My Beauty Best Teacher

As a conservative teacher, I plead guilty to the worst sort of offense for a public school teacher- thoughtcrimes. I am guilty of thoughtcrimes- I am a conservative teacher even though I do not push or encourage my conservative views and values in my classroom, even though I make conscious efforts to articulate all sides of every debate and situation, even though I play devil's advocate and am critical of all politicians and views at one time or another, and even though I seek primarily to inspire critical thinking.

You see, it is not my actions which threaten liberals and leftists and Democrats- it is my very existence and the fact that I do not quietly acquiescence to their thuggish attempts to convince me to think differently.

In his novel 1984, George Orwell described a thoughtcrime as an illegal type of thought. Liberals and leftists hate and fear me, because while in the classroom I may be a model teacher and may be inspiring and motivating students, in private I am the author of this blog where I state my thoughts and opinions on a range of subjects in a conservative manner, and for that they feel I must be silenced, fired, and perhaps worse.

Increasingly as our nation descends into a totalitarian fascist state, people like me are a threat to the government. Some people might be conservatives or libertarians or Republicans, but they're usually not teachers, and if they are they have been successfully revealed as thus and thus marginalized and silenced already. What really bothers the government and the fascist thugs who run it is that I'm still hidden in the system, unexposed, unsilenced and unmarginalized, and still teaching. I'm still teaching young children the skills of how to think critically. I'm still exposing students to tough questions and hard facts, and them giving them the skills to grapple with them- without telling them what to think about those facts or without answering the questions for them as a liberal leftist teacher would do. I'm still employed, even though I am a conservative and a teacher.

Some teachers inspire a few students to be conservative by accident or just absently are a conservative and a teacher- but I've thought about this beforehand and put forethought into it, showing that I have a plan to teach students how to think and to give them a wealth of information to think on, and I have done all of this knowingly and purposefully- and that's a crime worse than actually pushing my views or indoctrinating students. I'm not just a conservative and a teacher- I am A Conservative Teacher, and that's a threat to liberals and leftists and makes me guilty of thought crimes of the worst sort.

In many ways, thought crime is an even more serious offense than committing an actual crime, and that is why I have inspired such hate and attacks from my comments and blog posts, more so than others who simply are conservatives. Our outward actions and character stem from our inner world, and my inner world is conservative, and thus it does not matter to liberals and leftists what my outer world of teaching is like and how professional I am in that environment- they know and I know they know that I am a conservative teacher.

Many out there, including President Obama and the modern day Democratic Party that has been infiltrated and taken over by liberal fascists, believe that you can practice one thing all you want, but you must think and believe only what the fascist government tells you to believe. And I don't, and that is why I am a threat that they need to silence, intimidate, and threaten.

The good news is that I have for years been lying about who I am- using friends for radio interviews, having family members post my comments and blog posts from their locations, and even mixing up personal details. Since I started this blog in 2008, I've moved three times and worked in two school districts on either edge of town, gotten married, had a dozen kids, and even taken up urban farming! Because I am still unknown, I remain a threat. I'm nearing retirement age though and just need to hold on for a couple more years. And you wolves, although you may circle me, I am a friend of liberty and a patriot, and you will not terrorize me into thinking differently. Two plus two does equal four.

This post doesn't offer any resources for you -- it's just an "old-fashioned" blog post that I hope will spark a little bit of discussion.

If you've read my "About" page, then you know that I'm currently a substitute for several local districts in an effort to keep my foot in education and to maybe gain a classroom of my own again next year.

While I would much rather be teaching in my own classroom this year, there are definite perks to substituting. Mainly, I love seeing what goes on in other classrooms. Substituting doesn't allow me to watch other teachers in action, but it does allow me to acquire many ideas on classroom setup, management methods, and lessons. I always leave at the end of the day with my brain buzzing with all the new things I learned. I try to write it all down as soon as I can so that I can apply it to my [future] classroom (when I get one again).

Anyway, I've been subbing a lot this semester, and I've noticed a definite trend in hot classrooms.

Source

I'm sure this probably has something to do with the budget cuts and the fact that schools are trying to save money in whatever ways possible at this point...right?

I'm naturally a pretty hot-natured person, so my body can find a way to sweat in the dead of winter (sorry if that's TMI). But when I encounter other teachers in the hallway whose hair has become stringy and their foreheads are glistening with beads of sweat, I know I'm not the only one who feels like she's in a furnace in some of those classrooms!

I am realizing just how lucky I was in my classroom last year, where I had free reign (to some extent) over the thermostat in my classroom. Teachers at my school last year could change their classroom temperature to anything between 65-80 degrees. The teachers I'm subbing for this year don't seem to be able to control the temperature of their classrooms at all. I even saw one smart-cookie teacher who was dealing with the heat by placing a lamp underneath the thermostat's temperature sensor; as the lamp's heat increased on the temperature on the sensor, the thermostat thought it was too hot in the room and kicked on a little cool air. Brilliant solution!

