Win a high-tech classroom makeover

eInstruction is asking primary and secondary students and teachers in the United States and Canada to submit short, creative music videos demonstrating how they would use advanced technology to enhance their learning experience in the classroom. Entries for the 2009 Classroom Makeover Contest will be judged based on effective use of technology, portrayal of teachers and students working together and overall creativity and spirit. The contest closes at noon Eastern time on Nov. 10 . 

LeapFrog, the maker of learning toys like the Tag Reading System, is offering Kindergarten teachers the opportunity to get the Tag Reading System and books for free. LeapFrog is looking to partner with Kindergarten teachers through the Tag Kindergarten Program. The LeapFrog Tag Kindergarten Program will provide teachers with nearly $3200 worth of equipment and books for their classrooms. In exchange, Kindergarten teachers offer LeapFrog feedback about how they are using the Tag Reading System in their classrooms and how it affected student learning. The deadline to apply for the program is November 11. To get all of the application details, please click here.

Retrieved October 23, 2009 from Free Technology For Teachers Blog .

The FTC¹s newest online safety publication: Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online is an excellent guide for parents with practical tips to help kids navigate the online world. It¹s posted on OnGuardOnline. gov at http://www.onguardo nline.gov/ topics/net- cetera.aspx, and you can order copies for free and in bulk at http://bulkorder. ftc.gov <http://bulkorder. ftc.gov/>. Net Cetera is also available in Spanish.

This material is excellent. The FTC is really taking a leadership role in providing excellent - non-fear-based guidance.

This notice posted to "The Web and Education" Yahoo group by:

Nancy Willard, M.S., J.D.
Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use

http://csriu. org

http://cyberbully. org

http://cyber- safe-kids. com

http://csriu. wordpress. com

nwillard@csriu. org

Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats: Responding to the Challenge of Online Social

Aggression, Threats, and Distress (Research Press)

Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Learn to Use the

Internet Safely and Responsibly (Jossey-Bass)

This is an amusing video of three ImprovEverywhere.com pranksters bringing in full-sized PCs to Starbucks. Watch them buy coffee, set up their machines and browse the web. Funnier still are the reactions of customers. Starbucks employees were reportedly good sports. This Improv Everywhere event took place in February, 2008.

Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 85 missions involving thousands of undercover agents. The group is based in New York City.

Harvard University to Offer Groundbreaking Doctoral Program for Education Leaders

By News Editor on September 15, 2009

Program to combine education, business, and public policy faculty with on-site practice in tuition-free doctoral program

Harvard University today announced the launch of a new, practice-based doctoral program to prepare graduates for senior leadership roles in school districts, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector.

The new tuition-free Doctor of Education Leadership Program (Ed.L.D.) will be taught by faculty from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), the Harvard Business School (HBS), and the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). The program offers an unprecedented approach to preparing leaders equipped to transform the American education system in order to enable all students to succeed in a 21st-century world. The three-year program will begin in August 2010 and initially enroll 25 students per year.

"One of the core missions of Harvard's professional schools is to prepare leaders who can guide organizations in a rapidly changing environment. No sector has a greater need for such transformational leaders than public education," said Harvard President Drew Faust. "I am delighted that professors from three outstanding professional schools are combining their knowledge and experience to create this groundbreaking program."

Based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Ed.L.D. will be the first new degree offered in 74 years by the school. The degree is a practice-based doctorate designed to equip students with a deep understanding of learning and teaching as well as the management and leadership skills necessary to reshape the American education sector.

In the first two years of the program, students will participate in a new customized curriculum of classes, modules, and practice-based experiences. In the concluding year, students will enter a year-long residency in a partner education organization pursuing transformational change where they will receive hands-on training and lead a capstone project to complete the doctoral degree.

"Research clearly shows that no school improvement effort can succeed without effective leadership, and such leadership is needed at all levels - federal, state, district, and school - in our current systems and in the systems we will create in the future," said M. Christine DeVita, president of The Wallace Foundation, which provided a $10-million grant to support the effort. "The new Doctor of Education Leadership Program draws on what we've learned about effective leader preparation over the past decade. By providing fellowship support that will remove the barrier of cost and student debt, we hope to attract the most accomplished and promising future leaders to this innovative program and to these careers that are so important to our nation's future."

