The Brain... The News... Fodder for the Curious... Best Books...That's all for 2009

How many times have you wondered: what is REALLY going on inside that teenager's brain? (Or your spouse or your friend or the crabby person standing in line in front of you ...)  Here are a couple of articles that shed some light on this persistent quandary.

• Reading and the Brain--What happens in the brain when we read?  READ this article and get an introduction to a fascinating new book: Reading in the Brain: The science and evolution of a human invention by Stanislas Dehaene

• "What is the Web Teaching our Brains?"   Are we being re-wired? Is that a good thing?  It seems that some tasks such as blogging (yeah) are actually beneficial...others promote anxiety. 

News!  Democracy depends on an informed public, so it is vital that we teach students how to read and interpret the news from a wide variety of perspectives.

• Check out this interactive website Play in the News that takes headlines and creates simulation games 

• Some news about news from Google.  Read about this proposal to limit how many articles readers can read using Google News.  There are NO limits when you use Paly's online database EBSCO.  See the Library Database page for information. 

A Couple of Great Curriculum Resources and Fodder for the Curious

• Shakespeare Searched lets users type in themes or words and find quotes from the Bard's works as annotated by the Folger Shakespeare Library

• The power of images comes to light while searching The Bettmann Archive.  Founded in Otto Bettmann's bedroom in 1936, this rich archive of photos and ephemera follows the history of the United States and the world from the mid-19th century.

THE END (for 2009 that is) Great books and my favorite video clip of the year....

• THE 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR!  according to the NY Times.  My top Five are listed below:

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins-Wild dystopian fantasy for young adults and adults.
2. Joker One by Donovan Campbell--A sobering memoir about a tour of duty in Iraq written by a Marine platoon commander. 
3. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein--Told from a dog's point of view, this is a family story about love, loyalty, loss and redemption.   
4. Shiver by  Maggie Stiefveter --If you are wondering what to get for an avid twilight reader, this story about a hunky werewolf and a teen girl will be a sure-fire hit.  
5. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell--What does it take to be successful in this competitive world?   Some surprising conclusions..

• Best TED Lecture-- Dan Gilbert asks, "Why are we happy?"

Have Happy & Healthy New Year!

Armistice/Rememberance Day & Berlin Wall

1914 by WILFRED OWEN

War broke: and now the Winter of the world
With perishing great darkness closes in.
The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,
Is over all the width of Europe whirled,
Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled
Are all Art's ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin
Famines of thought and feeling. Love's wine's thin.
The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.

For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,
And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,
An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,
A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.
But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need
Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.

This heartbreaking poem and other reflections on World War I are found on The First World War Poetry Digital Archive. The Archive includes not only poetry but other fascinating and moving artifacts of "the great war" including photos, audio/video clips and educational timelines.  See an overview of this resource on YouTube. 

Voices of the Armistice are podcasts revealing the actual experiences of British soldiers during the war.

Guide to World War I Primary Source Materials details resources from the Library of Congress

In Europe days and months are reversed so the notation 9/11 has a different meaning, especially in Germany.  November 9th is the day the Berlin Wall came down, and this year marks its 20 year anniversary.  Check out information about this momentous event at Freedom Without Walls from the German Embassy and photos and video from visitBerlin. 

A school library with no books? 21st Century Skills and Some New Tools for Research and Environmental Action

What are the skills and dispositions we need to teach our students to prepare them for the 21st Century?  Route 21 is a collaboration among educational professionals policymakers and industry.

What happens when a school library replaces every book with Kindels?  Read this article from USA Today and find out what the students think.  (Thank you KB for this link)

Medpedia is a new medical resource using the Wikipedia model BUT with oversight from medical professionals. 

What is a vook?  Vooks combine text and video and can be downloaded onto a computer or smartphone.  I can see if for cooking but romance???

The Library of Congress Teacher's Page has links to great collections of primary sources and great tools for analyzing them.  There are also opportunities for professional development.  Check out their page on veteran's stories.  

Another new source for primary sources is Footnote.  They have partnered with the National Archives to offer high quality digital copies of important historic documents.  They also have a genealogy section using historic census information.  Unfortunately there is a fee to do any deep searching using the census data.  

Here's a website that encourages students to look at the environmental consequences of their purchases.  Be Different. Live Different. Buy Different

See a Film.. Read an Article.. Enjoy Books Photos Music

United Nations Association Film Festival comes to our neighborhood October 17th-25th featuring 50 documentaries from 50 countries with the theme Energy & The World.  A special event aimed at students will be held at Eastside Prep on Tuesday, October 20th from 4:15-7:40pm with a discussion with the filmmakers following Speaking in Tongues and Prom Night in Mississippi  What a great opportunity!!!

Geography is Destiny Read this short yet thought provoking article by NPR education correspondent John Merrow about the growing digital divide. 

Inverting Blooms Taxonomy Here's a quote from this interesting article about teaching history for understanding: "That’s because in history, as in other disciplines, the aim is not merely to collect what is known, but to learn how to think about problems in a new way." 

“Knowing the world means understanding the chaos and seeing the meaning.” This quote is from  a talk titled Knowledge in the Age of Abundance given by David Weingerger from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.  Read a summary of his speech.

It's National Reading Group Month!  Check out some of their suggested titles.

Explore this beautiful new interface for LIFE magazine's photo archives.  

A recommendation to check out study guides on Shmoop has appeared in this blog before, and now they have a music section.  Shmoop is a website that supplements popular high school curriculum  and literature with breezy yet informative summaries.  Unlike a lot of "educational" information on the Web, they source all their material and their ads aren't too intrusive. 

