Cool Cat Teacher Blog

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/10/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:30:39 PST

Lesson: The History of Mardi Gras

A 5 lesson unit on Mardi Gras aligned with Illinois state standards.

tags: education teaching
Mardi Gras info

This is the best information on Mardi Gras I've found. "Calling all children to the Mardi gras." Has information on Louisiana, printables, and more.

tags: education teaching
Mardi Gras!

More Mardi Gras lesson plans. This one for younger children. You could also use this to link in a study of French words.

tags: education teaching
Mardi Gras on the Net - Welcome to a Celebration of Mardi Gras

A Mardi Gras website for kids. If you're talking about this holiday in the US, you could use this site. It has a lot of information and recipes (but also some ads.)

tags: teaching

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Learning about Learning: Research and Edreform News and Views 02/10/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:30:55 PST

Nerdy Greeting Really a Smart Shake - NYTimes.com

This "nerdy" handshake by two Ivy leage basketball players now in the NBA is making rounds. One player opens a book,the other flips imaginary pages, they put on their glasses and put them in their pockets -now ready to play. I like this in many ways. I'm going to study and learn and then put up my glasses and get out there and DO. (My paper or pavement post a few days back.)

tags: education news popculture sports learning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Elearning and global competency #flatclass #globaled 02/10/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:31:24 PST

Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds Book Review - YouTube

Aaron Maurer shares his video review of Julie's and my new book. It may not be news to you, but to hear this review moves me beyond words.

tags: education news flatclass flatclassroom

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Education needs paper and pavement people

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:24:27 PST

Pavement rubber band (Photo credit: nicolasnova)

When surveying writers, I always scrutinize their resume to see if the person is a paper or a pavement kind of person.

A paper person has read a lot of paper and perhaps written a lot of paper. He knows the theories and how things should work.She read a lot of studies and may know a lot of people. There is certainly a place for paper.

A pavement person hits the pavement every day. She is doing it. He speaks from experiences that are real and that happened yesterday or today. She is very practical.

I think that the most successful educators are paper and pavement. I know college professors who are always talking to teachers. Who are looking at research studies for practical applications. These professors care about their own teaching practice as well and are on the pavement teaching in their own class.

Paper Tigers can devour learning
When we have to be afraid is when paper rules the day. We have too much of this. WE literally have "paper tigers" (pardon the pun but it fits) who are telling us to do things in the classroom that we know won't work. I've seen lesson plans in books that I wouldn't dream of doing. All neat and tidy, I wouldn't even try it with my students.

Pavement people can be a bit more messy and kind of dirty. Their lesson plans may be messy but full of rich learning.

Misapplication of best practice
The danger of best practices is to lose the context of the teacher, student, and local school in the implementation. I may dive perfectly according to a best practice, but if I'm pointing the wrong way on the diving board, I'm going to hit the cement.

Questions for those who spend more time with paper:

Do you have pavement in your paper? Are you reading relevant, practical examples from those DOING what you're studying?
Are you reading across a wide variety of people doing the job (not just award winners)?
Do you talk to or know people who do this job and listen to their thoughts?
Are you willing to listen when people doing the tasks tell you that your paper doesn't line up with the practice they see every day?
Do you treat "pavement" people in your profession with respect?

Questions for those who hit the pavement every day:

Do you read paper and learn about best practice from others?
Are you willing to integrate and learn from others?
Do you look at the research and see what you can do better relating to that research?
Do you know or talk to those who are "paper" experts who can help you see the big picture?
Do you treat "paper" people in your profession with respect?

On paper... bumblebees can't fly. In the real world, they fly every day.

