Dangerously Irrelevant

Just 3 days left for THE PUSH! I don't know how many of these we'll get, but today we focus on SECONDARY TEACHERS. Are there any excellent secondary teacher blogs where 7-12 educators are blogging generally about middle or high school teaching that DON'T fall into a particular subject area? In other words, generalist secondary teacher blogs? If you know of any, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. [Note: Yesterday we worked on secondary classroom blogs where 7-12 students are writing and sharing. Also, we already covered subject-specific blogs.]

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, at the end we should have a bevy of excellent P-12 blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

With just a few days to go, we’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education blogs (only have 3),
• athletics / extracurricular activities (only have 1),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 3),
• physical / health education blogs (only have 7), and
• school counseling / college and career counseling / career education / school psychology blogs (only have 3),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2).

I don't know how Chris Lehmann finagled an invite to speak to the FCC, but I sure am glad he did (and that he filmed it!). Click on the picture below to listen to Chris' 10-minute presentation. I promise it will be WELL worth your time. 

Just 4 days left of THE PUSH! Today we focus on SECONDARY CLASSROOMS. What are some excellent secondary classroom blogs that 7-12 educators should be reading? We're looking for excellent examples of blogs where secondary students share their work. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. [Note: Tomorrow we'll work on secondary teacher blogs – where teachers are writing and sharing about their lives as middle and high school educators).

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, at the end we should have a bevy of excellent P-12 blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

FYI, yesterday was another good day for THE PUSH. We now have a list of 18 excellent general elementary teacher blogs. With 4 days to go, we’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education blogs (only have 3),
• athletics / extracurricular activities (only have 1),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 3),
• physical / health education blogs (only have 7), and
• school counseling / college and career counseling / career education / school psychology blogs (only have 3),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2).

I have two favorite quotes from Pamela Livingston’s excellent book, 1-to-1 Learning: Laptop Programs That Work. Here's the first one:

If it takes 40 minutes for an environmental science class to gather weather data from atlases and almanacs and turn it into pencil and paper charts, how much time is left to think about what the chart is saying? How much time is there to consider “what if” scenarios, such as, “What if the mean temperature rose by ten degrees?” Equipped with a laptop computer, access to the Internet, and a spreadsheet/graphing program, however, students can quickly find and analyze current data. They can plug that data into spreadsheet templates and prepare charts for half a dozen different “what if” scenarios in the same amount of time it would take to make a pencil and paper chart. [Laptops] allow students to get to the thinking faster. [emphasis added]

We waste so much time in school doing things on paper that are more efficient on the computer. One of the primary reasons that adults use computers instead of paper is enhanced productivity. What could teachers do with all of the time that we’d free up if schools made a significant shift away from paper and pencil?

If you haven’t checked out Pamela’s book, it’s well worth the read!

Just a few days left for THE PUSH! Today we focus on ELEMENTARY TEACHERS. What are some excellent elementary teacher blogs that P-6 educators should be reading? We're looking for excellent examples of blogs where elementary teachers generally share their thoughts and work. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. [Note: On Thursday we worked on elementary classroom blogs where students are writing and sharing. Also, we already covered subject-specific blogs, including preschool / early childhood education blogs.]

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, at the end we should have a bevy of excellent P-12 blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

FYI, our last push was successful. We now have a list of 48 excellent elementary classroom blogs. With 5 days to go, we’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education blogs (only have 3),
• athletics / extracurricular activities (only have 1),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 3),
• physical / health education blogs (only have 7), and
• school counseling / college and career counseling / career education / school psychology blogs (only have 3),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2).

A reading teacher contacted me:

As the school's remedial reading teacher I was asked to research a reading program for an extraordinarily bright 5th grader. Do you have any suggestions? His 4th grade teacher said he is too advanced to stay with this fellow students now that he is no longer in her class. The best I have come up with is a one-on-one literature program. Are you familiar with  HOTS or Mindlink?

Here is my reply:

I don't know. Sorry. Can't keep up with all of the learning software that's out there. Also not a reading specialist… That said, maybe my readership has some ideas for you?

And here is hers:

Thank you, thank you, thank you… I am most appreciative. As you can see I can never find anything on the Internet and I want to help this student reach his full potential. Although the district I work in has a suburban zip code it has the personality of a city school. Most of our resources are utilized to help students reach proficiency and not to enrich exceptional students. I can't thank you enough for your help.This child is special and I don't want to lose him due to boredom or have him become a thorn in his young teacher's side when she can't handle him because he is zoning out or misbehaving.

Any ideas for her?

Today THE PUSH focuses on ELEMENTARY CLASSROOMS. What are some excellent elementary classroom blogs that P-6 educators should be reading? We're looking for excellent examples of blogs where elementary students share their work. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki. [Note: Tomorrow we'll work on elementary teacher blogs – where teachers, but not students – are writing and sharing).

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, at the end we should have a bevy of excellent P-12 blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

FYI, yesterday was another good day for THE PUSH. We now have a list of 16 excellent P-12 library / media education blogs. With 7 days to go, we’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education blogs (only have 3),
• athletics / extracurricular activities (only have 1),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 3),
• physical / health education blogs (only have 7), and
• school counseling / college and career counseling / career education / school psychology blogs (only have 3),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2).

dear parent

  teacher

  administrator

  board member

don't teach your kids to read

  for the Web

  to scan

    RSS

    aggregate

    synthesize

don't teach your kids to write

  online

pen and paper aren't going anywhere

since when do kids need an audience?

no need to hyperlink

  make videos

    audio

      Flash

no connecting, now

no social networking

  or online chat

  or comments

  or PLNs

blogs and twitter?

  how self-absorbed

  what a bunch of crap

and definitely, absolutely, resolutely, no cell phones

block it all

lock it down

keep it out

it's evil, you know

  there's bad stuff out there

    gotta keep your children safe

don't you know collaboration is just another word for cheating?

don't you know how much junk is out there?

haven't you ever heard of sexting?

  of cyberbullying?

a computer 24-7? no thanks

  I don't want them

    creating

      sharing

        thinking

          learning

you know they're just going to look at porn

  and hook up with predators

we can't trust them

don't do any of it, please

really

'cause I'm doing all of it with my kids

can't wait to see who has a leg up in a decade or two

can you?

Yesterday was a good day for THE PUSH. We now have a list of 13 excellent P-12 business / computer science education blogs! As we get closer to the end (only 7 more days!), we’re doing okay in most other areas but could use some help with these:

• agricultural education blogs (only have 3),
• athletics / extracurricular activities (only have 1),
• drama / theater education blogs (only have 1),
• family / consumer sciences education blogs (only have 2),
• physical / health education blogs (only have 7), and
• school counseling / college and career counseling / career education / school psychology blogs (only have 3),
• vocational / applied / industrial technology education blogs (only have 2).

Today we focus on LIBRARY / MEDIA EDUCATION. What are some excellent library / media education blogs that P-12 educators should be reading? We need both elementary and secondary examples. If you know of some, please add them to the Moving Forward wiki.

Why are we doing this?

• To identify blogs that P-12 teachers can use to initially seed (or expand) their RSS readers
• To create a single location where P-12 educators can go to see excellent subject-oriented educational blogging
• To highlight excellent disciplinary blogging that deserves larger audiences
• To learn from disciplines other than our own and get ideas about our own teaching and/or blogging

Thanks in advance for helping with this initiative. If we all contribute, at the end we should have a bevy of excellent subject-specific blogs to which we can all point. Please spread the word about THE PUSH!

From the author of Socialnomics, here’s what is perhaps the latest modification of the Did You Know? video. FYI, Did You Know? Version 4 is on target for an October release!