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Google Earth Outreach – Tutorial: Spreadsheet Mapper 2.0
This might be the coolest thing in the world. If it is as easy as it looks, this will be dangerous.
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Jay Mathews – A Surprisingly Sensible 21st-Century Report – washingtonpost.com
Matthew Arnold needs to see more proof about these “21st Century skills.” I think he might be onto something.
Archive for November, 2008
Daily Diigo Links 12/01/2008
In Uncategorized on November 30, 2008 at 7:31 pmDaily Diigo Links 11/30/2008
In Uncategorized on November 29, 2008 at 7:32 pm-
Best. Site. Ever.
Daily Diigo Links 11/29/2008
In Uncategorized on November 28, 2008 at 7:31 pmDaily Diigo Links 11/28/2008
In Uncategorized on November 27, 2008 at 7:32 pm-
Are there any keyboard shortcuts? – Reader Help Center
keyboard shortcuts for Reader
Daily Diigo Links 11/27/2008
In Uncategorized on November 26, 2008 at 7:31 pm-
edtech VISION – Visionary uses of edtech » ONE Project: FOUR Formats
Colette Cassinelli’s description of a project she completed with her students.
Daily Diigo Links 11/26/2008
In Uncategorized on November 25, 2008 at 7:31 pm-
Knol: a unit of knowledge – Annotated
Let’s give this a try.
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NPR slideshow care of Andy Carvin at NPR.
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Google has created templates for research papers with the formatting already done in them.
Daily Diigo Links 11/25/2008
In Uncategorized on November 24, 2008 at 7:31 pm-
Re-arrange your classroom, or, better yet, have your students do so and argue why theirs is the best layout for learning.
Daily Diigo Links 11/24/2008
In Uncategorized on November 23, 2008 at 7:31 pm-
Presentation from NCTE2008 that attempts to take Shakespeare to the class of 2020.
Daily Diigo Links 11/23/2008
In Uncategorized on November 22, 2008 at 7:32 pm-
HistoGrafica – Picture the Past
Image repository for use with Google Maps.
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100 Awesome Ivy League Video Lectures | Online Universities.com
Another one of these “100″ lists, but this one rocks for providing students with the ability to push further.
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Google Maps in Spanish
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Google Maps in German
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Google Maps in French
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Google Maps in Chinese
Daily Diigo Links 11/22/2008
In Uncategorized on November 21, 2008 at 7:31 pm-
Independent Reading Podcasts « Mr. Mayo’s Class
Mr. Mayo’s student podcasts. Why aren’t more people providing audiences for their students like George?
Daily Diigo Links 11/20/2008
In Uncategorized on November 19, 2008 at 7:31 pm-
2008-2009 Webinar Session Descriptions
Seminar on May 11, 2009.
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The NCTE has created a Ning site for its upcoming conference.
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The Tempered Radical: Whaddya’ Think of This Vision?
Bill Ferriter’s work on vision statements. Stresses clear articulation of goals for each member of a learning team.
Daily Diigo Links 11/19/2008
In Uncategorized on November 18, 2008 at 7:32 pm-
Livemocha: Learn Languages Online – English, Spanish, French, Italian, Mandarin, 学会英语
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Paul Gorodyansky
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100 Cool Things You Can Do With RSS » Accredited Degrees
How many of you make use of RSS in these ways. I am huge user of feeds, but this list makes me think I am missing the boat. Or is it that I can’t possibly filter this much information?
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Capturing children’s literature in audio and visual format.
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My Moving Map is an application for the iPhone that uses GPS to track your location and broadcast it online so that your friends can find you. The position and the routes that you take are broadcast, viewable online on this website and can even be loaded into Google Earth. You can also get directions to your friends from the iPhone simply by selecting them from your address book (provided they are running MyMovingMap too).
- This looks very cool. – post by pjhiggins
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Maps can also be embedded into your own website so your online friends can automatically see the last location you broadcast, which is perfect for getting directions to your friends or alerting friends where you are
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Daily Diigo Links 11/18/2008
In Uncategorized on November 17, 2008 at 7:31 pm-
THE CHALLENGE to All Educators | Clif’s Notes
Clif Mims’ call to action.
Which Would You Prefer?
In change, teaching on November 17, 2008 at 12:17 amI am tossing around the idea of offering up some professional development for my staff, but unlike any I have done before. Personally, I am done with the “training model;” that’s not what these are about. I want conversation and dialogue around an idea. Once the idea is situated in someone’s head, then we can get practical with it, but we have to want the idea first. That’s what I want to do–create an itch. It sounds icky, I know, but it works.