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/09/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:33:29 PST

Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds Book Review - YouTube

Aaron Maurer shares his video review of Julie's and my new book. It may not be news to you, but to hear this review moves me beyond words.

tags: education news flatclass flatclassroom
BBC News - A Point of View: Mourning the loss of the written word

Is the written word gone? Is it lost? I know fore me, I have a cross pen and waterman with beautiful ink. I still write in my journal and I still write letters, although I have to admit, not as much as I used to. This is a great post to share and use for reflection and debate in your composition classes. With over 239 comments as of the writing of this, it has a lot of meat and thoughts in the comments as well.

tags: education news writing engchat
Why I left the business world to become a teacher

the Atlantic asked me to write about why I became a teacher. I left the business world to move into teaching. Not because I had to (I was a successful business woman) but because I wanted to. Please feel free to share your story. Here's mine.

tags: education news inspiration all_teachers inthenews

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Elearning and global competency #flatclass #globaled 02/09/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:31:26 PST

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: K-2 Project Forming Now

We're forming our first K-2 Flat Classroom project. Here are the details.

tags: education flatclassroom globaled flatclass

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/08/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:31:01 PST

Superhero Unit - comics in the classroom - Resources - TES

there is a reason that this resource is going viral over at Tes. This masterful set of lesson uses comic books with a wide range of writing activities: short story, informative, biography, and comic strip. You have lesson plans and instructions for how to use this. Use comics to teach biographics. Many teachers groan about teaching nonfiction. I love this.

tags: education teaching writing composition engchat
Mr Thorne Does Literacy

mr. Thorne is out of the UK. He has great phonics lessons. Yes, he has a british accent, but you could listen and redo these lessons in your own classroom if you are US.

tags: education literacy engchat reading phonics teaching
Colorful Convection Currents at Steve Spangler Science

I know Steve Spangler sells a lot of science things on his website, but I just enjoy him. I like how he explains things and how he uses colorful, attractive things in his science experiments. If you're a science teacher, I think you'll enjoy browsing the experiments on his website. Here is one on convection currents. He shares how to do all of the experiments, so you don't have to buy anything from him. This is a great example of how you can be helpful and people want to buy from you.

tags: education teaching science science_teacher
The Impact of One - Capella University - The Atlantic

This was a fun piece that you all helped me write for the Atlantic. I asked you, my friends, on Twitter, Facebook, and Google plus about why you became a teacher. The response was overwhelming as you shared why you got into (and stay in) teaching. Your words are powerful and inspired me to be more. Thank you.

tags: education teaching inspiration all_teachers

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

K-2 Project Forming Now

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:42:12 PST

ANNOUNCING!

Flat Classroom K-2 project ‘Building Bridges to Tomorrow’

Note: As part of our mission, we are piloting new projects with our Flat Classroom certified teachers running as lead innovators. Our goal is to make global collaboration simple and part of what we do. We had kindergarten teachers saying they are ready and we believe them. This is a pilot project this semester and teachers may want to be a bit more proficient as this is in "pilot" mode and lots of innovation, discussions, and working out best practices with K-2 will happen at this point.

Press release, February 7, 2012

Announcing, the Flat Classroom K-2 'Building Bridges to Tomorrow' Project! Co-founders of Flat Classroom, Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis, are excited to be able to offer this global collaborative project to classrooms around the world. This project will run as a pilot for the coming semester, February-April 2012 and be open to Prep/Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 classrooms (4-7 year old students).

Can very young students effectively connect, communicate, and collaborate in a global project? What does this look like? What products can students in mixed classroom teams co-create? What activities and structure can we design and implement to scaffold this collaboration? There are many wonderful opportunities out there already for students to connect using technology tools. However the aim in this project is also to encourage students in different places to collaborate, not just communicate, and to enhance understanding of cultures and life styles beyond the immediate environment.

We invite teachers who believe global collaboration has a place in their classroom. We invite those who want to improve digital citizenship and cultural understanding, leading to global competency amongst students and teachers. We invite teachers who have some digital fluency and access to digital tools who want to use them in meaningful ways to connect with others and learn together.

The ‘Building Bridges to Tomorrow’ call for applications is open now! Classrooms will be selected for the pilot and announced before the end of February. Following a teacher kick-off meeting, classrooms will work collaboratively through March and April with final products and celebrations taking place late April and into May.

