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National Public Radio / All Things Considered transcript and audio for a story on teacher certification requirements and a proposal by AFT for a teacher "bar exam." "The system for preparing and licensing teachers in the U.S. is in such disarray that the American Federation of Teachers is proposing a "bar exam" similar to the one lawyers have to pass before they can practice."

National Public Radio / All Things Considered transcript and audio for a story on teacher certification requirements and a proposal by AFT for a teacher "bar exam."

A really simple Bar chart maker based on Java. Just add your text and click on the squares to enter your data. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

"A student run genius bar"

Editorial about a recommendation by the AFT Pres to develop a professional certification for teachers.  It's about time...

Mark & Michelle, thank you for your comments. When I posted this I knew the words "standardized test" would be a flashpoint. It is for me too. With nearly 40 years in the classroom, teaching a creative art (music) to all different levels (kindergarten through college and well beyond), I have often railed against reducing any education, any student, to a number. Very little in what I have taught can be measured with a pencil-and-paper test. What I see here is different than this. It is the union that she is saying should be the "gate-keeper" to our profession, rather than some generic government standard test. Yes, tests would be a part of the certification, but from what I read, so would much more, including actual classroom work. The certification would be similar to the AMA for physicians or the Bar for attorneys. These are certifications designed and administered by the profession - not the government - and validate a candidate's readiness to practice. Yes, I too am strongly against the government, or any organization outside of our profession, to certify, to validate, a teacher's ability to do the job. But we have to admit there is a problem with teacher certification and validation. There are people who simply should not be in the classroom (haven't we all seen them?). It is very difficult to remove folks who are dragging the respect for our profession down. Yes, there is remediation. Yes, it should be a difficult process to remove someone in order to protect against administrative abuses. But what is talked about here is the profession policing itself - something that the teacher's unions, in general, have steadfastly refused to do. What the AFT Pres is suggesting is that the best thing we can do to raise the status of teaching as a profession is to take action ourselves to make it happen. Really, if we in the profession do not do this, then it will be imposed from those outside who do not know what we do, how we do it and why we do it.

You are still talking about a standardized test. Let's face it--doctors have to have specific knowledge to do their job. Whether or not they are creative or engaging is not as important as their knowledge base. The same with lawyers--knowledge of the law is essential, and everything else is secondary. However, in teaching, although educational theory and knowledge of their subject area is important (and already tested, by the way) the most essential aspect of teaching is how you can creatively engage students, interact with parents and peers, and stay organized and motivated. These things CAN'T BE TESTED. Right now, teachers already go through extensive training, evaluation, and continuing education. Do you REALLY think that a standardized test will really improve teaching? I know a lot of university professors who can easily pass a test, but few of them can teach worth beans.

A collection of worksheets about bar charts for Primary school on a selection on topics. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

A simple, but useful java based maths tool for showing fractions as a bar. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

A great multi-use resource for younger children with cute animated shape characters for sorting, making bar, pie charts and probability. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

This paper focuses on storytelling as a research tool for social sciences, especially for cultural anthropology. After a short review of the main methodological tools traditionally used in ethnography, with particular regard to observation and interview, we focus on collecting and crafting stories (ethnotelling) as suitable tools for conveying the relational nature of fieldwork. Drawing on the works of Orr, Chipchase, Marradi and Adwan/Bar-on, we show how stories – collected, mediated or made up – are valuable tools for representing experiences and identities. As a result, we suggest a different approach to user-experience design, based on the creation of "thick" environments enabling a whole range of possibilities, where users can imagine or live their own user-generated experiences.

A great site for seeing how websites are put together. Drag the 'X-ray Goggle' button into your favourites bar and click to see the coding of a site. Then you can edit the code to make changes and publish online. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

A collaborate real-time whiteboard. Just share the link to invite others to the board. Upload images, draw and discuss your work using the chat bar. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Create a graph online quickly. Create bar graphs, line graphs or pie charts. Simply choose your settings, paste your data in the Chart data area and hit the create button.

qr codes in educationQR Codes Quick Response are so fun to integrate in classroom. Quick Response codes are bar codes with information. QR Codes can include contact information, websites, text, SMS, pictures and so much more. My students absolutely love using these in their activities.

This is a great set of flash maths resources for your whiteboard. Topics include an interactive number square, fraction bars and a set of algebra scales. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths

I love this online tool. Bunch a set of links together into one url and share the link to view the sites. Switch between the sites using the convenient bar at the top of the screen. Great for making sets of resources.

An add-on tool bar for the PC version of Word or to open office to create several kinds of puzzles, flashcards and other games out of vocabulary.

Create atypical visualizations of different types of data for a variety of purposes. Beyond just bar charts and pie charts, this platform will allow you to analyze existing data sets, or upload your own to see what story the data may be trying to tell you. An experiment brought to you by IBM Research and the IBM Cognos software group.

This website will be used for the investigation of Web 2.0 tech tools and how they may be integrated in teaching and learning. Selected tech tools have been organized by their potential application and those titles are listed on the left navigation bar. Each page of this website includes a variety of free tech tools that address areas in which students and faculty may want to try something different than what they are currently doing in and out of the classroom.