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This Is the Best of Lifehacker 2010
great list of tech related top 10s from Lifehacker
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Bookflavor - Taste, Review, and Buy Books
book rec. tool
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Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything - Tony Schwartz - Harvard Business Review
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Hacking Knowledge: 77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better | OEDb
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interesting read
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online tech support
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Great Habits of Great Teachers - HOME - Edgalaxy: Where Education and Technology Meet.
Friday, December 31, 2010
What I learned this week 01/01/2011
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
What I learned this week 12/25/2010
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I Don’t Give a Crap «Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech
PISA results....I do give a crap and yes, I agree with Rhee that we are failing our children if they aren't learning how to read. Our number 1 goal of school is to teach students how to read not just to take care of them and care for them.
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Meet the Presenters « The Reform Symposium
Very excited...did 1st conference this summer and it was wonderful. Looking forward to another one. So impressed by the organizers putting another conference together so quickly.
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Partnership for Powerful Learning Home - Partnership for Powerful Learning
Looking forward to following progress on this....Forest Hill's BYOL program kicking off shortly.
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1 to 1 programs are so 2007 «Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech
Great post on 1-1 programs....confirms more people are thinking what I'm thinking about 1-1. Too expensive to have complete control...harness the access to hardware students already have!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
What I learned this week 12/23/2010
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The Two Million Minutes Blog: Some College Salaries Skyrocket
Good to see we have our priorities in the right place....
this continues as we see more and more students default on their loans.
Ban fiction from the curriculum - Hopewell, NJ, United States, ASCD EDge Blog post
Ban fiction from the curriculum - Hopewell, NJ, United States, ASCD EDge Blog post
I apologize if you need to register (it is free) in order to read this article....but it has me thinking about some earlier learning I've done.
Grant Wiggins (of UBD fame) has written a provocative post suggesting we ban fiction. Okay, not necessarily ban it but perhaps rethink it in terms of how much of it makes up our reading curriculum.
Wiggins argues that fiction is a leisure activity....ie not many of us will have a job in which we will be required to read fiction. Instead most of us will be reading heavy duty non-fiction such a reports or other technical documents...yet this type of reading makes up only a small fraction of what children read in school and based on NAEP scores kids aren't very good at reading non-fiction.
Couple that with what Willingham and Hirsch say about reading success being tied so closely to background knowledge it makes me wonder if we might be doing our students (especially boys, Wiggins says) by not reading more nonfiction.
Something to think about for the LA committee as they work on reading lists etc.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
What I learned this week 12/22/2010
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Spencer's Scratch Pad: Anti-Homework
Interesting discussion about homework
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Karen Cator: Schools Should Get Creative With Spending | MindShift
Interesting read as it relates to our failed efforts for 1-1
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Students Know Good Teaching When They Get It, Survey Finds - NYTimes.com
Student surveys may reveal powerful results
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Generations Online in 2010 | Pew Internet & American Life Project
Scroll down for a great graphic on Internet usage by generation
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Internet Now as Popular as TV, Survey Shows - Digits - WSJ
Not surprised as well....Net surpasses TV in popularity. Must be ahead of the curve as it has been that way for me for years now.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Students Know Good Teaching When They Get It, Survey Finds - NYTimes.com
Students Know Good Teaching When They Get It, Survey Finds - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/education/11education.html?_r=1
I don't think the article mentions the age of the students being surveyed. At what age is a student able to objectively and thoughtfully answer these questions?
Researchers are studying value added measures and looking for other measures that correlate well.
Turns out student surveys seem to be a good way to figure out the teachers who "add value".
Student surveys reveal that the following statement correlate to value added teachers:
Classrooms where a majority of students said they agreed with the statement, “Our class stays busy and doesn’t waste time,” tended to be led by teachers with high value-added scores, the report said.The same was true for teachers whose students agreed with the statements, “In this class, we learn to correct our mistakes,” and, “My teacher has several good ways to explain each topic that we cover in this class.”
Teachers whose students agreed with the statement, “We spend a lot of time in this class practicing for the state test,” tended to make smaller gains on those exams than other teachers.
