Geography learning, on-line

March 22, 2007

Do your students have access to computers?

Test Your Geography Knowledge may seem a little elementary; alas — or maybe “hooray!” — it goes over exactly the sort of simple stuff I find too many high school students don’t have:  Basic political geography.   It beats Microsoft’s solitaire for in-class timewasting.  (This is a show-off site for a programmer and company, Lizard Point; look at other stuff at the site, and think of what you can do with it.)

That site has a link to Quiz School.  On-line quizzes, that you invent, that you can put into your classroom weblog — wonderful idea.  What can you do with this tool?  (It wouldn’t hurt you at all to post links to your quizzes here, would it?)

Back to geography:  You’ll also want to check out Sheppard Software, and the collection of geography games there.  The variety of games is quite outstanding — I even found one related to forestry.

Tip of the old scrub brush to SSBG’s blogroll.

1 Comment | Education, Education blogs, Geography - Political, On-line education, On-line learning, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Education Carnival 109, Spring Break Edition

March 11, 2007

Heritage schoolhouse, York Region District Schoolboard

Old photo of what is now the Heritage Schoolhouse, York Region District Schoolboard, Ontario, Canada

What It’s Like on the Inside hosts edition 109, at the first of the Spring Break season here in the U.S. I think, perhaps, the University of Texas at Dallas was the only college on break over the last week; festivities and parental worrying start in earnest this week.

1 Comment | Education, Education blogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Treating kid’s brains as finely toned muscle

March 3, 2007

How many of us have worked with former athletic coaches who just don’t quite master the need for practice of academic topics, time to master academic skills, the need for constant rehearsal of the skills, and good care and feeding of the brain, the same way they understand the care and feeding of kinesthetic skills?

Chris Wondra.com posted a 7-point summary of Eric Jensen’s plan for keeping kids’ brains in top learning order. It’s worth a look. Treat it like a checklist: How many of these get done in your classroom? How much of this brain conditioning do you have control over?

Now, remember that part of the No Child Left Behind Act that says what we do should be backed by research?

Leave a Comment » | Brain development, Brain learning, Classroom technology, Creativity, Education blogs, Education reform, No Child Left Behind Act, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

108th Carnival of Education

February 28, 2007

Aristotle instructing Alexander, image from British Museum

 

Aristotle teaching Alexander.

Dr. Homeslice hosts the midway this week, the 108th run for the mortar boards.

Rich stuff. Good teachers in need of a union. Bad teachers. Flights of fancy. Coming down to Earth.

Is your contribution there?

Leave a Comment » | Economics, Education, Education blogs, Education reform, Teacher Pay, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

107th Carnival of Education

February 23, 2007

More than 50 entries, at History is Elementary. If you’re not reading that blog anyway, you ought to. Go see.

St. John of Kenty, or St. John Cantius, patron saint of teachers

St. John of Kenty, or St. John Cantius

Patron saint of teachers

Leave a Comment » | Education, Education blogs, Education reform, History blogs, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Carnival of Education #106

February 16, 2007

Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas; Curt Teich postcard, UofArk Library

In our Valentine’s Day frenzy, we forgot to mention the 106th Carnival of Education, hosted by Eduwonks.  But now the sugar rush is sorta gone, we remembered!  Go, learn.

Leave a Comment » | Education, Education blogs, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Carnival of . . . Mathematics?

February 11, 2007

Divest yourself of that tired and false notion that you’re bad at math. That’s hooey, though it probably sets your self-expectations low enough that it damages your math performance. Don’t make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

New Carnival on the block: Carnival of Mathematics at Alon Levy’s Abstract Nonsense. It’s got some good stuff there for math teachers, and I suspect people with other interests will find something of interest, too. For me, for example, there is the link to the post that Fisks arguments of some of the more unsuspecting intelligent design fogmeisters. More pure historians may like the history of algebra post. There’s a lot more history and controversy in a post about why students should study math at all:

Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals—the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned, if at all.

—Martin Gardner
quoted by G. Simmons, Calculus Gems

(Take THAT you creators of state history standards!)

Hmmm. I’m teaching algebra and geometry this week (“go figure!”). I may use some of that stuff.

Tip of the old scrub brush to JD2718.

2 Comments | Accuracy, Brain learning, Creationism, Creativity, Education, Education blogs, History, Intelligent Design, Lesson plans, Public education, Science, TEKS, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Carnival time!

February 9, 2007

Milan Township School No. 83, now at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb

Another History Blog reminds us that the the 47th History Carnival is up and running over at Progressive Historians.

