All Blog Posts (588)

SHUDDER

I am a bit hesitant to post this but I've really got to say something somewhere, just to VENT… I sometimes despair about the lack of knowledge of Latin by the teachers on a Latin teachers listserve in which I participate. I don't mean lack of knowledge of the minutiae of Latin grammar or difficult vocabulary, etc. I mean what seems to be almost a complete lack of basic knowledge about the language itself. Today, for example, a teacher who participates actively in the list sent around this reques… Continue

Added by Laura Gibbs on November 5, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

The rule of 168: it's driving me crazy

The rule of 168 is a phrase I learned from my husband. What is that magic number? It is the number of hours in a week. And it is all that we have, no matter how excited and busy and important we may be - from Barack Obama to the biggest slacker at my university: we all just have 168 hours per week to work with. Well, I keep banging up against this rule in wanting to improve my classes. Every semester I get some ideas about great things we COULD be doing.. but of course anything I add to the cla… Continue

Added by Laura Gibbs on November 5, 2009 at 10:23am — No Comments

Dutiful blogging... and blogging as exploration!

Note: This is a blog post for general consumption AND for Maria. You'll see what I mean. :-) True confession: every semester I start off with this great plan to blog here at Fireside and also to keep a blog in conjunction with my online courses. DOH: I end up without the time to do that. I post sporadically here at Fireside, and I've never really had any impetus at all in keeping up a separate blog for my courses. Now, this is not to say that I do not blog - I blog every day for my class… Continue

Added by Laura Gibbs on November 3, 2009 at 9:00am — 4 Comments

Engel misses the point: you can't ignore that people teach the way they were taught!

I read with tremendous UN-enthusiasm this op-ed piece about teacher training in the New York Times this morning: Teach Your Teachers Well Susan Engel lists a series of innovations she wants to see in Colleges of Education (higher admissions standards, free fuition, more/better courses, more/better mentoring, etc. - nothing really new)… but she doesn't address to me what seems a fundamental problem: now t… Continue

Added by Laura Gibbs on November 2, 2009 at 9:44am — 5 Comments

Fireside Round-Up: Monday, November 2

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A round-up of Fireside discussions and blogs for October 24 - November 2. The items listed below are in no particular order. Did I miss something??? Please add a comment to this blog post to let us know about something missing on the list! :-)

Recent/Ongoing Discussions:

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Added by Laura Gibbs on November 2, 2009 at 9:00am — No Comments

The Educational Value of Smartmusic

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Added by Andrew on November 1, 2009 at 7:30am — 1 Comment

National Education Happenings

I participated in a webinar with the National School Board Association on Wednesday about what’s happening on Capitol Hill and the Department of Education. These are the notes I took about what’s going on: HR 3221 – funding for modernization, repair and renovation passed the House last month. It awaits action in the Senate. IDEA funding – HR 3578 and S 1652 are bipartisan bills to provide full funding for IDEA. The average cost across the nation to educate a special education stu… Continue

Added by Fred Deutsch on October 30, 2009 at 1:08pm — No Comments

Education and the Superintendency

Superintendent Kimberly Moritz commented about how an “us vs. them” attitude is a big problem for school districts because it permeates through an entire school climate. "I’ve been on the job as superintendent in my current district for a year now. When I interviewed with all of the committees one thing came through loud and clear. The BOE actually asked me at my final interview what I thought the biggest problem was and I was able to answer, “us vs. them”. That “us vs. them” is created through… Continue

Added by Fred Deutsch on October 30, 2009 at 11:52am — 1 Comment

What if School Board Members were as Connected as Teachers?

Each night before going to bed I read teacher blogs. I’m impressed how technology is transforming the classroom, and I can’t help but wonder how long it will take for technology to impact school board members like it has teachers. What if school board members, like teachers, used Nings, Personal Learning Networks, and other Web 2.0 tools to help us become better at what we do? What would that mean for our school distric… Continue

Added by Fred Deutsch on October 30, 2009 at 11:48am — No Comments

Redefining success in my state (argh!)

