December 2007 Blog Posts (28)

Students 2 Oh

The Students2Oh blog is up and running. Kevin's post about Arrogance, Perception, & Mistakes has some interesting thoughts about the development of this project, but as several commenters say, "focus on the content." It will be interesting to continue to read this new set of student voices in the blogosphere. It's definitely making it to my aggregator.…

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Added by Demetri Orlando on December 30, 2007 at 2:01pm — No Comments

Macworld 2008

Any ISEDers attending Macworld? I'm very excited to be attending for the first time!

CUE has asked me to present at their Macworld Educator Academy. Along with Judy Beaver of Punahou, I will be conducting workshops on blogging and collaborative documents January 16th and January 18th. I've set up a del.icio.us account where I'll be bookmarking relevant links, a… Continue

Added by Lucy Gray on December 29, 2007 at 11:15am — No Comments

Coolest infrastructure tech used on 2007

Hands down, the best infrastructure tech device I installed this year is a PePLink Balance 300!

This relatively inexpensive device allowed me to add a cable-modem Internet link to my existing T1 line to significantly improve my overall bandwidth. I added some simple IP-based rules to continue to direct all e-mail traffic through the T1, while shifting YouTube traffic out the cable-modem.

The best part is that the 300 has a 3rd position to allow me to connect another Internet link… Continue

Added by James Bologna on December 28, 2007 at 3:06pm — 1 Comment

A Child's POV

I just finished a blog post about my daughter's growing interest in photography:

http://www.k12converge.com/?p=242

What's interesting about working with an eight year-old and photography is the way that the medium puts her one step back from simply looking at the scene or subject. Too much of this meta-awareness would likely be detrimental to a young child's development, but in chosen ways I can it being both fun and creative.… Continue

Added by Jim Heynderickx on December 28, 2007 at 1:47pm — No Comments

Some Very Round Numbers to Consider

Just some very general numbers - but something to think about!

Number of people in the world: 6 billion
Average number of people per family: 6
Total families in the world: 1 billion
Fraction who celebrate Christmas: 1/3
Average number of cookies left out for Santa: 3
Total number of cookies eaten by Santa on Christmas eve/morning: 1 billion
Average number of calories per cookie: 100
Total number of calories…

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Added by Norman Maynard on December 24, 2007 at 10:15pm — No Comments

Eee PC Arrived!

Christmas came early this year. I have been going back and forth between ordering an XO (OLPC) or the Eee PC. Yesterday, the brown “wells Fargo Wagon” delivered my Eee PC. Within 5 minutes, it was up and running on an encrypted internet at home. It came with SKYPE, AIM and Yahoo installed so my IM was easy to configure. It also has Open Office installed. I plan to keep it in the Linux environment and use only Open-Source…

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Added by Chris Bigenho on December 21, 2007 at 12:29pm — 4 Comments

from our "winter break edition" newsletter

Wednesday, Dec. 19. A

quiet moment in my ESL class. Two students are reading novels, relaxing

on beanbag chairs with pillows as backrests in the morning reading

corner of the room. Another student is in the computer lab organizing

ideas for a literary analysis essay on the book she finished several

days ago; although it’s going slowly, she feels she knows where she’s

headed and is making… Continue

Added by Bill Ivey on December 20, 2007 at 9:36pm — 1 Comment

eeePC and Robotics Programming

A quick update on eeePCs...

I've bought three so far. One is hidden as a xmas gift for my two kids next week. The other two were briefly handed around the IT office before being appropriated by the High School First Robotics team. I had an update today that they are now successfully using them to write and compile the programming of their robot, and the eeePCs have the right cost and form factor to travel with them to the competition.

Overall, I give all credit to the… Continue

Added by Jim Heynderickx on December 20, 2007 at 11:29am — 4 Comments

Glad to be here

This is my first post.

Added by Alex Inman on December 20, 2007 at 10:35am — 2 Comments

Challenges

Amid the "Golden Compass" storm a challenge over the use of "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents," (http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/829888.html) has been filed in a public school system here in North Carolina. In an unusual twist the education board has ordered administrators to use most banned book lists (such as those created by ALA) to weed the system's collection of "potentially" controversial books. A preemptive… Continue

Added by Ernie on December 18, 2007 at 10:41am — 2 Comments

Two Technology positions at Kinkaid

Kinkaid has two IT openings. We are looking for a System Administrator to start ASAP and an Information Technology Manager to start this summer. You can read more about these openings here.

