Edvoices

Fiery Chicago teachers union president reelected

Editor's Pick — Sat, 18 May 2013 15:02:30 +0000

Karen Lewis, the fiery leader of the Chicago Teachers Union who led a strike last year and became a nationally known anti-school reform figure, has been elected to another three-year term as president. Today she will lead the first of … Continue reading →

Michelle Rhee Is … Tiger Woods!

Editor's Pick — Sat, 18 May 2013 14:17:24 +0000

Who’d a guessed it? Michelle Rhee is not Tiger Mom. She’s TIGER WOODS!: “My answer: I keep my eye on the ball.” —- Handy-dandy take-home quiz to share! High-Stakes, “No Excuses” Quiz of the Day Complete the following: Michelle Rhee is Tiger (a) Mom (b) Milk (c) Lily (d) Woods ANSWER KEY Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: […]

I’m So Tired………..

Editor's Pick — Sat, 18 May 2013 13:05:32 +0000

Reblogged from An Antique Teacher: I'm not just tired..........I AM EXHAUSTED! It's observation time for me and that means aligning a lesson to the Common BORE Standards, completing all the required paperwork, preparing the lesson, and using a prep period for my Pre-Observation Conference. Let me make this very clear: I am NOT opposed to […]

The Week in Review – Splashing in the Pond

Editor's Pick — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:30:00 +0000

Good morning from Greenwood, Maine. This week I had the opportunity to work with teachers at Bridgton Academy just a few miles down the road from the Free Technology for Teachers world headquarters (AKA, my house). It was a great day from both a learning standpoint and weather standpoint. In fact, it was so nice that I didn't even change out of my work clothes before taking my dogs to splash in the pond. Days like that one remind me that the end of the school year isn't too far away. I know that for many of you this coming week is the last week of your school year. I hope it's a great one for you!

Here are this week's most popular posts:
1. Life On Minimum Wage - A Hands-on Economics Lesson
2. Video - How to Insert Images Into Google Forms
3. Use Clips of Seinfeld to Teach Economics
4. The Ten Blogs I Read First
5. Play Games or Create Your Own Through YoYo Games
6. Depression Quest - An Interactive Story About Depression
7. What My Dog Can Teach Us About Managing 1:1 Classrooms

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Saylor Foundation Launches Independent “Courses” for K-12

Editor's Pick — Sat, 18 May 2013 10:26:00 +0000

The Saylor Foundation recently announced the launch of one of their new initiatives, independent courses. In the title of this post I put quotation marks around courses because it's a stretch to say that they're actually courses. Rather they're more like big outlines for independent study. The outlines include alignment to Common Core standards, suggested learning activities, and collections of tutorials and reading materials. The Saylor Foundation's courses currently include geometry, calculus, algebra, American Literature, and SAT prep.

Applications for Education
I wouldn't set students off to use The Saylor Foundation's new courses as a replacement for direct instruction. I would feel comfortable having students consult the courses for independent review after going through lessons with a teacher.

Register to be One Of the First To Know When Google Play for Education Goes Live

Editor's Pick — Sat, 18 May 2013 10:12:00 +0000

Earlier this week Google announced that they will be launching Google Play for Education this summer. Google Play for Education promises to provide many of the features that teachers have wanted to have available through Android for a long time now. If you want to be one of the first to know when Google Play for Education is available, sign up here on the Google in Education page.

I think that the best part of Google Play for Education will be the ability for teachers (or administrators) to purchase apps and push them out to all of the devices in their schools. If the entire school is too big of a group, the option to create smaller groups of devices will be available too. Teachers will also be able to use Google Play for Education to push video and documents out to all of the devices in a group.

Are school vouchers losing steam?

Editor's Pick — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:00:52 +0000

Vouchers have been at the center of the school choice movement for many reformers, but they may be in trouble. Here making that argument is Abby Rapoport of The American Prospect, where this appeared. By Abby Rapoport When news broke … Continue reading →

Hacking the Future of Iowa’s Schools

Editor's Pick — Sat, 18 May 2013 04:08:39 +0000

Do you wish there was an app to collaborate with other teachers, communicate with parents, or engage your students?

In need of a new website for your school or class?

Have you identified a pressing need in your district that you think new software could address?

On the weekend of June 1 & 2, 100 top developers, brought together by Dwolla, will meet in Des Moines to help students, educators, and administrators build the software, app, or website that will address a challenge found in their school.

All you have to do is teach Dwolla about the challenge.

If selected, you’ll have 36-hours and a team of developers to create the kind of software, website, or app that will not only solve your challenge, but the challenge for potentially thousands of others.

Winning teams will split a minimum $4,000 prize!

This “hackathon” is free and requires no technical experience.

To learn more head to: http://hacktoschool.com/

Lt. Governor video: http://youtu.be/QPHcZImuP7Q

Blog post: http://blog.dwolla.com/hack-to-school

Website: www.hacktoschool.com

Registration: http://hacktoschool.eventbrite.com

Call for Challenges form: https://dwolla.wufoo.com/forms/r7p5w3/

A proposal for complete transparency

EdVoices — Sat, 18 May 2013 01:38:50 +0000

or else complete anonymity.

Nor\ person, including corporate persons, shall be allowed to mix open contributions and anonymous contributions to organizations classified as 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4).

Either all such contributions shall be opened and the donor identified, or all such contributions shall be anonymous with the donor receiving no recognition of any kind.

Think about it. The likes of the Koch brothers want to be praised for their contributions to arts organizations, but if they want that recognition all their donations to 501(c)(4)s would also have to be public.

Remember, most of these Tea Party and similar (c)(4)s are not filing in order for contributions to them to be tax deductible - they are not - nor are most of them for profit organizations. There is NO tax issue involved. The sole purpose is to allow massive amounts of money to be used to influence politics through unidentified contributions.

While the Supreme Court has said that money is speech in Buckley v Valeo (although i have seen nothing in the jurisprudence that means $1 = 1 vote), that opinion was written in the context of required disclosure of the contribution.

The issue is not just the amount of money some can spend. It is they can do so with no accountability.

Just a thought written from a head cold on a Friday night at the end of a really silly week in politics.

Design Squad – Engage Kids in Hands-on Engineering Projects

Editor's Pick — Sat, 18 May 2013 01:09:00 +0000

Design Squad from PBS Kids features a great collection of hands-on activities for elementary and middle school students. The activities are designed to help students explore engineering concepts. The collection of activities is divided into ten categories. The categories are technology, structures, sports, space, sound, simple machines, health, green, energy, and electricity. Each activity contains a materials list and directions. Some of the activities also have demonstration videos.

Applications for Education
Having students try the Design Squad activities could be a fun way to get kids interested in engineering.

In addition to the hands-on activities, Design Squad has animations that you can download to use in your engineering lessons.