Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

Statistics have a real danger and are driven by definitions. This is a perfect example.  Albany, GA is attempting to get a better definition of how many homeless people live in Albany... an admirable thing.  So, they've redefined homeless : "For next year, they're redefining what homeless is to include families who may be living with relatives or friends or living in a motel. Organizers say it's important to get an accurate count." They are going to also count here in Mitchell County. The problem is this.  My sister is now homeless. My sister, Sarah, is an amazing graphic designer who moved home to open up her freelance design business and teach online graphic design classes for Savannah College of Art and Design.  She works from morning till night and business is going well. The apartments available in this puddle of a town are far less than OK, and so, while she saves her money to build a house, she's living at home with Mom and Dad, paying rent,...

Darren Kuropatwa's Post today has me thinking.  Darren says: I've been using delicious in my classes to have students aggregate and share content since November 2005 . What is described above, while I recognize it COULD happen, has never happened to me in the last 3 years. This sort of action strikes me as particularly pernicious and malicious... Lots of food for thought in this. To be completely frank, I see this discussion as more of an intellectual exercise than something that might actually happen. Some teachers may feel that my perspective is naive. Fair enough. Then again, I teach in an inner city school and I've been blogging with my classes going on 5 years. So, in this case, someone is arguing with Darren -- well, what if a kid goes home and bookmarks porn? I'd like to add -- what happens if a kid brings a porn mag to school?  Has that NEVER happened?  When it does, what do you do?  How do you deal with it and why is this scenario any different. Onl...

Half an Hour: Things You Really Need to Learn A list from Stephen Downes that I hadn't seen entitled "things You really need to learn." A great list to share and reread. tags : education , learning , innovation , all_teachers how much white space in your book? « Levite Chronicles Excellent thoughts about margin from Jon Swanson tags : education Home « NotK12Online Those who want to share a presentation they've done with the K12 online community, share at the K12 online fringe festival just starting up at notk12online -- ANYONE can submit a preso on ANYTHING. So, dust off those slideshares and vids and start sharing! tags : education , presentation , k12online , bestpractices Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

VYonkers had such a great reply to the Post about Tony Wagner's Redefining Rigor that I had to share what she said. I particularly love what she said about her son being allowed to come up with a "theory of war." Wow! I have been looking for something like this for a while. As an undergraduate business and communication teacher and a graduate education teacher, I have seen my role becoming even more critical over the last decade. I have had to teach all of these skills in my class as students do not come into school prepared with these skills. I don't blame the teachers or students, but rather the policy makers who want to simplify and quantify learning. Like you, I have found international projects as ideal since the assumptions we are taught through our educational system (there is one way to do things--compare how math is done in China and the US; facts do not change--ask a European or Latin American how many continents there are) are blown out of the water whe...

The C Word To say Tuesday was a difficult day is an understatement.  My mother is my best female friend (hubby is best friend in the world) and we were steamrolled by the news that she has cancer. Cancer. It strikes fear in the heart of everyone I know although most think it happens to everyone else, or just the very aged, never them! And yet, here it is.  People who wax prolific at such news are foreign to me because there is nothing I can say.  Well, I take that back, I have another word I CAN and do say. It is another "C" word despised by many.  I have had friends who chastize me for saying I'm a Christian here on this blog.  And indeed, every time I do, a few readers get rid of their subscription. And yet, I have to worry about hatred from the kind of person who closes their ears to the belief of another.  I certainly subscribe to the blogs of atheists, liberals, radicals, conservatives...for one to say that they cannot learn from someone ...

