Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

Teacher Rankings, Once Internal, Are Now Questioned - NYTimes.com This New York Times article mentions that with one year of data that 35% of teachers are misranked and with three years of data that 25% of teachers are misranked. Therefore, I would say that if we lean heavily on the data that we will be incorrectly "dealing with" 25% of teachers -- ticking off good ones and making them leave and rewarding bad ones. We can do better than this administrators and school boards. Come on! tags: education learning Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

Thinking about evaluation | Through global lenses @wfc Excellent reflection of a global collaborative project for younger kids. tags: education flatclassroom Learning is a Global Collaborative Classroom Project with @scmorgan « Mrs. D's Flight Plan Excellent Write up of a middle school global collaborative project. tags: education learning fcbook How Twitter is Changing: A new study reveals Twitter’s new direction Excellent article on the current trends on twitter and a discussion of impact versus influence. This tool is changing. This data-heavy article shares how and why. GREAT read for anyone in social media. tags: education learning twitter ...

Image via Wikipedia The Great Blondin was the first person to walk across Niagara falls on a tightrope. At first the crowds came out on droves. Then, it became just "old hat." So, to liven up his act, he asked the crowd one day, "how many of you believe that I can walk a man across in a wheelbarrow" - everyone raised their hand eager to see him do it. OK, "who wants to do it?" No. one. No one.  Finally, his manager put his faith in the Great Blondin into action and hopped in the wheelbarrow. He made it. It is easy to have faith -- for others. I love it when someone goes through a struggle. You have cancer and everyone says, "you're going to be ok." Well, that is fine for them, they don't have to face the chemo and all that goes with it. But we do this with technology all the time.  Oh, just do this, or do that - it will improve your test scores. But do we REALLY believe it. Talk is cheap. Give me action. Putting your finge...

Top 10 Edu News events of 2010 @ Dave’s Educational Blog Great summary from Dave Cormier of top educational news of 2010. A great read and also something perhaps educational techonlogy college profs should discuss with their classes as they work to understand change. tags: education learning technology Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

Lessons learned from the 2010 Edublog Awards | Kirsten Winkler So, one can win an edublog award with 100 something votes? Goodness sakes? Are that few people voting or are there just too many categories and too many nominees in each? I don't know. I responded to Kristen's reflection that social media is overrated with this comment. "It is also a matter of taking the time to self promote! I know for me, in the past, I've sent out tons of emails and messages on facebook - asking people to vote. We sent messages through our Nings and through every vehicle we could. This year with a looming book deadline, I had to ask myself if it was something I had time to do. I didn't. In retrospect, maybe I should have but really - if that is what it takes to win an award. I don't know - I guess the crunchies are important and that works the same way although I'm so tired of hootsuite reminding me to vote in that doggone award! So, I ...

Google eBookstore is now live. I see a James Patterson Book, the Gift in the top left hand corner. As well as Patricia Cornwell . I see three free ebooks - somehow not sure how they came in. Also, top selling books show as well. It is automatically linked to my Google account.(Something I'm not sure I like.) How do you read on Google ebooks? It tells you there are several ways to read books from the Google ebookstore: android, iphone, ipad, itouch, the web, and for Nook and Sony with the Amazon Kindle strangely absent. The CNN article points out that Google books have actual page numbers, versus the Kindle's location number which actually marks the exact point where one make a mark. The same article goes on to say that Google takes 30-48% of the purchase price into their coffers. It also says that small booksellers can have their own stores within this space which is pretty interesting. I can't help myself: Love the Kindle To me, the more games in town the b...

So, it is cheesy, ok, but I still pull out this old video I made (and sang) with pictures from around the world of how kids are using Web 2.0. This was back in 2006 and looks it, however, it is funny that some of these sites are still here and just now getting into prominent use. Many of you may not have seen this back in 2006 as I only had a few hundred subscribers. Enjoy!

