Cool Cat Teacher Blog

The Honor Society

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:32:00 PST

"...for knowledge is worth more than anything there is in the world; it's what makes great men and good men; you'll be a great man and a good man yourself, some day, Thomas, and then you'll look back and say... it's all owing to my dear teachers that taught me to learn -- it's all owing to the good superintendent, who encouraged me, and watched over me..."

Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, Kindle location 604

Sometimes we teach students about life amidst our humanness...

Ponderings on Tuesday Night

So, I've tried to play with Google Buzz, the new gmail inbox morphing social media-ish way to do email. I wasn't that excited about Google Wave, but from reading about Google Buzz am more excited. Unfortunately, you can't "get" Buzz - it has to be given to you - so I'm waiting (and trying the "cut in line" method advocated by PC World.)

And yet... I keep thinking about National Honor Society initiation this morning...

I headed over to Facebook just to feel overwhelmed with friend requests, etc. Too many decisions, so I left there also. Thought about messing with Scrapblog - the super cool Flash based scrapbook making tool that will only get cooler with all the money they just raised to enhance their services.

And still... National Honor Society initiation keeps coming back to mind...

I keep getting messages from a customer service rep with PowerSchool (obviously in India because I couldn't get a reply during the day for the life of me) telling me to use the Faq that I've been trying to use to get the email to send grades to parents. (It stopped working last Thursday.) Sometimes I feel like some customer care reps when they get to me press "Send" and then run out the door to go home. All this technology has not made customer service better, that is for sure.

And my thoughts keep returning to the National Honor Society initiation this morning...

Now...

I'm on gmail - gtalking with my sister and giving her thoughts on a sign she's working on. (Love the chance to keep my marketing skills used.) National And chatting with my dear friend Wendy on Facebook - we've just planned to drop our kids off at church and hit the coffee shop for 20 minutes before we have to be back at church tomorrow. Honor (I noticed how Facebook chat causes my computer to be nonresponsive for about 6 seconds after a facebook chat comes through -- hmmm.) Society

OK, About the National Honor Society Initiation Already!
But I keep returning to this morning to the National Honor Society ceremony where I messed up. (How could you tell I'm upset?) I didn't get to set up yesterday for the event or I would have caught it. Nothing seemed to go right. I couldn't set up because of a late night meeting at the school. It was raining - I was running late. The photo frames for the certificates didn't fit, so I had to just give them certificates (or I would have caught my mistake when I had one extra frame.) I checked everything - my National Honor Society students helped me with everything and are just wonderful.

The only problem is that I messed up.

There was one thing that I had to do and only I had to do --- print out the certificates. And, I did the unthinkable.

I left out a student. He was there. He was in line. He was responding and reciting his words. And as soon as I gave out the certificate of the person before him I realized what I had done. I had forgotten his certificate. It wasn't intentional. I had printed it but it had messed up and I didn't print another. I screwed up.

I had to admit my mistake to everyone watching... parents, etc. everyone! I made a comment, they laughed. I MESSED UP! I was embarrassed but even worse, he was embarrassed too! And he didn't even do anything. It wasn't his fault. It was my fault. And nothing I can do can undo what I did. It was an honest, human mistake and I screwed up.

He was affable as were his parents. They were forgiving and so very gracious. But I still know I did something horrible. Something I cannot redo. Something I cannot undo. Something that he'll probably remember for a while if not for the rest of his life. HOW COULD I?

What we live with daily
And my friends, this is a window into the life of a teacher. I'm so sorry that I made a mistake. I'm printing another one and getting it for him (to add insult to injury, the nice laser ran out of ink and I couldn't do it immediately!)

But here is the point... we are teachers. We do things daily like this that mark the lives of those we work with. And in our humanness we mess up. We do.

The difference between us and business people is that they may mess up a product and throw it away, but we are dealing with eternal beings here. We are working with the material of eternal soul - people who have feelings and emotions and deserve our respect and love. And we are human. Oh, so human!

This precious young man deserves a perfect National Honor Society advisor. A perfect teacher. He deserves one. He needs one. One who doesn't screw up and who doesn't forget the certificate and triple checks and doesn't do such a thing. But, he doesn't have such a perfect person -- he has me. And I screw up. And, boy, did I screw up today.

Teachers mistakes live forever magnified by memories and often increased over time the hurts we cause, often through our flawed humanness.

FEELING the Pain
Some of you will say I'm being too hard on myself. But I'm a teacher and am empathetic. I FEEL what it would be like to be him and have an adviser do that. It HURTS me.

And that, my friends in this human state is the essence of what we can do. As teachers we need to:

1- Understand that we make mistakes.

2 - Admit it
Don't try to cover it up or excuse it. Be up front and ask for forgiveness.

3 - Empathize
Feel our mistake from their perspective. We cannot pay, we cannot give penance but we can know in our hearts that we understand and feel the pain of what we've done. I will not shed that pain. I will forgive myself and seek God's forgiveness and that of the student - but it is ok to feel what I've done. Perhaps it will impress upon my soul the importance of paying better attention next time and not messing up.

4 - Correct
Correct myself and take steps to not let it happen again. NEVER AGAIN. At least it can be my goal.

5 - Love
The measure and forgiveness I use with my students will be measured back to me when these things happen. If I'm harsh and unforgiving then, when I make these mistakes they will be harsh and unforgiving with me, at least in their hearts.

I don't know what this can teach or tell you except that this is serious business - this teaching, advising, coaching thing that so many of us do who crowd around this web log to discuss what it means to educate our students and our children.

We are humans educating humans and more than ever I feel the importance of my noble calling.

And more than ever I feel the heaviness of my heart when I let one of these precious students and myself down. I will get over this and forgive myself... but not right now. It still keeps returning to my mind - amidst all of the hustle of things I'm doing online.

But, then I return to this quote from Tom Sawyer excerpted at the beginning of this post:

"for knowledge is worth more than anything there is in the world; it's what makes great men and good men"

And sometimes the knowledge we impart to our students is that even the most well meaning, empathetic, loving person among us messes up and needs their complete, undeserving forgiveness. And the giving of such forgiveness, my friends, is what does make great men and women.

Greatness Embodied
Great men and women are not carried down by resentments of the past. They forgive even when it is not deserving and they move on. And this student and his parents, for their generosity and kindness I am forever grateful. They could have "torn me up" as we say in the South, but they didn't. They forgave me (at least I think they did.) I am grateful for their graciousness.

And this young man, with his kindness and forgiveness, perhaps ended this day with the greatest Honor of all. The honor of glimpsing what it means to be great. He and his parents are truly members of the Honor Society in my book.

The honor and nobility of forgiveness given though not deserved. The honor and nobility of kindness when anger was deserved. The greatness of love when fury could have been bestowed. The Honor Society.

Even amidst our mistakes, perhaps especially during our mistakes, the greatest of life's lessons are taught and shared.

Remember your noble calling Teacher, Parent, Principal, Superintendent. Join the Honor Society. Forgiveness is truly your admittance into the Honor Society. Join today by giving someone what they do NOT deserve - your unmerited forgiveness. (You might just make it a habit.)

Photo Attribution: Gurdonark All is Forgiven

Reviving the Dream

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:20:01 PST

"Sardis was a city of peace, not the peace won through battle, but the peace of a man whose dreams are dead and whose mind is asleep, the peace of lethargy and evasion,"

I came across this quote while studying Revelation and no- this is not a "Bible" lesson per se, but one about dreams. This previous quote was from William Barclay in his Letters to the Seven Churches (New York: Abigdon, 1957), 71 as cited in Gabelein and Douglas, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, 448.

These words completely haunted me as I pondered them.

How many people do you know who have silently let their dreams die and their minds go to sleep?

Do you know someone who has the peace of lethargy and evasion?

This has many terms:

"He's biding his time."

"She's just waiting until retirement."

"I'm stuck, so I might as well make the best of it."

Now, you and I have sacrifices to make and truthfully, some days I question myself. We all teeter sometimes on lethargy. When you've given so much that you literally do not have anything else to give. When everything you've tried fails miserably. When you are in an untenable situation with a person who not only "doesn't get it" but makes our life a living hell.

Langston Hughes, the American poet says:

"Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

1
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.


Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow."

I've seen dreams die - in my own life - in my own home. When I became a teacher, I felt like my dream of having a successful business was going by the wayside. But, I knew for many reasons (most of which I felt God's calling) that teaching was where I was go. So, in this case, one dream died, but then another was born -- in my own heart I realized that my goal would be to build one of the best technology programs in the world. Oh, that sounds ostentatious, but it was something I'd say even in assemblies and to my students. At first, I'd get several snickers -- and then less. Now, finally, the students know - we do have one of the best. And now the dream is for more.

You have dreams. Maybe you're not where you thought you would be at this point in your life -- but who is? If we knew everything that would happen before it happened, what would be the point? For me, this is the power in adjusting myself each morning to God and his purpose for me. Taking petitions to him. Asking for his wisdom - my dream is that when I'm done, He'll say "well done."

But this is such a message for us. I think that whatever your faith- whoever you are -- take this moment to look at yourself.

Do you have the peace that comes from lethargy and evasion? Have you become "comfortably numb?" (To coin the title of a Pink Floyd song?)