For a number of years our school administered a survey called CSImpact or something close to that. It surveyed all stakeholders....including students as young as grade 3. In addition, we also gave our own student surveys. I thought the gathered data was not only interesting but relevant and for a number of years (before NCLB) it drove much of our improvement efforts. However, for a variety of reasons, we no longer give the survey.
I've asked us to give some type of students survey but the idea hasn't gained much traction.
After reading this article I think it is time to start asking again.
What I learned this week 12/21/2010
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Knoword | Expand your vocabulary!
fun vocabulary game with potential
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How do it yourself (DYI) PD works – What are you working on? « 21st Century Collaborative
DO it yourself PD
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Doing it Differently: Tips for Teaching Vocabulary | Edutopia
Good ideas on teaching vocab
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
What I learned this week 12/19/2010
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What Makes A Master Teacher | Connected Principals
How many qualities of the "master" do you have?
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Differentiate Language Arts: Making Inferences
real world application of inferencing
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Announcing the 2010 Edublog Awards Winners! – The Edublog Awards
Announcing the 2010 Edublog Awards Winners! – The Edublog Awards
http://edublogawards.com/announcing-the-2010-edublog-awards-winners/
As we come to the end of another calendar year I like to reflect on the year we are so close to completing. Part of that routine involves going through various end of year lists that other people post on their blogs. Of special note I especially like to look over best of the year music lists, music videos, books, children's books, movies, cookbooks.
There are many posts and lists that contain the above information. But when it comes to my online teacher resource/materials "best of" list I only really have one GO TO list and that is the Edublog award winner lists. This list is a great way to find new blogs and other online resources of which you need to follow.
I've reviewed the entire list and plan to add the following to my Google Reader feed:
http://kirstenwinkler.com/
As we come to the end of another calendar year I like to reflect on the year we are so close to completing. Part of that routine involves going through various end of year lists that other people post on their blogs. Of special note I especially like to look over best of the year music lists, music videos, books, children's books, movies, cookbooks.
There are many posts and lists that contain the above information. But when it comes to my online teacher resource/materials "best of" list I only really have one GO TO list and that is the Edublog award winner lists. This list is a great way to find new blogs and other online resources of which you need to follow.
I've reviewed the entire list and plan to add the following to my Google Reader feed:
http://kirstenwinkler.com/
http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/the-2-interactive-whiteboard/ (influential post, but I will also subscribe to the blog)
To further explore for other resources:
Enjoy the list!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
What I learned this week 12/16/2010
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Education Week: Value-Added: It's Not Perfect, But It Makes Sense
Interesting essay on the imperfections of value added analysis and an argument that some imperfection is acceptable because of the data such studies yield.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/theyearinreview
Enjoy the YouTube year in review which also included the top 10 videos by viewership of the year.
#1 was......
Can't say I liked the song but I love the creativity and it inspired me to see if I could autotune to work on Audacity.
Enjoy the YouTube year in review which also included the top 10 videos by viewership of the year.
#1 was......
Can't say I liked the song but I love the creativity and it inspired me to see if I could autotune to work on Audacity.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
What I learned this week 12/10/2010
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ALA | Top 25 | Best Websites for Teaching and Learning
ALA list of teacher tools
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Official PISA results page
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Flypaper: Education reform ideas that stick, from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
PISA....another Sputnik moment?
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In PISA Test, Top Scores From Shanghai Stun Experts - NYTimes.com
More on PISA results. Skimming the comments section I see a slam on our Math curriculum....Everyday Math
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The Answer Sheet - Do international test comparisons make sense?
PISA (program for international student assessment) results are out and the results don't look good. Basically no growth for the US. Will be posting how the results are being looked at. This article from Wash Post tries to dismiss results/value of the test before they have even been released.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Learning without Borders
Definitely worth the time to watch this videos....excellent job of getting to where we are at right now in education in terms of reform, improvement and technology's impact.
Monday, December 6, 2010
What I learned this week 12/07/2010
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edublog awards/nominations are up....great way to find new blogs to read/follow
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from the open source project that can play anything comes the tool that can convert anything.
