Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

 Oh, we're so excited about the new project, Eracism .  ( www.eracismproject.org ) Please take a read and sign up if you'd like to pilot a classroom or serve as an advisor, debate coach, or judge.  We appreciate Elluminate signing on as a sponsor of Flat Classroom(tm) projects because this has allowed us to keep the projects free and open to everyone AND freed us up to start new projects such as this one.  Also look for an elementary project coming early next year for science. ( Send me an email if you're interested in that one also.) At the Flat Classroom(tm) Conference in Doha, Qatar in January 2009, a visionary group of students proposed that a series of debates be held to promote awareness of racism on a global basis and how we need to work together to solve the world's problems. This multi-national group of four students proposed their project and were promoted through an extensive voting process including a global vote on the next project to be run by t...

flatclassroom09-3 - Expert Advisors We are looking for Expert Advisors and judges for this year's Flat Classroom Project. This is a great way to familiarize yourself with global collaboration and advise students as you learn the trends yourself. This wiki page has information on this. tags : education , learning , flatclassroomproject Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

5 Steps to Internet Safety Our goal is to operate in safe places on the internet.  As you travel in cyberspace, be on guard for an inappropriate web site or for anyone who appears to be cyberbullying.  For any questionable situations, follow these rules: 1) Stop Stop what you are doing. Don't keep clicking. 2) Screenshot Take a screenshot.  Save a copy and print a copy. 3) Block Anyone offensive should be blocked and removed as a friend if he or she is on your friends list. 4) Tell Tell your teacher or network administrator (or your parents if you are at home) about the situation and give them a copy of the screenshot.  When you have a problem, do not stop speaking out until you find someone who can help you. 5) Share After talking with your parents and/or teacher, if the incident is appropriate to discuss, share it with others to promote Internet safety. Are these steps different from others? Over the past several years, I've been tweaking and w...

"If there was sadness, it was for the passing of an age where one man, in himself, could fire the free world to do battle for its own greatness, and if there were tears, they were shed in watching the mists of death cover the mirror of a personality where men have seen themselves ennobled." These words were uttered at Sir Winston Churchill 's funeral. In fact Churchill once said, "words are the only thing that last forever." This man with his eccentricities, egocentric-ness, and oddities had a unique talent for speech and was able to craft the words that were known to move soldiers on the front lines to have hope when they felt they could not go on. Words are important.  Right now I find myself in dire need of words.  This is one of the toughest months financially that my husband and I have ever had.  I'm spending a huge amount of time kicking off these projects and we have one child in high school, one in middle, and one in elementary.I'm fightin...

Follow Teachers Online - Directory 2 on Twitter Another cool list of teachers on Tweepml tags : education , twitter , teacher , edu_news Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

Jennifer Maddrell's research on Backchannels Research shared by Dr. Leigh Zeitz on backchannel research. tags : education , backchannel , research , edu_trends , edu_news , bestpractices From a Flat Classroom to a Flat World - Flat Classroom Conference Amazing picture from students at the Flat Classroom workshop in Hong Kong. We plan to share these on our T-shirt in mumbai, we hope. tags : education , learning , flatclassroom Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

Primary Flat Classroom Project Wiki Before you can join the project wiki, you must join and be approved for our main project wiki. After you join and are approved here, you will have to take the second step to join the project wiki. tags : education , flatclassroomproject FRONTLINE: growing up online | PBS The growing up online series that we watch to begin the Digiteen Project. Teachers, please prescreen these videos before showing them to your class. tags : digiteen , education Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

Last week, I shared about some lists made over on Tweepml that made it easy to follow - well, when I came across Mashable's list of 100+ literary authors to follow on twitter, I couldn't resist making some more lists and digging out some new ones.  I always tell people - don't judge twitter until you follow at least 50 people.  Note that if you've already followed someone, no harm is done and you have the choice to not follow someone when you click the button - you just check the list - it is so useful.: 112 Authors on Twitter from Mashable To get all of them, you'll need to follow both lists! 100+ Twitter Authors part 1     100+ Twitter Authors part 2   (if you wish to suggest new authors to add, suggest it on this list on the right side of the page.)   NonFiction Authors on Twitter (from another post Non-fiction authors on Twitter ) Educator Lists Just click the links below to be asked who you want to follow. 100 Learning Professionals ...

