Virtual Teacher
Newsletter No. 120 4th February 2006 –
THINKERŐS HIGH
FREE ONLINE FORTNIGHTLY IT TEACHERS' NEWSLETTER
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CONTENTS
1. Welcome
2. Mind Candy
3. WWWinfo MET
Art Timeline
4. New
Printables SPIDER WEB
5. Technical
Stuff – INTEL DUAL CORE CHIP
6. Web Site
Focus - RAINFOREST MATHS
7. GRADE-O-MATIC
8. Great Sites
9. Readers' Requests/Comments
10 Next Issue
11. Code of
'Netizens'
12. Tips
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enjoyed their
holidays. Besides spending a great deal of time
sleeping and
reading, I love both. I have just finished
The Wisdom
Paradox by Goldberg. Some great insights. One
I particularly
loved is the idea of a ThinkerŐs high.
We have
often heard of
the runners high, caused by physical exertion
and physical
accomplishment, the ThinkerŐs high is caused by
mental exertion
and mental accomplishment – brilliant. I think
we can sell this
to the kids. It is actually measurable
– chemicals
are released in
the brain that give you a kind of mental euphoria.
So this year – letŐs get the kids
high on THINKING. I have
included some
information about KMAN –
these guys teach
skateboarding
and are great. My daughter has been working
as a coach there
over the school holidays – what a great job.
Take look at it
– it just might provide some ideas for school
sport this year,
different and highly motivating for most kids.
PLEASE ENJOY.
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2. MIND CANDY
"If people
did not do silly things, nothing intelligent would
ever get
done."
~~ Ludwig
Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951) Austrian philosopher
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The very essence
of creativity is novelty, and hence we have
no standard by
which to judge it. Carl Rogers - Psychologist
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The quest for
exploration, for novelty, for what ought to be,
goes hand in
hand with the brooding dissatisfaction with
what is.
Perfectly content people do not discover new lands,
do not
circumnavigate the glob, and do not create revolutions
in science. If
everything is hunky-dory, why bother.
The Wisdom
Paradox – Goldberg pp 231
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3. WWWinfo The
Met's Timeline of Art History
New York City's
Metropolitan Museum of Art has an online art
history database
that includes an extensive timeline depicting
artistic periods
throughout history, examples of art, and
searchable
indices. ItŐs fantastic, maps, images, easy to navigate,
details of
specific periods – kids will love it.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm
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4. NEW
PRINTABLES
http://www.bluemooncreative.com.au/mindtools.html
Click on
The Spider Web
Also try out
some of the other mind tools at this site.
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5. TECHNICAL
STUFF
Well itŐs
finally happened Mac is now using the Intel chip.
The dual core
intel chip.
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/intelcoreduo.html
This moves Macs
and Microsoft closer towards compatibility,
once they get
universally compatible software, anything will be
possible. The
new chip allows a leap forward in both speed
and a decrease
in power use.
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6. WEBSITE FOCUS
– RAINFOREST MATHS
Dear Cathy,
Your newsletter
continues to illuminate and inspire.
I always look
forward to seeing what you will focus on next.
After making A
Maths Dictionary for Kids I've been keeping
the right side
of my brain occupied making Rainforest maths.
Thought you may
like to take a look at:
http://www.rainforestmaths.com/
Again great work
with the newsletter and Merry Christmas!!
Cheers,
Jenny Eather
THIS IS AN AMAZING
SITE – Jenny you are amazing.
I hope you all
go here and try this out and then write to
Jenny to let her
know how splendid it is. The site
is geared
for K-7 and kids
will just love using it, even bigger kids like
me, I never
realised how much fun adding single digits could
be with frogs
and brightly colour parrots. Let me know what
you think of
Rainforest Maths – I just loved it.
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7. GRADE-A-MATIC
The red pen goes
high tech.
By Cheri Lucas
Envision this: A
computer tells students that their latest
literary
concoction doesn't connect ideas logically. At Warren
Central High
School, in Indianapolis, English teacher Kathy
Paris doesn't
have to imagine. She uses Criterion, a Web service
that scores
essays and shoots feedback out to students within
seconds.
Can an automated
grading system score human articulation and
reason? The tool
Paris uses compares student work to "training"
essays, or
models of the class assignment, at each scoring
level. SAGrader,
http://sagrader.com/
software
developed by Ed Brent, a sociology
professor at the
University of Missouri at Columbia, works
similarly.
His students
type a sociology essay about community, for
example, into an
input field on the assignment's Web site.
Moments after
students click on the Submit button, SAGrader
assesses whether
they have identified concepts such as urban
renewal or
gentrification and have used appropriate examples.
Read more about
essay-grading software in the December/January
issue of
Edutopia magazine, the award-winning publication of The
George Lucas
Educational Foundation, available online now.
http://email.e-mailnetworks.com/ct/ct.php?t=1151153&c=653977589&m=m&type=3
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8. GREAT SITES
HOT SITES
Australian
Museums and Galleries Online
This is an
interesting website – it does take some time to find out
where all the
good stuff is. The Discovernet
section is most
interesting.
