Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

Click to Play Using some video from Leon Cynch of the BBC on our Digiteen Island , this is a compliation of some of the sights and sounds of Digiteen Island built on Reaction Grid , using OpenSim, the open Source version of Second Life .

It is always great to hear the reflections and thoughts of others.  So many things that happen grow far past how they start.  Here are a few that have come across my desk lately. Love listening to an AP Statistics Teacher from Mary Institute County Day School ( an amazing School in St. Louis) talk about the Flat Classroom Project - she does a great job of describing the structure.  The audio is a bit soft but you can hear it if you turn it all the way up! Minhaaj ur Rehman, Pakistan presents his views as a judge Then, just got an email from Joan Huntley, at Stonehill International School in India, an attendee of the Flat Classroom Conference and participant in NetGenEd. "I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not, but we have two nice collaborations going between our school and George Haines in New York as a result of my meeting George and talking to him at the Qatar conference. One project is with Kate Dickson, our music teacher, where the kids will collabo...

Click to Play This week's video cast is about the Flint River Immersion project which is an immersive project that we are kicking off at our school.  Immersive projects are coming into practice in many schools that implement Project Based Learning. The students will actually be out of the classroom for a week in grades 9-12.  They will be studying the Flint River.  More detail can be seen at the Flint River Ning .

Very excited that youtube edu is launched from a small mention on their blog today.  Tech Crunch cites the purpose is: "a better way to collect and highlight all the great educational content being uploaded to YouTube by colleges and universities” according to a short blurb on the YouTube blog. While I'm delighted that we need a place to display the college information.  K12 is the place that desperately needs youtube.edu. For example, my ninth graders have a youtube channel to support their work.  Several months a go, Edutopia had a contest which had students upload their videos to youtube, so Virginia and several of my students did so. (Virginia was one of the winners.)  For about two weeks, a flagged video showed an inappropriate thumbnail on the related videos. Using youtube in the classroom for ALL OF US, has been something that is important.  (See  favorite inspirational videos and how youtube can be used in the classroom from Februar...

ISTE Eduverse Talks Really cool second life talk show from ISTE. It is a great blog and looking forward to being on the show on April tags : education , secondlife , learning , edu_news Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

So, who are you going to be? Teaching is reallly a 24/7 job as is parenting.  So much to do!  It is overwhelming.  I think as you look at blogging or twittering or sharing anyplace online it is important to keep one thing in mind: Share what you can, when you can and that is enough. There is no doubt, often, I'm a binge blogger.  I've cut back on nightime blogging to be here for my children. I have a first grader and reading to him every night is a top priority -- 30 minutes to 1 hour a night with him - without exception.  Lots of other bloggers out there who will write, but none of them will read to my 7 year old - that is MY job. Sometimes people say, "how do you do so much?" What they don't know is I often feel like "how do I do so little?" Behind on my email - a list of 100 things to do, so much going.  Everyone else seems to have time for webinars, courses, and conferences. And yet, like the reading with my son, when my students walk ...

flatclassroom09-2 » home If you want to get in on flat classroom - this is the last one for this 2008-2009 school year. tags : education , flatclassroomproject , learning Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts » Blog Archive » If an assignment can be plagiarized… Great post from Cathy Nelson that I agree with so very much! "If an assignment can be plagiarized it isn't a very good assignment" theme that Doug Johnson and Will Richardson also echo. tags : education , learning , all_teachers TLC = Tech + Library + Classroom: Tracking Our Thinking Tara talks about her bookgroup for elementary kids reading Silverwing and the Silverwing Readers wiki as well as the rationale behind it. tags : education , learning 2009-Horizon-Report-K12.pdf (application/pdf Object) K12 Horizon Report -- read it and plan! tags : education , learning , hz09 Does Kindle spell the end of intellectual freedom? - Home - Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog Doug Johnson shares some of the thoughts and comme...

Over on the Left Lane Ends , where Jerram Froese blogs, I was struck by this statement: "We’re doing some great curriculum work with McRel over the course of this year and today’s focus is on developing a good unit overview and how assessment should be woven into the published curriculum. I’ve posted it before, spewed it to friends and commented in more meetings that I care to remember about how we ought to treat teachers, educators as professionals. After reading a ‘model overview’ (about probability) that was VERY well worded, we were invited to comment. My thoughts? [in my head: 'wow, this is a NICE overview. It actually has the 'why' built into it and makes real world connections. this would really get my brain going if I was teaching probability.' ] I guess others had different thoughts in their head. The first vocal comment was, ‘This is too long. Teachers won’t read it.’" He goes on to say that teachers are so focused on test prep that they don...

