Intel 21st Century Skills

As a fourth grade teacher I have been required by the state to participate in an
on-line writing training program. As I was working on the second module earlier this week, I came across several articles published by Intel addressing 21st century skills. It was a very interesting reading. I've provided a link, check it out!!

http://www.intel.com/education/resources/index.htm
http://educate.intel.com/en/Projectdesign/

Tech Presentation.....FINALLY!!!

Edugame/Test Wizard

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Heaven or Hell??? HILARIOUS!!!

THIS IS A NONPARTISAN JOKE THAT CAN BE ENJOYED BY BOTH PARTIES! NOT ONLY THAT, it is POLITICALLY CORRECT!!.......and so timely!....as well as so true in most cases!!!!!!


While walking down the street one day a US senator is tragically hit by a truck and dies.
His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.
'Welcome to heaven,' says St. Peter. 'Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you.'
'No problem, just let me in,' says the senator.
'Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity.'
'Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven,' says the senator.
'I'm sorry, but we have our rules.'
And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him.
Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people.
They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne.
Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go.
Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises ...
The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.
'Now it's time to visit heaven.'
So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and,
before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.
'Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity.'
The senator reflects for a minute, then answers: 'Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell.'
So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell.
Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage.
He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above...
The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder. 'I don't understand,' stammers the senator. 'Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?'
The devil looks at him, smiles and says.......
'Yesterday we were campaigning. Today you voted :-)

POLITICAL HUMOR

POOR TURTLES

I am a huge college football fan and a die hard Maryland Terrapins fan. FEAR THE TURTLE!!! However it seems that I am the only one fearing the turtle as my Terps get no love in the top 25 rankings again this week. Now I understand the loss to Mid Tennessee State hurt us tremendously in the rankings, and I don't even want to discuss the embarrassment we suffered at the hands of UVA, but shouldn't it count somewhere that we've beaten 3 top 25 ranked teams?

We took down UCal with a beautiful display of football, then Clemson, and just knocked off Wake Forest this weekend. (Might I mention that pre-season, either Clemson or Wake Forest were expected to take the ACC!) This week Georgia Tech at 6-1 is coming in at #21, Boston College is 5-1 and ranked #23, and Florida State also 5-1 is coming in at #24. While they may have better overall records, Maryland is 5-2, who have they played? Jacksonville State? Gardner-Webb? Kent State? What top 25 teams have they beaten? I in no way expected Maryland to break in the top 10, or even the top 15 for that matter. I did think we could sneak in somewhere 20-25. Oh well. Maybe next week after we whoop up on the Wolfpack this Saturday! GO TERPS!!!

JUST FOR FUN

Child Psychology

A new teacher thought she would use what she learned in her psychology courses. She said to her class, "Everyone who thinks they are stupid, please stand up."

After a few seconds, one boy stood. "Do you think you're stupid?" she asked.
"No, ma'am, but I just didn't want you to have to stand there all by yourself."

WATCH!!!

Another very cool video! Not a huge fan of the music, but a great message displayed in a very creative way. ENJOY!!!

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=d9fe611d5a8e90fefdc9

Tech Tip

For those of you that may be trying to build a global community in your classroom, checkout epals.com. This is a really neat idea and would probably work best with upper middle grades and high school students since it requires a personal email address from its users.

Technology Standards

New standards for administrators should parallel the new standards for teachers to some degree. As I read the standards for both, I couldn't help but notice the difference in verbiage. For teachers, there is repeated use of the verbs demonstrate, design, model and for administrators it was identify, provide, and promote. They are all powerful words and while I do feel they are appropriately placed, I also feel that an essential role of an administrator is to be an instructional leader. Administrators cannot have a do as I say, not as I do attitude. In order to support and inspire educators moving into a digital world, administrators must demonstrate and model their uses of the latest technologies. Administrators need not only to provide technology staff development, but attend the sessions. As a future administrator, I will not expect my staff to demonstrate, design, or model anything I cannot do myself.

