Mae Jemison on teaching arts and sciences together

Mae Jemison is an astronaut, a doctor, an art collector, a dancer. An excellent biography of her can be found on the blog Amazing Women Rock. I agree with her as she calls on educators to teach both the arts and sciences, both intuition and logic, as one -- to create bold thinker. This presentation from May 2009 is worth watching.

Great math resource

Geogebra  is a great math resource with plenty of free downloads: http://www.geogebra.org/cms/

How to make a tabbed notebook using Power Point

Tom Kuhlmann's Rapid E-Learning Blog is one of my favorite resources for ideas. Today he provides a template for creating a neat tabbed notebook using a PowerPoint template:

A Guide to Web Technology

Google has produced a nifty guide to Web Technology which is outlined in the blog TechCrunch.  The guide is best viewed in Google Chrome.  This is a great new resource, because it provides a good outline of the basic knowledge of the web that a student should have.  I am considering taking the outline of the table of contents and putting together a simple curriculum of web technology fot the elementary school level.  The guide provides some excellent safety tools that every student should know.

http://www.20thingsilearned.com/home

How Complexity Leads to Simplicity

I have often used this (now-infamous) Power Point slide on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan as an example of poor design and poor presentation.  Now ecologist Eric Berlow in a TED presentation shows how extrememly complex systems provide more information that can lead to a better, simpler solutions. He uses the Afghanistan slide to break it down to elementary points:

5 Amazing Lessons from Sir Isaac newton

Below is a great  article on Sir Isaac Newton reprinted in the blog Dumb Little Man  by Mr. Self Development who is a motivational author; his blog is mrselfdevelopment.com:
5 Amazing Lessons from Isaac Newton:


1.Patiently Think
“If I have done the public any service, it is due to my patient thought.”
We don’t spend enough time patiently thinking! Albert Einstein said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” If you would just block out some time daily to “think,” you could solve many of your problems. …You could even solve some of the world’s problems.
2.Labor to be Tactful
“Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.”
Solomon said, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” We can all polish up on our tact, our diplomacy, our discretion, our delicacy, and our gracefulness. Solomon went on to say, “Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances,” labor to be tactful in all you do.
3.Build Bridges
“We build too many walls and not enough bridges.”
Tony Robbins said, “The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships.” This is why you must spend your time building bridges instead of walls. When we “build bridges” we are literally building a better life. When we build walls, we are stagnating our own growth. Joseph F. Newton said, “People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.”
4.Chase after Knowledge
“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”
There’s no need to recreate the wheel. To make progress all you must do is to build on what others have already done. Commence by learning what others know.
When you chase after knowledge, you strategically position yourself on the shoulders of giants; you are then able to see what others can’t see.
5.Pursue Truth
“A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding.”
We must pursue “truth!” There’s an anonymous quote that goes, “The truth is heavy, therefore few care to carry it.” Be one of those few who pursue truth both night and day. Blaise Pascal said, “Once your soul has been enlarged by truth, it can never return to its original size.”
Thank you for reading and be sure to pass this article along

Student video

Check out this student created video using jaycut.com and a digital camera:

New Visualization Charts in Google Apps

From Richard Byrne's blog Free Technology for Teachers is a nice piec e about using Google Forms and Spreadsheets to create charts: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/10/new-visualization-charts-in-google-docs.html

Using Power Point as a visual aid

Here's a great piece from Garr Reynolds' Presentation web site. He does an excellent analysis of how to use Power Point as a supplement to a presentation.
http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2010/10/talking-clearly-visually-about-plastic-pollution.html

Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Here are a couple of outstanding video presentations on the author Washington Irving. The first is by a high school student. Notice how she uses the medium of video well with good transitions. The only thing she could have done better is to make the text easier to read by making it more in contrast to the background. The second is a cool animation of the author reading the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Bridge eaters

This is a great use of time-lapse photography with a tilt effect.

Bridge Eaters from Sam Javanrouh on Vimeo.

