Your browser (Internet Explorer 6) is out of date. It has known security flaws and may not display all features of this and other websites. Learn how to update your browser.
X

Posts tagged ‘School’

Post

What to do with a dog tag

A picture I took of myself wearing dog tags I ...
Image via Wikipedia

ArtsCow.com is doing a sale right now on their custom Dog Tags. Using their designer, you can upload your own images and have them printed out on a dog tag. Normally, they cost 8.99, but through August 16th, they have a sale going on. If you use the coupon code 199DOGTAG, you can get a two sided dog tag with free shipping for $1.99. I don’t ordinarily post deals like this, but I think this could be a lot of fun for educators and it’s a pretty darn reasonable price.

So what can you do with a $1.99 dog tag?

  • Create one for each of your students that has your School, Class Name, School contact info, and then their name and/or photo on the back. Be great for field trips, and early learners can use it to help learn how to spell/write their name.
  • Random student grouping. Mix and match pictures and colors on each side, so you can use them for random grouping. For example, if you want to be able to do groups of 3, 4, 5, or 6 at different parts of the day, put 5 different animals on 3 different color backgrounds on one side, and then put 6 different shapes on 4 different colors on the other side. Then you can give each child a tag when they walk in, and call out groups as you need it. “All squares, come to the writing table.” “Yellow tags, go to music, green tags, stay with me.” You get the idea.
  • Extension activities/centers. When students finish their assignment, they can pick an extension activity out of the bucket. Only put in as many tags in there as you can have at that activity or center. They were it as they play, and then put it back and pick a new one when they’re done.
  • Job chart. List their jobs on the tags, and they can wear the tag to remind them what their job is until they do it. Then they just hang it up.
  • Create permanent versions of Kevin Honeycutt’s Web2.0 keychain. A website on one side, a tip and a mentor’s email on the other.
  • Bathroom passes, hall passes, Star of the day necklace, create yourself a cool keychain, etc. Hey, for 1.99, why not?
  • Rewards for other teachers at your school. Create your own, Technology Teacher of the Month award! Give your colleagues a pat on the back for doing innovative things with technology in their classrooms. For $24 you could create one for every month this year.
  • If you’re a geocacher, this would make a fantastic travel bug!

That’s about it off the top of my head. So let me toss the ball to you. What might you create custom dog tags for?

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
7/20/2009 8 Comments
Post

When in doubt, ban EVERYTHING

Jim Beeghley pointed out to me a bill that was introduced in Pennsylvania that made me start dry heaving at my desk. House Bill number 363 of 2009 attempts to amend an earlier bill to further prohibit “telephone pagers and certain electronic devices.”

It’s short and sweet.

The possession by students of telephone paging devices, commonly referred to as beepers, cellular telephones and portable electronic devices that record or play audio or video material shall be prohibited on school grounds, at school sponsored activities and on buses or other vehicles provided by the school district.

Of course, recognizing that broad sweeping legislature at the state level may be intrusive, overbearing and insufficient to accommodate the needs of all local communities, they do allow for individual districts to bend the rules under certain circumstances.

Well, two circumstances.

If the student is a volunteer fireman, or if they need it for medical reasons.

Cell Phone
Image by Mike “Dakinewavamon” Kline via Flickr

So all portable devices that record or play audio or video material are going to be banned from school grounds and activities. I sure hope that there aren’t any schools in PA that have laptop initiatives. Or that allow students to record lectures. Or that do any sort of podcasting. Banned, banned and banned.

EVEN if they did just restrict it to cell phones, it’d still be ridiculous. Regardless of your feelings about cell phones in the classroom, I hope you agree that it is a decision that should be made at the school or district level, not at the state level.

If I lived in Pennsylvania, I’d be throwing a hissy fit (technical term) right now.

Feh. Someone tell me some good news before I go yack.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
2/12/2009 7 Comments
Post

For Every 100 Girls

Nicely ScrewedImage by nataliej via FlickrFascinating post that someone linked to on Twitter (forgot to write down the source). Well, more of a series of statistics than an article, but well organized. The post is entitled “For Every 100 Girls“. By using a variety of sources, the author determined what the ratio is between males and females across a variety of situations. They put it in a standard form, saying “For every 100 girls that did XXX, there are XXXXX guys that did the same.”

Just a few samples for you:

  • For every 100 girls diagnosed with a special education disability 217 boys are diagnosed with a special education disability.
  • For every 100 girls diagnosed with emotional disturbance 324 boys are diagnosed with emotional disturbance
  • For every 100 girls with multiple disabilities 189 boys have multiple disabilities
  • For every 100 women enrolled in college there are 77 men enrolled.
  • For every 100 American women who earn a masterís degree from college 62 American men earn the same degree.
  • For every 100 females ages 20 to 24 that commit suicide 624 males of the same age kill themselves.
  • For every 100 women ages 18 to 21 in correctional facilities there are 1430 men behind bars.

Definitely something to chew on. Statistics being what they are, I’m sure someone could pull together an equally shocking report from the opposite perspective, but clearly we need to be diagnosing more women with emotional disturbances and putting them in correction facilities ;)

Seriously though, it does make you wonder how we could address some of these issues in schools and attempt to be more proactive in dealing with them.

10/29/2008 6 Comments
Post

What’s in a domain name?

Shared with me by Charlene Chausis.

MSAD48 is doing something rather interesting for their high school seniors. Upon entering senior year, every student is given a unique domain name to be used for “work on their resume, portfolio and communicate with their class.” I would assume that when they leave the school at the end of the year, they will be taking it with them to be used throughout their college and professional years. See the video below for more…

I most definitely applaud their efforts in this, and wonder why more schools don’t do the same? In fact, taking it a step further, shouldn’t they be getting their own domain name in Freshman year? Or even in middle school? At what point is it too early to be preparing students for a life online?

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
10/27/2008 11 Comments