Classroom 2.0 LIVE! Keep up with Classroom 2.0 LIve conversations. I actually have this as part of my Google Calendar so I can keep up with it. This week: "This Saturday, Mar. 21st, Peggy George, Kim Caise, and Lorna Costantini will be hosting another Classroom 2.0 LIVE web meeting. Classroom 2.0 "LIVE" meetings are an opportunity to gather with other members of the community in real-time events, complete with audio, chat, desktop sharing, and sometimes even video. (Special thanks to our sponsor, Elluminate, for providing the service that allows us to do this!) A Google Calendar of shows is available at http://live.classroom20.com/calendar.html. The topic this Saturday is: "Podcasting". Our special guest will be Kevin Honeycutt, founder of the "Podstock" Ning. Our Newbie Question of the Week will be: "What is a podcast and how can I use it to support my teaching?" We hope you'll join us to share your ideas and questions. Links for more ...

KOCE The global film on the fly challenge. There was a challenge on March 14th - it is a mobile phone filmmaking contest. tags : education , learning , edu_trends , hz09 KOCE's Film on the Fly! - Film on the Fly! is for people who love to make movies on mobile phones. For people who love to make movies on their cell phones. A lot of educators are participating in this network created by Janet English. They send you a prompt and you upload a video from your cell phone. tags : education , digitalstorytelling , news , film , technology Hulu - Saturday Night Live: Phillip One of my favorite SNL skits with mike myers. It is part of the standard vernacular with my students. When people are hyper, we pull quotes from this and laugh. (Sorry it is on hulu and only in the US.) tags : education , learning Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

Click to Play The Cool Cat Teacher shares her video tips for cool little tricks that you may not know are there.  This week, it is the GTD (Getting things done) Firefox plug in for Gmail.  It is downloadable at http://www.gtdgmail.com/ .

"I don't get out much."  When I say this, many don't believe me, but really -- the 5-6 conferences I go to a year are a mere pittance compared to the many conferences of most.  That being said, there are a few things packed into a 2 week schedule this summer.  Would like to share what is going on with you so that perhaps if there are any of you out there that would like to join in, you can do so.    The 2 day workshop with edtechteacher, Tom Daccord, will be the major workshop for me this summer at Boston University on June 25-26, 2009.    Julie and I will be talking about doing one but it will either be later in the year or in 2011, so for now, this is where you can get the information.  Although she's coming in town for NECC, she won't be there in time for the two day workshop.  On Saturday morning, June 27th it will be great to catch up with some of you for just a moment at Edubloggercon at NECC. The afternoon is a workshop whos...

Remember The Milk - Help / FAQ / Remember The Milk for Gmail / How do I create tasks by starring? Oh my goodness! Now, I can make a task in remember the milk when I star something in Gmail!!! Oh my goodness, what a help!! tags : education , productivity , timemanagement , technology GTDInbox - GTD, Task Management and a Better Inbox for Gmail OK, This came from gregorielouie on Twitter -- and OH YEAH Gregory - YOU ROCK! This helps your inbox become more powerful. Am testing now and if you follow getting things done, it is a great tool to try. tags : education , learning , gtd , timemanagement , productivity , technology , techintegrator NetGenEd Sounding Boards Needed! | always learning NetGenEd Sounding boards. Kim Cofino is an expert at this model and is running this: "The Sounding Board process is a very easy, fun and eye-opening way for younger students (upper elementary, middle, and lower high school) to participate in one of these amazing, global projects. Basically Soundi...

Talking about Flat Classroom projects , what we are learning, and how such projects are moving into all disciplines of education.  Enjoyed talking to Chris Walsh at CUE two weeks a go.   Also, at the end, we discuss how curriculum directors should be planning with a world map on their wall. This is just our story.  Tell yours. Does your curriculum director have a map on the wall?

