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Chris Smith (Shamblesguru) Shambles Newsletter November 2009 ... online

http://www.shambles.net/newsletter/november2009

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Added by Chris Smith (Shamblesguru) on November 11, 2009 at 12:55am — No Comments

Joseph R. Stefani Canary in a Coal Mine

I liked Geraldine Fabrikant's 11/7 NYT article, Prep Schools Face Cuts in Student Aid, but to me it is not the most compelling story of the intersection between independent schools and the struggling US economy. To me the most compelling story is what is happening to those schools who were living hand to mouth prior to the economic downturn. For these schools, endowments are small or non-existen… Continue

Added by Joseph R. Stefani on November 10, 2009 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Bill Ivey Teachers' Letters to Obama

There is a rapidly growing group on Facebook which is compiling letters by teachers on our country's education policies to be sent to President Obama. I believe that we as independent school teachers can be a major contributing voice to this project. I know my Humanities 7 class erupted in cheering and applause this year when they learned they didn't have to take the MCAS, and I know many public school teachers who tell me they appreciate that I do what I do because it would be difficult if not… Continue

Added by Bill Ivey on November 8, 2009 at 12:27pm — No Comments

Joseph R. Stefani A Word or Two About Susan Engel's NYT OpEd, "Teach Your Teachers Well"

Susan Engel's New York Times OpEd, "Teach Your Teachers Well" has some fine ideas about teacher development but unnecessarily slams graduate education programs, their hard working professors, and their students. Let's start with the bad news according to Engels; "the strongest students are often in colleges that have no interest in education,… Continue

Added by Joseph R. Stefani on November 5, 2009 at 5:02pm — No Comments

Joseph R. Stefani "There Is No Information Overload, Only Filter Failure"

The Wilson Quarterly has a worthwhile article that takes on the notion that books are becoming less central to out cultural life. In "Three Tweets for the Web," Tyler Cowen chooses not to dispute the displacement of books but rather champions the web of information that is becoming central to our cultural lives. By that he is referring not to the torrent of information on the web bu… Continue

Added by Joseph R. Stefani on November 3, 2009 at 6:26am — 4 Comments

mrsdurff Flatclassroom09-3 SoundingBoards

Every fall a global project takes place led by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis. This year over 220 students from 5 countries will research trends in information technology and globalizatio… Continue

Added by mrsdurff on October 30, 2009 at 9:58pm — No Comments

Joseph R. Stefani Creative Writing at 2:00 AM

As a twenty year educator I'm a bit of a school geek. By that I mean that I'm fascinated with some quirky aspects of schooling. When my nieces start a new school year I want to know what they're taking, no not "English, history, math, etc." but really what they are taking, what is name of the course? what is the topic? what book are you using? etc. Mostly they're patient. I love looking at schools from the outside and thinking about the message that is being sent by the building. I drive to Sout… Continue

Added by Joseph R. Stefani on October 29, 2009 at 11:00am — 2 Comments

Karen Murley Schifferdecker Trying to set up my observation...

how do I help them make the connection/leap between their work and themselves? what opportunities do I create for them to take what I'm saying and process it and connect it to themselves? observable skills students having to connect students having to predict students having to explain which kids are doing the above? how are they showing these skills? does everyone get an opportunity? Continue

Added by Karen Murley Schifferdecker on October 28, 2009 at 12:32pm — No Comments

Joseph R. Stefani Some Thoughts on Thomas Friedman's 10/21 Op-Ed, "The New Untouchables"

Worth a quick look is Thomas Friedman's New York Times Op-Ed column on October 21 entitled,"The New Untouchables." Quite simply, Friedman believes that if you take a look at the hiring and firing trends of companies in this economic downturn, you will see a group that has emerged as untouchable as lay-offs take place. Those individuals are the ones who are able to re-imagine their jobs, and their… Continue

Added by Joseph R. Stefani on October 26, 2009 at 3:44pm — 2 Comments

Joseph R. Stefani On the Passing of Ted Sizer, October 23, 2009

The passing of Ted Sizer is a good time to remember that he was a giant of educational theory. His Coalition of Essential Schools is a such a great source of best practices and I know that it has impacted independent schools throughout the US. I mentioned the Coalition's journal, "Horace" in an earlier post talking about Web 2.0 in the classroom. For me, Sizer's most interesting idea was his notion of "configurations" of schools, whi… Continue