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Free Technology for Teachers: 10+ Alternatives to Drop.io
Drop.io replacements
Sunday, December 5, 2010
What I learned this week 12/06/2010
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easy post with text...perhaps use as student made vocab tool
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28 Tech Tools to Bring Out the Story in History - TheApple.com
online tools to make history more appealing (always my favorite subject)
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Free online web polls generator
worth a try for quick results
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Equation of Success: Top Ten Responsibilities that Students Must Own | Edutopia
Great advice for all students....although more applicable the older a student gets.
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Blogging About The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom: 6 Nifty Ideas For Using Google Apps In The Classroom
Good tricks for the classroom
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PBL DO-IT-YOURSELF : Guidance, Tools and Tips for Your Projects | Buck Institute for Education
PBL DO-IT-YOURSELF
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The 7 tacit lessons which schools teach children - Mind Dump
Food for thought
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Animating Your Lessons with Some Drama: 20+ Resources | Teacher Reboot Camp
Add drama to your lessons
Thursday, December 2, 2010
What I learned this week 12/03/2010
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ASCD Express 6.04 - 10 Essential Strategies for Teaching Boys Effectively
Seems to be in the news a lot recently....boys need to be taught differently. Good list of ideas...
Monday, November 29, 2010
A’s for Good Behavior - NYTimes.com
A’s for Good Behavior - NYTimes.com
Interesting yet brief article detailing how one school is making the transition to standards based grading.
Several quotes from the article really stood out for me and made me ask some interesting questions that all teachers in our school should reflect upon.
Do we suffer from "grade fog"? -- ie do our grades communicate student learning or mastery of content or more than that. If it is more than that can our students and parents really know how well they are doing?
Do we grade for compliance?
What percentage of our grades reflect a student doing, saying, or acting a way we have asked or told them to do. Do we grade for completion of work or mastery demonstrated by the execution of that work?
Are grades flexible enough for a student to improve upon them as they are able to do so? If a student fails a test or doesn't score well do we allow them to retake the test. Yes, making a new test is a pain, but isn't the goal of the test for teachers to also help determine what and how much a student has learned. If the test does reveal that a student isn't learning as much as expected do we give the student a chance to continue learning and show their mastery at a later date?
If we allow the students do retake a test which grade do we use? The first one, the most current one, or an average of the two. I'm guessing most teachers would say an average of the two. Mathematically it makes sense....using a second test to raise the first. However, if we are using grades to show what a student has learning/mastered/achieved shouldn't we just use the second measure since it is closer to real time.
When a sprinter runs a race we don't average the various heats together. What matters is what they do in the final run. Shouldn't we extend the same courtesy to our students?
Sunday, November 28, 2010
What I learned this week 11/29/2010
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Presentation for parents as partners
Great presentation about how we can harness Net tools to get parents involved in our classroom.....don't push them away
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Economists want to stop teachers' degree bonuses
Economists are weighing in on teacher pay and the lack of evidence that higher degrees = better learning. Is pay for performance much further behind?
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100 Incredible & Educational Virtual Tours You Don’t Want to Miss | Online Universities
Wonders of the Internet never cease to amaze
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Technology to Engage, not Distract | Connected Principals
Tech can be so much more than a filler or looking for better engagement...use tech!
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Technology to Engage, not Distract | Connected Principals
Technology to Engage, not Distract | Connected Principals
There is plenty of discussion about student engagement these days or more accurately the lack of student engagement in the classroom.
Teachers are always commenting in the lunchroom or wherever they congregate that this year's kids don't listen as well as last year's students. I've even heard teachers say they fear for our nation's future as our students just aren't very good listeners.
Is it that they aren't good listeners or is it that they just aren't "buying what we're selling"?
I would urge all teachers (even those reporting good engagement in their classroom) to view their classroom from the perspective of their students.
Answer these questions:
Could you really handle being a student in your own classroom?
How engaging would the experience be?
Would you be tempted to tune out?
How much do you spend "lecturing" or reciting facts to your students?
What percentage of the time are you in charge of the information?
What percentage of the time are you the students in charge of the information?
Before you tell me it is easy for me to judge you, I need to tell you that I judge myself fairly harshly in answering those questions.
