Removing the "Next Element" in Blogger

I recently participated in a webinar hosted by EdTech. The presenter was Tim Chase, a middle school teacher who teaches reading and technology. The title of the webinar was "Tim Chase - Xtreme Teamwork-Communication and Collaboration in Your Classroom and Mine." In the webinar he talked about a number of Web 2.0 tools he'd been using with his students, Blogger among them. He expressed concern about the "next blog" tab on the blogs meant for student use and how they randomly lead to other blogs that might not be appropriate. He told us he had directions on one of his blogs on how to remove the "next element" feature.
Here is the link:
http://blog.edtech2020.com/2008/01/removing-next-blog-element-in-blogger.html
I tried this in one of my older blogs that has been neglected:

http://bethanymscomputerlab.blogspot.com/


Now I will try to eliminate it from this blog.

YES! It worked.

Students Participate in Speak-Up Survey to be Shared with President Obama

The team from Project Tomorrow recently sponsored the Net Day Speak-Up Survey for 2008. They decided to add a "Special Inauguration Survey" for students only. It will be open until Tuesday, January 20. The students were asked to provide a response to the following topic:

"Imagine you are the President of the United States (or the leader of your country) and your #1 education goal is to make sure every student is prepared for the jobs and careers of the future. What is the one thing you would do to improve schools to ensure that all students receive the education and skills they need to be successful in life?"

I asked the students to copy their responses before submitting them to the survey and paste them into a word document, so I could have a printed copy. I then read through all the responses and wrote down all the responses putting checks beside similar ideas.

What was interesting was the overwhelming response asking for more career education in the schools. Here are some of the responses dealing with that issue: (Over 25 of the 100 kids polled felt that career education should be an important part of school curriculum.)

• More career education
• More career days
• Have students take tests to determine what career is best for them
• Go on field trips to see people working in various careers
• Expand curriculum to include course in learning about careers
• More mentoring by people working in different careers
• Workshops once a week hosted by people from different careers and occupations

And then there are these responses with a variety of suggestions:

• more scholarships so students can attend college
• allowances for special needs students to get a college education
• qualified teachers sent to educate children in 3rd world countries
• fund city schools so they can offer students the same educational advantages as surbaban schools
• train teachers to increase interest in subjects they teach
• students have more choice in courses they take (several responses)
• later start time for school to ensure students get enough sleep (several responses)
• more classes in life skills such a home economics ad managing money
• more tutors in schools and more opportunity for individualized help
• more courseware offered on computers so students could work at their own pace
• fund more after-school programs
• fund more field trips and provide more real-life experiences
• more assemblies
• teach through hands-on projects
• Add more access to technology such as computers and Smart Boards (several responses)
• computers for every student
• more hands-on construction projects - so students know how to build things for their homes
• learning how to work cross platform on Macs and PCs
• provide more one-on-one help for struggling students
• build more schools and equip them with books and supplies
• create interactive games to help students learn subject matter (several responses)
• more programs for special-needs students so they can be educated in regular schools and not be sent to other schools
• provide more guidance counselors who have time to give individualized attention to all students
• more time after school to complete homework so no work has to be take home
• recess for all students mandantory to help avoid obesity
• physical activity for all students every day
• make it mandatory that students learn how to work in small groups on projects
• offer more foreign language classes as well as cultural awareness classes
• smaller classes so students can get more individualized attention

We can hope that President Obama listens to our young people and makes sure that funding education is one of his top priorities.

Faith is experimenting with Wordle

Faith is experimenting with Wordle with her student library advisory board. They will be creating "word clouds" using Wordle.

She wanted a way to get their creations from the web page into her blog.

I tried one. Let's see how it looks.

Faith likes it! I am so pleased.

A Newer, Broader Definition of Copyright and Fair Use

Last year a long and involved document called "The High Cost of Copyright Confusion" was published by the Media Education Lab of Temple University. They are funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Fortunately, in November of 2008, the center released new, more liberal guidelines which will empower students and teachers to use copyrighted materials for "transformative" applications under the "fair use" provisions.

