What is OPML?

This morning, I had an interesting conversation with a brilliant 8th grader.  Talk about a digital native, this child is a classic example.  Her second toy, behind a pacifier, was sitting in her dads lap and slobbering on the keyboard.  I think she preferred the taste of the keys to her baby formula.  She has already be through more cell phones than a Cingular Account Exec.  I may be overly biased in that she is my niece, but my two daughters are amazed at her tech skills.  She could transfer TV game consoles from one TV to another by the time she could walk.  I still have to call Tech Support. 

I tried to explain, in a hurry, what OPML was and why she needed to know about it.  I must have sounded like a Senate Stevens trying to explain that the Internet was a "system of tubes".  I really got lost in the description.  So, I promised to email her the "Clarence Update" version of  what  it is. 

First, what is a feed? 

A feed is a text file that contains a series of items, such as blog posts, news stories and search engine results.Feeds can come in many formats, including RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 and Atom. These formats have differences in the way a feed is described internally, but conceptually all feeds are a series of text items.

I showed her how trying to keep up with changing content on multiple web sites that school teachers can learn about how other teachers are making their classes interesting or how they are trying to deal with challenges they face in their classrooms is easier for me when I use something called and aggregator to help organize and how I can save interesting parts or post to my blog so I can learn from others and construct a better understanding for myself, she got it.  She has an ah ha moment.  She asked how could she get an aggregator, and told her I would show her the ones I had tried.  I showed her Bloglines.com for the reason that I had been using it myself for a relatively long time.  Now, I know there are tons of aggregators on the web, and I am not going to  "pimp" one over another in this post.  I'll track that one soon and try to give an educators point of view. 

The guys at Grazr.com say on their page that: "An aggregator is a program that allows you to read or view the contents of a feed. They can also be called feed readers. Most aggregators are either desktop clients, which means they must be downloaded and installed, or Web-based, so they can be run as a Web page in any browser. Grazr is an aggregator that runs on the Web, but looks like a client program in its own window. There is no installation necessary to use Grazr. When you open a Web page containing Grazr, it is automatically displayed along with its feed. 

This is good for those using blogs like WordPress, and Blogger, that I have used where I can edit the template.  However, I have a couple of blogs on James Farmer's wonderful multi-user WordPress blogs and individual users can not access the templates.  Maybe you can, but I have not figured it out.  Maybe I need to ask James or even better, search MU WordPress.  I have not tried in awhile to see if you can like add code to the template.  Got to remember to try and learn about this...

Ok, now we know what a feed is and an aggregator, we need to understand OPML. 

Multiple feeds can be combined in a outline structure using a format called OPML.  The most common use of OPML is to store a list of blog feeds as a way of publishing a set of feed subscriptions. To facilitate this practice many feed aggregators provide OPML import and export of the current subscriptions.  Now what would that mean to a classroom teacher?  Let me just tell what I have experienced.  Last year, I wanted my students to create a series of digital storys about the topics they were learning about in science.  Things like elements, cells division, water quality, and a few other projects.  We used a free program online called BubbleShare.com, and students created their projects using digital cameras, and titles to tell about the concepts.  They learn how to add audio comments, which could have been dangerous if they had wanted to be vulgar.  I made sure that they were old enough according to Bubbleshare's policy to create an account, we took a long time to discuss the ramifications of inappropriate use of school property, and used this as an ethics lessons first. 

I am not sure I would try this lesson with students under 16 years old.  Anyway, the point is that all these projects on Bubbleshare had the option of having their own feed.  So, to be able to grade their work, I taught them to email me their RSS feed and I copied and pasted them to my aggregator.  I also learned that iPhoto allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds and that was just too cool.  I still enjoy glancing at them in iPhoto.  I had hoped some of the students would continue to add images.  However, none of my students in that class owned a digital camera.  They all had cell phones, but only one of them had a camera built in.  We do not allow students to carry their phones in our school, they can have them on the bus, but not on campus. 

I plan to try to teach my students how to use aggregators at the beginning of the school year and challenge them to create folders for each of the topics they study during the semester.  We are using Moodle and the newest version has a blog feature. 

technorati tags: OPML, Moodle, Aggregators, Grazr, teaching

Will Social Software Become Another Product of "Wikialiaty"?

How many stories like this could an elected official ignore before his voters would remove him from office? Here is another "Wikialiaty" -- 'the Internet is full of evil, so let's block it.' Ironically, enough folks believe it, so it must be true. Right? Wes Fryer mentioned in his recent podcast that the current version of DOPA that was passed in the US House and is now in the Senate Trade committee, has a stipulation that Blogging is allowable in schools if the project is approved by a teacher. Fryer interviewed Jonathan and Michelle Moore about the role of Moodle in schools. This is a very good podcast and one I will listen to again. I wonder if how many schools will allow Blogging or Moodle at all if any Federal Laws are passed banning blogs like in the article below.

I think educators that are trying to use Blogs in their classroom will find that there will be a "throwing out the bathwater with the baby" of all social software in the majority of school districts if DOPA is passed into Federal Law. School Boards are not going to stick their necks out for a few early adopters for technology. It ain't going to happen. If DOPA passes, watch, teachers will not use blogs and Moodle and anything that could get them in trouble. Teachers go by the rules. They will not invest the energy to learn how to effectively include blogging strategies in their instruction. I am sorry if I sound negative, it is just reality speaking here. Educators should not fold your cards on this issue.

What will be blocked next? Should schools even have Internet access? Do we really even need computers to teach reading, (w)riting, and (A)rithmatic? Where will it stop? We all know teachers that would be just happy as a clam if they took all the computers in the school out tomorrow anyway. No it is not just the "old farts", I know beginning teachers too that never to check their email and never take their students to the lab or ask for the laptops, because it is too much trouble. The issue is out of my hands. Just interesting to follow and observe which way the politicians go with it.



Teen arrested for MySpace meet-up

Aug 1, 2006 04:17 PM

PENDER COUNTY -- The internet is a source of endless information, but it's also a place where predators can lurk, waiting to prey on underage teens and children.

Just recently authorities arrested a 19-year-old Virginia man for encounters with a 14-year-old Pender County girl.

Investigators say the two met through the popular website MySpace.

Authorities say 19-year-old Jonathan Nylen was caught red-handed having relations with an underage Pender County girl he met on the popular website MySpace. They say the relationship started in early 2006 and escaladed to the point where Nylen drove more than 300 miles to pursue the girl.

Det. Scott Lawson of the Pender County Sheriff's Office said, "He began contacting and conversing with a 14-year-old Pender County girl. Over the course of a couple of months they eventually exchanged enough information to where they met up with each other."

Authorities say Nylen drove down from his hometown of Springfield, Va. and met up with the girl on more than one occasion.

"And on one of those occasions some alleged inappropriate sexual activity took place," Det. Lawson said.

The girl's guardians did some investigating into her MySpace account and found out about the relationship. They then notified authorities who began their investigation into what kind of information was exchanged between the two through MySpace.

"I think what people don't understand is that if you type it and you save it we can access it. We can find out what you've talked about, what you've planned, what you know because someone has told you as far as who you are, where you live, or how old they may be," Det. Lawson said.

Investigators say Nylen knew the girl was 14 but pursued the relationship anyway. Now he's facing felony charges of statutory rape and first-degree kidnapping.

"He did not have, he being an adult, the right to take her anywhere, in North Carolina that's considered kidnapping."

Prosecutors in the case hope to have Nylen in front of a grand jury by next month. Until then Nylen is banned from coming to North Carolina and from having any contact with girl or anyone she knows.

Since the incident in Pender County authorities there are working to get parents more educated on protecting their children.

The Pender County Sheriff's Office now has free computer software called Computer Cop available to anyone who requests it.

