Computer History Museum

Many students are unaware that math and science throughout human history laid the foundation for technologies we utilize today.

The Computer History Museum located in San Jose, California has wonderful online exhibits and an accompanying YouTube channel with content for computer classes and for integration into math, science, and history courses.

Current online exhibits include:

• The Babbage Engine: The Story of the First Computer Pioneer
• Computer History Timeline:Significant Milestones 1939 - 1994
• Internet History: Major Milestones 1962 - 1992

Content on this site is appropriate for grades 7 through adult, visit the Computer History Museum @ http://www.computerhistory.org/

Artsonia Kids Art Museum

Have your students artwork appear in the largest online digital KIDS only Art Museum Artsonia!

Students can exhibit all kinds of artwork from Pre-K through High School.

Student identities are protected via a unique user name(e.g. JArt75) and ID number that identifies all of the student's work.

Student pieces currently on display:

*Digital arts
*Drawing
*Painting
*Printmaking
*Collage
*Fiber/Fabric
*Sculpture
*Photography
*Mosaic
*3-D art
*Mixed Media
**AND MORE...

Sign your school up today! http://www.artsonia.com/

"Five Myths About U.S. Kids Outclassed by the Rest of the World"

"Five Myths About U.S. Kids Outclassed by the Rest of the World" is an excellent piece from the Washington Post on how data can be manipulated and presented for a specific agenda. I highly recommend sharing this article with every educator you know.

3. U.S. students won't be well prepared for the modern workforce.

This myth has been bandied around since at least the turn of the century -- the 19th century -- by business leaders who blame schools for inadequately preparing workers. It's part of the never-ending notion that U.S. schools are in crisis.

Education researcher Gerald W. Bracey cites a March 1957 cover story in Life magazine -- at the height of post-Sputnik paranoia over Soviet scientific prowess -- that contrasts the stern, rigorous education of a Moscow teenager (complicated physics and chemistry courses) with the carefree lifestyle of a Chicago youth (rehearsals for his high school musical). The cover headline: "Crisis in Education." In the 1980s, when Japan seemed to be an unstoppable economic juggernaut, the seminal policy manifesto "A Nation at Risk," written by a blue-ribbon panel at the behest of the Department of Education, warned that deficiencies in high school graduates "come at a time when the demand for highly skilled workers in new fields is accelerating rapidly."

Despite these doomsday cases, the United States survived and, by many measures, bested the competition. Today, with the Soviet Union a memory and Japan facing its own economic and demographic problems, the anxieties have shifted to China and other Asian rivals.

Continue reading "Five Myths About U.S. Kids Outclassed by the Rest of the World" via the Washington Post.

Technology based Earth Science Project - What is my Carbon Footprint?

AIM: Students will understand how his/her actions create a Carbon Footprint and contribute to Global Warming using ZeroFooprint KidsCalculator.

Once students identify Carbon Footprint, he/she will be asked to identify ways to reduce his/her impact on the environment daily.

Research: Students research the idea of a Carbon Footprint by reading and watching videos on the following websites:

• BBC: Reducing our carbon footprint


• Carbon Footprint: What is a Carbon Footprint?


• YouTube: How To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint (THIS VIDEO IS VERY GOOD ONLY 2 MINUTES)
  

Activity:
Students will identify five ways in which he impacts the environment based on the five categories calculated on ZeroFootPrintKids:

1. Home & School
2. What you use
3. What you throw away
4. Transportation
5. What you eat
Once student identifies his/her impact, students will select 3 categories and identify 2 ways he/she can reduce his carbon footprint.

Interactive Greek Gods Family Tree

Rich and beautiful site by Web Exhibits that traces the ancestry of every character in Greek Mythology. Users can choose which gods and families to focus on.

URL: Interactive Greek Gods Family Tree

The Moon's Phase

The Moon's Phase, created by Brian Casey, is an interactive site that displays the moon's phases by date in the current year or previous years.

View now The Moon's Phase

American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches

Incorporate entire speeches or snippets into your interactive white board and digital presentations.

Top 10 Speeches from American Rhetoric:
1 Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have A Dream"
2 John Fitzgerald Kennedy Inaugural Address
3 Franklin Delano Roosevelt First Inaugural Address
4 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation
5 Barbara Charline Jordan 1976 DNC Keynote Address
6 Richard Milhous Nixon "Checkers"
7 Malcolm X "The Ballot or the Bullet"
8 Ronald Wilson Reagan Shuttle ''Challenger'' Disaster Address
9 John Fitzgerald Kennedy Houston Ministerial Association Speech
10 Lyndon Baines Johnson "We Shall Overcome"

My personal recommendations:

#7 Malcolm X "The Ballot or the Bullet"
#34 Eugene Victor Debs 1918 Statement to the Court
#43 Martin Luther King, Jr."A Time to Break Silence"
#46 Margaret Higgins Sanger "The Morality of Birth Control"

Visit American Rhetoric.com

The Physics of Fairy Tales

SOURCE: LiveScience

The Science of Fairy Tales
By Chris Gorski, American Institute of Physics

"...(A)re the most magical moments from some of our favorite stories actually possible? Basic physical principles and recent scientific research suggest that what readers might mistake for fantasies and exaggeration could be rooted in reality."