I wanted to try the PollDaddy function in wordpress, and this gives me reason to do that too.
If you care to, in the comments section, I would love some recommendations for content you would include in the sessions as well. I have so much in mind, but due to time constraints, it will be limited. The format for these classes would most likely be two, one-hour sessions a few days apart (still unsure about that too).
Thanks in advance!
Daily Diigo Links 11/17/2008
In Uncategorized on November 16, 2008 at 7:31 pm-
Screen Actors Guild site where they make stories come alive for children.
Daily Diigo Links 11/16/2008
In Uncategorized on November 15, 2008 at 7:32 pm-
Classroom 2.0 Learning Institute for Educators
Montclair’s annual conference for Classroom 2.0
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Matt Montagne and Chuck Taft’s presentation at the National Council of Social Studies. I like the examples page best.
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Tech-Ease: Quick Answers to Real Classroom Technology Questions
I like this one for its simplicity. Again, I don’t know if the teachers that need this help would know to come find it or be willing to seek out information on their own, but hey, it’s worth a shot.
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[Digital] Literacy | backward design template
UbD template. There is one I found elsewhere that I like better, but this one works in a pinch too.
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Civil War in Thrity Minutes – a quick civil war simulation using an area map and matrix arguments
Daily Diigo Links 11/15/2008
In Uncategorized on November 14, 2008 at 7:31 pm-
the Awesome Highlighter >> Highlight text on web pages
Highlighting tool that is shareable.
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from basic to advanced math terms.
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I love these type things where the levels in the taxonomy are clearly spelled out for you, as well as verbage to use with your students.
Daily Diigo Links 11/14/2008
In Uncategorized on November 13, 2008 at 7:31 pm-
60 minutes story on the backside of technological innovation. Who do we affect?
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A School Chief Takes On Tenure, Stirring a Fight – NYTimes.com
The implications of what this chancellor is doing are enormous. Ask yourself, would you give up tenure for the opportunity at a $40K bonus?
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Track the Flu this winter using a joint project between Google and the CDC.
Google Flu Trends | How does this work?
In 21st Century on November 13, 2008 at 6:31 amThis is another one to be filed under “How Cool is This?” You can use Google Trends to help track the prevalence of the flu in the nation. Google compares their search trends with actual CDC data from last year in this movie. It’s uncanny how aligned they are. This year, you can watch on a state level.
more about “Google Flu Trends | How does this work?“, posted with vodpod
Daily Diigo Links 11/13/2008
In Uncategorized on November 12, 2008 at 7:32 pm-
MathMovesU.com: Explore, have fun, and pick up cool math skills!
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Google LatLong: Roman history comes to life in Google Earth
Google unveils a major new layer for Earth. Plus, there is a K12 competition for writing curriculum around it.
Open Invitations
In change, curriculum, reflection on November 12, 2008 at 3:04 pm
We’ve been fortunate over the last few years in that most of the time we invite someone to speak to our staff virtually, it happens. Yesterday, we had the pleasure of having Dina Strasser from Rochester, NY skype into our Language Arts meetings for both 8th and 6th grades. On many levels, yesterday was a special event.
First, our teachers are being asked to switch their mode of thinking about their classrooms and the way they function. We are moving towards a workshop-based approach to integrated Language Arts. With that comes considerable pushback and anxiety. I understand that and most of my job is to help them manage that stress. Thinking about helping them make this transition, several ideas came about: layout a physical model of what the classroom will look like, take what they already do and transform it into this new modely by breaking it into pieces, and have them work step-by-step in the new model. But what has always served me well, both as a teacher and as an administrator, is to bring someone in who is, for lack of a better term, smarter than me. Why should I try to convince these teachers of something they could easily say I know little about in practice.
Enter Dina. The descriptions, the answers, the ideas, the issues and concerns, and help she was able to give our teachers was monumental. Dina is immersed in this same change that we are asking our teachers to undertake. The reason I found Dina was through her post: “Junking it…Literature Circles,” in which she clearly outlined what the perfect model for literature circles is, what she was trying to do (and failing), and what she would then move to in the hopes of making the change sustainable. What she is modeling is exactly the process we need to spread among our staff. Not just the fact that she is reflecting on her craft in the view of others, but just the fact that there is internal dialogue that assesses her own performance in an objective manner. We need more Dina’s.