We are looking for teachers who are creative and able to work collaboratively to help us build a meaningful experience for the classrooms and the wider school communities. Apply now!

‘Building Bridges to Tomorrow’ is part of the series of Flat Classroom Projects created by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis. Find out more from the Flat Classroom website, and from our recently released book, “Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time”.

Application Form for Building Bridges to Tomorrow: http://tinyurl.com/flatclassK-2
Flat Classroom Projects: http://flatclassroomproject.net
Flat Classrooms Teacher Network: http://flatclassrooms.ning.com
Contact us: fcp@flatclassroom.org
Directors, Vick Davis and Julie Lindsay
For more about the pedagogy and benefits of adding global collaboration to your curriculum, buy Julie and Vicki's book Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds from Pearson Publishing. www.flatclassroombook.com

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/07/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:31:36 PST

Hackasaurus

Mess around with web pages. This is from David Warlick's post on Educon that I posted as part of the daily news. You're not REALLY changing the page but changing it locally on your machine, but is is still a lot of fun. There are also links to using this site to teach how to make websites.

tags: education teaching html webmaster webdesign bestpractices technology

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Skepticism, Cynicism, and the future of education

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:37:46 PST

There is a difference between cynicism and skepticism. I've always believed that most cynics come at the world from an air of superiority. Often these cynics come across as "know it alls." It can be hard to truly discern a problem when you're always looking down your nose at it.

Then there are skeptics. For example, when my students do presentations, I always challenge them to show me the proof.

"It is not that I don't believe you but it is that people make things up and you can't appear to be one of them."

The 5 minute best seller
The other day a student said that after this certain band's album was released in the 1980's that it went to number 1 five minutes after release. It wasn't that I didn't believe him but I grew up in the 80's when the exact minute of a song release was sort of fuzzy. It took time for those cd's and albums to make their way to places. (Of course nowadays, things can move that quickly on the iTunes store but that is a different matter.) I asked him to share his source and show me. He was incredulous that I didn't "believe him." I've known him all my life shouldn't I trust him?

I explained that my feelings about him and my skepticism about what he says is true are two different things. Over the span of his and my life, we will be both right and wrong about many things. We must prove what we say.

Cite your source, prove what you say
When I present I work to cite the research in a link or quote my source. Always. It isn't that I'm a liar but we all have to prove what we say.

I think often I totter between being skeptical and cynical myself. We live in an age of self proclaimed experts. We also live in an age of cynics. The problem with cynics is that often they draw artificial lines between themselves and the "rest of the unenlightened world."

When I find myself on the blog of a cynical person, I never know where I stand. I feel like somehow I represent some sort of something they are against but I have no clue what but neither do they.

Defining cynicism
It is fine to be skeptical. Ask for sources. Ask to be taught in a way you can better understand. That is fine.

According to the free dictionary, there are four definitions of cynical:

"1. Believing or showing the belief that people are motivated chiefly by base or selfish concerns; skeptical of the motives of others:

2. Selfishly or callously calculating:

3. Negative or pessimistic, as from world-weariness:

4. Expressing jaded or scornful skepticism or negativity"

I choose to believe that most people want to do the right thing. While there are those selfishly calculating Machiavellians out there, once you know who they are, you can steer clear of that person.

There is a verse in Galatians that says,

"If you bite and devour each other, beware that you will be consumed by each other."

When we impune each other's motives we head down a path that is not productive for anyone. When you are busy tearing each other apart you don't have time to tear apart the problems you want to attack.

Work with people to work on problems
There is a big difference between taking issue with a person's IDEAS and taking issue with a person's motivations. That is the difference between a skeptical person and a cynical person.

As I watch education debates, I feel truly that many people involved want to do what is right for children. I do not doubt that they love kids, they love their grandkids and they want to do what is right.

But I find it odd for people who are supposed to be so well educated how research seems to be twisted towards what people have already decided to do.

