A student told me the other day that “going off the grid” is the new cool way to say I’m out of touch for a couple of days. It’s National Day here in China, which means starting next week we get 4 days off of school. We don’t get 3 day weekends here. Instead we save all those up for […]

So the Thinking Stick turned 1 years old on Sept. 19. I meant to post something then but time just hasn’t allowed. So seeing that The Thinking Stick is 1yrs old. I thought about how blogging has affected my life. First comment on post #10. One by a friend that I asked to comment. 🙂 Today 478 comments on about […]

Not sure where this conference is or what it is about but Vista over at Flickr has uploaded a bunch of slides from a Web 2.0 conference taking place somewhere. It’s interesting to read some of the slides.

Today I talked with our 6th grade team about using the new laptops that were purchased. 20 laptops for 10 teachers and 150 students. The administration is looking for “more than word processing and researching.” So today I gave them the shotgun approach to things you can do. From wikis to blogs to flickr, youtube, and podcasting. I showed them […]

So we’re just finishing up this cool project in 5th grade where the students made Google Earth files for their Amazing Race project. Download the Google Earth file here. Basically the 5th grade teachers wanted to do an Amazing Race theme and have the students plot on a map 7 different countries they wanted to visit. The students then had […]

Just found this out the other day while catching up on some links. Every year when asked by a librarian if there are any professional journals or magazines I want ordered. I always go directly to edutopia.org. This year I was surprised to find that Edutopia the magazine is now available online. Although I would much prefer the paper copy […]

This just posted by Jonathan Chambers (an ESOL teacher at our Middle School and Apple Geek) on my other blog U Tech Tips. Buckle Boy – Real Social Networking at the Speed of Light. So what do you get if you combine your schoolÂ’s needs with the power of the web? Buckle Boy! Allow me to explainÂ… We began with […]

I’ve been struggling lately trying to get through to teachers that technology isn’t an add on, but actually replaces the way work is done in class (read David Jakes for more). It’s so hard for teachers to take a leap from something that works, to try something new. I’ve been hitting a lot of dead ends lately with teachers which […]

I find myself listening to conversations differently now a days. I’m listening for the connection to technologies that almost every conversation has. Especially the ones that deal with students. While at brunch yesterday with a bunch of other teachers, one of them announced that their 8th grade daughter has her first boyfriend. They were eating dinner Friday night when she […]

You know you are going to have a good weekend when you wake up in the morning to this: and after standing on your balcony with a cup of coffee reflecting on what all this means, your lovely wife joins you and then gives you a challenge. This morning my wife sat down and grabbed the computer where I had […]