Cheating? at Change Agency Great points from Stephanie Sandifer on cheating - when she talked about how she cheats every day by using a copy of something from a coworker - I may have already linked to this but it is so powerful, I came back to it! Here were my thoughts for Stephanie: "I love how you say that you're "cheating every day." Certainly LEARNING is important, but to me, learning how to find answers and solve problems is the MOST important skill. Some teachers and I were discussing how some kids have book knowledge but fumble at doing science experiments! The practical knowledge eludes many that are good memorizers and what is a good education. To me, rote memorization precludes many from "feeling" educated (because of their poor grades) and makes many think they ARE educated (because of their great grades) when in fact we are indeed testing the wrong thing! Great points here!" tags : education , cellphone , edu_trends Posted from Diigo . ...

Filters are a problem because they cannot, nor will they ever get everything. (See Content Filtration: A Little Dirt for Your Health ) My biggest problem is that most teachers cannot request to have anything added (like access to educational Ning s, wikispaces , or an educational blog on blogger - like mine) nor can they ask to have anything blocked.  Someone at some company decides what is accepted and allowed, when in fact, it should be a curricular decision at the local level and there should be systems in place for reporting inappropriate sites and to request that some be allowed for educational use. In the article, Internet Filter blocks education sites but not porn , says: One site a Year 10 student opened while searching for a type of bird contained graphic sexual material and was only barred on Monday after inquiries from The Daily Telegraph. George Cochrane said his school-aged son and daughter, who study by distance education from their farm in Grenfell, were horri...

» For Vicki – An Expanded Tweet Bud the Teacher Discussion about youtube and filtration stemming from a conversation on Twitter, Bud the Teacher and I had the other day. tags : education , youtube Digg Launches New Toolbar - Makes Digging and Sharing Easier Information on the new Digg toolbar - just put digg.com/ in front of any URL or the diggbar bookmarklet mentioned in this post. I really only report my super "hot" thoughts on digg but it is a cool tool that I've integrated w/ facebook. tags : education , tool , edu_trends New Cyber Threat Study Delivers Surprising Results Using their wide scale analysis of 15,000 organizations, this study is a must read for IT leaders everywhere. On the home front, It seems like the biggest flaws on home PCs lie with Flash, Acrobat Reader, Java, QuickTime, and Microsoft Office. It's important to make sure these applications and plug-ins are all updated to their latest versions and that older versions are uninstalled. tags : educa...

Preteens love him, adults who happen to be within 100 yards of the squeals may have a strong opinion, but it is certainly not love.  If you've never met him (and can actually see youtube while viewing my blog, meet Fred) Casting calls go out for a movie based on Youtube's pop phenom, Fred. Don't dismiss the reach of someone like Fred - the above video posted on September 2, 2009 has over 2 million views, over 30,000 ratings, and 25,000+ comments. (This video is, by the way, rated TV-Y as some producers are now beginning to use US TV ratings for their videos .) As annoying as he is to me, it speaks volumes of the world that our students live in - a world that connects them in viral ways using video, text, comments that we are still only at the cusp of understanding and utilizing.  Surely there are positive ways that we can harness the power of social media in ways that generate such views, comments, and ratings -- or must school always be relegated to being viewed ...

Quick Screencasting Using Quicktime X in Mac Snow Leopard Tutorial of how to screencast with Quicktime X. Been hearing a lot of people on twitter going crazy over Quicktime X. tags : education , tutorial , mac , quicktime , screencasting , edu_news Language Learning with Livemocha | Learn a Language Online - Free! Not sure when this list was made, but it is a comprehensive list of education blogs by technorati authority (which I know many ignore now, but yet, it does give you a list.) tags : education , blogging , edublogger Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

While reading a great post from Lisa Thuman , (what a great blogger!) she shared this video from Will Smith: While I wouldn't say the 2 Keys to life are Running and Reading (would be against my personal faith) - I do totally agree that the disciplines of running and reading do make a person a better person. As one who has re-found running and can now run over 8 miles without stopping (a big reason that schools should have iTouches in their PE program - if this fat 40 year old can run 2 miles, why can't our kids?)  it helps me handle stress. I totally agree on the benefits of reading and how reading can help you unlock the potential for greatness and solve your problems.  And the benefits of running - oh, running is such a joy to me. What a great blog post from Lisa , full of many nuggets, please take a read! running reading teaching education learning will smith

