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Dave Warlick has asked the question about what we will be reading " During the Great Silence ." He will be reading: Flight of the Creative Class , by Richard Florida Interestingly, Amazon indicates that people who read Flight also read “ A Whole New Mind… “, by Daniel Pink Don’t Bother me Mom–I’m Learning by Marc Prensky The Search by John Battelle (I’m finishing this one up right now, and it provides an interesting and valuable look at information “search” as an industry.) For my educational reading, I will be reading a lot of work by Robert J. Marzano . He has several books that I will read this summer: Classroom Instruction that Works : Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement by Robert J. Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock ( Paperback - April 27, 2004) Classroom Management That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Every Teacher (Paperback) by Robert J. Marzano , Jana S. Marzano , Debra J. Pickering As well as all of his ...

Washington State has an online high school that is making the news. While many schools now offer some online courses, the Insight School will be the first to allow students to graduate without ever setting foot in an actual classroom. The school plans to target a variety of students who might thrive in this type of program, such as home-schooled children, children with physical disabilities and those who have dropped out or had a hard time staying in traditional public schools. It is great to have alternatives. I tend to think that the future of education is somewhere in the middle between a high school campus and a computer screen. The bane of education is parents who do their children's work. These parents already have a high school (or college) education. They are well meaning but they are either compensating for a lower performing student or being manipulated. We've all seen it, papers that could not have been written by an eighth grader, using words such as capitulate ...

There is this strange little man who loved music. He was way too dramatic (and airheaded) to be a conductor. Let's talk about just some of the things wrong with him. When the musical score was soft, he'd hide and crouch so low that the members of the orchestra had trouble seeing him. When he wanted the orchestra to get loud, he'd leap into the air and yell at the top of his lungs like a banshee! He was so uncoordinated that during one piano concerto (during which he played), he knocked the candles off the piano. At another, he knocked over a poor little choirboy. Worst of all, sometimes he lost count! (Conductors must never lose count.) One time, he leaped high into the air to bring the orchestra in on a loud entrance, however nothing happened. He'd lost count again and didn't "Look before he leaped!" He leaped too soon! In addition to his dramatic tendencies (which distracted terribly from the music), his lack of coordination, danger to choirboys,...

Recently, I blogged about a great conversation that Stewart Mader and I had concerning wiki technology here at Westwood. He has blogged his latest installment in the series where we discuss how the westwood wiki got started . Tags: wiki , education , teaching , wikispaces , Westwood Schools , coolcatteacher , blog , blogs , Vicki A Davis , coolcatteacher

Cool Resources for social science teachers and statistics NUTS (like myself): Hat tip to Stephen Rahn at Stephen's Untold Stories Statemaster: This statistical database lets you compare a lot of data between US States . The data comes from the US Census Bureau, the FBI, and the National Center for Educational Statistics. Even more so, it does more than just spit out numbers but produces some pretty cool maps, flag images, state profiles, and more in charts. This is a GREAT resource for those end of the year Geography projects! Nationmaster This sister site allows you to access data from CIA World Factbook, UN, and OECD. They also have some pretty powerful maps. They have a great map on " the most educated ." This plots the length of time citizens spend in school. Here's the top 10. #1 Norway 16.9 years #2 Finland 16.7 years #3 ...

Kathy Sierra has pointed out another mind blowing concept: Eleanor Roosevelt said "Do one thing every day that scares you." I don't know about the every day thing, but taking risks takes practice , and if we keep doing the same things we already know, in the same way, our willingness to dare to be different atrophies. ... Most of us don't want to be labeled "risk averse". We don't want to take stupid risks, but we don't want to be all Who Moved My Blackberry either. So consider this my quarterly reminder (to myself, more than anyone else) to--as Eleanor Roosevelt also said: You must do the things you think you cannot do. I love this! This is part of keeping life exciting and staying young! Kids are always doing something scary and new! It is adults that lose the desire to try new things and do new things! That is why I so love the Internet and the blogosphere. Although I live in my small town of 5,000 I am exposed to the best in thought! I can ...

If you're writing a technology plan or planning your curriculum for next year you should STOP EVERYTHING and print out this free book for everyone on your team . Then, before you go any further, read it . (It is only 92 pages.) What is the background of this book? Educational guru Ewan Mcintosh has blogged about his participation in a new evolutionary electronic book entitled: Coming of Age: an Introduction to the new world wide web . (Adobe Acrobat Format 1.9MB) The editor is Terry Freedman and this book is excellent an excellent resource! Administrators, teachers, leaders of all kind simply must print out this book and distribute it to those who need to know. (I think this includes administrators, technology coordinators, teachers, and librarians.) Who wrote the book? The book consists of case studies and how-to articles by many of the leaders in the educational field: Miles Berry , John Bidder , Mechelle de Craene , John Evans , Peter Ford , Terry Freedman (Ed) , Jos...