pdZone

I was just looking at humanclock.com again and thinking about some possibilities for school. With literacy and numeracy being a big push for us, I like the idea of doing our own version of this. It’s an activity that could take place throughout the community, taking pictures at various points around town. We could do something similar for the date on our school page. Thanks, Will! (Yes, I am aware that I am six months late. It just took me a while to get back to Will’s post!)

In his post School Walk Out Organized Online, Tom Hoffman writes about the importance of trying to find ways to use web sites like Sconex.com to help understand what is going on in the lives of teenagers. Not that long ago, most of what went on between children was played out in front of us, or at least within earshot. Now, so much of the social interaction - the good, the bad, and the downright ugly - of young people is now played out online, much of it under a cloak of anonymity.

The social dynamic among young people continues to evolve, as does our own. I really like Mr. Hoffman’s suggestion of employing counsellors to examine some of the disclosures and interactions that take place online. It certainly would give us a better understanding of what is going on in the lives, and in the heads, of our youth.

Microbe World, from the American Society for Microbiology, has a great set of podcasts on the subject of microbiology. I could see this as a good introduction to podcasting for some of our staff.

Thanks again to Clarence!

While I am excited about my new position, there are aspects of my old job that I miss. For instance, I miss being able to throw new pieces of information, or new projects, into the mix with the kids. I came across the Round the World Yacht Race site today and thought about some of the possibilities for Computers, Science, French, etc. On the other hand, now I can probably make more interesting things happen because I am able to get other teachers to try new ideas that I couldn’t fit into my own practice. I suppose it is up to me to recognize that maybe the grass is greener on my side of the fence.