Teacher Talk

Student Competition

On Your Mark. Get Set. Doodle.

Doodle 4 Google is giving U.S. students in grades K-12 the opportunity to design a doodle (see samples here) for the Google homepage. Students will be asked to draw a doodle that best represents the theme "What if...?" We ask ourselves this question every day when we build our products, so we thought we would ask the same of the future doodlers.

Check out www.google.com/doodle4google for more details. All that's needed to get started is a teacher or principal to register the school. Registration closes on 3/28/08, and entries must be postmarked by 4/12/08.

Vogt, Mary R. The Artist. MorgueFile. 

FREE Teacher Toolbar

FREE TOOLBAR

---

Download this FREE Teacher Toolbar and keep the latest teaching and learning information at your fingertips. Updated automatically when you go to the Internet.

Click here to get the Teacher Toolbar today.

Got a suggestion for tools, web sites and other resources to be added?
Let the Toolbar Team know at toolbar@professionallearningboard.com.

Google ANSWER Engine

Many folks know Google as a robust Search-engine.

Project Spectrum (http://www.google.com/educators/spectrum.html) is an example of how Google is also an elaborate Answer-engine.

Google's responsiveness and work with families to create career opportunities and enhancing communications for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is quite impressive. Check out Project Spectrum and try SketchUp (http://sketchup.google.com/), the FREE 3D design software for yourself.

Click here to see how easy it is to use, get  Google SketchUp Tutorials (http://sketchup.google.com/sptutorials.html) and even Download Lesson Plans (http://www.google.com/educators/learning_materials/Project_Spectrum_Manual.pdf)

Current Events in Education

There are few things more exciting than what I percieve to be outstanding use of technology in education. Andrew Pass' blog The Current Events in Education demonstrates such use.

Discussion Starters for both young and older children provide prompts that present often difficult subject matter in an enlightening manner and more elaborate vocabulary is called out for study.

Mr. Pass' has a gift for designing inquiries that draw thoughtfulness and debate while refraining from sharing his own opinions. Very commendable. We can learn a lot from his suggestions as well as from the manner in which he conducts himself. Thank you!

Get this widget!

Background Checks

BACKGROUND CHECKS

---

The world is no longer a simple place where everyone knows everyone in their hometown or even in their neighborhoods. The world has changed and one reality of the many changes is that teaching and safeguarding children includes performing background checks for all employees and volunteers who work with or near children.

You may be surprised to learn that there is a large range of services offered by companies conducting background checks. Make sure that your're doing everything possible to protect the children entrusted in your care.

Professional Learning Board recommends MYB Inc. as a cost-effective and school-focused resource for organizations to perform background checks. MYB Inc. is trusted by districts, schools and states across the country. Click here to visit the MYB Inc. web site and learn more about how you and your organization can better safeguard all children with background checks from a company that understands the unique needs of education.

Reading Resource: Spelling & Vocabulary PK-12+

Oops, almost forgot this great reading resource.
Dig around the site a little for Spanish, Hebrew and more language games and learning tools. Gracias y Toda Raba Jacob Richman!

Reading Resources

_________________________________________________________

Click Here for Preview
_________________________________________________________

ARTICLE: Read All About It  NEW!
Technology motivates students to read.
_________________________________________________________

When Kids Can't Read: A Guide for Teachers 6-12

_________________________________________________________

Students learn 90% more
with 72% retention.

http://www.vocabularycartoons.com
_________________________________________________________

A musing...

I've been giving serious consideration to how we can make systemic changes in American education, specifically teaching and learning.

As a pioneer (entrepreneur) in K12 education, I often find myself alone and on the road less traveled. Please lend your expertise, opinions and experiences as I welcome voices from outside of my head. Thanks!

Teachers! Parents! What say yee?

In his State of the State address in January, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, said,

“In too many cases, our high school students are bored, checked-out, coasting, not even vaguely aware of their post-high school plans, if they have any, and they are just marking time.”

Please, share your thoughts.
 

Do you agree?

     If so...why is this the case?
     If not...what is the Governor missing?

It's the Teachers, Stupid.

The title references '92's election (It's the economy, stupid!) and is not meant as a general pejorative to idiots everywhere. So, take no offense. Though, in a way, it does capture my overall conviction about building a new education system: it's all about teachers.

