Afghanistan Timeline

Hosseini Khaled often helps his readers understand the historical timeline for key events that are the backdrop of wars in Afghanistan. To help you further see the broader picture, check this website that presents an overview of key events in the 20th and 21st centuries in the country's history: BBC Afghanistan Timeline. After reviewing the timeline, comment on what you have learned about the country's struggles.

Image from the bbc timeline site as provided at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1162108.stm is of one of the Budda statues that the Taliban destroyed at when it blew up Bamiyan.

Khaled Hosseini: Writing from a Woman's Perspective

Writing from a woman’s perspective for a male author is often a topic of discussion for literary critics and book reviewers. Listen to Khaled Hosseini talk about writing his novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns. Check his website, and click on the link, “Writing from a Female Perspective,” to hear what he has to say about the challenge of writing not just from one woman's perspective but two.

Overall, after reading the novel, do you think he succeeds in capturing an authentic female perspective? Does his explanation convince you?

At Hosseini's website, you also find a link, “Becoming a Writer.” Check out the link to find out how he became a writer in spite of being a science major in college and going on to medical school to become a doctor. What do you like about Hosseini’s approach to writing? What do you learn from him about ways to become a successful writer? In general, how does exploring his website help you to understand him not just as a writer but also as a person? And, how does a visit to the site increase your appreciation for our common reading, A Thousand Splendid Suns?

http://www.khaledhosseini.com/

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Listen to the author of A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini, talk about his book on this You Tube video. After listening to the video, post your comments. How does listening to the author talk about his book help you to understand his book, his purpose, and the book's background? What have you learned by listening to the video? Remember to return to this blog posting after viewing the video to post your comments.

URL for the You Tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4kyalTT_wY

Image of the author from http://www.npr.org/

Retired Supreme Court Justices Courts a Web Site

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, stymied by young people’s lack of knowledge about basic civic lessons, is the brainchild behind a new Web site aimed at the 7th through 9th grade population. The site will pose dilemmas based on constitutional rights, such as the First Amendment. For instance, should schools censor school publications and dictate the kinds of clothing students wear to school?

O’Connor’s hope is that the gaming Web site will draw students in by its interactivity, and fill the void in civics education today. She in part blames the No Child Left Behind Act with its focus on math and science education for the demise of civics and government education.

Commenting for a New York Times article (June 9, 2008), she compared computer gaming to the best educational practices: “…we learn something, a principle or concept, by doing, by having it happen to us, which you can do by that medium of the computer, and you exercise it and you make an argument and you learn.”

The site, which O’Connor is developing in conjunction Georgetown University Law Center and Arizona State University, is expected to go live this fall and will offer curricular integration suggestions. Look for the site, called Our Courts, at: http://www.ourcourts.org/. A preview of the site is working. Try the link. Consider the site's potential appeal to its intended audience.

Are you surprised that a 78-year-old retired Supreme Court Justice sees computer gaming as one of the most viable ways to teach her discipline: government, constitutional law, and civics? Can an interactive Web site, as O’Connor hopes, reclaim democracy and foster civic engagement? Post your comments. If a former Supreme Court Justice endorses the educational potential of the Internet, what does that say about the power of the medium?

Images : blog.kir.com for photo of O'Connor and www.laapush.org for Supreme Court picture

Source: Schiesel, S. (2008, June 9). Former justice promotes web-based civics lessons. The New York Times, p. E7.

Field Trips without the Fuss

With the high price of fuel and distances separating schools from ideal locations, online field trips offer solutions. Virtual field trips have gained in popularity as more places of historic, scientific, geographic, and artistic significance now offer the alternative online field trip.

The recent issue of Christian Science Monitor (June 6, 2008) posted a story about places visited virtually. One seventh Stockton, CA class watched elephant seals 100 miles away on the coastline and listened as a field guide explained their behavior. Virtual field trips also prepare students for the real experience in advance of taking the trip.

The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC), which organizes online field trips, boasts delivering more than a million trips. Visits have span the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the Bronx Zoo.