"We want to do this so we're going to find research to prove it." seems to be the order of the day in education.

The Facts of Learning should focus our efforts
Let's deal with the facts. But realize, that even if you are right, sometimes HOW you disagree makes it so people will not listen to you. When you call names, resort to profanity, and impune the motives of people (unless there is a clear case of improper motive) you cause yourself to be left out of the conversation.

We don't like to talk to people who are rude and are always doubting our motives or honesty. If you're raised like me, in the south, if someone calls me a "liar" then "those are fighting words. I may be wrong, but if I said something wrong, it wasn't intentional.

Enlighten me. Teach me. I'll learn. Insult me and I'll fight even if I'm wrong. It is human nature.

Think about these things as we move forward in debate what needs to happen in education.

And for goodness sakes, why can't we start actually doing the things that we know will help children instead of keep in place bureaucracies that have been mounted to the halls of education like a 50 year old trophy case?

It is a new day and we need to start making headway. There really is no excuse.

Remember your noble calling, teacher.

Photo credits: BigStock

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/07/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:33:01 PST

The Purpose of Education is… : 2¢ Worth

An excellent piece by David Warlick on his favorite session of Educon. I love this thought of how to use monopoly and to make a point of how we need to learn to change the rules of the game and think creatively. Interesting piece.

tags: education news
TEDEducation's Channel - YouTube

Ted's education channel

tags: education news
Getting Ready for a Guinness World Record - The Spangler Effect Season 01 Episode 01 - YouTube

A science channel for your classroom. I love his field-wide classroom experiment.

tags: education video science news
IntelligentChannel's Channel - YouTube

A new channel on YouTube called the "intelligent channel." I always hesitate when someone defines for me what intelligent conversation is, but I've subscribed anyway just to take a look.

tags: education youtube news professionaldevelopment
The Intelligent Channel Launches (with Colum McCann Interview) | Open Culture

New youtube channel called the "intelligent channel" launches to establish "a home for intelligent conversation." This is part of YouTube's initiative to have more original programming. This article on OpenCulture gives the overview of the purpose for the channel.

tags: education news

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Elearning and global competency #flatclass #globaled 02/07/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:31:20 PST

The IB News - daily

Ah, my friend Julie finally gets the book in China! I'm so excited for her (and for us) and now I'm pouring over the public Kindle comments that my friends are leaving (or really anyone.) If you read on Kindle, sign in online and then make your notes public and I'll be watching! ;-)

tags: education flatclass
Global Education – When Hard Work Pays Off « coal cracker classroom

Suzie Nestico did an amazing job this past semester as our project manager for Flat Classroom 11-3. Here, she reflects on what her students learned and the individual awards of her students. I love hearing the reflections of students. It is so similar to what we've heard before and yet it is new every time another student says he/she now understands what it is like to collaborate and connect with others throughout the world.

tags: education flatclass
Are you an iCitizen: A Project on Citizenship in the 21st Century - Be the Change

Beth Sanders from Birmingham Alabama shares her students' iCitizen PSA announcements. This is a project that they have been working on to share their thoughts about what it means to be a citizen in the 21st century. I do hope she'll continue to take her students out into the web to connect even more but this is a great start.

tags: education digiteen digitalcitizenship globaled flatclass

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/06/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:30:58 PST

Valentine's Day card Design - Resources - TES

great ideas to help students design their own cards for those they care about.

tags: education teaching lesson plans
Coronary Heart Disease and Diet - Poster - Resources - TES

It is a great tie in with Valentine's day to share about heart disease and heart health. Here is a poster you can use in the classroom to talk about diet and coronary heart disease.

tags: teaching education lesson plans health
Teaching Resources, Classroom Resources & Lesson Plans - TES Resources

Valentine's Day lesson plans and activities for teachers.

tags: teaching lessonplans holidays elemchat

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

YouTube subscriptions to rock the classroom

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:17:01 PST

Image via CrunchBase

YouTube's initiative to add original programming to their site is producing quite a few "channels" of interest to the educator. It would make sense to set up a YouTube account for your school id and have a filtering system that lets you bypass to get to these great resources. YouTube is a distribution system and like all distribution systems: books, podcasts, etc. it has been criticized for content. It is and always has been: what content do you access that determines how well it is used.