The software is designed to run a scan of chats and websites visited on a computer and then flag certain hot-button words.

The software is also available if you live in New Hanover County. You can pick it software up at the Sheriff's Office, the Wilmington Police Department or the District Attorney's office. SOURCE

Colbert Analyzes Wikipedia

Over 100,000 views of this video from YouTube already. If you have not seen it take a look. Many comments are posted about how ironic this humor is and how they are offended by it, but the part I get from this is how "Wikialiaty" will impact our educational system. Education has this major issue with resistance to change. Ironically, technology can be an instrument of change in our classrooms if used for something besides an electronic worksheet. As a look forward a couple of days to the opening of a new school year, my mind tries to deal with changes and things that will never change. Knowledge and the ideas we ask our student to master has some major unchanged concepts. Like matter is made of atoms. 2000 years ago, this idea was a joke. Yet, we measure our schools on how successful we are, if we made AYP and such, based on shifting this? Wikialiaty would lead one to believe this is a valid and proper function of educational funding. If enough folks think it is the thing to do for children, then it must be a fact.

I read this today: Staff Relationships
Positive, self-motivated teachers are more receptive to good ideas and achieving than negative people—and they are more likely to work and put ideas to good use.

Therefore, when you choose a committee member, teammate, or mentor, consider attitude over experience.

Experience is very helpful, but it’s much easier to share new ideas and skills with a positive person than it is to change a negative person’s thinking.

It must be a Wikialiaty thing...

Texas Will Require Students to Complete Four Years of Science and Math: More Yee Haw for Schools

Texas Will Require Students to Complete Four Years of Science and Math

Beginning with freshmen in 2007-2008, Texas will require students to complete four years of science and math to graduate from high school. Struggling students may have the requirement reduced to three years of math and two years of science with school and parent permission. Teachers of electives concerned about their subject areas are asking state lawmakers to raise the number of elective credits for graduation. The only other state with a four-year requirement is Alabama. To read more in this online story from the Dallas Morning News, visit http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/071706dnmetrequired.1a20f17.html.

North Carolina now requires Biology, Earth/Environmental Science, and one physical science, and 4 years of math only if the potential graduate is seeking admission to the UNC system of 4-year colleges.
(4^th credit effective for first time ninth graders in 2002-2003)

Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, and higher level math course with Algebra II as prerequisite OR Integrated Mathematics I, II, III, and a credit beyond Integrated Mathematics III.

CAREER PREP and COLLEGE TECH PREP Course of Study Requirements in mathematics require only 3 credits. These students are on a career pathway to attend 2 year community colleges and then transfer to a 4 year college, go to work, or the military. I understand through the grapevine that some higher level talks in our state are suggesting we do away with these two less challenging pathways for graduation. This could spell trouble IMHO. I remember when our schools removed summer school programs and said it was a waste of time and money. Drop out rates remained high and students continued to fail and those that could bare the stigma and stick around for a 5th year of high school finally, sometimes by the Grace of God, somehow passed enough courses to graduate. Are our students going to be better off with more science and math courses on the high school transcript? That is a good question. Will it increase our all ready horrible track record of 9th graders never making it to graduation night? I say probably it will. I think the current requirements are challenging for our students. I could see how it would make our state's curriculum look good, but how will it impact the lives of our students? What does the research say? Is the research valid and compelling?

Lots of questions. I have no answers, and am glad I am in the classroom, not having to way this issue. It is too hot to worry about it. My gout is trying to flare up and I need to get some more work done before starting back to work the 15th of August --

Brainiac Thermite and Liquid Nitrogen

This is an interesting demonstration for my science students to view.

My Sunday Morning "Laptop Rant"

If you are reading this you must have lots of time for thinking, early on Sunday morning. In rural North Carolina, the birds are making their morning noises, and the traffic on old 74 Highway, outside my home, is peaceful. With gas at $2.98 per gallon, one would expect only those with a nicotine habit or the baby needing diapers, or a fool would be on the roads unless it was an emergency. The AC is running and the ceiling fan is on high. As I sit here reflecting on how much difference 24 hours makes, it was 97 degrees yesterday. Going to be hot as heck again today. With a nice breeze blowing and the shade of an old loblolly pine, it was almost pleasant. I convinced myself, with some loving help from my wife, to use my new Black and Decker hedge trimmer to trim four over grown Red Tips in the yard. (product placement time- wink) The hedge trimmer model I bought was battery powered. That tool must have been designed by my clone, because it has a limited run time. The moment both my arms were about to fall off, the battery began to die. Halleluiah Brother! I just smiled at my wife and said this dang battery is about dead. That was all it took. She has known me log enough to know I was so darn happy that be battery was dead. She said it would be ok to stop. My Saturday of yard work was almost finished; Black and Decker battery powered hedge trimmer-- my new best friend. I put the trimmed branches in the bed of my F150, filling it to capacity, and drove them to a brush pile on our property for composting. It was time for a cold shower and a power-nap.

My family deliberately sleeps late on Sunday. I got up early to take the dog for a walk. My arms are still weak from running that hedger the morning before. They will be sore on Monday. I need to get back in the gym. This hot weather saps my energy and I just can’t stand burning four dollars worth of gas to drive round-trip to Whiteville. It might be worth it, but for now, the heat is my excuse.

I really think watching TV depresses me way too much. All I see on TV is death and destruction on the news, violence and sassy-talk on the networks, and sex and drugs on FX, and the rest of satellite TV. If junk food can make one fat, then a diet of junk TV can make your brain fat...hum could this be is a good analogy? Basically, this is one of the issues education is in such a bad state in the US. No one has the guts to really stick there necks out and say, ok, our kids watch way to much brain junk food, they are eating to much crap and developing diabetes and other weight related maladies and we are way to spoiled. Take for example, borrowing from the words of an AP writer concerning the 10-day power outage in the Queens, New York:

City Council hearings on the blackout are scheduled for Monday, while a state Assembly hearing is scheduled for Thursday. On Saturday, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, demanded an investigation of the utility's power grid capacity and infrastructure.

"It's clear we need an independent assessment of what ails the power grid before we have another blackout," the senator said in a statement.

On Friday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, toured the affected Queens streets and called the outage "a classic case of blunder after blunder."

Clinton asked the president to declare the neighborhood a disaster area, a step that could trigger federal aid.

Officials working for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who resisted taking that move, said they don't believe the aftermath of the blackout meets federal criteria for a disaster.

New York Gov. George Pataki asked the federal government to offer low-interest disaster loans to Queens residents who suffered heavy losses.

By watching and listening to news from that region, you would have thought they had been hit by a terrorist attack. Special news bulletins, speeches from the mayor, hello, the flipping power grid broke and it takes time to fix it. Federal Disaster? PLEASE, it's a potential scam artist epidemic.

When North Carolina citizens were hit by hurricanes, and the power was off for nearly 15 days, folks just shook their heads and said thank God we are alive. I was appalled by the way folks that were interviewed in the Queens area and were asked how much business they lost during the power outage and one restaurant owner had the gall to try to say he lost $40,000 in business. Ah, from the looks of the diner, he would be lucky to have $40,000 of business in a whole year. Well it isn't a New Yorker thing, do not misunderstand what I am trying to say. Just look at all the reports of those Katrina scams. They are enough to make a taxpayer throw their hands up and demand that the next natural disaster, just let the victims fend for themselves. What is wrong with PEOPLE? This same mentality spills over into our schools.

IMHO, we are in deep poop and not a whole heck of a lot we can do to dig out of it in a hurry...PEACE

The 100 science fiction books you just have to read!

Looking for something to do before school starts back? Tired of watching the crap on TV- re-runs and talk about a possible WWIII and the junk on YouTube?
READ!!!
Here is good place to start.
"Take my word for it; all science fiction books are not created equal. Many of these novels are award winners, and most have inspired profound trends in science fiction."

