Is Your School "Crackerjack"?

Cold drizzling rain and cloudy skies met me and our dog Gavin on the Sunday, the last day of Thanksgiving vacation. The weather ran us back into warmth of comfortable couch and my MacBook. While checking my email, I glanced at the list of articles in summarized in the New York Times. I subscribe to their daily email feeds on a few topics that that generally find interesting and thought provoking.

This morning, I read an article that warmed my heart and got me to thinking about why I teach. Let me just say, it is complicated. This article has a great phrase that I plan to steal: 'crackjack'.

Let's ask the question: Is Your (our) school- crackjack? If not, then why.

The New York Times: Reference Search for 'crackerjack'

crackerjack
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Dictionary

crack·er·jack (krăk'ər-jăk') pronunciation also crack·a·jack (krăk'ə-)
adj. Slang.

Of excellent quality or ability; fine.

[Probably from CRACK, first-rate + JACK.]
crackerjack crack'er·jack' n.

logo The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. See crackerjack on Answers.com

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Wanted in my Science Classroom: Asus EeePC

Have to share this educator's first impressions of the Asus EeePC. Would this device serve the purpose of a school? Can its configuration be customized to meet the restrictions of school districts? Can it support our wireless printers? Can students and teachers maintain the device without overwhelming tech support?

I love the idea of it being the size of textbook (smaller than most science textbooks). When I saw it has a built-in webcam I was sold! What do you think about using it in your classroom?

source: http://edu.blogs.com/ewanmcintosh/

Check out my Slide Show!

Monday Off?

The radio alarm clock and wake-up timer on my old-school TV came on as programmed precisely at 6:00 a.m. I took the dog out in the 35ish degree morning air as he sniffed his way across the edge of the frost covered lawn. The sound of a few early travelers rushing who-knows-where was clearly audible in the cold. The trip was short- Gavin was ready to head back inside for the warmth of the couch and snuggling under my fleece jacket. Coffee would be nice about now. My wife is able to rest. She came down with a nasty cold Thursday, and has been coughing and sneezing ever since. Today, we are attending a grave side service at 1:20 p.m., and then we will be going to Wilmington to eat out. We are celebrating 30 years of marriage today. It seems like yesterday. My words just can not describe it. All the joy, excitement, ups and downs, families, friends and more.

I love my wife. It is a great day to have off so I can spend time with her.

Got to turn off this computer!

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Classroom Tool for Lesson Planning

I downloaded an application for my MacBook called Planbook. Until registered, Planbook allows you to enter up to 20 lessons for each class in your book. All other functions of the program work exactly as specified in the registered version. Registration removes the 20 lesson limitation.

To purchase Planbook, all I have to do is choose the 'Purchase Planbook...' menu item from the File menu. An internet connection is required to purchase and activate Planbook.

Code and Interface Design: Jeff Hellman
Contact e-mail: jeff@hellmansoft.com
Website: http://www.hellmansoft.com

Icon Design: Tim Burns
Contact E-mail: Zagifar@gmail.com

I think I reached my limit in a couple of hours working on lesson plans with my Biology class. I am not 100% in love with the program. I would like to be able to get under the hood and change the template so I could change the layout of the windows. However, I can live with the way it looks now. I really like how easy it is to add hyperlinks to activities online. Planbook also allows me to attach documents like .pdf, .doc, and images. Also, I can publish the lesson plans to my .Mac account.

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New Program- Alternative Graduation

Jessica, Halie, and Katronella
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate

The WCS BOE approved our school's new alternative graduation program. The final details are still under consideration. The bottom line should be that the graduation rate for our students will increase. Our goal is to provide our graduating students with the number of credits required by the State Board of Education and meet all their credit requirements for math, science, English, and social studies. This program has specific acceptance requirements. Participants must have approval from our school superintendent and principals.

EduCon 2.0

EduCon 2.0 is both a conversation and a conference.

And it is not a technology conference. It is an education conference. It is a School
2.0 conference. It is, hopefully, an innovation conference where we
want to come together, both in person and virtually, to discuss the
future of schools. We are looking for people to present ideas,
facilitate conversations, and share best practice.

The Axioms / Guiding Principles of EduCon 2.0:

1) Our schools must be inquiry-driven, thoughtful and empowering for all members.

2) Our schools must be about co-creating -- together with our students -- the 21st Century Citizen

3) Technology must serve pedagogy, not the other way around.