Secondly, as Dina stated in her post earlier today, this was another display of PLN in action. We have never met each other, and we may never in the future, but you can be sure that if I have questions, or if someone asks me for a resource on literature circles or anything middle school Language Arts related, I am going to send them Dina’s way. She’s now much more than a node in my network; she’s a person to me, and a generous one at that for giving up two hours on her day off. We need more PLN interaction in front of staff members that have limited exposure to their own networks. More teachers and administrators need to construct these type networks to model how we can leverage “wicked-smart” people that we have access to.
My goals for yesterday’s meetings going in were to help our teachers feel more comfortable in their own skin with this new change. What I left with was just that, and with new goals for what I can do to help them. I need to be present when they are struggling, not for punitive purposes, but to offer instructional support. I need to get them access to materials, because I realize how fortunate we are to have the means to gain that access. I need to let them know that failing is just fine, but refusing to attempt is a poor model.
Thanks again, Dina. You were brilliant.
Effective School Leadership in the Digital Age
In change on November 12, 2008 at 1:09 pmA few posts back, I stated that I would try to get out the audio that accompanied my slides from the TechForum Northeast Conference on October 24th. It’s taken me a while, and along the way I lost my notes, but here it is, as best as I could deliver. I am already rethinking the format of this and the content; it’s like with our students when we ask them to read their writing out loud–it takes on a whole new level of awkwardness. In the end it’s great for the piece, but it sure feels weird while you are standing there. I’ll make one glaring admission before you view: I need to include the student part of this the next time I deliver it. It was in the planning, and I spoke about it at the conference, but did not get to it here. What is their role in school leadership today?
more about “Effective School Leadership in the Di…“, posted with vodpod
Daily Diigo Links 11/12/2008
In Uncategorized on November 11, 2008 at 7:32 pm-
Fifty (50!) Tools which can help you in Writing – Stepcase Lifehack
I love lists like this as they are specialized around concepts that can be given to individual students.
Reflecting on the Fly
In curriculum, pedagogy on November 9, 2008 at 9:15 amJ. Clark Evans posted a piece at her blog, My Continuing Education, today called “Worst Class…Best Class” in which she recounts a recent day where the discussion in her 10th grade British Literature class did not go as she wanted to. We’ve all been there on that day where you’ve hatched out these ground-breaking discussion questions about the novel you are reading or the era you are studying, and then when you unleash them on your students in the hopes of them coming to a new great American understanding, they look back at you as if you weren’t even there. What do you do then? Well, Evans did this:
I literally threw my hands up in the air and ended the lesson. I asked students to reflect on their lack of participation and offer ideas for ways to improve in an email to me.
My best quality as a teacher is my desire and willingness to reflect. I spent the rest of the day reviewing their comments, taking to another grade level teacher, and agonizing over how I could help them to be more successful.
I learned a new word today via the Open Dictionary: Andragogy. Andragogy means the practice of teaching adults with emphasis on participation of students in the planning and evaluation. Due to the nature of the Open Dictionary, I can’t be 100% sure it’s an official word, but I like it’s meaning nonetheless. Evan’s example of andragogy is on that I feel we are lacking more of. While she is teaching “almost adults,” the point is the same. Can we teach our students to be part of the planning process? Look closely at the way in which she implemented it too:
My second class British literature class also has problems with participation during general class discussions. A couple of students will attempt answers only after awkward silences. But the majority of students won’t speak, maybe if called on, but it’s so painful for both them and me that I hate to do that and put someone on the spot.
I started class by asking if they wanted to go with “regularly scheduled programming” or try something radically different. I would give them a task and when they accomplished it they would be dismissed, even if that was in ten minutes. They were a little reluctant but then encouraged each other to give it a try. They encouraged each other to get energized about a challenge in English class.
My favorite part of this was the conclusion she came to from the morning’s failure. It wasn’t to let the students design the learning completely on their own, but rather to design something teacher-driven, but aimed at the students’ expressed desires from the morning class. We are really beginning to look at assessment-driven instruction–using what our students know and don’t know to drive what we teach–in our district, and I like this example. Here is the comment I left for her:
Here’s where you had me, and them, I believe:
“My best quality as a teacher is my desire and willingness to reflect.”If one thing came through for your students it was that you listened to them. You took a failure, a rather public one, and pivoted in front of them. The student quote at the end of the post demonstrates what several of them were most likely feeling, even if they didn’t intimate it the same way.