From the New York Times today: A new federal study shows that nearly a third of the states lowered their academic proficiency standards in recent years, a step that helps schools stay ahead of sanctions under the No Child Left Behind law. ... It found that 15 states lowered their proficiency standards in fourth- or eighth-grade reading or math from 2005 to 2007. Three states,… Continue

Added by Laura Gibbs on October 30, 2009 at 10:35am — No Comments

Goodwork Toolkit Blog

http://goodworktoolkit.org/blog/ Continue

Added by Lynn Barendsen on October 29, 2009 at 3:37pm — 1 Comment

follow up to " raising kids with a wild streak"

Last week I posted an article about raising kids with a wild streak. To use a little humor to make a point, perhaps if we did as the author suggests, the result would be a college app. letter something like this................... The author, Hugh Gallagher, now attends NYU. ESSAY: IN ORDER FOR THE ADMISSIONS STAFF OF OUR COLLEGE TO GET TO KNOW YOU, THE APPLICANT, BETTER, WE ASK THAT YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD, OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU H… Continue

Added by cindy fadel on October 28, 2009 at 10:26pm — No Comments

Halloween stories from the student Storybooks this semester. :-)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN. Halloween is this Saturday, of course, and I thought it would be appropriate to make a list here of the great "scary" Storybooks that people are doing in my Myth-Folklore class this semester. So, here are some of the ghostly and scary Storybooks that people are writing this semester - great stuff, I think!

Supernatural Urban Legends

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Added by Laura Gibbs on October 28, 2009 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Learning to say "no" - it only took me ten years! :-)

This is my 10-year anniversary of publishing things online. Between 1999 and 2009 I sure have learned a lot of things about the Internet... but one of the hardest things has been learning how to say no. Well, I think I am FINALLY starting to learn, ha ha. Here's my "history of saying no" so far: Back in 1999, when I first learned how to make webpages, I was enchanted, and was ready to sit down with any teacher anywhere anytime and show them how to create webpages using free tools and free websp… Continue

Added by Laura Gibbs on October 24, 2009 at 3:00pm — No Comments

Fireside Round-Up: Saturday, October 24

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A round-up of Fireside discussions and blogs for October 11 - 24. Sorry for the hiatus: I was in Austin last week, and spent this week just trying to get caught up from being out of town! The items listed below are in no particular or

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Added by Laura Gibbs on October 24, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

Marion Brady's article appears in today's Washinton Post

Hi All, Marion Brady, who I see on Fireside from time to time, has a great article about Race to the Top in today's Washington Post in the education section. Here is the link, it is excellent. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/educator-race-to-the-top-is-be.html Continue

Added by cindy fadel on October 23, 2009 at 7:43pm — 3 Comments

Can you do anthropology virtually?

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Added by Nikia Stevenson on October 22, 2009 at 6:32pm — 1 Comment

Prior Knowledge and The Flow of Learning

Engagement A friend gives you free tickets to an upcoming concert. Although the group is fairly popular, you are not familiar with the artist’s body of work. Assuming you elect to go, what do you do next? Between now and the day of the concert, here’s betting tha… Continue

Added by Sean Nash on October 18, 2009 at 11:14pm — No Comments

Things Done Offline (10-17-09)

Something my 3 year old son and I recorded yesterday. Quality time together is a precious thing. http://bit.ly/3zRNxZ Continue

Added by Andrew on October 18, 2009 at 2:57pm — 3 Comments

Twitter As Professional Learning Resource

When I first tried to wrap my mind around twitter, I had the same reaction as many--what a trivial waste of time! It's true that some use twitter to share every and any banal event of their lives. However there is real PLN (Professional Learning Network) potential on Twitter. Many forward-thinking teachers and administrators use Twitter to post li… Continue

Added by Andrew on October 16, 2009 at 9:30pm — No Comments

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