I don't think of my classroom as lecture, but I do spend plenty of time presenting what Marzano would call "procedural" knowledge. I want the students to know what buttons to press when in the software we use. In fact I spend so much time talking procedures that they don't nearly enough application time. How can they learn the "procedures" if we don't spent nearly enough time with the independent practice? It is a battle that I struggle with each week. At what point have I given the students enough knowledge/information that they can move to independent practice? Sadly, I don't know the answer to that question and mainly it is because the answer is different for different learners and I need a formative assessment to get a better sense of when they are ready to move forward.
So what say you, would you be able to survive your own class?
Sunday, November 14, 2010
What I learned this week 11/15/2010
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Great site help you fill out your feed reader
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practice basic math skills against other students
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Free Online Whiteboard and Collaboration Tool - Scribblar.com
this one has some promise for at home support
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Connect Safely |A Parents' Guide to Facebook | Safety Advice Articles
parent's guide to facebook...hope it tells parents to keep their kids off facebook until old enough
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Teacher Training Videos created by Russell Stannard
tool training site for teacher
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Where to Stash and Share Your Stuff After Drop.io Shuts Down
Drop.io is going away...here are some alternatives
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
What I learned this week 11/08/2010
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The Answer Sheet - Willingham: How sugar really affects kids
Funny how certain "myths" seems to last quite a long time.
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Learning English - The Teacher
Idiom videos from the BBC
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Douglas Reeves' articles
I've long been a fan of Doug Reeves and his ideas for improving education.
The Leadership and Learning Center makes many of his articles available for us to read. Among the more recent (and always interesting) articles are:
The Write Way
http://www.makingstandardswork.com/sites/default/files/articles/article-1011-asbj-wrtie-way.pdf
Writing improves achievement....we need more!
Fixed or Multiplier
The qualities that make someone a great superintendent (leader)
Focus: The Forgotten 21st Century Skill
http://www.makingstandardswork.com/sites/default/files/articles/09-fall-the-trillium-focus-the-forgotten-21st-century-skill.pdf
Now what was I doing before I found this article?
The Leadership and Learning Center makes many of his articles available for us to read. Among the more recent (and always interesting) articles are:
The Write Way
http://www.makingstandardswork.com/sites/default/files/articles/article-1011-asbj-wrtie-way.pdf
Writing improves achievement....we need more!
Fixed or Multiplier
The qualities that make someone a great superintendent (leader)
Focus: The Forgotten 21st Century Skill
http://www.makingstandardswork.com/sites/default/files/articles/09-fall-the-trillium-focus-the-forgotten-21st-century-skill.pdf
Now what was I doing before I found this article?
Friday, November 5, 2010
The secret of self-control : The New Yorker
The secret of self-control : The New Yorker
Fascinating article about the research done at Stanford University related to "self control" and delaying gratification. The research finding is so relevant to teachers and especially parents.
As I read the article I wondered how my own kids at that age would have treated the marshmallow situation.
Now older but still children they are slowly learning to wait. Learning to work hard and save money for the things they want. I often have problems with the things they want (why are those American Dolls so expensive!) but I do try to instill in them the importance of only buying what they can afford.
Re: The American Girl Doll my wife disagree. For the cost of one Amer. Girl I can buy 1 really nice "generic" doll and have $80 left to put in savings or something else. My wife sides with the "specialness" of the American Girl doll. Perhaps my gender renders me unable to understand a $100 doll. And yes I would feel the same way about a $100 set of Legos.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
What I learned this week 11/01/2010
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AllThingsPLC » Blog Archive » Grading Formative and Summative Assessments
Grading formative assessments by DuFour
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Joliprint | Print friendly & PDF your blogs and websites
Neat little tool that makes a pdf of a your favorite web article...drops the rest of the junk.
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Data-Driven and Off Course : Education Next
Are we perhaps doing a tad of this? Data is great....it helps us focus on what kids need to learn....but let's not lose the forest thru the trees
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URL sharing service.
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The Answer Sheet - 7 Class size myths -- and the truth
Smaller classes are expensive....but it works. Some reformers looking to cut costs have actually been advocating larger classes to safe time.
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Free test creation tool....sends results as CSV too...need to compare to Blackboard which makes disaggregating data so difficult
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Best of the EdTech Web 2010 - With Links
Byrne's best of the web....too good not to share (even if I already did so)
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Open content for teachers to use
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Great site to help you find alterative software packages. Organized by commercial packages...helps you find cheap, free, better alternatives.