Dangerously Irrelevant: Edublogger letters to the next President Edublogger letters to the next president started by Scott McLeod - I'll get to this, but want to share it for everyone who wants to share. tags : education , learning , politics , innovation , Unitedstates , edublogger The Heart-Brain Connection: The Neuroscience of Social, Emotional, and Academic Learning | Edutopia Neuroscientist Richard Davidson talks about how social and emotional learning affects the brain. tags : education , learning , innovation Big Ideas for Better Schools: Ten Ways to Improve Education | Edutopia This great standby from 2005 is still relevant today. Still a very nice read. tags : education , learning , innovation Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

reviewcommittee » October28thmeeting I'm not sure who is planning on these topics but this seems like a totally AMAZING planning group that is planning the future of their district. tags : education , learning , innovation Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

ASCD's article " Rigor Redefined " is an absolute MUST READ, MUST SHARE for everyone who remotely cares about education. Tony Wagner has done a remarkably concise job of reflecting on the state of education.  Below, I've extracted my annotations (items on the left are quotes from the article, Items indented with the clear circled bullet are from me), or you may view the annotated version of this article which will include all of those who annotate and share on this article using Diigo . He talks about risk aversion, I wonder what educators among us are willing to take the risk to go towards this when compensation is increasingly tied to test scores that measure only rote memorization and test taking ability. ASCD I conducted research beginning with conversations with several hundred business, nonprofit, philanthropic, and education leaders. With a clearer picture of the skills young people need, I then set out to learn whether U.S. schools are teaching and t...

E-Learning Journeys: Flat Classroom Conference 2009 - Register Now! So excited about HSBC bank signing as the major sponsor of the Flat Classroom conference - major kudos to Julie Lindsay and Qatar Academy!! It makes me exceptionally proud to see the STUDENTS in this picture as this conference is about reengineering the place of students in educational conferences and making them the part of the future of education. If you want to attend, sign up now, as the spaces will be limited! tags : education , flatclassroom , web2.0 SpringWoodsHS » home Got a link to this wiki from Estie Cuellar, amazing teacher who has joined in Flat Classroom this year. She says: "I would like to share something with you guys. I teach a Sports Marketing Class. I’m always looking for new and fun ways to reach the kids. Yesterday, I started my class on a comprehensive project that I’m calling, “Rock On.” The goal of the project is for the students teams (all of my classes work in teams) to synthesize w...

Kicking it up a notch keynote goes live from Julie and I over at K12 online Our theme was "take time to grow."   If you comment, please comment over at the Time to Grow Post on the conference blog. We invite you to share how you're growing and improving this year: Google Map for people to share how they are kicking it up a notch http://tinyurl.com/68qljt

Minefield Start Page Page for Mozilla Minefield - alpha release of Firefox 4. tags : education , worldonline , www_world Think Firefox 3 is fast? Try Firefox Minefield | The Open Road - The Business and Politics of Open Source by Matt Asay - CNET News Firefox minefield is the alpha version of Firefox 4 -- early testers report a very fast web browser -- but warning - IT IS STILL IN ALPHA! tags : education , web2.0 , worldonline , www_world www.searchme.com Cool visual search engine tags : google , education , innovation , learning , web2.0 , worldonline Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

Simulpost with techlearning Perhaps the first trial for a virtual world murder is going to happen in Japan.  (Technically it is for hacking as the crime.)  The article Japanese Woman Arrested for Virtual-World 'Murder ' tells the story: " A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband's digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday. The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy." To me, this comes back to the emphasis of WHAT we should be teaching students: Online behavior has offline consequences.  If we can teach them in small things, then hacki...

Where do you draw the line between having fun and being inappropriate online? Is it different online than offline? - Digi Teen Another amazing discussion here on digital citizenship and appropriate behavior. So many teachable moments on this project. tags : education , digitalcitizenship , digital_responsibilities , digital_communications , digital_safety War in Iraq - Digi Teen Students have such a way of working things out. I'm in tears looking at these -- maybe this is oversimplified - but these are 8th and 9th graders. Look at this. tags : education , politics , war Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Canned Responses Canned responses are a very cool feature. I'm going to have to play with this and see what happens, but I've been dying for a canned response like this - or one I can save and customize. I'll see what turns up after I play with this. tags : Google , education FOXNews.com - Cyberbullying: Parents, Tech Companies Join Forces to Keep Kids Safe - Science ...

