Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

Today is 15 wonderful years with my amazing, incredible husband, Kip. (If you want to know more about his story and ours, read last year's post .) My husband has encouraged me from day one with every dream, hope, and frustration.  He has an amazing intellectual mind and a kind heart towards people. But, I want to tell part of his amazing story right now because there are a lot of people in the US who are having a hard time right now.  It is "layoff time" again. A little over five years a go, the Monday before Thanksgiving, my husband walked into his incredible civil engineering job of four years to find out that they were "right sizing" and he was on the wrong side of the size. So, that Thanksgiving, we were thankful for our family, our home, and everything, and yet, we were heartbroken at the uncertainty -- he had 12 weeks to find a new job. Incredible people get laid off I know amazing people who get laid off and my husband is the most amazing pe...

Flat Classroom Class with Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay at NECC 08 « Outside the Box It is so helpful to get feedback like this. I just did a pd session yesterday and think perhaps it should have been more hands on like Julie and I did at NECC. I love this feedback. tags: flatclassroom , education , wiki

One of my favorite educational innovators, Kevin Jarrett , shares the ustream of Peggy Sheehy and her students sharing what they are doing in Ramapo Island. Listening and learning from Peggy, Kevin, and Beth Ritter-Guth has caused a personal shift in my own mind about the efficacy of virtual worlds.  We're planning to introduce an island this fall for use in Flat Classroom and digiteen . I'm so glad for the ustream because I was in the room next door with the viral PD session and really needed to hear this. Boy, I have a lot to learn! Isn't it great to be able to collapse the float in sharing best practices like this?  This work is also backed up by the research Chris DeDe shared at NECC about Rivercity . Web 3d is just around the corner, and many of us don't quite have a handle on Web 2.  (myself included) Also, remember, that there will never be a "magic pill" that makes teaching easy and learning a piece of cake. If we ate cake all of the...

SourceForge.net: FreeMind Freemind mind mapper tool. Want to play with this one. tags: education , edu_newapp , technology , language 50 Must-Read Up and Coming Blogs by Teachers | Teaching Tips A list of some new "up and coming" blogs -- some I've heard of and some I haven't. Will be perusing this list. tags: education , blog , edublogger , edublog The Connected Classroom » KTI07_Digital_Storytelling Wow! Kristin Hokanson has compiled some amazing digital storytelling resources on this page including some great multimedia. Incredible resources! tags: education , digitalstorytelling , technology , techintegrator , professionaldevelopment , web2 , bestpractices The Brute Thing: Leadership Day 2008::Connecting the Dots:: Nice Blog Post from Edwin Wargo about vision and leadership. I particularly like this phrase about school culture: "No matter how cool the technology tools, culture, I believe, will win the tug-of-war. There still may be a few trailblazers but ...

Cuil launches today from some disenfranchised Google Employees, according to the Associated Press . In the article, founder Anna Patterson says that Google has looked virtually unchanged for the last 10 years and talks about the magazine like spread of the search. After I searched for " flat classroom " I got this page that said it had "14,431 results." When I search Google, this is my result of over 4 million results. When I compare the two -- the top two on Google are actually from the project itself. Then, on the Google engine there is a 2006 post from Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach that uses the term "flat classroom" and is highly linked, but really, it is not too current. Then, on Cuil, the wiki isn't even indexed. (I have a feeling that wikispaces isn't there yet.) However, the Ning does show up with an interesting graphic on the top left corner that says "My Success in Scientology" -- it says the image is coming from the Ning , but I...

» The fallacy of community - Marketing Conversation - New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC Marketing Conversation - New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC Jonathan Trenn writes an article on the "fallacy of community" that many of the vendors at NECC should read. Edubloggers / educators/ educational groups of people emerge because we want to. We create a community when we need to and have the passionate desire for a common purpose. However, the word community and social network was so overused at NECC this year as to become a curse word. Used by people told it was important but who may not understand it themselves. This is a great article and strikes a cord with me. tags: education , researcher_thoughtleader , edu_trends Twitter Status - Updated follower/following counts Twitter counts of following and followers may change as they "fix" things in twitter. Just part of the growth. tags: twitter , education From Age of Empires to ...

Just read a quick post by Clay Burell entitled Does Flat Fall Flat for Teens where Clay reflects on some ponderings by Danah Boyd : "As I say below, in horribly confused prose, danah’s presentation of her research on teen networking practices made me question whether teens are as impressed by the potential of global collaboration as we (rightly) are.  I’ve gone through two of them now, and am fairly certain that once the unit was over, so were any connections that those teens made with other teens flung wide around the globe during that unit." Here was my response to Clay: "Global collaboration works keeping one vital factor in mind.  Teacher engagement PRECEDES student engagement. Some projects just want to throw kids together and don't have meaning for the students.  Connecting globally isn't easy.  It is very challenging and I think it best happens when you start with say two teachers and two classrooms with a meaningful project and then on from there....

