Vote for Yohannes

Yohannes has been instrumental in getting public libraries for kids going in Ethiopia. He has worked hard to make the world a better place. CNN is having a vote for ordinary heroes. I hope you will vote for him!

Let's Get Political

I am preparing some election resources for a 5th grade teacher who wants to do a unit before the Election. I am excited by what PBS has to offer on their election site for teachers. Below you will see the Widget that the offer for free. There are also other interactive pages. One other resource that was shared with me is the Common Craft video on the Electoral College. If you (like me) still don't quite understand the crazy system you might want to watch it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok_VQ8I7g6I

...Just When You Thought it was Safe...

This week has been a week full of dealing with technology glitches and at the same time a week when my colleagues led by Debbie have been discussing how to deal with the constant changes in technology combined with teachers who are reluctant to change.

Jeff Utecht in The Thinking Stick wrote a very thought provoking article about the fact that teachers are good learners, but they are not good at unlearning and relearning. This may be the ultimate 21st Century Skill.

Yesterday, after a week of issues with our networked keyboarding program one of the third grade teachers who was scheduled to start keyboarding with her students in the next week or two said "I will wait until you get all of the glitches worked out...." She is not going to do it until "after the holidays". Aughhhhhh!! She also expressed that the students could not handle such upheaval and she wanted to wait until things were smooth.

I DO understand her point of view. It is frustrating to start something and then to be interrupted by glitches. Teachers have enough to "cover" without taking a half hour off each day for activities that are not working. Teachers also like to have control. If things are not predictable you cannot control them. Kids are unpredictable enough! Teachers also like to understand EVERYTHING before the kids do it so that they can explain it to the kids. They do not trust the kids to be able to problem-solve, so they want to do it for them ahead of time.

Technology will ALWAYS have glitches and even more so if we quit trying until things work smoothly. So, I am thinking that there is a balance...

Just when you thought it was safe...