Purpose is something we long for and indeed most great leaders are characterized as having "vision" by those who survey the traits of leaders. Vision is seeing a dream and making it a goal -- having purpose for the organization and in being a part of such an organization the people have purpose. Being a part of something bigger than yourself. Having a purpose.

For me... I have to keep asking myself - what is my purpose? Why am I here? What is the very best use of my time at this moment (Brian Tracy calls it the "Focal Point" in his amazing book of the same name.) For truthfully our moments make our hours, our hours make our days, our days make our months and years and years make our lives. You are what you eat, but even more so, you are what you do.

And what you do begins with those dreams. Taking the dreams and turning them into actionable items - identifying the things you must do to get there -- clarifying the values that lead you to desire that dream to make sure it is in line with who you are. These are the hallmarks of the greatest, most productive people of our time. And sometimes those people don't have their faces on the cover of a magazine or on the bestseller list. Be careful of defining success as the world sees it -for truly the front pages of the world's magazines and newspapers only have a limited space and often that space goes to the most controversial and sick among us -- not something I'd want.

I've started reading Greater Than Yourself by Steve Farber as recommended by my dear friend Angela Maiers and in this book I'm finding the purpose that this whole post is about. It is about finding others and having the humility to help them become greater - perhaps even than "you" are. In fact, this book is hugely appealing to teachers because that is truly our calling and our destiny -- in our seats we have students that will surpass us. Students who will do great things. I look at each student and say to myself, "When this child's autobiography is written will I be an antagonist or will I be a mentor? Will I be a person that marked them in a positive way?" Oh, let it be positive?

There are teachers who are bullies! There are teachers who harm their beautiful, precious charges. There are administrators who do the same -- but also my friends -- there are legions and legions of incredible, loving, wonderful teachers who have a heart to help these students become greater than we will ever be.

Today, as you look at yourself - as you examine your life. As you ponder these thoughts I challenge you do this:

As these questions:

Do you have any dreams that are worth dying for?

If so, you've just found the dream worth living for!

Do you have any principles and beliefs that you'd give everything for?

If so, you've just found the principles and beliefs you are living for!

If you're bound in the lethargy and evasion that has you considering why you are even here, then pick up a book of encouragement. The definition of insanity is to continue doing the same thing and expect different results! If a car is in a rut, we change something - going back and forth in the muddy clay only makes the car more stuck. We all get in ruts and have to use leverage to get ourselves out.

The leverage of excellent thoughts-- find books, tapes, anything to help you refocus and see what you need to do. Seek wisdom. But most importantly - don't have a pity party. These are the things ALL of us experience. If someone says they have it all together - they lie. Someone on Twitter told me today that they "have never held a grudge." Well, if that is so, then that person is perfect. We are so fallible and human we all make mistakes. We hold grudges and we screw up. But getting back up is the common denominator of the successful!

But the greatest mistake is to see yourself falling into the trap of a dangerous thought pattern of hopelessness and to NOT do something about it.

Oh, my friends - teaching is a noble calling. Educating our future is a noble calling. Raising your children and grandchildren is a noble calling! You have a purpose! Helping technology be put to good uses that empowr and improve mankind is a noble calling! Look beyond yourself and into yourself and find it! If you understand your own nobility - you begin to act more noble. Not in arrogance but in service. Not in self-centerness but in unselfish service of others.

Keep the faith and know that if you are here on this planet - YOU Have a purpose!

Daily Spotlight on Education 02/09/2010

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:30:07 PST

Why Geolocation Services Are Exciting For Poets, Musicians, Educators & Comedians
Geolocation overview from Marshall Kirkpatrick at the Read Write Web. Marshall says:

"The era of location-as-platform for software development is just beginning. No longer of interest only to uber-geeks, everyday people are now reporting their physical locations online, often through their phones. Geolocation services are hot and ever more prominent ones (like Facebook) are believed to be right around the corner.

This is a very exciting development for lovers of innovation. Today we asked some of our favorite web-heads why they are excited about geolocation and below you'll find their answers. We hope you'll share with us what you too, dear readers, think of this hot new trend online."
tags: education, learning, geolocation, gps
Angela Maiers Educational Services: Are You Making Others Greater Than Yourself (#GTY)?
I just ordered this book on my Kindle - from Angela Maiers:

"Greater Than Yourself, the latest inspiration of his Extreme Leadership series of books, is a book every administrator, leader, teacher, and student (yes, them too!) should read. Now. It is a game-changing book. So much so, that educational and business leaders from coast-to-coast and in-between have been gathering as part of a GTY Summit discussing ways to deliver the GTY principles into school buildings and classrooms all over the globe. "

tags: education, learning, leadership

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

A Peek into Cool Cat Teacher's Classroom Right Now

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:15:00 PST

Some really exciting things happened this past week. Just thought I'd share with you today about some of the things happening in my classroom in the hopes that there may be something to ponder here for you. It is every day to me, so really, none of it seems particularly revolutionary... that is unless I compare it to what my room looked like about four years a go before my teaching model and tools transformed.

8th Grade Keyboarding
I still use the Old textbook my Mom used. (She founded this computer lab!) We don't use any video game or tools until the entire keyboard is learned. Here, five weeks into the semester they are about to have learned all of the keys. They had their first timed writings last week and have already hit 49 words per minute as their average. This is largely because we teach in fifth grade (pre-puberty) although then, they average around 27 words per minute.

We do team goals and I have an excel spreadsheet to total everything. I reward the students when the class hits a 10 point mark (i.e. when they hit 50 words per minute, the class receives a reward.) I find that this motivates everyone and helps those who may be slower see their value and stay motivated while those who are faster are also pushed to do more as well.

We will start playing Typershark this week and also have the typershark Olympics. (Where I split them into even teams and they compete to see which team can get the most total points in a class period.) Typershark helps with accuracy. (See: Keyboarding: The Hidden Giant of Web 2.0)

Keyboarding isn't "sexy" but when my students average 70 words per minute with the slowest around 40 words per minute - there is a huge difference in what we can accomplish. After trying everything, the old fashioned book method is by far the best method for teaching typing. They cannot look at their hands and I think that the software encourages this when used too soon.

9th Grade Computer Fundamentals
Students have been finishing up their Time Magazine cross-curricular project with the composition teacher and I'm preparing to take them into ClickSmart^tm (my intuitive method for learning software that basically gives a method for learning ANY new software - hope to have a book deal signed on this method this week.) They are finishing up their online portfolios in Weebly and then we're getting ready to move to our private island on ReactionGrid.

I think I'm most excited about the new formatting of OpenSim private islands and had an amazing tutorial session this week with Robin Gomboy, co founder of ReactionGrid. The students in tenth grade have packed up their inventory for moving to the private grid. (Don't worry, we're still leaving Digiteen Island and other grids on the public grid on ReactionGrid for you to tour.) (See: A Tour of Digiteen Island)

But, here is the most amazing thing -- there are these things called Oar Files (Open Sim Archive) which basically pack up everything on a grid so that it can be transported. I shared some links last week to places where these files can be found. But this is what it means: we can work on Digiteen Island one week, then I can take it and pack it up and save it on my virtual server (which I log into with Microsoft RemoteConsole) - then, I just unpack the next region for use the next day!

So, what does this mean in layman's terms? OK, so you could build A Tale of Two Cities complete with avatars and actions (which could be packaged in boxes) and buildings - everything. After you are done, you take it and package it up into a file (the Oar file) and then you save it somewhere or post it where I can download it. I download it onto my server and then take a blank region on my grid and unpack it - -I now can take my students into a fully functional Paris and can assign avatars (they just put on the clothing and dress) and "bang" there we go. I can share with you also!

Furthermore, if Oar files aren't enough - with hypergridding, there is a way to make these virtual spaces go public and linked to other worlds and then take it back offline again. I don't understand how hypergridding works but only what it does. The beautiful thing is that with the prices and also with development of tools like Sloodle (Simulation Linked Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) - Oar Files, OpenSim, Sloodle and then companies like ReactionGrid making Opensim available with virtual server accesss - suddenly this all becomes very affordable and doable. When normal average educators (like me - I'd put myself in that category) realize how we can use this and what it can do I think there will be explosive growth!

Then, in the midst of this we will do some SAT prep (yes, in 9th grade learning to take "that test" is important.

10th Computer Science
We're working and planning the India Immersion project.This has taken an overwhelming amount of time, but the students are serving as support for our teachers in grades 2-8. As Mrs.Betty (my curriculum director) and I take seven students to Mumbai for ASB Unplugged, each of us has an assigned classroom to email, voicethread, blog, and Skype with as we travel.

The students are going to immerse in everything India, from calculating exchange rates to mapping skills to science and history of the area. We have guest speakers from India coming in to classrooms and these students are planning the technology support piece of this massive undertaking.The teachers are planning this and the students are supporting as the teachers need and request. This is in support of vicarious learning - or learning by watching others do things. This is powerful learning as discussed in Influencer: The Power to Change Anything.

One class is working on Skype - the other on Voicethread (for grades 2-5) and Classblogmeister (for grades 6-8.) Students have just completed their personal efolios on Weebly and when I return we will do some SAT prep as well. Our student project manager (PM) for this is also going to be doing some presenting as well.

Also, one of my expert OpenSim students is helping me set up the new users for the new virtual private grid on ReactionGrid. Talk about great experience!