Added by Joseph R. Stefani on October 23, 2009 at 1:46pm — No Comments

Brian Lockwood 10 Graders live blog their Japanese field studies trip this week

The http://2012.posterous.com/ is an ongoing record of the 2012 Field Studies Program at Yokohama International School. Updated by students and faculty, the blog is updated live during the trips that take place during the month of October. This project was piloted during Field Studies 2008 by thirteen students of the Class of 2011 visiting Hiroshima. The students exclusively contributed to the blog via their own cellular phones. In 2009, t… Continue

Added by Brian Lockwood on October 17, 2009 at 6:04am — No Comments

Joseph R. Stefani Some thoughts on the September 28 Chronicle of Higher Education article "How Schools Fail Democracy"

I find E.D. Hirsch Jr. to be an acquired taste and I marvel at the popular, positive response to his work. Hirsch hung his hat on the “nation at risk” report on US education in the mid 80s and produced his bestselling hit, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. This book and its subsequent materials produced a great deal of debate in both the popular press and the education journals. It is twenty some years later and Hirsch is still banging the drum of Cultural Literacy and can st… Continue

Added by Joseph R. Stefani on October 15, 2009 at 3:05pm — No Comments

Brad Online School for Girls Newsletter October 2009

Online School for Girls Newsletter October 2009 When we sent out our newsletter last month, we had not yet launched our classes. We thought that our theory was strong and our courses would be rich learning experiences, but we still had yet to see the program in action. Now, just a month into our alpha testing courses, we are starting to see the results. Our students are responding positively and learning a lot. And, we know that our very different approach to online education has merit. A month… Continue

Added by Brad on October 13, 2009 at 8:58am — No Comments

Steve Johnson Marzano - Reinforcing effort and providing recognition

I am involved in a teacher study group and our next topic is Marzano's Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition strategy. I have seen and used many of his examples, but I am curious if anyone else has tried it and what their results were? Do rewards work over time or do they lose their effectiveness? Maybe rewards is the wrong term, since Marzano wants to provide recognition in other forms rather than rewards. Any information or links would be greatly appreciated as I prepare for my group le… Continue

Added by Steve Johnson on October 12, 2009 at 11:59am — 1 Comment

Joseph R. Stefani A continuing journey to the intersection of education and social networking - Part V

I still have a great deal of collected websites related to Social Networking in educational settings to wade through. I’m a fan, a member of the choir, so to speak, and even I can see that you might quickly become overwhelmed. The key for me as a school administrator, and someone who believes that this technology offers true benefits to educators, is to discover logical points of entry. I am thoroughly convinced that the best point of entry for educators new to this is the introduction of the p… Continue

Added by Joseph R. Stefani on October 6, 2009 at 8:32am — 2 Comments

Demetri Orlando the Pursuit of Happiness?

"Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" is a wonderfully concise phrase encompassing our inalienable rights. The third of these seems less basic than the previous two, so I find it interesting that Jefferson included it. And it's interesting that it is a pursuit rather than the thing itself. When CEOs of successful companies are asked about "getting the right people on the bus," on… Continue

Added by Demetri Orlando on September 29, 2009 at 12:30pm — 4 Comments

Demetri Orlando Classroom Twitter Accounts

There is an interesting article about an elementary classroom using twitter with students in the summer '09 CES magazine. The teacher has students compose the tweets, and parents can follow the account: http://twitter.com/Room302. There are many other examples of twitter being used in classrooms, like… Continue

Added by Demetri Orlando on September 28, 2009 at 2:40pm — No Comments

Dan Condon Special Invitation for Independent School Educators Network

Join Pat Bassett, NAIS President, and other progressive education leaders interested in alternative methods of assessment at a special event this December. We celebrate National Exhibition Month (http://tinyurl.com/CESNEM) three times a year at the nationally recognized Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center (http://www.eaglerockschool.org) located in Estes Park, Colorado. At the end of our trimesters, Eagle Rock students prepare a presentation that displays evidence of their… Continue

Added by Dan Condon on September 24, 2009 at 11:51pm — No Comments

Durff K12Online2009 LAN Party

Please join us on September 26, 2009 for the first live event of the 2009 K12Online Conference On September 26, K12Online Conference will host a LAN party from 2:00PM to 5:00PM EDT and encourages everyone to get together with colleagues in order to engage in lively discussions. Past presentations will be shown… Continue