Higher Ed Morning ran an article this week about the Top 5 Ways Students Cheat Electronically , interestingly, all involve the cell phone (surprise!) They quote a survey by Common Sense Media that states: "35% of teens use their cell phones to cheat by: 26% store info on their phone and look at it while taking a test 25% send text messages to friends, asking for answers 17% take pictures of a test – and then send it to their friends 20% use their phones to search for answers on the Internet 48% warn friends about a pop quiz with a phone call or text message"  OK, to me this brings up a couple of points: 1) Why should the same test be given to multiple classes?  You can have an essay for one class and another type for another.  yes, it is more work on the teacher, but just a couple of times of doing this will confuse them and make them realize they are wasting their time.  The top use of the cell phone is in "warning friends" about...

Here are some of the tips and tricks I use to push myself further: 1 - View Inspirational Speakers I challenge you to some time to Ted This week:  My good friend Angela Maiers shared this on her blog in her post TED TALKS - Like You've Never Seen Them! a Google Spreadsheet with every Ted Talk ever Given and the topic. There are only two things that change you:  the books you read and the people you meet.  The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expect different results -- sometimes you've got to be inspired to go in a new direction. I'm going to use these in class this week and also share them with flat classroom student researchers. 2 - Sing a New Tune (or Rediscover some Old ones) If I feel stuck in a rut - I make a new playlist in itunes for a purpose. If I'm stressed, I make a mellow list - if I need to be inspired, I make a list of inspirational music. I always buy at least one new song for this list and if I don't know a...

Top 10 Back to School iPhone Apps Gallery Excellent overview of the top 10 apps for students - if you're a student and actually allowed to use your iTouch at school for educational purposes, these are the apps to review. tags : education , learning , iphone , app , edu_newapp Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

Big news from Google this week ( hat tip to Mashable for this one) you can get your data out of Google using the Data Liberation Front , sponsored by Google itself. Also a great article from Lifehacker on Drop Box and how the author uses it to allow for password portability and also how you can use dropbox like a thumb drive to run your portable applications (how cool is that?) and remotely run your computer. There are a few things I felt that needed adding to the curriculum this year for computer applications and one of them was how to run apps from a thumb drive - however, I'm thinking perhaps we should use DropBox instead. It is vital that students understand how to keep their data secure, how to back up their data, and how to easily port their data from one computer to another.  Thumb Drives are notoriously easy to lose, although they do hold up very well in the washing machine - I'm thinking dropbox may be a better alternative.  What do you think?  How ar...

Kurt Cobain singing Bon Jovi, a sacrilege according to his widow and estate manager, Courtney Love .  Even though she licensed the use of his image as an unlockable guitar hero in the new game by Activision, her lawyer says: " Love’s lawyer told the TMZ.com Web site : “Activision is exploiting Kurt’s image in a manner anathema to the very essence of his music, spirit and essence. I along with Ms. Cobain hope those who love Kurt’s music strongly voice their sentiments to Activision and demand his image not be debased by singing the songs of Bon Jovi.”" We are now entering the time of some sort of reincarnation through the avatars of the deceased. People like John Wayne , Kurt Cobain, Fred Astaire , and yes, Michael Jackson take a lifetime to build a personal brand and the time is fast approaching where they can be reincarnated to be in video games, web apps, cell phone apps, and eventually movies yet again.  Since Courtney Love approved the use of Cobain's likeness -...

Digiteen « UDL Spotlight Overview from the educators at CAST aligning the digiteen project with UDL guidelines. Digiteen is a project that uniquely allows for digital citizenship education in a project based learning format that also differentiates in powerful ways. Thank you so much for the people at CAST who provide so many great tools and also provide excellent resources for UDL. tags : education , learning , udl , learningdisabilities , best , practices , inthenews , bestpractices , digitalcitizenship LHRIC: Leadership Looking forward to presenting in New York State on January 15, 2010 for the Technology Leadership Institute. They have quite a line of up for their speaker series this year including myself, Dr. Jason Ohler, Michael Horn, Dr. Gary Stager, Steve Hargadon, and David Pogue. This page has information on attending and signing up for these sessions. If you read this blog and attend, please introduce yourself. tags : education , conference , workshop Posted from Diigo . T...