This is an outstanding class that will be participating in NetGenEd project soon.

I have another class to share but right now, I've got to run. Hope that the insight into what is happening. All of these projects include deep learning experiences which not only include technology but leadership, organization, management, psychology, and some heavy problem solving. The rubrics often have to be general in that each student may have a completely different task. I often feel like I'm back in the businessworld with many projects and tasks whirling around my desk -- meetings with student groups -- sometimes we are using my Ipevo skype phone to have "conference calls" with experts from around the world who are helping them with something.

They know they are good and they are equipped to meet any technological challenge, however, it is so much more than about the technology but about the multitasking management mentality that will take them ahead in this complex world.

Battle for the Eyes

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 06:15:00 PST

The battle for the eyes is getting heated. If you'll read Context is King: How Videos Are Found and Consumed Online, some very telling trends are unveiled that make advertisers very uncomfortable. The article says:

"According to a recent NY Times article, in the 1952-53 season, more than 30% of American households watched NBC during prime time, according to Nielsen. In fact, up until twenty years ago, you could buy a 30-second spot on CBS, NBC or ABC and reach “everyone.” Today, NBC’s prime time reach is 5%. Sure, NBC is lagging CBS and ABC, but neither the Tiffany network nor Disney’s counterpart is faring much better. The secret’s out: fewer people watch TV and teenagers spend every waking minute connected to the Internet, increasingly through the mobile web."

So, how are these ads going to be served up? Cell phones, social media.

Other interesting stats. Here are the averages of a youtube video:

"It will garner 500 views over time
25% of those views will come in the first four days and
by and large, only the first 30 to 60 seconds will be watched."

So, what we see is a very drastically changing market for advertisers where the old time "media buy" of the 1990's is now a much more complex tool. We'll also see that niche markets with their eyes on a specific site will be reached out to by companies and vendors. Also, for schools, I think it means that we'll have to be wary of free as this can also mean that we control the eyes and attention of students for a pretty good chunk of the day for students. We must guard that responsibility and realize that the game has changed for advertisers.

This also means that advertisers could potentially partner with and support valid educational programs to reach the eyes of the students they covet. It seems like there can be some win-win scenarios here for both, however, the whole thought makes me very nervous.

Daily Spotlight on Education 02/06/2010

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:30:07 PST

Miss Brownsword: Wallwisher Feedback from Children's Questionnaires and Interviews.
MOre wallwisher feedback. I heard via Twitter that they used it for feedback at educon.
tags: education, learning, tool
Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson : What Are You Learning This Summer
Computer science teachers planning this summer should look at this overview from Microsoft uber-blogger Alfred Thompson.
tags: education, learning, computerscience_teacher, computerscience, techintegrator
15 Interesting Ways to use Wallwisher in the Classroom
Presentation covering 16 cool ways to use Wallwisher in the classroom.
tags: education, tool, presentation, edu_newapp
Wallwisher.com :: Words that stick
Online noticeboard maker or just a way to wish someone well who may be feeling sick -- wallwisher.
tags: education, learning, tool, edu_newapp, all_teachers
TLC = Tech + Library + Classroom: Wallwisher
Great overview from Tara about how she uses wallwisher. I haven't played with this new, cool tool but will. She says:

"One of my favorite new tools that I shared with the group was Wallwisher. It's the whole 'get a sticky note, write your thoughts and stick it to the chart paper' activity but online. Brilliant! It's free, and I can keep the information archived each time I build a new wall. "
tags: education, learning, edu_newapp
Where are the savings in using GoogleApps? - Home - Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog
Doug Johnson estimates the savings moving to Google apps, Great post for those considering this.

Doug says:

"These are rough and admittedly optimistic estimates, but I think you can see the general trend. Even if only 50% of my estimated nearly $2M in savings is realized, that averages out to close to $200,000 per year. (Out of a $1.2M budget.) I am not suggesting reducing tech budgets by this amount, but I can sure think of a lot more interesting things (like kids' computers, a more robust wireless network, and more bandwidth) to spend tech dollars on.

Yes, I need to pay $7 a year per administrative, possibily teacher, e-mail account for archiving and retrieval. Not bad, though, considering."
tags: google, cloudcomputing, education, costsavings, bestpractices, edu_trends
Technology Making Education Better: Is all Technology Good?
Interesting discussion here about cell phones in the classroom from Mary Harriet Talbut. Great comments and discussions emerging. Join in!
tags: education, cellphone, learning

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

Putting Your Best Face Forward: Facial Expressions are Filters

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:31:00 PST

Interesting study that just came out proving basically that Botox blocks a person's ability to empathize and take in negative emotions. Somehow the fact that they cannot frown blocks that emotion from getting in.

PhysOrg.com says:

"The Havas study broke new ground by linking the expression of emotion to the ability to understand language, says Havas' adviser, UW-Madison professor emeritus of psychology Arthur Glenberg. "Normally, the brain would be sending signals to the periphery to frown, and the extent of the frown would be sent back to the brain. But here, that loop is disrupted, and the intensity of the emotion and of our ability to understand it when embodied in language is disrupted.""

This is interesting, but since the study only involved forty people, here are a couple of thoughts/ observations for you.

Your expressions link to your interpretation of the world!
We know that happy people tend to smile more. People who smile tend to be more positive. Positive people tend to interpret the world more positively. Right?

Is the converse true? Negative people tend to frown more. People who frown tend to be more negative? Negative people tend to interpret the world more negatively? Right?

These are generalities but have been talked about ad nauseum by many "motivational experts" - we have to remember this. We also know that our facial expressions affect how others react to us. (i.e. We tend to approach people who are smiling, shun people who are frowning.)

Our facial expressions influence both how people to react to us and HOW WE REACT TO OTHERS more than we know.

So, grab out the mirror and take a look. If you don't like the particular lines and wrinkles you see (are they frown lines or smile lines) decide to make a change!

And personally, I'd rather change my view from the inside out than somehow use the Botox approach.

Daily Spotlight on Education 02/05/2010

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:30:06 PST

Israel’s Time To Know Aims To Revolutionize The Classroom
I'm always hesitant to listen to research conducted by a company itself touting amazing results, but much of what this company is doing is what needs to happen with curriculum. Of course, any curriculum may be implemented well and often the best teachers are selected for pilots. ;-)
tags: education, learning, curriculum, edu_news

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

14 Tips to Get More from Your Amazon Kindle

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:22:00 PST

I could care less about debating Kindle versus Apple iPad Tablet versus Nook. I have a Kindle and I love it, and as far as I'm concerned, the competition between these platforms is good for us all. I do hate that Amazon temporarily McMillan publishing titles from the store in a dispute over supposedly McMillan's desire to raise the $9.99 pricing with an undercurrent of rumor that Apple plans to offer books between 12.99 and 14.99 and let publishers have more control over the pricing. Then, of course, Amazon capitulated to McMillan leaving cries of "Monopoly" from many.

But for now, I love my Kindle. It has truly improved my reading experience if only because I have my books and reading materials with me 24/7 and find that I fit in an extra 45 minutes - 1 hour per day of reading during times that were normally wasted in waiting rooms, during the time outs of ballgames or between games, or just waiting in line. In order to help you speed your set up process, here are some tips.

1 - When first booting up: Register, Be Patient, Let it Update
Make sure that you register your Kindle right away. Be patient, your Kindle may update a few times. Link Kindle with your amazon account, and I'd suggest that you set up your amazon account online first just to speed things up. Read Setting Up Your Kindle

2 - Read the User Guide
Yes, this is one user guide that it actually helps to read. I read it and played with it as I went. I still go in there and search for things. Because the interface is so different from anything else, I just found that this jump started me, at least with the basic controls.

3 - Subscribe to Kindle Nation Daily
I highly recommend Kindle Nation Daily: The inside scoop on all things Kindle - and have found out about many of the great reads on the Kindle like the newest McArthur reports that you can read for free on your Kindle. See five excellent examples:

This blog will cost you $.99 a month but will pull out the best of the free for the Kindle. I remember being stuck on an airplane on the tarmac in Atlanta and Kindle Nation updated as I sat there, I saw the MacArthur report announcement about the Synthesis of the Good Play project and grabbed it and read it all the way to my speech. It contained several very important pieces of information salient to the talk I was about to give. I clipped them and had them ready to go when I arrived in New York.

Remember that you don't have to have a Kindle to read these, the Kindle for PC app is free and many of these reports are available free on the Internet.

4 - Find a Few Good Sources of Daily Reading
For me, it is TechCrunch ($1.99) , The New York Times - Latest News ($1.99) (note, this is different from the paper), PhysOrg.com - Science, Technology, Research News ($1.99), The Junk Drawer ($.99) , and my own blog Cool Cat Teacher Blog ($.99) (to make sure everything formats properly for the Kindle.)

Note that you should look at rankings and also at the format of postings. I subscribe to the New York Times Late Breaking News blog instead of the paper because it is updated various times during the day instead of once a day - I get 5-6 good stories that are timely throughout the day before others may know it instead of a ton of stuff I don't have time to read.