Let me throw the gauntlet down right here, right now, maybe even use it first to slap a few faces across America--knowing that every major education study confirms what I am about to say: there is nothing, nothing, more important for producing positive outcomes for kids at school than the quality of the teacher in his or her classroom. Period. End of point.

We have a first principle. Chisel it in:

A great education system is wholly dependent upon great teachers.

Now, let's get after it.

Almost Free Magazines

When students ask this question, refer them to one of many leading industry magazines. This is also a great tool for keeping up on trends, direction and changes related to life-after-K12-education. No cost other than sincere interest.

The Perfect Gift

20 Reasons Books are the Best Gifts!
by Ruth Smith, Director UBAH

 

20. Books don’t need to be assembled.
19. Books don’t need batteries.
18. Books never come in the wrong color or size.
17. Books don’t need to be serviced by a dealer.
16. Books won't need replacement parts.
15. Books are easier to gift wrap than footballs.
14. Books don’t bite, scratch, or kick.
13. Books don’t need watering or fertilizing.
12. Books don’t irritate your allergies.
11. Books don’t go out of style.
10. Books look good with any decor.
9.  Books don’t get aphids or attract ants.
8.  Books aren't noisy and won't annoy family, friends, and neighbors.
7.  Books don’t shrink, stretch, or fade.
6.  Books don’t need extension cords.
5.  Bookswon’t scratch the coffee table.
4.  Books don’t cause cavities or get stale.
3.  Books take you places without even leaving home.
2.  Books are gifts which can be opened again and again.
1.  Books, no matter how much you use them, are never empty.

Order before December 15th and receive before Christmas!

Free Online Tutorials

Learn skills at your own pace -- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week -- with these FREE ONLINE TUTORIALS: GCF Global Learning^® is a web-based community of learners from all over the world. Membership is completely FREE! And, take the first lesson without giving out any information!

Visit the Tutorials page to see tutorial offerings, including Computer & Internet Basics,  Microsoft Office 1997 - 2003 (Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access), OpenOffice.org (Writer, Calc, Impress) <FREE alternative to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint and Life Skills including Math, Money and Career Basics.

 

Grants for MN Girls (Age 10 - Grade 10)

The Ann Bancroft Foundation is awarding Dare to Dream mini-grants!

Individual girls, age 10 - Grade 10, living in Minnesota, with an idea and passion to try something new, improve a skill, attend camp, take lessons, etc. in need of financial assistance and encouragement from an adult mentor.

This Fall 2006 round of Dare to Dream minigrants for Minnesota girls age 10 through grade 10. Girls can receive grants from $100 to $500 for a variety of programs, classes, travel, school activities and more.

Each girl should have an adult mentor (not a family member) who will help her prepare her grant application, work with her to accomplish her activity, and help her with her final report to the foundation.  To date, the Ann Bancroft Foundation has awarded more than $210,000 to 570 girls in Minnesota.

If you know of a young woman who would benefit from this program, please visit www.annbancroftfoundation.org and click on Dare to Dream Mini-grants. The application can be downloaded and printed.

Please read the directions carefully. Every girl must submit an application individually, and questions must be answered carefully and thoughtfully. Questions? Contact Kathy Bardins at 763-541-9363.

They look forward to receiving proposals from girls in your school or organization. Thanks, in advance, for helping us spread the word by telling others, your consideration in mentoring a girl and supporting this opportunity.

You can help girls achieve their dreams and learn that anything is possible.

Deadline for applications is November 15, 2006 and MUST BE POSTMARKED by this date. No fax applications will be accepted. Please follow directions carefully.

Please let us know here at Teacher Talk if this ends up being something from which a girl you know benefits. We'll happily tell others and share her story here.

Tags: grant, grants, money for girls, money for lessons, money to learn, scholarships for girls, scholarships for kids, parents, homeschool, mentors, private school, public school, teach

Learning Beyond the Classroom w/ NUMB3RS

If you are not familiar with NUMB3RS, please consider learning more as this resource is phenomenal! "Spree Part 1" Friday, September 22, 10PM ET/PT on CBS While Don and his team are faced with trying to capture a 30-year-old teacher (Dickens) and her 17-year-old boyfriend/student (Gallagher), who are on a violent cross-country crime spree, one of their own gets caught in the crossfire. This is part one of a two-part, third-season premiere of NUMB3RS.