The program tethers academic preparation to real-world practice by partnering with the same types of organizations that graduates of the program will aspire to lead. These organizations include not only many of the leading urban school districts (e.g., Atlanta, Denver, New York City), but also some of the most noted organizations driving change in K-12 education (including Teach for America, New Leaders for New Schools, KIPP, and the National Center on Education and the Economy).

"Our goal is not to develop leaders for the system as it currently exists; rather, we aim to develop people who will lead system transformation, " said Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean Kathleen McCartney. "We believe this new degree program will be a catalyst to drive that change. It will allow us to meet our goal of producing a new generation of education leaders, who will have a laser-like focus on student learning, and will know how to translate that into large-scale system change. They will be successful by altering education policy debates, forging powerful public-private partnerships, and restoring public confidence in our schools."

The Doctor of Education Leadership Program - which will be led by Harvard faculty Richard Elmore (HGSE), Harry Spence (HGSE/HKS), and Elizabeth City (HGSE) - is unique in its integrated curriculum in learning and instruction, management and leadership, and policy and politics. Students will learn with faculty from the three professional schools, including Stacey Childress (HBS), Marshall Ganz (HKS), Deborah Jewell-Sherman (HGSE), Robert Kegan (HGSE), Mark Moore (HKS/HGSE), and David Thomas (HBS).

"In creating this groundbreaking program, we are proud to bring together the strengths of our three great faculties with an array of exceptionally pioneering organizations, " said Professor Robert Schwartz, academic dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "The Obama Administration and large private foundations are about to make unprecedented levels of investment in education reform. It is critical that states and districts, and the national organizations they count on for support, have access to a pipeline of leadership talent equipped with the knowledge and skills to ensure that these investments produce dramatic improvements in the performance of our schools."

For more information on the program and how to apply, visit http://www.gse.harvard. edu/admissions/ connect/ and
http://www.gse.harvard. edu/admissions/ apply/

Steven Abbott
Associate Director for Recruitment & Student Affairs
Harvard University Native American Program
14 Story Street - Suite 400
Cambridge, MA 02138

steven_abbott@ harvard.edu

Phone: 617/495-9058
Fax: 617/496-3312
http://hunap. harvard.edu

The Library of Congress has added another year's worth of historic illustrated newspaper pages to the LC Flickr photostream. The New-York Tribune Illustrated Supplement section of 1906, printed on Sundays, includes published images of signature events of 1906, including: construction of the Panama Canal, 3 weeks of coverage on the San Francisco Earthquake, the Chicago meat packing industry, storm devastation in Hong Kong and Alabama and more....In Flickr, you can tag it, add a note, share it....and even read more about it!

Chronicling America Illustrated Newspaper Pages from 1906 Added to LC Flickr Photostream 

 

Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston is the first large-scale project, anywhere, in which the survivors of a major disaster have taken the lead in documenting it. The project's goal is to voice, as intimately as possible, the experiences and reflections of those displaced to Houston by the two major hurricanes that pounded the Gulf Coast in August and September of 2005. The heart of the project is stories: stories told by survivors, to survivors, on the survivors' own terms.

Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston

Constitution Day Resources from the Library of Congress

Looking for resources for Constitution Day activities? The Library of Congress has a variety of sources you can use. Explore the Creating the United States online exhibit <http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/creatingtheus/Pages/default.aspx> and learn more about the impact of the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence on U.S. history. Explore the interactive Constitution where students can learn more about the Constitution and origin of important parts of the Constitution. The Learn More will lead you to links for other exhibits, online resources, webcasts and lessons you can use to help students learn more about the Constitution. 

Kids Stories Online has been added to the permanent category "Children's Books Online" on this site. Thank you to the reader who suggested the site. Kids Stories Online offers access to free e-Books, videos & audio books.

It is also a site which allows Posting of short stories, poems or art produced by anyone aged 4 years and over. Receive feedback from other members and from our online authors and illustrators.

Membership is Free and includes access to the Free Area, the Forum, and over 50 Short Videos

Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event "Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus", from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009.

For more of Bobby McFerrin and the science behind this program, please view the full "Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus" event video at our website: worldsciencefestival.com/video/notes-neurons-full

 

How is this for an integrated learning project?

Diego Stocco - Music From A Tree

 

...With Zero Carbon Emmissions and Solar Panels Alone

Click here to see the image/information: http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/09/solar-panels.jpg

 

 

Dan Roam, of thebackofthenapkin.com, offers an effective video explanation of the American health care debate.

Click here to check it out: Healthcare Napkins All (http://www.slideshare.net/danroam/healthcare-napkins-all)