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Jellyfish swam N.C. shoreline

My daughter is visiting friends at the beach.  I hope she does not get stung. 

Here is what to watch for: (I know she is not reading this but, it makes me feel better)

CAROLINA BEACH -- Biologists at the Fort Fisher Aquarium say the recent tropical storm may be to blame for an over-abundance of jellyfish in local waters.

Several people are recovering Thursday from painful stings they got at Carolina Beach.

They're fun to see all lit up in an aquarium tank, but you don't want to run into jellyfish out in open water. Unfortunately our shore is seeing a spike in jellyfish numbers.

Fort Fisher aquarist Sandra Johnson said, "The recent tropical storm and other storms we might have during the summer just increases the wind speed, and jellies are dependent on winds and currents, so that pushes them ashore."  Source: WWAYTV3.com webpage.

technorati tags: environmental

Informal Mentoring- Writing Your First Pacing Guide

Time is flying by during this summer break from teaching.

This week, a second year 6th grade science teacher asked an interesting question of me. How do I know what to teach so I can cover our standard course of study? That was an easy one of me to handle. Pacing Guides are what teacher calls them. My brother is an engineer and tells me they call it project management. I do not think this 6th grade teacher would want to devote the energy create a spreadsheet or database to track progress in his class. He knows how to check his email, make a CD play music on a computer, and how to search the web to find out who to call to book a goose hunting trip half way across the US. I do not mean anything ugly by this, he just does not have time to sit in front of a computer and click a bunch of boxes to keep up with data. Heck, there are not very many teachers that want to spend that kind of time on progress reporting. Electronic grade books are nice when it comes to printing out progress reports and averaging columns of grades. But it takes hours to set the preferences and enter assignments and then go back in and update the grades...

Personally, I hate electronic grade book programs. We are required to put numerical values on student assignments, heck it is the law. But, the law does not say you have to use electronic grade books- yet. I prefer portfolio assessments, but back to the pacing guide. I told him to get his teacher's edition and drop by the house and we would do some planning.

Over the past 20 years, I have made many many pacing guides. There are a few tricks that I have learned about hacking out these roadmaps to success. Now, these tips are not the only way to attempt them, they are straight from my thoughts. No, I not a PhD and do not play one on TV.

Materials needed for creating your own pacing guide for your 6th grade science class:
Computer, word processing program, printer and paper, photocopy machine, plastic tape and scissors, School Calendar, and testing schedule, length of class period devoted to science. This is important. If your school teaches science all year, which is best in humble opinion, or like some schools that teach science half the school year and social studies the rest of the year, this means you have to compress or layer the curriculum. Photocopy of National Standards and State Standard (in North Carolina, we call it our Standard Course of Study), If you have access to different colors of photocopy paper, copy the National Standards in a different color from you State or local standards. Teacher's Ancillaries- Textbook, lab manuals and test banks. Get a large 2 liter Diet Sundrop and some ice. Oh, get a couple of cups, clear off a big table, and adjust the AC to make sure the room is comfy. Turn off the darn cell phones and turn on some classical music. I don't care if you do like Country; it is not the time for that. Make sure your chair is comfortable not too comfortable- no napping allowed. I like to use a large flip chart and easel with chart markers. I take the flip chart sheet and fold it in to six equally sized columns. If your school uses 9 week grading periods, you can figure out how many columns you will need...anyway, now the environmental conditions are ready, lets looks at some steps to create our pacing guide.

Step 1: Rough Draft - Calendar/Dates Framework
Using the calendar, write in the dates that the grading periods begin and end on your flip chart. Now, use the teacher’s edition. Most textbook publishers, include a number of days it takes to cover specific chapters in your text. This is not a "written in stone" number. It is only a guide. Seasoned science teachers can tell you that you cannot teach rocks and minerals to 6th graders in a week. But if you spend six weeks on them, you will never cover the curriculum. Use a pencil and write in the number of days the teacher's edition recommends devoting to the chapters on rock, motion, etc.


Step 2: Correlation of Curriculum and textbook
Now, if you do not have a correlation between your textbook and your standard course of study, you have several avenues to try. Contact the textbook coordinator (your assistant principal if he/she is working in the summer, most are 10 month employees and you will not find them). Contact the principal of your school. If you can find the email address or website for your textbook see if they have free ones for your state. You could ask the teacher down the hall (but they are working at Wal-Mart or home working in their garden or in school getting certified). Don't panic, do what I do, just google it! Use enough keywords to narrow your search, like include words like 6th grade, science curriculum, and pacing guide, North Carolina. It worked great to find a Word document in just a few seconds. Dang, I love the Internet. Remember, it is only a "guide". You could make your own, but believe me, this is going to take hours and hours to complete.

Step 3: Cut and Paste
Cut your standard course of study into strips and lay them on the chart paper. Basically, it is time to cut and paste the curriculum on the chart paper to give you an idea of what it will look like at a glance. Using the correlation document, and the textbook's suggested amount of time it takes to instruct and access specific goals and objectives decide where it could fit. Write in the page and Chapter numbers on the chart paper next to the objectives.

Step 4: Tape it to the chart paper
So you can fold it up, tape everything down. Put up you work and let it rest a couple of days.

Step 5: Revision Time
Use the chart paper and the info you have (rough draft) and create a document from your work so far. If you have access to a digital document of the curriculum, you are going to be ahead of the game. Copy and paste it into your document. Be sure to include the National standards too. If you have a fellow science teacher that is teaching the same grade level, this is when you could email them a copy of what you have done and ask them to edit the number of days (keep an original). Again, this is something that you will be changing as you write your lesson plans and access student's mastery of the topics. You need time to reteach some lessons. Check to make sure you have included all the objectives and not left anything out! If you can not find an objective that is in your standard course of study in your textbook, you have to find lesson and activities that correlate with them. North Carolina has a site called LEARNNC.org that has correlated lesson plans.

Step 6: Publish it
Ok, after you have gone through all the goals and objectives, recorded the number of days to spend of them, and even pages numbers and chapters, and it has been checked by a couple of teachers that have experience teaching the subject and grade level, you may want to print out a copy and insert it in a three ring binder. Keep this notebook near your lesson planner. Revise, rewrite and revise again. One thing you might try is to set up a free wiki page at somewhere like Pbwiki or Wikispace. Then envite teachers that you know to contribute to the version during the school year. Posting links to online resources right in a pacing guide would be a great resource.

Well, time to sign off. This is a tough job, but teachers only work from 8-3 and have "all summer off". Yeah right.

John Edwards is Using Bittorrent

John Edwards, one of the democratic Presidential candidates in 2004, and likely to run for President again in 2008, is using bittorrent to spread his campaign stuff. Now this is an interesting use of the technology that has been blocked by many school districts to prevent the illegal swapping of all types of videos and MP3 (music) files.

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N.C. lawmakers approve $18.9 billion budget

07-06-06 NCAE "HOTLINE" for Thursday, July 6, 2006

Take Action!
BUDGET ENACTED!

NCAE “HOTLINE” for Thursday, July 6, 2006

The House and Senate passed the conference report for the state budget this afternoon on third reading. The House passed the budget bill on a vote of 82-31, while in the Senate the vote was 31-15.

Some of the highlights of the budget bill are as follows:
Teacher Salary Schedules

The budget provides all teachers with an additional salary increase of $2,250 per step. As a result of these step increases, teachers will receive on average an 8.23% pay increase in 2006-07. Salary increase ranges from 6.45% for teachers moving from 28 to 29 years of service to 14.05% for teachers moving from 2 to 3 years of service. Salary schedules will be posted on the web at www.ncae.org early next week.

