Song writer Tom Chapin is my newest hero. Earlier this month, NPR posted his song It’s not on the Test, a humorous lullaby for stressed out students – and a sad commentary on the pressures classroom teachers are under to raise test scores. The first verse pretty much sums it up: The test is tomorrow [...]

I love being a part of the YouthRadio community. This project is wonderful professional development piece for me. Our fearless leader Kevin just explained to our teacher group how to embed a flash file so listeners do not exit the site when listening to one of the student podcasts. Let me see if I can [...]

Following a work week when I felt the need to justify introducing teachers into Web2.0, I started my morning with Anne Davis‘s inspiring and research-based post Rationale for educational blogging. Besides listing 13 points below, she also references work by Don Leu, one of my heroes. Blogs provide a space for sharing opinions and learning [...]

OK, I arrived late to this afternoon’s ACE meeting in Second Life, looking like some kind of raccoon hooker (I am totally confident that Intellagirl will help me with a re-do before our next meeting. And, yes, I did get fondled by an avatar or two when I overshot Middleton), but I’m very excited about [...]

On the eve of MLK Day, I am glad I found NicholasNegreponte’s interview Computers for Peace posted on Edutopia. Here my three favorite Q&A’s from the interview: Are there regions of the world where the OLPC model will not work?There are some cultures where it works more naturally, like Brazil, which is a very bottom-up [...]

I’ve added a new site to my Bloglines reader: EdTech Live. SteveHargadon has created a bank of podcasts about the power of Web 2.0. I’m listening right now to his December interview with Will Richardson. I’ve shared many times Will’s video with teachers during my Weblogs in the Classroom workshop, but through Steve’s interview I [...]

I am very glad I had the opportunity to hear Carol Anne McGuire’s inspiring presentation – Podcasting for the Absolute Beginner – at last week’s MacWorld conference in SF. Thanks to Wes Fryer, her presentation is now online. Carol Anne is an Apple Distinguished Teacher, a well-deserved award for the outstanding work she is doing [...]

Will Richardson has bookmarked a site that inspires rethinking how we assess student learning.  The APA website has posted Using the New Bloom’s Taxonomy to Design Meaningful Learning Assessments. Researchers  Kevin Smythe and Jane Halonen provide a staircase graphic with “create” at the top, replacing Bloom’s “evaluate.” “Remember” remains at the bottom.  One more researched-based [...]

For the past three or four years, many teachers in my district have been using the free online literacy program Star Fall with their primary grade students.  I’ve wondered about something along those lines for our older students. Thanks to Paul Turtola and the NCTE Talkies group, I just discovered an excellent freebie – http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/. [...]

January 4, 2007 – A great day for women; a great day for the nation! And have I mentioned that I was daughter Alexandra’s first grade teacher Speaker of the House Pelosi was already on the SF City Council, but still had time to drive on field trips. _________________________________________________________ Image citation: New York Times Online, [...]