that need to be dispelled. We hope you will join us in Beirut, Lebanon or Amman, Jordan for the free seminar on MBA admissions and GMAT test prep.  Register for this informative free…

  • Free MBA Seminar by Veritas Prep

    aljamiat
    14 Oct 2009 | 12:00 pm
    Veritas Prep is the fastest-growing GMAT test preparation and MBA admissions consulting provider in the world, helping tens of thousands of business school  applicants improve their test scores and gain admission to the world’s best business schools. During the Al Jamiat US College & University Tour in Beirut, Lebanon and Amman, Jordan Veritas Prep will offer a FREE MBA seminar to discuss GMAT and MBA Admissions advice.  Join one of our top instructors for an informative discussion on MBA admissions and improving your GMAT score.  Register NOW to save your spot! Beirut, Lebanon…

  • The University Search Process…Where do I begin?

    hannah
    12 Oct 2009 | 8:16 am
    So…you have decided that you would like to study in the USA.   Congratulations on making this decision!  Now it is time for the real work.   Deciding what you want to study, where you want to study and figuring out how you are going to pay for it should be your top three priorities right now. cc license, partsnpieces Here are a few questions to ask yourself BEFORE you start your search: What do I want to study? Do I want a college or a university? What do you intend to study? What is an Associate’s Degree? Starting the search for the “right” university for you! Remember….the…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Imagination Soup

  • Free online learning games for kids

    admin
    12 Nov 2009 | 7:52 pm
    Who has time to find all the best free online learning games for kids?  Me.  I know that inquisitive parents of inquisitive kids might need these sites.  One day.  Some day.  So, here you go. But... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • The Plot, the Setting, the Characters

    admin
    10 Nov 2009 | 3:15 pm
    Henrietta is a writing chicken.  She uses the book Writing Rules and discusses her story writing process with her chicken aunts, one of whom is slightly deaf. “Rule One:You need a main... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Board Book Photo Album Giveaway

    admin
    7 Nov 2009 | 5:15 pm
    Congratulations to Cynthia!  Random.org picked you as a winner! Kids LOVE photographs of themselves and their world– now even the  little kiddos can get their own photo album board book from... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • 5 Ideas for Kids Who Hate to Read

    admin
    7 Nov 2009 | 7:41 am
    What do you do when your child hates to read?  It’s painful to see your child struggle and feel such negative emotions.  No doubt you’re wondering what you can do at home to help your... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Imagination Time Veterinarian

    admin
    4 Nov 2009 | 10:48 pm
    Any age can pretend play animal hospital doctor or veterinarian.  Use your love for animals and let my 3 p’s of pretend play — props, plan and play — guide your make-believe time... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Log in