TED, Core Standards, Multitasking, Mindset, Inogolo, Europeana, Don't Forget TED

TED Talks are Terrific! Absolutely Great!  Download your favorites onto your MP3 device.   Email them to your friends.  Better yet, show them to students to get a great discussion started.  TED, a small nonprofit, stands for Technology Entertainment Design and is dedicated to offering "ideas worth spreading."  TED talks consist of a vast array of famous and not so famous people from all fields talking for 18-20 minutes about ideas that shape our world.  Some of my personal favorites are: Malcolm Gladwell's take on the Importance of Spaghetti Sauce, Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert's exploration Why Are We Happy? (surprise, it's not just about getting what we want...), lexicographer Erin McKean's funny (yes funny) ramble about redefining the dictionary and Sir Ken Robinson's provocative and highly entertaining chat called Schools Kill Creativity.  Environmental activist Majora Carter gives one of THE most passionate and personal pleas I've ever heard about urban renewal in the South Bronx. If you get hooked I'd love to hear about your favorites. 

Do you think there should be national standards for English and Math K-12?  Some important groups do(including the ever present College Board) and have presented a draft for everyone's review.  Have a look at Common Core Standards and give feedback until October 21st.

If you're reading this blog, grading a paper and talking to your dog you are multitasking.  Is this habit more productive than the old-fashioned doing one thing at a time?  Read a summary of a new Stanford study on multitasking to find out. 

For the class of 2013 there has always been Cartoon Network and text has always been hyper.  These are two cultural certainties listed in the Beloit College Mindset List.  Published every year since 1998, the Mindset List helps us understand the American cultural landscape inhabited by most of our students.  Does anybody out there really like blue Jell-O? (Thanks to SG, my good buddy at Long Beach Unified for this nifty resource.)

How do you pronounce Aeschylus, Eugene Delacroix, & Myanmar?  Use Inogolo, a handy audio pronunciation guide to find out.   

Looking for an old master painting or a rare European document? Search Europeana, a search portal that brings together collections from famous museums such as the Louvre, British Museum, and the Rijksmuseum.  Check out the video in the Find Out More section and the Timeline to get a feel for this vast collection.  Users can change languages so this is a great tool for researching in French or Spanish.

White House News and Views, Constitution Day, Wordle and Guess What? Learning Matters

No surprises here, the Obama administration is using the Internet to get their message across in a variety of ways.  Their website Whitehouse.gov features links to speeches in their media center and  blogs, and they have their own channel on YouTube. Obama's recent "back to school" message is featured here. 

Constitution Day is September 17th.  Check out this website from the The National Constitution Center and National Archives.  Play Constitution Double Jeopardy  or Who Wants to Be a Million Dollar Citizen brought to you by the Federal Courts.  

Feeling artistic AND literate at the same time?  Check out Wordle.net to use words and phrases creatively. 

Learning Matters with John Merrow features video, blogs, and podcasts from this intrepid PBS education correspondent.  Most famous in California for his film about Proposition 13 First to Worst, he has recently profiled Michelle Rhee and her efforts to improve the Washington DC school system. 

Hot Topics for a New School Year

Critical Thinking:

The Baloney Detection Kit from Skeptic magazine, especially for science teachers.

Social Media:

Did you know that if Facebook were a country it would be the 4th largest? Check out this Youtube video about the "socialnomics" of social media.

Copyright Questions:

The school year is starting and teachers are amassing resources for their students to use. How much of a book can be copied without buying the book? What are the restrictions on showing movies in the classroom? Copyright for Teachers is a very handy resource to answer those thorny questions about fair use.

Creative Commons promotes less restrictive copyright.

Search:

Blogrunner from the NY Times aggregates popular blogs by topic--great for up to the minute commentary.

Hongkiat Here's a list of specialty search engines for finding pdf files, ebooks, music, sound effects and more

Worldcat searches the world's online catalogs for resources by zip code, so you can find what you need close to home.

Network with International Schools:

The International Education and Resource Network offers opportunities for schools and students to connect globally.

Wikipedia Life and Death

There was a fascinating article in the New York Times today about the power of Wikipedia in a life or death situation. A NY Times news reporter and his translator were taken hostage by the Taliban and the editor at the NY Times didn't want this information to go public in order to safeguard the lives of the two men. How did the editors at Wikipedia keep this information private and did taking information off the site conflict with its open access philosophy? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/technology/internet/29wiki.html?_r=1&ref=business

Summer Reading!

This year as always NPR has a great Summer Reading List . Kepler's staff has some great recommendations , and don't forget the Palo Alto Public Library's "Book Letters" for recommended reading . Check out what the librarians are reading and write your own reviews. If you want to cross some great books off your list check out the "100 Best Books" from the critics at Time Magazine.

Students or parents who bug their children about reading should check out the reading lists on the Paly Library's READ! page. Pleasure reading is not only good and good for you, research proves it helps students perform better on those dastardly standardized tests.

Google Books has improved its interface and the ability to search within a book. http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-features-on-google-books.html.

If you shop at Kepler's mention Paly and we'll get 10% of your purchase. Books Inc. Town and Country also gives discounts to teachers and students.

America.gov & Democracy Video Challenge

The new and improved america.gov site created by the State Department Bureau of Information Programs has some interesting articles, eBooks, video, podcasts etc. covering various topics such as global issues and multicultural America.

http://www.america.gov/ http://www.america.gov/amlife/people.html http://www.america.gov/global.html

Check out the Democracy Video Challenge and view the six winners that were selected from 900 videos submitted from over 95 countries. It's interesting viewing.
http://www.videochallenge.america.gov/