For teachers who prefer the real trip, virtual field trips offer one-of-a-kind collaboration with experts. After Pluto was demoted as a planet, one third-grade teacher arranged for her students to interview a NASA expert.

Read the Christian Science Monitor story for additional details. Post your comments about possibilities you envision. Imagine students in Connecticut going on a guided tour of Glacier National Park without leaving their classroom. What about getting up close and personal with zoo animals? How do virtual field trips extend the curriculum? What would be your ideal virtual school field trip?


Photo of Glacier National Park from http://www.nps.gov/glac/
Source: Arnoldy, B. (2008, June 8). Now students take field trips online. The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved on June 9, 2008 from http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0607/p03s01-usgn.html

Moviemaking Energizes Students

Digital Moviemaking Reinvents Learning in infinite ways. Not only are children as young as third grade easily make movies, but they are also collaborating with peers across the world. Using digital editing tools such as i-Movie, which Jamie Sacharko, demonstrated in our class this week, young children are enamored with making movies.

David S. Gran, a technology specialist, reported in Digital Directions, using i-Movie and Web 2.0 technologies, now as many as 2,600 students and teachers from 40 countries around the world produce collaborative movies. Patricia M. Fuglestad, one of the teachers, commented of her fifth graders: “Complex software is not intimidating to my digital natives….They just need to know where to click.” Citing an example, she referred to three trail-blazing girls who worked on their animated film by drawing "75 frames for their 15-second animation...making one or two frames each day.” She added that digital media creates “a surprising motivation level when it is connected to an authentic audience, even if it requires tedious work.”

Fuglestad reports she that she observes "a consistent spike in student enthusiasm when her students know their work will be shared online….When a group of her 5th graders made a movie called Young Sloppy Brush about a paintbrush that is destroyed in the hands of a careless artist, she tracked the progress of the project on her blog. Fugelstad recalls that on the day the the movie was uploaded, "we had over 800 views.” To help her students understand the extent of their audience, she “printed out a world map and put push pins in places where they received an e-mail or some feedback.” The movie went on to win a top prize at a local film festival and to be entered in three international film festivals. Fugelstad finds moviemaking: “teaches countless interdisciplinary skills....When students make a movie, they learn so much more than the content of the film…They learn to frame a shot, express and capture the appropriate mood from their subject, articulate their words to better communicate, politely critique, work together, take turns, be fair, and share.”

Another teacher, Kristine M. Fontes, who participated in the global moviemaking project, commented that although the moviemaking proces is "complicated, students are eager to learn and often master the software easily....They enjoy the responsibility of creating a project with so many layers and can’t wait to show me their work each day....The entire process is so engaging that it is difficult to get the students to log off their computers and go to lunch.”

Fontes has posted her students work on her website my Web site and burns their movies to a CD for them to keep. She reminds us, “The world is no longer as big as it seems, and their moments of shared creative expression are no longer limited to the four walls” of the classroom.

Use these immediate hyperlinks to view Fuglestad's students' Young Sloppy Brush, Fugelstad’s blog, and Fontes my Web site, explore. Direct links below connect to the web pages of some of Fontes' students for quick access to their movies. Enjoy.

Island Adventure
http://www.krisfontes.com/island.htm
Global Warming
http://www.krisfontes.com/global.htm
Werewolves of London
http://www.krisfontes.com/werewolves.htm

Let us know how you see the technology and the moviemaking empowering young and older learners alike by engaging them in the learning process and expanding their horizons. What is your response to these new moviemaking forays? Do you believe these kinds of filmmaking experiences belong in the school curriculum?

Source: Ash, K. (2008, June 5). Digital tools cast student moviemakers on a global stage. Digital Dimensions. Retrieved June 5, 2008, from http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2008/06/05/04art_web.h01.html

Image from: www.mrssabol.com

Nude Student Photos

I read that headline on the front page of the Connecticut section of the New York Times this past weekend in utter dismay. Middle and high school students in the Greenwich, CT school system were found circulating nude photos of themselves, in provocative poses, over the Internet and cellphones. Once transmitted, the photos were re-transmitted, building a web of access far beyond the boundaries of the Greenwich community.

