Two Important Links About the Use of Technology!!! Plus a Bonus Interactive World Map With Causes of Death

I view blogging as a chance to renew my ideas and ideals.  I believe the overuse and misuse of standardized testing has created a great deal of confusion in multiple stakeholders' minds. What about the role of technology and charter schools verses public schools? How do you (the collective you - in whatever role you play) determine the value of a school district's mission and vision, a school's environment, the principal as leader, an individual teacher and figure out what exactly your child/student is learning and why it's even relevant?

Faced with a world filled with violence, disease and poverty it is simply an overwhelming task. Recently I tearfully told my twenty-eight-year-old daughter, I would understand if she and her husband chose to only have a dog, like my wonderful rescue, Cassie pictured below, and forgo having children.

Proof that violence exists is evident in this interactive map. Click on the side drop down menu and it lets you choose from a long list of maladies and ways to die and you can see how each area of the world ranks.

I have strong feelings about the misuse of technology in schools because unless it promotes social gains and authentic use it will lend itself to isolation and idealize individualized learning at "one's own pace".  The problem is that this  can still create a mindset where the technology is a tool - not a vital part of organizing the learning act.

One of my academic feeds had an interesting studying decrying the standard approach to decoding teachers use in early literacy transactions favoring print and text rather than a more interactive approach.  The study has many interesting ideas and I can recommend it from an ethnographic approach instead giving it my wholesale approval.  The idea of communication and community is the focus for teachers and parents as a takeaway.

The other feed I want to recommend is so jam packed with ideas and recommendations that it blew me away.  I want to try everything recommended in this presentation myself because even though it was for "low" level learners, it could be transformed for any learner. I have been asking people about animation and now I have a site that provides me the juice to get it done. For those of you looking for a site to give you the gist of a tech program this is it. 

Have a wonderful weekend and if you don't have the tech tools you need - you have the sample grant to get you started. I also want to thank you for being teachers it is one of the best jobs ever and one of the hardest and you have to fill your heart with love to be able to get the job done. I've seen many cars in the local school parking lots  - surround yourself with friends during the coming days and get ready for a new year and a new start.