All Blog Posts (229)

Embrace the Common Core

So far, 27 states have adopted the Common Core State Standards, and more states are anticipated to adopt them soon. What are the Common Core State Standards? Initiated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and The Council of Chief State School Officers, the Common Core State Standards (www.corestandards.org) were developed to provide teachers and students with a consistent set of skills to prepare students for the 21st century… Continue

Added by Alan on August 30, 2010 at 11:10am — 2 Comments

New Comics Program at the Independent Publishing Resource Center in Portland, Oregon

The Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC) is a non-profit center in Portland, Oregon which has computers, copiers, typewriters, letterpress machines, classes, and more for people who want to make their own (print) media. It's a great organization and I go there on a daily basis to scan, upload, and copy my comics and make zines.

This year, the IPRC is beginning it's second year of offering a certificate… Continue

Added by John Isaacson on August 28, 2010 at 12:43pm — No Comments

Study Tours abroad - Italy

Hello everyone,

I would like to make a little research. Do you take your students abroad? In which Country? How old are your students?

I work for Students2Italy, a tour operator based in near Venice, Italy. We organize study tours in our Country, providing flexible tour packages according to the customer's need and offers support in the learning before, during and after the trip through the wide use of technology.

If you wish to take your students…

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Added by Diana Ricci on August 24, 2010 at 2:16am — No Comments

Peace Conference

Registration is now open for Grand Rapids Community College's Peace Conference:

http://www.grcc.edu/peace2010

Added by Ric Underhile on August 13, 2010 at 2:53pm — No Comments

101 Ways to Use Tagxedo

Four months ago I first publicly released Tagxedo (http://www.tagxedo.com), a free online word cloud tool similar to (and inspired by) Wordle, but with the ability to handle shapes.

Not surprisingly, teachers have been my most enthusiastic supporters from the get-go. Most recently Ryan Goble kindly mentioned Tagxedo in a New York Times article, and invited me to join the MCP forum and say a few words about…

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Added by Hardy Leung on August 11, 2010 at 2:30pm — No Comments

Writing Stories/Blogging

This is probably a really simple issue, but what is the best approach for creating an assignment that will require students to write an origin myth and then have other students comment/respond to it in a blog? Should I just use a wiki and the discussion forum provided or should I create an alternate blog and import? Or is there another forum better suited to this? Thanks.

Added by Jennifer Schoch on July 27, 2010 at 4:56pm — 1 Comment

Lists of things as a 'personality' game: 10 XYZs that Sum Me Up

Not exactly a mathematical activity, unless you want to go into ranking and voting systems!, but creating Top-10 lists seems to be a popular activity to do for most people. I decided to do a 'twist' on this idea as part of my English as a Foreign Language teaching in Japan, and asked students to come up with a list of ten things which they thought represented their personality. They had a list of categories: books, films, pieces of music, recordings of music, buildings, cocktails (for adults),… Continue

Added by Colin Graham on July 26, 2010 at 1:17pm — 2 Comments

Inspired by Listening: The Book

This is a book about introducing the art of listening to your students to increase their appreciation and understanding of music.It was designed for all grades and can be found at the following link: http://ht.ly/2dbwz

Added by Thomas Bosher-Perran on July 18, 2010 at 9:30pm — No Comments

Call for Submissions: Special Issue on Pop Culture

Academic Exchange Quarterly

Winter 2010 Volume 14, Issue 4

Popular Culture

Feature Editor:

Lena Lee, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Department of Teacher Education, Miami University, Oxford OH

E-mail: leel@muohio.edu

Focus

As popular culture establishes itself as a new collective mythos, it also continues to gain validity as a field of study. Popular culture often inserts itself into the classroom and serves as ways for students and teachers to connect…

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Added by Frank W. Baker on July 4, 2010 at 9:31am — No Comments

Eating Our Way Through School: Using food in the Gastronomy, English or Social Studies classroom

There is a lot of talk these days about edible gardens and the National School Lunch program which is why I think the time is ripe to implement gastronomy curricula into classrooms across the country. If Michael Pollan is right and we have a "national eating disorder," then it's… Continue

Added by Jen Boylan on June 7, 2010 at 10:52am — 10 Comments

Discovery Education online event: Spotlight Gulf Oil Spill

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Added by Frank W. Baker on May 27, 2010 at 1:51pm — No Comments

DORA (The Explorer) AND Illegal Immigrant?