Coach Wooden and Winning

Here is a great blog entry by Vern Gambetta from Elite Track:

"Steve Odgers send me an email yesterday reminding me that it was John Woodens birthday and that Coach Wooden never spoke to his teams about winning. Never speaks volumes when you think of the championships and wins his teams accumulated. The message here, a message I have seen in everyone that are consistent winners, is that they focus on the process, not the outcome. If you pay attention to details, have a plan and get absorbed in the process then the winning is an outcome. Conversely think of the losing teams and organizations you see. They are always talking about winning. There are banners and slogans everywhere, but bottom line they are focused on the outcome and they make losing a self-fulfilling prophecy. They seem to find a way to lose. Winners find ways to win to because they have paid attention to the process. If they do lose there are no excuses, just learning, then back to the process."

This just re-enforces what so many others say about the importance of the process. It's what you do every day that defines you, not the short term results of winning or losing. If you focus on each day and get the best you can out of it, then the wins and losses will take care of themselves.

Responsibility in education

Students in Finland are at the top of the world in student performance.  One thing they teach there is personal responsibility.  Teachers are responsible for their curriculum.  Students are responsible for their learning. What does this mean for us?

New Library of Congress Catalog

The Library of Congress has a new online catalog providing access to a large number of databases: http://eresources.loc.gov/  

You can read more about it at: http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2010/09/a-new-catalog-in-town/

Practice

How do you best move toward mastery? To put it simply, you practice diligently, but you practice primarily for the sake of the practice itself. —GEORGE LEONARD, MASTERY

Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education

From TED: Sugata Mitra's "Hole in the Wall" experiments have shown that, in the absence of supervision or formal teaching, children can teach themselves and each other, if they're motivated by curiosity:

Friluftsliv: Log Blog Connections: Tai Chi and Running

Friluftsliv: Log Blog Connections: Tai Chi and Running: "While the book Chi Running has some weaknesses, I am thoroughly inspired to alter my running form according to the posture and energy flow p..."

Ayn Rand

"We the Living" (1939, 1959) by Ayn Rand. Petrograd smelled of carbolic acid. Primus stoves. Life was tough, citizen. 

Mountain Time Lapse

One of my favorite blogs is Hiking in Finland, which is about ultralight hiking in the Nordic countries. What I particularly like about the site is the way they use photography to tell their stories. For example here is a fantastic time lapse video of a mountain camping scene. Check it out::

Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light from http://vimeo.com/timescapes on Vimeo.

Summer Reading List 2010

Summer Reading List 2010

• Introduction to objectivist epistemology‎ by Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff, Harry Binswanger
• Objectivism: the philosophy of Ayn Rand‎ by Leonard Peikoff
• Atlas Shrugged‎ by Ayn Rand
• The Fountainhead‎ by Ayn Rand
• We the Living‎ by Ayn Rand
• You Haven't Taught Until They Have Learned: John Wooden's Teaching by Swen Nater, Ronald Gallimore
• Disrupting class: how disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns by Clayton M. Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, Michael B. Horn

Photo of the Day from Fotopedia

Fotopedia is an ency​clopedia of images, many of which can be used under a Creative Commons license. http://www.fotopedia.com/

Photo of the day on Fotopedia

2010 World Cup Resources

Here are some cool resources for watching the 2010 World Cup:
1. Take a 3D  tour of the stadiums on Google Earth: http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2010/06/2010_world_cup_in_google_earth.html


2. View the Schedule in a cool Flash program:
http://www.marca.com/deporte/futbol/mundial/sudafrica-2010/calendario-english.html


3. Watch the World Cup live on-line:
 http://www.epltalk.com/where-to-watch-the-world-cup-on-tv-online-radio-and-mobile-devices/19830

New Common Core Standards

New Common Core State Standards have been adopted by the National Governor's Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Thinking out of the box.

The Powerpoint

Here is another example of how not to use Powerpoint.  Unfortunately, it comes from our military.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html?emc=eta1

Jay Walker's Library of Human Imagination

Friluftsliv: Log Blog Connections: Jay Walker's Library of Human Imagination#links

Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World

I just finished an excellent book on the history of the cod trade.  The author brings out some interesting facts such as the secret pre-Columbus Basque cod fishing grounds, the value of salt cod as an international trade good in the molasses/rum/slave triangle and many other intersections of military, political and cultural history that involve cod.

Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky

View more documents from Vette05.

Friluftsliv: Log Blog Connections: Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World#links

Dilbert strikes again

Is this a true example of the mis-use of Power Point or what?

Friluftsliv: Log Blog Connections: Freedom of Speech

Friluftsliv: Log Blog Connections: Freedom of Speech