http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach A "teacher to go" blogs about teaching, technology, and education in general Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:54:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en For the past 18 months or so, I have been a big fan of a certain web 2.0 tool that allowed students to create online books that could be viewed interactively and shared by URL. In a big email push this past week, they revised their user agreement. I read ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2009/11/05/the-economy-strikes-again/ I am far behind at checking out all the good things in my Google Reader. This one is weeks old, but as I read it I hear myself let out a satisfied "Mmmmm" as if I were eating a chocolate truffle:  "Schools Adopt Art as a Building Block of Education." ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2009/10/30/mmmmm-art/ Relationships. Chad Sansing writes a great post about the value of relationships in the classroom. Even the links are a good read. Isn't that the point: the links are as important as what is said. The links are person to person, person to thoughts, person to words. Chad underscores the ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2009/10/08/hot-marshmallows/ Have you ever found pieces from two different jigsaw puzzles that actually fit together, one a blue piece of a geometric design and one a scrap of sky from an entirely different puzzle box, yet surprisingly an appropriate "match"?  Two posts from separate feeds in my Google Reader today interlock ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2009/10/01/thinking-aloud-allowed/ In today's data-driven life, everyone wants a way to measure (and perhaps pay) a good teacher.  Parents have always wanted a way to "know who the good teachers are." Administrators want a way to put a quantitative label on what they know (?) is happening in their schools. But ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2009/09/17/good-teachers-worry-deep/ More education happens over warm Diet Coke, cold coffee, and chocolate than the experts ever realized.  A recent study, discussed in this Edweek article [I hope this is the correct link for the free access version], demonstrates the positive effect that "top notch" teachers have on peers, especially in informal, ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2009/09/04/sharing-the-chocolate-of-teaching-and-learning/ In honor of the first week of school, I am rewinding to the days when I worked to meet the needs of individual kids instead of masses of teachers. Scott McLeod posted yesterday about a teacher desperately seeking a reading "program" for what I call a "severely and profoundly gifted" ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2009/08/28/severely-and-profoundly/ For those of us accustomed to being told when to talk, walk, eat, and even go to the bathroom (in 41 minute increments with 3 minutes between), the shift in culture between our familiar schoolworld and the broader e-world is as difficult as right-brain/left brain shift. Forget the digital native/immigrant ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2009/08/20/altering-time-and-space-thinking-counterclickwise/ This one has been hanging in my head during swimming-thinking time for a couple of weeks. What is the true value of teachers' graduate work, in particular Master's Degrees?  A recent study decided it is a poor use of school funds to underwrite teacher graduate degrees by increasing their pay simply ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2009/08/13/true-values/ We have all been there. You are in a session with teaching peers, learning (or teaching or collaborating) about a new way to envision learning and the many tools that can put learning in the hands of the students. Two of the others in the session clearly do not "buy ... http://blog.teachersfirst.com/thinkteach/2009/07/31/retry-or-ignore/