Also, the 105th Carnival of Education is up at Alexander Russo’s This Week In Education.

Just sayin’, that’s all.

Leave a Comment » | Education, Education blogs, History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Noteworthy: Primordial Blog

February 4, 2007

Thanks to P. Z. Myers, I found a very interesting blog by an intermediate grades teacher in Ross River, Yukon Territory (that’s Canada, folks).  Go check out Primordial Blog.  It’ll give fits to hoaxers of all stripes, including especially intelligent design, creationism, and history hoaxers.

Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Creationism, Education blogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Carnival of Education #104

January 31, 2007

Gate to Boston Latin school

Median Sib hosts the 104th Carnival of Education. If you’re not reading these regularly, you’re missing a lot in education. Even more useful is checking out the blogs the selected posts come from. This week’s posts include pieces on science education in Florida, the misfiring of the intended incentive pay to Houston Independent School District teachers, standards under NCLB, and more.

And, as EduWonks suggests, one might learn more by perusing the 57th Carnival of Homeschooling at PalmTree Pundit — a couple of good geography teaching posts there.

It’s like this internet thingy is some information highway or something.

Image: Gateway to Boston Latin School, probably the oldest operating public school in America. Ben Franklin’s schooling was obtained at this school (probably in an earlier building!)

Leave a Comment » | Ben Franklin, Charter schools, Classroom technology, Education, Education blogs, Education spending, Homeschooling, No Child Left Behind Act, Pedagogy, Politics, Teaching, Technology in the classroom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Carnival of Education #102

January 19, 2007

The 102nd Carnival of Education is underway at Dr. Homeslice. Substitutes and those wondering about unions should especially follow the links to this post from Get Lost Mr. Chips. Wise principals, vice principals and other administrators will follow the link, too.

LBJ and teachers and students in Cotulla, Texas, 1929

Principal and teacher Lyndon B. Johnson with students and fellow teachers in front of the Welhausen Grade School, May 7, 1929. Photo by Unknown, from LBJ Library, Austin, Texas.

2 Comments | Education, Education blogs, Education reform | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Carnival of Education 101

January 12, 2007

Postcard of Little Rock's Central High School

Little Rock’s Central High School, portrayed in a postcard (courtesy of Curt Teich Postcard Archives and the University of Arkansas Libraries)

Just a postcard to remind you that the 101st Carnival of Education is up over at I Thought a Think. There is a new Congress; many state legislatures are gearing up. It’s a good time to discuss education policy. Perhaps more to the point, if we don’t contribute to the discussion now, policy changes will go on without our contribution. Read the posts, and take action.

2 Comments | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Charter schools, Classroom technology, Education, Education blogs, Education reform, Education spending, Labor and unions, Pedagogy, Politics, Teaching, Technology in the classroom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

A century of the Carnival of Education

January 4, 2007

Not in years — but the 100th Carnival of Education is up over at Teaching in the Twenty-first Century.

What is that in scientific notation? In binary?

Howard School, Oregon - photo by Bruce Johnson

  • The Howard School, a one-room schoolhouse in Oregon’s Ochocos Mountains area, about 30 miles east of Prineville, Oregon. The school appears to be abandoned, an Oregon Ghost. Photo by Bruce Johnson, who holds the copyright. Used by permission. (More great photos of Oregon available at http://www.OregonPhotos.com).

1 Comment | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Education, Education blogs, Education reform, No Child Left Behind Act, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Thinking outside the bathtub: Here, read this!

December 26, 2006

How did I find KnowHR? I don’t remember now. I do remember that it featured a very interesting post on presentations, one of the areas of pet peeves of mine, especially as they related to bad PowerPoint presentations offered to teachers for use in the classroom — or worse, offered by teachers in the classroom.

We corresponded briefly on turning-point “presentations” in history (Go see, here, here, and here).

“HR” in that blog’s title stands for “human resources,” I’m guessing — they lean toward corporate human resources issues. That’s a long way from history and teaching history, for some people. Sadly, it’s a long way for many administrators and other leaders who could use some HR tips about how to get history taught better . . . but I digress.

KnowHR recently featured a “z-list.” It’s a list of blogs that you probably ought to look at from time to time, high quality blogs with material you can use — but blogs you won’t get to in the normal course of your business. It was tagged with a meme: Pass the list along, and add a couple of other very worthy blogs at the end. I’m passing it along, below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment | Creativity, Education blogs, Teaching, Technology, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Carnival of Education #98, at Median Sib

December 21, 2006

Go see.  Good stuff as always.

Leave a Comment » | Education, Education blogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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