Numbers by Mary Cornish
I like the generosity of numbers.
The way, for example,
they are willing to count
anything or anyone:
two pickles, one door to the room,
eight dancers dressed as swans.
I like the domesticity of addition–
add two cups of milk and stir–
the sense of plenty: six plums
on the ground, three more
falling from the tree.
And multiplication’s school
of fish times fish,
whose silver bodies breed
beneath the shadow
of a boat.
Here is another photo from New York. I loved all the opportunities for picture taking New York offered. Maybe it was just because it was a different environment for me. There just seemed to be a picture everywhere I looked. I still kick myself that I didn’t take a picture of the delivery man playing the accordion in his truck. But I digress.
I’ve been spending my weekend watching TED online. I don’t know if you know TED but it is the online fixture of the conference which is explained as “standing for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds.” Through the website, the conference organizers are striving to share the ideas and thoughts of several prominent thinkers. Now, if you are anything like me, you love to spend time on the computer but your wife’s not so crazy about the lack of quality cuddling time. Here is where this site gets full marks: these are videos you can share with your wife! Though you are still spending time on the computer, your wife won’t mind because the videos themselves are relevant, interesting and entertaining. She’ll want to watch them with you!!!! Now you can do both of the things you love to do, all at the same time and, as a bonus, you’re learning lots of great things!
Just as a teaser, here is one of the videos on education which is very relevant to where our education system needs to go.
Picture of a Poppy, The Menin Gate, Ypres
Today’s tool is not really that interactive and probably not really usable for my Grade 3 class. However, it is kind of a neat sight that gives a different perspective on world statistics. It basically takes the map of the world and distorts it to reflect a variety of statistics. The site is called Worldmapper and it provides users with a number of different topics on which to compare data on. Here is one in the education category:
Territory size shows the proportion of all spending on primary education worldwide that is spent there, when measured in purchasing power parity US$.
Now, though they have information on how they create the maps, I don’t know where they get their information. But it is a neat site and the goods category would be useful when discussing where our goods come from which is something I discuss with the children as part of our look at trade between communities. One of the activities I used to do was to get students to find 10 goods at home and write down where they were made. We then surveyed the class and created a graph on the countries and the numbers of goods found for each. Using worldmapper, it would be interesting to see if the data matched. This might also work well with the site, Gapminder which, “enables you to explore the changing world from your own computer. Moving graphics show how the development of all countries by the indicators you choose.” Here is a video demonstrating it’s use from TedTalks:
The site today is not the fanciest site but it has some great resources on it for poetry. The initial view is quite deceptive and doesn’t give the impression that there is much happening. And there isn’t. It hasn’t changed since I first saw it two years ago. The resource on it are really good though.
This site has downloads for a “March Madness Poetry” contest. It is set to coincide with the NBA tournament but really could be used anytime. You can download the information in separate portions or download the whole thing in one download. Teh downloads include the directions, an information thing on how to effectively read poems, a set of 64 poems (which I use all the time and includes the great spiderman poem), a tournament bracket layout page and other things. I highly recommend these resources and I have used them for my own Grade 3 poetry unit every year.
While the poetry information takes most of the page, there are also other resources that may be useful including a mystery unit literature study, To Kill A Mockingbird resources, a package on Costa’s questioning and some literature circle information. All in all a handy site though I wish they would continue to add to it.
To get to the site, click here.
Why I Read by Richard Peck
I read because one life isn’t enough,
and in the pages of a book I can be anybody;
I read because the words that build the story
become mine, to build my life;
I read not for happy endings but for new beginnings,
I’m just beginning myself and I woudn’t mind a map;
I read because I have friends who don’t, and young though they are,
they are beginning to run out of material;
I read because every journey begins at the library,
and it’s time for me to start packing
I read because one of these days I may want to leave this town,
and I’m going to go everywhere and meet everybody,
and I want to be READY !
Today’s photo is one I took in Nova Scotia a couple of years ago in a place called Halls Harbour on the Fundy shore.
First of all, I am going to just state that I have not used Twitter. Having said that, I do know what the tool is and have seen it used. I must admit that I am somewhat mystified as to why this tool is so popular with everyone.
These were the confused and mystified thoughts as I read a couple of posts on the Betchablog. In their post, they wrote, “My first thought about Twitter was the same as most people’s first thoughts about blogging… “Why?” Why on earth would anyone be at all interested in what I am doing right now? Who would care? The idea of taking the time to write a short sentence stating my current activity or thoughts, and sending them to who-knows-where just seemed to be totally bizarre to me. Not only that, but it seemed so inconvenient to have to go to the Twitter website just to do this… I simply couldn’t see what the attraction was.”
This was/is exactly what I think about Twitter. Now, the author did become a fan of twitter after having used it and listed their reasons and now there is wiffiti; a sort of cross between a wiki and a twitter. However, I still do not understand what the fuss is. Who has the time to do this? I don’t get to my computer enough during the school day to keep a Twitter going effectively. I have a hard enough time keeping my personal blog and my classblog going let alone get home to my wife after planning, etc to have some quality time. Having other educators commenting on your thoughts of the moment and sharing their thoughts is appealing. In our classrooms all day, it is sometimes hard to have conversations with other teachers that really reaches deep into the core of teaching and learning. So, having a group of educators at your fingertips you can follow and converse with is appealing. However, I believe that it is missing the meaningfulness of actual interactions that are longer than the instant, quick response twittering enables. Don’t we want to develop deeper understandings of what it means to educate and be an educator? Can we have those types of conversations in the small amount twittering allows us? Or are we moving more into what seems to be the domain of media where everything needs to be in quick soundbytes of information? Don’t we want to teach our students to reflect and develop deeper understandings? Can these be done using twitter? Me personally, I would rather spend the time trying to interact with other educators through e-mail, wiki’s or blogs.
The other thing I wonder about Twitter is how do we bring in the other educators who have just as much expertise and information to share but don’t want to be bombarded with constant messages. It’s too distracting. Sometimes I wonder if what we do as educational technologists is not so much bring ideas and learning together but increasingly seperate ourselves from those who don’t have as much skill with technology thus creating this division. I don’t think Twitter as a tool as to bring the two groups together.
Anyway, that’s my thought. I would love to be convinced otherwise. Maybe somebody out there can convince me.
Well, so much for me getting these done on time. It’s been a busy week but here it is. Better late than never (as one of my students said. It wasn’t an excuse then so I guess it isn’t an excuse now!). Anyway . . . .
Today’s site is a very informative one and one I especially used while working on my Master’s. The site is called Funderstanding. As you can see from the image on the side, it has great information and explanations of all the different learning theories from multiple intelligences to constructivism. Clicking on the theory takes you to a detailed definition and description of that theory of learning. Clicking on the other areas takes you to information on emotional intelligence, instruction and assessment amongst other things. Great site and lots of great information. I like how the information is simply and explicitly given so you do not have to wade through jargon. This can also serve as a good starting point for further explanations, giving a good overview of theories before encountering further resources that may be more indepth and technical.