So, here's a roundup of some of the YouTube channels you may wish to add to your YouTube subscriptions. Now, I just have to get on my Roku to determine the best way to bring these into my living room.

The Open University - Produced by open.edu there are many topics here and ratings on their website, but now the content is being syndicated to YouTube as well. Check out the website for free courses and close captioned video.

Yale University courses has a channel and playlists. It isn't quite as well organized as some of the others but is one you can use to find more content.

Library of Congress YouTube Channel - I've noticed some literary author's having their birthdays celebrated here but also concerts, national book events and more. This is a treasure for librarians and literature teachers.

BBC Worldwide - The "best of British TV" has come to Youtube. In addition to educational content, there are also playlists with clips of great shows like Sherlock. (which is coming back for a second season. I have to wonder, however, when they'll realize to just put the whole show through so we can watch it.

The Intelligent Channel - this is a new launch (read the Open culture article) to establish "intelligent conversation" on the web.

The Spangler Effect - A science teacher who makes science fun. This is a great channel and has tons of potential. (See the Guinness World Record experiement opener.) I do hope that he lets us start forwarding past the disclaimer which is a bit long to have at the beginning of each video.It is funny once and I'd show it the first time, but the other times, it should be a skipper.

TED Education channel - Where teachers will share their lessons.

If you want to get a full rundown of new channels coming to Youtube, check out their list of original channels. Of interested to educators, Deep Sky Videos (depths of space, galaxies, etc.), Sci Show,

Personally, I'm looking forward to being able to subscribe to "Stan Lee's World of Heroes" but it isn't available yet.

eBooks and Book News (weekly)

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:45:07 PST

1:1 in Practice at Sinarmas World Academy

This teacher is using iTunes producer to write books for her students in Indonesian and has run into trouble, however, here is her advice with screenshots and graphics. Some very practical advice to those writing free ibooks for their students.

tags: education apple edapp eduapp ibook ebook

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/04/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 02:31:32 PST

Knotebooks - Anyone can contribute. Everyone can learn.

Website with tons of math and physics resources shared through a community. This site will give you the best physics and math multimedia on the web in one place. The partners are MIT OpenCourseware and Stony Brook University. This is another way to mashup content and how material is becoming more open

tags: education news math math_teacher
Sweet Search

This search engine is intended to be for students and has widgets and add ins for web browsers. The websites that are returned in this engine have been evaluated by "research experts." In this case, you have a curated sort of search.

tags: education news media mediacenter librarian
Sympoz - http://sympoz.com

Online classes and courses in all types of topics.

tags: news education elearning
E-learning - Online Tools and Applications on Go2Web20

Tons of web 2 tools for elearning. Here are some I haven't played with yet. If you love playing with apps, this website will give you lots of them.

tags: education web2 eduapp edapp news

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Elearning and global competency #flatclass #globaled 02/04/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:31:27 PST

Education Week: U.S. Schools Forge Foreign Connections Via Web

Excellent article about collaboration between US and overseas classroom includes Flat Classroom superstar, Suzie Nestico.

tags: education flatclass globaled

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/03/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:30:38 PST

CarrotSticks Online Math Games

If you're teaching addition, your students can play carrot sticks free. There is a fee for advanced games. Targeted to grades 1-5, this is a multiplayer math game.

tags: teaching lessonplans elemchat math_teacher
Online Coloring pages, Kids games, printables, crafts- Kidopo

This website is full of coloring pages, printables, and games. This looks like a website with useful materials for elementary teachers.

tags: teaching lessonplans

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Edu app news: apps, ebooks, and sites for your classroom #mlearning 02/03/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:30:49 PST