Plurk enhancements from yesterday Still finding this handy tool a nice augmentation to the growing micro-blogging networks. Fast ways to connect -- this tool helps it happen in addition to twitter. If you had to pick one, I'd say twitter, however plurk is very intimate with friends gathering around a little conversation like buddies around a summer campfire. tags: education , plurk Podcasts - New York Times New York Times Podcasts -- many of your favorite papers have podcasts -- subscribe over itunes. This is how I listen to the WSJ -- adding a few New York times podcasts too. tags: education , ipod , tools

I'll be taking a little break with the kids, so if you want to hear my updates and thoughts, they'll come through on my Gcast podcast channel (recorded from my cell phone.) I've done interviews with my daughter and recently shared what I'll be doing this fall. When I get really busy and don't blog as much, I do more podcasting via my cell.  The quality isn't great, however, I often listen back to thoughts as I'm blogging to help capture things I'm pondering when things are busy.  I love Gcast! Hope you have a great week -- enjoy whatever summer you have left for those of us on the top of the globe!

TPCK - Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge - TPCK The Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Educators (TPCK) is now available via wiki. Looks like some excellent resources and research articles here. tags: education , professionaldevelopment , administrator , techintegrator , all_teachers

Wow!  On Google's blog this week, they write a post to students entitled  "Our Googley advice to Students: Major in Learning" (hat tip to Dan Pink ) in which they say: "At the highest level, we are looking for non-routine problem-solving skills. We expect applicants to be able to solve routine problems as a matter of course. After all, that's what most education is concerned with. But the non-routine problems offer the opportunity to create competitive advantage, and solving those problems requires creative thought and tenacity."  I like the creative thought and tenacity part.  So very often I push my students to solve a problem and WILL NOT tell them the answer.  I give them the next step, but what am I honestly teaching them if I go and fix it for them.   Just yesterday, I had a student who was creating a video in Animoto for her summer project (no I didn't assign that level of assignment, she took it up to that level because she "wanted to...

Google Docs Templates for Students and Teachers Google docs just launched templates which includes a whole section for students and teachers. Some very cool things here, although still not MLA paper. tags: education , edu_newapp , technology , Google Official Google Docs Blog: Templates bring Docs to life Google Docs just launched templates. This will be very useful. tags: education , Google , edu_newapp cine de la gente Marco Torres' student presentations and videos. Excellent digital storytelling examples to review. tags: education , digitalstorytelling , professionaldevelopment , technology , all_teachers torres21 » Torres21 Marco Torres' wiki page with media and information on his student projects. He teaches in LA. tags: education , multimedia , professionaldevelopment , technology , all_teachers , edu_news , web2 ) ) ) torres21 ( ( ( Michael Torres presented a fascinating Session at BLC today about how he engages students using multimedia. This is his page and it has...

This is for my Aunt Vicki.   You see, I have always had some very big shoes to fill -- I was named after numerous people.  One grandmother was Victoria and the other was Ruth -- thus my name:  Victoria Ruth. (Victoria means "victorious spirit" and Ruth means "loyal") However, my Aunt Vicki, my Mom's sister is "Big Vicki" and I've always been "Little Vicki," long past when I was little! Aunt Vicki is like the sunshine on water -- her laugh fills up a room.  I love her dearly.  She has always loved me unconditionally. Tonight, I am praying for my Aunt Vicki because she is in ICU recovering from a stroke.  She is quite young to be there and yet, she is.  She and my mother are both walking, talking evidence of the grace and goodness of God. So, tonight, I have been listening to music, which is what I do when I need to pray and think.  Three songs have stuck in my mind tonight:  Sting's song Fragile , Selah's Hiding Pl...

Plurk Firefox Sidebar | Blog on a Stick For those who are plurking out there, this plurk mobile sidebar makes it easier to have a conversation. I find it interesting that some are just getting used to twitter, however, plurk has the benefit of microconversations. Twitter is just one huge conversation! I enjoy both for different reasons. Somehow plurk feels a little more intimate! tags: education , web2 , edu_newapp

I had to delve into the brief post from Ewan toda y about Second Life Filmmaking.  I was intrigued by his first sentence: "I found the Steampunk movie below, from Alice, as beautiful and enchanting as many of the 'real' movies I've seen recently" Here's the film he shared: After defining the word steampunk , (ok, I'm sure it was back in some dusty neurons somewhere) , I was totally floored that this number was indeed filmed in Second Life . As I'm embarking upon a Second Life island of our own this fall (and honestly, have no clue as to how it will work out, just that I have some really smart friends to call upon,) I'm amazed at what these worlds let us do. It would take days of animation which would still pretty much leave this quality of filmmaking unreachable at the K12 level and yet with some screen capture software like Camtasia , we can indeed do some amazing things. The idea of machinima is really just now beginning to ta...