This Week's New Lesson Plans NUMB3RS Activity: The Missing City In this activity, students will examine a map of a crime spree, similar to one Charlie makes in the episode. Students will be asked to compute the mileage between the pairs of cities along the route and make a conjecture about the location of a “missing city” that Charlie thinks the criminals visited, but did not commit a crime. NUMB3RS Activity: Traveling in Good Circles In this activity, students will find the shortest great circle distance between two cities. Students will investigate and use a formula that uses the latitude and longitude of each city to find this distance. NUMB3RS Activity: The Chase In this activity, students will be introduced to pursuit curves, in the context of Agent Edgerton chasing a pair of criminals. Students will examine how Agent Edgerton's path changes as he pursues the couple. NUMB3RS Activity: The Four Bug Problem: Step on No Pets This activity also examines pursuit curves, in the context of a classic problem called the Four Bug Problem. This includes a class activity in which four students will take a walk along a pursuit curve in a simulation of this problem. To see all available activities for current and past episodes, visit cbs.com/numb3rs.

Season One Activities In the Works Due to popular demand, TI and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) have announced plans to create activities for Season One of the hit television series. The lessons will focus primarily on Algebra and Geometry fundamentals. Stay tuned for more details!

Website Refreshed The “We All Use Math Every Day” web site is back this year with a brand new look and feel. You can find the site by going to cbs.com/numb3rs. Inside the site, you'll find activities from Season Two and Three for use in the high school classroom. We'll also be testing out a few program ideas, including having some activities in Spanish. And, our parent site will be expanded as the year goes on. In particular, keep an eye on the “Insiders” section where you'll find information about the “We All Use Math Every Day” program and the people behind it. Please feel free to direct other educators to the site to download the free activities as well as sign up to receive a Teacher's Getting Started Kit which includes program information, sample classroom activities, a classroom poster and bumper sticker. In addition, educators can sign up to receive this weekly “We All Use Math Every Day” e-newsletter packed with classroom activities and exclusive insider information about the educational program.

The Inside Scoop with Andrew Black Andrew Black, math researcher for NUMB3RS, took a moment to sit down and discuss Season Three and what's in store for Charlie's math-oriented crime solving skills: We are all eagerly awaiting the return of NUMB3RS, are there any new math elements we should expect to see this season? “Charlie again applies some nifty math logic to hunting down a variety of bad guys. The two-part season premiere has Charlie helping the FBI track down two criminals on a multi-state crime spree. Charlie applies Pursuit Curves to predict the criminals' most likely path of escape – and their ultimate destination. In other episodes, the FBI enlists Charlie's help after a series of seemingly random highway attacks (resulting in several murders) grip LA. Charlie disentangles the concept of "random" in order to find a true underlying pattern, leading to the takedown of the killer. And later, Charlie helps the FBI track down a stolen work of art from an LA museum. We get into the subtle intricacies shared between math and art.” What advice would you give educators who are looking to incorporate something new in their math classrooms? “The show is just a springboard to get students to think about math in a different, real-world way. We hope Charlie's use of math will show students that math really is used everyday, that math is all around us, and that it's often used without us even being aware of it. Hopefully Charlie's applications will engage both teachers and students, expanding math beyond the textbook.”

Tags: math, teach, students, learn, school, CTE

Constitution or Citizenship Day

Every educational institution receiving Federal funding is mandated by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, to hold an educational program pertaining to the United States Constitution, on September 17^th as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. Commemorating the September 17^th, 1787 signing of the Constitution*.

U.S. Constitution Workshop, a "self-service" online workshop for teachers

The National Archives’ documents

Library of Congress 

National Archives research facilities and presidential libraries

*When September 17 is a Sunday, as this year, Constitution Day is to be held during the preceding or following week (September 11^th – 15^th or (September 18^th – 22^nd).

The word rose, no matter how it's spelled, does not smell.

Although inconsistent in how they're spelling it (text-messaging vs text messaging and eMail vs  e-mail), the messages from all three are the same.

USA Today reports:
Text-messaging replacing eMail among youth
In the era of instant gratification, students and recent graduates are used to being plugged in 24/7, and view eMail as a slower, less convenient means of communication...