School Based Administrator Salary Schedules

The budget also provides assistant principals and principals with a recurring salary increase, which, when combined with a step increase provides on average a 7% overall pay increase in 2006-07. The proposed salary schedule can be found on the DPI web site at the following location: www.ncpublicschools.org/fbs/ under “What’s New.”

Non-certified Personnel Salaries
The budget provides a salary increase of 5.5% and guarantees that no 12-month State paid non-certified employee will be paid less than $20,112 per year.

Bonuses for Certified Personnel at Top of Range
Provides one-time lump sum bonus of 2% to school based administrators at the top of their respective pay schedules.


Another victory for NCAE was the transfer of the North Carolina Teacher Academy to auspices of the State Board of Education. The transfer means the Teacher Academy will retain its autonomous, teacher-led board of trustees. NCAE would like to applaud Governor Mike Easley, for his continued leadership on getting North Carolina on track toward the “national average” in teacher salaries.

NCAE will post the Roll Call vote on the budget early next week. We would like to encourage our membership to send thank you emails to their member of the House or Senate for supporting a budget that really addresses the needs of recruiting and retaining teachers.

This is good news for our hard working teachers and state employees. A fellow educator

While surfing the net, I ran across this in Teacher Magazine and found it a striking reason why teacher's pay is important even if folks somehow play it down as a reason for leaving education. All I can say is that I had a similar experience during my student teaching and vowed never to teach...that was a decission I regret now as many of my fellow college and high school friends are reaching the time they can retire and I still have 9 more years. Katie...get a grip on reality. Do not fight the urge. Just do it! Read on...Katie from Tiny Nose. Big Heart. revels in her decision to leave teaching. But, much as she is enjoying her new life, teaching apparently hasn't entirely left her.

I miss having the identity and moment-to-moment thought processes of being a teacher. I find myself reading while at the gym and thinking, "Oh, I ought to share this passage with my students. It offers a perfect illlustration of literary allusion," or "Wow, this song contains great examples of well chosen adverbs." I definitely get a little bummed out when I think that I'll never get to share these tiny wonders with my very own students again.

Why is it always the good ones who leave?

Curiously, Katie finds her ability to remember dreams has returned. Like this one:

In my dream, I received a memo informing me and the rest of the school staff that teachers who did not drive HUMMERS or at least Lincoln Navigators were no longer allowed to park in the school parking lot.

Dreams. The stuff nightmares are made of.

technorati tags: Teaching

'Morning After' Sunburn Cream Could Prevent Cancer

The "morning after" lotion is called Dimericine. Dimericine is basically an enzyme cream that repairs the skin's damaged DNA. The body does this process naturally, but this cream would significantly speed it up. My family is heading for a day at the lake. July 4th, if it does not pour down rain, usually means time on the pier and a sun burn. Mowing grass in the summer is another time I expose my ashy white skin to the cancer causing rays from the Sun. May stories about how sunscreens do not protect us from the damage of too much Sun have been written these past few months. Maybe I need to check into some of this 'Morning After' cream. Chances are that the cost of it may be prohibitive on a school teachers salary. Wonder if our State Teacher's health insurance would cover the costs. Probably would cost full price since it may not have "generic" brand available. Makes me want to keep the laptop running inside with the AC on. But, it is the Fourth of July and time to party. Life is short. Time to have a little fun. Just got to remember to sit in the shade.

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Microsoft demos Vista on a MacBook Pro

"No, this isn't some marketing goof up, where Windows is superimposed over a piece of Apple hardware with the logo removed. Microsoft actully loaded Windows Vista on a piece of Mac hardware and presented with it."
Ok, I know this may not seem revolutionary to educational readers at first glance. However, I would love to have Apple computers that would run on our Novell network for our students to use. It will be interesting to see how schools react to this "blending" of operating systems. I have x dollars budgeted for technology, and probably will not ever have enough money to buy a new computers to replace our old desktop PCs. I hope Apple comes out with a new eMac that will run XP or Vista.

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Half of all Elementary School Teachers Admit to Bullying Students

In a recent survey, nearly half of all Elementary School Teachers Admitted to bullying students, some link it to teacher's past experience of being bullied when they were young

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Full Dodo bird skeleton found

This is a big find for scientists who wish to study the flightless bird that went extinct sometime in the 17th century. The last full set of bones was destroyed in a museum fire in Oxford, England, in 1755. Cool science story.

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Apple has another Grand Opening in the Triangle

Grand Opening
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

My daughter, Laura, called me on her cell phone today and ask me to guess where she was. I knew she must be in line at the Apple store in Crabtree Mall. I emailed her this week to remind her about the exciting event. It is really exciting to my daughter because she can walk from her apartment complex to the mall there in Raleigh.

She sent me 6 photos on her SideKick cellphone. This is my favorite.

Computer Lab or PC Graveyard?

remoteImage.jpg
Originally uploaded by teach42.

These are too funny. Best thing to do is throw them out that nice window. No, not really, but what a nice view. Had to say something positive.

I am sure the better computers are on the desks of the employees, right? Can someone from IT please report to this room?

Pluto's Newest Moons Named Hydra and Nix

The International Astronomical Union has officially christened Pluto's two newest satellites Nix and Hydra.

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Fish oil 'calms children better than Ritalin'

A daily dose of fish oil is better at treating hyperactivity than Ritalin - the 'chemical cosh' linked to the deaths of children, stunning research has revealed.

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Playing for Dinner

Father's Day at the lake. The turkey as deep dried and was a real hit. Almost as good as the Bluegrass music picked by my brother, his son, and me.

How Public Education Cripples Our Kids, And Why

So all my childs [must have skipped English class alot...it should be child's instead of childs. That's the teacher in me, wink wink] problems with learning and behavior come from the boredom of being schooled (imprisioned) for the first 12 years of his life?

The article is interesting, however the most engaging part of this Digg article has been the online comments generated by the "Digg-nation". Some comments really hit the issue of our public education on the nose. Others supported the various agendas present in all public debates of education. Some how, none of the contributors had any solutions. Funny how that works. I have a supportive administration that asks one thing from classroom teachers when we have a complaint - come up with a workable solution. If not, shut-up and teach. It works for me most of the time.

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Liquid Nitorgen + Swimming Pool = Awesome!

Ever wonder what happens when you dump a bucket of liquid nitrogen into a swimming pool? This is a good science demonstration.

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Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

Two lazy dogs.

Choosing Boot Camp or Parallels to Run Windows on an Apple MacBook

This article is an overview and comparison of two alternatives for running Windows on an Intel based Apple MacBook: Parallels or Boot Camp, which to choose? Pictures, benchmarks and video are included to demonstrate each Windows on a Mac solution.

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Google releases SketchUp for Mac OS X

Looking for some good summer fun? Check this out: Google has also kicked out a Mac OS X version of their recently-purchased SketchUp, a 3D modeling app for the masses.

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Computer Skills- "Ice Skating Over a Pond"

In reading this morning, I came across a blog entry over on Haulin' 'Net 2006
The Technology and Learning BlogView of Joseph Richard Poletti, updated: Fri, Jun 2 2006 7:15 PM, entitled "Ice Skating Over the Pond". The post discusses 21st Century Skills as they were topic of one of their recent technology meetings. Joe linked to a site that Larry V., a K-3 media coordinator, shared with the participants:
Mankato Technology and Information Benchmarks. These benchmarks are age appropriate and best of all relevant and clearly stated. Joe says they are "do-able".

I know one thing from working with our students this past year- lots of things are "do-able". They must first of all be relevant. That is a powerful and critical concept. If one wants to teach students from low-wealth homes how to use a digital camera, one need not ask the student to photograph the life cycle of a caterpillar. Instead, have them photograph their friends at school. My students found this activity very engaging.