Edubloggers Group on Linked In If you are on linked in, we now have an edubloggers group. This allows you to contact other edubloggers directly. Right now, I'm moderating those who want to join, but could use some help. Please join in! tags: education , edublog , professionaldevelopment , edublogger , web2

Medievia - Do You Dare Enter? Another immersive world that is largely text based. Do I dare enter? Who is joining or has played? tags: education , virtualworlds , web3d Group Tagrolls - educators | Diigo Groups Group tagcloud for diigo group -- another useful thing. tags: education , diigo Group Linkrolls - educators | Diigo Groups The educators group on Diigo now has a linkroll which will allow you to share things. The power of this is that if you are a science teacher, you can filter everything and only share science. Same for all subject areas. I've turned on preapproval for this group to keep the spam out because we are approaching 500 members in this group. Remember, when you bookmark to diigo, check share to a group and then pick educators and at least one standard tag (you can use more.) tags: education , diigo , sharing , edu_newapp , professionaldevelopment , edublog , edublogger Twitter / edubloggerdir The twitter address that lets you follow new additions to the edu...

coolcatteacher asks what do you use to manage you lists? your calendar? - Plurk.com Feedback from people about what they use to manage their lists and calendar. I'm loving remember the milk, google calendar, and jott, they are like the 3 amigos of time management for me now. Love timebridge for setting appointments. tags: education , technology PBS Teachers | learning.now . PBS Teachers Embraces Social Networking and Bookmarking Tools | PBS PBS teachersa is adding social networking and bookmarking tools. You can create a personal profile on pbs teachers connect now. This article talks about it. Still wish we'd call it educational networking or professional networking depending upon what we're doing. tags: education , socialnetworking , edu_newapp , edu_news

Ernie Easter's Page - Seedlings Earnie Easter's blog over at the Seedlings Ning network. This is an educator to watch. His work is amazing. tags: education , digitalstorytelling , flatclassroom , professionaldevelopment

California mandates testing every eighth-grader in algebra -- ready or not - Los Angeles Times Again, legislators determine what should be taught. Algebra is so important but not sure it should come from legislature. Would like to see more empowerment and bottom up improvement. Top down improvement also means one more awful thing... more paperwork. tags: education , learning Maine's Swedish Colony, July 23, 1870 - Welcome - Valkommen Amazing student project to create memories and artifacts. This is an excellent partnership between the New Sweden Historical Society, Stockholm Historical Society, Maine Swedish Colony, Nylander Museum, New Sweden School, and others. It is time for museums and schools to begin partnerships in this way. What meaningful, authentic work. Wow! From Earnie Easter via e-mail today. tags: education , edu_trends , bestpractices , technology Maine Memory Network - Search Results for new sweden Earnie Easter's students from Maine helped digitize the ar...

This great shirt from Al has me rolling. He's set it up so you can order one yourself.  See his blog for how he did it on Zazzle . Technorati Tags: zazzle

TLC = Tech + Library + Classroom I'm really beginning to enjoy Tara's blog. Tara is in China and is doing a very nice job of sharing information and making clear, insightful blog posts for beginners. Great job, Tara! tags: education , edublog

It has been quite disturbing to me that I'm getting an increasing number of people telling me that they are sending comments through to me and I'm not getting them. I appreciate Miguel Guhlin sending me an email and asking about his comment because until this point, it has been in casual conversation that people have mentioned it.  It has been at least six people that have told me in the past few weeks that their comments are not coming through.  So, I need your help. My theories on comments: I think that sometimes comments with hyperlinks are getting flagged as spam.  I do get some with hyperlinks so I don't know if there is a pattern, if it requires a lot of hyperlinks or what causes this. I also wonder if it has to do with time of day or use?  If a lot of people are trying to comment, does it choke? How do we fix it? I would like to contact the people at google, but to do this, we need facts.  If you happen to read this and your comment WASN'T ...

Langwitches » Digital Storytelling- Part VII Mixbook I really enjoy this information from Silvia tolisano about Mixbook -- it is part 7 of an amazing digital storytelling series. tags: education , edu_newapp , technology , techintegrator , all_teachers Working on k12 keynote expanding boundaries. How do you think ed should expand its boundari - Plurk.com Talking about expanding boundaries and what we need to do. tags: plurk , education Technology in the Middle » Blog Archive » Are You the Obstacle or the Answer? I adore this post about being the obstacle or the answer from a participant in the workshop on Monday. These insights are excellent and this school MICDS has some of the most visionary, progressive teachers and administrators! It is refreshing to be here. Elizabeth Helfant, their IT director, is unbelievably sharp! Totally amazing woman with the energy of the Energizer bunny. Wow! tags: education , learning , administrator larad » Science Here is a page that has an embedded ...

I feel like an awestruck child looking at my first fireworks show.  Who am I that such wonder should come my way? And yet, tonight, on wow2, I was totally shocked to have such kindness from many of you.  You made a tribute to me of encouragement and kindness in celebration of the last night on the show as an official co-host. After a long day of teaching, I'm so exhausted, and yet, I've listened to every voicethread comment and looked at every picture on the tribute wiki.  You have given me one of the greatest gifts I've ever received! In the voice thread below, I've truly recorded all of my thoughts to you and how I feel. Though spent, I am exhilerated. This is a great way to honor someone and the model Jennifer created is beautiful: a picture page a comments page a voice thread page And, how on earth did it stay a secret? Here is a copy of the letter I just posted to the home page of the wiki: "Dear friends, Thank you for reaching thro...