Featuring the Work of Tera Ingraham

Art teachers in Maine are making wonderful use of online tools. Tera Ingraham uses WordPress to enhance her program in Western Maine. Check her wonderful site out here.

Featuring the Work of Karen Wilson

How can a 5th grade teacher make use of WordPress to develop a superb online presence in her community and beyond? Check out Karen Wilson's work here.


Karen shared her project last night at our learning and technology finale.

Featuring the Work of Mark Arnold

I just happened upon some of the outstanding work of Mark Arnold this morning which I hadn't seen before. He is at Mount Desert High School . . . which is, it so happens, yet another Maine school that is making wonderful use of Google Apps.

First of all, you really need to check out this site called Teaching & Learning Guides. What a straight-forward template for organizing content and resources!

Next, check out Mark's Trojan TechNotes for very helpful advice and resources.

Google Sites 101
Google Apps for Educators
Digital Storytelling
GoogleME
Why Google Apps for Schools
Differentiated Instruction
TV & Radio to Educational Resources
Learning Tools Exposition
Evaluating Web Resources and Wikipedia Articles
Videoconferencing Systems and Idea Bank

Featuring Shanna Wheelock of Lubec

While at the Lubec School I met Shanna Wheelock who has taken the initiative of using Google Apps for Education in her art classes. I found out also that Shanna has an excellent blog called the Easternmost Potter in the United States which speaks to her work both in school and beyond the classroom. Fascinating reading grounded in reality.


Check out, as well, these pages:

We Support Lubec High School.
Lubec Arts Alive 2010

Her husband also blogs on poetry, politics and philosophy at Owl Who Laughs.

Featuring Henry Giroux

Wikipedia: Henry Giroux

Articles by Giroux

Featuring Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

Passion-Based Learning

21st Century Collaborative

Sheryl's Blog

On Educational Social Networking

Sheryl on EdTechTalk

Featuring the Work of Melissa Prescott

This film was created by the Film class at Telstar Middle School in Bethel, Maine, and was directed by Visual Art Teacher, Melissa Prescott. It was created to educate the public about the "G.O.T. Farms?" service-learning project and inspire people to get involved. This project, a collaboration of Telstar Middle School and Telstar High School, is focused on sustainable agriculture and renewable energy. For more information about this project, please visit: gotfarms.wordpress.com.

"G.O.T. Farms?" from Melissa Prescott on Vimeo.

G.O.T. Farms Website

"Wagon Wheel" - Telstar Faculty
TMS Art
Melissa's "On Using Wordpress"

Featuring Ben Bridges of Dirigo Middle School

Mr. Bridges

Featured at L & T Pilot

Featuring the Work of Jerry Bracey

I just discovered that Jerry Bracey recently passed away. In his work he had battled the misuse of statistics and testing. If you haven't had a chance to see his work, I encourage you to do so.



The Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education, 2009

32 Principles of Data Interpretation

32 Principles of Data Interpretation Grouped

Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality

Summary of His Work: Gerald Bracey

Jason Ohler: In Tribute to Gerald Bracey and His Campaign to Keep Education Pundits Honest

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics” ~Disraeli (popularized by Mark Twain)

Featuring Theodore Sizer

"Respect for students starts with respect for teachers, for them as individuals, for their work, and for their workplace." ~ Ted Sizer

"The best we educational planners can do is to create the conditions for teachers and students to flourish and get out of their way." ~ Ted Sizer

The Educational Theory of Theodore Sizer

Habits of Mind

Coalition for Essential Schools

Wikipedia; Coalition for Essential Schools

Featuring Nel Noddings

"We hear a noise in the cellar and we go up to the attic and find trunkloads of algebra and SAT tests." ~ Nel Noddings

"To know what matters to you, observe your actions." ~ Nel Noddings


Nel Noddings: The Ethics of Care and Education

Infed: "Caring in Education"

"Excellence as a Guide to Educational Conversation"

"A Morally Defensible Mission of Schools in the 21st Century"

Featuring Stephen Downes, Our Neighbor to the North (Ooops, East)

Stephen's Web
Half an Hour Blog
"Connectivism for Dummies"
Wikipedia: Stephen Downes

Featuring David Marshak

New Horizons for Learning: "Why Every Child in America Deserves a School Where She/He is Known and Valued"

Letter to the Editor: "Common-Standards Process: Rigged from the Beginning?"

Education Week: "Obama's School Choice - Shouldn't the education that Malia and Sasha receive be available to all?"

Seattle Times: "NCLB: Test-Obsessed Education Won't Move Us Ahead"

Featuring Herbert Kohl

(Not to be confused with the U.S. Senator)

An Open Letter to Arne Duncan on Rethinking Schools Online
Education Secretary Arne Duncan Misread My Book
An Interview with Herb Kohl
The Discipline of Hope: Learning from a Lifetime of Teaching
Wikipedia: Herbert Kohl

Featuring Hattie DeRaps

Hattie is an alternative education teacher at Mt. Blue High School. I discovered her work on Darlene Bassett's blog, Reflections on Meta-cognition - For Educators by Educators. Hattie makes great use of blogs, using them for professional development and as a tool for her students

Check these out:

Literacy Strategies in Action
Mrs. DeRaps Goes to College
Class Blog

10BP

10CD

10CJT

10CNB

10EG

10GT

10JK

10LA

10MH

Featuring the Work of Paula Vigue

Today we are featuring the work of Paula Vigue of Winslow Junior High School. Paula is a second year teacher who came to teaching after a first career in the business world. Her enthusiasm for teaching science shines through in her moodle pages and blog posts.

Paula explained to me that the moodle page was started a few years ago by her mentor, Gene Roy, and that she has added, deleted, and modified resources and activities since that time. Her blog was started during a course at the UMO Maine Technology Institute.

She would also like to add that she has been fortunate enough to have some wonderful professors, most from Thomas College, a very supportive staff at WJHS, friends, and a supportive family (her boys are the ones that talked her into teaching). Without them, and the "listserve" that has provided many ideas and links to look at, she says she would not be where she is today.

Paula states:

"The most important part... the students. They make the teaching all worth while. I want to make learning fun and engaging for them so that they will want to continue learning. The smiles and the "aha" moments when students finally understand something is such a reward. A teacher at Karlsruhe American High School in Germany was the person that got me into the "I want to continue learning" mode. He was the first teacher I had that really made me enjoy learning. I still love to learn myself, and every day has a learning experience for me."

It's always a delight to see good use of free tools by an enthusiastic classroom teacher.

Winslow Junior High Moodle Front Page
WJHS Noteshare Server

Featuring Marion Brady

The Standards Juggernaut

A Primer for Reformers

An Any-Century Curriculum

Averting Educational Catastrophe


Journal Articles

Investigating Systems - A Course of Study

American History Handbook