DomainDouglas: On Writing and Blogging — Following a Fifth Grader: “If you want your fifth grader to write, give him a blog; perhaps he will surprise you.”

So true.

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Writing and the High Wire Great post that vocalizes the tight-rope performance all middle school writing teachers must do on a daily basis with each...

Writing my next book on this… Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted by email from sam harrelson (posterous)...

N.H. Bill to Ban International Baccalaureate Program Is Defeated – Curriculum Matters – Education Week: “‘Do you want your children to be indoctrinated to be world citizens or do you want them to be residents of this state and this country?’ said Rep. Ralph Boehm, a sponsor of the bill, according to the newspaper.”

Robert Welch Jr called… he wants his poor logic back.

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Legacies Great read on Bill Gates and what he sees for the future of his philanthropic work (with some nice Steve...

"I see essential questions like some see democracy–if either truly worked, they would be banned…" Bone-chilling, cutis anserina causing post… Science teacher: Essential questions: “I see essential questions like some see democracy–if either truly worked,...

I just purchased a new pack from one of my favorite gear companies, Osprey. I decided on the Day Lite pack and so far it’s pretty amazing.

Yes, it’s small.

However, that’s what I was looking for with my new pack.

I’m a bag snob and spend way too much time reading reviews and talking to folks at our REI store here in Asheville about packs and gear.

My favorite features are the smallish size, the unibody opening aspect and the “hydration slip” for CamelBacks etc. I actually use that for my iPad (inside of a Timbuk2 sleeve):

I use my iPad as my “laptop” (along with my iPhone, which is how I composed this post) when I’m away from my office in my house, which is pretty much 90% of the day. My MacBook Pro is running OSX Lion Server and is pretty much acting as a server for my iPhone and iPad to connect to my personal cloud during the day.

So despite the size, this pack is tremendous.

I’m headed to Charleston, SC on a two day field trip with my 7th graders next week, so that’s when this pack will get the full workout. I have no doubt it will perform well.

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More Kindle vs iPad in the Classroom Talk I especially liked this blurb… The E-Textbook Experiment Turns A Page : NPR: “‘I thought it would just kind of...

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Rands In Repose: Please Learn to Write: “Writing is the connective tissue that creates understanding. We, as social creatures, often better perform rituals to form understanding one on one, but good writing enables us to understand each other at scale.”

I wholeheartedly agree that coding is beneficial more for the structure and the application of organized thought than for most people’s practical needs. It’s somewhat similar to studying philosophy or religion in college even though you’re a business major… it might not seem directly applicable but helps you notice the subtlety of life and experiences that you might otherwise miss and that leads to a more enriched life.

So yes, I like to introduce my 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students to HTML, some PHP and even Python or Ruby compilers if they are interested. However, I introduce these elements into our traditional middle school studies to help them see the underlying matrix-like complexities of a website and information delivery, even on a simple looking blog like this.

Go learn to code. It’s good for you. Don’t forget to read some Plato and Ecclesiastes along the way.

Blessed are the people who see beyond the surface of things, because as Douglas Adams reminded us, things are not always what they seem.

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I’ll be speaking this Saturday from 9 A.M. to Noon at First Baptist Greenville, SC on the topic of social media, Twitter, Facebook and WordPress, and how those things impact everything you do (no matter what you do) with Merianna Neely.

We’ll be covering the basics of these services and the social web with a primary focus for interested parents and professionals.

You should come if you can.

It’s going to be magical.

$25 fee includes lunch.

Email if you’d like to learn more.

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Mobile, Social Media and Curation Marketing Marshall Kirkpatrick has a nice retort to a thought piece published in the Washington Post today proclaiming social media’s growth...

Hey, You! Get Off of My Cloud! (Or The Rise of Anti-Social Media) I’ve fallen in love with Pinboard (for bookmarking) and Simplenote (search for it on the iPhone app store) this week....

MacSparky – Blog – My New Book: The MacSparky Paperless Field Guide: “The book is a deep dive on paperless workflows for the Mac, iPad, and iPhone. It takes full advantage of iBooks Author and includes picture galleries, interactive images, movies, 32 screencasts, and nearly 27,000 words. There is over an hour and a half of video. Not only does this book tell you how to go paperless, it also shows you.”

David Sparks has really set the bar for how the evolution of instructional books should go with this important piece.

Even if you’re a serious geek and have a complete workflow (or not), go pay the $5 for his book and learn a few things about Automator, Hazel, TextExpander and workflows that might be new to you.

From iOS to OSX, this piece has you covered.

Highly recommended.

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GM Says Facebook Ads Don’t Pay Off – WSJ.com: “General Motors Co. GM -0.97% plans to stop advertising with Facebook Inc. after deciding that paid ads on the site have little impact on consumers’ car purchases, according to a GM official.”

First of many as the FB Empire fades into the quickening dawn.

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Stuck in the Middle With You Personally, I’m not sure which I’m more over… Facebook or news sites that split up relatively short articles over multiple...

Fix: Cannot Connect to iTunes Store: “I called Apple support, and they told me to ‘Reset Network Settings.’

Got to Settings – General – Reset – Reset Network Settings.

Basically it resent the Wi-Fi settings and problem solved!

Make sure you to get your router psswd to re-connect to Wi-Fi.”

This is more of a “future” note for me, but hope it helps if you get this annoying message on your iOS device

When I read this, I think about myself and the students I’ve had the chance to work with over the past seven years of my life:

The Nerdy Teacher: Letting Go of Control #PBL: “There is an idea out there that students need to be told what to do and how to do it when it coes to projects. For some students, they have no idea what to do when told they can be creative because they have never been given the freedom to do what they want. It’s terrible when I have to help a student find their creative passions again. Sadly, I feel like some students never recover.”

As we move towards more PBL based learning dynamics at Carolina Day and with StudiesLab, I’m hopeful that creativity will play a big part in opening up my classroom to do cartwheels.

That quote above is from this guy “with no special talents” who didn’t do that well in his schooling.

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CDSRobotics I’m excited… What Will We Be Doing? – CDSRobotics: “CDSRobotics is an Exploratory/Club for Middle Schoolers at Carolina Day that...

One of the things I’m personally looking forward to is whether or not I can do cartwheels with my co-learners…

Why Flip The Classroom When We Can Make It Do Cartwheels? | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation: “When you decide to change higher ed with the purpose of changing the world, you aim high. Because of academic freedom–freedom of ideas but also freedom from having to produce an income or a profit–you can achieve what few other investments achieve: a return on our society’s future, not just on quarterly Wall Street reports.

The cartwheeled classroom not only connects text books and classrooms to the real world, but it also inspires, uplifts, and offers the joy of accomplishment. Transformative, connected knowledge isn’t a thing–it’s an action, an accomplishment, a connection that spins your world upside down, then sets you squarely on your feet, eager to whirl again. It’s a paradigm shift.”

I’m planting sequoias.

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The Classroom As a Relic Exactly… The Classroom Is Obsolete: It’s Time for Something New| The Committed Sardine: “The classroom is a relic, left over...