PBS Teachers offers a series of FREE monthly webinars featuring leading education technology experts and PBS producers sharing resources and strategies to help teachers use digital media to engage students in rich learning experiences. The next one is October 7, 8-9 PM, Teaching about Place with Ken Burns' "The National Parks: America's Best Idea.

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/webinar/?utm_source=Edutopia&utm_medium=ad&utm_campaign=onlinebanner

Such Stuff as Dreams are Made of...

Poetry. Could any other genera be deemed so trivial yet thousands upon thousands of quotes are used daily:

-Do not go gentle into that goodnight, Dylan Thomas
-Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled..,Robert Frost
-What's in a name...Shakespeare
-All the world's a stage - Shakespeare

I could go on, but poetry is the soul of man. Poeple love poetry but how indulgent are we if we sacrifice precious time to reading a book of poetry. Yikes. On a whim we might glance at a book or two in the bookstore, but when was the last time you purchased a book of poetry?We teach our children to express themselves very early on, but somewhere between high school and adulthood poetry is given a bad wrap. Let me suggest: Anything by Robert Frost or Walt Whitman, Sandra Cisneros', Loose Woman and My Wicked, Wicked Ways. (Some of my personal faves)

The Academn of American Poets is presenting a Poets Forum on Contemporary Poetry in New York City, October 15 - 17. Highly frivilous to travel to, but delightfully fun to listen to in a PodCast. Or better yet tune in to hear the POETCAST sponsored by Poet.org. The two links below should be of some interest.

Think of poetry as " Such Stuff as dreams are made of" - Shakespeare.


http://www.poets.org/state.php/varState/TX

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/3444

Learning Through Music

You know how we all learned the months of the year, 30 days has September, April... and so on. Although this is nothing new I found an interesting web site that uses song to teach grammar and other literary devices. . http://www.suzyred.com/music.html
It is a bit elementary, but those of us in secondary ed have learned much from our elementary ed colleagues.

Early Childhood Symposium

Wow! What a great gathering. The ECH team really out did themselves. Lovely job. Being secondary I learned so much and had a great time in the process. Great Job ECH.

Summer Rain

Rain inspires one to write. Enjoy this summer rain via this choir.

More on Technology

I attended Curriculum Council today and as we were collaborating about the Pyramid of Intervention the curriculum department is working on, you could hear people talking about adding Blogs, Wiki's, and video links. More affermation about how important PALOOZA is.

I want to wish William Shakespeare a belated happy birthday. He was born (historians surmise) on April 23, 1564 and died April 23, 1616 (how efficient of him). Test your knowledge of the Bard on the web site listed below.

http://shakespeare.about.com/library/quiz/bl_quote_quiz.htm

Universal Design for Learning

I'm reading Timothy D. Green's book Making the Most of the Web in Your Classroom and he speaks on Universal Design for Learning(UDL). The concept of UDL began in the field of architecture where engineers design buildings. An example he had was the automatic door openers. How this one invention aided not only those in wheel chairs but the larger population as it aided those carrying packages, carrying children, and generally making it easier for everyone to enter and exit stores - flow of traffic. This applies to the classroom, too. According Green's book he quotes, D.H. Meyer, that the three principles in the UDL framework for classrooms are:

1. Representing information in multiple formats and media.
2. Providing multiple pathways for students' action and expression.
3. Providing multiple ways to engage studetns' interest and motivation.

Web projects fit right into these principles. The following web site can give more information regarding UDL classrooms:

http://www.cast.org/. Center for Applied and Special Technologies (CAST).

April is National Poetry Month. The site below is a link to Poet.org. A wonderul site filled with information for all who are interested in poetry. Great links for teachers, too.

Below is a fun poem. Happy Poetry Month. (:

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41


Your Catfish Friend

by Richard Brautigan
If I were to live my life
in catfish forms
in scaffolds of skin and whiskers
at the bottom of a pond
and you were to come by
one evening
when the moon was shining
down into my dark home
and stand there at the edge
of my affection
and think, "It's beautiful
here by this pond. I wish
somebody loved me,"
I'd love you and be your catfish
friend and drive such lonely
thoughts from your mind
and suddenly you would be
at peace,
and ask yourself, "I wonder
if there are any catfish
in this pond? It seems like
a perfect place for them."

Work/Life Balance

In my quest to find interesting information for our Work/Life component of PALOOZA I found the video of Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture". It is a bit long but well work your time. Is is phenomenal. (:


http://www.ohiomeansbusiness.com/work_life/index.php#videos

Meet, Greet, & Swap

Just a heads-up that Meet, Greet, & Swap will happen tonight. Hope to see you there. we will have about 15 vendors with goodies for all.

Digital Native

I saw something very interesting on TV the other night. A commercial. This precious four year old was taking a picture of her fish with her digital camera. In the span of 30 seconds she took the photo, edited the photo by making the color brighter, and sent it to her mom, dad, and siblings - in the span of 30 seconds. The thought occurred to me how dynamic this was. She doesn’t know anything about teaching to the whole brain, she just knows, "hey I love my fish and I want my family to see this beautiful creature" It was truly natural for her to embrace this method of communication. A far cry from draw your favorite pet. We know she can take a picture, edit it, and sent it via email. What if she can't draw?

First Blog

Happy Valentine's Day. Much thanks to Dan in a Cube.