FANTASTIC PERFORMANCE - Fiddler on The Roof

I just saw the most superb performance of Fiddler on the Roof and had to share these photos.  I didn't take them and still need to get permission to keep them here, so these may be temporary.  Enjoy them while you can...

Drinking from the Hydrant

You know it's going to hurt, but you are thirsty.  I get thirsty.  I need the paycheck.  I work in IT -- in a school. 

Grayson (my right hand man & tech support specialist) were talking about the analogy that this job (especially at year-end -- like right now in June) is much like toilet repair.  We used to call it plumbing, but it's just not that nice.  It's making sure the toilets and the pipes connecting them all work like users expect them to.  No one wants a smelly, dirty, clogged toilet -- and no one wants an old, once white, but now yellowing, iBook that smells like bad BO when it gets warmed up and connects to the internet about as fast as a commode plugged up by a youngster who just discovered how to use toilet paper on his own.

The days I plan to do something are the worst.   I think I'm going to work on that New Faculty Handbook due this week, and then my workshop I'm leading next week, and then I'll get the email server in a more reliable state, and finally answer all those parent concerns about student email.  Nope.

Summer sessions start tomorrow and we need all these computers moved from over here to over there.  The air conditioner went out again and half the servers are down.  Because the servers went down, one database won't come back up and the database developer who might be able to help restore it is headed with the family to their summer location out on Martha's Vineyard. 


But no one cares.  No one cares unless things are working.  They say they do, but really, honestly, who cares if the 30mb fiber is about 15X faster than last year's connection to the internet?  When is the last time I called and said thanks to our tech support team at Digital Back Office?  {Hey, if you are reading this, really, Thanks Guys!}

Anyway.... I'm thirsty, time to go get a drink.

Big differences

I wonder why the audience rating is so far from the paid reviewers on this one?

How do you know?

How do you know when people you work with really respect your opinion?  How can we create a team of people who respect each other?  How can we work through opposition and come to an agreement, get past the negative feelings arising out of the opposition, and get to the place we really want to be?  I hope my summer readings (Switch and A Whole New Mind) will help me sort these out.  One of my top three goals for the year is to remind myself often (which hopefully drives me to act on those reminders) that the best place is here, the best time is now, and the best people are those present here and now ~~~ be here now.

Switch

Do people really eat more popcorn (stale popcorn) simply because they were given a bigger bucket?
Is it because of the mindlessness of eating and watching a movie at the same time? Would the same happen in a restaurant? Free dessert? Slightly stale cake?


Read on...

http://www.heathbrothers.com/switch/chapterone.php

Helping Help

Our tech support specialist / help desk expert is on well deserved break today. I'm filling in. I'm reminded that the worst thing to do when you are the primary person on call is to have any expectations about how I'll spend the day.

Let them learn - Stand Back - Get OUT of the way!

From Sugata Mitra's Blog

SUNDAY, JULY 12, 2009
Towards a new education for children
We know that:
Groups of children (6-12 yeards old in groups of 4 or so), given unrestricted and unsupervised access to the Internet can learn almost anything on their own. It doesn't matter who or where they are. We know this from 20 years of research, standing on the shoulders of Aurobindo, Piaget, Vygotsky and Montessori.

http://sugatam.blogspot.com/

but will this work for older kids too?

Can it work for students of all ages?

See his outstanding TED talk here:
Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html

Trying out JayCut - Online Video Editor

jaycut.com
Kind of Klunky

Video Conferencing - Aim Your Camera

...

A few notes from a workshop on video conferencing.  Using skype was much better than the expensive and unimpressive "Elluminate" video conferencing package.   

During our conference, we Skyped with Mark Thomas.  We were in West Cornwall, CT and Mark was in Haifa, Israel.  Fantastic connection, clear picture and Mark had us consider some points to remember when connecting a video conference. 

Technology doesn't replace relationships.  People need to connect outside of the technology...

It's difficult (impossible?) to see a group's facial expressions.

As a teacher, you can respond to kids dis-engagement -- MUCH more challenging in a video conference.

Though the next few points are about image, there is no substitute for bad audio.  No audience will forgive bad audio.  They will check out and check email...

Lighting is huge. 