I was prompted to write this blog post after a subbing experience where the kids kept exclaiming over my red cheeks, and I could feel my glasses sliding down my face from the sweat. I ended up having to open the door to get some air circulating, but the teacher had written for her students to be doing some very social activities that afternoon, and I was afraid that our noise was going to disturb other classes. On the other hand, I knew it was way too hot in there to be able to keep the door closed....

This prompted me, again, to think about last year, when I had control over my thermostat.  Since I am naturally hot and I spent a lot of time moving around in my classroom, I kept the temperature at about 68 degrees. If my students spent a lot of time in their seats during class, I found that the girls would complain about the cold. But if I kept my students up and moving (which I wanted to do, anyway), they thought it was a good temperature, too. Upon entering, other teachers would comment on how "cold" it was, but then again, they weren't moving around and working up a sweat all hour, either...

If my college classrooms' temperatures weren't "just right," I considered them to be on the cool side. I have rarely ever been in a classroom that is too hot...until this year. It seems to be a common theme that most teachers agree that a chilly classroom is better than a warmer classroom. My college professors reasoned that a chilly classroom will keep students awake better than a warmer classroom will (although, if your lessons are really innovative and intriguing, the majority of students won't have a hard time staying awake, anyway!). I've also heard that a chilly classroom is healthier than a warmer classroom, since germs crave moisture and warmth. I don't want to freeze my students, but I do want everyone to be comfortable enough so that they can function with ease, myself included.

I find it very difficult to function in a hot environment because my mind can't seem to get over the fact that I'm sweating buckets (sorry again if that's TMI. I'm normally not this gross, I promise. :) ).

So I have a few questions for my bloggy friends:

1. Do you have the ability to control the thermostat in your classroom?
2. What temperature is your classroom normally?
3. What do you think is the best temperature for optimal learning? Why?

I'm anxious to know what you think!

Elementary Students Forced to Write Advocacy Letters to Governor Criticizing Education Cuts, via Michigan Capitol Confidential:

Third through fifth graders at an elementary school in the Walled Lake Consolidated School District were assigned by at least one teacher this week to write letters to Gov. Rick Snyder saying how unhappy they were with his budget cuts, the school district confirmed Thursday.

The students were told the best letters would be forwarded to the governor. One parent said the teachers prepped the students with what the budget cuts entailed because some weren’t aware. Students also were asked to speak in front of their classmates about why they didn’t like the budget cuts.

Walled Lake parent Ernie Hughes said he didn’t think the assignment was appropriate. “Don’t bring politics into the school and use the kids as pawns,” Hughes said.

District Spokesman Judy Evola said in an e-mail it wasn’t appropriate for the elementary age students to write the letters. “The District neither supports this writing assignment or believes it was age appropriate for elementary students," she said.

This news does not shock or surprise me. In my post Liberal Teachers I wrote:

Whole generations of students are being brainwashed by this liberal thinking. And I do mean they are being brain-washed. Teachers are systematically trying to force the students in their classes to think in a certain way. They are forced to only hear one viewpoint on issues, they are forced to only provide answers that the teacher considers right, and they are forced on penalty of shame to admit to and agree to the liberal agenda. True, many students rebel against this system, usually be shutting down mentally or saying they hate school, but most students are worn down bit by bit, and eventually agree that 2+2 does equal 5, and the liberal agenda in this nation is advanced that much further.

There is considerable evidence to me that this is so- textbooks, state curriculum, lesson plans, standardized tests, student comments, and my own observations. On big issues and little issues, the liberal agenda is pushed down students minds, and the cumulative effect of decades of this is beginning to show in our current political environment.

Although Walled Lake district spokesman Judy Evola admitted that the students should not have written the letters and does not support this effort, there were no reports of any disciplinary actions taken and no reports of reviews of the teacher's past activities and projects. Although it is possible that this was the first and only time that this teacher let their liberal views show through in the class and forced innocent children to be pawns in their political games, it is more likely this teacher has systematically attempted to slant her teaching towards liberal values and beliefs and every day to make her students into progressive activists of change along the lines of Saul Alinsky (whom the NEA suggests all teachers read). She probably is like another teacher who I had the chance to substitute teach for once and used her classroom as a forum to spread her liberal values and views (see my post I Knew I Was Different From Liberal Teachers When...).

One can only hope that the district has taken the appropriate steps with this teacher and that in the future this teacher will only lean liberal and will make conscious attempts to be more moderate and will not ever use students to promote their agenda ever again. I do not expect teachers to always be 100% perfect or always be nonpartisan or apolitical- that would make education dry and dull- but there needs to be balance and students never must be made pawns of a teachers views. I'm a conservative teacher and of course my conservative beliefs show (especially after having students for a whole year)- but I play devil's advocate from both sides, come down hard on Republicans and conservatives at times, occasionally parrot out the Democrat and liberal talking points, never force my students to be part of any sort of conservative agenda, and always try my hardest to teacher critical thinking skills and have the students make their own educated and ration decisions about issues and concepts. That's all we should ask of any teacher- and we should be asking it of all the teachers in Walled Lake Consolidated School District.

