we are educators, not nannies. We are educated professionals who work with kids every day and often see your child in a different light than you do. If we give you advice, don't fight it.
if you're willing to take early warning advice to heart, it can help you head off an issue that could become much greater in the future.
Please, take a step back and get a good look at the landscape. Before you challenge those low grades you feel the teacher has "given" your child, you might need to realize your child "earned" those grades and that the teacher you are complaining about is actually the one that is providing the best education.
And please, be a partner instead of a prosecutor
never talk negatively about a teacher in front of your child. If he knows you don't respect her, he won't either, and that will lead to a whole host of new problems.
We know you love your children. We love them, too. We just ask -- and beg of you -- to trust us, support us and work with the system, not against it.
"we are educators, not nannies. We are educated professionals who work with kids every day and often see your child in a different light than you do. If we give you advice, don't fight it. Take it, and digest it in the same way you would consider advice from a doctor or lawyer. I have become used to some parents who just don't want to hear anything negative about their child, but sometimes if you're willing to take early warning advice to heart, it can help you head off an issue that could become much greater in the future."
Summary via the Scout Report (May 2012): "This site was created by two German physicists (Ute Kraus and Corvin Zahn) and it offers a "visual and intuitive approach to the theory of relativity." The site does not offer the basics dealing with the theory of relativity, but rather a novel approach to understanding what an object might look like while moving near the speed of light or what it might be like to "travel to the vicinity of a black hole and take a look-around." As the site notes, "Part of the difficulties in understanding relativity are due to the fact that relativistic effects contradict everyday experience." On the homepage, visitors can learn more in the Content area. Here they can watch remarkable visualizations such as Rolling Wheels, Sights that Einstein Could Not Yet See, and Accelerated Motion. The site also offers brief explanations of each visualization, along with links to additional resources. Finally, the site also includes a gallery of images and an FAQ area. [KMG]"
a powerful argument for the power of videos for learning and innovation - crowd accelerated innovation -- based on 1) crowds, 2) light (clear visibility), and 3) desire
"Fifty years on from his first novel and it's still unclear whether Alan Garner is in touch with an alternative reality or just the 'dream-maker' he claims. Here, he explains how he died three times and why spending two years in the foetal position is not the best career move"
"This is a world in which public is the new default. Thought leader Michael Schrage (2010) notes that "the traditional two-page résumé has been turned into a 'personal productivity portal' that empowers prospective employers to quite literally interact with their candidate's work." The rules for building your personal brand are changing at light speed. It's not enough to suggest that we have those admirable skills of creativity, initiative, and entrepreneurship; now we have to show them in action online.
In short, our résumé is becoming a Google search result, one that we build with the help of others and that requires our participation. Most students are beginning to face this reality without much assistance from the schools charged with preparing them for the world beyond school. That has to change. We need to help students understand more than just the safety and ethics of participating online; we also have to give them opportunities throughout the curriculum to find and follow their passions and publish meaningful, quality work for real global audiences to interact with." Article by Will RIchardson
Article re how the color and shape of rooms affects the thinking that goes on inside the rooms...
"They tested 600 subjects when surrounded by red, blue or neutral colors-in both real and virtual environments.
The differences were striking. Test-takers in the red environments, were much better at skills that required accuracy and attention to detail, such as catching spelling mistakes or keeping random numbers in short-term memory.
Though people in the blue group performed worse on short-term memory tasks, they did far better on tasks requiring some imagination, such as coming up with creative uses for a brick or designing a children's toy. In fact, subjects in the blue environment generated twice as many "creative outputs" as subjects in the red one.
Why? According to the scientists, the color blue automatically triggers associations with openness and sky, while red makes us think of danger and stop signs. (Such associations are culturally mediated, of course; Chinese, for instance, tend to associate red with prosperity and good luck.)
It's not just color. A similar effect seems to hold for any light, airy space."
"The authors of this paper use characters from the 1998 film The Big Lebowski to illustrate the intricate, self-defined nature of information seeking behavior and the ways in which personal characteristics contribute to the success or failure of an information search."
funny IKEA advertisement about a discarded lamp -- that can be used as an analogy for how people might feel left out technology-wise.... also a lesson in our anthropomorphic tendencies....
Google disclosed Thursday that it continuously uses enough electricity to power 200,000 homes, but it says that in doing so, it also makes the planet greener
But when it calculates that average energy consumption on the level of a typical user the amount is small, about 180 watt-hours a month, or the equivalent of running a 60-watt light bulb for three hours
“When we hit the Google search button,” Mr. Horowitz said, “it’s not for free.