Just laughing at the thought of teachers everywhere flexing their buns and doing calf raises behind their desks when I came across the TechCrunch article about FitFu , the app that wants to get you moving behind your desk. The founders of crunch-fu and several other apps and working to help people fit extra movement into their day. It is so important to GET MOVING however you do it. Not sure if the social aspect will motivate people -- it could. If it does, great. AS you may know, the Couch to 5K app has helped transform me into one who can run and become more fit, but one thing I know -- good old fashioned sweat is what helps one get in shape. As my grandma used to say "mebbee so, mebbe not" Guess we'll see. Meanwhile, we'll keep our eyes peeled and anything that helps us get more fit is great. Related articles Couch to 5K iPhone App Helps You Work Out and Get Into Shape (laughingsquid.com) 5x week running programs? (ask.metafilter.com) Forcing myself...

Image by teach42 via Flickr Over 100 entries via Twitter, comments and Facebook! Cool. Our winner of the Lenovo m90z is Pam Nichols for showing appreciation and thanks to her fellow teachers at Lakewood with her Animoto video . It is interesting that this one was picked out this afternoon. (So, it was the last day of school and I let the students draw a name from the entries!) I was thinking how cool it was that she did this! The nonprofits and charities - I've compiled a google doc and have forwarded it to Lenovo as they are managing the give away from all the many different bloggers participating in this season of Give Aways! Pam, I'll be in touch! I'm sitting here doing gate duty at the ballgame at the school working to pull all of the amazing nonprofits together and to submit your name and ask for your mailing address! A new m90z coming your way! Lining up promos for next year. If you're interested, get in touch with me here by filling out my contact form a...

Although David Warlick loved Flock , I couldn't get it. But a few days a go I looked at my browser stats and saw "Rock Melt" among them. I looked into it and went on facebook and requested an invitation. Today I got an invitation from my friend Kim Caise to get Rockmelt and I've been loving it. Here you can see how updates from people pop up from Facebook. The left bar rotates friends. This browser is a social media enabled toolbox. When I want to integrate sharing on twitter and facebook, THIS is the browser I'm going to go to.  Unfortunately I don't think it will work at school because it does hinge on Facebook, but I still just love it. The left side of the bar is a rotating group of friends. I put my mouse over them and can see what they are saying, open a chat window like opened with my good friend Lisa Parisi to the left. Then, on the right hand side I can add feeds and follow updates on Twitter and Facebook. It is kind of cool to see what i...

Image via CrunchBase Delicious was a really cool tool. Honestly, it was pre-yahoo. After yahoo bought them a scrappy little group of innovators headed by Maggie Tsai created Diigo . When they hand wrote a classroom console that let us take kids in under 13 and gave us more privacy features than we could imagine because of a request at ISTE -- I was hooked. Delicious is dead Now, Delicious is officially dying Delicious's future is up in the air as yahoo pulls the plug for good. looks to sell the venture. (update 12/17/2010 - Techcrunch says that Delicious needs to be "unloaded" not closed.) The good news is that you can go into Diigo and import your delicious bookmarks. You can also have it save to delicious (for as long as it exists.) under settings as well. So, when you log into Diigo , go into your settings and there is a place to import from delicious. While you are at it, join our educators group for some wonderful resources. Twitter is full of discuss...

You are invited to a free presentation through Intel Education.  http://engage.intel.com - anyone is invited to join the community and you are all invited to join the presentation. This presentation is the one I call my "fire code special" as usually when I do it at conferences the fire marshall tells people they cannot come into the room any more!  So, join us. We'll have fun! Differentiating Instruction with Technology Constructing the classroom for differentiation and reaching all students requires involved teachers, IT support staff, and principals. Vicki "Cool Cat Teacher" Davis shares how one can structure a classroom for learning and overviews the support structures required for successful differentiation with technology in this webinar geared to teachers and administrators. See where you need to go so that you can make plans for how to get there. Click the date below to register to attend. Thursday, December 16 th 4pm PDT/7pm EDT

