Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com

I picked up on this article by Gene Weingarten while reading a blog on Hotchalk today. A teacher wrote quite a response there. It’s a wonderful article and you should take the few minutes out of your life to read it. It just might change a thing or two in your own practice. It was published in 2007, but it could have happened yesterday, anywhere.

At the very least, read down through this part:
"There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who stayed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who hurried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away."

Think about it: How did you stop someone from learning today?

Here's the article, complete with video clips of what happened when the world-renowned violinist, Joshua Bell, chose to play his $3.5 million Stradivari in the Subway while Washingtonians hurried to work one September morning.
Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com

Wallwisher

I tried this site out last May, and thought it was a good tool. Now, I'm trying out Wallwisher again for a teacher. He's looking to find a great way to update his website easily with a widget feed from a site that will not be blocked by the school filter. Easier said than done - this is my try 15 I think! Nice site, though. I like it!

Vodcasting + Chemistry = Learning

Thanks to the generosity of ISTE, you can watch many of the presentations from the NECC Conference each year online. This has been such a help to me and to many other educators, because with all of the budget cuts in our state this year, travel is one of many things we are not able to do!
So far, this presentation is my favorite of all. Watch these teachers interact as they present their learnings from integrating vodcasting into their courses, and influencing other teachers to try it. This is great!
Here is the site info regarding the presentation:
"Explore how video podcasts can increase student achievement. Discover the simplicity of creating video podcasts and achieve mastery learning without sacrificing content. - Jonathan Bergmann, EducationalVodcasting.com with Ramsey Musallam and Aaron Sams Monday, 6/29/2009, 3:30pm 4:30pm."
Enjoy! It is WELL worth your time!

Using Wikipedia - and WikiMindMap

I often hear both the pros and cons of using Wikipedia, and I have to tell you that I lean toward the pros. Wikipedia can be an excellent source, providing you've instructed your students to use the linking that it provides, and then use the Wikipedia articles as ONE of SEVERAL resources in their projects.
Today, I've found a new site called WikiMindMap that enables you to mindmap using Wikipedia. This is really terrific! Take a look:
http://www.wikimindmap.org/viewmap.php?wiki=en.wikipedia.org&topic=Social_network
If you change my topic, Social_network, to a different topic, it will give you an idea as to how this works!

43 Things Site -

A neat site. Of course, it goes with the book by the same name - but you can use the site to make a plan and cheer yourself on without reading the book. As the home page says, "List your Goals, Share your Progress, Cheer Each Other On!"
And you can take the quiz and see what it says about you. I tried it - probably take exception with the term "organized" as I haven't felt very organized of late. But it's fun, nonetheless! Thanks to Mr. Byrne for bringing this site to my attention!

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm a

Self-Improving Organized Extrovert