Outsourcing Grading?

Perhaps only a teachers dream??? ;-)

Valerie Strauss  of the Washington Post:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/grades/and-now-outsourcing-the-gradin.html

Take 5! Integration Update - May 18, 2010 (Vol.1/#11)

Finally! -- This one is a little behind, but I know you’re busy! Enjoy!



Here is your 11th installment of the Take 5! Integration Update.
“Take 5” is a weekly email update containing information related to teaching and learning for today and beyond...

Take just 5 minutes (or less) to look over these resources and see what might be helpful for your and/or your students. Better yet, set aside at least 15 minutes a week to focus on finding resources and ideas that will improve student learning and prepare them for their future!




Tips and Tools for Teachers
1) Games for SMART Boards - http://www.teacherslovesmartboards.com/games_for_smart_boards 
From a great site for SMART Board resources (Teachers Love SMART Boards) -- sign up for their email updates of new posts!





2) PicSearch - http://www.picsearch.com  
Since Google or Yahoo images are blocked in schools (for good reason), here’s a quick, easy, safer alternative. It also shows the 4 most popular searches every time you visit — Today: Lady Gaga, Oil spill, England, and Iron Man 2 (interesting that Lady Gaga is more “popular” than an enormous natural disaster in the making!)
(NOTE: if having students search for certain picture topics, be sure to do the search yourself first! Rarely is there a problem on this site, but it could happen. I have used it mostly for “teacher” purposes to find images to use.)





Ponderings
Student Feedback/Surveys – Do you ask students to evaluate you as a teacher? Or the assignments, projects, and/or tests you give? See what Boston students have requested of their teachers, all for the purpose of improving learning... http://bit.ly/aptXHw 





Learning Opportunities
Atomic Learning – Watch a 5 minute Jing video showing an overview of the Atomic Learning resource... http://screencast.com/ -- deleted due to REVS information

Or another 4 min. video on what the videos look like... http://screencast.com/ -- deleted due to REVS information

 REVS’ Summer Workshops and Trainings - http://ed-tech-integration.pbworks.com/Summer-PD




Just for Fun! ;-)
Happy Feet (aka – The “May 26 Teacher Dance”) -- Your students are already doing this dance!
http://www2.warnerbros.com/happyfeet/flash.html

iSAFE, cell phones, and sounds some can't hear

Image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjmcdonald/4494079025/

One of the most enlightening tidbits from the iSAFE session this morning may have been about cell phone ring tones that “adults” cannot hear. Although I had heard of this and seen websites a couple years ago, as a former science teacher, I had to do more investigating regarding the science behind it all and thought I’d share a little...

Notice from the chart below that younger folk (aka – our students, children) can apparently hear tones closer and possibly beyond the 20,000 Hz (hertz) or 20 kHz, as can rats, cats, dolphins, moths, mice, and sea lions. Insert your comments here: _______

From - http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/facts.html

Hearing Range (young adult human) = 20 to 20,000 Hz
Hearing Range (elderly human) = 50 to 8,000 Hz (Guyton, A.C., Textbook of Medical Physiology, 1986)
Hearing Range (rat) = 1,000 to 50,000 Hz
Hearing Range (cat) = 100 to 60,000 Hz
Hearing Range (dolphin) = 200 to 150,000 Hz
Hearing Range (elephant) = 1 to 20,000 Hz
Hearing Range (goldfish) = 5 to 2,000 Hz
Hearing Range (moth, noctuid) = 1,000 to 240,000 Hz
Hearing Range (mouse) = 1,000 to 100,000 Hz
Hearing Range (sea lion) = 100 to 40,000 Hz
(Hearing range reference: Discover Science Almanac, New York: Hyperion, 2003)
Most sensitive range of human hearing = 1,000-4,000 Hz

And if you’d like to have your children or students tell you when your phone is ringing, here’s a website for you to test your hearing and/or download one of these ring tones — called “Mosquito Ringtones.” Better yet, for those w/ a home phone that never rings for you, maybe this tone can be used for that as well (just kidding).

Note that (for good reason) this site is blocked at school, so try it at home! A variety of tones are listed that you can test and then determine what you can/can’t hear. FYI — 18.8 kHz was my highest threshold! I feel so young!!! With all the loud music via earbuds, I wonder how soon kids’ hearing will no longer be able to hear these high pitch sounds.

http://www.freemosquitoringtone.org/ 

Lastly, here’s a NYTimes story about it... From 2006 (it’s only been 4 years you haven’t noticed kids getting cell calls/texts... Not too bad!)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/12/technology/12ring.html?_r=1