Associated Press reports:
'E-mail has become the new snail mail' as younger set goes with text messaging

Mercury News reports:
SITES LIKE MYSPACE OFFERING `INSTANT' SOCIAL SCENE, FAST MESSAGING ATTRACT YOUNG USERS, STUDY SHOWS

CHICAGO -- E-mail is so last millennium. Young people see it as a good way to reach an elder - a parent, teacher or a boss - or to receive an attached file. But increasingly, the former darling of high-tech communication is losing favor to instant and text messaging, and to the chatter generated on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. 

Email is FORMAL correspondence?

That said, no one is predicting the death of e-mail. Besides its usefulness in formal correspondence, it also offers the ability to send something from "one to many," says Anne Kirah, a senior design anthropologist at Microsoft who studies people's high-tech habits. That might include an announcement for a club or invitation to a party. 

Many college students are logged on 24/7 and the shift is starting to creep into workplace communication, too.

Chintan Talati, who is 28, often uses instant message with other younger peers at his work, a California-based Web site that provides automotive information to consumers. He prefers IM over e-mail. "It's a way to get a quicker answer," he says.

And how do we help students make transitions to college and the world of work?:
 

"Nine to 5 has been replaced with 'Give me a deadline and I will meet your deadline,"' Kirah says of young people's work habits. "They're saying 'I might work until 2 a.m. that night. But I will do it all on my terms."'

Invasion of the Robots: CONTEST

Contest Info

Create conversational robots, or BOTs, for MSN® Messenger and Windows Live™ Messenger.
The most original, useful robots collect $40,000 in total prizes.

Robot Gallery

Watch out! A mob of brilliant robots has us surrounded. And it’s growing larger every day.

Check out the entries and while you’re here, vote! You can vote as often as you like. Feel free to choose your own robot. The BOT with the most popular votes on September 15th wins the $500 User’s Choice Award!

The Rise and Fall of a Charter School

One of the many uses of blogging is the ability to blog/write/share/compose our thoughts. Today I feel sad, sorry for students absolutely and myself perhaps as well.

Six years ago I considered myself blessed to be actively involved in the creation of a charter high school in downtown Saint Paul. Minnesota Business Academy was a dream.

Today, I learn the school is closing:

TOP STORY

04/26/2006 11:42 PM CDT
Board closes books on business charter school
Low enrollment, high lease costs sidelined academy after six years
BY DOUG BELDEN, Pioneer Press
A charter high school founded six years ago to train students for careers in business succumbed to the realities of the balance sheet Wednesday. The Minnesota Business Academy's board voted unanimously to close the downtown St. Paul school after this school year.

As time passes I consider authoring The Rise and Fall of a Charter School.

I wonder "would anyone care to read it?"

Virtual Crime. Real Money.

www.startheregoplaces.com www.catchmegame.com

The case is virtual. The $2,500 reward is real. Can you solve the Case of the California Con? You’ll have to trust your gut (and no one else) to investigate and indict the guilty employee of a surf rocker’s night spot. Compete for the highest score to win: • Grand Prize: $2,500 • 1st Prize: Sony 42" 3LCD Rear Projection Television • Ten (10) 2nd Prizes: 60G Video Apple iPod® The contest only runs for 3 weeks — and with these prizes, it’s a crime not to enter. Play now — it’s free.

It's in the NUM3ERS

www.education.ti.com This Week′s Lesson Plans for NUMB3RS episode "All's Fair," airing March 31:

5 year High School = College Degree

While AP courses have been around for years, college and high school have been generally separate from one another. A recent story indicates this may be changing.

Wake County Public Schools, Wake Technical Community College and WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh, NC are jointly opening a new, hybrid high school and technical college: The Wake Early College of Health and Sciences. Watch the Video Here.

The new 5 year school will produce graduates meeting the following high school, college and workplace standards:

• High School diplomas
• Internships in Health Care
• Associate degrees in health care related vocations.

Because this is a public high school, students will get a free 2 year college degree and be one year ahead of their peers if they choose to enter college as juniors upon completing the program. If they do not continue on to college, they will have skills and experience in high demand careers that will probably offer starting salaries of at least $20/hour.

"Elizabeth Ogle, 14, of Knightdale, knew she wanted to enroll despite the school's lack of frills: no sports teams, no prom, no social clubs. She wants to be a pediatric nurse and said school comes first. "I can still go to games and dances with my friends," she said. "My future is more important.""

Hats off to the Raleigh Public Schools and their partners for finding a true win-win-win solution for educating our children, helping them fulfill their dreams and meeting the present and future needs of society.