I am your “Typical” district teacher, what I mean will be obvious in my next couple of paragraphs.  The closing a school year is only a week away for us here in the middle of the Pacific, and students are already making summer plans and dreaming of what it will be like next week when school is no longer on the schedule.  Teachers are in the same canoe (Boat is too mainland US), but some of them maybe looking for a smoother end of the year.  Enters, the district resource teacher.  I call one of my closest Elementary teacher friend and proposed to her that I take over her class for four days for an hour each day.  To my surprise she accepted and off I went with my “last” project for the year.  Students were excited to see someone new for a few days and the promise of an air conditioned computer lab, when is 91 outside, was just all I needed to convince them.  We started by choosing Texas as our home state for this trial, and we also chose the Solar Energy lesson.  Our kids here are very aware of the powers of the sun.

The students had a great time for four days.  The lesson was well written and explained so even a non science expert would have been able to followed it.  The best part about it was the ability to have all resources in the same place.  Students did not need to consult multiple places and references to complete and understand the lesson.  The activities were also developed in a  way where the majority of the students felt they could work in teams without much assistance after the introductory stage.  In our experiment we allow the students to reword the essential questions to give them ownership of the lesson.  Also we use one of the assessments as whole class activity, that allow the class to really understand the main idea.  The end results were amazing to me and the teacher.  She was impressed with the maneuverability of the Techbook and how well was organized.  Also,  she was pleased with the students reaction to a complex lesson, specially at the end of the school year.  Techbook has given her a lot of ideas on how she needs to build her lessons for next year and most of all how she can engage her students by using multimedia and the power of collaboration to address complex skills and concepts.  I am really tired after four day, but very happy to have tried this new and wonderful resource.  The kids said it best “So what Uncle we pau with books them”

What have you done differently this year that made a difference at your school?

		Do you remember ever having anything confiscated or banned when you were in school? Remember thinking, “Okay, that’s just stupid”? Wait till you see what they’re taking away today. It’s all here in this Huffington Post article, with a link to all of them below. Prepare to shake your head in utter disbelief. posted by Ross Crockett Sep 28, 2010

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The 17 Weirdest Things Schools Have Banned (PHOTOS)

Schools have a responsibility to protect their students, but when it comes to things like silly bandz and pogs, we wonder just how much protection kids really need. We found some of the weirdest things schools have banned, and we have to admit we are shocked at what some people consider a threat. Some of it we understand, like no toy guns or cell phones, but no Cheetos or breast cancer awareness bracelets? That’s crazy talk.

 Darwin T-Shirt

When Missouri’s Smith Cotton High School band designed these “evolution of brass” T-shirts, they had no idea they would cause such a stir. Several parents demanded the shirts, which seem to support Darwinism, be banned because of their religious beliefs. The school complied and bought all the shirts from students for $700 to keep them out of schools.

Father’s Day Cards

An elementary school in Scotland banned Father’s Day cards out of respect for children without fathers. However, Mother’s Day celebrations are A-OK.

The Dictionary 

Shocking news from the UK: children were looking up inappropriate words in the dictionary. So now if kids look at the “wrong” parts of an anatomy book, should we remove those from the library as well?

The Word “Meep”

The word “Meep” made famous by Beeker the Muppet character was becoming a distraction at a school in Danvers, MA. We can think of a few other four-letter words that might be a tad worse, just sayin’.

Flags

Debate over immigration has hit a new low in Denver CO. where a school is banning all flags in fear they might incite emotions.

Viagra Prescriptions (For Teachers)

Teachers in Milwaukee are a little more frustrated these days ever since the school board banned erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra from their health insurance.

Educational Technology in the World Today

by Bonnie Bracey

As part of outreach from my work on the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council, I have often been invited to work internationally sharing the ideas on the use of technology, and to explore and demonstrate global  ideas. But working internationally is very different. It is rewarding to share the exploration, excitement, evaluation, and engagement of ideas in the use of technology using many different methodologies. I call it connecting the dots.

In some countries, radio and television are at this time the most important systems of delivery. But with convergence, it is important to keep eyes on all parts of the use of technology, even if just for understanding the possibilities. Even in nations where technology is mostly in the form of  television, the Internet is a database for knowledge. In nations where radio is the primary means of delivery, there are ways of using the Internet to boost its value. Often the most important thing one can do is to help frame the ideas, and then listen.

As I have worked internationally, I have often been challenged as to why  there should be the use of technology at all. Sometimes where there is acceptance of the ideas, we have used the documents we crafted in the United States and other resources for thinking about national initiatives. On the other hand, we have often been confronted with age-old problems of poverty, lack of reading skills and health care, gender ideas, environmental issues, and the costs of building the infrastructure. The voices have been sometimes loud!  Here are the words of people in places where I am working:

“The gross disparity in the spread of the Internet and thus the economic and social benefits derived from it is a matter of profound concern. There are  more hosts in New York than in continental Africa; more hosts in Finland  than in Latin America and the Caribbean; and notwithstanding the remarkable progress in the application of Information and Communications Technology in India, many of its villages still lack a working telephone.”