4) Technology must enable students to research, create, communicate and collaborate

5) Learning can -- and must -- be networked.

Call For Conversations

In addition to the many informal conversations we believe will be a big
part of EduCon 2.0, we do want structured sessions in the following
broad strands:

School 2.0 -- What are the schools we need to prepare kids for the world to come?

Classroom 2.0 -- What are the classrooms our students need -- today and into the future?

Student 2.0 -- How should the student experience change in our schools?

Teacher 2.0 -- How should the profession of "teacher" change?

Innovation 2.0 -- How do we best act as agents of positive change?

Library 2.0. -- What is the role of the library in the future and what does it looks like, act like, feel like?

Conference proposals are due Nov. 1st. Please submit proposals via Survey Monkey -- Call for Conversations.

All proposals should include:

Title:
Conversational Strand:
Conversational Focus / Main Idea / Presentation (in 250 words or less):
Conversational Practice --
How will you make this an conversation, not just a presentation?
Skypecast? Conversational Protocols? Building a wiki together?

For more ideas, visit Stephanie Sandifer's post on Conference 2.0 Resources or the wiki page "Protocols Examples".

Conversation Website (Optional):

Presenter(s) Names:

Presenter(s) Afflilation:

Contact Email:

Source: http://educon20.wikispaces.com/

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Friday Seminar- Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

"The desire of humans to break from the
earth's surface and fly like the birds.  It is the story of the Wright
Brothers and their dedicated and inspired approach to a prob-
lem that had stumped many of the finest scientists of their time.
It is the story of how two brothers from Dayton, Ohio, careful-
ly and meticulously conducted a true scientific investigation
without the benefit of formal training or prior experience in
such structured procedures.  They intuitively and creatively uti-
lized their skills of observation to rethink and craft an approach
to a problem that scientists and inventors had faltered over for
years.  Theirs is a true story of inspiration, skill, devotion, cre-
ativity, and a desire to accomplish a very specific goal.  That
goal was to successfully build a heavier-than-air, motor-pow-
ered craft that would lift off the ground and travel forward a dis-
tance to a position no lower than their starting spot." source: Teacher's Guide Colgren Communications
Written by John Colgren.

STUDENT OBJECTIVES (NCSCOS Goal 1)
After viewing the program and participating in the lesson activ-
ities, the students should be able to:
• Identify the key problems of flight that faced the Wright
Brothers.
• Identify how the Wright Brothers gained insight and knowl-
edge about the principles of flight from the studies of those sci-
entists and inventors that came before them.
• Recognize that the Wright Brothers were successful in their
endeavor to conquer the skies because they made careful obser-
vations, conducted their own experiments when they were dis-
satisfied with the data of others, and worked as a team.

Links:

• http://www.kitty-hawk.com/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Hawk,_North_Carolina
• http://www.firstflightcentennial.org/
• http://travel.howstuffworks.com/airplane.htm
• UnitedStreaming - Login to view "The Story of the Wright Brothers: From Kits to Kitty Hawk"
  

Map


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EstuaryLive 2007

This past week, our high school biology students participated in this fall's EstuaryLive event. This had to have been the best EstuaryLive ever. Bill Lovin and Cris Crissman teamed up with the North Carolina and South Carolina folks to knock this year's episode out of the park.

I used the application from Apple called Grab to capture over one
hundred images from the live streams. I have never been a fan of RealPlayer, but the software was stable and images from the Charleston, SC were out of this world. The best part of this year's event had to be the guests. They keep the segments informative and interesting. The close up shots showed up nicely on the 15 inch monitor of the four year old PowerBook. My MacBook Pro remains out of service in the wake of last May's vandalism. I am still holding out hope that our technology department will find the funds to repair the monitor and power cable. But that is another story.

My students used Google Earth to locate Charleston, SC and looked at the coastal features. I encouraged my students to think about a question while they were watch the streaming video feed. They had so little knowledge of estuaries that this was a real challenge. I should have spend more time studying and preparing them for the sessions. They enjoyed the fish and shrimp segments.

Video project in my science classroom

Instead of just watching a Power Point lecture about birds of North Carolina and taking a test on it to see what students have memorized, my students are using digital tools to create short reports. The hooks was I showed them an animation of a character similar to the South Park characters. After seeing the intro animation, one of them mentioned that they would like to learn how to make their own animations.

I need to take the time to write up the instructions on how to do this. Instead of giving the students written instructions, I used a digital projector and modeled each step on a screen. The most interesting aspect of this activity was that a couple of students finished their project and volunteered as peer tutors.