Last year I wrote the following in a post called "Bombshell" Experiment: Global Climate Change Caused by Cloud Cover:

Times have to be getting rough on those who worship the Green God; science and reasoning are killing their religion in a way that it never could do with Christianity. For years people have been preaching that humans are the cause of global warming, that global warming is bad, and that the only way to reverse this climate change is to repent and tithe. Symbols of the evil of humans abound to these true believers- SUV's, air conditioning, electric power, comfort, happiness, etc- and these modern-day followers of Mandaeanism inevitably preach that humanity is responsible and needs to turn towards communism in order to stop the rise of the seas and the heating of the earth.

But it turns out this entire religion is built on a false premise- humans are largely not responsible for the changing of the climate and thus bear no obligation to give up any sort of symbols of progress to fix a problem that isn't theirs to fix. That doesn't mean that humans can pollute as much they want- there is still the tragedy of the commons, which can be solved by stronger rule of law and more property rights, which is the exact opposite of what environmentalists preach. But it does mean that government policies discouraging certain things and encouraging other things are built on a faulty foundation of unreality that will do more harm to society than good if continued.

Humans are not responsible for any sort of change in climate, and thus we should dash the dreams of Democrats and liberals and environmentalists and wake them out of their paradise world of railroads, bike paths, windmills, and other relics of the 1800's. CAFE standards, denying permits to mining and drilling companies, using the laws of the national government to stop developments everywhere, and cap-and-trade schemes are unreal, in the sense that they do not reflect the reality of the world. The only thing that these policies do in reality are empower elites in society to take and keep control of the means of production in order to put in place a more unjust world where life, liberty, and personal property is attacked- they do not do anything to the temperature of the globe or the environment or the climate.

The reason that these policies do not work is because humans are not responsible for any sort of changes in climate- the sun is. Shout it from the rooftops and yell it with passion at any environmentalist or liberal or Democrat whose party has been captured by these believers in the false Green God-

THE SUN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR TEMPERATURE OF THE EARTH!

Today on RealClearPolitics, I read a good article that touches on this subject again. Here is part of the article called The Galileo of Global Warming:

...Danish physicist Henrik Svensmark, who seems to have discovered the most important factor that actually regulates Earth's climate, and who is quietly in the process of proving it.

I linked last year to Svensmark's latest big breakthrough, but I didn't get a chance to discuss it much, so I want to give a little more detail now, then show one of the recent consequences of Svensmark's achievement.

Let me briefly sum up Svensmark's theory. The temperature of the Earth, he argues, is regulated by the intensity of solar radiation, but not in the obvious way. It is not that the increase is solar radiation heats the Earth directly. (It does, of course, but not to a sufficient degree to explain climate variations.) Rather, an increase in solar radiation extends the Sun's magnetic field, which shields Earth from cosmic rays (highly energetic, fast-moving charged particles that come from deep space). How does this affect the climate? Here is the crux of Svensmark's argument. When cosmic rays hit the atmosphere, he argues, their impact on air molecules creates nucleation sites for the condensation of water vapor, leading to an increase in cloud-formation. Since clouds tend to bounce solar radiation back into space, increased cloud cover cools the Earth, while decreased cloud cover makes the Earth warmer.

So if Svensmark is right, lower solar radiation means more cosmic rays, more clouds, and a cooler Earth, while higher solar radiation means fewer cosmic rays, fewer clouds, and a warmer Earth.

Those who have followed the global warming controversy over the years may recall that cloud-formation is one of the major gaps in the computerized climate "models" used by the consensus scientists to predict global warming. They have never had a theory to explain how and why clouds form or to account accurately for their effect on the climate. Svensmark has smashed through this glaring gap in their theory.

Like I said, Svensmark hasn't just put this theory out there. He has been working to prove it. He has done some studies that attempted to track measurements of cosmic ray flux against surface temperature and cloud cover, with some success. But his big breakthrough last year was a long-awaited experiment at Switzerland's CERN particle accelerator that demonstrated the most controversial part of Svensmark's theory.

It is widely accepted that the Sun's magnetic field helps shield Earth from cosmic rays, and it is also widely accepted that increased cloud cover cools the Earth (though expect this to suddenly come into question as Svensmarks' theory gains ground). What Svensmark needed to demonstrate was that cosmic rays form nucleation sites that seed clouds.

Hence the aptly named CLOUD experiment performed at CERN last year, with the results published last August. The experiment was actually more than a decade in the making, but as Lawrence Solomon explains, it was help back for years by the scientific bureaucracy because of its potentially unwelcome results.

The results are indeed unwelcome, at least for the advocates of the global warming consensus. Anthony Watts explained the experiment at his blog, Watts Up With That? The CLOUD experiment used CERN's particle accelerator to send a beam of artificially generated charged particles—simulated cosmic rays—into a gas-filled chamber and then measured the formation of aerosols, the kind of compounds that can serve as cloud nucleation sites. It found a direct and very significant relationship.