This from Ashley Lambert , a student at the University of Alabama after watching the Digital Smarts video that Edutopia posted about my class. Ashley Lambert says at the end of her post: "[We need to] adapt the curriculum in a way that leads to a investigation of the mind to learn and not just using a test on paper with a pencil. We all indeed learn differently, which makes each and every one of us truly special." Oh, Ail22 - you are so right on, and yet, many of us bemoan a system in so many schools that is pushing teachers to increasingly standardize and group plan.  We must remember how the English defeated the Spanish Armada - the behemoth ships that could not move because of their size and bulk.  Our success is dependent upon empowering Teacherpreneurs like you to adapt the curriculum. Don't you just love her use of words here "leading to the investigation of the mind to learn."  Is it too revolutionary to allow teachers to adapt what they are doi...

This new paper from BECTA (in the UK), " Evidence on the impact of technology on learning and educational outcomes " says: Schools that take a systematic and planned approach to using technology to support learning achieve better outcomes with technology than other schools. These ‘e-mature’ schools have a well-developed vision for learning and lead and manage their use of technology in support of this. So, I challenge you to read this paper today and ask yourself: Is my school e-mature or e-immature? The spastic, stop and go, misinformed, knee jerk type planning that many of us have come through should become a thing of the past as we move to planned, systemic, overall plans for our entire schools. It is never about just ONE teacher. Although one teacher can open eyes and show it can be done - it is about overall systemic change. Sometimes people point to me and say "but you're only one teacher, what is the rest of your school doing?" Well, my schoo...

This from @jshe and @WeAreTeachers on Twitter: They linked to a UK study by Janice on the Music Teacher's Blog that had the following findings from Professor Susan Halem, University of London's research: "Students who learned music over time, increased their general IQ by 7 points, while drama subjects only increased their IQ by 4.3points. Playing an instrument improves general behaviour because it requires a students to trust, respect and compromise with others Learning a musical instrument improves behavior, memory and intelligence Musically trained students retain up to a fifth more information"  I've always heard that there was a correlation between math and music -- that somehow math "primed the neural pathways" that music also passes along - however, in a country (the US) seemingly starved for music education - it looks like that perhaps by removing the extra curriculars, not only have we taken some of the joy out of school - we may have...

There is a toolbox to help span time zones, culture, and geography and here are a few of the ones that are essential to what we do with global collaboration in the Flat Classroom Project. 1 - Google Calendar In addition to sharing the events that are part of the collaboration, if you have all of your teachers put their class times into the shared calendar, you can see overlaps and determine synchronous possibilities - always a big plus with the students and something very hard to do, particularly for us here in North America.  (We are surrounded by two oceans that literally "soak up the time" and force us into a-synchronicity.) Embed the google calendar in everything, so you'll never have to come back and update the dates.  (See Digiteen and Flat Classroom .) 2 - Timebridge This is the best appointment setting, timezone handling tool. This interfaces with Google Calendars and you can make a group to allow for easy scheduling and anyone else can schedule the meeti...

Sask. university teaches iPhone programming iPhone programming as part of a college computer science curriculum - ABSOLUTELY! Congratulations Dean Shareski! tags : education , iphone , learning , wireless_connectivity , www_world , worldonline The Internet in Society: Empowering or censoring citizens? - Eventbrite I can't tell if this event will be online too, but if you're in London - it is a good one. Love the description and appreciate Terry Freedman pointing me to it: "many authoritarian governments are now also beginning to exploit cyberspace for their own purposes; some of them appear to be succeeding in subverting the internet's democratising potential. We may have overestimated the internet's ability to bring change and underestimated the role that political, social and cultural forces play in determining how new technologies are being adopted. Could the internet actually inhibit rather than empower civil society? Join Evgeny Morozov as he outlines the d...

In case some of you don't really know anything about me or think that somehow I've been doing this forever - this interview I did on Certification Map gives you some background (if you really wanted to know.) Shortened Version Reprinted from Certification Map  for the Long Version, please see their website : Vicki Davis teaches business and technology courses at Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia , which includes eighth grade Keyboarding, ninth grade Computer Fundamentals, tenth grade Introduction to Computer Science and a rotating series of electives including Current Events, Accounting, Digital Graphic Design, and Digital Filmmaking. Vicki is also the IT director for the school. Vicki has been teaching at Westwood for 7 years. Previously, she taught teachers and businesses how to effectively use technology in their careers and also taught adult technology courses for a local college. Below is our interview with Vicki: What inspired you to teach? My mother founded ...