“The formidable and urgent challenge before national governments and the development community is to bridge this divide and connect the remainder of the world’s population whose livelihoods can be enhanced through ICT. As each day passes, the task becomes much more difficult: “To give just one example, exploding e-commerce ties individuals, firms, and countries closer and closer together, while those who do not try to catch the “Internet Express” run the risk of being further and further marginalized. Developing countries have great potential to compete  successfully in the new global market, but unless they promptly and actively embrace the ICT revolution they will face new barriers.”

• Perspectives on the use of technology � http://www.ncrel.org/tandl/homepg.htm
• ISTE standards for implementation � www.iste.org
• Network of networks in Europe promoting ICT for schools: http://www.eun.org
• Web Teacher, a self-paced tutorial � http://www.webteacher.org/ Also www.isoc.com
•  The World Links for Development (WorLD) program provides Internet connectivity and training for teachers, teacher trainers, and students in developing countries in the use of technology in education.  http://www.worldbank.org/worldlinks/english/index.html
•  WorLD training materials �  (also available in French and Spanish) http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/resource.html  
• The Community Technology Centers’ Network � http://www2.ctcnet.org/
• Virtual Villages and the Developing World � http://www.cnn.com/chat/transcripts/2000/6/20/afifi/index.html
• Report on UN meeting of high-level panel of experts on ICT � http://www.undp.org/info21/new/n-ecosoc.html#1

Bonnie Bracey is a former award-winning classroom teacher and technology specialist who now consults internationally with emerging and ongoing technology projects.  She is a Christa McAuliffe Educator, member of the advisory board of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, and is currently working with the European Children’s Television Centre on the project World Summit for Children. This is a conference which will be held in Thessaloniki, Greece, March 23-26 , 2001.   She can be reached at BBracey@aol.com or by calling 202.484.0554.

 From our friends at The Committed Sardine……

why we’re called committed sardines

First, an aside – a blue whale is the largest mammal on earth. An adult blue whale is the length of 2 1/2 Greyhound buses put end to end, weighs more than a fully loaded 737, has blood vessels large enough for an adult to swim down, a heart the size of a Volkswagon Beetle, and a tongue 8′ long that weighs 6000 lbs. A baby blue whale is estimated to gain more than 50 pounds an hour from birth to the end of it’s first year (now that’s a high fat diet – certainly not Atkins). In addition, the blue whale is not only the biggest but also the loudest animal. At 190 decibels, a blue whale’s call is louder than a jet (140 decibels), and much louder than a person can shout (70 decibels)

A little known fact is that a blue whale is so large that when it decides to turn around, it can take 2 to 3 minutes to turn 180 degrees so that it can swim in the opposite direction. As a result, some people have drawn a strong parallel between blue whales and our school systems. It just seems to take forever for schools to turn things around. Our ability to adapt to changing times helps explain at least in part the rise in demand for vouchers, charter schools, home schooling and virtual schools. There are some people who just don’t believe, or don’t want the public school system to turn things around in time.

But compare the cumbersome way a blue whale turns around to how a school of fish turns around – specifically a school of sardines – which has the same or even a greater mass than our whale. A school of sardines can turn almost instantly. So the question that comes up is – how do they do this? How do they know when to turn? Is it ESP? Do they use cell phones? Are they using the Internet?

The answer is both a little simpler and quite a bit more complex. If you take a careful look at a school of sardines you’ll notice that, at first, the fish all appear to be swimming in the same direction. In reality, at any time there will be a small group of sardines swimming in a different direction, one that tends to move against the flow or against conventional wisdom. As they swim in another direction they cause conflict. This creates some friction and general discomfort for the rest of the school.

But finally, when a critical mass of truly committed sardines is reached – not a huge number like 50 percent or 80 percent of the school, but 15 to 20 percent who are truly committed to a new direction – the rest of the school suddenly turns and goes with them – almost instantaneously!

Isn’t that what has happened with our attitudes towards drinking and driving? Isn’t that what became of our feelings about smoking? Isn’t that exactly what happened to the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union? Isn’t that what caused the Internet to suddenly appear overnight? Each and every one of those events was an overnight success that took years in the making. Overnight successes that took a small group of people who were truly committed despite the obstacles, challenge, yabbuts, and TTWWADI (That’s The Way We’ve Always Done It) to make the necessary change.

Noted anthropologist Margaret Mead once wrote “never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world – indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” That’s why we’re Committed Sardines.

The Committed Sardine Blog … Thinking outside the can.

I woke up this morning thinking about how DE can be apply to our current technologies in our schools.  I started to think about Google Docs, VoiceThread, and countless other programs that may be a great friend to DE.  My thoughts or yours will continue this post.   Aloha and Buen Dia

Aloha Everyone,

School Year 2010-2011 started in Hawaii officially with our students this passed Monday.  As we gear up to a wonderful school year (back to five day weeks).  On Maui, Discovery Education has started strong and our teacher are creating some amazing lessons and learning activities for our Keiki.  We will be sharing them with you as the year goes on.

Aloha and Buen Dia

I recently had a co-worker asked me if I like been a teacher, my response was that I love it. She pointed out the I was a District Resource Teacher and was not really one. I would have liked to counter the comment, but inside of me I knew she did not see me as one of them. So I like to start me blogging adventure by making a wish….that one day I will gain my peers respect as a teacher even if I am not overwhelm with thirty little wondering minds asking for my soul every working day. Aloha and Buen Dia.