The personal learning network for educators

February 2011 Blog Posts (52)

Diary of a Project Based Learning Lesson - Day 1

As I shared in my last post change was going to keep coming into my classroom as I have decided to move away from lecturing as much as possible. In order to prepare for the lesson I had told them to log in onto their MindMeister.com accounts… Continue

Added by Carmen on February 28, 2011 at 11:30pm — 3 Comments

Goal 17: This little light of mine...I'm gonna let it shine!

Take 28 seconds and listen to the message from this age-old song.

Goal: What will you start to do today to let your light shine? What action will you take? How will you do it? Share it with a colleague.

Quote: “And as we let our own…

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Added by Lisa Michelle Dabbs on February 28, 2011 at 7:54pm — No Comments

Five Reasons to Thank a Black Female Educator

"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary." - Dr. Carter G. Woodson, "The Miseducation of the Negro"

It has been less than 200 years since it was…

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Added by Mary Rice-Boothe on February 28, 2011 at 12:00pm — No Comments

NCLB is Killing Science

Valerie Strauss just posted “Why NAEP science scores were so low,” which points out what should be obvious: we’ve gutted content and good teaching…

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Added by Michael Dunn on February 27, 2011 at 6:33pm — 1 Comment

Gutting Child Labor Laws in Missouri

Missouri state senator Jane Cunningham has sponsored senate bill 222, which would revoke current…

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Added by Michael Dunn on February 27, 2011 at 6:31pm — No Comments

Providence Fires ALL Its Teachers Despite Labor-Management Collaboration

In an unprecedented move,…

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Added by Michael Dunn on February 27, 2011 at 6:29pm — No Comments

Tea Party Sends Armed Thugs to Break Up SEIU Rally in Atlanta

In response to an SEIU-sponsored labor rally this weekend in Atlanta, Tea Party activists sent out an alert on the right-wing website Freerepublic.com asking…

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Added by Michael Dunn on February 27, 2011 at 6:27pm — No Comments

Wildly Successful Metacognition Lesson!

(To see the post with accompanying photos, please visit my blog at http://www.fortheloveofteaching.net. I can't get the pictures on the ning to look right.)

Today my class was featured in an article in The Edmond Sun. The reporter discussed our growing class brain in…

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Added by Diane Dahl on February 26, 2011 at 7:06pm — No Comments

Do Students Enjoy Change or Routine?

Today I changed the seating arrangement in my classroom, and split it down the middle with students facing each other, forming a kind of wide U. I decided to do this after a conversation I had about building community and creating good…

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Added by Carmen on February 26, 2011 at 2:00am — 6 Comments

Digital Citizenship and Character Education

I thought readers might be interested in my article about digital citizenship and character education, in the February, 2011 issue of Educational Leadership. It echoes a number of points from my book, Digital Community, Digital Citizen.

You can read “Character Education for the Digital Age- Should We Teach Our Kids to Have Two Lives or One?” in Ed Leadership at: http://ow.ly/3On3S.

In addition I maintain…

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Added by Jason Ohler on February 25, 2011 at 5:22pm — No Comments

Collaborative Teaching

I am a Special Education teacher at the middle school level with a fully included roster of 12 students. My roster is usually split with half of my students in one class with me and the other half in another classroom with my teacher associate. I follow my students throughout the day to all their major classes and let them go on thier own to the minor or elective classes. Not a difficult day for me, right? Well it can be.

I have had regular education students ask me why I am not a…

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Added by Wendy Fisher on February 25, 2011 at 3:52pm — 2 Comments

Post It Notes

Anyone who knows me knows how much I enjoy and focus on motivation and recognition. Knowing that, I suppose it is no surprise that I incorporated it into my formal observations of my teachers.

Today I had three formal teacher observations. Yes, three in one day. That is a lot in one day. Therefore, I thought I would make it a goal to provide immediate positive feedback for each of the teachers I visited. I was trying to think of the best way to give that feedback. …

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Added by Steve Bollar on February 25, 2011 at 12:19am — No Comments

Google Documents: How to create a digital quiz

This article is cross-posted here

We know that Google…

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Added by Hakan Senturk on February 24, 2011 at 9:42am — No Comments

Substitutes

Today my goal was to visit with each substitute in my building and improve the relationship with each one. Many times when substitutes come into the building they are ignored. The only time they are focused on is when they are unable to control the class. The only expectation of a sub is to keep the kids quiet and engaged long enough so the end of the day bell can ring. Often, when a sub comes into the building they do not have anywhere to hang their coat or… Continue

Added by Steve Bollar on February 23, 2011 at 9:09pm — No Comments

Feeling Trapped

This blog is cross-posted here.

I speak with educators, principals, and administrators every day that feel trapped, alone, and many times helpless, when it comes to fixing the deep fundamental problems in our education system.

What I find so powerful about the Internet is building real online communities. I am not talking necessarily talking about sites that attract…

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Added by Jordan Wolfe on February 23, 2011 at 8:49pm — 1 Comment

Balancing Charlestown

"...a racially imbalanced school is not educationally harmful."

—Louise Day Hicks, Boston School Committee, 1974

The Boston Public Schools is the oldest public school system in America, founded in 1647. It is also the home of the nation's first public, elementary and high schools.

Up…

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Added by Mary Rice-Boothe on February 21, 2011 at 5:30pm — No Comments

10 videos that WILL ignite a discussion - Part 3

If you didn't know, I really enjoy watching short videos. In particular, I really enjoy watching videos that get me thinking and reflecting on my educational practices and beliefs. I have been using short videos in Professional Development sessions to get educators at my high school talking and discussing issues related to education. This is the third installment of the series..."videos that WILL ignite a discussion." I encourage you to check out…

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Added by Justin Tarte on February 21, 2011 at 4:39pm — No Comments

Begging For The Right to Vote for One’s Own Abuse

The economic crisis that has brought virtually every state government to its knees is the result of the greed and hubris of the very richest Americans. They were bailed out with trillions of federal tax dollars, while regular citizens were allowed to…

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Added by Michael Dunn on February 20, 2011 at 12:00am — No Comments

Changing Education Paradigms

Added by Angie Rumsey on February 19, 2011 at 3:29pm — No Comments

Goal 15:How do we guide them? 30Goals Challenge

February 19, 2011

The topic of discussion around the Global Crisis of HIV and AIDS is difficult. It becomes even more difficult when you add the need to have this discussion in our public and private school settings. The stigmas are huge, but the dangers to our students, of being ill-informed, are even bigger.

My son Jason is experiencing first hand, how difficult the discussions really are, working in Florida as a patient advocate for…

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Added by Lisa Michelle Dabbs on February 19, 2011 at 12:54pm — No Comments