Students had to present their project to the class using a digital projector and telling about their birds as a oral presentation.

Students used a performance rubric to assess their projects and learning. This video below is not complete. However, the other individual projects will be posted on Google Video.

Parents Being Involved

Dear Teacher,

Your student has found a really cool site www.scrapbooksthatteach.com that has been created by a teacher for teachers, students, and their parents. As a colleague, go ahead and take a look at academic scrapbooking. It can be used by individual students as a response to an assignment from you, by you in cooperative learning groups, and by parents who want to maintain a family scrapbook. You will enjoy using academic scrapbooking-- in teacher lingo, it falls under differentiated instruction and is the perfect way by which to include all the students in your class. And best of all, it is a management system in itself because it will keep the kids focused the entire class period and you don't have to adjust your assignment. The kids will be creative enough to figure out how to meet your high expectations for the assignment. Mine always do! Go ahead, log on now! Follow the Teacher Tag once you reach the home page. www.scrapbooksthatteach.com

Parents Being Involved

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Tobacco - The Golden Leaf of Days Gone By

When I was going up here in Chadbourn, the sites and smells of the tobacco market was always something we looked forward to. Farmers finally had some money to spend on cloths and necessities. I remember that successful farmers drove new pick-ups around town. Folks around here referred to the local economy as "the farmers plan". The merchants would charge groceries, fertilizer, feed, fuel for their trackers, tires for their vehicles, and just about everything--and when the tobacco market opened and the tobacco farmers sold their crop they would pay off their creditors.

Tobacco leaves 2

Yesterday, I noticed in the local Chinese restaurant in Chadbourn, a sign that reads: "Visa and Maste Card Only No Checks". As I stood there in line and chucked at the spelling lesson I wanted to make out of the poster, it came to me that we are not on "the farmer plan" economy any more.

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Bungie Jumping Barbie

While scrolling through the tweets generated today on Twitter, one caught my attention. Glad2be twittered: "Home from day of 'laying the foundation' Pre-AP workshop. Labs were fun, we made Barbie bungie jump." Glad2be also commented that there are some different Barbie bungee labs -- this one is similar to the one used in her workshop: http://oak.ucc.nau.edu/smg224/401pdfs/BungieBarbie.pdf

This looks like something my students would like. Commando Ken, or, I have it...Astronaut Ken taking a walk to repair the space shuttle.

Note to those of you reading this and snickering- they are not DOLLS, they are ACTION FIGURES.

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Record High Temp Today

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The question is, will Thursday's temperatures actually be higher than today's? We will see. Staying cool, watching STS-118 launch.

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New Feature in Twitter

I have been using a third party Twitter client and have not been using Twitter's web based app. Just a few minutes ago, I got an email notice that I had a direct message via Twitter. I as happy to see the pull down menu on the Twitter.com page. (see image)

I have really enjoyed sharing tips with fellow educators the last few days on Twitter. The experience is similar to being around the water cooler or teacher's lounge. However, it is better. It is hard to describe why it is better, it just is.
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Interesting tech for my classroom

Time to start making a list of instructional needs and wants. Put this first item under the wants category. We looked at a competitor product last year.

• SMART - AirLiner wireless slate

With the AirLiner slate you can interact wirelessly with your SMART Board interactive whiteboard or Sympodium interactive pen display from 52 feet (16 m) away. The battery-free tethered pen lets you control any software application, write notes and highlight information in digital ink

SMART’s AirLiner wireless slate enables you to teach from anywhere and allows students to interact with information from their seats. Multiple slate users can write at the same time as someone at the SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

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mySkitch

I hope to find more time to brainstorm on how my students can use mySkitch to learn science. After downloading it, the first feature that I liked was how easy it is to transfer photos from the MacBook to my wife's Palm PDA. I have several PDAs but none of them supports bluetooth.

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More later...I know, nothing new, still doing the same activity

Teacher bugging of colleague bugs me

A news story from Flushing, Michigan caught my attention this morning. The incident seems to have been centered around a dispute between a middle school science teacher's child and another teacher. I say-- Oh, my Lord to this one. The science teacher seems to have placed a wireless listening device on the back of the chair of the other teacher. This is high tech spy novel stuff. The science teacher ended up apologizing to the "fellow teacher" and following her plea of no contest, was sentenced to six months of probation and 75 hours of community service and fined $250. This was a reduced sentence from attempted eavesdropping, a misdemeanor with up to a year of jail time.