Here are some links that will explain the new guidelines:



http://www.slideshare.net/reneehobbs/finally-the-end-to-copyright-confusion-has-arrived-presentation?type=powerpoint



http://wwwdev.ncte.org/positions/statements/fairusemedialiteracy



http://www.mediaeducationlab.com/index.php?page=293



This is really an exciting triumph for educators and students. Please take a look at the links. So many of the existing guidelines for teachers on copyright use are very restrictive, and these new guidlines should help to reduce anxiety.

A very inspirational video - Benjamin Zander speaking at TED

I came across this video presentation last Friday night into early Saturday morning. I should have gone to bed, but I was researching on the web, and we all know how one link leads to another. Actually, I was looking at a wiki that Toby had sent me, and somehow I ended up on a blog entitled "Learning in Maine" written by Jim Burke Here is the link to his blog:

http://learninginmaine.blogspot.com/

On his blog, I was fascinated reading about twitter, watching the tutorial on how to use "Google Docs", reading the cartoons, scrolling down, and then I came to the post entitled "Leaders Empower Others". There were two videos from YouTube of Benjamin Zander, an orchestra conductor, speaking at the TED conference where the finest, most creative minds from all over the world gather to share their insights. The first selection runs 10 minutes and is worth watching, but it is the 2nd selection which runs 20 minutes that is a must. It was already 1:00am when I clicked on the video. I figured I'd look at it for a couple of minutes and then give up and go to bed. Well, I was so captivated that I watched the whole thing and have since watched it again. When it ended at 1:30am or so, I had tears running down my cheeks, and I was applauding loudly with the rest of the audience. It's a good thing my husband was sound asleep in the bedroom, for he surely would have wondered what was going on.
Please take the time to watch this video.
Here it the direct link to it on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LCwI5iErE

Enjoy! Please leave me a comment on this blog.
Carolyn

Daisy the Pig helps Bethany Middle School Celebrate Reading Achievement

The presentation by Farmer Minor and his companion, Daisy the Pig, was exceptional. Everyone had a good time. What a nice way to celebrate our students' reading accomplishment!

Using a Cluster Map to See Locations of Visitors to Your Site

Here I go again, experimenting.
I listened to the recording of a webinar from Edutopia with Will Richardson on Making Global Connections and on how the web is changing our lives and opening up our world.
He showed how one young girl's blog has reached out to audiences world wide. When her grandfather died in Dec. of 2007, she decided to make a difference in her community for each of 25 days. Then she decided, with her mother's permission and guidance, to blog about it. Her project has grown into nearly 365 days of making a difference in her community and has touched and inspired others all over the world to do the same.
Here is the address of her blog:
http://twentyfivedays.wordpress.com

I looked at her cluster map and decided to try on for my blog. I doubt I'll have the coverage she does. The site gave me .html code to paste into my blog to get the map. So here goes. Hope it works:

Links to teacher blogs

At the PTO meeting on November 6, 2008, I want to have easy access to the blogs I'd like to show the parents. So.....I am putting them in my blog. Now they are all in one place and accessible.

Mrs. Miller's blog:
http://amitybooktalk.blogspot.com/
Mr. Norton's blog:
http://www.tominct.blogspot.com/
Mr. Fragione's blog:
http://amsb.wordpress.com/
Mr. Doyle's website:
http://www.amityregion5.org/tdoyle/
Dr. Dellinger's blog:
http://dellingerblog.blogspot.com/

A Link from Kathy Schrock

At NECC (National Educators' Computer Convention) 2007 in Atlanta, Kathy Shrock was a featured speaker on the topic of Web 2.0 tools. Here is a link she provided to educators to help them do further research on how these tools can be used to increase student engagement and achievement.
http://kathyschrock.net/web20/

These tools can be really fun to use. Start small. Experiment with just one, and share what you learn and how you'd like to use it.

Halloween

It is hard to believer that tomorrow is Halloween, and I haven't posted since August.
Lots of exciting projects have been going on at school, and we are integrating technology more than ever before to make our lessons even more engaging for kids.
I took pictures of all the lockers decorated for Halloween this afternoon and will try to post the winners here tomorow.