This is not a total demonstration of Svensmark's theory. The Nature paper on the CLOUD experiment notes that "the fraction of these freshly nucleated particles that grow to sufficient sizes to seed cloud droplets, as well as the role of organic vapors in the nucleation and growth processes, remain open questions experimentally." But last year's result is a clear demonstration of a crucial step in Svensmark's theory...

Full disclosure- I don't worship the Green God and don't hold true to the tenants of True Science, so emailing me to extol the virtues of your religion and way of life won't have any effect.

To loosely quote Mr. Universe, there is no official government news- the kind of puppet theatre that the government jesters push through their various institutions to the sleepwalking masses of morons- there is only the truth of the signal- what we see, what we know, and what is reality. And you can't stop the signal.

Henrik Svensmark is also the author of The Chilling Stars: A Cosmic View of Climate Change.

Until 1980, the United States was the world's leading producer of uranium, but today there are only three operating uranium mines left. This may have been due to the fall in uranium prices, which hit a low of $7.92 per pound in 2001. But with the price climbing to over $50 today, there is renewed interest in mining uranium, which is essential to powering nuclear power plants and important for national security- and it gets even better, because there are still considerable deposits of uranium in the United States, including fairly large deposits that were discovered in northern Arizona over recent years.

Uranium mining leads to cheaper nuclear power which leads to cleaner domestic energy production and a better environment- its just the sort of win-win-win scenario that only someone like Barack Obama could reject.

Via RadioViceOnline:

Last week, without much media attention, President Obama, this time via Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, put the nix on certain uranium mining on federal lands in northern Arizona. Sadly, this too, is political pandering, as, apparently nuclear power is as toxic to the left as is coal and oil power. And, per this fiat, the land in question is off limits to uranium mining for the next 20 years.

Let’s look at the process. The Bureau of Land Management is in charge of analyzing whether uranium mining is good or bad for the environment in this area. It found that the

mining would have ‘no direct impacts’ on protected wilderness areas. The impact on drinking-water supply in the Colorado River was also found to be ‘negligible’... The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the northern Arizona parcels [withdrawn from mining] contain uranium that, mined to capacity, would generate enough electricity to power Los Angeles for 154 years.... [t]he land bureau’s impact statement estimates that [the administration's decision] will cost the region $160 million in average annual economic output…

Northern Arizona currently has an unemployment rate of 17%. But, then again, Arizona in general, and northern Arizona in particular, is “red”. Let me suggest an ugly Presidential thought- "I’m not going to win Arizona anyway, so, it makes more sense to appease the left and perhaps pick up some votes."

One of the earlier actions undertaken by the Obama administration was to put in place bans on mining for a range of precious resources. It was bans such as these that have delayed the recovery in our nation and led to tens of thousands of Americans losing their homes and jobs- and even if the economy revives over the next couple months that does not take away from the fact that policy actions such as bans on mining hurt Americans lives, liberty, and property.

One such ban was a ban on mining for uranium in northern Arizona, which was originally put in place for 2 years so that officials could study the situation further. Obama officials were hoping that their meme that energy mining was destructive and bad and wrong would be proved true and so they could stop mining permanently, but then when the report came back that the mining wasn't in any way bad, they just shrugged their shoulders and banned it anyways.

And the cherry on to- President Obama then has the audacity to argue that they did this to SAVE JOBS and ENCOURAGE ECONOMIC GROWTH, and that now he is going to campaign on this theme- that by stopping the extracting of valuable resources he actually made our nation more wealthy; that by stopping thousands from being employed to extract these minerals he created more jobs; and that he has protected the environment even though the environmental impact from the mining was declared to be 'negligible' by liberal bureaucratic agencies which were likely pressured by Obama administration officials.

This double-speak, hypocrisy, and lying is characteristic of this administration, and the quicker it is gone, the quicker its actions can be reversed, we can begin to safely and responsibly mine valuable minerals, produce cheaper domestic energy, lower the costs of electricity for poor people, and help the working man to get ahead.

• American Educational Research Journal

  Many educational journals like this one have RSS feeds to notify you when new research comes out. If you want to keep up with research, I highly recommend you use an RSS reader. I use Google reader on my computer and Mr. Reader on my ipad (because it integrates with Diigo.)

  tags: education research learning researcher_thoughtleader

• Toontastic Version: 1.40 Education App | Macworld

  Toontastic is a highly rated site (that is currently free because it is in the app store hall of fame.) Download it now onto those ipads while you can get it. 
  