I feel bad for the kid in this story. I am sure she never wanted mom, the science teacher to bug the other teacher's desk. What did her mom not believe that she had a problem with the teacher? Was the teacher that big of a butt hole? Why was the principal not in this deal? Was the school so large and relationships between teachers so crappy that this cound not have been worked out with conferences and friendly conversation?

TALK TO EACH OTHER PEOPLE!

I would have never taken my fellow teacher to court of an electronic bug, I would would have been so mad, I would have probably gotten fired myself from such a sneaky act. I am not sure what I might have done. It would not have been as civil as taking the teacher to court. But, in the country, we sometimes settle disputes with a more physical edge.

I am not happy with this and I think the principal should have been more proactive. The article says nothing about what all went on in the school as far as mediation of this episode. In our small district, the Superintendent would have been involved from the beginning. Let me guess, Flushing, Mich, and a middle school, it probably have over 2,000 students. Folks, this just goes to show that big schools spell trouble with a T. But what do I know, I am just a teacher.

The last thing I have to say about this article is that a comment that was posted really got my goat:

Hockeytown_Blueliners

She got PAID leave for breaking the law?!?!?!? Typical of the education system. Teachers are already overpaid, now they get rewarded for being an idiot. I always wanted to be a teacher and get overpaid for working half a year..but I'm not lazy enough.

Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 1:33 pm

"Teacher are already overpaid". What planet is this commenter from? And to say that teachers "get overpaid for working half a year". I am not sure how ignorant this person is, but it sure shows. Honeytown_Blueliners you must live in a van down by the river. People, teachers do not work half the year. When teachers go home, their day just begins. We have lesson plans, papers to grade, parents to call, extra curricular duties like clubs, athletic events, coaching, parking lot duties at dances, ball game duty, School Improvement committee meetings, Positive Behavior training, bus duty, professional development meetings that last 'til after 5, continuing education, recertification, preparation for open house, parent nights, graduation duty, prom decoration committee, exceptional children IEP meetings, parent conferences and on and on... After a school year, of this, on top of teaching those Hockeytown_Blueliner's and or his/her darling children about the finer points of how to use the Periodic Table or AP Calculus based Physics, I say to Hockeytown_Blueliner-- You can't do nothing but complain in a post to a newspaper article online? Talking about lazy, get involved in your community, volunteer in a school near you this coming school year. Walk through the metal detectors and by the gang graffiti into the more than likely crumbling building and see what is going on-- if you are not too lazy.

Teachers make a difference. Even when things go so bad, there are still thousands of teachers in the classroom every school year. I will not try to quote the wonderfully strong words of the former educator and poet Taylor Mali has to say about what teachers make. If you have not seen it or heard about it, read the transcript at this location. Or better yet, read about Taylor Mali on his web page. If you have PayPal, buy the pen he sells for teachers and give it to your favorite teacher.

In the end, teachers are just people. Parents will do almost anything for their children. This case is just a tip of the iceberg for what is going on in the lives of all our students. It is a challenge that we all need to work on.

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Almost at NECC 07

Bonjour
Originally uploaded by David Warlick

Take a close look at this image from David Warlick's flickr photostream. On the Buddy List, I can see my name. This is as close as I got to this ISTE's NECC '07.

Charcoal Grill and July at the Lake

Read an article about how to have a safe summer cookout. Ground beef should have an internal temperature of 160 degrees F. Ok, since this is a science teacher blog, what temperature is 160 degrees F in C? No cheating, do not copy and past 160 degrees F in Google and key in the word convert. Get out your slide rule and make the conversion. Oh, too young to even know what that is, too bad.


A way that you will never forget just remember that 0'C = 32'F

Now

0'C + 1'C = 32'F + 1.8'F = 33.8'F

0'C + 2'C = 32'F + 2(1.8)'F = 35.6'F

0'C + 3'C = 32'F + 3(1.8)'F = 37.4'F

and so on.

If you want to change take 23'C into 'F

0'C + 23'C = 32'F + 23(1.8)'F = 73.4'F

thus the formula to convert 'C to 'F is as following

x'C = 32'F + x(1.8)'F

Let us work back

0'C + x'C = 32'F + x(1.8)'F = 73.4'F

do it your self and find the value of x

you will get another formula that converts 'F to 'C

Charcoal Grill and July at the Lake
Originally uploaded by The Blake Slate