Additionally, I like PhysOrg.com because it is a great equalizer for me. Whereas most of the News in the New York Times is on the negative side of life. The fall of great people. Great controversies. Great debates. Horrible tragedies. I need to know about these things but cannot let the negativity permeate my being. PhysOrg is about breaking research news, about things that have been accomplished, things people are doing. It is about the positive side of life and restores hope for me. The Junk Drawer just makes me laugh.

I subscribe to my own blog because rereading my thoughts helps me see where I've made mistakes and also lets me clip things that I'd like to use in talks later on (handily sent to my clippings.) I also want to learn and understand the medium of ebook publishing and look forward to learning about publishing elsewhere. (If you're going to allow your blog to go through Kindle publishing, you should be the first subscriber.)

5 - Stock Your BookShelf Well
I've got a variety of things on my bookshelf, some of them free. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (free), Focal Point by Brian Tracy, Walden by Thoreau (free), Grace Notes by Philip Yancey, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie, the Iliad (free) by Homer, and the Memorable Thoughts of Socrates (free> by Xenophon as well as The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education by Curtis Bonk, and the McArthur reports I've already mentioned.

As discussed in last week's post on Brown Pandas - mix it up. Prevent group think and inbreeding in your own mind.

6- Read Well
I have sort of a morning reading routine that goes somewhat like this:

a - Read daily devotionals - I have 3 different daily readings, largely because there were 2 devotional books available for free the day after Christmas. I am programming my mind - whatever goes in first gains preeminence in my life. Decide what you want preeminence in your life and read it first. Hint: Make it positive.

b - I turn on my wireless while starting devotionals and tell it to synch and find updates while I read devotionals, then, when I'm done, the news is ready to go.

c - In the mornings, I want to hit the highlights, so I'll click to read the news but then click the middle button (click the middle of the joystick to do this) so I can see the titles and run between the most important things.

(Tip: If your news blogs aren't updating properly, this happens sometimes, the tip is to go to Menu --> Settings and then Menu --> Restart. After it restarts, and you ask it to sych and update, it should start updating your blogs.)

d- In the evenings, I always read some of either Stop Worrying and Start Living (I like all except the end of that book where it is a bit dated and sexist) or Focal Point. It helps me remember what is important and program my mind for positive things.

Programming Your Mind
You are programming your mind. Be careful what you put into it! What you think is what you are. What you think is what you become. What you think is what you reflect in your daily actions and activities. Quite simply what you think becomes the You that the world sees. Guard your mind, it is the gateway to your destiny.

7 - Use the Kindle to Improve Your Activities
Knowing how to highlight and clip items to go into My Clippings is great. I clip during the week and when I have time to sit down and blog, I open up My Clippings, look at the last location number on the bottom right of the screen, hit "Menu" and "go to location" and then type in the last location and read from the end forwards. If you need help, maybe this video will help.

8- Understand how to search
If you cannot remember where something is, then you can search from the main menu by typing the words and it will search everything. But if you've clipped it, you may open up the individual item and search. Additionally, if you use keywords that will only be used by you. (i.e. if I clip something I want to blog I'll type "blogthis" ) then it makes finding certain things a snap. You can search other things like wikipedia from your kindle, however, it will be pretty slow as it uses whispernet and is sort of slow.

If I read of a book within a book, I like to copy the name of the book into the search field. So, use the 5 way controller to highlight a word or several words, then press the spacebar. This pastes the book title or words into the search box. Then, you can click the controller to the right and tell it to search the Kindle store from within the book! One day (not yet) we will be able to drill to the actual books and papers quoted within a book - sort of a hyperlinking for books themselves! This is exciting and our connections to libraries for this sort of material will certainly change.

9 - Emailing to your Kindle and converting
Ok, this is a trick it took me some time to learn. Go into your kindle online account and set it up so you can email from your personal email account to the kindle. If you are sending a PDF file, though, it will just be in PDF.

If you send the pdf to your private kindle email address and put "convert" in the subject, it will convert it to the kindle native format making it so you can search, clip, use text to speech, and change the size! This is cool. Although there is a cost for this (10 cents per file as of the writing of this.) There are also free ways to do this and then drag it onto the Kindle.

10 - Learn the Shortcuts
There are some pretty nifty shortcuts, although, even with my small hands, I have trouble with some of these:

Alt+Shift+G - grabs a screenshot - .gif is format used (you can drag these onto your computer when connected to your computer - good for people who do tutorials)
Contextual Dictionary - Just use the joystick to put your cursor in front of the word you do not understand. To know more about this word press the enter key (the arrow pointing to the left) and then see the vocabulary. I like to clip the words and put them in my clippings to read later and review so that I may learn the words.
Click the Aa button to go to text to speech - I like to hook my kindle up to my iPod/iTouch speakers in the kitchen using the auxiliary jack and have it read the news to me while I'm cooking dinner. I like to listen to the male voice that is slowed down just a step. Text to speech is so useful and helpful for all of us!
Remember that you just start typing to open the search box (unless you've got your cursor within a document and then it will add a note using the standard footnote mechanism) -- but when you use the search box, make sure you click the controller to the right to see your search alternatives!
Alt+Shift+M - Minesweeper - OK, this is on your kindle - did you know that - completely offline time waster for when you just don't want to read. ;-)
Handy calculator - just type a formula using standard mathematical operators in the search box and it will perform simple calculations 21.73*.15 will give me the amount of tip while I'm reading my kindle in an airport restaurant.

11 - Save your Battery
a) Wireless Off
Leave the wireless OFF except when ready to read the news. This extends the battery a long time.

b) Let Battery Fully Discharge
From my days in the cell phone business, there is one vital trick to making your battery last - DO NOT CHARGE IT UNTIL IT NEEDS TO BE CHARGED. Let it go down all the way.

Using all of the battery helps it stay healthy. (The same thing happens when a person just does bicep crunches and doesn't do other arm exercises - the entire arm is not developed! You need your whole battery to be used!) Right now, I charge my Kindle perhaps once every six days. It lasts that long!

c) Turn it off completely
Also, don't let it go to sleep, with the Kindle completely on, slide the bar to the right and don't let go until the screen goes completely white. (about 10 seconds) You've fully turned off your Kindle. Although the rotating pictures don't use a lot of battery, they do use some and if you want it to last a while, turn it off this way consistently.

12 - Install Kindle for your Computer and ITouch
One of the neatest things for the Kindle is the ability to sync between devices. It will move bookmarks, etc. between devices. So, when I have a text I really need on my PC, I can easily pull it over there with all the highlights and marking! I also have the Kindle on my iTouch. Being able to port these books between devices is truly the greatest thing about the Kindle.

13 - Be wary about Cracking Your Kindle
One of the top complaints about the Kindle and the standard Kindle Case is how easy it is to crack the Kindle. I am going to order a better case the holds the kindle down and doesn't let you accidentally open it the wrong way. I don't open my Kindle unless I make sure I see the little Amazon tag on the front of the case. Also, I don't put anything behind the kindle (although it is tempting to put boarding passes, etc. back there.) This is all over the Kindle Message boards and I think that the best measure is to know how easy it would be to crack if you opened the Kindle from the back and this is very easy to do. (A simple strap would fix this - I find it odd that Amazon hasn't stepped in to fix this problem!) The one I'm asking to get for my birthday in April is: M-Edge Platform Genuine Leather Kindle Jacket.

14 - Wish for It
Some Kindle users have found that buying books is TOO easy. I've found that by adding items (unless they are free) to my wish list lets me remember not to forget and keeps my dear husband from getting upset at me for exceeding my monthly book budget.

Just a couple of tips as I've been using this handy tool since Christmas. This along with my iTouch are my two favorite tools ever!

Finally, consider having a Kindle club. What is a Kindle club? Well, there are three of us at our school who have Kindles and love them. We call ourselves the Kindle club and when we see each other, we share something new we've learned or a new cool book we're reading. Nothing formal, but we do have a common bond - we LOVE our Kindles.

So, fight the ebook wars as they may - when they settle down in 2-3 years it will be time for another ebook reader, but until then, I'm just going to get the most out of this kindle.

Daily Spotlight on Education 02/04/2010

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:30:06 PST

Musings from Model Schools: Meeting the Cool Cat Teacher in Person - A Morning With Vicki Davis
This summary of the workshop from New York said to me "YES" - the message got across. This is something everyone can do. NOw, that is worth redoing.

Model Schools Blog says:

Did you know that the FlatClassroom wiki mega-project was born out of one simple blog post and a response? It was not conceived of in a planning document or a committee meeting; it was not agonized over as part of a curriculum map or a rigorous lesson plan. It was not the outgrowth of a massive initiative or a professional development conference. It was simply one person reaching out to another with a simple and good idea to have classrooms collaborate using "The World is Flat" as a framework. It grew, because it could not help but to grow, not because it was mandated to grow. Here are a few other quick "aha" moments and learning nuggets that I had to write down this morning..."
tags: education, inthenews, flatclassroom, coolcattacher, language
SloodleAdminDocs - SLIS Second Life Wiki
Information for installing sloodle - this is what you'll use if you're running opensim on a server at your school - helps make the teaching with virtual worlds so much easier.
tags: education, learning, moodle, sloodle, edu_trends
IndieMetaverse - Bring your Ideas, Get tools!
Excited about this event for small independent virtual world developers and users.
tags: education, opensim
OpenVCE | ...Open Virtual Collaboration Environment
I am so excited about the ability to take OAR files and throw them into a an open sim region -- then package them up and use another one. You can change regions as you wish and also post and share yours.

