Going native, going green

June 19, 2007

Vicki Thaxton all by herself has saved more water usage in the Dallas area than can be contained in one of our Army Corps of Engineers water projects — say, Joe Pool Lake (yes, it really is named “Joe Pool Lake” — named after Congressman Joe Pool).

Butterfly on a salvia, from interview with Vicki Thaxton

How did she do it?  How did she save so much water?

Vicki advises Texans on planting their gardens, and for the 20 years or so we’ve known her, she’s been spreading the word, and sometimes spreading the mulch and fertilizer, about xeriscaping with native plants. “Xeriscaping” means landscaping that relies on natural water, rain and dew, instead of irrigation from a hose.

Vicki has been at the same place for all that time, but the establishment’s name has changed — the nursery in Cedar Hill where you find her and get advice is Petal Pushers, on Old Straus Road. (No promotional consideration, by the way.)

Plus, Vicki’s a nice lady. It’s good to see her getting a wider audience for her flower indoctrinations, even if just for a few minutes, on our local NBC affiliate, KXAS-TV, Channel 5. For at least a short while you can view this piece with KXAS’s weatherman, David Finfrock.

Leave a Comment » | Conservation, Education, Environmental protection, Natural history, Texas, Texas history, Video and film | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Carny barking today: Education, git yer education here!

May 23, 2007

Another of my favorite blogs, I Thought A Think, hosts the 120th Carnival of Education this week. Graciously, ITAT included Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub — part of the sideshow or part of the midway, I’m not sure. But I’m grateful. The link is to my post on the Internet Archive features on tobacco, and the Flintstones promoting Winston cigarettes.

Interesting that the Carnival of Education cites the post on tobacco in the Internet Archive, and not the post on education reform in the same archive.

Sketch of Flintstone School, Flintstone, Maryland

Sketch of the Flintstone Elementary School, Flintstone, Maryland (Allegany County Public Schools)

Leave a Comment » | Education, Education blogs, Education reform, Education spending, History video sources, Technology in the classroom, Video and film, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Mining the Internet Archive: Education reform

May 22, 2007

Do we use enough different media in our classrooms?

In my continuing search for sources of useful and inspiring video and audio stuff, I keep running into the Internet Archive. A few of Dorothy Fadiman’s thought-provoking films can be viewed there, including this one some of us may recall from past PBS broadcasts, which features nine schools that appear to work well: “Why Do These Kids Love School?” (1990)

Now I have two questions: First, since 1990, how have these schools fared? Second, since 1990, have we learned anything really significant about how students learn that would change our views of what goes on in these schools?

Leave a Comment » | Education, Education reform, Education spending, Pedagogy, Public education, Teaching, Video and film | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

News on trial: Newseum makes grand plans

May 11, 2007

Newshounds, newsmakers and news writers ought to salivate at the idea of a grand museum to the First Amendment on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., in Washington, D.C.  Organizers of the Newseum plan exactly that, with a grand opening in October 2007.

It promises serious analysis, not just cheerleading, for news media, according to the New York Times:

The Newseum’s goal is to present the “first rough draft of history” in all its glory and some of its shame, impressing upon visitors the importance of the First Amendment’s protections of a free press. In the glory department are Edward R. Murrow’s rooftop broadcasts from London during the Blitz; he is among the heroes of a short movie to be shown in the Newseum’s 4-D theater, where the seats will literally shake as German planes roar overhead.

The shame is evident in exhibits examining, among other things, Jayson Blair’s manufactured articles in The New York Times and Jack Kelley’s fabrications in USA Today. Videos address the use of anonymous sources and how bias can find its way into news accounts.

One of the museum’s major challenges will be to attract visitors at a time when surveys show that public respect for the news media has been ebbing. Charles L. Overby, chief executive of the Freedom Forum, the nonprofit organization that underwrites the Newseum, discussed the problem in an interview in his temporary office adjacent to the construction site.

“Our annual survey shows that 40 percent of the American public believes the press has too much freedom,” he said, adding that the museum’s job is to educate — in an engaging way.

The Newseum, he emphasized, is not meant to be a monument to the press, but to its freedom.

Because of the building’s location, one could do a tour of the FBI building, and close out the day with a tour of the Newseum, probably from the same bus stop.

Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, First Amendment, History, Newspapers, Video and film, Writing history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Marfa lights — seriously, does anyone know what they are?

April 30, 2007

Another of the great quirks that makes Texas, Texas, is the Marfa lights. Marfa is in far west Texas — alone, a tiny city in a very arid area. It’s desolate enough that Hollywood thought it would be a great place to film much of the movie “Giant,” which needed to use part of Godforsaken* County to make a point about how desolate Texas can be.

And way out there, there is a hill where one can stop after sundown, and watch the mysterious dancing of lights coming from the not-too-distant hills. So far as I can tell, no good explanation exists for what the lights might be. Physicists have ruled out mirages, and the lights were there long before auto headlights anyway.

Marfa hosts the “Mystery Lights Festival” over Labor Day Weekend (as the story cited above notes, the same weekend as Alpine, Texas, hosts its balloon festival — two West Texas happenings in one trip, perhaps).

Marfa lights, 2004 photo by Julie McConnell

Do you know of a good explanation? Anybody got one?

  • * No, there is not really a Godforsaken County among Texas’s 254 counties. Teachers wishing to use this in the classroom may want to be aware that there is a very short video of the Marfa lights mystery on “Texas Country Reporter’s” DVD collection commemorating 25 years of stories. Texas Country Reporter also has a DVD collection of visits to Texas State Parks, which is a good source of information about Texas geography. I suspect other DVDs from this company would offer other good geography and history supplements (Texas Country Reporter is broadcast on Channel 8 in the Dallas area, and on other television stations throughout the state).

8 Comments | Geography - Physical, History, Movies, Science, Texas, Texas history, Travel, Video and film | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

History Carnival 51, from a different view

April 4, 2007

A Don’s Life hosts History Carnival 51, which is fun and informative if only because blog author Mary Beard offers a slightly different view of things, being several time zones and an ocean away from America.

This carnival features several entries related to the Battle of Thermopylae, especially surrounding the release of the Film “300,” and several entries pondering the history of slavery, coming just at the end of the commemoration of the end of slavery in the British Empire.  Both of these topics offer good material for enrichment for AP world history classes, and good information for anyone else wishing to avoid repeats of the errors of history.

1 Comment | Capturing history, Current History, Curricula, Education, Freedom - Political, History, History blogs, History museums, Video and film, War, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Free Inconvenient Truth for teachers

December 23, 2006

    Update: As of February 11, 2007, all 50,000 free copies have been given away. You may register for other giveaways and contests of Participate.net

.

Participate.net is giving away 50,000 copies of the movie on climate change, An Inconvenient Truth.

First 50,000 teachers who ask. Go here: http://www.participate.net/educators/pub_files/ait-block_dvd.jpg

One more way Al Gore is ahead of his time.

2 Comments | Accuracy, Current History, Economics, Environmental protection, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History video sources, Video and film | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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