Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

Used according to Sangrea.net licensing. As I read on the plane tonight, I was excited to see the FTC talking about a "do not track" option for all web browsers. Mike Zapler of the San Jose Mercury News says: " The commission is proposing to mandate a "do not track" setting on Web browsers, which would take an act of Congress to impose. Its proposal -- the strongest privacy protection it has advocated to date -- comes amid building momentum for the government to do something to ensure consumer privacy in the online world." I think this is great. Yes, I know that so much of the "free" on the web is because we are giving up our privacy. There is really no such thing as free, after all. Somehow I wonder if "free" will come with a price of privacy and we'll actually have to pay for the right to be private as our money may have to supplant the advertising revenue we give up. Mobile Phone Privacy: Should We Be Concerned? ...

Image by George Eastman House via Flickr Crazy days. Peek into the window of my classroom a moment. It is easy to think that other teachers are super organized or super-something -- when really teaching is really busy business. When Answers Aren't Discrete Today, we started the stock market game in my ninth grade class. We've spent the last two days learning about stocks as part of a spreadsheet model we're doing. In addition to buying and selling stocks, we've set up spreadsheets pulling live data from the web as they track and write reports on their stocks. "I want you to know more than how to do formulas in spreadsheets but to be analysts," I said today. I had several upset students between the two classes: "But Mrs. Vicki, you have to tell us how to make money in the stock market and what to buy," they exclaimed! "No, I don't. In fact, if I knew that I'd probably be at home trading on the stock market."  And thus, lau...

Darren Fix has a cool middle school science blog at www.sciencefix.com . This is an example of how many niche teaching blogs are cropping up for just about any subject area. Here's Darren's bio : I have been a science teacher for 14 years. Currently I am teaching 7th and 8th grade science at Spring View Middle School, in Rocklin, Ca. I am also the lead technology teacher and I have a masters in education technology via the iMET masters program at California State University, Sacramento. I am a science and technology nerd who thoroughly enjoys teaching. I love to do demonstrations of science concepts and I also try to incorporate the latest discoveries in science into the classroom. I also integrate computer applications into the science curriculum to further enhance the learning experience. Darren on Twitter: @sciencefix I think this is a nice blog for middle school science teachers.  I'm going to work to find some more different teacher blogs as that is...

For those of you who follow these projects and may want to participate. Here are the upcoming deadlines for applications. If you apply - watch your email because part of the acceptance process is to see that you are responsive and involved - otherwise you're not ready for this yet. Look forward to meeting some of you. Project application deadlines Flat Classroom Project - http://www. flatclassroomproject.net/flat- classroom-project.html Flat Classroom Project 11-1 - Apply by December 1, 2010 Flat Classroom Project 11-2 - Apply by March 1, 2011 Flat Classroom Project 11-3 - Apply by September 1, 2011 Digiteen Project - http://www.digiteen.org/apply. html Digiteen Project 11-1 - Apply by January 15, 2011 Digiteen Project 11-2 - Apply by March 1, 2011 Digiteen Project 11-3 - Apply by September 15, 2011 Net Generation Education Project - http://www.netgened.org/apply. html NetGenEd 2011 - Apply by February 1, 2011 Eracism Project - http://www.eracismproject.org/ Mor...

Facebook Messages - some say it's an "email killer," others disagree; Pew Internet data shows us where email stands today among youth | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project Statistics on how our students are using technology. Over 54% text daily. tags : education learning Citation Over half of US workers check email over the holidays. "> - Annotated We wonder why we feel frustrated and upset all of the time? Perhaps it is because over half of US workers check email while "off." Can we have thanksgiving when our nose is in our work? Why can't we just leave it behind? tags : education email statistics productivity Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

Image by woodleywonderworks via Flickr I've been reading about the "second screen experience" in mainstream media. This is where one can watch the show on there television and chat or communicate on their handheld device like an iTouch, cell phone, iPad, etc. I know that I've done this before while watching a voting show like American Idol to "see" what people are saying as I follow the hashtag or search. But it is moving mainstream with websites like HBO (used a Twitter microsite to connect True Blood fans ), the 2009 Miss Universe pageant , and TiVo releasing an app to make the iPad a second screen experience. In fact, if we look at the teens and what they do EVERY day they are texting and using their cell phones. With Smartphones front and center in some research (more research needs to be done by NON-cell phone companies one might add) these handhelds are going to be increasingly important. Companies like Discovery are already syndicating...

The call for nominations is now open.  The nomination process is described at the Edublog Awards website . Nominations close on Friday, December 3rd. Voting will end on Tuesday, December 14th, and the final awards ceremony will be Wednesday, December 15th, live in Elluminate. The categories this year are: Best individual blog Best individual tweeter Best group blog Best new blog Best class blog Best student blog Best resource sharing blog Most influential blog post Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion Best teacher blog Best librarian / library blog Best school administrator blog Best educational tech support blog Best elearning / corporate education blog Best educational use of audio Best educational use of video / visual Best educational wiki Best educational podcast Best educational webinar series Best educational use of a social network Best educational use of a virtual world Best use of a PLN Lifetime achievement