Group items tagged

Full Text of President Obama'a state of the union speech. Date: 02-24-2209

OK, so lots of things are pretty cool about Google Buzz but I absolutely hate that my already full inbox is now full of Google Buzz stuff. I just want to keep it separate. From lifehacker, just filter out label:buzz to go somewhere else. Done!

A few months ago I went on a Mental Health First Aid in schools course. We learnt about the stress bucket. So it goes like this. Basically we all have a stress bucket. If it gets too full as the stresses of life flow in to it, it will over fill and over flow and we will begin to feel overwhelmed. Coping strategies are like a tap on the bucket and should be used to allow some of the stress to be released and will prevent us from becoming overwhelmed. If our stress bucket gets too full we can suffer from mental ill health. Some life events such as bereavement, illness etc. can cause our buckets to overflow quite quickly but sometimes small life stressors can build and accumulate also causing our buckets to fill...

The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture [Kindle Edition]

# Shown to improve memory and attention # Detailed feedback and improvement tracking # Fun and easy: full workout in less than 10 minutes/day # Start your training today

# Shown to improve memory and attention # Detailed feedback and improvement tracking # Fun and easy: full workout in less than 10 minutes/day # Start your training today

Kim Cofino's diagram about The Collaboration Cycle: Building Independence Through Partnership from Coaching and Mentoring to Partial and Full Collaboration.

Collaboration Cycle of PD.

I agree with Jeff Utecht that Kim Cofino is on to something with the collaboration cycle of "building indpendence through partnership" in terms of mentoring and helping teachers with their pd and technology integration.

Animoto gives free full length video capabilities to educators. So cool!

Brooksie over at CD Tech (http://gcedtech.blogspot.com/2008/04/animoto.html) showed me this. Brooksie left a message introducing me to her blog on yesterday's post and wow, I learned something new! Animoto will giv eyou a FREE code to make full length videos on animoto! This is a really cool free tool but we've been using the 30 second version! I didn't know we could use the full version for fREE! Wow! So cool

"In the award-winning documentary Children Full of Life, a fourth-grade class in a primary school in Kanazawa, northwest of Tokyo, learn lessons about compassion from their homeroom teacher, Toshiro Kanamori. He instructs each to write their true inner feelings in a letter, and read it aloud in front of the class. By sharing their lives, the children begin to realize the importance of caring for their classmates."

And the price is this: facts learned in this way, and especially by rote, and especially at a younger age, take a direct route into the mind, and bypass a person's critical and reflective capacities, and indeed, become a part of those capacities in the future.

while it is necessary (and possible) to teach facts to people, it comes with a price. And the price is this: facts learned in this way, and especially by rote, and especially at a younger age, take a direct root into the mind, and bypass a person's critical and reflective capacities, and indeed, become a part of those capacities in the future.\n\nWhen you teach children facts as facts, and when you do it through a process of study and drill, it doesn't occur to children to question whether or not those facts are true, or appropriate, or moral, or legal, or anything else. Rote learning is a short circuit into the brain. It's direct programming. People who study, and learn, that 2+2=4, know that 2+2=4, not because they understand the theory of mathematics, not because they have read Hilbert and understand formalism, or can refute Brouwer and reject intuitionism, but because they know (full stop) 2+2=4.\n\nI used the phrase "it's direct programming" deliberately. This is an analogy we can wrap our minds around. We can think of direct instruction as being similar to direct programming. It is, effectively, a mechanism of putting content into a learner's mind as effectively and efficiently as possible, so that when the time comes later (as it will) that the learner needs to use that fact, it is instantly and easily accessible.

These theatrical scripts are available for each school to buy at $90 Australian. Quote-"Our plays are varied in length and style, ranging from full-length plays to full-length musicals to mini-plays. While the full-length plays and musicals address social and environmental issues, the mini-plays deal more with health and social issues. Our plays are especially suitable for secondary and upper primary school performers and have broad audience appeal. Most plays incorporate original music as well as allowing for your own musical selections."