Beware of daylight coming in from the rear (back rear) in a large classroom window.  Use front lighting to offset. Create a warm skin tone on the face especially.

Position the face according to the grid below.  NOT in the center like the effect many type built in laptop cameras create.

...

 

(I quickly sketched this grid on my iPhone using "Handwriting" v1.2 - by Cocoa Box Design (Ben Zotto).  There is also an iPad version.  I can quickly sketch, email the sketch directly to my blog and add a description later - another tool added to my list of great tools.)

http://www.cocoabox.com

SmartNotebook

Thinking about Smartboards - especially SmartNotebook. This blog entry will show a cool feature that you can use in any class. If you haven't already seen it, take a look at this very short video -- see if you can figure out the "trick." I posted the same video to both Vimeo & YouTube in case one works better than the other for you. Let me know if you have problems viewing them.

The "Magic Mountain" on VIMEO:
http://vimeo.com/22059163

SmartNotebook - Tips & Tricks 001 - The Magic Mountain from Mike McCabe on Vimeo.

See if your students like this one. The Random Name Picker -- hopefully it will take some of the stress of choosing who is next off you.
http://vimeo.com/22059163

SmartNotebook - Tips & Tricks 002 - The Random Name Picker from Mike McCabe on Vimeo.

These videos are also on YouTube:
001 - Magic Mountain
002 - Random Name Picker

Here is the link to my collection (currently two -- but hopefully growing quickly) of tips and tricks which help energize your SmartNotebook lessons. Please feel free to email me or comment here so I can gather all your great ideas into one place. People are eager to hear what works well for you.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BxKTPDeTJyc5MGJhNmVkNmUtOWU3Ny00YzIzLThiNmUtYmE1OGFhZDRiNzEy&hl=en
Backup A:

Backup Files


Backup B - non-Google:
http://cid-56f99b70611f713c.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?resid=56F99B70611F713C!120

"Inside Job" - The Documentary

I've always heard I must be careful what I wish for. Right now I'm all pumped up after watching the documentary "Inside Job" -- a great view of how the financial collapse of 2009-2010 came about. This "excitement" makes me wish I could teach an economics course with a firm ethical infrastructure to elementary and middle school kids. After watching, I think it's essential to our future. Have you seen the documentary "Inside Job?" If not, take a look at the website and then rent the DVD.
http://bit.ly/9GplYy
I watched it a second time hoping thatI'd be able to get some help sorting out the mess it presents. Unfortunately the second look made me feel even more helpless.

The documentary makes me feel as if there is little anyone can do to convince a billionaire that he or she is making too much money or is doing anything wrong in amassing such fortunes. One part of that documentary seems to make a very strong argument that these extremely wealthy people want even more. Much more.

But the worst part isn't even clearly detailed in the documentary, but became clearer to me as I watched. For me, the worst part is the realization that the filthy rich can only get that way because of my own deeply rooted desire to consume things. This documentary simply confirmed my belief that it is my own desires combined with the individual desires of everyone just like me who buy their stuff -- I "buy" their cars (actually borrow money to use their cars), borrow money to live in their houses, and I even borrow money to eat (by telling myself I deserve to go out and add $100 to the credit card so I can take a family of four to eat $10 worth of food at a fancy restaurant. I never really feel like I "own" anything.

Sometimes I want to blame others -- leaders I used to have faith in like Obama, but this article ( http://huff.to/cCxtrq ) in the Huffington Post tags the dashed hopes many of us once held high -- those are gone. We believed he'd help fix at least some of the financial problems, but he did not. We were wrong. According to the documentary "Inside Job" Obama put the same people responsible for the financial collapse in charge of his financial team. These same people have been in powerful positions for decades and making the same mistakes over and over again. Maybe it is impossible to fight against the monopoly the financial leaders who control billions of dollars. Maybe Obama is on the take, or too ignorant to understand this complex problem, or too busy to spend time trying to resolve this minor issue. Regardless, I don't get the feeling that any of these "leaders" actually care about us or our labels ("poor," "middle-class," "wealthy," or whatever) -- as long as we just keep on consuming. Buy more Coke, buy more Pepsi, buy more beer, download more songs and apps, order stuff online, just keep buying.

