Archive for September 2006
Roughing It
Blog silence for the next few days as I head out to inner-Pennsylvania with my seventh graders. Yawp!
If you’d like check out the blog I set up for my seventh grade classes:
People in Places
And the one for my eighth grade classes:
Memory and Memoirs
Blogroll: Education & Tech
I thought I’d give some props to the feeds I read on a regular basis. I’ll be listing them by the way I’ve categorized them, including a link and short description of each site, along with a link to the feed for that site. Start clicking!
The following fall under the tags “education” and “tech”; they’re blogs concerned with the use of blogs, games, wikis, and other computer technologies in education. Recent developments, comments and analyses, pedagogical reflections.
- EduBlog Insights: Use of blogs in education. Anne Davis is an Information Systems Training Specialist at the College of Education in George State University.
http://anne.teachesme.com/xml/rss.xml - Moving at the Speed of Creativity: More blogs and technology in the classroom.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/speedofcreativity/main - Reflections of a Techie: A middle school math teacher who valiantly struggles to integrate technology into her teaching (also tagged as “math”)
http://teachingtechie.typepad.com/learning/index.rdf - Authentic Educational Technology: “This site encourages authentic educational technology for students, teachers, and administrators.”
http://www.schwoebel.biz/wordpress/wp-rss2.php - Considering Education: “teaching, learning, technology…convergence”
http://consideringeducation.net/wp-rss2.php - Stephen Downes’ OLDaily: “Founded in 1995, Stephen’s Web is best described as a digital research laboratory for innovation in the use of online media in education. More than just a site about online learning, it is intended to demonstrate new directions in the field for practitioners and enthusiasts.” Ya, he can be a little much, but he’s a must-read in edublogosphere.
http://www.downes.ca/news/OLDaily.xml - Weblogg-ed News: “This site is dedicated to discussions and reflections on the use of Weblogs, wikis, RSS, audiocasts and other Read/Write Web related technologies in the K-12 realm, technologies that are transforming classrooms around the world.”
http://www.weblogg-ed.com/xml/rss.xml - Scott Sorley’s Education Technology Guidebook: “A regular opinion, commentary and hopefully a value add on the Internet Age evolution of Education.”
http://scott.sorley.com/rss.xml - Remote Access: “I am interested in where we are headed as a society, the effect of technology on literacy and learning, the possibilites offered by virtual worlds, and efforts to nurture learning communities across the globe so that even from here we can learn to live together.”
http://feeds.feedburner.com/RemoteAccess - Xplanazine: “Instruction. Innovation. Immersion.” A group blog.
http://www.xplanazine.com/index.xml - Edblogger Praxis: “Find Examples of Educator Blogs Online. Participate and comment.”
http://educational.blogs.com/edbloggerpraxis/index.rdf - Educational Technology: “News, Techniques and Theories of Effective Use of Technology in Education” — short capsule summaries with links
http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/blogger_rss.xml - Mathemagenic: “on personal productivity in knowledge-intensive environments, weblog research, knowledge management, PhD, serendipity and lack of work-life balance…” A more academic than pedagogic interest in blogs.
http://blog.mathemagenic.com/rss.xml - Academic Commons: Interviews, essays, reviews, and case studies on the intersection of liberal arts higher ed, new media, and technology.
http://www.academiccommons.org/rss.xml - Moodlebug: “Moodle and Learning Communities”
http://fraser.typepad.com/moodle/index.rdf - Edgames: “Musings and findings about teaching with games. Created by the learning community of EDTEC 670 at San Diego State University.”
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec670/edgames/rss.xml - Tuttle SVC: A developer and advocate for the use of open-source software in education
http://tuttlesvc.teacherhosting.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2 - EdBloggerNews: The edublogosphere now has its very own Digg clone.
http://edbloggernews.crispynews.com/xml/rss?tags_string=&menu_string=hot - Teaching Hacks: Includes a teaching hacks wiki.
http://www.teachinghacks.com/feed/
Any other suggestions?
Forever Young
Overheard, as told to me by a fellow teacher:
“But Mr. Kim might as well be an eighth grader…”
Flattering? Worrisome? I’m confused as to what to think.
Hot Potato
Dana’s taken on a part-time consulting gig at her old company. What’s nice is that it’s only a few blocks away, and she only has to go once a week. What’s not so nice is the regular catcalls she receives when she walks there alone.