  It is for cartooning, tell your story and is great for using with digital storytelling. I highly recommend you get it while you can.

  tags: education eduapp learning

• Blogs May Help Teens Reduce Social Stress | Psych Central News

  I have seen this first hand in students and these findings are totally credible to me. Another reason to have kids blogging. Blogging may help teens improve their self-esteem and enhance friendships, a new study suggests. Moreover, the online activity is especially helpful for teens with social anxiety. Researchers believe this use of social networking is especially suitable for teens who spend a vast majority of their time online. ".

  tags: research learning blogging

• Twins are multiplying, raising new questions for the nature vs. nurture debate - On Parenting - The Washington Post

  Lots of talk about twins and more insight into nature versus nurture. "when it came to explaining why a particular group of children ended up with different IQ scores, 75 percent of the variation was due to genetics, not parenting,”

  tags: research learning twins genetics iq

• Do We Learn in Lines or Circles? - Nimble Copy

  We allow students to have struggles in Flat Classroom and expect to coach them through the teachable moment. this research seems to back up that is the right thing to be doing. is your learning environment too perfect? a recent blog post, David Ginsburg talks about the role of struggle in learning: “Frustration is a precursor to deep, lasting learning. That’s right, students’ grasp of new concepts and skills is often better when they struggle through the process of learning those concepts and skills than when teachers error-proof that process.” ".

  tags: learning research problembasedlearning

• Cognitive skills fade at 45, not 60, new research shows | The Australian

  This is a bit depressing but worth knowing about. if you stress, read Brain Rules about the massive impact that exercize has on improving cognitive skills. Again, this is a correlation not causality. is it we get more sedentary so we decline mentally. "Six Flags Great Adventure and Discovery Education are partnering together to offer free admission to the New Jersey theme park for K-6 students who participate in Read to Succeed, an online program geared to encourage students to read outside of the classroom.".

  tags: research learning

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

We know we have to update our apps on our smartphone or tablet to fix bugs and add current enhancements. It is what we do when we want to (usually) get the best out of our device.

Update Your thinking and  Update Your Life
We need to update our thinking and habits too. So we can fix things that don't work or improve things that already do. It is what we do when we want to get the best out of our life.

Yesterday as I talked to my 9th graders about life, we talked about the average lifespan and agreed - let's use 80 years as a round number. I asked - what percentage of your life is the next 4 years. 5% - if we're lucky. So, can we wait to live our lives until after high school: no. (My life, by this calculation is 52.5% over!!! I'd better get busy.)

The decision to not make decisions or set goals is also a decision.

You are what you think.

One of the best ways to update your life and your thinking is to listen to inspirational, informative "radio shows" or as we call them now, podcasts. We call it a podcast, typically if it is an mp3 or audio-only and a vodcast if it is using video, but now most people just call all of it podcasts.

The iTunes method of getting podcasts is clunky and unreliable, so I have a podcatcher app on my iphone and iPad.

Use a Podcast Catcher
iCatcher lets you type in the podcast and is very good at finding the feed and adding it to your list. You can create playlists as well for different times, like listening in the car, your chore time or washing dishes. It can take a bit to update and you do have to launch the app for it to update, but I use iCatcher EVERY day. (I know other people that like Downcast instead.)



Program your thinking by listening to good things.
 

 I use iCatcher my iPhone (for audio) and iPad (for video) to catch and update the current podcasts. I love the 1 minute podcasts because I can have a playlist and listen to 5 different things on my five minute drive home.














The easiest way to add these is to look them up in iCatcher to find the podcast. I've included my screens so you can get some ideas but, by all means find your own based upon your personal interests and goals.

Some of my favorites include:

Short Podcasts

•  Minute with Maxwell, 
• 60-Second Mind, 
• 60-Second Science
• Love Language Minute with Dr. Gary Chapman

• FAVORITE must listen to podcast every week is iPad Today because they talk about more than just iPads and it is a great show. 
• I also listen to this Week in Tech and 
• Tech News Today for an overview of technology news.
• Moving at the Speed of Creativity Podcasts (with Wesley Fryer)

Video Podcasts (sometimes called Vodcasts)

• Lifehacker
• Tekzilla videos
• TED (although I usually use their app because it is great.)

Some have a spoiled child mentality: "If something good happens to you, then that is bad for me."

There are a lot of people doing great things to move education forward. There is no "one" single best. We're too intertwined for that.

Some have a spoiled child mentality:

"If something good happens to you, then that is bad for me."

As educators, I think an abundance mentality is especially important. I can do well, you can do well.

How do I rank?

Competition can be a scorecard or a metric and have a purpose, but the "rankings" are being used to drive everything. We should ask:

• How do we score against ourselves? 
• Are we improving?
• Do we agree with the rankings at all? Despite serious questions about these standardized tests, we use their rankings anyway, giving them more credence.

As a parent, I'd want to see efolios and online work as well as measures of learning environment.

Is there really enough for all of us?
For example, there are a ton of great books hitting the market by wonderful edubloggers:

• Doug Johnson (The Classroom Teacher's Technology Survival Guide)
• Lisa Parisi and Brian Crosby (Making Connections with Blogging: Authentic Learning for Today's Classrooms)
• Scott McLeod and Chris Lehmann (What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media) 
• are just a few that come to mind. (Please mention others in the comments that I've forgotten and I'll add them.)

Why, would I mention those books on my blog when my own book Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time comes out in just a few weeks?

