So I've been trying to get my grades updated and papers graded and projects planned.
However, this morning I did have a chance to get caught up on some reading.
First, the future of football.
It has been in question recently since research has revealed brain damage linked to concussions as a result of the blunt trauma experienced in football.
Some cry foul when the league began outlawing head to head contact. I was not one of those. The game has always adapted and changed. Think what strong press cover corners, like those the Steelers had in the 1970's, must have thought when the league instituted harsher pass interference penalties in the 1980's - and look how offenses grew.
After all, let's not forget that almost a century ago football was nearly outlawed all together - had it not been for Teddy Roosevelt coming to help.
Fans will get used to this new style of football. Now the NCAA is considering ejecting a player for helmet to helmet contact. I think this is a step in the right direction.
But honestly I think the best direction to step would be to stop - through an insane devotion to strength and conditioning - creating players that are simply too large and far too fast for the equipment.
I mean a man who is over 300 pounds should not be able to be considered slow when he clocks a 5.0 40 yard dash!
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I love this blog post, entitled "Powerpoint and Other Stone Age Tools." Here is an excerpt
Stone Age societies lived and operated completely independent of other existing civilizations, but five thousand years later, our students should not still be living and learning that way. Our students need to be hunter and gatherers of a different sort, hunting for information and gathering tools that allow them to meaningfully interact with the curriculum. Yet, many popular digital resources have been around since the 1990s, and in terms of educational technology, that might as well be the Stone Age. The technology our students use needs to evolve with their abilities, expertise, and overall proficiency. We need to be preparing students for the next levels of learning with technology. We need to be preparing our students for the Bronze and Iron Ages – not a second Stone Age.
It's been said time and time again, but our students are not just passive consumers of information. They need to be taking it in from us, connecting it to their context, and then creating something new. Tools like Glossi, Storify, easel.ly, Popcorn maker, and Blubbr make this so easy to do.
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If you ask me, this high school Spanish teacher is bringing their 'extra' to make themselves remarkable by delivering grades (good and bad) in internet meme-style. Highly original and risky. I love it.
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Singapore's 21st century schools
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Amazing. How original and creative.
Here are some samples of Illustrated Six-Word Memoirs by students from grade school to grad school.
I've been interested in this concept ever since Paul Holdengraber started issue the same assignment to his guests on Live at the New York Public Library events.
The brevity is wonderful. I have been turning around this idea in my head since I heard Guy Kawasaki tell people to develop their own mantras. He offered some famous ones: Nike's - authentic athletic apparel; ebay's democratize ecommerce. Kawasaki's own? Empower people.
I need to do something like this as a final assignment in my College Comp 2 class. I love it.
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The Anatomy of a Great Teacher
Source: The Anatomy of a Great Teacher via Infographic File: Infographics and Data Visualization
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I love this one. Finally Research-based proof that students use cell phones for LEARNING.
As the smartphone evolves into a mini-computer, this is a no brainer. I see kids all the time Googling information to share in class. Or they text someone outside of class to answer a question I've posed in class (such as when we watch the film Jaws for a movie review, I'll have them text their parents or grandparents to see if they can remember where they were when they first saw the film).
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I'm both a book and teaching junkie, so when I saw this list of The 50 Best Books for New Teachers, I couldn't wait to take a look at it. Here are some of my favorites from the list -
The Passionate Teacher
What Great Teachers Do Differently
Horace's School
Teacher Man
The Death and Life of The Great American School System
Those are the ones I've read from the list. But as I looked at the list, I couldn't help but think of the books that have helped me so much that didn't make the cut - here are a few
A Shame to the Profession, Entertaining an Elephant, Zigzag, and Spitwad Sutras.
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Michael Crichton has a most interesting take on Global Warming. And though I'm a believer, I have to admit I find his argument very convincing. Let's hope he's right.
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I love infographs. If we could have our students develop inter-active info graphs, I think we'd be doing them a great service to both engage them and to expose them to 21st century job skills.
Created By: Education News
In College Comp 2, we are about to begin on our definition essay. One visual essay I have students do is on beauty. They compose this essay via a blog they create to illustrate how they define the concept
of beauty.
It looks like I'm not the first to ever have this idea. Here is a great series called "Love in One Photo" in which parents post one pick of their children and then state how it defines love.
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