You can read more about Kinkaid here.

Contact me with any questions.

Added by Larry Kahn on December 17, 2007 at 3:07pm — No Comments

Global Google, Mired Microsoft

Google Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft, an article in today's (12/16/07) Business section of the Sunday NY Times, is a fascinating look at the vastly different approaches of the two companies in terms of their business models and how they view the rest of us.

Google understands that the world is a global place, where people interact and collaborate, and where people want… Continue

Added by Laurie Bartels on December 16, 2007 at 2:41pm — 4 Comments

Technology--Too Much?

A recent editorial in our school newspaper has me thinking. At the risk of sounding defensive, I am trying to formulate a response to the students' contention that teachers are trying too hard to integrate technology into the classroom. The staff writer claims that using technology takes time away from the "real curriculum." The request that students sign up for various Web 2.0 tools (Google Docs?) has resulted in spam in their email accounts, they say (nothing else they download could possibly… Continue

Added by Susan Carter Morgan on December 15, 2007 at 9:54pm — 13 Comments

A Facebook-style network that I don't have to worry about seeing something heinous...

I'll admit it, I have a Facebook account, largely because some of my library advisory board alumni begged me to so they could easily stay in touch (I guess email is exponentially harder). But I do find it easy to keep tabs on all my kids, past and present and my "coolness" factor goes up a couple of points when a current student discovers I have a page. While there have been plenty of times I think belonging to Facebook has made me a better educator (like when I see a kid posting a status that… Continue

Added by Courtney Lewis on December 15, 2007 at 2:18pm — 7 Comments

Job Openings @ the University of Chicago Charter School

The University of Chicago Charter Schools are looking for a few good people. For job openings, check out this link:
http://cusi.il.schoolrecruiter.net/index.aspx.

Added by Lucy Gray on December 14, 2007 at 10:18pm — No Comments

Ah, Our Middle School Freedom

I frequently sit back and consider how lucky middle school educators are. I like to describe us as marvelous entrepreneurs, free to chart our course in the classroom with less encumbrances than many -- if not most -- lower or upper school colleagues.

Think about it. In lower grades, students and teachers are facing the challenge of emergent literacy, math and social skills. The curriculum at a particular grade level is feeding beautifully into the requirements of the next. This is as… Continue

Added by Bob Kachurek on December 14, 2007 at 9:11am — 3 Comments

Snow Day here in the suburbs of NYC

Received the automated phone message at about 6 am. "Due to the approaching winter storm.... " Ahhhh, bliss, bliss, bliss! The price will be paid later with the snow shovel. This is a much needed break as the unusual full 4 week stretch between Thanksgiving and winter break was starting to wear people down.

Added by Fred Bartels on December 13, 2007 at 7:15am — 10 Comments

Rain in Spain...Synapses in Brain...Professional Development

Am doing a core dump of some ideas that have been mulling around in my brain for quite some time...ideas which I've discussed with Fred but have yet to set to text on a page. My writing has been provoked by Jane Brody's Tuesday article in the Science section of the NY Times: Mental Reserves Keep Brains Agile.

Brody's article is the second in a series of two that deals with memory.…

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Added by Laurie Bartels on December 12, 2007 at 7:02pm — 3 Comments

My Blog on Progressive Education...or not

Hello all!
I created a blog to try to get at the meaning of Progressive Education. Any and all thoughts would be most appreciated! Help me not give up Blogging after three posts!
Jane

Added by Jane Baker on December 12, 2007 at 6:57pm — 15 Comments

Being the Millennial

I know I will not be the youngest in my building forever. However, right now I have an interesting position of being the staff "baby". Actually, young enough to be many of the staff members children. Yikes!

I am blessed that I am mentored and not parented. Although, the uniqueness is actually that we have the four generational workplace. Learning about this interesting dynamic has really helped as we begun to look at 21st century learning.

So what has our staff learned in the… Continue

Added by Lisa Sjogren on December 11, 2007 at 10:38pm — No Comments