"A whisper phone can help kids quietly read out loud without bothering other students. A whisper phone can also help a student hear herself read aloud. Some educators think this helps to build reading fluency. These instructions make 60 whisper phone. Total spent is $24.45 + tax for 60 whisper phone. That is 41 cents each. That is much better than the $1-3 teacher supply stores charge."

Re a university professor who teaches ecology and evolutionary biology assigning Twitter posts to her class in ornithology.  Students must post tweets re any bird behavior they observe.... 

A selection of links re the May 1st news on the death of Osama Bin Laden -- from Finding Dulcinea

UWCSEA isn't on the list, but lots of our peers in the region are....

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."

"William Shakespeare, the bard behind some of the greatest works in the English language, is coming to a Facebook page near you. Weekly Reader has teamed up with the Ophelia Project and White Plains High School to re-enact one of Shakespeare's plays on Facebook from April 26 to 28. Much Ado About Nothing will be presented on a special page through status updates, posts, pictures and videos. The students helped create separate pages for their characters complete with pictures, in-character bios and likes. The project is meant both as an educational resource and a tool to combat cyber bullying.

Excerpt re literacy:  "While English classes will still include healthy amounts of fiction, the standards say that students should be reading more nonfiction texts as they get older, to prepare them for the kinds of material they will read in college and careers. In the fourth grade, students should be reading about the same amount from "literary" and "informational" texts, according to the standards; in the eighth grade, 45 percent should be literary and 55 percent informational, and by 12th grade, the split should be 30/70."

comic strip examples of what is irony and what isn't

"What is constant multi-tasking doing to teens' brains? That's the question NewsHour Science Correspondent Miles O'Brien set out to answer as he interviewed teens and neuroscience experts around the country. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health are currently studying whether teens' addictions to technology are wiring their brains differently than those of their parents and earlier generations. During adolescence, brain connections are "pruned" - those that are used a lot are strengthened, while those that are rarely used fall off. According to a scientist at UCLA who also studies the effects of technology on teens' brains, the brain's release of the chemical dopamine has a lot to do with why technology can become addictive for young people. When the brain experiences something pleasurable, like connecting with others via social networking, it is hard-wired to want more of it by releasing dopamine. Yet other researchers say multi-tasking and playing intense video games can actually help develop some skills like better vision and improved short-term memory. Because modern technology is still in its infancy, scientists are only uncovering the beginnings of how it will affect the human brain functions of tomorrow.

blog post - 23 Apr 2011

"MUSIC & EAR TRAINING GAMES Train your ear with fun music games Sharpen your sense of pitch and tone Unlock the hidden patterns in music Strengthen your music theory skills

". a free and simple online service for people who manage their time using a Google Calendar. Log in using your Google account, approve our access to your calendar and you immediately get a simple dedicated web page that lets your customers/students/colleagues see when you are free. Then, with just a couple of clicks, they can book you. Add your logo at the top of the page, and a few words of instruction, and you have a simple booking web-presence in a few minutes. Alternatively, grab the emebed code to include the calendar on your blog or website." NB: must be turned on by the administrator for GAPPS accounts

""Vanished" is a two-month-long game, which debuted the week of April 4 and stems from an initial scenario revealed in recent video messages on the site. The premise is that people living in the future have contacted us in the present, to answer a question: What event occurred between our time and theirs that led to the loss of civilization's historical records? Students must decode clues in hidden messages, and in response find and provide information about Earth's current condition, such as temperature and species data, to help people in the future deduce what wound up happening. "

"How can you force YouTube videos to fill the browser and NOT show all the distracting stuff? If  the original YouTube video is located at .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNHR6IQJGZs  (This is the Matt Cutts video on "How search works") You can modify the URL to include the modified argument "watch_popup"  (as below) http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=BNHR6IQJGZs

David Dowling's website where he has created poetry and video to accompany them -- to teach kids about the sun, the planets, flower, the Great Wall, clouds, DNA, etc.

"John Hunter puts all the problems of the world on a 4'x5' plywood board -- and lets his 4th-graders solve them. At TED2011, he explains how his World Peace Game engages schoolkids, and why the complex lessons it teaches -- spontaneous, and always surprising -- go further than classroom lectures can.

Categories of lists: add & subtract, fractions, money, probability & statistics, time, geometry, problem solving, etc.  

News and research about endangered species from around the world

"Welcome to the AAAS Project 2061 Science Assessment Website The assessment items on this website are the result of more than a decade of research and development by Project 2061, a long-term science education reform initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Here you will find free access to more than 600 items. The items: Are appropriate for middle and early high school students. Test student understanding in the earth, life, physical sciences, and the nature of science. Test for common misconceptions as well as correct ideas. This website also includes: Data on how well U.S. students are doing in science and where they are having difficulties, broken out by gender, English language learner status, and whether the students are in middle school or high school. "My Item Bank," a feature that allows you to select, save, and print items and answer keys. Intended primarily for teachers, these assessment items and resources will also be useful to education researchers, test developers, and anyone who is interested in the performance of middle and high school students in science."