This is the really cool thing about open worlds. Open the world, use the world, save the world, clear the world -- start over -- every week a new world. Oh cool.
tags: education, opensim

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

NetGenEd Project 2010: Call for Classrooms

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:00:51 PST

This week has been very busy wrapping up the final details for this year's massive collaboration between our students and Don Tapscott, award winning author of Wikinomics and Grown up Digital. Below is the current call for classrooms also cross posted on our wiki.

http://netgened2010.flatclassroomproject.org/

We will have a call in the next week for expert advisors (to advise students on wiki content) and judges (for reviewing and providing feedback on video submissions.)

Net Generation Education Project: Call for Classrooms

Written by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay
http://netgened2010.flatclassroomproject.org/

Award winning author, Don Tapscott, and award winning global collaborators Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis (co founders of the Flat ClassroomTM Project) are excited to announce the 2010 NetGenEd Project, another global collaboration to envision the future of education and social action by inspiring today's students to study leading technology trends and create their vision for the future.

This is the second NetGenEd Project collaboration between the two organizations with the 2009 project announced at the Flat Classroom conference in Doha Qatar 2009. The 2009 Net Generation Education Project was the replacement for the Horizon Project and included 10 schools with more than 300 students. The application process is now open for schools who wish to participate in the project in March - May of 2010.

In this project, students will study and "mash up" the results of the 2010 Horizon Report from the New Media Consortium and Educause and Tapscott's book Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. Students will study the current research and create wiki-reports with their student partners around the world analyzing current trends and projecting future happenings based upon this collaborative analysis. This project is managed by the students who assume roles such as project manager, assistant project manager, and editors of the various wikis.

After compiling their wiki reports based upon current research, and encouraged by "expert advisors" (subject matter experts in the industry), students will then create a video in one of two strands. Video strand I competition will be the NetGenEd Challenge where students are asked to envision the future of education based upon current global technological trends. Video Strand II Competition is the Macrowikinomics Challenge where students envision the future of global social action based upon their research in current global technological trends. The video challenge will also be open to the public for submissions beginning March 1st.

"We are particularly excited about this year's project because we're not only asking students to envision the future of learning and the classroom but also how this media can be used to impact and improve society itself. This generation is the Net Generation and they are uniquely suited to speak for themselves in casting a vision for their own future," says project organizer, Vicki Davis.

This project is unique in that Tapscott will interact with students in forum posts throughout the project as they discuss Tapscott's research into NetGen and also current research as being compiled for Tapscott's forthcoming book (being written with Anthony Williams) MacroWikinomics. Additionally, he will keynote the project via a Youtube video released in March along with a student keynote to be recorded at the Flat ClassroomTM Mini-conference at ASB Unplugged in Mumbai, India in February.

Additionally, the Discovery Educator Network is going to host a series of webinars demonstrating how to tell a compelling digital story as well as leading a book club group for educators related to the NetGenEd project. The Flat Classroom Projects are global collaborative projects organized by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay and sponsored by Elluminate.

If you are ready to have your students collaborate globally and follow the best practices as used in the award winning Flat ClassroomTM, Horizon, and Digiteen projects fill out this form before February 9th and apply now!.

NetGenEd Application

2010 Tentative Timeline

2/1- 2/12 - Application process for classrooms
2/12-2/18- Selection Process (classes will be notified as soon as they are selected)
2/15 - Ning, wiki, and google group are "live" by this date
2/18 - Final announcements of Classrooms
3/5 - Greeting from Don posted to the Ning via video
- Weekly- discussions posted to the forum
2/20-3/5 - "Handshake process" - Students join Ning - post introductions
- 3/1 - Teams announce
3/15-4/10 Research phase of project
- 4/10 - Wikis complete
4/1 - Student Keynote
Some time in March, there will be a live session with Don Tapscott
4/10-5/8 - Movie Artifact phase of project (note that there will be some overlap between Research and Movie Artifact)
*Storyboarding
*Outsourced video requests posted to the Ning by 3/10
5/10 - Final Deadline for All Movies to be posted
5/10-5/20 - Post project reflections, student summits, awards

Reflections Upon Wonderful Blogging with Weezy #wewelcome

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:53:00 PST

While exploring some recent 23things beginning bloggers, I came across Weezy's blog and was immediately engaged with her spiffy writing, anecdotes, and insights into technology and life.

Weezy does several things very well that I'd like to point out:

1) Attention Getting Titles

A good title MAKES you want to read. She's written four posts, but the most recent two titles GOT ME.

Thing Four: The Eeyore Syndrome
Lesson III: I'm a Loser

2) Telling a Story

As Weezy reflects on blogs and commenting in Thing Four: The Eeyore Syndrome she begins by telling this story:

I am often at the restaurant that my family has been running for 45 years. And if one thing is apparent, the social aspect of eating out is more important sometimes than the food aspect.

Dan Pink in his book, A Whole New Mind, shares the importance of being able to tell a story. Here Weezy is making this blog her own by telling her own story. She is being uniquely herself. But the story is the power - the hook that lets her get across her points.

3) Humor

In Lesson III: I'm a loser, I laughed many times as she told the story of her beginning accordion playing! You've got to read it to believe it. Weezy begins her story with:

"When I start a new project, especially from square one, I pretty much follow the same pattern. Sewing, golf, knitting, even cooking, it's always an initial wave of bubbling enthusiasm all the way to the first big crash.
Then I decide if I should continue.
Will this enhance my life?
Does it have any kind of pay-off in my practical life?
Will it stave off Alzheimer's?"

Be funny, but be yourself when you do it.

4) Be Yourself
She's definitely ok in her own skin and it comes through. She's also writing for herself which makes her writing very real. I love it. Being authentic and "who you are" is so important. We all want to emulate or "be" someone else but if we take it too far, we cease being ourselves.

5) The Personal Perspective
Rather than writing about grandiose definitions of Web 2.0, Weezy had me literally crying in her second post The Fascinating Web 2.0 as she told of her struggle to memorialize so many of her family who died around the time of the World Trade Center falling.

This long story is the metaphor for why I have an interest in Web 2.0. For awhile it was enough to think that we could save valuable information in a safe place for posterity and legacy.

What a perspective.

On blogging
Sure, it would be great to include hyperlinks, however in the case of these first four articles, she's not quoting anyone, she's not sharing a resource - she's just being herself. So, it is not necessary to hyperlink in this case. Sure, it might be nice to include photographs, but then again, Weezy's words were all she needed to pull me into her writing.

So, this Wednesday, I'd like to issue a Wednesday Welcome (#wewelcome hashtag on Twitter) to the newest blogger in my RSS Reader, Weezy. And a shout out to everyone else out there that blogging is as individual as the person writing the blog and that there are at least 10,000 or more "right" ways to blog. Don't get caught up in the jigsaw puzzle, formulaic expression of being a "good" blogger according to the latest book - be yourself and be a blogger. That is enough.

Welcome Wednesday
Here is your challenge today - find someone beginning in a new technology - beginning Twitter, beginning blogging, beginning anything and welcome them by: responding/ commenting and also by sharing about them with others.

This is part of being part of this larger community. Beginners welcome. #wewelcome Weezy to the blogosphere!

Daily Spotlight on Education 02/03/2010

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:30:09 PST

As India Plans to Put Man on the Moon, America Abandons Manned Lunar Program | India
Fascinating discussion of the space race (or, in the case of the USA, the lack thereof.) Jeremy Kahn of The Faster Times says:

"So it says quite a lot about current geopolitics that just as the United States has decided it will abandon its publicly-funded effort to put men back on the moon, India has announced that it might have a manned lunar mission as early as 2016 (although at the moment, it has only committed itself to putting two Indian astronauts into low Earth orbit that year.) China has already said it plans to have a manned moon shot by 2020."

As for me, I believe that if we're only looking at the moon, it is kind of like looking at the end of the driveway and thinking if we drive the car to the mailbox that we've done something! Time to look further and explore beyond. Send man (or woman) beyond the moon.
tags: education, learning, space

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

Blind Trust in People and Machines: Time to Open Our Eyes and Be Wise

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:35:11 PST

Headlines this morning:

"'We have let you down': Toyota apologizes and introduces fix in gas pedal crisis."

Ignoring a sticky gas pedal, and trusting in Toyota's world renowned engineering instead of their good common sense, may have in fact gotten some people killed. And thus, today's post.

I've been thinking a lot about Technology and the trust of "experts" lately. Let me take you on a journey via some articles that have me thinking in this way.

The Radiation Boom - As Technology Surges, Radiation Safeguards Lag

This horrific New York Times story posted last week recounts how the software used to administer radiation often crashes, and that those who administer the radiation often don't double check the computer, even after the crash. In fact, on page 3 of this article, one set of tests:

"from 2000 to 2008 found that 15 percent to 20 percent of hospitals using linear accelerators in clinical trials had at least one radiation beam outside the acceptable range.

“We haven’t been sufficiently outspoken about this, although we are now in the process of correcting that,” said Dr. Ibbott, whose group is based at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Hospitals sometimes embrace new technologies before medical personnel can agree on how best to use them."

Does this sound familiar?