Brain McLaughlin, Suzie Nestico, and I are gearing up for our student summit presentations for the Flat Classroom projects. Many of the teachers are having their students present online in elluminate as part of the requirements for our courses.  Really, how can you teach presentation skills without understanding online presentations? We're getting ready to present, but I always like to invite my "friends" and those who want to see how this looks. Each student takes in a jpg file and we use the microphone (sometimes webcams) for them to present and link up. We start in about 28 minutes from the time of this post! See some of you there! December 14, 2010 at 1:00pm EST 6:00PM GMT - Link to join summit Westwood Schools Student Summit - 10-3b Mount Carmel Area High School - 10-3a Academy of Allied Health & Science 10-3a   Consider yourself invited! Related articles Spend Time in the Flat Classroom (coolcatteacher.blogspot.com) Seeking Sounding Board Classrooms fo...

Just a note that Edublog Award voting closes sometime today. Thanks for the tweets of those who have nominated me or voted for some of the projects that I work with. It means so much. It is so interesting that somehow these awards recognize many of the people that for whatever reason "cannot" win other awards. Private school teachers, those not "in" with their political powerhouses, and international teachers are often left without any mechanism to recognize their work. For this reason, perhaps, for me, being included on the short list is very meaningful.  Here are the nominatios I have open. Two in category of Best Wiki. Westwood Wiki and Flat Classroom Wiki nominated in  best educational wiki category.   Best Wiki Voting  Westwood Class Wiki Flat Classroom Project This blog has been nominated in two categories Best Teacher Blog   Best Individual Blog   Finally, as I mentioned in my 5 year old Blog post, it is indeed a tremendous honor...

Image by teach42 via Flickr m90z Giveaway Promotion This season is about giving. So, you have five days to enter to win the Lenovo m90z touch screen computer. (Pictured with Steve Dembo's son here on the right.) My thoughts on the m90z This amazingly cool HUGE touchscreen computer is great for classrooms and homes. If you love your interactive whiteboard, you can play the IWB games on this computer and let the children use their finger on the touch screen. Instead of having one big IWB in the room, with this device you could have many devices. This has become our main family computer set up for studying by my third grader who needs a lot of hands on technology facilitated learning and studying helps. He uses spelling city for spelling and lots of different math activities from across the web! HOW YOU CAN WIN! INDIVIDUAL WINNER Contest Rules (Contest #1) This contest is designed to promote GIVING. So, you - (any individual of any kind) may enter one of two ways. ...

30+ Tools for Building Mobile Apps (+ Poll!) Many teachers are starting to build apps or want to know more (me too!) So, here is a page that talks about mobile app builders from the read write web. I like their innovative use of Google Spreadsheets to share information and keep it updated, although I Prefer to use diigo lists. tags: education app apple mobile 8 Incredibly Simple Ways to Get More People to Read Your Content | Copyblogger Excellent post from @copyblogger on blogging. For those who think blogging is like writing essays - think again! Great post. tags: education blogging Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

ALA | Learning4Life in My School Library Student Video Contest American Library Association Student Film contest. The guidelines are: "Students are encouraged to submit videos to the American Association of School Librarians detailing how their school library and technology empowers them to be Learners4Life. Along with prizes for the winning students and libraries, the winning video will be featured on the AASL, Cisco, External Link Icon and SchoolTube External Link Icon web sites and social networking platforms. Submission entry will begin January 4, 2011, and the deadline for submissions is March 18, 2011. Three winners will be chosen - one each from the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Winners will be announced as the kick off to School Library Month on April 1, 2011." tags: education learning video How to Create You...

Friday, December 9, 2005 At the Cape of Good Hope in October 2010. Birthday. The birthday of a blog. This one. Little did I know how a blog could change one's life. The Difference A Blog Makes Blogging has improved my life in so many ways! How could life change so much in five years? Not only have my children grown older but I have too! Hopefully wiser. This blog has taken me to many places and met many faces -- over 20 conferences and counting, in fact in four different continents! I've been to Qatar, India, South Africa and heading to China in February with my oldest son and some more students. This week I was up until 4 am working on a book deadline for the book that will come out with Pearson Publishing in January 2012 that I'm coauthoring with Julie Lindsay . Two new businesses and a nonprofit and thousands of students later. What excitement.  Maybe it has even helped some of you in some way. I hope so. The Blog That Almost Died Before Being Born ...

