Thing #18

I subscribed to the Education Podcast with John Merrow on PBS.org. I listened to a few of the podcasts. This would be a great podcast to use as a discussion start point for professional development. In one podcast he was discussing the impact of the economic stimulus package on education. Basically, he said that if a child does not have the basic needs met at home, then he/she will not be able to perform at school. Not that he had anything to say that we do not already talk about at work anyway, but it was an interesting start point. This actually could be a great start point for a discussion with either AP or advanced economics class. How does the economic stimulus indirectly affect education and students in the classroom?

Thing #16

Plunking is very wierd. It is like the "What's on your mind?" bar on Facebook except you chronicle more of your life's mundane details. Does anyone really care enough to follow my every waking internet musing?

Thing #5c

While I was checking my reader I came across this article on the California earthquake that happened this weekend. My sister-in-law lives out there and she was only a few miles from the epicenter. As it turned out she is fine, but it was interesting that I was able to find something on my reader that was more pertainant. I am beginning to like to reader. It is like having a beautifully landscaped yard. If you don't keep the hedges constantly trimmed, then the overgrowth is unmanageable.

Thing 14

I have used teacher tube before. It is a great tool to utilize when you want to show students historical footage. Some of videos are incredibly hoakie. The link that I embedded was one that I heard was on Teacher Tube. (By the way, the comments on this video are extremely inappropriate. I would check out any video before I showed it t omake sure that comments were appropriate.) I never could nor never would show it to my students, but I looked at if for production value. All of the videos that I saw on Teacher Tube were very low tech as opposed to the more polished videos that You Tube has. Granted, You Tube has plenty of amatuer videos, but it is obvious that Teacher Tube was designed as a teaching toll and not just another way to seek 15 minutes of fame. I think that with some very basic video equipment a teacher could produce and post student work fairly easily.

I have come across some items on You Tube that I wanted to share with my students or other coworkers. I'm glad to know that there is a way to show those on my computer.

Thing 15

I found the Library Thing to be an interesting concept. I like the book recommendations. I searched for a book on a topic that I am quite familiar with to see what other books were suggesting along with it. I found that the recommendations were all books that I have read, but they were good selections. Perhaps I would use this if I were venturing out to a new genre.
This would be a good jumping off point for students to utilize when writing a report.