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Couldn't pass up this funny picture labeled as anti-cheating device
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An important update on the future of drop.io | Drop.io Blog
This one really makes me sad. Drop.io (one my favorite tools) has been bought by Facebook and will be shut down in a matter of months. Time to find another large file sharing service.
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Going to the hard places | Connected Principals
Moving forward as we all must requires us to sometimes to go to hard places....uncomfortable places. Change hurts sometimes.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Education Week: Character Education Found to Fall Short in Federal Study
Education Week: Character Education Found to Fall Short in Federal Study
Gulp....character education programs might not be all that!
Recent study from the US Dept. of Education titled Efficacy of Schoolwide Programs to Promote Social and Character Development and Reduce Problem Behavior in Elementary School Children. How is that for a mouthful?!
Gulp....character education programs might not be all that!
Recent study from the US Dept. of Education titled Efficacy of Schoolwide Programs to Promote Social and Character Development and Reduce Problem Behavior in Elementary School Children. How is that for a mouthful?!
Not sure I would print this (all 656 pages of it) instead I would read the summary linked above at EdWeek.
In a nutshell it appears that researchers have the impact of various "character education" programs and found that basically after several years of implementation with many factors considered the programs don't appear to have conclusive impact on the students they are meant to "mold and shape" despite other conflicting reports that have shown various programs to have a positive impact on students behaviors and value systems.
As a teacher I am a bit disappointed as our school has pushed its own hybrid of programs for several years now. It has been a substantial commitment in materials and time with regards to teacher training and classroom implementation efforts.
However as a parent I am not surprised. I would like to think that the values I raise my children with are the values that they take with them to school. Unfortunately for teachers, there is no one set of universal parent values although I think the vast majority of parents could agree on a pretty good core set....religious or not.
Our school doesn't really collect meaningful data that can be contributed to the success or failure of our own unique program called SEEDS. However, as someone who has observed the program since its inception in our school I will say one positive aspect of the program is the common set of vocabulary and expectations related to student behavior.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
What I learned this week 10/20/2010
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Hamster Is A Free, Highly User-Friendly Video Converter [Windows]
video converter...might be handy
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iLearn Technology » Blog Archive » Create your own virtual classroom: Edu 2.0 and Vyew
Virtual classroom
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Monday, October 18, 2010
What I learned this week 10/19/2010
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overlay historical area with your own area for size comparison
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If you make yourself available to your students online (and you know who you are) this might be a good way to schedule people during your virtual office hours....if there is an especially busy time.
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Free Technology for Teachers: Five Alternatives to Traditional Book Reports
no more book reports
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Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Resources for Learning SAT Vocabulary
build that vocab
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iLearn Technology » Blog Archive » Bloom’s Taxonomy Bloomin’ Tree
More great graphics that demonstrate Blooms....would make a great poster
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Perfect Practice | Connected Principals
“If I’m only succeeding, I’m not learning”
Love this little post.... -
BYO Tech – Future or fallacy - Teach42
Maybe the time is now?
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Guskey and Grading: Lots to Think About | Connected Principals
When are we going to look and talk about what grades really mean?
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
What I learned this week 10/15/2010
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ASCD Express 6.01 - Practices, Not Programs
Yes....yes....yes....time to Weed the Garden!
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Looks like an interesting read....Cinci Public does not have it yet but does have other Cushman books
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
What I learned this week 10/14/2010
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Education Week Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook: Change Agent
I think we’ve become enablers for our teachers. We’ve kind of built this whole professional development thing around the idea that “We’ll provide you with the workshops, and the curriculum, you just show up. We’ll give you the computer, and teach you all the stuff you need to know, etc.”
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Friday, October 8, 2010
What I learned this week 10/09/2010
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The Answer Sheet - Report: Schools, teacher ed programs ignore how kids really learn
Despite big advances in our understanding of how children and adolescents grow and learn, little of that knowledge has found its way into schools or educator preparation programs.
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Learn about new apps from the teacher perspective
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
What I learned this week 10/08/2010
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N. Oldham Middle students choose projects on studio days | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal
Really like this idea....but can younger students handle it and with OAA will we have time to not do work that drills right back to standards, benchmarks, indicators?