Another Call For Search Literacy - John Battelle's Searchblog I have to totally agree with this important document about teachers leaving out some of the most useful ways to define words - -I teach my students to define in google AND on their cell phones. Why not? 10 seconds to text to google AND get an answer -- several minutes to use a dictionary. tags : education , learning WebQuest - India and Pakistan Web 2.0 Web Quest from Bernie Dodge today -- India and Pakistan conflict resolution. tags : education , learning , webquest , all_teachers In Quotes Fascinating way that you can search who said what -- this takes the US presidential candidates but you can use it to compare other people as well. This is fascinating. tags : education , google K12 Online Conference 2008 - Annotated K12 online conference has started this week -- enjoy it! tags : education , learning Flat Classroom Conference - Transforming learning through global collaboration The Ning for the upcoming conferenc...

From John Battelle over at Search Blog. John says: Tonight I helped my daughter with homework. No big deal, right? But tonight the assignment came from her fifth grade teacher: Define these related words: Ballot Campaign Civil Rights Democracy Incumbent Issues Nominee Poll Platform Register Now, the teacher said there were two ways my daughter could find out the definitions. One was to use a dictionary. And the second was to "talk to your parents about it." John goes on to talk about how HE had to teach his daughter the define function in Google. For those of you that don't know about this handy function, just go to your search browser and type define: the word you want Here is an example:  define: incumbent It is the fastest way to define a word.  My first grader who can barely read can do it, but of course I taught him. Search literacy includes Searching via Cell Phone I would also add one more to this search literacy and that is how...

When I saw this video today, I saw myself.  This is taken from a US game where the players have to contort their body to fit the hole in the foamboard. So often, I feel like this woman... asked to do the unrealistic with the material I have to work with.   I find myself saying:  "How on earth am I going to do THAT!!" Hey, at least she kept her sense of humor!  But, honestly, not knowing what you're expected to do and then all of a sudden, meeting the students or looking at your budget and realizing that it is impossible is a tough thing!!! I had an unrealistic cell phone budget one year that everyone agreed was impossible for me, but upper management did nothing about it.  Hopeless makes us feel helpless and we end up in the water. The only way I made it through was to tell everyone... OK, don't think this is possible.  It's not possible and to preserve my own attitude so I could enjoy life during the trial. This is a one time thing and...

Gal to Gal Virtual Walk 2008 Join in the virtual walk for breast cancer - you can design your walker (male or female) and pay $5 to register your walk. The founder of this organization lost her battle to breast cancer this week. I"ve created a team called edubloggers -- please join me and walk with the edublogger team. This is another example of how virtual fundraising and events can make a difference. I hope the organization reaches its goal in Dorit's honor. tags : education , communityservice Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

Web 2 and Web 3d: To Literacy and Beyond View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: libraries learning ) I shared this presentation last week at the Conference of Media Organizations here in the state of Georgia.  I promised several of the amazing librarians that I met there last week that I'd post a copy of the presentation here on my blog this week. While some of the slides may not make as much sense without my words accompanying them - the point is to challenge our definition of literacy and to encourage those who we need most to be a part of the redefinition of literacy to join in or forever dislike the definition that the world of amateurs imposes upon the amazingly well-educated librarians and media specialists. I appreciated the opportunity to be there with them last week and always love the opportunity unleashed when having to prepare for a new audience.

I've been testing two of the new phones from Ipevo for the past four weeks.  Each has a different use in my classroom.  The first phone, the Free.1 USB Handset is perfect for phone calls and recording podcasts, the second is the TR10 speakerphone which completely solved the echo / Skype conference classroom problem that takes so much energy to solve. Both of these devices are completely PC / Mac compatible with the recent fix to the speakerphone, making it compatible with ichat as announced this past Wednesday on Engadget. As with all tests I do for vendors, I make only the promise that: 1) I will tell the truth and 2) I will tell them honestly about the problems or issues that I have and give them time to work it out before I blog it. 1. IPEVO FREE.2 USB Handset for SKYPE (MSRP $39.99) My classroom has limited or no cellular service and I have no school telephone.  Additionally, I fix computers all over the school, and we have only a few fixed phones with only...