Honestly, because I believe in the abundance mentality. Each of these books are by great people that I know personally and I honestly want them to be successful. I believe in their message and their purpose. More of these types of books need to be read. Period.

Many believe comparable means competitive. I disagree.
Here's why...

•  Successful edubloggers breed future successful edubloggers.
If we want to upset the traditional educational publishing apple cart, we can support those we know through social media. Plus, we know what we are getting because we've already seen their work.


• What these people are saying is good (IMHO) and will help education.
  I truly believe that if someone reads one of these books then it will lead to another and then another. As great as their blogs are, with the monstrous editing process that goes into writing a book, I think you'll have a higher quality product in their books. Blogs let you vent. Books make you think. These messages are good for education.
  
• I like each of them and wish them well. I know the sacrifice that it takes to birth a book and I know that each of them need to help their families. I want them each to be wildly successful.
  
• You reap what you sow. Be helpful and others will be helpful to you. Don't keep a scorecard because not everybody is like this, but in the end, helpful people find themselves receiving blessings from unexpected places.

"It’s sad that so few tech blog posts add the kind of value that can be added by including links to high quality off-site resources. It’s ok to send readers away, they’ll appreciate the pointers and they’ll come back. Some of the biggest sites on the web just aggregate links to other sites – why not combine that form of value with original content on blogs? Not only are the links valuable for readers, the research required to assemble those links is a big value add as well. Compiling research and links to other sites is a fine art. I know everybody wants to see more of this. Who on earth would believe that a single blog post’s author knows everything a reader wants to know about a topic?"

• 11 Tools for the 21st Century Learner

  This is a course for Spring Branch ISD which uses a blog as the framework. I also love how 9 hours of professional development is being given for the educators in this course. We need more embedded PD that gives teachers an opportunity to embed their learning in their daily activity. Embedded PD is the key to transformational learning. While there is a time and place for getting away, we have traditionally only used that "away" method when we also need to use the "learn right here" method of delivery as well.
  
  Take a look at what Karen is doing here as you evaluate your pd delivery methods. I also have to admit that Spring Woods High school is one that has been an outstanding contributor to Flat Classroom in the past, so I personally know they are walking the walk here.

  tags: education news elearning professional_development ird bestpractices

• Wikis in Writing Education Research - WolfWikis

  Although not updated for some time, this wiki has been helpful in my wiki research. This shows the advantage of moving the master's thesis research online. It becomes a useful part of scholarly research. This wiki is dedicated to wikis in writing education research.
  
  The one thing I'd love to see is eventually that such projects would become legacies where another student could build on what has already been created either through a template or handing it off like a baton, but so much of how academia is set up screams opposition to this. But why should a great wiki like this die when the creator graduates? 

  tags: education wiki learning research

• Lessons learned from using Khan Academy content in a blended learning pilot

  Very interesting study on the effectiveness of Khan Academy on the scores of low performing students. The study thoerizes that the success is not the videos at all but the problems and rewards system that accompanies the videos which have a gaming feel. Like many, we assumed the videos would be the predominant learning mechanism for students tackling new material. In fact, the students rarely watched the videos. This result is consistent with some of the observations in the Los Altos pilot. The students greatly preferred working through the problem sets to watching the videos."

  tags: education research learning

• New Learning Environments for the 21st Century

  John Seely Brown's PDF on the new learning environments for the 21st century based upon a 2005 presentation he did at the Forum of Higher Education's 2005 Aspen symposium.
  
  The quote I like best:
  
  "As the pace of change in the 21st century continues to increase, the world is becoming more interconnected and complex, and the knowledge economy is craving more intellectual property. In this environment, it is critical that we shift our focus from education to life-long learning."
  
  This is a great lead from a thought leader in this area.
  
  If you wonder why I'm digging into the research, it is as I work on my second book on collaborative writing. It is amazing to me that I can find so many more things online than I ever could in the Georgia Tech library when I was a research assistant for the then president of the national Economics Association, Dr. Danny Boston.
  
  I may not be in an institution of higher learning but I can institute higher learning in my daily practice. I want everything I write for publication to be well grounded. I hope that is why those of you who gift me with your presence on this blog will feel free to let me know in the comments if you have concerns or pointers to other work.

  tags: education learning edreform

• ScienceDirect - Computers and Composition : The impact of e-feedback on the revisions of L2 writers in an academic writing course

  This 2004 study on second-language writers determined that although students prefer oral feedback that e-feedback has a greater impact on the revisions process. Online feedback is a valuable tool in the revisions process.

  tags: education research learning literature composition

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

• PediaPress – Catalog

  This is the catalog of books from Pedia press. While some editors are wikipedians, it is interesting to me how one of the top books is American Warplanes of WWII that has one editor. It looks like you can take it and pull from wikipedia and then edit. This is very interesting. While it is not new news about pediapress, when it first came out we didn't have such examples to review.

  tags: education news

• Application for Flat Classroom® Project 2011-2012

  Current application dates for Flat Classroom projects.
  I'll be running NetGenEd and co-planning Eracism with Julie as well as work with the book club starting in February.
  