So what can we do? Encourage more regulation? Who will help with this? Obama and his clan? If not, in whom can we have faith? "Inside Job" lists some ideas about how to take action. ( http://on.fb.me/gloIQ8 ) but after spending 15 minutes with the list, I'm overwhelmed. I don't know where to start. Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions.

Building a Vision - Integrating Technology into the Classroom

What is "MY" vision for integrating technology into the curriculum? What is the "RIGHT" view for the Foote School?

Does my view work for my peers, administrators, faculty, students and others in the community? Is my vision strong enough to allow me to dive in with them no matter how rough the waters might be initially and swim the length they have to initially swim in order to generate some enthusiasm and build momentum? One thing I definitely believe is that I need to be right out front with them. If I'm not willing to try these tools out in front of a class or in front of my peers, how is it fair to expect them to do it?

I have a collection of great tools. (I think they are great.) I love using them. I get excited when anticipate how much others will appreciate these tools. Some are genuinely jazzed. Others are reluctant. I'm hoping to I share these with my friends, hoping they find the same joy and excitement when they try them out. But I need external validation. Even if I see it with my own eyes, I need others to tell me which tools work, which ones are fun and how easy they are for kids to access and use anywhere.

My first goal is to explore the following list of 21st Century Skills. Here are the 12 mentioned in ((the Walden University Article)) (( I wrote about )) recently.

21st Century Skills listed in the article:
1) accountability
2) collaboration
3) communication
4) creativity
5) critical thinking
6) ethics
7) global awareness
8) innovation
9) leadership
10) problem solving
11) productivity
12) self-direction

How complete is this list? Are any skills missing? How serious are the omissions? And which Web 2.0 tools support "sharpen the saw" as Stephen Covey puts it? Which do the best job of developing and enhancing 21st Century Skills?


As I thought about this, my mind drifted (luckily) to a related topic. I thought about connecting each of my favorite web 2.0 tools to the 21st Century Skills list. I imagined it might be fun to take a small sample of the tools love to use and jot down the numbers 1-12 from the list above next to each tool on my list so I could see which tool helped hone the most skills.

A) Khan Academy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, .... 10, . 12)
B) TED - w/ conversations. (1-, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
C) Google Apps. (2, 3, 4, 8-, 9?, 10, 11, 12)
D) Live Mocha. (1, 2, 3, . 5, . 7, . 9, 10, . 12)

Starting out, it was a lot of fun. Some snags began to make it more tedious.

E) Blogs (1, 2, 3, 4? . 10, . 12) 4? does everything provide an opportunity for "creativity?" "critical thinking?" ... It seems like a slippery slope leading to the claim that "any" web 2.0 tool with a good coach allows you to develop virtually any 21st Century Skill.

E) Blogs w/ coach (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, ?, 12)
F) Twitter. w/ coach (same as E)
G) Texting. w/ coach (same as E)
H) Online Surveys.
I) Online purchasing.
J) Voice Thread (fun, 1, 2, 3, 4->
K) Scratch (...)
L) Online Brainstorming (...)
M) Animoto (fun?)


I As I add more of these tools to this list and think about how they align with these skills, I am getting less and less value out of the exercise. As a teacher, I could get just about any tool to help students improve their 21st Century Skills. Some of the skills seem redundant (collaboration & communication -- how can we collaborate without communicating?). Productivity -- couldn't I prove that almost any of these tools increases my productivity?)
How do we measure things like "global awareness?" Does immersion count more than in-depth research? Does in-depth research and immersion into one culture have more weight than an introduction to three different cultures?

Indoor Golf. Hi tech.

A note written with Handwriting

http://www.cocoabox.com

Blogging from the iPhone.

Blogging from the iPhone.

Last night I tried to keep up with the #isedchat on twitter. Slow but not completely shut down, I got a few comments in @mikemccabe29 and felt good about being able to participate while riding in the car from Chicago to Louisville. This has been a "family vacation" during which I'm trying to stay as professionally connected as possible without missing any major family events. Typing this into the iPhone notes and then emailing it directly to the blog seems like a great way to take notes, journal, and document using photos as well. The more I think about it, the more I want to try a lab pack of iTouch iPods or even iPads, connect them to a teachers portable cellular wireless access device, and take these activities outside.