Saturday, March 31, 2007

Erin Gruwell


The "toast for change" at Woodrow Wilson High in Room 203 changed the lives of Erin Gruwell's students who wrote the Freedom Writers Diary.

"Sometimes I feel like a bird in a cage and I wish I could fly away"... Anne Frank

"I'm not a hero, I simply did what I had to do."... Darius quoting his hero.

Erin's speech today made me cry!
Now I must read the book and watch the movie.

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Rick Rigsby

"I come from a predominantly black family"...Rick Rigsby

"At Texas A&M many students come to college for a degree not an education."

"Ego is the anthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity"

"We've sanctioned mediocracy"

"Our kids just want to be entertained."

"Make an impact not just an impression."

Lessons from a 3rd grade Dropout
Rick gave us some lessons he learned from a 3rd grade dropout ...his dad.
Don't judge based on what you see.
Don't be so quick to Judge
Better be an hour early than a minute late
Discipline must be modeled
I used to weigh 404 pouunds, I'm now down to 280 pounds...I could make love to a bucket of chicken.
Kind deeds are never lost.
People follow kindness.
Always look for people you can help
If your going to do a job do it right
Stand!

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Phillip Done


Phillip Done author of 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny

Why do you teach?
I like to start all over again ever September.
I love to be the first one to tell them something new.

2nd grade
Mrs. Grecko

5th grade
Mrs. Muriyama and her 78's

High School
Herr Kirsner

Why do I think of them?
They were committed to their kids
They were passionate
They were warm humanitarians

I felt valued I felt cared for.

A story is the shortest distance between 2 people.
I tell stories.
As educators we underestimate the power of stories.
Stories bring people together.

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Dr. Jan & Mr. P



Dr. Jan and Mr. P evangelize the power of Principal blogging and LeaderTalk to a packed house.


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Friday, March 30, 2007

Dr. Hanif Hassan


The Minister of Education of the United Arab Emirates was at the conference along with many principals from his country. They were here for the NAESP PALS training.

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Dr. Vincent Ferrandino


The Executive Director of NAESP in his last year won may awards and accolades at this year's conference.

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Taylor Mali Performance Poet

Performance Poet
Spoken word Poet

Teachers are Experts in Explanation


Like Lily Wilson and the Like Free Zone

Undivided Attention:
"Snow is more interesting then math"

What Teachers Make, or
Objection Overruled, or
If things don't work out, you can always go to law school

By Taylor Mali

He says the problem with teachers is, "What's a kid going to learn
from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"
He reminds the other dinner guests that it's true what they say about
teachers:
Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.

I decide to bite my tongue instead of his
and resist the temptation to remind the other dinner guests
that it's also true what they say about lawyers.

Because we're eating, after all, and this is polite company.

"I mean, you're a teacher, Taylor," he says.
"Be honest. What do you make?"

And I wish he hadn't done that
(asked me to be honest)
because, you see, I have a policy
about honesty and a**-kicking:
if you ask for it, I have to let you have it.

You want to know what I make?

I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional medal of honor
and an A- feel like a slap in the face.
How dare you waste my time with anything less than your very best.

I make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall
in absolute silence. No, you may not work in groups.
No, you may not ask a question.
Why won't I let you get a drink of water?
Because you're not thirsty, you're bored, that's why.

I make parents tremble in fear when I call home:
I hope I haven't called at a bad time,
I just wanted to talk to you about something Billy said today.
Billy said, "Leave the kid alone. I still cry sometimes, don't you?"
And it was the noblest act of courage I have ever seen.

I make parents see their children for who they are
and what they can be.

You want to know what I make?

I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write, write, write.
And then I make them read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely
beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math.
And hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you got this (brains)
then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (the finger).

Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
I make a ******* difference! What about you?



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Marcia Tate & Dendrites

Marcia Tate says:
Happy people live longer & look 5 to 10 years younger

20 strategies to Improve Learning

1 writing
2 story telling
3 mnemonic devices
4 visuals
5 movement attention span equals age
6 role play
7 visualization
8 metaphor analogy & simile
9 reciprocal teaching cooperative learning
10 music
11 graphic organizers
12 drawing
13 humor
14 discussion
15 games
16 project based instruction
17 field trips
18 technology
19 work study
20 manipulatives

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Jonathan Kozol @ NAESP

Jonathan Kozol Quotes from his Keynote:

"1st Graders only have theoretical connection with their chair."
re: conservative media..."farm team from Dartmouth"
What conservative critics say about him; "The trouble with Jonathan is he doesn't give enough statistics...he only talks about things he knows."

"My maturity is frozen at the level of Piglet."

Portables...trailers...bungalows

Quoting his favorite poet: "to whom evil is done...do evil in return"

"NCLB as a shaming ritual to pave the way for vouchers"

"I'm 70 years old and I'm too old to old to bite my tongue."


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Music Theatre International



Performance at NAESP in Seattle.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

NAESP 2007

I'll be attending the NAESP conference in Seattle. Is anyone else going?

Check out all the NAESP feeds at Hitchhikr

Also Join Steve Poling & I for the NAESP version of EduBloggerCon.

Tag you NAESP entries with naesp2007
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LeaderTalk.Org

It was my turn today..I added two posts to the LeaderTalk.Org blog titled:

I Hated School and

You Make the Call

Check them out.

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Sunday, March 25, 2007

Kindergarten Circus


Glasses
Originally uploaded by Glenn E. Malone.
The Kindergarten Circus has been a tradition at Wildwood for 34 years.

Luke & Light


Picture 034
Originally uploaded by Luke Dunivan.
Testing this Flickr feature

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Performancing vs. ScribeFire

This is my test post with ScribeFire; I think I'm going to like it. Do any of you use it?

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Day 3 @ NCCE

Checkout the pictures on Flickr!

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Day 2 @ NCCE

We spent the day putting the final touches on the Geocaching booth. I checked out the vendor hall and had a couple of great conversations with the Discovery Learning folks. The Spokane school district is the featured school district during the conference. I went through their exhibits this evening and talked to the organizers to determine if this could be something that my district does next year in Seattle. I think we could do it! We ended the day with dinner at Cyrus O'leary's. It was a long, fun, and productive day.


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Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Geocaching Event Set

Here I am in Spokane...NCCE 007 should be fantastic.

A group of local geocachers gathered this evening to prepare for the geocaching event. We met at the Northern Lights Brewery from 6 - 8:30 for dinner and planning. What a great group of local volunteers! 8 folks showed up to help make the geocaching event a success. We loaded up the 69 GPS units (37 Garmin eTrex & 32 Magellan eXplorist 210s) with batteries and new waypoints. In addition, I gave an overview of the rules of the game for the conference.

I am continually impressed & amazed with the generosity of geocachers! Some are even taking time off work to help out! We handed out a few prizes tonight but the grand prize a Magellan GPS Crossover will go to the winner of our game on Friday

The planning of this event took place entirely on our wiki on Wikispaces. Many of us had not met before this evening but yet most of our work had been completed online. We also used Skype to communicate.

Special thanks to our other donors: Podcacher, Magellan, Geoteaming & Groundspeak.

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