Who stepped in to bring the matter to the attention of the general public? Bravely, school superintendent Elliot Landon wrote a letter home to parents. In the letter, he reminded parents that despite stepped up efforts in the schools to run Internet safety programs, students were still engaging in risky behavior. With the school year coming to an end and little time to implement even more rigorous programs, Landon urged parents to take precautions now and with the summer months looming.

In his letter, Landon offered practical advice, assumping parents were available and willing to follow through. He told them to keep computers in common areas, ensure screens were visible, and maintain access to their children’s email passwords. He urged parents to “randomly check” their children’s e-mail accounts and “text messages and cellphone photos,” and be “upfront” about why they were checking.

In an interview for the New York Times, Landon expressed concern that the retransmitted photos exposed students to sex predators and total strangers. Connecticut State Police, when conducting in-school programs on Internet safety, remind students that those transmitting nude photos of children 16 and under are subject to pornography charges. State Trooper William Tate cautioned that people must understand that what is transmitted over the Internet does not disappear. For instance, college admissions counselors and employers pay forensic experts to rummage through candidates’ online histories.

What are your responses to the Greenwich story, the advice offered by the superintendent, comments by state police, and the whole issue of Internet safety? Was it right for the superintendent to step in once students brought the matter to his attention? What is the school's role, and how responsible are schools for the actions that students take off of school ground? In your opinion, will school Internet safety programs work?

Source:

Steele, M. F. (June 1, 2008). Nude student photos spur internet warnings. The New York Times [online]. Retrieved June 4, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/01photosct.html?scp=1&sq=Nude+Photos&st=nyt

Win a Technology Grant: It's Simple

Short on technology in your school: enter the Hope for Education contest and win a grant for your school. You or your students need only write a 100-word essay on technology’s impact on learning. Check the Hope for Education site to learn of contest rules, deadlines, and prizes. You and your students have nothing to lose and much to gain. The contest is sponsored by technology giants Samsung, Microsoft, and others. In 2008, a top winner received $200,000 worth of technology. The site reports that in the four years since the contest's inception, there have been 250 winners, and $700,000 in grants have been awarded.

This year’s essay prompt links technology and the environment. Rules read:

"How has technology educated you on helping the environment and how or why has it changed your behavior to be more environmentally friendly?"

"Essays should focus on:

• How current or emerging technologies increase your awareness and understanding of environmental issues, and cause you to make environmentally friendly changes in your life.
• How technology products can be made, used and disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner.
• Why technology will play an increasingly important role in educating people and helping them to change their lives in an environmentally responsible way."
  

Gaming Technology Makes Science Learning Infectious

Gaming technology complements the inquiry approach central to science education. Ken Eklund’s ScienceMystery.com as the title implies uses mysteries to engage students in science learning. Eklund boasts that teachers who have used the site found students captivated. Titles of his mysteries include “Strange Dead Bird,” “Poison Dart Frog,” “River of Venom,” “Angry Red Planet,” and “Croak”: clearly, Eklund is tareting the middle school student with these titles. Given the games are mystery stories, blending the science and language arts curricula holds promise.


For middle school students, Medical Mysteries teaches them about infectious diseases. The site is set up as a series of missions that students explore sci fi fashion. Again, pairing with the language arts is a natural. Check the site for details.


Another game, The River City Project, funded through the National Science Foundation, is also aimed at middle schoolers. The fictitious town, River City, is based on “authentic historical, sociological, and geographical conditions,” and is "besieged with health problems. Students work in “research teams ...to understand why residents are becoming ill” and “keep track of clues that hint at causes of illnesses, form and test hypotheses, develop controlled experiments to test their hypotheses, and make recommendations based on the data they collect,” according to the site's designers.

Teachers using gaming technology underscore the need for curricular materials to support the projects. Leslie Miller, of the Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning, has worked with a team of teachers to design packets with learning objectives, glossaries of terms, curricular standard matches, and worksheets for Medical Mysteries.

