Geome-Tree House Podcasts

A high school geometry teacher in my district is now podcasting (actually his students are).  The students have published three episodes and have done a fantastic job explaining what they have learned.  Please visit and add an encouraging comment.   http://gtreehouse.podbean.com/

K-12 Online Conference

The “K12 Online Conference” is for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice! The 2007 conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26 of 2007, and will include a preconference keynote during the week of October 8. The conference theme is “Playing with Boundaries.”

The conference website has posted presentation teasers to give viewers a glimpse of the learning opportunities that will be available at each of the sessions.  The teasers are short and very creative!   The teasers worked for me....  I want to attend as many of the sessions as I can.  Check out the teasers and plan to attend this on-line conference!

Scriblink; an on-line whiteboard

I received an invitation to check out Scriblink from a colleague, Renee.  She was one of the teachers who participated in one of my web 2.0 usergroups last year, and has discovered Scriblink from one of the blogs she now follows.  Yeah!  The two of us explored this cool web 2.0 tool - wrote notes, typed notes, and chatted.  We thought about how teachers and students could use it in and outside of the classroom - quizzing each other, collaborating on projects, brainstorming ideas, etc.  Check it out!

Outlawing the Words "I Don't Know" in the Classroom

This entry will be unique for me; no mention of technology.  I just stumbled upon the blog of CaliforniaTeacherGuy and want to spead his idea, because I think it is brilliant.   In an effort to encourage his students to think and to voice their opinion, he has banned the words "I don't know" from being verbalized in his classroom.  Instead, his students can substitute the phrase, "I’m not sure, but I think…" 

I wish I had a classroom to try out his theory, because I think this simple rule would make a tremendous impact in creating a culture of learning and risk-taking (they go hand-in-hand).  This idea is just as good as substituting "What questions do you have?" for "Do you have any questions?"

I urge any classroom teachers who read this blog to try these two strategies for a week or so and see what happens.  I'd love to hear how it goes.

Say NO to Quechup

If you receive an email invitation to join a new social networking site called Quechup... even from someone you know and trust... do not do it!   As social networking websites continue to increase rapidly, the need to be tech-savvy and aware of online scams grows more important. 

This is how it works:  Unsuspecting folks receive an invitation from someone they know to go check out this new social networking site, and they register.  As part of the registration process, they are asked to enter their email address & password to "find out if any of their friends are also Quechup users."  Well... Quechup, in an effort to get more users, sends an invitation to everyone in that person's address book without them even knowing.  The email appears to come from that person, not Quechup. 

This site has serious ethical problems in how it recruits new users.  Don't go for it, and if you already have, delete your account and change your email password.