Did you all see how the Nickelodeon character, DORA, has been digitally altered and used in the current Arizona "illegal immigration" debate? When I first saw this, my initial reaction was "copyright violation," but then I thought, it's parody, so it's probably legal. I wonder what kids in Arizona think of her…

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Added by Frank W. Baker on May 24, 2010 at 2:03pm — No Comments

QUESTION: The Canon (and Kooky Cool New & Diverse Books) for Little Girls

Hello Everyone,

As I mentioned last week, Nicole and I just found out the gender of our baby on Monday evening.

As the ultrasound tech was moving around checking things out Nicole said, "oh, are those the girl bits?" I couldn't stop laughing as "girl bits" is a great phrase - a bit odd, but not entirely offensive. Nicole has clearly read more books about pregnancy than I have as it all looked fuzzy to me. When we actually found out it would be a…

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Added by Ryan Goble on May 20, 2010 at 4:00pm — 20 Comments

Ken Burns Adds to "Baseball"

The Wall St Journal reports (Thursday May 13) that Ken Burns has added four new hours to his PBS series Baseball. The episode entitled "Tenth Inning," scheduled to be broadcast September 28-29, is reported to explore the steroid era, the Red Sox's curse-breaking title and other recent events. Here is a link to the series.

Added by Frank W. Baker on May 13, 2010 at 10:15am — 1 Comment

Putting some feelers out - AP Survey

Hello all,

I'm trying to put together a survey for high school assistant principals and the work they (used to be "we") do :)

How many APs are in your respective districts? (approximate)

Do you think they would participate in an online survey that took about 20 minutes?

Take a moment and go to the link below…

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Added by Stephanie Young on April 26, 2010 at 12:30pm — No Comments

EVENT: Peace Studies Conference: Call for Papers

Conflict Resolution: Challenges, Successes, and Failures of Supranational and

International Organizations

September 27-29, 2010

Grand Rapids, Michigan

The 2nd annual GRCC Peace Studies Conference will be held in Grand Rapids, Michigan, September 27-29, 2010. Scholars from all disciplines are invited to submit proposals related to this year’s theme: Conflict Resolution: Challenges,Successes, and Failures of Supranational and…

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Added by Ric Underhile on April 7, 2010 at 6:59am — No Comments

Using AIM Office Hours to Connect...

So I've had AIM (known to us 80's babies as AOL Instant Messenger, though the youngins know nothing of this) since 1994, and have had the same screenname since then. My students think this is hilarious, because they change screennames every 10 minutes. Last year, as I was trying to find ways to individually meet with each student in a grade conference in ELA, I realized that time was against me. There were not enough hours in a day (or even three!) to meet with 120 students, so I gave them my… Continue

Added by Lauren Fardig on March 28, 2010 at 6:28pm — 2 Comments

Tell the Common Standards Writers What They Omitted

Dear friends and colleagues: Time is running out. If you agree with our petition below,

you need to go to the SUBMIT FEEDBACK section of the…

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Added by Frank W. Baker on March 21, 2010 at 8:13pm — No Comments

Preparation for A.P.’s to become Principals

There has been a recent surge of energy in how school districts are preparing APs to transition to principalships. In the past, it was seen as a natural progression, after serving a few years at your local school as an AP, to apply or be promoted to Principal. In recent years of tougher accountability and empowerment, many APs have voiced that they are content with staying where they are then take the “risk” of becoming a principal. I…

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Added by Stephanie Young on March 10, 2010 at 9:00pm — 1 Comment

ITVS (PBS) Offers Short Films on Social Issues

From the New York Times: ITVS is best known for its financing of documentaries, many of which appear on PBS ’s “Independent Lens” series. But beginning on Monday, the organization will present a series of brief, fictional films that cast social issues into the future, in… Continue

Added by Frank W. Baker on March 8, 2010 at 8:30am — No Comments