Having grown in the burbs, Dana was at first quite nervous and scared running through this gauntlet. It still puts on her edge, but she eventually got used to it. Still, on occasion, a comment will throw her for a loop. Here’s what she thought she overheard the other day:
“Built like a potato, but, boy, she’s so hot.”
Disclaimer: I laughed, but only because I do not think, in any sense, does Dana look like a potato. I do think she’s hot, though.
Blogroll: Science
I thought I’d give some props to the feeds I read on a regular basis. I’ll be listing them by the way I’ve categorized them, including a link and short description of each site, along with a link to the feed for that site. Start clicking!
The following fall under the tag “science”; I don’t really read a lot of science news, but I rely on the following sites to bring to attention the occasional item of interest.
- Scitech Daily: A sister site to Arts & Letters Daily, it’s not updated nearly as often, but does provide a good variety of science news from around the web.
http://aurig.us/scitechdaily_analysis.rss - Cognitive Daily: A blog of news and research in cognitive science. Being an educator, I’m pretty interested (on a layperson level) in brain research.
http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/index.xml
Any other suggestions?
Doh!
I missed the WordPress meetup this month.
Maybe I was too busy taking care of my in-law’s long-haired chihuahua, Snowshoe:
Laboratory Charter School, Part 7
This is part of a series of posts on my reflections on The Laboratory Charter School in my neighborhood — specifically how other urban schools could learn a few things from the way it models its program.
Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.
Let your teachers prep and train
The Laboratory School boasts that it does requires more professional development from teachers than most other schools. Nearly every holiday besides Christmas is used for professional development. Teachers are expected to stay in longer and do more training. The few teachers that were there at the open house seemed to regard this as a badge of honor, but I’m not sure how the rest of the faculty feels about this.
It’s easy to be cynical about professional development. There’s lots of fads in the educational field, and much of the training seems obvious or irrelevant.
Teachers tend to be pretty opinionated and independent regarding their craft. They’re down in the trenches, and they don’t like to be rustled into top-down initiatives that aren’t intimately informed with that experience.
Most students don’t realize that many teachers, while smart, weren’t the pets when they themselves were in school. In fact, many teachers get into the profession because they want to reform or at least subvert the kind of drudgery and conformity they themselves were subjected to. Though they represent the authority, many of them are pretty resistant to authority themselves.
What they do appreciate is the time and space to prep. One of the hugest luxuries I have at my current school is a schedule that allows me large blocks of time to prepare, grade, and collaborate. I don’t always take advantage of it wisely, and I always have work I do at home, but I can honestly say that I would be burned out by now if I didn’t have those times to break up my day and week.
While we do have professional development days at my school, they tend to be pretty relaxed and focused on getting teachers acclimated to systems and resources at the school. Most additional professional development is available through a discretionary fund. Nice.
Interestingly enough, though, the teachers at the Laboratory School seem to develop a lot of their own teaching and curriculum material. It would make sense, then, that they might take real ownership of their professional development, as it’s sort of an extension of the preparation they’re willing to do for their classrooms.
Writing Again
On Mondays I attend the Liberties Scribblers, an informal creative writing group in Northern Liberties. It’s a great group; they’re all friendly, smart people, and the sessions have always been invigorating and enlightening.
My turn has come up to submit something to be workshopped, and I’ve written my first short story in oh so many years. It’s been weird to write again. I feel that my writing has evolved. I’m not sure if it’s gotten better, necessarily, but it sounds…different. Is it because I’ve gotten older? Is it because I’ve been blogging? Has teaching changed me? Maybe my aspirations have changed? Yo no se.
After I get run through the gauntlet on Monday, I’ll post it up here. I guess you guys (as if you guys exist, oh voiceless ones) can tell me if I suck or not.
Blogroll: News & Misc
I thought I’d give some props to the feeds I read on a regular basis. I’ll be listing them by the way I’ve categorized them, including a link and short description of each site, along with a link to the feed for that site. Start clicking!
I’ve got to make mention of the following site, which falls under both “misc” and “news”
- The Morning News: A great online magazine that has humorous satirical articles, diverse interviews, and whimsical essays. It also has a daily roundup of links to current events and humorous happenings.
http://www.themorningnews.org/headlines.xml
Any other suggestions?
It’s Been an Upsetting Day
Why does humanity suck so much?
I’m having a hard time soldiering on. Lord, help me.