Fantasy Stock Market Game and Free Online Paper Trading at Wall Street Survivor Social networking style stock market game - Stockmarket 101. For those teaching finance - thi sis a more grown up version of the game for high schoolers. tags : education , learning , finance , money , accounting Harvest of History | The Farmers' Museum Website to teach you about how the food got to you! This is a really neat website for elementary teachers who discuss food production. There is a resource for teachers as well. As a farm girl, it is great to see a site that discusses the importance of farming. This is so important for kids to understand. We garden at our school and it is great! tags : education , history , farming , elementary , curriculum Guaranteach - A Better Way to Learn Just received the press release on this new one. $4.95 a month and you have access to videos to help with homework. There is a growing business based upon videos for learning -- that is because kids clamor for ...

This is a copy of a post over at netgened I just wrote explaining to the students why and how we do outsourcing of video as part of the project: Right now, we are outsourcing pieces of our video to students in other classrooms. What is outsourcing? Outsourcing is when part of a student video in one classroom is requested of a student in another classroom. How does outsourcing work? We have developed a Wiki tutorial with videos about how this works. For netgened, the students are requesting and signing up for videos on the NetGenEd wiki. This is happening NOW! Why do we outsource? 1) Vision and Effective Digital Storytelling Planning It requires the student producing a video to have a vision of their video - storyboarding and scripts are an important part of creating a good video, and in order to ASK for someone else to do a video, you have to truly think deeply about the story you're trying to tell. 2) Interdepenence Outsourcing demonstrates to students (and tea...

Welcome to CrushFish.com! The Google Maps resource for those who like to fish -- this mashes up fishing locations with a google map and is a great resource to help kids in rural areas (or who like to fish) understand what geotagging means. Using it as part of netgened. tags : education , learning , fishing YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Many people have not read the Youtube Community Guidelines. You should report any videos that break these rules to youtube - everyone should have a youtube account and be able to do this. Today, a student had a bad video linked to hers -- I had to go to another place to report the other video but you can do this! Guidelines: "Don't Cross the Line Here are some common-sense rules that will help you steer clear of trouble: * YouTube is not for pornography or sexually explicit content. If this describes your video, even if it's a video of yourself, don't post it on YouTube. Also, be advised that we work closely with law enforcement a...

Connexions - Sharing Knowledge and Building Communities Connexions is: a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute. Interesting website with fascinating applications. tags : education , learning , edu_newapp , all_teachers Flashcards, vocabulary memorization, and studying games | Quizlet Really cool -- "Quizlet: the end of flashcards as we know it. These are cool and they connect with facebook!! tags : education , learning , tools , all_teachers , edu_newapp , web2 Shift Happens — Now What? at Change Agency This is an older post, but a good one. What to do after you know you need to shift. Packed full of resources and links, it is a nice blog post. tags : education , learning , web2.0 , change Think! Interesting blog and challenges -- they post challenges each weekend and the students send in their photos which are then shared the next week. Rea...

More Spanish: Collaborations & connections Sometimes teachers reach out and find others are not there. This is what it takes to set up collaboration. I've found that it takes a teacher totally committed to eventually find a person to connect with -- it takes two determined teachers to make it happen -- her experiences are similar. So, if you have students who speak mostly spanish and would like to collaborate -- please please connect and leave a comment on this post. Share resources and places that you're connecting. Sometimes, twitter, as she says, does end up being the best way to connect. tags : education , learning , flatclassroom , connections , language , edu_trends Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

Atomic Learning's eBook on How to Flatten Your Classroom - Movies Did a workshop for Atomic Learning about the 7 Steps to Flatten Your Classroom and they've created an ebook based upon the content in the online workshop. This ebook is free in PDF form and available for download and is based upon the principles to help you get to a Flat Classroom. tags : education , learning , flatclassroom , edu_news , edu_trends , all_teachers , technology Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

Our weekly teacher meetings in Elluminate have come to be one of the highlights of my week.  Just got off of elluminate with over half of our teachers for Netgened -- the countries represented?  Qatar, Pakistan, Australia, US, New Zealand -- about 9 of us there.  It was a GREAT meeting. I think the reason I love it is that it is REAL teaching.   Our struggles and discussions today: Helping students understand COLLABORATIVE writing (they want to write their piece in word, paste it in and sign their names) -- COLLABORATION requires higher order thinking by definition and is tough to teach. Storyboarding and helping the students accurately request video from their partners in other classrooms.  This is tough because they have to convey the vision. Discussions of ongoing interactions with Don Tapscott to discuss the 8 net gen norms!  The kids LOVE HIM.  Especially after he pulled the bait and switch on them in his first video.  (All the t...

