Friday, October 26, 2012

Marco Tempest: A cyber-magic card trick like no other

The suits, numbers and colors in a deck of cards correspond to the seasons, moon cycles and calendar. Marco Tempest straps on augmented reality goggles and does a card trick like you’ve never seen before, weaving a lyrical tale as he deals.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Merit Pay, Teacher Pay, and Value Added Measures

Value added measures sound fair, but they are not. In this video Prof. Daniel Willingham describes six problems (some conceptual, some statistical) with evaluating teachers by comparing student achievement in the fall and in the spring.

Timothy Kurek, Straight Christian Man, 'Comes Out' And Pretends To Be Gay For A Year


Thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people weren't the only ones celebrating National Coming Out Day on Thursday. A Christian man from Tennessee appeared on ABC News to talk about his own coming out experience but -- he's straight.

Timothy Kurek "came out" to his family and friends and lived as a gay man for a year in order to experience what life is like as an LGB person. The Liberty College graduate told ABC News, "You learned to be very afraid of God [in church]... [And you learned] the loving thing to do is to tell my friend who is gay, 'Hey, listen, you are an abomination and you need to repent to go to heaven.' I absolutely believed in that lock, stock and barrel."


Read the book: The Cross in the Closet


Friday, October 12, 2012

Teaching Digital Citizenship (playlist)




Once you choose to send or post a pic, you give up your right to choose where it ends up. Anyone can forward it along and you never know who may end up seeing it. Don't let others decide where your image ends up. Think before you post.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test


Is there a definitive line that divides crazy from sane? With a hair-raising delivery, Jon Ronson, author of The Psychopath Test, illuminates the gray areas between the two. (With live-mixed sound by Julian Treasure and animation by Evan Grant.)


The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology

This demo -- from Pattie Maes' lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry -- was the buzz of TED. It's a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine "Minority Report" and then some.



Also see:


Monday, October 1, 2012

Time Elapsed Analysis & Reporting System Excel Add-In



The Time Elapsed Analysis & Reporting System (T.E.A.R.S.) is a Microsoft Excel add-in that automatically calculates the total amount of time that you have spent in different aspects of your work. After exporting your calendar data from Microsoft Outlook to Excel, this add-in extracts elapsed time, sums up the number of hours in each category, and then produces both a table and a chart. If you ever wondered where your time goes, you will want to use T.E.A.R.S. to learn more.

Welcome to National Bullying Prevention Month





Here are some initial thoughts and resources:

1.      Plan a kick-off event for your bullying prevention program for this year: an assembly, a play, a series of classroom conversations, a school-wide theme for the year, skirts, a poster contest……
a.      Be sure to involve your entire school staff, families and school partners.
b.      Announce it in your newsletter.

2.      Have discussion with your students of the basic Bullying Prevention Rules:
a.     We will not bully others.
b.     We will try to help students who are bullied.
c.      We will include students who are left out.
d.     If we know someone is being bullied, we will tell a trusted adult – at home or at school.

3.      Include Cyberbullying in your plans.  Some basic ‘starter’ Rules for all of us:
a.      Think before you post.
b.     Remember: once you hit ‘send’, you have lost control of your message.
c.      Remember: once you hit ‘send’, you can’t take it back.

4.      Share your ideas with colleagues across the state!  Really!  Is there something you, your school or your district is doing that you want to share with others?  A program, a set of materials, parent information, a document you have developed….. If so, please let me know.  I’ll pass it along.

And remember to check out the Bullying and Harassment
 and Cyberbullying
 pages on the Safety Center
 web site