Se Hace Camino Al Andar

The Education Wonks: The Carnival Of Education: Week 8

The first person to donate money to my ride was someone that I don’t even know. I wrote her an email to thank her and to find out who she was. I got an email back today and it turns out that she is the mother of a good friend of mine. Here’s what she wrote:
I am also a diabetic and appreciate the support from millions of people who help fund research. I have been a diabetic for 16 years and take very good care of myself. Living with diabetes is a challenge and I have been fortunate to be able to maintain good control with an insulin pump. There are many diabetics that have a really hard time! It would be such a benefit to so many if there could be a break in the treatment of this disease. A cure would be unbelievable!

Just another good reason for me to ride and another good reason for people to support the cause!

Someone left a comment asking about PIE, so here’s a link to the original post that explains PIE, which is a technique for writing essays that I picked up from Tamara. If you have more questions about PIE, you can ask her since she’s the expert!

New York Daily News – Home – Bloggers run into trouble: Yesterday, I griped that the article didn’t name my site. In today’s paper, there is a follow-up article on bloggers who got fired and there is a link to my site and a bunch of my other faves down at the bottom. Thanks, Joe!

Social Studies: Drumroll…..It’s tip #2: Thanks to Ms. Frizzle for turning me onto this link from Social Studies. A lot of what Abigail says underscores what I wrote in my earlier post about my PalmPilot. I’m definitely trying out Abigail’s ideas.

palmOne – Products – Tungsten E Handheld: With my fat refund, I ordered a Palm Pilot.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have a nice, lovely planner that I dutifully update when necessary but planners don’t work very well if you don’t look at them otherwise. So, that’s reason number one for jumping on the bandwagon.
Reason number 2 is to be more efficient at work. Gradekeeper works on PalmPilots. So, I can keep my grading up-to-date which is good for me and good for my kids. I think my kids do not have a concrete awareness of the connection between the work they do (don’t do) in class and what ends up on their report cards. This is partly my fault, because I don’t give regular updates of grades. I should, but I don’t because I procrastinate when it comes to grading papers. I’ve been better at it this year because of the realization that when they get work back reguarly and frequently, they seem to do better in class. I guess that’s because they know I’m watching. I’m not just taking their papers and throwing them in the trash! Also, I feel like if they see me walking around the room and constantly putting in points, they’ll shape up a little.
Reason number three is that I like my toys. So, the Palm will join my ipod and my digital camera. Plus, I can be like all those other busy, important people who play solitaire on the train.

Last week, I was reading a teaching website; I don’t remember whose but I ripped off a classroom management idea from this teacher (if this is you, please drop me a line–it’s driving me nuts that I can’t remember). Anyway, here is the idea that I ripped off, so simple:
Give out little pieces of construction paper to reward students for behaving properly, doing their work, etc. Collect all the little pieces and give them points for each one. I used this idea for the first time last week in my Ramp-Up class. They caught on quick, most of them. I gave out the little pieces for coming in on time, for following the routine (independent reading, talk aloud, etc.), for returning to the room on time after the break and for general participation. I had them write their names on each slip they got, return them to me and I put the points into my gradebook, one point for each slip. Eventually, all those points will become their participation points when I calculate report card grades. I think I’ll keep doing this even when I get the palm pilot because they like collecting those tangible, little pieces of paper (plus its a great way to use up all that construction paper that is eroding away in my arts’n'craft crate).

New York Daily News – News & Views – Talking out of school Some of us were interviewed by the Daily News about our websites. Read the story here, which failed to identify my website, though I was quoted, the logic of which I don’t understand, unless it was some kind of copy-editing snafu.

UPDATE: There is a big freaking picture of my big ass in the print edition of the paper and it’s not a totally gross picture, so I’m happy about that!

A funny thing happened on the way…home:
I was walking up my street, after doing some work and running some errands. I kept hearing a whistling sound. My hearing aids feedback sometimes, if they are turned up too loud or something is touching the mic (like a piece of hair or something), so I kept adjusting them. Nothing. Still hearing this twinkling, tweeting, whistling and getting more annoyed by the second. Then, I realized what I was hearing. Birds! Ha ha. It’s been such a crappy winter, I forgot what birds sound like. What a relief.

Pratie Place: Powerpoint in the classroom Pratie laments the use of powerpoint in the classroom where she tutors. I wanted to post a comment on her site but the commenting server is down. Here’s my response:

I think your concerns about powerpoint are valid and it sounds like this teacher is using powerpoint not as a teaching tool but as a busywork tool! If used and taught properly, powerpoint is a great tool for teaching kids how to summarize a lot of information, determine importance, create an effective presentation for a certain audience and sharpen those public speaking skills, since the object is to avoid being redundant when giving a PP presentation. If you think about it, a powerpoint presentation is just the technological version of cutting out some pictures and slapping them on some posterboard. The effectiveness and quality of the project and presentation depends on the teacher’s expectations. This teacher is cheating her kids out of a learning an important skill with her low expectations (and laziness?). The fact is, in this day and age, kids need to be familiar with this technology, even at a young age. The earlier they become familiar with the technology, the easier it’ll be for them to adapt to new technology as they get older. My own grad school experience involved a lot of public speaking assignments accompanied by powerpoint presentations. We were taught to use powerpoint effectively, creatively and sparingly (such as displaying graphs). I say, don’t write off powerpoint or other similar software. Instead, look at how it’s being used and taught.

Tour de Cure Update: Make that more than halfway to my goal, with a third donor. I might just raise my fundraising goal!