VOXY :: Learn a language from life

This website is in English, spanish, and portugese and works to help you improve English "while reading" You can get this app on your smartphone. This is definitely something for ESOL teachers to review.

tags: eduapp edapp education language_teacher
Twiducate - http://www.twiducate.com

A social network for schools. (I don't like calling it a social network, but prefer calling such networks educational networks.) Here is a tool intended for students and parents and teachers involved.

tags: eduapp edapp
E-learning - Online Tools and Applications on Go2Web20

Tons of web 2 tools for elearning. Here are some I haven't played with yet. If you love playing with apps, this website will give you lots of them.

tags: education web2 eduapp edapp news

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Learning about Learning: Research and Edreform News and Views 02/03/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:30:58 PST

Sympoz - http://sympoz.com

Online classes and courses in all types of topics.

tags: news education elearning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Learning about Learning: Research and Edreform News and Views 02/02/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:30:39 PST

Crowdsourcing the Curriculum - ICT - TES

This heated conversation happening over at TES shows just how heated the response is to the UK's Michael Gove requiring ICT in schools. I've added my own response because sadly, the way ICT has been defined in most school is as a lower-order step 1, 2, 3 type activity when it should be so much more. The ICT is today is probably not what it needs to be. Great conversation.

tags: education edreform learning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Eracism Project Forming now: Applications Open

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:56:38 PST

Eracism Project 2012 Forming Now
Press Release February 1, 2012.

Announcing, the Eracism Project 2012 - a global student debate that joins diverse cultures and includes authentic debate for global competence and international mindedness.

Fact based debate is a very essential skill with students who often equate the term "debate" with argument. The Eracism project: A Flat Classroom ProjectTM was envisioned by the winning student team from the 2009 Flat Classroom Conference held in Doha, Qatar and their concept was to hold debates using Web 2.0 tools to improve cultural understanding.

Schools selected for the Eracism Project 2012 will be asked to enter a 4 person debate team, with the remaining students in the class being researchers around the topic,

"Government regulation requiring immigrants to adopt the beliefs, habits, and language of the dominant culture does more harm than good."

The initial debates will be held asynchronously but in what organizers are calling a "simulated synchronous" environment with the final winning teams debating live in a virtual world. This project was carried out in 2009 and is being run again starting in March 2012. A limited number of applications will be taken.

We welcome applications NOW from teachers and their classrooms around the world. We also need judges and volunteers to help with debate coaching. To apply for this project as a class or judge or volunteer or request to be involved in the teacher information meeting, please complete this form.

Classrooms in Upper Primary, Middle and High School are encouraged to apply (students of age 11 and above). Organisers will create two strands in this project based on demand.

Application deadline is February 29, with announcement of project classrooms by Friday March 2, 2012.

The first teacher online meeting will take place near March 5, 2012. Actual date and time to be advised.
Tentative Timeline
This project has a planned start date of March 5, 2012 with debates beginning March 25 and concluding with the final debate held in a virtual world (and to be streamed live) in May 2012. Schools applying must specify their school holiday dates so that they can be best placed in the project on the debate grid.
Phase 1 - Research & Coaching
This will happen at the school level as classrooms research the topic and practice debate at their local level.
Phase 2 - Asynchronous Debate Round
Students will use VoiceThread to debate with each round taking approximately one week.
Phase 3 - Synchronous Debate
The top two teams will debate live in a virtual world with the debate streamed live on the web for students and educators around the world to watch.
Phase 4 - Reflection
Students and teachers will reflect on ways to improve the methods for global debates.

Process
Due to the asynchronous components used, Eracism will use a hybrid debating style that is based on Conflict or Initiative Debating.

The teams prepare their cases; they present their arguments and evidence; and, they rebut the other team's arguments and evidence. The debate cycle will generally align with the Middle School Public Debate Program found at http://www.middleschooldebate.com

Each debate will be adjudicated by 3 judges and the winning team advances to the next round.

Most of the debates will be carried out on VoiceThread with the final debate being streamed live in a virtual world.