After checking one or more of the sites, let us know what you see as the potential of online gaming technology to attract students to understand scientific concepts. Do these sites also support inquiry-based learning, considered central to science learning? Do you think gaming technology with catch on not just in the science curriculum but also in other curricular areas? Let us know your thoughts on the potential of gaming technology to complement instructional goals.


First two Images from Ken Eklund’s ScienceMystery.com. Second two images from http://medmyst.rice.edu/ and http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/ respectively.

So What's To Read, Write, and Think?

Those of you in the field of language arts/English instruction are probably familiar with the Read/Write/Think website portal for lesson plans, links to online resources, and materials for student use. The site is endorsed by the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). In addition to activities in the language areas, the site promotes bridging the disciplines, and, thus, will be of interest to all educators. A special “Summer Activities” link is available for those of you looking for literacy activities for children over the school recess. Check the site, and let us know what you find most useful. Do you agree with the site’s claim: “Providing educators and students access to highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction”? Post your comments.

Image from the Read/Write/Think site at http://www.readwritethink.org/

PowerPoint Points

Check this article "Of PowerPoint and Pointlessness" http://www.wired.com/culture/education/news/2002/09/54675 , and this YouTube Video, "Death by PowerPoint" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFfFQ9XU7Jw, and post your comments.

image from: www.cs.nyu.edu

Lesson Plan Ideas

Let's take a look at the Thinkfinity site, a portal for accessing free online lesson plans. Indicate your grade level and search by educator for a lesson plan in a specific subject area. After you have had some time to explore the portal, let us know what you think. Did you find any valuable lesson plans? Did you find the portal easy to use? Would you recommend it to others. Post your responses.

Podcasts Empower Learners

The Education Podcast Network

National Public Radio

Grammar Girl

Wondering what podcasts are and how they can enhance learning. The Education Podcast Network is a portal for podcasts created by students K-12. It is worth exploring to see what students in all grades and across the content areas are doing with podcasts in their schools. The National Public Radio site enables you to access quality podcasts to integrate into your teaching. As for Grammar Girl, it is the latest rage and a sure

catalyst for boosting grammar and word usage skills, in an entertaining, engaging way. This site is a favorite among teachers, as well as students. Can't remember when to use "affect" versus "effect," what a "comma splice" is, or just want to brush up on skills, Grammar Girl offers "quick and dirty" tips for remembering usage rules. Explore! Explore! Explore! All three sites are top-rated, visited by millions. Add the URLs to your Favorites/Bookmarks, and tell your colleagues to visit, too. After trying any one of the sites, consider how you might use podcasts in your teaching: How can you tape into their power, how can students use them to broaden their learning? Take a few moments to navigate one of the site, and share your responses.

Images from: caliopolis.classcaster.org and joedale.typepad.com

A Penny for Your Thoughts

What do you think of paying students to receive good grades? As you might have heard, some schools have started reward programs for students to excel, including doing well on state-mandated exams. In some cases, school systems in which students have fared poorly have received grants to improve scores. These grants pay students lump sums of money if they meet state standards. I posted a blog on this topic a few months ago, with details about school systems that have tried this subversive tactic, or is it subversive at all?

A recently released research report found a positive correlation between students’ reading scores and rewards programs. To read a synopsis of this study, click on the link: http://credo.stanford.edu/downloads/Incentives_Paper.pdf

Also, check my blog post, “Pay for Grades,” published on March 5, 2008.

What are your thoughts on offering students rewards programs such as cash, field trips, tickets to amusement parks, and so forth for doing well on high-stakes tests?

Facebook’s New Facelift: Internet Safety

Connecticut’s crusading Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, is back in the news, this time campaigning for Internet safety. Along with other states’ leaders, Blumenthal pioneered steps to make Facebook and MySpace, the two most popular social networking sites among teens and children, safer.

Safety nets ban sexual predators from the sites and curb cyberbullying through vigilance and deleting inappropriate postings. Steps to improve verification of user’s identity and age will limit young children’s use of specifc features on the sites.