This site has been totally revamped – I imagine there
is more to add.
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Frost Out Loud
http://robertfrostoutloud.com/
This site
includes thirty or so Frost poems, most of which include
both the text
and an audio reading. My favourites, Mending a
Wall and the
Road Not Taken, are there with readings by Frost
himself as well
as a link to the analysis. "You may find that the
combination of
the text and sound in this modern-day medium
enhances the
experience of the poem even more; the text
supplements the
sound and the sound enhances the text to
create a sum
greater than the parts."
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9. READERS
COMMENTS/REQUESTS
Hi Cathy
thanks for all
the great resources this year. You're a legend!!!
have a great
holiday and a joyous festive season.
Cheers
Sharon Holmes
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Hi Cathy
Love your site.
I have been
interested in the field of neurological development
through exercise
to build neural pathways or remove primitive
reflexes for
awhile.
I have attached
websites of Organisations with more information.
Learning
Connections in Brisbane will come and train teachers
in your area.
http://www.learningconnections.com.au/
The Extra lesson
http://www.extralesson.com/australia/index.html
Good Luck
Trish
Ghirardello
Canberra
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Let me know what
you think of these sites
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Thanks so much
Cathy,
The newsletter
is always a great read... So much information, I am
always
forwarding on snippets to a whole host of colleagues, and telling
them to check
the site out :)
Have a great
break, and I look forward to keeping up with you next year
:)
Cheers
Suz
Suzanne Arnott
Elisabeth
Murdoch College
Photography and
Multimedia Coordinator
Assistant
Manager, Learning Technologies
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Hi Cathy,
I greatly enjoy
the newsletter--so many interesting items for
education. It is
sad that we won't hear from you until Feb.2004(?????)
Happy New Year!
Patricia
McGoldrick Goldberg
History Teacher
St. Mary's High
School
-----------------------------------
I enjoy your
site and read it regularly. I do
not have enough
time to fully
explore every link, wish I did
Keep up the good work.
I do tell my
colleagues about the site.
I am trying to end the email account
rvickers@......
I would love to
still get your newsletter at rcvickers@ÉÉ..
Have a Merry
Christmas.
Ron Vickers
Great to have
you on board Ron – I to am amazingly busy so
I have automated
the subscriber system, to change your email
address simply
unsubscribe and resubscribe using the new email.
List-Subscribe: http://mojo.epicentre.org.nz/cgi-bin/mojo/mojo.cgi?f=s&l=Virtual_Teacher
List-Unsubscribe:
http://mojo.epicentre.org.nz/cgi-bin/mojo/mojo.cgi?f=u&l=Virtual_Teacher
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Hi Cathy,
My name is
Robert Cutter. I have written a number of programs
based on early
Australian History.
Errol Callaghan
(an ex-teacher from NSW) purchased my
FIRST FLEET
DATABASE program and was impressed with
it and suggested
I contact you regarding it.
You can, if
interested, find details of this and other program
on my web site
at:
http://home.webaxs.net/~rncutter/software/software.html
You may be interested in including the
link in your newsletter
you send out to
teachers.
Let me know if I
can provide you with any more info.
regards
Bob Cutter
185 Country Club
Drive
Clifton Springs
Victoria 3222
This is a most
interesting Database, I remember some folk
working on this
way back – I guy named Peter I think – wonder
if itŐs the same
program – looks very familiar.
There is also
free database material on the convicts at-
http://cedir.uow.edu.au/programs/FirstFleet/objectv.html
---------------------------------------------
Hello Cathy!
Enclosed is a
current press release.
You can grab
some lines from this for your online newsletter
or let me know
if you want me
to send a concise paragraph!
Please include:
Kman Skate School: where skating is safe,
healthy &
fun!
Can you please
CC me on your newsletter?
Many thanks,
Arielle
Kman Skate
School teaches skateboarding as a fun, healthy
activity for
kids and families. The Kman Skate Park at The
Entertainment
Quarter was designed and built to provide a
safe environment
for skating novices as well as the more
advanced skater.
The school has taught over 3000 kids and
adults how to
skate since opening in April 2005.
Skateboarding
improves balance, coordination and fitness
plus it's a
great confidence booster for those new to the sport
or old school
skaters needing a refresher. Beginner skaters
learn correct
stance on a board, how to push, turn and ride
over small
ramps. Intermediate to advanced skaters learn
more technical
tricks such as ollies, board slides and
Ňdropping inÓ on
ramps.
Skateboarding is
the world's fastest growing sport and is
enjoyed by
millions of skaters of all ages in every corner
of the world.
Group and private lessons are available every
weekend, after
school and mid-week for school & corporate
groups. Kman Skate
Birthday Parties also available for
kids 5 years up.
All equipment is provided, bookings essential.
Contact Kman
Skate School on 0400 589 559 or go to
for the latest program.
