World Population

Racial Profiling

Student website

Human Rights

Yasheng Huang: Does democracy stifle economic growth? | Video on TED.com

Yasheng Huang: Does democracy stifle economic growth? | Video on TED.com

What Really Motivates Kids

9/11

VPR 9/11 Story Corps

EDGR620

I use tech a lot in my classes. This class really got me thinking about the big questions that surround my use of tech in my classes.

1. How much to tech? As much as possible as long as it has a purpose.

2. What to use tech for? Discussion, formative assessment, and demonstration of learning.

3. What tech to use? USER FRIENDLY!!!

To tech or not to tech?

As I push through day four of my five day tech class this summer there are a few thoughts that have popped into my often wandering brain.

1) There is a lot of technology in our students lives and I would usually argue that it is far too much.

2) We as educators need to focus on teaching our students how to use technology as a tool that facilitates critical thinking and creation, not just consumption of information.

3) There are people out there who are FAR better at saying what I am thinking than I am. Check out these talks from Sir Ken Robinson and Daniel Pink.

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms from The RSA on Vimeo.

RSA Animate -- Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

I really believe that technology can help us answer some of the immense problems that we face as a society. Technology can help with this if we treat it as a tool and use it at its best. We also need to make sure that we are teaching our students to put it away and examine the world without it. Technology should not be our way of life and it has become far to ingrained in our society.

I am going to go outside and eat some lunch.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Two Questions...

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

What's your sentence?

Was I better today than yesterday?

- Daniel Pink

“How can I help make a group into a team?”

A leader might consider the following qualities in his or her team members:

• Loyalty: “Respecting the people you work with and the team goals.”

• Good character: “Having a desirable set of beliefs and values.”

• Ambition: “Desire to work with the team.”

• Dependability: “Able to be trusted with responsibility.”

• Hardworking: “Willing and able to complete a job at a quality level.”

• Good attitude: “Focuses on the team’s success.”

• Goal-oriented: “Puts forward resources to accomplish the team’s purpose.”

• Open-minded: “Willing to take in new ideas and work with people.”

• Communication: “Able to share information effectively and appropriately.”

A few technical skills, knowledge or experience you may have considered are:

• Technical skills or talents specific to the task.

• Knowledge about rules or regulations.

• Experience having working on something similar.

“Responsibilities of a Leader on a Team”
• Listener: “Is willing to listen and not always talk. Active listening must be practiced.”
• Motivator: “Is able to be the catalyst and get the team going. Team leaders are
responsible for moving the team to accomplish its task as well as recognizing and
celebrating accomplishments.”
• Chemist: “Builds chemistry, harmony and trust in the team.”
• Educator: “Provides information and strives to build themselves and team members.”
• Responsibility Taker: “Is willing to shoulder responsibility for the team. Works closely with the team to create agendas, plan outcomes and ensure next steps are assigned.”
• Facilitator: “Opens up communication lines between team members, assists with
meetings, encourages quiet members to speak up and, when necessary, shuts down
those members who might try to dominate.”
• Vision Creator: “Helps develop and guide the team toward their common purpose.”
• Chief: “Finds the best people and assembles the best team possible. Organizes the team and secures meeting space, resources and clearing boundaries.

Global Warming???

Libya

After looking at colonialism and Africa, I wanted to bring our studies full circle. We started by taking a look at what is happening in Africa right now? In the month since we did that assignment, Africa has drastically changed.

We will examine Libya today.

Here are the questions that I want you to be ready to discuss today.

What is happening in Libya? Why?

What implications does this have for the United States?

Take a look at this link to get you started.

Columbus Before and After

I always find it interesting to do a word map of how students view Christopher Columbus before and after they read a little Howard Zinn. The first two are the before, the second two are the after. We had great conversations about Columbus and about the process of documenting history in both classes.

Inventors

Inventions