It is so vital to have those in the school on board with implementing new technology. But let me ask you this, who tests the software that is being used with students? We look at the textbooks, but do we review the software? Do we test it? Do we look over their shoulder? Or do we just test that it does what it says it does? Are people being sufficiently outspoken when there are valid concerns with technology implementation? (with information based on facts rather than fear.)

Software Companies Don't Always Tell the Truth
As shown with the students in my class who recently reviewed sites for kids 12 years old and under, we turned up some horrific sites. Habbo.com for example markets itself to kids. Although the terms of use has some stern language and parents are supposed to review it if their child is under 18, it is very obvious that this is not happening. If you review what my student Hannah with the Super Social Safety group found says:

"Hello everybody. My name is Hannah and I reviewed the site Habbo. Many people have recommended this site saying its very good. I wanted to find out what the age recommendation was, and I found that it was aimed at teens. Many older teenagers were not getting on the site, so it was mostly younger teens.This ranged from about 12 to 15. I am a fifteen year old and I thought that i would really like this site.

When I first went into the site, I was immediately shocked by the names of the rooms and some of the conversations that people were having.They were disgusting and inappropriate for kids at a young age. I had not expected for young teenagers to be talking about that many sexual things. Many of what people would say would have an innaproprate word in what they were saying.

The site did not allow bad words, so when somebody said something bad it would come out as Bobba. I at first did not get the whole bobba thing until I tried to see if you could say a bad word. For instance, if you wanted to say " I am going to suck your blood." The sentence would come out looking like " I am going to bobba your blood." If someone really wanted to say something without it looking like bobba they would simply type the word and just add an extra letter. I brought my teacher over, Mrs. Davis, and she saw all the conversations. The whole time I was in a room people were asking each other if they were single and private information.While I was there for five minutes I had been asked if I was single five times. I was also asked if I had MSN and if I had a web cam so we could " talk." I was offended and disgusted the whole time I was on the site. I do not think that people realized how bad this site was, and they did not know that their children were on this site.

Maybe the next time someone recommends a site that they think will be good, they should go and check it out first. Thank you for listening for what I thought about the site Habbo."

The whole script and video with screenshots may be found here.

So, my question is:

Are we blindly trusting technology?
Are we testing software and services OURSELVES to make sure that it does what it says it should? This is one reason for pilot programs.

Experts Can Fail Us
As I was pondering this on Saturday, Kindle Nation Daily released a portion of a best selling book, Waking Up Blind, by Tom Harbin, MD. I was riveted by the story of how an over-busy doctor who was a "renowned expert" in opthamology changed charts, operated on the wrong eyes, and was contradicted by other "lower level" experts who told patients that they had nothing wrong with them but those patients trusted the "expert" instead. This expert only had 2-3 minutes with each patient and had the fire marshall threatening to shut him down for firecode violations.

When confronted with the fact that this doctor was causing people to go blind, this is what another doctor said to himself:

"So what do you say to the patient? My chairman blew it; he missed your disease; sorry you're blind, but it's too late now. Instead of paying attention to the pressure recorded by his assistants and giving you some drops to keep you from going blind, he crossed out the numbers he didn't like, put his fingers on your eye, even though they quit doing that years and years ago, and wrote that the pressure was normal. So now your eye is blind and it didn't need to be. And I've seen so many like you already, I'm sick and half crazy. But, he couldn't express these thoughts to a patient."

What?

This is why a book like Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High are so important. And, in my opinion, it is time to put this type of book into the hands of teachers, parents, principals, curriculum directors - anyone charged with helping educate our students.

We have scarce resources, and we SHOULD be second guessing how we're spending our money. What are we seeing for what we spend. I'm IT director at my school, and yet, all the PO's I cut still go through the principal and often through the curriculum director. The practice of justifying what I'm doing keeps me thinking and questioning if there are other, better ways to do it. Additionally, there are times when some things need to come out in the open.

But it is not my job!

If you think this, I want you to get the movie Amazing Grace about Sir William Wilberforce, the Englishman who singlehandedly pushed forward the abolition of slavery in the English Empire. It is called Amazing Grace because the song was penned by his priest, the captain of a slave vessel for twenty years who said he lived in the company of "20,000 African ghosts who haunted his dreams." This is a powerful movie that everyone should see.

Oh, but, Vicki, that is preposterous, we're not talking about slavery here!

You know what, my friend, if a machine malfunctions and the people don't check behind it to find the malfunction, that is murder.

And if a person, no matter how powerful, is performing malpractice and you do not speak out about it, then are you not an accomplice to murder?

And if you see that valuable money is being wasted, that resources aren't being used wisely, and even more importantly, that children are being harmed by something we're doing, then it is your responsibility to have those Crucial conversations. To speak out in a way to help positive change happen.

There is a way to speak out. Great books like How to Win Friends & Influence People, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, and Crucial Conversations have helped me with these skills.

It is not a matter of distrust. It is a matter of knowing that machines do what they are told to do. And if they are told to do the wrong thing, they do the wrong thing. It is our job to oversee the machines.

It is our job to audit the experts. If they are speaking the wrong thing, then we should speak back. It is our job to advocate for ourselves, our children, our organizations, our world.

And let me also point out, in a world of increasing complexity, more experts than ever, and high-stakes everything, teaching our children how to have these crucial conversations is also important. The people who can have these conversations will improve and mark their organizations and themselves with a higher level of success than they would have otherwise. Truly, crucial conversations are a skill to teach our students. But what do you do with students who try to escalate issues that they think are unfair at school? Do we allow these crucial conversations to happen?

The best schools have empowering administrators who listen to those around them and empower them to be part of positive change. They have the personal trust of those around them who know that the administrator cares for them personally and is ethical and asks for the teacher to be ethical as well.

My opinion after reading these articles and thinking this through:

Time To Open Our Eyes and Be Wise, Blind Trust Leaves Our Future To Others - it is the job of all of us to be part of building a better future.

Teacher, parapro, principal, curriculum director, media specialist. We are all part of a team. Let's have the crucial conversations we need to have to start moving forward.

Daily Spotlight on Education 02/02/2010

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:30:09 PST

Education Resources
This is a marvelous resource page with lots of links to clip art, plagiarism information, preschool primary information, RSS tutorials, blogs, wikis, just lots of lovely material here. Excellent resource page from M. Winieka, Media Instructor.
tags: education, learning, resources
20 New Resources « Seomra Ranga
Lots of great primary school resources from the Seomra Ranga blog. Thank you!
tags: education, learning, kindergarten, edu_news
World Maths Day 2010
Registration for World Math Day (March 3, 2010) opened today for students ages 5-18 at www.worldmathday.com. The competition is a free, online math competition where students compete against one another in a quest to answer the most math questions in 24 hours.

Last year, a new world record was set after a staggering 1,952,879 million students from 38,058 schools in 204 countries answered 452,681,681 math questions correctly during the World Math Day competition. Students are looking to break the record again this year.

This is a REALLY cool event.
tags: education, learning, math, edu_news, curriculum
Take Action - The Extraordinaries (gogrid)
Using GPS and technologically empowered volunteerism to locate and participate in activities, needs, and volunteerism in your area.
tags: netgened, education, learning, volunteer
Mozilla Service Week
This is a service project by Mozilla empowering people to help others with technology needs in an international wave of volunteerism. Expect more from this great activity.
tags: education, netgened, volunteer
CrisisCommons Wiki
Fascinating method for helping the crisis around the world including coordinating for Haiti recovery.
tags: education, learning, netgened

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

Just gotta ask @KathySierra to consider blogging again #blog4mekathy

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:21:00 PST

Image by davemc500hats via Flickr

Few things impacted my early blogging like Kathy Sierra. It has now been over two years since Kathy suspended her blog because of the death threats and cyberbullying that victimized her and left her in fear.

I still return to Kathy's blog to glean some insight, look at the charts, and find inspiration and yet, I have to ask Kathy to please consider returning to blogging.

Kathy, I'd like to give you some reasons to consider returning to blogging:

1- You inspire many of us.
I have been running since July and just broke 30 minutes for my 5k. Your avid love of running always impressed me and I wanted to be like that. More than this - you were always just "real."

I know you've got more inspiration in there to share.

2 - Do not let wrong triumph over right
What happened to you was wrong. And perhaps by staying away you have made a statement about what being unkind online (and offline) can do. However, you can also make a powerful statement by returning to blogging. You make the statement to people who would do such things to other women bloggers that they cannot win by engaging in such abhorrent behavior.

Right now the statement is that if you gang up on a woman, she might leave... forever. That gives them what they want. Only you can make this statement.

3 - Help us Chart the Future
Oh my goodness, it was the in-your face funny charts that just got me every time. They were so on the money but so fitting - whether you were a teacher like me or a programmer somewhere trying to make software that others could use, your charts rock! We need new, clear, graphical insight of what is happening today. You make so much sense and are a voice of reason in a cloud of hyped up vaporware that often surrounds technology.

I see you commenting on the blogs and you're on Twitter, but I still go back and read your "old stuff."

Maybe I'm missing it and you're blogging somewhere else. Surely, in your hiatus, you have many things you want to say. Maybe you're afraid people will expect the "old Kathy" and for you to blog as much as Michelle Malkin, but I don't -- just a once a month - in your face, common sense blog post that touches everything from computer design to my passion. Just be you.

