"Life In The 21st Century"

The following website is a must see and use...it's also FREE!.

On the Annenberg/CPB Channel
"The Annenberg/CPB Channel is a free satellite channel for schools, colleges, libraries, public broadcasting stations, public access channels, and other community agencies. It is presented 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, and airs an extraordinary range of teacher professional development and instructional programs funded by Annenberg/CPB. It is available to any non-commercial agency with a Ku-band satellite dish and a DigiCipher II satellite receiver."

Annenberg/CPB Channel - 1997 - 2004 Annenberg / CPB. All rights reserved. Legal Policy

Teacher Resources at WGBH-TV PBS

With all of the information we (and students) have available at the click of a button, it's so important to stay on top of the "latest ways" students could opt to use in regards to cheating. I read a New York Times article a few days back (it's on the Broadcast Blog) coming out of Harvard. It basically was about how students need to learn how to Cite sources; so they present their freshman students with a manual they must read their first year. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I do think most students choose not to cheat. Although if polled, I'm sure many students have cheated at least once. I think we all have in one way or another. And in regards to citing sources...I think students find it too much trouble. Or they just don't know how to.
Anyway, on December 6th I'm attending the conference "Two Very Different Beasts: Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement in the Schools. Glen Novarr who teaches in the History Department at the Spence School will be conducting the lecture. Last year I attended a powerpoint workshop on Student Cheating And Plagiarism in the Internet Era a Wake-UP Call (based on the book by Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Foss).
If you have any questions regarding any of these topics you'd like for me to ask please feel free to email me.

Dearest Colleagues...

Don't become bait for the latest online scammers called "phishing" see the webopedia definition. Here are some clear steps you can take to protect your personal data online and what to do if you receive a phishing e-mail: Wired Safety Explains In Detail Tips You Should Be Aware Of for you and your students. "Do not reply to any e-mail asking to verify your personal data. You will find that legitimate vendors and merchants do not send such requests via e-mail. Contact your merchant right away to ask for clarification of such e-mails. (This will also make them more aware of the range of such problems."
There are more helpful hints at the Wired Safety Website.

Take the Washington Post quiz to test your email knowledge. I didn't do that well.

The Census Population ClockI used this last year with my geography students because my text book didn't have the updated numbers on the world and the United States population. We then did a math tie in on a bar chart once we kept track for a given month.

You are definitely going to have to pull yourself away from this online map game. (it's a click and drag blast)I know my students love these online map games. They really help to fine tune map skills for the hands-on learner.
Sheppards Software Makes Learning Fun...States Web Games
Learn the locations, capitals, abbreviations and over 500 important facts about our 50 states.
Try it...

Amy

Some of you are just dying to create your own webquest? Right? Use the filamentality template to start. It's very fun and very easy. Let me know if you need help. I created one myself on
Mt. St. Helen Volcano it's very rough but I'm proud of it.

Update on Mt. St. Helen...What do they call the dome?

Thanks to Mike B. for this one...on the Worlds Smallest Political Quiz. It's a great interactive quiz that allows for students to test their political knowledge.

The New York Times has a great site with weekly up to date challenges for your students to test their news knowledge. It's called The New York Times Student Connections

The Idependent online edition Sending children to nursery early gives them a year's head start at primary school
By Richard Garner, Education Editor 26 November 2004 reports on a new study coming out of London stating "...that the longer the time spent in nursery education the better the performance at school - so children who started nursery education at three were likely to be only four to six months ahead instead of 10 to 12."

Some of you have expressed interest in signing up for your free library card at the NYPL web site I can't begin to tell you the mega amount of databases available to you and your students for FREE. Anywhere you see the "little red house" icon once you get your card number...you have access.
I'll give you an example of how valuable this card is. Last week I was sent an email question re: from a colleague requesting an author's bio that was virtually "NOT ABLE TO BE FOUND" online or in our library. And while I like to credit myself as being a very decent online researcher...not. Because I couldn't find the author's bio anywhere. Anyway I went to the New York Public Library site and poof...found it. And after speaking to a member of the staff at NYPL they do encourage people to use their site; all they ask is that PROPER CITATIONS are given. Hopefully, after the break, I'll be giving a K-F workshop on plagiarism (and how to avoid it) and citing sources. I'm still confused as to why databases cost so much money if they're available for free via nypl. Why do you have to pay for information anyway?

Dear Teachers,

The following blog will serve as a platform to share our teaching ideas, strategies and success stories with each other. It will also help to organize those links we can never find after the e-mail has been deleted. Please share whatever feedback you have regarding your successes in the classroom. Or...if there's pertinent academic information out there we should all know about feel free to post it. Oftentimes, in the midst of the busy days it's too hard to pass the great article around to everyone. This KFblog is another option for you.

See me if you have any questions.

Amy

Amy keeps pushing me to create a blog, so here is the first one. Feel free to talk about anything that hits your fancy. If you have not created an identity, do that first.

Mike