  Flat Classroom Project - application deadline January 23, 2012 for FCP12-1
  Digiteen - application deadline February 1, 2012 for Digiteen 12-1
  'A Week in the Life...' - application deadline February 15, 2012 for AWL12-1
  Eracism - application deadline February 30, 2012 for Eracism 2012
  NetGenEd - application deadline February 1, 2012 for NetGenEd 2012
  
  
  APPLY NOW! to become a Flat Classroom® Certified Teacher. Courses will run starting in September and November 2011, as well as March 2012.
  Global Education Conference 2011

  tags: flatclass education globaled edu_news

• Skitch for iPad! - Evernote User Forum

  Skitch for the Ipad is here. This whiteboard drawing, mind mapping ipad tool saves to evernote. If you love evernote, this is a must download tool.

  tags: eduapp education evernote skitch app edu_news

• Dabbleboard - Online whiteboard for drawing & team collaboration - Interactive whiteboard software

  An online collaboration whiteboard. You can use it for free. Try using this for mindmapping and brainstorming between teams.

  tags: eduapp education collaboration edu_news

• 10 predictions for 2012 | Daniel Pink

  Dan Pink's predictions for 2012, bound to have some people talking.

  tags: education news 2012 prediction edu_news

• Lytro

  Dan Pink predicted that next year's hot technology item is going to be the Lytro camera. It captures everything and lets you focus afterwards. It looks very cool but it is one of those things I need to see to understand. Anyone using one yet?

  tags: education technology edtech news photography

• Recipients of 2011 Global Forum Educator Awards Announced: Evening event hosted by Microsoft Partners in Learning recognizes 18 educators around the world for their innovative uses of technology in the classroom.

  Great announcement about the winners of Microsoft's Global Educator Awards program. As a judge for the US competition, the coding guide is an amazing piece of research-based evaluation of teaching methods that should be shared. Unfortunately, this awards announcement has NO hyperlinks. It always makes me upset when teachers are recognized without Twitter handles, links to their efolios. If we want to disseminate best practice, it should be done using the web. Static press releases, especially for something like this, are a waste of space. now, I have to search for all of these things.

  tags: education news teachers

• American Teacher | Microsoft Partners in Learning

  A new movie "the American teacher" is coming out and Microsoft is coordinating the community screening of this film based upon the New York Times Best Seller "Teachers Have it Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers" produced by Vanessa Roth and narrated by Matt Damon. This website lets you order the DVD or volunteer to host a screening. I cannot find a release date on the site.
  
  I hope it is balanced. Teachers aren't perfect but it is not ok how teachers are being treated. Unfortunately, very few people are talking about just teachers -- it seems to be focused on union vs. anti union at this point in politics with teachers caught in between.

  tags: education news teachers microsoft videos edu_news

• So.cl

  This is the Microsoft Research so.cl website (pronounced social) that is being tested in a few universities. I find it incredibly interesting that students sign in using Facebook instead of Windows Live ID, the preferred sign in for other services.

  tags: education news socialmedia microsoft edu_news

• Will the Google-FTC Buzz Settlement Butt Into Larry Page's Social Mission? - Forbes

  For those comparing the FTC's stand against Facebook with Google Buzz, here is the Forbes article on the April 2011 Google Buzz settlement. We will have our Digiteen students looking at this material as they discuss privacy.

  tags: education news privacy digital_responsibilities digital_literacy

• Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg: 'We've Made A Bunch Of Mistakes' - Forbes

  Facebook faces 20 years of privacy audits by the Federal Trade Commission. Similar to an agreement with Google Buzz,this shows the FTC's commitment to project consumer privacy. (Any wonder Google Buzz is going bye- bye.)

  tags: education facebook news privacy digital_safety digital_responsibilities

• Google's Opt-In Facial Recognition Avoids Facebook's Missteps - Security - News & Reviews - eWeek.com

  New Google+ service Find My Face lets you opt in to photo tagging. For information on this service and how Google is trying not to repeat some of the "mistakes" of Facebook. However, some would argue that mistakes of Facebook have also been what made it wildly popular.

  tags: education. socialmedia google news digital_communications

• Gaffe prompts official to resign - World News - MSN News UK

  It seems harmless but sometimes just commenting on Facebook in the normal course of business causes problems. Now that every person on Facebook literally has a fan page (people can follow you without you having a fanpage) you are going to see this happen more often. If you really want to share with your friends, this certainly gives rise to websites like Path that only let you friend up to 150 people and keep things very private. Public officials may be left with no other option. Show me a person who doesn't say something politically incorrect and I'll show you someone in the graveyard. We all mess up.

  tags: education news socialmedia digital_responsibilities digital_communications

• Google Apps Education Training Center

  Free Google Apps training center. This will take you through the tools that are part of Google apps for education. Share this with your teachers and students.

  tags: education google eduapp traning edu_news

• Age requirements on Google Accounts - Google+ Help

  "The following age requirements apply for owners of a Google Account (with the exception of accounts in Apps for Education domains):
  