World-Wide Work Stress: Multi-Case Study of the Stress-Coping Process in Distributed Work This insightful paper discusses many of the issues we see between global collaborators in online teaching environments and is providing some research that will underlie some of what we're sharing in our January 2012 book with Pearson Publishing about Global Collaboration. tags: education learning workflow flatclassroom Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

Up late working on the Flat Classroom book and I chatted Julie for encouragement. She sent me this video that has just been posted from remote Oman to this semester's Flat Classroom project and I remembered why I'm doing this. Find more videos like this on Flat Classroom Project See how technology in many ways is letting him preserve his way of life and yet connect and celebrate it. It was so touching to see that he copied over a comment from one of my students from his previous post (he had reedited this.) Erin Jacey B. commented on AhmedM's video 'Wireless Connectivity & Bedouin Life: “I think your video is really cool! It's so interesting to see how you live in a completely different country and culture, and how your wireless internet is the main source of information for your village. It's great!” It is a joy to work with these students and teachers. They are truly among the best in the world. Although most of us live in out of...

Student Engagement in High School Classrooms from the Perspective of Flow Theory (2003) This article presents the results of their study of student engagement and the conditions in which student engagement was highest.  tags: education The Changing FAce of the Product Marketing Model: Facebook's Effect on New Applications I enjoyed reading this article on Facebook and how the standard interface encourages people to try new things. In some ways we should consider how this could help us in education - if we had a standard educational network that was popular and kids could add chemistry or other subjects like a widget - could learning become more attractive? tags: education learning Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

My dear friend Kevin Honeycutt is, to me, everything good in a keynoter and a person. He is a family man. He is smart. He is musical. He is hilarious. And on top of that he is so so right on so many things. He has long been my friend and I hope will continue to be. I first saw this three years a go at NECC - we had a band "Tweetwood Mac" out of about 5 -6 ipods (before the iPad was out.) Sitting on the floor with him messing with gadgets is truly the highlight of every NECC/ ISTE for me. That is what he does - he "messes with things" and as he does it he will teach you a whole lot! He talked about in this video that iPhones aren't just devices they can be instruments and also makes the poignant comment: "Don't marry Apple, Android has a lot to offer also." Watch this video for a great laugh and a look at just a great person in education.  Way to go, Kevin, I'm a huge fan. And I hope against all hope I can get to Podstock one day!  Ke...

The Collaborative Commons: Classroom Management Portal Brian Mannix writes about his classroom monitoring portal that he has set up. He has done a very good job of this. This is an online classroom management strategy that Julie and I will be discussing a bit in the new book from Pearson Publishing in January 2012. Brian as part of our certified teacher program has seen a preview of this book. tags: education flatclassroom online learning Teachers' Views on Technology in the Classroom - Video Feature - NYTimes.com Some great videos including one by the American School of Bombay that features a connection facilitated by the Flat Classroom work we've done in India. Lots of great work here. I think the only thing that bothered me a bit is to see kids typing slowly with two fingers when they could know how to typ...

The Promise of Digital Learning: Susan Patrick (iNACOL) , Chris Klaus (Kaneva) , Vicki Davis (Flat Classroom Projects) Here is a video of a panel presentation on "the Promise of Digital Learning" to educators within the state of Georgia. The other panelists were just a delight as well as our moderator. "The Promise of Digital Learning" was a panel at the 2010 Georgia Legislative Policy Briefing discussing how Georgia can take advantage of the coming disruptive innovation of digital learning. The panelists included: Susan Patrick, President and Chief Executive Officer, International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL); Chris Klaus, Founder and CEO, Kaneva, Inc. ; Vicki Davis, Co-Founder, Flat Classroom Project and teacher and IT Director at the Westwood Schools (Camilla, Ga.); Moderator: Sajan George, Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal." If you just want to see my part, here it is. Would love feedback of how you would answer ...