Group items tagged

I've declared independence from email. After more than 15 years of dealing with email, of checking email multiple times a day, of responding over and over throughout the day, of deleting spam and unsubscribing from newsletters and unwanted notices, of filtering out messages and notifications, of deleting those dumb forwarded jokes and chain mails …

It's been great fun to get to share a part of eight school opening days this year from Mississippi to Vermont. They're always filled with a great deal of energy, and they're also a good way of getting a sense of where things are in terms of schools' evolution (or lack thereof) in thinking around technology in a teaching and learning context. I'd love to be able to say that it feels like we're a lot farther down the road, but by and large, that's not the what I'm seeing. There is still a real emphasis on the implementation of "stuff" without the hard conversations about pedagogy that deal with preparing kids for a connected world. There are pockets of that, but not much that is being discussed within the frame of a long-term plan or real vision as to what classroom learning is going to look like in say, ten or even five years. (I put out a Tweet last week asking what the timeframe was for the technology plans at the schools where people are teaching, and most said three years with an occasional five year plan or a "Technology plan? What's that?" thrown in. I'm wondering, by the way, when we'll stop calling them technology plans and just call them learning plans.)

"Joyce Valenza Ph.D On the librarian: What's the point . . ? The Twitter conversation April 30, 2009 @karlfisch: What's the point of having a media specialist if they aren't specialists in the media forms of the day? I was nearly finished copying and pasting, figuring out how best to post Tuesday's Twitter conversation, when I discovered that Karl Fisch (@karlfisch), who kinda started it all, already took care of that. (You likely know of Karl's very popular and provocative videos.) I am still not sure how best to frame this conversation on the place of the information/media specialist in today's school. What is clear is that a lot of smart people--people who are out there teaching, speaking, moving, and shaking--are disappointed in what they see when they see school librarians. Either we have a perception problem or we need to do some serious retooling. I'd say we have to deal with both. In a hurry. Being an information (or media) specialist today means being an expert in how information and media flow TODAY! It is about knowing how information and media are created and communicated. How to evalute, synthesize, and ethically use information and media in all their varied forms. It is about being able to communicate knowlege in new ways for new audiences using powerful new information and communication tools. Forgive me if it hurts. In my mind, if you are not an expert in new information and communication tools, you are NOT a media specialist for today. Tuesday's conversation happened in the open, on Twitter. We need to be aware that these conversations are happening where we cannot hear them--at conferences, at Board and cabinet meetings. We also need to make sure that our voices are heard and that we hear the voices of others in places like Twitter, where so many educational leaders and thinkers are chatting about us and many other things. I've selected the remarks that resonated loudest for me. (I've shuffled a bit, but you can visit Karl'

Professional development designed to be completed by small or large groups in a day, two half days, or several before/after school sessions.

Professional development designed to be completed by small or large groups in a day, two half days, or several before/after school sessions.

"Eleventh-grader Philip Marten's second-hour class is orchestra. But first hour, third hour, fourth hour and the rest of his school day are spent not at school but at home in Shawnee. Philip may look like any other high school kid, but in fact he's a "virtual" student. For him and others enrolled in virtual schools online, getting an education involves no bells, no lockers, no school plays, no marching band, no snow days and no cafeteria food."

Help your students understand day/night, moon phases and seasons with this great tool. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Science

In a couple of weeks, both Tess and Tucker will be starting their first day at brand new schools. They'll know no one, have all new teachers, new surroundings, and, hopefully, new opportunities. I'm not sure they're totally at peace with these changes, but as I keep telling them, it's the kind of stuff that builds character. (I keep regaling them with school switching stories of my own, the most challenging being when my mom moved us out to New Jersey from Chicago when I was beginning 6th grade and three days before school started I was wading barefoot in a creek, stepped on a broken bottle, and ended up with 10 stitches in the bottom of my foot and a pair of crutches for the first week of classes. Talk about character building.) Wendy and I have been trying to prepare them for this shift as best we can, and while I know it's a bit scary for them, I'm really hopeful the change will be good for them on a lot of different levels.