Added by Durff on September 22, 2009 at 12:38pm — No Comments

Jim Heynderickx The Worms Crawl In, The Worms Crawl Out

When is a worm a good thing? When it makes you upgrade your Wordpress software and start blogging again. Thanks to a warning from a colleague, I learned that older versions of WordPress were being targeted by worms. My blog was running on a "very old" WordPress version, so this weekend I did a long backup, and then revamped it back up to the latest version. I did the same for the family sailing blog, and our photo gallery site. Better still, I learned how to post directly to the blogs from my… Continue

Added by Jim Heynderickx on September 20, 2009 at 4:00pm — No Comments

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Latest Activity

Chris Smith (Shamblesguru) added a blog post
http://www.shambles.net/newsletter/november2009
2 hours ago
Stacy Nockowitz replied to Michael Jenkins's discussion 'Parrot in the Oven' in the group Great Books for Middle School Readers
Have not read it, Michael, but all reviews sound like it's appropriate for 8th grade at least; maybe advanced 7th grade readers. It seems like there are a lot of layers to this book, some of which may require some frontloading discussions or activ...
9 hours ago
Joseph R. Stefani added a blog post
I liked Geraldine Fabrikant's 11/7 NYT article, Prep Schools Face Cuts in Student Aid, but to me it is not the most compelling story of the intersection between independent schools and the struggling US economy. To me the most compelling story is...
10 hours ago
Michael Jenkins and Jim Miller are now friends
10 hours ago
Jim Miller joined Demetri Orlando's group
English Teachers
This group is for discussions, reflections, and resources for the teaching & learning of English in Independent Schools.
11 hours ago
Kathy Saia left a comment for Jason Hummel
12 hours ago
Michael Jenkins added a discussion to the group Great Books for Middle School Readers
Parrot in the Oven
I would love to get some feedback about this book and whether you all feel it is appropriate for late 7th grade/8th grade readers.
12 hours ago
Michael Jenkins and Stacy Nockowitz joined Ruth Miller's group
Great Books for Middle School Readers
Let's share the titles of books our kids are currently enjoying. What books won't they put down? Any suggestions for readers in grades 6, 7 or 8?
12 hours ago
Jim Miller replied to Demetri Orlando's discussion 'Introductions'
Howdy, fellow educators. I've taught English and theatre in Middle Tennesee for over ten years and I had the pleasure of working with THE Demetri Orlando at my previous appointment. After ten years in a Socratic middle school classroom and on the...
12 hours ago
Jason Hummel left a comment for Kathy Saia
12 hours ago
Jason Hummel and Kathy Saia are now friends
12 hours ago
Jason Hummel, Maura Cullen, James Meyer and 7 more joined  Independent School Educators network
4 more…
13 hours ago
Stacy Nockowitz commented on Meghan Murray's blog post 'Tech Institute Day 1'
Thanks for all of the excellent info, Meghan! I learned about jing just last week, and I can't wait to start using it. I will be checking out a lot of these resources in the upcoming days and weeks. I'm always looking for technology to integrate i...
13 hours ago
Jed Dioguardi joined Alex Ragone's group
TWT2009
17 hours ago
Fred Bartels commented on Joseph R. Stefani's blog post '"There Is No Information Overload, Only Filter Failure"'
Joe, I watched the video last night. My reading of his talk is that Cowen is just cautioning us to be aware of how much our minds are wired to fit -often inaccurately- the inputs we are getting from the world into stories. In a nutshell, we need t...
17 hours ago
Kathy Saia and Rhonda Pennington are now friends
18 hours ago
Rhonda Pennington left a comment for Kathy Saia
19 hours ago
Byron Hulsey joined Charlie Mitchell's group
21st Century Skills
What do we need to do in order to better equip our students to become true leaders in a "flat world" that has both exciting opportunities and challenges at every turn?
yesterday
Carolyn O'Brien is now friends with Susan Carter and Stacy Nockowitz
yesterday
Demetri Orlando replied to Jim Heynderickx's discussion 'Lenovo X200 or Dell XT2' in the group Tablet PC Users
Thanks to the power of the internet, a colleague from Cal Poly State just informed me of the solution for this issue... if you set the resolution of your PowerPoint to 1024x768 (under the Slide Show tab on the PowerPoint ribbon), the issue is fix...
yesterday

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