Thank you to the sponsors of this project: Voicethread, Wikispaces, Blackboard Collaborate. (Virtual world platform to be announced soon.)

Co-founders of Flat ClassroomTM Projects, Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis, have been planning for two years to once again run this ground breaking and inspirational global collaborative project. The project opens eyes and hearts as students debate on an issue that will bring together diverse ideas, develop transferable skills and create lasting friendships.

More information about Eracism: http://www.eracismproject.org
Application Form for Eracism 2012: http://tinyurl.com/eracism2012
Flat Classroom Projects: http://flatclassroomprojec.net
Contact us: fcp@flatclassroom.org
Directors, Vick Davis and Julie Lindsay
For more about the pedagogy and benefits of adding global collaboration to your curriculum, buy Julie and Vicki's book Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds from Pearson Publishing. www.flatclassroombook.com

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 02/01/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:31:04 PST

Are You Applying for the 2012 US Forum? - Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

I highly recommend the USA Forum for Microsoft. It is a great opportunity to showcase what you've done. They do a great job with it! I served as a judge last year. Wonderful program and their rubric is excellence. If you want to spend this summer learning a lot and competing for some very cool prizes, look at apply for this.

tags: teaching education teachers awards

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Edu app news: apps, ebooks, and sites for your classroom #mlearning 02/01/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:31:15 PST

IPad appears to be clicking with seniors

As I help students research how to help senior citizens use the ipad, I'm finding more great reasons this is a device for those with accessibility issues.

"With glaucoma, it's like reading in a fog. But with the iPad, I can see because of the strong contrast between the printed words and the lighted background," Campbell said. "I can't emphasize how important this is for people with limited vision."

tags: education news eduapp
iPad for Dad, #3 – After the First Lessons « As Our Parents Age

Another final overview of using the ipad with senior citizens.

tags: eduapp eduapps senior citizens ipad accessiblity
iPad for Dad, #2 – Getting Started « As Our Parents Age

Second part in a series about purchasing an ipad for an elderly parent.

tags: eduapp ipad elderly senior citizens

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Do we really get happier when something big happens?

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:10:17 PST

Image via Wikipedia

I came flying into the house with a low grade fever to have my 10 year old put his ipod touch in my face and ask for the password (I have to approve his purchases) and my 6'1" model sized daughter exclaim that she had to be at the school by 4:30 or the bus would leave her. My 17 year old 6' 5" bellowed in his deep bass that it was his birthday and did I have time to go to the courthouse to pay his tags because he'd forgotten.

All of this at once. But time stopped.

I saw it. A large box. On the kitchen table. I took the keys in my hand that had opened the kitchen door just seconds before and with a quick flick opened the box and it got quiet.

"Here's Mama's book, guys."
"Congratulations, Mom," said my 10 year old. "Will you type in the password for me now?"

And bedlam started up again.

And I thought to myself. Is this is what it's like? When your life changes and you have a dream that you've had since you were 12 finally happen - the world just keeps going. The kids keep yelling. Nothing really changes and yet you know that something has changed. That this moment is a defining moment in your life and yet life doesn't seem to really change. You're the same you and you keep going.

I think it again reinforces that being happy wherever you are is important. I have to be happy with or without a book or with or without a blog because having something new isn't going to make me any happier.

Funny thing, I read that people who are happy people are also happy even after a trauma happens. Kind of like our body has a set point for weight, I think we sort of have a happiness set point. Just as we can change our body's set point for weight, I think we can also effect our set point for happiness.

The point is, I wasn't going crazy with my kids inundating me. I kind of enjoy that they are all there around me, even if it is crazy. And opening the book didn't have any effect on me and how I handled things.

So, as happy as I am about the book coming out and the kind notes and reviews you're sending in, I'm just as happy as I was before.

Perhaps it is time to learn to be content with what we have. To work to be better but to know that when we have a great breakthrough not to expect that to be the magic pill to our utopian happiness. There is no such thing.

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