In a new way, you showed what the use of assessment should look like. It wasn’t a book test, an essay, or anything pscyhometric, but you used it to inform your instruction. This is what we need everyone to be doing: look at your practice, look at what the students “tell” you, and make adjustments. The added bonus for us is that you wrote about it here and we can share it with more people.
And I hear you about the grading of papers. Feedback on graded material was always my downfall.
Using assessment doesn’t mean that you give pre-tests or previous examination grades; it can mean that you make an informed decision based on information you gathered through observation, much like Evans did. This, I feel, is sometimes lost when we talk about using assessment to drive instruction.
Daily Diigo Links 11/09/2008
In Uncategorized on November 8, 2008 at 7:32 pm-
100+ Resources for Teaching Without Textbooks | Teaching Tips
If you have trouble finding something useful on this list, keep looking.
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The Teacher’s Edition » Best Student Work
How great is this? I think more teachers should be including an online “hall of fame” for student work.
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Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Time for Education to Think Bigger
Are you focusing on building the house or just fondling the hammer?
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Follow skipper Rich Wilson as he embarks on a world-wide trip all by himself.
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This is an extensive version of what I have in mind for our WL department.
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Generation WE: The Movement Begins… on Vimeo
The Gen We video. intrigueing stuff. I wonder what the reaction would be if we showed this to high school teachers? Would they see the same ideasl in their students?
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Interviewing (& Remembering) Studs Terkel (1912–2008): American Archetype | Britannica Blog
Can we do something with the content of this man’s life in modern American education? I think there is more room now for oral history and connecting our students to history.
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Einstein’s Secret to Amazing Problem Solving (and 10 Specific Ways You Can Use It)
Using Einstein’s idea to creatively problem solve. I like this one.
Word Geek That I am
In 21st Century on November 7, 2008 at 8:41 pmCall me a word geek, but I think these two items are worth taking a longer look at. The first is a video of Erin McKean, editor of The Oxford American Dictionary, which sparked my interest in that she appeared to be way too young to be an editor of a dictionary. However, the content of her sixteen minute video is engaging in that she discusses the lifespan of words, and the creation of new ones in their stead. It’s a great look at how the world of the dictionary, which I feel is something people are waiting to disappear, has found a new niche.
The second is something that, although McKean doesn’t make direct reference to, is alluded to in her talk. The Open Dictionary project is a study in the creation of new words to fit the changing world. Now, not many of these make it into our official dictionaries, but several have already cracked our lexicon. Words like “staycation” which appeared several times over this past summer (referring to those people who, due to high gas prices, chose to stay at home rather than travel to the beach or mountains), are becoming more commonplace. The Open Dictionary allows people to try their hand at word creation. Go play.
Daily Diigo Links 11/08/2008
In Uncategorized on November 7, 2008 at 7:31 pm-
http://stats.oecd.org/OECDregionalstatistics/indexTL2.html
movable data sets that deal with the economic statistics from OECD
Daily Diigo Links 11/06/2008
In Uncategorized on November 5, 2008 at 7:31 pm-
FCC Approves ‘Wi-Fi On Steroids’: Good News For Consumers, Bad News For Telcos
This is going to be huge.
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november-4-2008.jpg (JPEG Image, 1440×847 pixels) – Scaled (71%)
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15 of the Best Green Search Engines – ReadWriteWeb
useful search engines that promote environmental health.
Daily Diigo Links 11/04/2008
In Uncategorized on November 3, 2008 at 7:31 pmDaily Diigo Links 11/03/2008
In Uncategorized on November 2, 2008 at 7:31 pm-
This is a new model proposed by Dennis Harter about how to develop Curriculum using digital tools.
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How Search Engines Work – Search Engine Watch (SEW)
How search engines work.
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Jamie Vollmer – Educational Speaker: Burden
This raises a few questions, and I would like to do some counter research, just to see if there are other arguments that can be made from this data. For example, we haven’t added time, but we have added a multitude of staff and departments to handle these responsibilities.
Daily Diigo Links 11/02/2008
In Uncategorized on November 1, 2008 at 7:31 pm-
The Future of Food: How Science Will Solve the Next Global Crises.
This is a great piece in Wired about the future of food production. It would pair nicely with Mark Bettmann’s TED talk about the global effects of food production.
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find places on the map and donate to help end world poverty.
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infochimps.org: Map of Newspaper Endorsements for 2008 US Election
