Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

Image by PNNL - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory via Flickr Vampires in the Classroom? No, I'm not writing about Twilight, although my teenage daughter would definitely approve. We're discussing conducting a school wide energy audit as part of the module I do on Excel spreadsheets. By purchasing voltage meters that tell us how much energy each device consumes and evaluating some of the new reduced energy consumption power meters -- aptly called "vampires" because they suck down the energy consumption requirements of devices plugged into them. It is really time to look at our energy consumption at schools and truly implement some methods to reduce energy consumption. 5 Reasons to Implement Student-Involved Energy Audits and Improvements in K12 Schools 1 - We are modeling for the future. Children need to see us grappling with this issue. They don't do what we say, they do what we DO. 2 - Create teachable moments by involving students Students can be...

Image via Wikipedia mostly written Saturday, Sept 25 Conversation Malfunction Boy, I'm shocked and upset.  Not really sure how this happened, but one reason I love disqus is that it sends comments to my email box and I reply to the comment and it approves the comment and the posts my response. It makes conversation easy! Well, I've had a little trouble signing into disqus and this morning as I sit here in the lobby of the Hampton Inn waiting to go to the Georgia Tech ballgame at noon, I am doing what I do when I go on vacation -- conversations on my blog. So, I decided to log into disqus directly and make sure I hadn't missed anything! Well, it looks like disqus somehow did not receive and process my responses for the last three weeks and I had almost 100 comments in there!Upsetting! If You're Not Seeing Conversation: Ask Yourself Why So, I'd been wondering where the conversations had gone! There just weren't as many conversations happening. So, I...

The contest to win a free iPad for you as a teacher is still happening. ($500 in iTunes cards.) It is simple to enter. Leave a comment on the post announcing the contest. Visit www.seemuchmore.com find one thing you liked or learned from the site and leave it in the comments.  (See tips above.) (Some great samples are the teacher's lounge, the Bill Nye Educational vids (click the microwave on the homepage ) and the Printable Eye chart to print and use or to project on your interactive white board.  Contest Ends on September 30, 2010 . Spread the word. This is a simple one to enter! ;-) Go to the VSP Visioncare website and learn something new about eyecare.  Come back to this blog post and leave a comment about what you learned and what you’re going to do to make sure your children or students are taking good care of their eyes. Also let us know the school and grade level where you teach. (You may use the template if you wish.) Tweet It. Tweet abou...

Hat tip to my dear friend Angela Maiers (I can't wait to keynote with her in Maine in two weeks!) for this great video about motivation. This is a quick, funny video to get conversations started. Administrators beware: sometimes the tasks teachers have in the classroom are mundane because the content is mundane. Alfie Kohn vs Dwight Schrute

These teachers are not just my colleagues, they are now my friends. I trust them. We go through quite an experience together as we merge our classrooms. There is a very special comraderie. Looking forward to "meeting" new friends in this year's Flat Classroom and Digiteen projects. ***** Something I meant to post this summer, but wanted to share now. ****** ISTE Fun and Friends One of the highlights of ISTE is meeting the many teachers, judges, friends, college professors, and authors who volunteer their time and participate in the Flat Classroom projects !  From ISTE: Vicki and Julie were very busy at ISTE last week with various  presentations and sessions including a 7-hour DigiTeacher  Workshop , Flat Classroom ‘Birds of a Feather’ and the ‘ Seven  Steps to Flatten your Classroom ’ (attended by over 200), a Digital Citizenship Presentation (Vicki with Anne Collier, Bronwyn Stuckey, and Marianne Malmstrom), a Diigo presentation ( Julie Lindsay and Maggi...

The Internet is an increasing source of excellent quality video content. This video is an example - from National Geographic and their daily update: Diving in the Maya Sacred Pools gives UP TO DATE information on current discoveries in science. In this video, divers discuss how they have found some ancient artifacts in Belize and also you can see the fascinating way that they go through the bottom of a pool into an area where water comes out of the spring. You'd have to see it to believe it at the beginning! (So cool.) The point is that the Internet is our library and that between features like this and services like Discovery Streaming, you can have access to the video you need. I know schools that still have very slow Internet service. One school that has no Internet access (the administration believes it is a distraction.) The fact is that the payment for bandwidth is really a subscription fee. When you pay for the Internet you receive: Streaming video Streaming aud...

Meet Iron Man : Scott Rigsby (The First Double Amputee to Complete an Iron Man in the World) I've blogged before about my friend and fellow alumnus of Westwood Schools , Scott Rigsby.  Scott is one of the most well known double amputees in the world because he is the first one to complete an Iron Man competition. He did this several years a go when it was even harder to do (technology has moved very quickly.) Scott has a book, Unthinkable , (rated 5 stars on Amazon!) on his unthinkable story of overcoming and achieving great things that truly fits with the message of our school and also this blog. For more on Scott or to book him for an assembly or program go to www.scottrigsby.com. Here, he stayed after the motivational portion of his speech to talk about the technology that makes his running happen. Also, is a very interesting discussion about the controversy about Oscar Pistorius and how Scott's work with researchers at Georgia Tech helped him overcome the ban of ...

Steve Jobs: How to live before you die This June 2005 commencement address from Steve Jobs to the graduates of Stanford University is quite refreshing to hear.  In it, he clearly discusses three pivotal times in his life: "Dropping Out" of college and taking a calligraphy class (which affected fonts on the personal computer) Image via CrunchBase Getting Fired by Apple (which led to his founding of NeXt, Pixar Animation studios and meeting his wife and one of the greatest things that happened to him, he says) His diagnosis and recovery from cancer. So, you wanna, be Steve?  Really?  Are you Sure? We look at someone like Steve Jobs and see him at his pinnacle - at the apex of his career and one that everyone wants to be.  But let me ask you this.  What would happen if: Your child came to you and said they were dropping out of college? You or your spouse got fired? You got cancer? Because those three things would have to happen for you to be Steve J...