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ProCon.org - Pros and Cons of Controversial Issues
5th grade is working on persuasive writing. To persuade we sometimes need passion and what goes better with passion than actual facts. Facts related to current issues is what this site provides....love how it provides both sides of the argument.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Monday, October 4, 2010
What I learned this week 10/05/2010
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Class Struggle - Ed school professors resist teaching practical skills
Interesting study that has been making its way through the blogosphere....basically the question is "are schools of ed preparing teachers for what they will face in the classroom"?
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Type in some text and then just listen it sung back to you from various songs
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WordStash :: Vocabulary Learning, Dictionary Exploring, Mind Expanding
Great place for students to build an online wordwall of sorts
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
What I learned this week 10/04/2010
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More on Google forms quizzes
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Free Technology for Teachers: How to Create Self-Graded Quizzes in Google Docs
More on self graded quizzes with Google Forms
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Ken O'Connor - Ask The Grade Doctor
Ken O'Connor answers questions about grading
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PinDax | Create and discover message boards for your interests and passions
Think wallwisher but with more options
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Download Online Videos direct to PC, iPod, PSP, iPhone, Mobile etc.
Youtube converter
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Easy free online Jeopardy template
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America: A Narrative History, 8e: W. W. Norton StudySpace
Google tours of US HIstory
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Make a homepage in minutes : Flavors.me
An instant personal webpage for you!
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kitchen table math, the sequel: Audacious Idea #2: Placement by mastery, not age
place students by mastery rather than "date of manufacture"
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Singapore Math Adopted in More U.S. Schools - NYTimes.com
NY Times takes a look at Singapore Math
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Friday, October 1, 2010
What I learned this week 10/02/2010
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WSJ/NBC Survey: A C- Grade for Schools - Washington Wire - WSJ
Schools receive a C- on national survey. One interesting improvement idea is to not advance students until a level of competency is attained. Makes sense....students getting the level of instruction they need rather than having to be taught with the identical peer group.
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The Associated Press: Calls for longer school years face budget reality
Obama calls for longer school year. I have to agree that 3 months off is probably too much. I also know that there are ample opportunities to increase time on task in our current schools.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
What I learned this week 10/01/2010
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Grading 'Waiting for Superman' | The Nation
Excellent that provides more depth to the story of reform than Waiting for Superman.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
What I learned this week 09/29/2010
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Educational Leadership:Giving Students Meaningful Work:Five Hallmarks of Good Homework
5 Hallmarks of good homework. From a child's perspective I'm not sure any homework is "good" homework....so perhaps we can sell this list as hallmarks for "less bad" homework.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Lawrence O’Donnell Has The Last Word On Snooki And Education | Mediaite
Lawrence O’Donnell Has The Last Word On Snooki And Education | Mediaite
For the sake of full disclosure I must admit that I have never seen Jersey Shore, I don't understand the fascination with the Jersey Shore characters. But watch the video embedded in the above post to hear Lawrence O'Donnell's comment about challenges educators face and how it relates to Jersey Shore and today's teens.
Isn't the responsibility for teaching/raising our kids a shared one?!
For the sake of full disclosure I must admit that I have never seen Jersey Shore, I don't understand the fascination with the Jersey Shore characters. But watch the video embedded in the above post to hear Lawrence O'Donnell's comment about challenges educators face and how it relates to Jersey Shore and today's teens.
Isn't the responsibility for teaching/raising our kids a shared one?!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
What I learned this week 09/26/2010
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A Lil Bird told me...: Tidy Tips: Bags
Straighten up the grocery bags sitting around
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WinSimple Software: Duplicate Commander 0.4
Helpful tool to clean up your machine and network space....esp. when you are prone to copy the same file all over the place.
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Green Screen on the Go Build | Backyard FX - Filmmaking Special FX for Cheap
Build and use a cheap green.
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A Case for Singletasking: The One-Task-At-a-Time Method
How to focus on one task and do it well. When I am really stressed I do something like this to get a BIG feel good item off my pile.