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Hi Cathy,
I love your
site.
I tute
apprentices at TAFE and we see lots of problems
which we feel
should have been fixed at Primary school
and Secondary
School.
Apprentices with
passing grades from secondary school
who are unable
to add or subtract single digit numbers
in their head.
They take out the mobile phone and start
using the
calculator. The only problem is that they should
be doing thirty
calculations a minute at this level. This
limits their
ability to pass the practical aspects of their
trade training.
Some of them can
barely read and we are expecting
them to fully
comprehend a safety data sheet.
It appears that
students are still being told that if they
aren't good
enough to go to university, they can always
try a trade.
I believe there
is a place for 'distance' or 'on line' learning
without going
into the semantics of the terms, and recently
attended a
conference where I heard that every student is
computer
friendly, and this is the E generation. The example
given by the
professor was his four year old grandchild,
who was able to
use and manipulate information and
data on a
website and on 'Poppy's' palmtop.
Sorry but this
is simply not true.
Many of my
students are not just computer illiterate.
They are not
just uncomfortable with them. They are
afraid of the
monster.
We do most
theory assessment on computer because
it requires
little teacher input and gives an immediate result.
I have seen
grown men in the twenty to thirty age group
physically
shaking at assessment time. It is a mixture of
lack of content
knowledge and fear of the beast.
They choose to
do a trade because they think that they
will be able to
avoid computers. Sorry son but this is the
21st century and
the beast is here to stay.
I am a 57 year
old tradesman and do not have the fear
of the beast,
mostly because my son took to them at a
very young age
and was constantly cracking my passwords
and changing
them. In retaliation, I had to crack his and
change them.
I also learnt
that they are really quite difficult to break,
so I keep trying
new things until I find something that eventually
does what I want
it to.
This is a
difficult concept to teach young adults still in avoidance.
However, since I
have this off my chest, would you do
me a small
favour.
On your web
page, in the classroom section, you have spelt
'here' as 'hear'
and 'they' is spelt 'rhey'. I cannot help it.
My eye keeps
getting drawn to it.
This is one of
the 'disadvantages' of being taught to spell
correctly by the
yardstick method. (If we spelt a word incorrectly,
the yard
('meter' or is that'meter') stick was brought to bear on
the offending
hand. If the teacher was feeling good, flat side
down, or if she
was a little annoyed, onh the edge.)
But I can really
spell now. We were taught to comprehend
the written word
first, and then appreciation of the language
came a few years
later.
Do you have a
forum area for your subscribers? Perhaps
a link to a MSN
web board or BLOG somewhere would
be fairly easy,
although I must confess that even on our
own intranet,
our teachers are more likely to criticise
someones efforts
verbally than use the forum to rectify a
situation, you
see, it is not only the students who are afraid
of the beast.
Some of our teachers are either unwilling
or unable to
retrieve their own email.
I do hope I
haven't made any spelling errors, and if I have,
will you forgive
me?
I also hope
that you will consider the
computer illiterate.
They have their
own story, and they also need our help,
consideration,
and attention. The computer and the web
are simply tools
which should be used well but wisely,
and certainly
not without exception.
Still looking
forward to your next newsletter.
Cheers for now,
Trevor Phipps.
---------------------------------------------
Thanks Trevor
– thanks for sharing your
thoughts and
your story,
gives everyone something to think about.
I fixed up the typos. I think your idea of a
blog is great
and I plan to get this sorted this year. I believe
that there is a
lot to improve in our current education system
and there are a
lot of great things already happening.
This
newsletter is
about finding the best of them and broadcasting
as many as
possible.
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10. NEXT ISSUE –More on the thinkerŐs
high, please send
in any mini sagas you can find, and also those brain
gym exercises in the next newsletter. Ciao Cathy
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11. Code of the
'Netizens'
This Newsletter
is not free, despite the misleading advertising
above. The Fee
is now due. Each week you must help one
colleague on the
Internet who has less knowledge than you.
Help that person
even if you have to visit their classroom or
do a little
research and get back to them. Trust me, this will
help a lot of
people get their computer classrooms running better.
OK I'm trusting
you!!!
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12. TIPS
1. Double click
on highlighted URLS to open in browser.
2. Send in your
Questions, Questions will be published with
Answers, send in
your Answers, if you have expertise to share.
3. Nominate a
brilliant site for review and inclusion in this
newsletter.
4. Nominate a
fantastic school site for review and inclusion in
this newsletter.
5. Make contact
with other schools using fantastic programs.
6. Prepare and
innovative article for this newsletter.
7. Tell 2
colleagues about this newsletter.
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The opinions
expressed here are purely those of the editor,
Cathy Brown. All
other small print clauses apply. Such as:
Use at your own risk. Nothing in life is
guaranteed. If it doesn't
work for you
send me an email.
Editor: cathy brown mailto:cathy@virtualteacher.com.au
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For information
about inservice and training contact me at
cathy@virtualteacher.com.au
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