Continue reading via LiveScience

"$80K Stipend/Fellowship: Train to Become a Charter School Founder"

Found this on craigslist today:

$80K Stipend/Fellowship: Train to Become a Charter School Founder

Building Excellent Schools

There is a crisis in urban education. Every day, students in our nation’s urban centers are losing their opportunity to realize lives of choice because of the failure of adults to educate them. The crisis is real and it is obvious, but what is done about it? Some shirk and run away, others produce meaningless statistics and vacuous arguments that say to teach every child is an impossible dream, and still others forward solutions that simply do not work.

At Building Excellent Schools, a national nonprofit based in Boston, we see the crisis and have chosen to act with the pressing urgency that the situation demands. We face the problem head-on; we are driven by the conviction that all students can learn, and we only do what works. To change urban education, we must take what works with urban students and find the leaders with the determination, skill and passion to put what works into action at more and more schools.

Who Is Building Excellent Schools?
Building Excellent Schools is an established national non-profit organization based in Boston, MA committed to improving the academic achievement of students in the nation’s urban centers. Our core program is the Building Excellent Schools Fellowship, a 12-month, full-time, comprehensive training program that prepares dedicated, hard-working, and talented individuals to design and open academically excellent urban charter schools. To date, 34 Building Excellent Schools Fellows have founded schools that have opened or will open by the Fall of 2008.

In its quest to build and perpetuate educational excellence, Building Excellent Schools holds the core belief that academic performance drives every element of a school, including design, leadership, culture, decisions, and governance. Building Excellent Schools further believes that the only legitimate measure for a school’s performance is the academic achievement of its students.

What Does the Fellowship Entail?
The Fellowship is a year long full time commitment for which Fellows are paid a stipend of $80,000. Included in that year of intensive training is:
*90+ Training days at Building Excellent Schools’ central offices in Boston led by expert Building Excellent Schools’ staff, and nationally recognized experts in charter school design and operation.
*Visits to more than 20 of the highest performing urban charter schools in the Northeast and beyond.
*Extended residency in high-performing urban charter school.
*Ongoing coaching and support around board and charter application development.

Who Is the Typical Fellow?
Building Excellent Schools Fellows share common beliefs far more than they share common experiences. Our Fellows represent a vast range of professional experience including education, business, law, and public administration. Classroom experience is not a pre-requisite for participation in the program. Ultimately, Building Excellent Schools is looking for high-capacity individuals that are deeply committed to fundamentally changing urban education. An exemplary Fellow is:

*A relentless achiever—they get the job done no matter what.
*Demanding of oneself and others—good is not good enough, only great will suffice.
*Willing to learn—accepts that only with careful study, guidance, and preparation can a great school be built.
*Highly flexible—can adapt to new knowledge, skills, and situations with ease.
*Mature and professional—can successfully operate in multiple professional environments, including business and government.

How Is Building Excellent Schools Different From Other Charter Start-up Organizations?
Building Excellent Schools occupies a unique position in the tremendous market for high-performing charter school start up. Building Excellent Schools is different because it trains leaders to design a locally controlled, community-based school flexibly organized around general principles, as opposed to opening a remotely controlled school that replicates a particular model.

What Help Do We Need?
Building Excellent Schools is always seeking assistance identifying those unique individuals with the capacity and drive to make the dream of a great school a reality. You can help Building Excellent Schools by:
*Encouraging outstanding leaders to apply: Our electronic application can be accessed continually at www.buildingexcellentschools.org
*Spreading the word about Building Excellent Schools: Whether they may make a good Fellow candidate or not, Building Excellent Schools benefits greatly when people mention Building Excellent Schools in conversation, in newsletters, or other meetings. We want to spread the net as wide as possible.
*Nominating a potential Fellow: You can complete an online nomination form at www.buildingexcellentschools.org.

Territories include: St. Louis, MO; Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Denver Area, CO; New York City, NY; New Orleans, LA; Little Rock, AR; Memphis, TN and Washington DC. Apply now to the Fellowship, nominate a leader, or for more information, visit our website at www.buildingexcellentschools.org.

Online applications are accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis. Final application deadline: August 6, 2008. Fellowship year begins September 2008.

recruiting@buildingexcellentschools.org