Lisa R., Joe's middle school tech facilitator, shared that "ice skate over the pond of true education", and it appears we have the same kids. At least we have the same view of

Of course, technology has changed even if the basic skills we want to see in students have not. I find that students pick up the skills of technology rather quickly; itÂ’s the critical thinking required to know when and how to use the technology that is lacking.

I could not find Lisa's email address on her blog so, I hope she does not mind me quoting her insight on this issue. My students do not want to use critial thinking. Is it an issue of age appropriateness, relevance, or what? I do not have answers, but I have lots of questions.

Webcast Academy

This morning, I woke up and set up my laptop to run Skype. I then logged into Webcast Academy to participate in their webcast. The Academy is a hands on, collaborative training center for people interested in learning how to produce and host live, interactive webcasts. Jeff Flynn hosted the 6 am to 9 am part of the weekend's massive three day Webcastathon to celebrate their 1 year anniversary! It was my first experience using Skype. I was fairly frustrated with the numerous dropped signals that we experienced using Skype. Jeff quickly reconnected our conference call. I found out during our chat that we have shared experiences. Jeff has served as a special educator and while in college during the 70's, we also took a class that used computer punch-cards. Our conversation touched on a some additional points- Moodle, Joomla, and 2nd Life.

Moodle is something that my students have experienced this year. My students that are reading below grade level struggle with just following the simplest directions in Moodle. Many lack computer skills on the level needed to find files, upload files, and are challenged to even use the keyboard. The sad part is my students are in high school. Moodle works well with average students and above, however, without spending hours and hours of prep time creating visual content for the students that do not have the pre-requisite skill set, I am not recommending it. Sure, call me lazy, but teachers have to use technology that is appropriate for the learning style of the learner. If they are verbal student, they are frustrated and shut down real fast. My students enjoy using Hot Potato to create their own quizzes. Moodle does not fix student's lack of computer skills and does not provide them with the self-motivation. I can create all the Flash animations and podcasts, but if they are high on drugs when they come to class, or stayed out all night with their fellow gang members, not that my students are in gangs (yeah right) they have given up on themselves long ago. I like what Jeff Flynn said this morning when he told me that he did not miss working with this aged students. Maybe I should think about going back to take some classes in elementary education. My wife is an elementary school media specialist. She tells me all the time about how 4th graders seem to quit reading and appear to be suffering from the same problems that high school senior have. I am concerned that greater emphase on testing will only make the problem more challenging.

Joomla, is something that I am learning how to use. Jeff asked what I liked about Joomla, and I could not think that fast in that early in the morning. However, the feature that I like in Joomla is the template feature. Sure, I can change the template on our Moodle site, but the deign community for Joomla seems to have some neat designs. Also, Joomla looks more like a commerical site. I am not sure why, but it just has this look.

2nd Life-- my thoughts on using Second Life in the classroom are still washing around in my head. I can see the attraction, but I am not sure how to sell this to my fellow teacher. I am in an interesting position that my school's principal actually came to me with the idea to check out how games could be used to address the learning issues of alternative school students. She has listened to Marc Prensky and asked me to check into how we might tap the critical thinking potential of the gaming environment. I am not a gamer, but hey, if I can interest my students in learning about the environmental issues, or energy transfer through the biosphere, I am all for it. My problem is not that I am too lazy to explore it, I just have issues with devoting hours of my personal time at home, outside the work day to learn about something that may be out of style or old school before I can find out how to use it without my wife leaving me because I am "playing with my laptop" all the time. Bottom line, my 1st life is more important to me than my 2nd Life-- In this morning's webcast, one of the participants, I think it was Jo McLeay http://theopenclassroom.blogspot.com/ questioned if we really need another "addiction"? Addiction is a good word for what I witness with my students that are avid gamers. Not that there is any thing wrong with them, lots of folks function in life with all sorts of issues. I just do not want to miss a chance to help my students learn in an interesting and engaging way. So, I plan to try to keep my eyes on sites like 2nd Life and the sort to see what happens.

What might we do to introduce a virus into MySpac"z"?

David Warlick posted an article about teachers reading student's MySpac"z". Well, yesterday, while walking around my classroom, I paused to monitor the conversation of a cooperative learning group. Student were preparing their storyboard for my science class. They had not managed their time well, and I was concerned that they had not submitted their script. They realized, the time needed face-to-face and pulled out their cellphones and made themselves memos of what time they would be online that evening so they could work through their script before coming to class today. They actually are using instant messanger, cellphone, and posting the rough draft and making corrections on the movie script on MySpacz. How do I know they are, because they are back on schedule with their project. They told me they worked on the project until 1 am this morning. No telling hour fast they could have gotten the same task done in class, but that is not the point. Students have their own reality or lack-of and are learning to manage their time. I can see this group of students doing the same things that my daughter that works for SAS Institute-- they work, and go home and work. They are doing what it takes to accomplish the task, to reach their goal. That is what I think I teach that is the most important skill. They will not remember the chemical forumla for caffeine or the difference between the law of superposition and law of faunal succession, but this is why I teach. It is what makes me tie my shoe laces and put up with all the bad behavior and kids that think school is boring. I just smile and remember that we have to focus on the positives.

I know "MySpacz" is blocked in my school district, but students understand why and use their face-to-face class time for brainstorming, and asking questions. I do not know the url for my student's MySpacz site, and it is not cool for teachers to ask... Some of students in Whiteville, NC are IMHO-- digital natives.

Scientists Discover a Massive Blue Whale Colony

"What we are seeing is one of the biggest feeding and breeding sources, at least in the southern hemisphere"

This is a neat story to share with our students. When we teach conservation and rant about saving the whales, it is interesting when facts like this are discovered. Our students need to know that science is not just a bunch of facts that are all true and never change. While reading this article on the Blue Whales and Humpbacks, the writer reports scientists did not know about this colony, because it does not migrate away from the waters in the southern hemisphere. The big question is will world whale hunters, now locate this colony and harvest them? Maybe they already have? Lots of questions to make my students think.

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Estuary Live - Activity

While students viewed this week's EstuaryLIVE streaming broadcast online, students were asked to sketch the animals they liked.

Estuary Live - Activity

This past week, we have been participating in a great virtual field trip - EstuaryLive (EL). My students have been very polite and watched the streaming videos. Well, some watched, and some actually slept. I hate that our culture of students that have been raised by years of VCR babysitters. Their brains are programmed so that when their "caretaker" put them on the floor in front of a TV with a wrestling, horror movie, Soap-opera, or what ever movie they rented from the video store is playing and go to sleep or sit passively. Their dendrites switch to the "dead" position when a video or movie is on.

Tomorrow, we are going to have them work with screen grabs we took while the streaming video from EstuaryLive's broadcast and use them to create digital stories or PowerPoint presentations to tell about the topics covered during the numerous sessions on EL.

We live less than 50 minutes from the beach here in North Carolina, yet my students do not know about any of the topics. So, as a follow-up activity, we are planning to take a real field trip to the beach. More later.

Flock on Windows XP

Flock is really an interesting blogging editor. I have several blogs, and trying to keep them current, is a real challenge. Now, with the aid of Flock, the process is manageable. I am going to try one of its features called Drag stuff to blog it! This is a window that users can add content to a blog post on the run. This feature is a perfect example of Web 2.0 enhanced tools. When I work with my students on blogging ideas about science topics we are covering in class, this Drag stuff to blog it! feature in Flock will be popular. I can see them dragging the image of the lab observations, field trips, digital storytelling, and their favorite photo of the latest rims for their Pimped out Ride. Sometimes, they have to blog stuff that is relevant to them. This really a great editor.

