My wife was doing a research project with her 1-4 students. The idea was to teach kids to use the web for resources and to cite resources. This all started at the beginning of the year. She was doing compare/contrast using dinosaurs as well as descriptive writing. She also used dinosaurs to teach technical reading, having kids study the steps used to get fossils out of the ground. As a culminating activity she allowed me to make fossils with her students. I am so grateful that she allows me…
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Added by Kevin on July 8, 2007 at 10:11pm —
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Years ago I was looking at donated materials given for my summer art camp. Among the items was a large supply of styrofoam of all shapes and sizes. In art we've always been fans of recycling in all it's forms and this camp was no exception. I though how bone-like the pieces looked and it inspired me to create a camp called styro-saurs.
The class started with checking in with the kids who'd signed up and seeing what…
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Added by Kevin on July 8, 2007 at 9:40pm —
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As I look at the accumulated experiences I created for kids over the years, I always think about the ways we could/should include technology to enhance and extend the experiences and empower imaginations even more. Web 2.0 and the emergence of amazingly powerful tools have created a palette for creative teachers to paint from that is unlike anything that has existed in human history. This to me is an amazing time, but let me take you back to a time of chivalry and knights, of bravery and pride,…
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Added by Kevin on July 8, 2007 at 8:19pm —
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My summer art camps offered me and my kids the chance to live in a culture, to inhabit it's people and the relics of their societies but the best part was that we had fun!
The relic of Viking Voyage was the helmets and once again KFC came to the rescue. We could have fabricated helmets from scratch but something about housing your head in a chicken bucket just felt right!
Add four toilet paper rolls per viking and you've got the makings of horns. A…
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Added by Kevin on July 8, 2007 at 1:32pm —
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This past Wednesday I was in Ottawa Kansas at the
Ottawa Community Arts Council, digging through photo-albums in the basement. The edifice is an old Carnegie library that was taken over by the Ottawa community after the library moved downtown. It happened that I was to meet…
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Added by Kevin on July 8, 2007 at 1:06pm —
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After NECC in Atlanta, I got home and began trying to sort through the miles of great video for my podcast. There were so many amazing conversations with hreat thinkers and educational leaders and my 40 year old mind was quite overwhelmed. The one easy to list highlight of the conference for me was edubloggercon, a great event/day hosted by the creator of this social network Steve Hargadon. Edubloggers from all over came together and talked about the many ways that technology and web 2.0 can…
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Added by Kevin on July 1, 2007 at 4:58pm —
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It's Wednesday at NECC and Will Richardson is talking about what our schools teach and what they might think about teaching to prepare learners for their futures. Go
here to get a feel for the conversation and to add your thoughts.
Added by Kevin on June 27, 2007 at 9:00am —
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The
conference in Atlanta has been great in that I have had the opprotunity to share thinking with amazing minds. The edubloggers are great and the conversations range into territories that are quite compelling. As I talk to educators, I have had my thoughts stretched, challenged and refined.
Added by Kevin on June 26, 2007 at 12:09am —
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Added by Kevin on June 8, 2007 at 10:37pm —
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Added by Kevin on June 8, 2007 at 10:26pm —
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Added by Kevin on June 8, 2007 at 10:14pm —
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Added by Kevin on June 8, 2007 at 10:11pm —
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I was listening to a free lecture from
The Teaching Company, available
here. I first read about this company in the in-flight magazine on American Airlnes. I soon began to feast on these lectures from amazing professors and to fill holes in my understanding. Many of my current keen interests have emerged recently as the need to understand has become more clear. Truthfully, much of my knowledge feeding has been personal interests like…
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Added by Kevin on June 1, 2007 at 7:41pm —
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I hosted a
real life/second life dance party at 6:30 pm central last Thursday. The analogue dance was in Wichita Kansas at
ESSDACK's conference for educators. The virtual side of the dance was at Kryss Wings dance club in SL. The idea was to help blurr the lines between actual and virtual worlds and to explore the educational…
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Added by Kevin on June 1, 2007 at 6:13pm —
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I made this "
Farm Kids"movie with my Jr. HIgh actors the last year I was in the classroom. It was the third full length film I'd made with kids and community members. I wrote the script and kids helped with everything from technical work, to the soundtrack. The story is a little autobiographical as I lives in an abandoned house for a while as a child. At the time we were making this movie, we had just gotten VE-2…
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Added by Kevin on May 30, 2007 at 2:28pm —
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I had an ah ha moment this morning while reading an
article about "mirror neurons". For some time scientists have studied these fascinating cells in the brain. Mirror neurons don't seem to descriminate between actually doing something and seeing someone else do it. They were first discovered quite by accident in a lab with monkeys. Scientists were observing the firing of specific neurons related to…
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Added by Kevin on May 29, 2007 at 8:25am —
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It was my honor yesterday to have a discussion with kids from Turning Point Learning Center for my podcast. The 5-8th grade kids and I talked about the things they thought schools should be focusing on as well as their opinions about what they needed for future success. They are sharp and were quite willing to share their real thoughts and I was amazed by their passion. Some of these kids are leaving the charter school this year and heading to public school and have real concerns about the…
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Added by Kevin on May 25, 2007 at 6:17am —
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I run certain ideas and problems in my brains' RAM while working on other things, listening to books and working with teachers and kids. One of those problems is; "What would schools look like if they were completing the mission of preparing kids to be life-long learners who will succeed at the things they want to succeed at in the future." That mouthful of prescription for academic success is necessarily convoluted due to my recent discussions with
Dr.… Continue
Added by Kevin on May 24, 2007 at 8:57pm —
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I got the chance to interview Wesley Fryer this morning. Wesley's
Speed of Creativity blog/podcast is in my opinion one of the best resources on the web. He shares about his journey and some of his ideas about how we might help bring new communities to the web. He discusses
feedburner,
feedblitz, del.icio.us and other…
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Added by Kevin on May 23, 2007 at 4:33pm —
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I was talking to my friend
Steve Wyckoff this morning and he asked me this question. I want to hear how other would answer this and see what that conversation looks like. Any takers?
Added by Kevin on May 22, 2007 at 8:07am —
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