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Quickly find the BPM of a favorite song if you are mixing a special playlist you want to hit a certain speed esp. for exercise
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Study: Paying Teachers for Student Performance Doesn't Raise Test Scores
Study: Paying Teachers for Student Performance Doesn't Raise Test Scores
Vanderbilt just completed a study in which they offered incentives for TN math teachers....if their students scored "significantly higher" than expected on a statewide testing. In a nutshell authors of the study said "merit" or "performance" incentives did not raise test results.
From what I've read of the study it simply was "teachers raise the scores and you get more money." If higher scores were found that would mean that teachers were holding back, right. I don't think teachers are holding back. Why would they do that? Perhaps they are waiting for a better paying study.
At the same time teachers in the study said they did not change the way they were teaching just because they were in the study. So if the teaching doesn't change....then why would we expect the learning or test scores to change?
As I've said before, improvement is not about working hard. It is about finding the right thing(s) to work on and then working hard.
Vanderbilt just completed a study in which they offered incentives for TN math teachers....if their students scored "significantly higher" than expected on a statewide testing. In a nutshell authors of the study said "merit" or "performance" incentives did not raise test results.
From what I've read of the study it simply was "teachers raise the scores and you get more money." If higher scores were found that would mean that teachers were holding back, right. I don't think teachers are holding back. Why would they do that? Perhaps they are waiting for a better paying study.
At the same time teachers in the study said they did not change the way they were teaching just because they were in the study. So if the teaching doesn't change....then why would we expect the learning or test scores to change?
As I've said before, improvement is not about working hard. It is about finding the right thing(s) to work on and then working hard.
Monday, September 20, 2010
What I learned this week 09/21/2010
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Twaggies — Because who doesn't like a visual?
Interesting series of visuals....many are drawings/cartoons based on Tweets.
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Welcome to Apture Highlights! – Apture
Definitely like this one....an add-on,extension for your browser that lets you highlight and search from the page.
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Free Technology for Teachers: Join.me - A Free Way to Share Screens
Free screen sharing software....similar to TeamViewer perhaps. not sure if it does file transfer but might worth exploing.
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Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Tools to Create and Administer Quizzes Online
Tools to administer online quizzes
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
What I learned this week 09/20/2010
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Recipe - Tomato Jam - Recipe - NYTimes.com
Bittman's tomato jam
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Sweet & Savory Tomato Jam - Recipes - food52
Tomato jam
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http://allrecipes.com//Recipe-Tools/Print/Recipe.aspx?RecipeID=174275&origin=detail&servings=32
Garden season is almost over....start the canner :)
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Screenr - Create screencasts and screen recordings the easy way
Tweet a screencast. Web based recorder. Don't forget community clips as well from microsoft.
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Daniel Pink's Think Tank: Flip-thinking – the new buzz word sweeping the US - Telegraph
Flip Thinking: Reverse a process. Karl Fisch does just that in class...homework involves watching a video of his "lecture" and class involves the application work. Love it.
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The Evolution of Classroom Technology - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com
Great graphic history of classroom technology! I'm sure you will see some devices from your own "schooling"
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Sitting Next to the Smart Kids… | Upside Down Education
"When people always ask me why I use Twitter or have a PLN my first response is because it is like sitting next to the smart kids in class."
I love the opening line of this post. Feel the exact same way about my PLN -
Now that etherpad is gone we need alternatives. How nice of Google to release the code so that the great tool can live on.
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Shareaholic for Google Chrome « Google Chrome Extensions
Great way to do some easy sharing. I was using Blog This extension in Chrome but then Chome was updated and thus stopped working at least for now. So now I jump ship to shareaholic. If you aren't using Chrome yet, I cannot recommend it enough! One of the first things I install on a new computer.
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iLearn Technology » Blog Archive » Bloom’s Taxonomy Bloomin’ Pinwheel
Another great tech tools/Bloom's overlay from iLearn Technology
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YouTube - PalmBreezeCAFE's Channel
Tech TV show hosted by teachers....these are wonderful and fairly good productions
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4 Ways to Differentiate Objectives
More DI ideas from Byrdseed.com
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Differentiate Language Arts: Noting Details
DI for the those "green to green" students that need a challenge
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10 Ways To Differentiate For Gifted Students Tomorrow
Differentiation ideas...
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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