Now, will Flock work with David Warlick's ClassBlogmeister? I am going to try it this weekend and blog my results.

technorati tags: Flock

Friday Symposiums at NWA

This week in our weekly teachers meeting, our teachers decided to all try to help expose our students to literary terms. We have a list of over a hundred terms. While surfing the Internet during our Spring Break, I came across fd's flickr toys, which is a third party plug-in (I guess that is what it is called). I never thought my students would like using it as much as they did. However, they experienced several issues trying to locate images that illustrated the literary term they wanted to work on. Each Friday, we try to team teach our middle school students so we can have a block of time to work on projects that just can not be started and stopped without cleaning up. Our school has both middle and high school students using the same classrooms and we have not time between class changes to reset up, so by blocking our 8:30 - 11:00 into one class, we have been taking advantage it.

I have posted some example images from our students. We (Genie Palmer, art and social studies teacher and me) facilitated these activites. The most recent project: Literary Terms editied to look like Motivational Posters.

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Below is a mosaic of some of the images of models of fish our students made.

Bobby, NWA Student with Fish Project, 2. Fish Project, 3. Fish project, 4. Marcus, NWA student with his fish project, 5. Fish project, 6. Fish project

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Below are a few examples of how our students animated mitosis cell division in another one of our Friday blocks. Maybe we need to call the learning lab activities, or Friday Symposiums-- oh, I like that! Dang that sounds important.

1. AOC claymation activity 2006, 2. March at NWA, 3. March at NWA, 4. March at NWA

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technorati tags: Flickr, fdsflickrtoys, k-12

DIALOGUE

DIALOGUE
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

technorati tags: fdsflickrtoys

ALLITERATION

ALLITERATION
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

DIALOGUE

DIALOGUE
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

Tenisha drew this artwork.

HYPERBOLE

HYPERBOLE
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

Irony

Irony
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

involves surprising interesting or amusing contradictions

SIMILE By TEVIN

SIMILE By TEVIN
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

Comparison between two unlike things using like or as.

Motivating Middle School Students with Technology

ADVERTISEMENTS
Originally uploaded by shay_beach.

Yesterday, in our weekly teachers meeting, we brainstormed some ideas for strategies we might implement the last few weeks of this school year to prepare our students for their End-of-Grade tests. One idea was to have other teachers review a list of literary terms. Earlier in the week, my students had been learning about how to use social software in science class. So, today, I asked my middle school students to give this activity a try.

My students, all over age 13, had created their first Flickr.com account. Then, they used fd's Flickr Toys, and a feature called Motivational Poster. Several steps are required to create the fd's Flickr Toys poster, but my students really got into the process. It was a real challenge to them. Not just a spelling bee, or flash cards or a worksheet. I knew I had their attention when one of my students who already has given up on himself. This school year has been a total waste for this child. He came into my class late this morning and immediately put his head down to fake being sick or act like he was sleepy. All the other students in the class already had their laptops fired up and we logging into their Flickr account. I just calmly walked over to the desk of my student that had his head down and asked him if he was interested in having fun. He perked up and replied, "sure, what ya doing?" I almost passed out. I was so tickled that I almost shouted YeeHaw!

I have included one of his three posters in this post. More than most of the students in the class. We will be working on this project for a few days. Basically, until they get tired of working on them. Our art teacher and I will be team teaching a session tomorrow, Friday, in which we plan to have the students sketch and paint their own images for their literary posters. I am not sure exactly how to really make this project work better, but the most difficult part of the activity is having the students searching for image to use in their posters. I thought about having the use our digital cameras to photograph object that would work to illustrate the terms. This would take forever. I tried having the use the terms as part of a Google search for images. This worked for some of the terms. That is until they got to the term allusion. One of my students pulled up an image of a artists figure. They sneakered and one said- "oh Mr. B, this is nothing compared to what my mother gets on her computer when she is trying to search for stuff for her classes in nursing school." I am not real sure this activity will be one to share, but it worked with my students- until that search. Tonight, I am looking for alternate image resources for my middle school students.

Using Google Video

Using Google Video
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

This is working, for now, and I am very tickled with how well it integrates video into eChalk.com. Our district uses eChalk.com's email and web hosting services. I have been experimenting with several strategies so we can display video projects our students have created. We liked .MAC because it is so easy to post the videos to their server and the .MAC servers load and efficiently play-back the videos.

I like having our videos hosted on Google video, because once they are uploaded, all I have to do is copy the code generated automatically by Google Video and paste it into a page on our eChalk website. Our content filters do not block this embedded HTML code. Basically, it works!

NWA Magazine Cover - First Edition

NWA Magazine Cover #1
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

Here is a neat activity for the day you return from spring break. Have your students use a digital camera and take a group of images of a classroom activity or have them write a short paragraph of what they did during their break. Then have them exchange their paragraphs in class and ask the student that read the paragraph to come up with a headline for a magazine article. Use a picture that the students judge as the best one of the ones they take in class, and use that for the cover of the magazine. Follow this link to fd's Flickr Toys http://flagrantdisregard.com/flickr/ and let them create a magazine cover and print it out. Collect them and post them on your classroom door. Make sure they did not slip any profanity or gang signs into the mix. Note the gold fronts one of my darlings is sporting in the example. I will not print this one out. I will display this one on screen as a focus point as they enter my classroom using the digital projector.

Element Video Project

My creation
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

As my students begin to learn how to create video/digital storytelling projects, I ran across this rather interesting publishing tool that works with flickr.com. As students begin to shot their video footage, their teams will be assigned a poster like this one to create. I threw this one together to give them an idea of what they will look like. We will print them out and have the students post them in our school. At lunchtime, students can view the videos.

New Meat Eating Dinosaur Discovered: The Mapusaursus

Huge meat-eating dinosaurs roamed in groups in Argentina, scientists say. News resources are showing some video clips of a sketch of the huge meat-eater's skull. THe article states that the Mapusaurus found is around 40 feet long. The remains of Sue the T-Rex measures 42 feet. The coolest idea uncovered so far is not the size but how it hunted. Scientists think that Mapusaurus could have hunted in groups. Now that would make an awesome movie. A pack of Mapusaurus stalking King Kong's son and his blonde girlfriend. As you can guess, I watched the King Kong DVD. That is another story. Loved the movie until the part where they cut back to New York and the biplanes flying around the treed Kong. I thought they missed the perfect time to end it when they captured Kong on Skull Island. Lost me after that. Well, it is true.

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Google Earth Image ATL

Google Earth Image ATL
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

In a recent podcast, I think it was Tony Vincent's or maybe it was Wes Fryer's (sorry, I listen to so many, I forget who said what) anyway, the participants were sitting around exploring Google Earth (GE). I was jogging on the treadmill, and missed a lot of the details on what they were doing. However, during my Easter Vacation from teaching, I finally got around to downloading the new OS X version of GE I works fairly well. After downloading and installing the program, I searched for sites that I had read about. This is so interesting to me. My question- will my students give it a second look? My guess is-- no. My students are so dependent on being spoon-feed facts that they forget within a day or two, this type of tool would be like play time. 3D modeling is neat, but specific learning tasks and how to assess student mastery might take time to thrash out.

One topic in earth science that would GE's 3D modeling will enhance is landforms and mapping concepts. I need to find some lesson plans or work on some myself to use these tool.

Born to be Wild

Me on my First Motorcycle--Born to be Wild
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

Found this old photo of myself made back in 1968. My brother is on the back, my dad is standing behind us. The motorcycle is a Honda Dream model.

With gas prices heading higher and higher, maybe I need to get a motorcycle. I wonder if this one is down at the barn?

To Block or Not to Block...That is the Question(?)