But I guess right now, I'm asking you to be.

Be a blogger, my friend.

Come back to us.

Anyone else want to ask her too?
And if you want to join in the request, send a tweet to @KathySierra and let's have a hashtag #blog4mekathy will do. Any other Kathy Sierra admirers who care to join in?

Let's at least let her know we've not forgotten.

Of course, others will cite blogging greats like Lawrence Lessig who have also had to stop blogging, however, to me, this is different as Kathy left as a direct result of cyberbullying. I hope she'll consider resurfacing at least for a post or two to make it clear that if she has left blogging permanently that it is not due to their actions.

Upon becoming a mother

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:29:00 PST

Fifteen years a go today I officially became a mother. My oldest son came into the world a nine pound eight ounce wonder - quietly looking at the world like he was ready to be here and not crying until the cold hit him...

and showing me what true love and joy are all about.

When I became a stay at home Mom when he was just 9 months old (and I was six months pregnant with his sister -- YES SIX MONTHS!) the whole world told me I was making a mistake - giving up a six figure income for poopey diapers and a super high-energy son who rarely ever slept, but they were wrong. I gained the world.

Giving myself to my oldest two children for four years was the best decision of my life. We learned all kinds of things, and yes, I even had lesson plans for them -- we learned science, vocabulary, we read books, learned math concepts -- even when they were very little. These were age appropriate things but they were things that took their minds further.

When my husband brought home a black lab puppy (aptly named Crash) who didn't know how to stay home, I thought I'd lose my mind. We live across the street from a funeral home and the dog was so friendly, he decided he had to go to every funeral -- but with a baby on each hip - I had no hands left to get the dog - so I had many creative ways to run across the street to get Crash, including the 2 hip, leash-in-mouth wonder that made me gag into the bushes when I got the naughty puppy home. And yet, these are still beautiful memories that I cherish.

My yard had the neighbors ooh-ing and ahh-ing because we just had to spend a good four hours a day outside so they could play and I grabbed the hoe and went after those weeds.

These were also times of extensive journaling for me. I've always written about 30 minutes to an hour a day since I was 8, but I wrote just to keep my sanity! (Boy, I wish I'd had my Kindle back then.) These were days of survival when my children were on opposite sleep schedules. I did everything all the books told me to -- the only problem was that my children never read those books! I remember going to church one Sunday and being able to count on two hands the number of hours I'd slept since the last Sunday.

Our First Night Together
And yet, still, being a Mom is the greatest calling upon my life next to being a wife. I love my children with all I am and recall with moist eyelashes the first night I spent with my oldest son. The nurses had forgotten to bring him to me at 1 am for nursing, so I went and got him. I got him because not only did I need him to nurse, but I had things to tell him.

After he ate, I spent over an hour speaking to him about life. Sharing the "plan of salvation" and how my best friend Jesus Christ had given him to me and brought him to this earth for a purpose that only he could do.

I told him how I was a person who made lots of mistakes and his Dad was too, but that I promised him that I'd love him with all my heart and would give everything I had for him, my life and my last breath... that I would spend the next eighteen years helping him have the best home possible, and even quietly singing the Rambling Wreck song (sans the curse word.) I told him that after eighteen years it would be time to go to college or get a job and that we'd support him, but we wanted him to grow up and become a man. So much for a little fella to do! And on his first night!

I tried to share with him the things important to me and told him that this was the one time I knew he'd listen to me and that somewhere in that mind of his, I hope the connections would be made that would help him see the depth of my love, his father's love, and his Father's love.

He looked at me quietly as I spoke, enraptured with this woman who he'd only heard but never seen. Many say babies at that age cannot see at all... I disagree, he saw my very soul with his intent gaze-- a foreshadowing of how he gazes into the heart of many people now.

And now as he is in the throes of his teenage years - just hitting 6'2" and towering over me... I feed him about six meals a day and still find him making bacon sandwiches at 10 pm. Right now he needs me to "back off" in many ways - being a "Mom" and saving the "Mother" for when he's sick or in rare moments of conversation and this is OK too. I respect my son and have always tried to treat him like a person - one who deserves my respect and as much freedom as his age can handle. And yet in many ways this age is the hardest for reasons I will not go into as many of his friends read this blog.

(When I struggle with the moments with one of my students, I always picture their Mom holding their child and speaking such words of hope - this student is somebody's baby. When they tell their child's story of school, how will I fit into that story? I think of the teachers I want for my child and try to be that myself! Hey, I am my child's teacher. ;-) )

He is ever on my heart, my mind, and my prayers but I have to think back over his first 24 hours in this world when I shared these things. Now I show him love in other ways which includes, when it is necessary, giving him more choices, stepping back, not "embarrassing" him in public with joy over his accomplishments, and letting him be the fine young man he is growing to be. There are still times he falls short and needs a little direction, but there are times I fall short too.

I do not know what is ahead for my son, only that all of my love and hope and energy have been given into his care and growth. He has a great Dad who is the love of my life and a little sister and little brother who also fill my life and heart with joy to overflowing (as well as forcing me to don my referee shirt every so often!)

This son, my only firstborn son, was born fifteen years a go today. And in many ways, my friends, so was I.

Photo Credit
Holding On, by kudaker - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kudaker/586305185/

Funday Monday: Start Your Week with a Smile (weekly)

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:30:41 PST

Apples Up My Sleeves: Coolio!
I'm laughing hilariously at these photos from Sunshine jo's blog. So funny! Lots of cat humor there too!
tags: fundaymonday

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

Daily Spotlight on Education 01/31/2010

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:30:51 PST

ASH's 23 Things for Web 2.0: The 23 Things
This is the overview of the twenty three things program as being done at this school. Excellent overview!
tags: education, professionaldevelopment, learning
ASH's 23 Things for Web 2.0: 3: How are others using blogs?
The 23 things is an incredible program that I talk about wherever I go. This "thing 3" which asks a person to explore blogs is a perfect example of why so many learn from this program -- it is self-directed, it requires a response also.

I love this quote that 'blogging begins with reading."
tags: education, edublog, professional, development
100 Best Education Blogs of 2009
List of 100 education blogs of 2009 - I just like to "meet" new people on these lists - don't consider them definitive or scientific. Just someone's opinion.
tags: education, learning, edublog
Pamelarvo - musings along the road: Bracing for another year
Fascinated by this discussion of Tribes where small learning groups form of complimentary personality types. Hope it wouldn't become "clique-ish" but want to know more!
tags: education, learning
Web2 Session 1
Here is a beautiful webquest which uses links to many Educational Technology leaders and also some fascinating videos. I love this because it is a great activity to share with beginners, but also because of the super-cool layout and integration of a variety of media. I want to find out how they did this? Just creating a web page or with another tool.

Cool PD tool to share.
tags: education, learning, professionaldevelopment, web2, all_teachers
The Children, Schools and Families Bill - Articles - Educational Technology - ICT in Education
Article from Terry Freedman in the United Kingdom about some new legislation and also the importance of being able to document outcomes when using social media sites with students.
tags: education, learning, research, government

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

A Double Take Away: Display Objects and Social Media Powered Research

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:11:00 PST

Manipulatives will be taking an upgrade when wafer thin organic LED displays allow us to have mini computers of any size or shape. Some researchers say that this will be as easy as carving up styrafoam blocks into the shape we wish.

This video from the Human Media Lab, SIMULATES (using a projector) what playing games might look like in this environment.

Would love it if someone would simulate what learning would look like and manipulatives as well. Researchers say that this is 5-10 years down the road, however, the fact is, that if you aren't getting your teachers comfortable with technology today, there are some really cool things coming down the pipe that you might have trouble capitalizing upon. The fact is: change is pretty much the only permanent fixture on the technology landscape!

Last point on this -- this is a perfect example of how youtube is being used by a scholarly organization, in this case the Human Media Lab at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada. They are simulating things, sharing things, and tossing ideas out there like frisbees waiting to see which of those ideas take root and inspire others. A sort of virally-engaging scholarly research. Their process and videos are fascinating. I'm a subscriber on youtube now!

This lab has professors who tweet and a youtube channel. Be careful because something is strange with their RSS and you have to click the RSS button on their blog to subscribe, and you can see the tweets of their professor, however, finding his actual Twitter account seems to be nearly impossible - I"ve been looking for Dr. Roel Vertegaal and just cannot seem to find him.

Beware of the Brown Pandas and Revigated Water

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:15:00 PST

The problem in China's Qinling Mountains is that there are too many brown pandas. Seven to be exact, in the last twenty five years. According to Dr. Tiejun Wang, on the Nature News website on January 18th, it is because of inbreeding. (Hat tip to Physorg.com one of my favorite reads on the Kindle.)

You see, brown is a recessive gene for pandas, known for the deceivingly cuddly looking black and white color. And yet, brown and white pandas are turning up. The probability of this happening in a diverse population are extremely limited, and so seven brown and white pandas seem to be enough to cause a stir.

Now, this is not a blog post about genetics, although this will make a GREAT lesson for those science teachers out there who teach genetics. Rather, this is a lesson about inbreeding.