Overall I think the current administrator standards cover the bases pretty well. However, I do see the need for a monitoring of practices piece that should be incorporated in the revised standards, and the only way for administrators to accurately monitor practices is if they themselves have participated in the same training as their teachers. I don't necessarily think that participation in staff development needs to be a mandatory standard for administrators. I feel it is personal choice that effective instructional leaders should make.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills

I have to be honest, before receiving the blog notification from Dr. Floyd and reading the 21st Century Skills Report, I had never heard of this organization. As I was reading the report I was excited to see that North Carolina is amongst one of the nine states involved in the partnership. I think what they are trying to do here is a wonderful idea, but my excitement was quickly replaced by confusion.

I've said it before and will say it again, I am a digital immigrant and apparently more ignorant than I even knew in regards to the technology world. I am confused because while I read that North Carolina is part of the 21st Century Partnership, had I not read it I would have had no idea. What part(s) of North Carolina are we talking about? Not the part where I teach. I have computers older than my students! I think it is essential that we take measures to build the bridge that I've previously spoken about and I am doing all that I can to educate myself in attempt to better serve my digital natives. However, updated equipment would certainly help.

Oprah praised Bill Gates for taking personal measures and money to equip high schools with state of the art technology and science labs to compete with the rest of the world. What about our elementary and middle schools? A house built on sand isn't very sturdy! We are currently hearing, and have always heard, from politicians about the importance of education and measure they plan to take to see that no child is left behind. What positive changes have you seen? Is the Partnership for 21st Century Skills just more political propaganda?

9/11 SHOCKER

As adults many of us woke up this morning and knew exactly where we were this day seven years ago. At work many are dressed in red, white, and blue and some offices even observed with a moment of silence. However, today in elementary school the mood was much different.

I teach two separate blocks of fourth graders, a total of 48 children. With each class I wrote the following on the board:

Today is an important day in American history. Why?

I had them write their responses on paper and I was shocked by what I later read!

Out of 48 students, only 7 of them had any idea why September 11 was an important day in American history. One answer even said, "Today is important because it is Thursday which means the weekend is almost here." I was shocked! While I do realize that most of them were only two years old when this tragedy took place, I was really saddened by their ignorance. I dug a little deeper and was even more shocked to learn that about one-third of them had never even heard of the World Trade Center or Twin Towers! I pulled up video of the attacks on-line and many children gasped in horror when they witnessed the towers falling. My next question was, "For how many of you is that the first time you remember ever seeing that?" A total of 26 children raised their hands! Again, shock. Our military men and women continue to fight this war, and the youth of today doesn't even know why or how it all started!
Is it their fault that they don't know? Absolutely not, like I said they were only two when it happened. Ignorance is a horrible disease that if not treated gets passed down from generation to generation. As educators it is our job to not only teach our state mandated curriculums, but teach these children about what is happening in the world and how it affects all of us. I challenge each of you to find a child under the age of ten and ask the same questions I asked. If you get the same answers, take a minute to educate that child and break the cycle of ignorance.
The war on terrorism continues to this day. I salute, applaud, and pray for our troops as well as the families of the victims of 9-11.

POWERFUL!!!

I know when many of us think of YouTube we think of nothing but garbage. However, there is a powerful video entitled "A Vision of K-12 Students Today". I've provided a link. Please check it out!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8

Collaborative Communities

As I stated on the discussion board, I openly admit that I am a digital immigrant. In my response to the articles about the digital kids in today's classroom, I also spoke of building a bridge from the 20th century classroom to the 21st century learner. As a result of these two ideas, I've been doing a lot of searching on the internet and recently read an article entitled "Teaching Teachers to Track Tech Tips" by Nanette I. Marcum-Dietrich published at techlearning.com. In the article it speaks of building "collaborative communities" between both colleagues and students. While many of us are probably already doing this, I thought it could be something that we start amongst ourselves as students in the LEED 6820 class. The class seems to be a mix of digital natives, immigrants, and even nomads! My tech tip of the week is to visit education-world.com and check out the Tech in the Classroom section. Here you will find many ideas for incorporating technology into the classroom and even the "Technology Lesson Plan of the Week". While I may be an immigrant in the world of technology, there is no need to reinvent the wheel, and I hope to not only build a bridge but a technological community!

WELCOME!!!

Throw out your preconceived notions about the "dumb blonde"! While we do have more fun, we also have plenty to say. You will find that this Blabbering Blonde, while new to blogging, has intelligent thoughts and opinions to share. Welcome & Enjoy!!!