From Around the Corner, M. Guhlin's blog he quotes Bonhoeffer and suggests these steps to over turn school's efforts to control their computer networks and protect students from inappropriate web content:

1) Speak out and ask authority if what they are doing is legitimate and according to their original responsibility. Ask them to recognize if what they're doing is legitimate. As educators, we must question, speak out and ask if banning/blocking web sites, controlling and locking down computers, is really what we started out to do as educators. But the questions are broader than technology issues. We also need to ask if we're really going to allow K-12 education to be destroyed while charter/private schools are built-up. Is this what we really want to allow?

2) Help those affected by the rules. We give succor to those who are hurt by the Authority, help them and mitigate the effects of the danger, of the wheel that is crushing them. For me, this means helping teachers and administrators in any way possible, to help them find some way to engage students. For me, this includes efforts like digital storytelling, blogging, problem-based/project-based learning, and other initiatives that involve students doing work that cannot be easily tested, that requires authentic assessment.

3) Jam a spoke in the wheel. This last is active, work against the Authority that is abusing its authority. This is political action, the type of action that EFF, GlobalVoices.org encourage in fighting back. We must jam a spoke in the wheel that is crushing K-12 education.

One might ask "What planet is this guy on?"

It's all fun and games until you become an administrator and parent phone calls, dealing with rouge porn printers (Last year, our students were printing out porn to network printers for fun.), network security spyware, viruses, DOS tools, being compliant with the Feds to get e-rate dollars, and on and on. It never seems to stop.

In a previous post, "They occasionally come across a thumbnail." Come on, middle school and high school students are not that stupid. These "digital natives" go out and try to find porn using every trick in the book to circumnavigate blocking software. Our students learn how to write Perl scripts and cgi proxy servers as fast as any professional. They all know that they can use their email links to access MySpace (not any more) using Hotmail or Yahoo mail's SMTP. Most of them do not have the search skills to find information on Google, but if just one student finds the "hack", the instructions on how to beat the system spreads by word of mouth like wild fire.

Our tech department deals with teachers calling them up all the time and request sites to block something. Reasons vary, but here is an example: "because Johnny(student) was wasting time on that site while she (teacher) was giving a lecture." It doesn't matter if the site was harmless. Teachers want it blocked. This happens on a regular basis.

It would be fun to sit around and blog playing armchair adminstrator, but in small school districts where every dollar counts, free-range grazing is not an option like it might be in Texas. (Wink Wink) We have to keep our cattle inside the fence and our limited bandwidth must not be drained by students listening to music on their MySpace page while creating a database in their computer class. Students see it as multitasking, our network sees it as a resource hog!

It would be nice to be able to say there really isn't a problem. Go free speech! But.... we are K-12. We are not a university where students choose to be. (Although some universities censor.) We are a underfunded K-12 district. If we didn't have any censorship we would need lots of money for parent lawsuits, more protective technologies for subversive software, and money to replace the funds we get from grants and the Federal Government.

Adminstrator have a difficult position and are accountable to different forcecs. It is easy to call administrators or district policies Nazi-like administrators or district policies for being wrong when they don't present a solution or present a solution that is not realistic.

For those that say K-12 schools should not block sites, it is like those that say: "If we don't like gas prices, don't drive." Schools need the Internet, we do not need the threat of legal action on the part of parents of students that object strongly to porn being printed on our network printers and blog posts that bully or victimize their fellow students, teachers or administrators. There are not simple solutions to the problems and challenges that face safe educational use of technology.

Are search engines making today's students dumber?

In a recent classroom assignment, I noticed that students really do not understand how to use search engines on the Web. One example, the phrase "royalties agreement". When asked to define this phrase and give an example, my students immediately copies and pasted the words into the online dictionary search window and while yaking at the student beside them about the upcoming Prom, they noticed that no entry could be found. Hands went up and they began to become off task even more. When asked what their problem was, the students just shrugged their shoulders and said, "this ain't on the Internet", I can't find it." I could feel the blood beginning to boil in my head.

Teachable moment? Or time to get out the worksheet and textbooks and turn off the computer? That is why teachers do not want to use the Internet/computers in the classroom. Kids are more interested in their social lives and personal issues-- aka family, entertainment, etc. Than they are about learning new skills. The moment that student could not find the words she typed in, was when she gave up on "finishing her task". I learned a lesson. Looking up definitions on the Web does not help students learn what they mean. It is just doing old task in a new way. I need to find a better way to get them to learn about ethical issues in digital media. So, my question about the article below is what are they really measuring?

n December, the National Center for Education Statistics published a report on adult literacy revealing that the number of college graduates able to interpret complex texts proficiently had dropped since 1992 from 40 percent to 31 percent. As Mark S. Schneider, the center's commissioner of education statistics, put it, "What's disturbing is that the assessment is not designed to test your understanding of Proust, but to test your ability to read labels."

The "Higher Education Supplement" of The Times of London reports that a British survey also finds that the ability of undergraduates to read critically and write cogently has fallen significantly since 1992. Students are not just more poorly prepared, a majority of queried faculty members believe, but less teachable.

While some blame reality television, MP3 players, cellphones or the multitasking that juggles them all, the big change has been the Web. Beginning in the early 1990s, schools, libraries and governments embraced the Internet as the long promised portal to information access for all.

At the heart of their hopes for an educational breakthrough were efficient search engines like Google and those of Yahoo and MSN. The new search engines not only find more, they also are more likely to present usable information on the first screen.

Classroom Management 101: Claymation Project

claymation
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

I have been trying to use claymation animation in my science classroom for several years. Reflecting on exactly why the projects never got off the ground, I realized that I needed some help. While surfing the Net for experts, I ran across this site that I had seen before: www.myt4l.com I must have been asleep the first time. The materials I am previewing are worth every penny. The materials are highly effective. When I say effective, I mean that students understand the instructions, and the resources provided in the lesson plans provided exactly the level of reading and visual information needed. The image included is not the best, but is an example of how myt4l.com integrates writing and drawing.

Positive Behavior Support

My creation
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

This looks like a cool tool for us to look at to help motive our students here at our school. I can't wait to share it with my students on Monday.

Each week, our school takes a different character trait and teach what that trait means to our students. There are many different parts to this program, and it is past time for me to turn off this computer for the day. I will post the reactions of my students.

Science Education in the News: "Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math" Reports New York Times

A March 26 New York Times article reports that a survey to be released later this week on narrowing the curriculum finds that since No Child Left Behind was passed in 2001, 71% of the nation’s 15,000 school districts have reduced the hours of instructional time in history, science, music, and other subjects to open up more time for reading and math. “The intense focus on the two basic skills is a sea change in American instructional practice, with many schools that once offered rich curriculums now systematically trimming courses like social studies, science and art,” writes reporter Sam Dillon. The article reports the many ways district administrators are attempting to shore up their math and reading instruction, often barring students from taking anything but these subjects. To read the entire article, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/education/26child.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.

A New York Times editorial by Thomas Friedman titled “Worried About India's and China's Booms? So Are They” finds that one of the most frequent debates in most countries focuses on education and the common premise that they are falling behind. From the U.S. and Great Britain to India and China, every country is struggling with its own set of challenges. Friedman points to a “global convergence in education” that will spur growth and innovation. The challenge, he states, is for countries to find the right balance between creativity and rigor. Subscribers of the New York Times Select service can read the entire article at http://select.nytimes.com/2006/03/24/opinion/24friedman.html?th&emc=th. For others, read a synopsis at http://science.nsta.org/nstaexpress/nstaexpress_2006_03_27_synopsis.htm.Science Education in the News: "Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math" Reports New York Times

A March 26 New York Times article reports that a survey to be released later this week on narrowing the curriculum finds that since No Child Left Behind was passed in 2001, 71% of the nation’s 15,000 school districts have reduced the hours of instructional time in history, science, music, and other subjects to open up more time for reading and math. “The intense focus on the two basic skills is a sea change in American instructional practice, with many schools that once offered rich curriculums now systematically trimming courses like social studies, science and art,” writes reporter Sam Dillon. The article reports the many ways district administrators are attempting to shore up their math and reading instruction, often barring students from taking anything but these subjects. To read the entire article, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/education/26child.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.

