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.