Door County to Copper Harbor and Beyond

Coming to you from beautiful Iron River, WI this post will be brief because we've been on the road today and suffered through rain and heat.  Plus I'm typing on the tiny XO keyboard that makes me crazy.  Tomto and Chemo had a great stay in Marquette with Ann and Fred... got to see all their toys and collections, even sailed on the 40+ year old Dutch sail boat in Marquette Harbor.  In addition to their vehicle collection (power, sail boats; Cesnna 172, Buel and Ural Motorcycles fred is restoring a classic Triumph MC and a rare Honda trials bike.  Ann's  collection of Native American artifacts would send our friend Jack's had spinning... everything from porkupine quill baskets to some really nice kachina dolls.

Our overnight stay included grilled fresh Lake Superior whitfish, homemade blueberry pie, a tour of the city and Northern Michigan campus as well as great conversation and accomodations.  It was great to see Ann and Fred again, especially in their home environment.
Sunday it was on to Copper Harbor with aa brief stop in Hancock for a past at Kevala's Cafe.

More to follow.

Tom & Dave's Excellent Adventures - No Country for Old Men Tour

Here's a link to the website that chronicles old guys doing mildly adventurous things. I'll be adding docs and pics from previous trips as time goes by.

Tom & Dave's Excellent Adventures

Some educators question if whiteboards, other high-tech tools raise achievement

Food for thought. I know many of you have Smart Boards, here's a piece that asks some probing questions. For one, "Do whiteboards just allow teachers to teach in the old way with a new device (is the Smart Board just a glorified chalkboard)?" Good question, I think. One measure of change might be to determine if kids are finding ways to use the whiteboards to teach the teacher or other students. What do you think, Smart Board users?

Some educators question if whiteboards, other high-tech tools raise achievement

Wayne's Day | The Forum for Education and Democracy

Many of you have mentioned the pressures of preparing kids to take high stakes exams that are foisted on schools and teachers by No Child Left Behind legislation and other misguided efforts to improve education by testing and punishing schools who can't raise test scores. The author of this article is George Wood who 15 or so years ago was a professor of Education Administration at Ohio University. He was teaching his students how to become public school administrators and decided he did not have the experience to teach others how to run schools in these difficult times. He took a leave from his higher education position and became the principal of Federal Hocking High School. He still has that job as well as being the executive of "The Forum for Education and Democracy". I know George, he is an authentic, "what's-best-for-the-student" educator. Hear what he has to say about high stakes testing and pass it on to everyone who will listen.

Wayne's Day | The Forum for Education and Democracy

Wikispaces - Tours

When instructional time is limited choices have to be made about what to include and what to leave for the next time. Wikis were a casualty of EDUC 675 2010 planning. Several of you have mentioned wikis in your writing and so I've posted a link here to get you started if you are interested. Once you complete the introductory tour you'll find more videos on adding features to your wiki. EDUC 675 2011 will most likely include a wiki project... just have to figure out how to make room for it. Any ideas what to change to make Wikispace? ;-)

Wikispaces - Tours

Education And The Future of Technology

We've all seen similar videos but this one is a bit more professionally done. Would be a great intro to a discussion on why more technology and Web 2.0 tools in school. Perhaps even a discussion on the topic of a total overhaul of how schooling is done. Creativity, collaboration, and problem solving are the skills that will allow our kids to survive in the world we cannot know.

Education And The Future of Technology

The Bear - Film by Jean-Jacques Annaud

If you ever need a story starter... regardless of your grade level, here's a great one. Might be scary for younger kids but I think they would love to re-tell the tale in their own words. What do you think?

The Bear - Film by Jean-Jacques Annaud