Stephen's Untold Stories

Just wow. That’s all I can say.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse

Outstanding piece in Monday’s Atlanta Journal/Constitution.

The country’s daily economic standing is inked on every major newspaper’s front page. Since we are in a recession, I think this is a good time to be knowledgeable in history and economics. But I have little knowledge in either.

I am a 22-year-old product of Ben Hill County schools and now am a senior at the University of Georgia. Instead of learning the details of supply and demand in school, I have learned mostly the success game —-how to pass tests so I could move ahead a grade. I play the game well.

I don’t blame my teachers, parents or community. I know they wish Georgia’s young the best education.

I blame standardized tests.

Once I got to high school, I quickly figured out how to predict test questions and study only those. I learned to mimic my teacher’s style of writing, not to develop my own style. Both resulted in good grades.

This is a game played by most students because it works. Our school systems give students only one option: pass the test dictated by the state and you can pass the course and move to the next grade. If you don’t pass —- sorry.

Read the rest here.

Well worth the almost 10 minutes.

Looks like this is getting serious.

View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map

A few months ago, my first iPod looked like it was dead. I bought it in 2004, and it served me well until recently. One day I tried to turn it on, but all I got was the sad iPod screen.

Now this indicates a hardware problem, and it often means the end of the line for your iPod. I Googled up a lot of suggestions for fixing it, but none of them worked. I put the iPod in one of my desk drawers and forgot about it.

Flash forward to yesterday. I was looking for something in my desk and saw the iPod there. I decided to take a chance and hook it up to the computer. I plugged it into the USB cable and nothing happened. I then decided to drop it on the floor.

On purpose.

So I did.

I dropped it from a height of about six feet. I then plugged it back into the USB cable and saw this screen.

After a few minutes, the iPod started synching with iTunes. Pretty cool, huh?

I realize it may not last, but at least it’s working for now.

I look forward to reading the entire report when my semester is over!

The evaluation study involved 1,716 students in the treatment group and 1,622 students in the control group. In the treatment group, teachers used Promethean ActivClassroom to augment their instructional practices. In the control group, teachers used strategies and materials to facilitate instruction without the use of Promethean ActivClassroom.

This evaluation study examined the effects of Promethean ActivClassroom on student achievement. During the 2008-2009 school year, 79 teachers from 50 schools throughout the country participated in independent studies to determine the effect Promethean ActivClassroom has on students’ achievement in their classrooms.

Marzano Preliminary Report on ActivClassroom

I’ve decided to start a new feature. A different cool song from the 1970s every week.

This week’s song is a real tearjerker about the passing of Beach Boy Carl Wilson’s Irish Setter, Shannon.

Lyrics | Henry Gross – Shannon lyrics

Wow…I haven’t used it in years, but it was one of the first web hosting options that I used. Sad to see it go, but I guess it’s time.

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/geocities/geocities-05.html

Okay, I find this completely fascinating. Someone took MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech and put it to music using an auto-tuner. It’s very similar to the recent work of Kanye West.

Good to see more and more of this type of thing these days.

One of the world’s oldest novels has just become one of the newest.

“The Tale of Genji,” an 11th-century Japanese romp that is sometimes called the first true novel, is among about 1,250 books, maps, artworks and other cultural items that went on display online Tuesday in an international library supported by Unesco and the U.S. Library of Congress.

The project, called the World Digital Library, aims to “promote international and intercultural understanding,” said James H. Billington, the U.S. librarian of Congress, speaking as the Web site (www.wdl.org) was introduced at Unesco headquarters in Paris.

“This is a truly international undertaking,” said Dr. Billington, who has been working on the project since proposing it to Unesco four years ago.

The library, which draws material from more than 30 national libraries and other institutions from around the world, joins a growing number of programs that have set out to digitally archive cultural material.

Read the rest here.

Be careful!

I met the technology director for the Catlin Gabel School a couple of years ago and I’ve followed his blog for even longer than that. Here are the results of a very nice study that was conducted at the school.

Laptop use in English and computer science classes is nearly ubiquitous. Among other subjects, students use laptop computers more often in history and modern languages classes and less often in math and art classes.

Laptop computing has increased student access to computers at home. Parents felt more strongly about this effect in 2008 than in 2003.

The survey found a small impact of the laptop program on teaching methods and curriculum. Respondents felt that the laptop program had significantly improved writing skills, improved collaboration, and increased communication overall.

Teachers feel that girls are more willing to use computers and demonstrate stronger computers skills as a result of the laptop program.

The survey suggests that the laptop program support the ability of students to learn in a way that matches their learning style.

Students and parents feel that laptop computers help students keep their academic lives more organized. Teachers feel the same way about their use of laptop computers.

Respondents expressed concern about a decrease in face-to-face communication as a result of the laptop program.

Students found great value in the ability of social network sites to overcome separation from their friends by distance or time.

Read the rest here.

As long as schools continue to erect these barriers, student and teachers will find it more difficult to be productive.

Teachers and students are largely driving the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in schools, but human and technological barriers are holding back the use of these as learning tools in many classrooms, according to a new study.

Commissioned by Lightspeed Systems and Thinkronize Inc., creator of the kid-friendly search engine netTrekker, the study reveals that Web 2.0 technologies are making inroads into schools–but some of these technologies are being adopted faster than others. Online communication tools for parents and students have caught on quickly, but online social networking for instruction has a long way to go.

According to Lightspeed Systems, there is a persistent gap between how today’s digital natives learn in schools and how they work and interact outside of school–a trend that underscores the need for districts to keep pace with technological advances and adapt to students’ learning needs.

Link to article

I’m not aware of any districts in Georgia that are doing this. I hope that will soon change.

Lee’s Summit R-7 (MO) School District is atwitter over Twitter. A trial period had been proposed through the summer, but after more than a dozen people found the district on the social networking site, officials decided to launch the initiative immediately. Posts are usually about recent awards or links to the district site. It will not be used to announce school closings or other district emergencies.

http://www.schoolcio.com/ShowArticle/17074

Very interesting idea. I think this could work in a lot of places.

Some seventh graders who were struggling in class did significantly better after performing a series of brief confidence-building writing exercises, and the improvements continued through eighth grade, researchers reported Thursday.

The students who benefited most were blacks who were doing poorly, the study found; the exercises made no difference for white students, or for black ones who were already doing well.

Experts cautioned that the writing was hardly transforming. Those who benefited were still barely getting C’s, on average, by the end of middle school.

Yet the results were surprising, because interventions to improve school performance tend to have short-term benefits, and the writing assignments were simple 15-minute efforts.

By the end of eighth grade, the students who benefited had nearly a half-point higher grade point average than struggling peers who completed a different writing exercise. The study was published in the journal Science.

“A difference of a third or more on G.P.A. is a large effect, and what’s surprising is that there was apparently no fadeout of the effect,” said Greg Duncan, an economist at the University of California, Irvine, who was not involved in the research. “Fadeout is the coin of the realm in school intervention studies.”

Read the rest here.

This seems especially appropriate as we enter standardized testing season.

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