Inbreeding, or the marrying into one's own family, causes infertility and genetic defects, the most well known of which,the inbreeding in the House of Hapsburg caused an eventual dying out of the line. The last of the line, Charles II of Spain could not chew his food and was impotent, but even worse, some of the worst persecutions of the spanish inquisition occurred during his reign. Charles II, you see, was a brown panda. A product of inbreeding.

And this my friends, is why we must surely celebrate, encourage, and demand diversity in our thinking. Diversity of background. Diversity of experience. Diversity of geography. These are the things in our reader that help our minds become robust.

We must read people with whom we disagree. Sometimes we must read people whom we think rude. We must have friends of many types including people who sometimes ruffle our feather. What I suggest to you is not easy because we have to intentionally change ourselves sometimes.

I'm coming off a personal six month hiatus during which I didn't travel, primarily so that I could be there to keep things stable and well-orchestrated at home for my oldest son's entrance into high school. But also, during this time, I've been reading new things and NOT reading some things I've been reading for a long time.

One thing about the edublogosphere that sometimes has had me worried is this echo. This genetic imprint of common ideas that show the inevitable link up of certain people and their thought patterns. Now, we all have our influencers and mentors - I'm not saying that is bad. However, I am saying this: just because someone we know and respect and that supposedly "everyone" things is the best educator on the planet says something doesn't mean it is the gospel truth.

Let me give you an example. Trendiness is really a danger. I'm not a trendy person and buy clothes with the intent that I"ll probably wear them for the next 20 years. Some of my scarves and business suits I've had for twenty years at least - the classic, wool cut that lasts through time.

Let's see what trendy got these people in the 1920's. Radioactivity was all "the rage" and the inventors of the Revigator Water jar claimed the device would:

"restore the lost element of water "radio-activity,"

and also that it would

" the radiation could treat or cure ailments ranging from arthritis and flatulence to senility and poisoning."

Surely, a person reading could see that such claims were preposterous? But, ah, no, the company sold several hundred thousand of these ceramic jugs in the 1920's and 30's. But it wasn't the radioactivity that would kill you - when Michael Epstein and his students at Mount Saint Mary's University in Maryland looked at it, they found that the arsenic (especially if you used it to store juice) and the radon, lead, and other dangerous substances that would come into the water from the hodge podge of items put into the clay lined pots would poison you. Truthfully, this trend killed.

So, on January 15th, when I talked with superintendants, IT Directors, and teachers in White Plains, New York, one of the themes was making sure that we use good common sense. I think that sitting back and watching things happen and then applying all of my knowledge of teaching people about technology to what I will use in my classroom is important.

Don't you dare ignore the grey matter between your ears! Sometimes we will look at the things that everyone is "abuzz" about, but most often, we start using these things about four years before the masses. I guess in some ways we're pre-trendy and some would say that that has dangers as well. (My student who just graduated had an athropology professor who said 'Twitter is the latest thing' and leaned over to a friend and said, 'that is so tenth grade' (when she had me. ;-0))

The point here is to watch the claims that others give. Just as a container for water couldn't possibly take care of your flatulence and arthritis, also it is pretty preposterous to think that you could put a piece of software in the room of a bad teacher and suddenly have the Nirvana of educational excellence. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't add up.

So, my challenge to you as you sort through things and deal with increasing budget cuts, and yet know with a passion that global collaboration and effective use of technology are two things that you need to incorporate into your school, I give you two pieces of advice:

1- Beware of Brown Pandas (Inbreeding)

Read different sources. Talk to different sources. Find 1:1 programs that worked and others that didn't. Don't allow your thinking to become inbread.

2 - Beware of the Revigated Water (the Trendy)

Often if "everybody's doing it" then somebody is doing the wrong thing. Part of the need to customize our classrooms is that each area and school is different. I talked to Craig Mantin who has a different way of having each fifth grade connect. In one fifth grade classroom where the wiring was horrible, they used SmartPhones. In another with better wiring, they had NetBooks - each is piloting the program and they are measuring and looking at the best way to do this. All of the parents are happy and the kids are happy also.

My computers are about to have their fourth birthday - I will have a four year old computer lab very soon! So many things keep breaking on me! Many of you have 1:1 laptop programs or 1:1 iTouch or Kindles in your library. If I sit around whining because I don't have what you have, then, I'm not taking care of business right here. Do what you can with what you have and that is enough! And trendy isn't ALWAYS right (nor is it always wrong, mind you!)

Meanwhile, know that although technology becomes obsolete, so do textbooks! Don't let the passage of time dull your sense of mission that teaching students how to connect globally is more important than ever!

Daily Spotlight on Education 01/29/2010

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:30:06 PST

"Doing real science" on Friendfeed - AJCann - FriendFeed
Fascinating discussion about privacy and ethical allowance of students using full names at the college level has emerged on friendfeed. Read, learn, and jump in.
tags: education, friendfeed, privacy, internetsafety, edu_trends
2¢ Worth » 10 Ways to Promote Learning Lifestyle in Your School
Excellent post from David Warlick with lots of wonderful ideas for promoting a learning lifestyle in your school. Brian Tracy calls this being an "omnilearner" - that you are always learning all of the time - it is an ongoing process. Modeling is vital also!
tags: education, pln, learning, edu_news
Randy's Tech Tactics: Educational Video Collections on You Tube
Really nice post on Randy's Tech Tactics about the many great lists of youtube videos for education and also a tutorial on how to embed youtube videos into Powerpoint. Hey, Randy, thank you for taking the time to put this together -- great blog post to share from Randy Doughman!
tags: education, youtube, edu_trends, all_teachers
The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education - Curtis J. Bonk
All of the incredible links from Curt Bonk's excellent book: The World is Open.
tags: education, learning, innovation, opensource
westwood - Spanish Voicethread Tour
Here is a lovely cross- curricular project that the spanish teacher and I did together. She came to me and said, "I want to use this but will you help me on the technology side, I don't have to understand the technology to use the technology." My answer is YES! We took 2 days, did it in class, and there is a rich project that also gives her a legacy to hand down to other classes and for others to use and share.

In this, students are taking tours of countries. They will play this and critique it in class using the teacher's hook up between her computer and large screen tv.
tags: education, language_teacher, learning, innovation, voicethread, bestpractices, techintegrator, web2, technology

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

Super Social Safety: Digiteens Share the Best (and Worst) in Social Sites for Kids

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:44:53 PST

My ninth graders set out to evaluate the best social sites for kids 12 and under and present their recommendations and sometimes shocking findings in a presentation recorded as part of the K12 Online Conference 2009 and Digiteen: A Flat Classroom Project.

When they asked to evaluate sites that were available for kids 12 and under, we thought that was a safe range - these are 14 and 15 year old students! Little did we know that there would be some sites that we had to immediately pull access to and block (of course after taking screenshots.)

While I DO NOT recommend having your students do this quite this way (talk about a wake up call) - it does bring up the point:

Who is verifying the age appropriateness of the sites that claim to be age appropriate?

I applaud my students for their maturity for bringing these items to light that needed attention and the supportive parents who believed in what they were doing enough to let us continue! They worked hard and while they didn't cover everything, these 14 and 15 year olds did an excellent job with the time they had in presenting a very professional video.

Many thanks to Anne Collier for participating and sharing her views and research at the end of this video and for interacting with the students. I appreciate her advice as we "dug up" some things we didn't quite intend to find.

Update on 1/31/2010: I've posted a copy of the script for your review. Some have had challenges with the video.

I rated this film TV-14 and of all the movies I've worked with in the past several years, I would have to put this in the top 3. These are the things we should be talking about! Watch and let me know what you think. (Again, remember, this is an action project that they proposed and we approved - this wasn't some unstructured, unsupervised assignment - if an issue arose, I was right there with them and time was very limited.)

That's really interesting: How someone playing around found a major nanotechnology discovery

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:10:00 PST

Fascinating Outlier-ish article "Dry Printing of Nanotube patterns to any surface could revolutionize microelectronics."

Don't let the name fool you. IN this article we see an overview of the paper of a graduate student at Rice University, Cary Pint, who has been given time and access to "play" in a nanotechnology lab. The end of the article says:

"Pint said an afternoon of "experimenting with creative ideas" as a first-year graduate student turned into a project that held his interest through his time at Rice. "I realized early on it may be useful to transfer carbon nanotubes to other surfaces," he said.

"I started playing around with water vapor to clean up the amorphous carbons on the nanotubes. When I pulled out a sample, I noticed the nanotubes actually stuck to the tweezers.

"I thought to myself, 'That's really interesting ...'""

Yes, that is really interesting. Sometimes I think we are all so all-fired serious all the time that we don't take time to play. What started off as seeming play in virtual worlds has turned into a very serious and increasingly useful tool for teaching my students immersively on ReactionGrid.

All testing and no play not only makes Jack a dull boy, it makes him quit school and perhaps derive the world of the innovations that happen when we take time to play!

Whatever the outcome of the defense of this paper, I find the whole observation of this process very interesting.

See you in Arkansas, I hope.

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:15:00 PST

TICAL - Technology Information Center for Administrative Leadership

Will be speaking in Arkansas on February 17th at their TICAL conference. I'm so excited! This is information if you are in the area so that you may plan to attend. If you do, please plan to say "hi" - it really means a lot to meet the people from cyberworld, I guess it makes it all more "real."

tags: education, coolcatteacher, inthenews

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