  Spain: 14 or older
  South Korea: 14 or older
  Netherlands: 16 or older
  All other countries (including the US): 13 or older
  
  Keep in mind that specific products may have additional age requirements. For instance, Google+ requires users to be 18 or older."

  tags: education news google

• Frequently Asked Questions about Google Account and Age Requirements - Accounts Help

  I'm seeing more information about children activating G+ accounts and putting in an age that is "too young" to have an account (under 18.) Here are the instructions for reactivating an account (which involve a credit card charge that is then removed.) As more kids move to G+ this will be a problem. I told my students to stay away from G+. Of course, having them on Google apps for domains helps you on this as the terms of service are between the school and Google and with parent permission, you are accepting the terms of behalf of the students.

  tags: education news google edu_news

• Why researchers want to overhaul the Gregorian calendar | MNN - Mother Nature Network

  Give up accuracy and go for convenience? Wish your birthday or Christmas was on the same way every year? Researchers at Johns Hopkins think we need a new calendar. What do you think?

  tags: education calendar news

• iPads and the Embarrassment Factor - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher Education

  Fascinating read from a professor about the response of his graduate students when they all received ipads. Some felt that by carrying them they came across as elitist. Perhaps it is because so many people want them and they are still very expensive. Very interesting read.

  tags: education news ipad

• Times Higher Education - BIS research to study private providers

  British government is studying how effectively private and alternative suppliers provide higher education services. As educators prime for the upheaval to learning that is already upon us, institutions of higher education are being eyed as places for potential cost savings and to determine if education can be delivered more effectively in other ways. They also looked at some US studies as they prepare this study.

  tags: education edreform edu_news

• Microsoft Working On Social Network For Students

  Microsoft not going for social networking but for educational networking. Before you roll your eyes, the fact is that overlaying educational networks on top of social networks is rife with problems. This is being tested at University of Washington, Syracuse University and New York University. There are many benefits to keeping work and personal separate and educational networks may be a great asset if done right, to the education space.

  tags: flatclass globaled elearning education edu_news

• Email blackout: Victory for workers or last gasp for trade unions? | ExtremeTech

  Volkskwagen agrees to turn of blackberries after hours as part of a union agreement. While I don't know a lot of teachers connected via blackberries,I do personally know the complexities of global collaboration in schools. We must learn to balance work and home and know when to disconnect but then again, a work environment can become so fast paced that everyone seems to expect the others that they should work 24/7. Yet another reason to advocate checking email 2-3 times a day - let everyone know when you will be available and stick to the schedule.

  tags: balance productivity news edu_news

• Connect anything to the cloud with Twine | ExtremeTech

  New project started by 2 MIT students.Twine seeks to help you easily access your home remotely. The small bar-of-soap looking object monitors the temperature and movement of the device usinga simple app called spool. Increasingly computing is about intertwining with our lives.
  
  I'm going to draw another conclusion here that may bother some of you. As we increasingly use our smart phones to control our homes, let people in the door, monitor things,are we causing danger and/or damage by denying students the right to access their phone, say, for example, if the house says it is on fire and mom and dad are out of town.
  
  I think we're going to have to coexist with cellular and smart phone technologies. It is inevitable but it is also about behavior. A child wouldn't have 1,000 emergencies in a day ( a text message isn't an emergency) but may have one that becomes a big deal and a big liability.

  tags: education news technology

• Gladwell vs. Shirky: A Year Later, Scoring the Debate Over Social-Media Revolutions | Threat Level | Wired.com

  If you like controversies between leading thinkers, you'll want to read wired.com's overview of the verbal jousting between Clay Shirky and Malcom Gladwell over the importance of social media in social uprisings.  I think this author has a very neutral perspective that is valuable for evaluating this discussion between two very influential people.
  
  The thing I find odd is that Gladwell in his book Outliers talks about the importance of "mavens" and their influence. Surely, mavens online can have more influence than ever before. I'm not sure how he can forget his own work in Outliers as he puts down the importance of social media in politics.

  tags: education socialmedia news

• Transistors made from cotton yarn, t-shirt computers incoming | ExtremeTech

  T-shirt transistors. Wearable computing is very close. I doubt it will look like it does on the fantastic model in this post, but there are uses we cannot imagine as of yet. It would be fun to have students read this and invent the future of wearable computing. Or you could do this as a writing assignment and have them write about it.

  tags: education news technology

• Why Hasn't Google Responded to Death Threats on Google+?

  Big controversy running through Google plus. Because controversial photographer Brandon Campeaux had over a quarter of a million followers, they are connected to just about everyone. He left Google+ in a huff and deleted his account when he says Google refused to respond to death threats against him. Word is,some of the people he asked to help him "are on vacation." 
  
  On another note, once a Google+ post is reshared, you can no longer delete it. This is perhaps a very interesting case study for whether Google+ is ready to grow. By the way, Myspace still has more active users than Google+.

  tags: education news socialmedia digitalcitizenship

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