Education Week in its May 8, 2008 issue reports that Facebook has agreed to:

“— Ensure companies offering services on its site comply with its safety and privacy guidelines.
— Keep tobacco and alcohol ads from users too young to purchase those products.
— Remove groups whose comments or images suggest they involve incest, pedophilia, cyberbullying or other inappropriate content.
— Send warning messages when a child is in danger of giving personal information to an unknown adult.
— Review users' profiles when they ask to change their age, ensuring the update is legitimate and not intended to let adults masquerade as children.”

Source:
Facebook and States Agree on New Ban (2008, May). Education Week. Retrieved May 26, 2008, from ttp://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/05/08/96330ctfacebooksafeguards_ap.html

Image from: firstfriday.wordpress.com

What are your views on imposing legal sanctions and controls over popular social networking sites among the young? Post your comments.

Blogs for Teaching

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/blogboard/

Looking for some ideas for using a blog in your teaching. Check out the link above, and see if it helps. Let us know how helpful you find what Education Week offers on its blogboard for accessing samples of teacher blogs. Post your comments. Also, if you know of teacher blogs we should check out, post their URLs.

Image from www.transitionsabroad.com

Frustrated By Online Searches!

The "Four Nets for Better Searching Web Lesson" offers a way for you and your students to overcome hassles with doing online searches. Here is a lesson to help students hone their online research searching skills by using Google Advanced Search and other tricks. A 4-step process for students to learn how to search online effectively is offered in the lesson plan. Check it out, and let us know what you think. If students are taught successful skills for online searching, they will save lots of time and reduce frustration. Do you think this lesson with its accompanying resources will achieve that aim? Did you learn anything new by reviewing the tips offered in the Four Nets lesson? Post your comments and responses.

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/searching/fournets.htm

Image is from the fourents page, using the above URL.

Do Interactive Textbooks Enhance Learning?

We all know that textbooks become dated fast, and they have the disadvantage of not being particularly interactive. With new technology, however, the situation is bound to change. To learn more about the future of interactive textbooks and the potential demise of the conventional textbook of yore, click on the hyperlink to read the article, “WikiTexts: Learning Better by Writing the Book.” After you read the article, be sure to post your comments. We want to hear from you? Do you think wikitexts will catch on? What advantages might they have? What might be the drawbacks, if any? How does the concept of wikitexts help you re-envision education, perhaps seeing it differently from the way you were taught?

Image credit and link to article in Linux News: http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/63022.html

Classroom Management Put to the Virtual Test

Here is an innovative way to help teachers hone their classroom management skills. The University of Central Florida has set up a virtual classroom for teachers to practice classroom management skills. To learn more about how virtual learning is occurring in this context, refer to this article in the Orlando Sentinel, and then post your comments. For beginning teachers, do you think this kind of virtual learning will work? What other possibilities can you envision for using virtual reality to prepare pre-service teachers as well teachers already in the classroom?

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/community/news/ucf/orl-virtualkid1508may15,0,7273706.story

image from: www.todaysteacher.com

Digital Writing's Effect on Teens

http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Writing_Report_FINAL3.pdf
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0513/p09s02-coop.html

The quoted excerpt below turned up today in the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) online newsletter and is of concern to all of us as we wonder about how digital writing is affecting teens and whether they view writing as essential skills to their future. As teachers, we all need to be concerned about digital technology as well as how receptive teens are to learning the skills of formal writing skills. Take some time to read further. The hyperlinks above will take you directly to the sites to learn more; the first link is to the Pew study report, in pdf format, and the second link is to The Christian Monitor article cited in the NCTE blurb. The hyperlinked texts in the blurb will also take you directly to the two sources. Please remember to post your comments after you review the materials. We want to hear your views as educators.

From In-box: NCTE, May 20, 2008, distributed via the http://www.blogger.com/

"Turn Teen Texting toward Better WritingThe Pew Internet & American Life Project and the College Board report Writing Technology and Teens notes that 85% of teens communicate through digital writing and 86% percent of teens consider formal writing skills essential to future success. In addition, it notes that over half of teenagers from all races and income levels have social networking profiles in places like Facebook and MySpace. The Christian Science Monitor, May 14, 2008."