Monday, December 21, 2009

MATH DITTOS 2 Becomes Freeware

While it won't become official until the new year, I'm turning the MATH DITTOS 2 series of fact controlled math workbooks loose as freewares! The changeover will be in steps, as it takes a bit of time to get the files changed over, passwords removed, links updated, and files uploaded. The Addition & Subtraction workbook and the Division pre-release pages are already done and now available for download as freewares. The others will follow as I have time.

In case you missed it, The Freewares of 2009 is a compilation of the best freewares, open source apps, and free web sites featured here on Educators' News over the last year. Along the same theme, Resource Sites for Teachers reviews some incredible free resource sites that can add a lot to classroom instruction.

I've also starting listing some of the feature articles from Educators' News and Senior Gardening to our Columns & Editorials page. Looking out my office window at the gray skies and snow covered ground, I'm thinking either some Portuguese Kale Soup or Asiago Cheese & Tortellini Soup would go well for lunch today!

Asiago Cheese and Tortellini Soup

On Science@NASA

Science@NASA had a couple of good new postings go up towards the end of last week.

• Colliding Auroras Produce Explosions of Light
• A Flash of Light from Titan

Postings on Science@NASA are written in vocabulary appropriate for middle through high school students. They also have audio files and other language versions available as well as being available as podcasts on iTunes.

Odds 'n' Ends

Sarah Horner's Virtual schools gain popularity in the Duluth News Tribune tells about two sisters enrolled in the Minnesota Virtual High School. One likes it, and one doesn't.

Music therapy: Teachers strike an emotional chord with disabled students by Lisa Black is a good read about music and special needs kids. She relates that "music teachers understood long before being validated by research that playing an instrument offers much more than simple pleasures and emotional release. For children and adults with disabilities, music can unleash especially powerful gifts, helping them communicate or process information in new ways, researchers say."

The Los Angeles Times continues its assault on teachers and teacher tenure with Bar set low for lifetime job in L.A. schools. And Andy Rotherham gives the Detroit schools a kick when they're down (When weren't they?) on Eduwonk with More Michigan – Funky Rubber Room!

The Indy Star continues its coverage of Indiana's budget problems with State recommends school pay freeze. Vic Ryckaert writes that the Governor's office is now planning to begin its $300 million in school cuts next month.

Jay Mathews tells of teachers not posting homework online in When teachers reject the Internet.

And finally, Steve Lohr has an upbeat column about computer science teaching in New Programs Aim to Lure Young Into Digital Jobs.

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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Flat Stanley Spends Day with President

Sarah Horner has a charming story in the Duluth News Tribune about a student who sent a drawing of Flat Stanley to the President. In Duluth student's picture spends a day with Obama, Horner relates that third grade teacher Debbie Gill had each of her students draw their own picture of Flat Stanley after reading the book and send their pictures "to family and friends around the world." Anna Chelseth sent hers to the President and received a very cute letter back from the President. It told of the day Anna's Flat Stanley spent with President Obama:

"The president took him on a walk through the halls of the West Wing and to a meeting in the Oval Office. He even got to visit Obama's wife, Michelle, and his two daughters, Sasha and Malia. Flat Stanley and Obama capped off the day playing catch with Bo on the South Lawn."

Teachers Take Zero Gravity Ride

Kenneth Chang's Teachers Defying Gravity to Gain Students’ Interest in the New York Times tells of Glenn Coutoure and other teachers' ride in a jet simulating zero, martian, and moon gravity. The flight was part of a Northrop Grumman Foundation program "to excite teachers and students about science and mathematics." A poll of teachers who previously participated in the program found that "nearly 92 percent reported an increase in overall interest in science among their students. About 75 percent said more students expressed a desire to continue studying math and science."

Cautionary note before you apply: This ride is similar to the one NASA astronauts nicknamed the "vomit comet!"

iPods in the Classroom

iPods and educational applications have Minnesota students giddy about learning tells of teachers making good use of iPods in the classroom. St. Paul Pioneer Press writer Julio Ojeda-Zapata relates that fifth- and sixth-grade special-education teacher Jon Smith has found the iPod Touch to be a "godsend" for his students with learning disabilities "that often cannot be overcome with regular teaching methods."

Something as simple as a flash-card slide show on touch-screen iPods, with finger swipes for moving from one digital photo to the next, tends to electrify the kids. So Smith has nudged his superiors into spending more money on the Apple devices.

His kids now rack up impressive scores with vocabulary-drill apps, devour social-studies moving-picture books and even watch videos of themselves delivering book reports. This footage, after being taken with low-cost video cameras, is transferred to a computer and then synced to the kids' iPods.

Odds 'n' Ends

Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Weber writes of Rural school districts using 4-day weeks to save funds.

Brent Zeller, contributing editor of eSchool News, has a good editorial in How competition fails our students.

And while playing around on Pics4Learning, a copyright-friendly image library for teachers and students, I found they have a nice collection of NASA photos. Their 100 Most Popular isn't bad either.

And the angel said unto them, Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.