The now infamous computer hacks infuriated consumers who had personal information compromised and Hollywood honchos who had embarrassing emails made public. But headline-grabbing computer intrusions are only a fraction of what is going on in the Wild West of cybercrime. According to Nextgov, the online resource for federal technology decision makers, energy giant BP faces 50,000 attempts at cyberintrusion a day. The Pentagon? Ten million a day. The National Nuclear Security Administration? Another 10 million. Dramatic websites from two major computer security companies, Norse Corp. (http://map.ipviking.com) and Kaspersky Lab (https://cybermap.kasper sky.com) display vivid real-time maps of ongoing cyberwarfare being waged around the globe. That has sparked a mad dash for cybersecurity experts - and another mad dash to recruit and educate students in that field.

Earth Day is right around the corner.

"Young and inexperienced with rose-tinted goggles: I was mindful of my responsibilities as a new Science teacher. Expectations were high. When the Deputy Head of the school suddenly asked to observe one of my Year 9 Physics lessons I knew I had to perform well. As a thriving school with a great reputation, Denbigh definitely set the bar high. My Year 9 kids were typical 13 and 14-year-olds. Some days they were great and some days they'd just had enough. Keeping them on-task was a challenge for an unskilled teacher like me."

"Only one in 30 children does the recommended amount of daily physical activity, new research suggests. Guidelines from the Chief Medical Officer say people aged five to 18 should do at least 60 minutes of "moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity" every day. Previous research has often used less than seven days of data on children's activity and created an average based on that."

"With the EU Referendum creating a divide Britain, many of us have been left wondering how we as educators can help heal the wounds. I was pondering this exact dilemma and came to a conclusion - Through the classroom. This week, I have been on an English as an Additional Language placement as a student in a school with a high concentration of pupils that are Black minority ethnic and/or have English as an additional language. It was a school-rich in all languages, that celebrates six religious days as well as observing all nearly all social action justice days. The children were welcoming and accepting of everyone that didn't look or sound quite like them. "

2013 Pi Day is coming up 3/14. Here are some sites with fun and relevant class activities from our recently started blog supporting Common Core and Ed Tech. Please take a look at the site and provide any feedback! Thanks,

A sure-fire winner for Pi Day (Mar 14): create Haiku poems about pi, called Pi-ku's. This is a great way to bring language arts, graphic arts, and mathematics together in one place!

If you consider the day to day life of many of our students today, you see that they have very little time that is free from some form of programmed activity. Indeed, it is increasingly the norm for families to fill their children's time with the maximum number of learning, sporting and co-curricular activities. Schools naturally are happy to facilitate this and many see the breadth of programmes that they offer as a measure of success. But is there a consequence to all this activity and constant state of engagement?

"Many teachers think that teaching is the best profession in the world. It is also true that many teachers find that maintaining enthusiasm, in the face of myriad issues which hinder teachers being allowed to just teach, can be difficult at times. Furthermore, even the most enthused student can take a knock in motivation day to day, lesson to lesson."

Across Australia students are returning to school. Armed with fresh stationery, new books full of promise, shoes that are not yet comfortable and uniforms washed and ready to go, students will be heading off for the first day of a new year. What do they hope to find and how might we make sure their first day back sets them up for a successful year of learning?

ne day last summer, around noon, I called Athena, a 13-year-old who lives in Houston, Texas. She answered her phone-she's had an iPhone since she was 11-sounding as if she'd just woken up. We chatted about her favorite songs and TV shows, and I asked her what she likes to do with her friends. "We go to the mall," she said. "Do your parents drop you off?," I asked, recalling my own middle-school days, in the 1980s, when I'd enjoy a few parent-free hours shopping with my friends. "No-I go with my family," she replied. "We'll go with my mom and brothers and walk a little behind them. I just have to tell my mom where we're going. I have to check in every hour or every 30 minutes."

"A fascinating discussion which looked at how it is possible to achieve personalised learning within classrooms at all levels. It was evident that the term 'Personalised Learning' had a different meaning to different people from different settings. Although 'official' definitions were offered, the ambiguity still remains. Is it really possible to personalise the curriculum for 30 individuals within a classroom envirnoment? Even more of a challenge to secondary colleagues who are faced with cohorts from different year groups within the same day - being faced with over 100 individual pupils within any day?"