Babel - Bringing Teachers Together

Wouldn't it be great if you could help end world hunger by just spending a little time on the internet?

Well, you can - at Free Rice.

Wouldn't it be great if you could help end world hunger by just spending a little time on the internet?

Well, you can - at Free Rice.

The Democratic Primary is shaping up to be a tough fight, and that leaves unions across the country with a tough choice.  Do they choose Barack, Hillary, or Edwards?

The Nevada teacher's union appears to have come down hard in favor of Clinton - going so far as to attempt to disenfranchise fellow workers that support Obama.  The New York Times has a good overview of where various unions stand at the moment.

A couple of months ago, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine introduced his new plan for distributing state funding to New Jersey schools. Monday night, the legislature finally passed the bill, and Corzine's plan became law.

What does this mean for New Jersey schools? In all likelihood, it will mean a redistribution of state funds from high-need city schools to suburban schools.

As a Social Studies teacher, current issues seem great. They're more immediate and appealing to students than a lot of historical issues - and studying them can help raise awareness of problems around the world.

Of course, there's the problem of fitting them into "the curriculum." With so much to teach, how do you justify taking time away to deal with a current issue - especially if your supervisor is a stickler for "curriculum alignment"?

I opened up my Google rss reader the other day, and saw this headline - Extending Requirement to Advance in Scool. According to the article, Mayor Bloomberg is planning to increase the requirements for students to graduate eighth grade and head on to ninth grade - therefore raising for bar for achievement in high school.

It seems like a great idea, but can we really end social promotion... just by increasing "requirements?"

This morning, I went over to the NJ Blood Center building in New Brunswick to donate blood. Although I didn't donate regularly for a few years, I'm now donating every 10 to 12 weeks.

While I was sitting there, I thought about the first time I donated blood - when my high school hosted a blood drive my senior year. Why don't more high schools do this?

Since the demise of the original Napster, the RIAA has fiercely sought out and litigated music sharing and copyright infringement. In their latest move, they attempted to subpoena the University of Oregon for student records - and to their surprise, the University of Oregon stood up for a student's right to privacy and fought back.

I just read about an interesting new website called Poll Everywhere on the blog Teach42. The website allows you to create online polls which people can vote on using their cell phones. Hypothetically, you could use this in school to get students to answer a poll/quiz in real time.

The website makes it clear that you can embed these polls into a PowerPoint presentation, but you can embed them onto a regular website too. Here's a short tutorial showing you how.