"Finding good quality websites for kids is a bit of a challenge. That's why I was delighted to find this site chock full of great sites and learning resources for children. The site is sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. Animals, Art, Sciences, and Reference sections are some of what you'll find there. I really liked the Reference section, but all other segments have great content."

I agree with Audrey Watters -- we need a way to QUESTION TED talks. Good ideas worth spreading are worth interrogating and discussing. There is NO platform for that and a growing issue, I think that TED MUST address if it is going to live long and prosper. Good educators, good leaders always question and are curious. We try things out and we wonder. We want solutions but solutions packaged in a cute 15 minute presentation aren't ever really as simple as they seem. There is a different between a sound byte and a bit of something I can REALLY use.  I agree with Audrey - READ her post. My worry is that we're spreading ideas that haven't, perhaps, been tested and gone through full examination. IF we didn't learn anything from the Mortensen "3 cups of tea" fiasco then education deserves to be mislead again. We should examine and have transparency with the speeches and be able to continue the conversation. "But I have questions. I have questions about this history of schooling as Mitra (and others) tell it, about colonialism and neo-colonialism. I have questions about the funding of the initial "Hole in the Wall" project (it came from NIIT, an India-based "enterprise learning solution" company that offers 2- and 4-year IT diplomas). I have questions about these commercial interests in "child-driven education" (As Ellen Seitler asks, "can the customer base be expanded to reach people without a computer, without literacy, and without any formal teaching whatsoever?"). I have questions about the research from the "Hole in the Wall" project - the research, not the 15 minute TED spiel about it. I have questions about girls' lack of participation in the kiosks. I have questions about project's usage of retired British schoolteachers - "grannies" - to interact with Indian children via Skype. I have questions about community support. I have questions about what happens when we dismantle public institutions like schools - questions about

In this must-read post, Lisa Myers says so many things right. So many of us teachers have shocked that people have seen into the heart of who we are but why did some teachers have to die for people to see it? "No, for most of us, our all does not include a sacrificial death, but it does include a sacrificial life. It means working a full day at school then continuing that work at home well into the evening as we grade papers and prepare materials that will lead to authentic learning in the classroom. That's our surface work. At a deeper level, however, we also do the following:""

This is a site full of fun ESL games to practise and improve English skills. Games including Hangman and a Spelling Bee and there are lots of topics to choose from. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English+As+An+Additional+Language

An interesting guide from edutopia for parents that you can share with your parents and PTO. They share a lot of examples of 21st century learning and as you work to build support for these things, this is a great document to share. (Full Disclosure: The digiteen project is listed for middle school - after this was listed, we saw such an inundation of schools wanting to do the project, we created the DigiTween project for kids aged 10-12 and Digiteen is still for kids aged 13+.) There are a lot of other great sites including the World Peace game, information on Skype in the Classroom, World of Warcraft in School and the Digital Youth Network. Download and share.

Very Comprehensive site full of useful tutorials on all things Google Docs. 

A new website that many are discussing. I love using BAckchannels in my classroom and thus far have used Chatzy and Ning chat, however, this website is designed for real time chat for classrooms. You can mute and remove comments, it has a profanity filter and also a full transcript so you can go back and assess participation and weaknesses. You can set the chat to discontinue when you leave. When I review for tests, I always like to use a backchannel because I can ask questions and we can document answers and the students can save as notes. This is a great tool. I'll be testing the free chat room this week. I've heard from some of our Flat Classroom(r) certified teachers that this is a create tool.

The Flat Classroom conference is coming up March 7-10. We have an option for receiving credit (if you're international) and also for full participation. Virtual participants are an important part of our face to face conference as we seek to create experiences that flatten the conference as we collaborate in a problem-based environment. You'll have a team and work with them to create a project that can be brought to the world based upon principles that WORK. Click on this link to learn more about how you can participate in the conference remotely FOR FREE. ;-) We want you.

This is a fascinating wiki full of myths and truths about ebook readers. It says it is maintained by the users of the site. I've found it to be quiet accurate as I perused this page. If you have questions about ebooks, this is a great reference.