When I Become a Teacher

Do you Teach or Do you Educate?

This video is very moving. Are we educating our kids? Are we mentoring, inspiring, and engaging them or are we teaching them to take multiple choice tests?

Radio Show Book Report

My daughter, Madeline, made a radio show for her book report. I'm uploading it here so that she can share it with her teachers.

Enjoy!

Listen to: White Water Radio Show

*This is a QuickTime file. You will need the FREE QuickTime Player installed to hear.

Trying out Audio Blogger

Midwest Robolab Conference

Chris Rogers from Tufts University will be the keynote speaker. He will talk about the newest release of Robolab that will work with both the RCX brick and the new NXT brick.

Second Grade Science Paper

Madeline shares a paper she wrote in Science class.


Listen to: Science Paper

Second Grade Life Science Lesson

My daughter, Madeline, came home from school today excited to talk about what she's been learning in Life Sciences in her second grade classroom. I recorded her sharing her experience. I wanted to catch her while she was excited so that she could share this with her grandmothers. We also wanted her teacher to see an example of blogging and podcasting. This might be a project that her class would enjoy!

Listen to: Life Science from Madeline

MAGPI K20 Spring Video Conferencing Programs

There are more and more opportunities for schools to connect with people from all over the world and learn things they would never have access to without video conferencing technology. I helped set up a connection at Wichita State University to the program listed below on the Australian Didgeridu instrument and it was a great hit!!

MAGPI provides links to many other great programs. Check out their schedule by clicking the link in the title of this post and open a window to the world in your classroom!

The Didgeridu : Exploring the Dreamtime with Jim Gagnon
Sponsored by St. Francis University Center of Excellence for Remote and Medically Under-Served Areas

DATE: April 3, 2006
TIME: 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. EST
TARGET AGE GROUP: High School Students/College and University Students
COST:Â Free!

DESCRIPTION:
This exciting videoconference event will combine historical and cultural information about the indigenous Australian instrument, the Didgeridu, as well as live performance. Jim Gagnon and accompanist Jim Donovan (Founding member of the multi-platinum selling band Rusted Root and current Saint Francis University Instructor of Music) will give this interactive presentation. A question/answer session will follow the Performance/Lecture.

ABOUT JIM GAGNON
Jim Gagnon was born and raised in a suburb of Pittsburgh called, "Oakmont". He enlisted in the U.S. Navy for four years, where he toured the Mediterranean Sea twice, and was actually on the scene for the first gulf war. After the Navy, Jim attended and graduated from the Edgar Cayce School in Virginia Beach in '05, where he studied different modes of healing, meditation, yoga, and energy work. It was here that Jim became interested in drumming as a means of exploration and healing. During this time Jim began making didgeridus, and teaching classes and workshops. Gagnon is a free-lance writer, cultural music enthusiast, painter, and producer of four CDs, the latest being "The Great Dance", by his group Dreamtime Project. He currently lives with his 8 year old son, Isaiah, in Charlottesville, Va.

The World is Flat and so is Kansas! Are you ready?

Speaking of archived keynotes. The keynote that I gave last month at MACE: The Mid-America Association for Computers in Education Conference is available online. If you missed it now is your chance to sit back and take it in. You can see a video of the actual presentation, watch a video of the PowerPoint, and download a PDF file of the handout at the link above.

While you're at the MACE Online Handout site take a look at the other great topics and online handouts available. There were many very good sessions. If you didn't get to attend here is your chance to see what went on.

I am looking forward to the MACE MTI Conference in Winfield at the end of July. Will Richardson one of my favorite educational bloggers is the keynote. I wouldn't miss getting hear him speak!

2006 Florida Educational Technology Conference Podcasts

If you aren't able to take the time or money to travel to conferences, no worry, sit back and listen to some of the best sessions online including some vendor sessions. Listening to these as a group during a staff meeting and then having a great discussion is also a great substitute for the real thing!

Digital Citizenship

Dr. Mike Ribble (KSU) focused his dissertation on Digital Citizenship. He has written several articles and presentations on Digital Citizenship that you can read online.

Mike just finished up a book on Digital Citizenship that will be published by ISTE in the next few months. I can't wait to get a copy. I think Mike's work makes a lot of sense.

Wesley Fryer (ESSDACK's very own Ron Henley’s nephew) interviewed Mike Ribble on this topic. You can listen to Wesley’s podcast here