This year, we took four students to the Flat Classroom conference. I've been asked, "so, what about the other students?" They participated virtually and then gave their reflections on the Conference. We are working to improve the virtual participants for next year's conference, but for now, here are the blog posts that resonate with me the most: Kayla says : "While I was participating in the Flat Classroom Conference virtually, I began to realize that this project has more meaning than just a classroom assignment, or busy work for the students. Several people have taught me that there is hope in this world. Watching Jeff discuss issues around the world i realized just how advanced the world is and how much in control we are... hearing about the camels, seeing the videos, blogs; one by Emily, was really motivational to me, and pictures made me see the middle east in a whole new light. Before, i was slightly frightened thinking about being around the peop...

Kathryn's Introduction to Gen. Ed. - grownupdigital Another nice graphic about the generations. tags : education , netgened , learning , generations , graphics The Four Generations - grownupdigital Excellent graphic by a student depicting the facts on the current four generations. tags : education , learning , netgened , all_teachers Education - Choice - grownupdigital This student has done a marvelous speech on Education and giving choices to student. My favorite quote from Andrew ( a student from New Zealand) -- "A closed book test is simply not a realistic situation in the modern world." I'm not putting this on my blog as an embedded video because I would love for you to respond on NetGen where all educators are welcome to join in with students to discuss how education should evolve. This is an excellent video, and as you can see with my comments, there are a few points I take up with Andrew -- it is one of those -- you've gotta listen to this student kinda ...

One of the great heroes who has emerged from the Flat Classroom projects is Salim Al-Busaidi.  His students were phenomenal participants in two projects and also have their own global collaborative work spreading environmental responsibility. In addition to this, Salim is a person who shows great respect and honor to all who know him.  He and his students not only made some Omani sweets to share, but presented the speakers and the school with a beautiful crystal Omani sword which is now in a treasured location at the entrance of our school and in my den. Here, he presents his global collaborative work and also Flat Classroom projects and the conference held in Qatar this year.  This video is in Arabic, so it is for those Arabic-fluent readers of this blog.  We hope to have a translation at some point. For those of you who speak English and wish you had a translation -- think of how others feel when we have GREAT videos without translating them for others. ...

Hotmilkydrink Website that investigates the use of video games in teaching. Cool site my friend Leon Cynch with the BBC tipped me off to! tags : education , gaming , learning College Tips and Resources - Online College.org Online edublogger scholarship contest -- it looks like you can win $1500 with 2 other randomly chosen. Am looking into this a little more to consider application. tags : education , learning , blogging , edublog Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

monsterproject » Welcome Really love the monster project by Anna Baralt and Ann Oro. This project: "encourages the development of reading and writing skills while integrating technology into the classroom. Using monsters as a vehicle, students exchange written descriptions via this wiki, and then recreate their partner's monster without ever looking at the "real thing". During the project, students create, discuss, describe, interpret, analyze, organize and assess their monsters as well as the monsters of their peers." This is a Grade 1-3 Flat Classroom -style project that is GREAT. Although it already started, it is wonderful. Only tip is NOT to call it "spring" -- because of the southern hemisphere connection - rather, it should be 1Q09 or something of that type. (The only reason I know that is Julie Lindsay drills it into my head.) tags : education , learning , flatclassroom Cell Phones for Classrooms, Calendars and Life Management The course I...

My husband and BFF, Kip, has been with me on the last leg of my trip to the amazingly incredible CUE conference in Palm Springs ( NCTIES before that.) We're now in Salt Lake City for a two hour layover and he's TRYING to read the latest Tom Clancy book. He is director of engineering of a manufacturing plant and has a genius mind for efficiency, managing people, AND making technology UNDERSTANDABLE to the average person.  So, I asked him, "What is the most important point that you heard at the CUE conference?"  (Mind you - he sat in on 4 of my sessions Friday - so this is his take on it.) His answer: He is incredulous that we punish the tools and not the person.  That he can't take a pair of scissors on an airplane and yet, scissors are a standard item in every classroom in schools.   And yet he can take a cell phone and use it openly and freely anywhere and yet  the cell phone is what is banned in most schools. He is an efficiency expert, mind you, on s...