A New York Times editorial by Thomas Friedman titled “Worried About India's and China's Booms? So Are They” finds that one of the most frequent debates in most countries focuses on education and the common premise that they are falling behind. From the U.S. and Great Britain to India and China, every country is struggling with its own set of challenges. Friedman points to a “global convergence in education” that will spur growth and innovation. The challenge, he states, is for countries to find the right balance between creativity and rigor. Subscribers of the New York Times Select service can read the entire article at http://select.nytimes.com/2006/03/24/opinion/24friedman.html?th&emc=th. For others, read a synopsis at http://science.nsta.org/nstaexpress/nstaexpress_2006_03_27_synopsis.htm.

Macbreak: Leo Laporte demonstrates WinXP running on a Mac Mini

Windows XP on an Intel Core Solo Mac Mini. Wow! This could be the answer to my school's dream machine. My students love using the Apple multimedia program like iMovie, iPhoto, and iDVD. There are also many programs that still just run on Windows that we have. My students prefer to use Publisher over Apple's Page, and Access Database is a program that our students must master in order to pass the NC 8th Grade Computer Skills Test. I know that we could use MS Works still for our high school kids to learn how to use databases, but no one in the real world uses it. Some school using Apple have purchased third party database programs to teach their students the skills of query and filtering a database. My students that can not pass the 8th Grade Computer Skills Tests have computer skills. They can find every game site not blocked by our server. They can locate every photo of a PitBull and print it out with enough copies for all the homies. They can surf to very NBA star and their favorite male and female rap star on the Internet. My point is that DPI's computer literacy skills and my "darlings" are on opposite ends of the poles. It is a cultural issue. It is the conflict between Digital natives versus digital immigrants.

"OUR STUDENTS HAVE CHANGED RADICALLY," this is the observation of Marc Prensky in his article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants." (Prensky, October 2001.) Today's students and young workers are part of a cohort he calls "Digital Natives." Raised on MTV, video games, e-mail, the Web and instant messaging, Digital Natives have developed cognitive thinking patterns that differ from previous generations. As a result, the challenge facing educational designers is to recognize these cognitive differences and to develop learning offerings that are appropriate to their cognitive learning patterns.

The same is true for 2006 classroom, but it getting worse. Add to this the fact that of my students, a vast majority of them still do not have access to the web at home. The students I teach tend to be more Digital Have-Nots. Oh, some have cell phones and CD players to listen to on the school bus. However, cable connections, dial-up and DSL are fell and far between. Sure I have more students in my 2006 classroom with Internet access, but the fact is, their still remains a glaring digital divide. Computers are still complicated and are seen by many families as a low priority to medicine and health care expenses, gas prices-- going out the roof again!, food costs-- heading up with fuel costs, rent, cable bills, cell phone bills, and on and on.

I really like the idea of a MacMini, able to run Windows XP and OS X. That is just too simple and makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

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Photos of the "Alien Cells" Found in Red Rain

The academic paper about the red rain phenomenon has several pictures of the cells. I have cut-n-pasted the photos from the PDF and put them up for easy viewing. Pretty amazing pictures!

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The Most Intense Solar Storm In Fifty Years Is Coming

It's official: Solar minimum has arrived. Sunspots have all but vanished. Solar flares are nonexistent. The sun is utterly quiet.
"The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.

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137 Online Tools for Webmaster

An must keep one-for-all list for online free tools that help webmaster, programming, and web design to program, design, develope, optimize web sites.

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Cingular, T-Mobile stop Razr cell phone sales

Companies say a glitch in Motorola's wildly popular phone causes dropped calls or shut down; Motorola stock tumbles over 2 percent. Saw this and had to share my observations of this piece of junk. My sister in law lives in Tampa, FL and has one of these "fishing sinkers." She one and while our family visited her I asked her what she thought about the Razr. Well lets just say, she was not a happy customer. She complained about the dropped calls and shut downs. One the way from the airport, in heavy traffic, her husband called her to see if our flight had arrived. I witnessed the phone dropping the call at least three or four times on a straight highway with no overpasses. This was in Tampa and the service coverage there is usually flawless. I thought it was her phone and how she had mistreated it. However, her son, my nephew, who has owned a cell phone from birth, was having the same issues with his Razr.

Bottom line-- Any one can build a piece of junk, but to sell it to folks that trust the brand, well Moto needs to show some customer appreciation and replace these Lemons.

Technology is fine when it works, but can cost a bunch and bug the heck out of you too.

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Reflecting on Using Technology In My Classroom

We have just started using the Apple's updated Garageband 6 in our classroom podcast. My students really like it much better than the older version. The like the bundled sound loops. After recording, we just click the images they want straight from the photo album. Currently, we are using the Apple shared photo feature so the students can access all photos in the classroom. They use the images to create enhanced podcasted. However, the size of the podcast file is huge when they include all the images and sound effects they like. I have decided to post a non-enhanced version to our iWeb site to avoid exceeding our small 1GB on .MAC. Hopefully, we will be able to up the server space next school year. I have promised the students that we will burn them CDs of the enhanced podcasts to take home for their families to enjoy. This is a tip I learned from Bob Sprankle at Room 208 We also love the new iWeb. Check out our classroom's iWeb: http://web.mac.com/blakej78 We have posted a few podcasts on this, and hope to have a new one up on using BubbleShare and Bloglines, and our science study of motion. My students created a claymation animation of mitosis. I am working on posting this soon to our site.

Today, my students (ages 16-20 Seniors in High School) create a BubbleShare.com site, and post images from the classroom. Their sites are set as PRIVATE, not PUBLIC. To share the images with every student, we created blogline.com accounts and shared through email, the addresses to the student's BubbleShare account. That means that only folks that they send the link to has access to the photos. Our lesson tomorrow is responsible ethical use of photos on the web. We are going to talk about copyright, and digital rights management. I made it very clear that they are not to use their last names in anyway. I was very surprised that all 10 of them had MySpace accounts. They were very lacks about following this rule until I gave them zeros for the assignment until they removed all identifying info from their photosharing site. So, you might want to share that tip with other teachers. We do not use MySpace.

Two of my students are already signed up to join the Military after graduation from high school. I sold them on the idea of learning how to use this tool so they could be able to send me photos of them when they get to Baghdad! Sad, but true.

Next, I hope to have them learn to pod to a blog. We are not going to use a public blog, I want to use David Warlick's Blogmeister blog site.

$100 Laptop show in final form

Check out the pictures of the OLPC on their final form. Looking much better!

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IMHO-- Our District Web Pages Are 'Old School'

District web pages were the topic of a podcast by Jeff Moore over on One Big Head. He is a very forward thinker and one podcast that I never delete, until I have replayed in my iPod a couple of times while working out in the gym after school. I am still trying to get my head around what Jeff talks about in this episode. I may have to listen to the podcast again tomorrow after a good night's sleep. I liked the way Jeff weaved the idea of how schools have an industrial culture. Well that is not how he states it. He is much more politically correct. Schools have a culture. State and Federal mandates along with local goals direct our school web page content. What content is on our pages reflects the industrial nature/departmentalized approach to managing our schools. Should we change our districts website? Not if it is just for looks. Not just to change for the heck of it. We should change to reflect the evolution of the Internet. It is time for our district to begin moving from the static web page to dynamic information content management.

In this episode, I offer thoughts on MySpace that are going to make me unpopular. Listen carefully, though--it's not MySpace that's the problem. It's our institution. Also, some realizations about my school district's website: how can its evolution bring change in the organization at large? We use Mambo, which forced us to do some things differently. Click here to listen.