The power of Facebook and social media to turn the former student into the new teacher: please contact your teachers and show them what you have learned. You are a source of information for instructors to continue improving

I received a Facebook note from a former student.  I posted the work that I completed about my trip to the Faculty of Foreign Languages in Havana and a former student from South Korea hit "like" and so I thanked her for the "like" and asked her about her current studies.  She gave me her update and it was at that moment that I realized, "She will be teaching me new things."

How quickly can we turn our former students into mentors and teachers?  How quickly can we teachers reverse the relationship?  
My goal is to learn from my students in the first class, but many students come to class assuming that the learning is a one-way street.
This is the key to Dennis Littky's observation that most people expect teachers to deliver information to students.



John Sowash:  the flipped classroom is NOT about expensive technology (you can flip without using the Internet << Brett Wilie)  

the brains of the hunter and the gatherer   

The creation of the Black Sea.   (Was the Black Sea a freshwater lake many thousands of years ago?   Noah's Flood?)

The Santorini explosiion and the Red Sea in Exodus

Sugar is addictive

Vitamin D helps in many areas (and some people

I was SAD but now I'm happy:  Seasonal Affective Disorder (lower levels of light in winter can mean depression for some people)

what are some other topics to start conversations?

What are items to show people?  What have I learned in the past 5 years that I can share with my students?

KeepVid.com for downloading videos from youtube
Snopes.com  for checking Internet "facts"
MakeUseOf.com  tips about items on the Internet
http://www.funny-potato.com/read-this.html

Behind the Label  (Sebastian Tecchio's documentary about GMO cotton and the impact on farmers)   

Youtube searches that yield interesting videos, such as "fuji sunrise" and "tokyo subway rush hour"
Funny drivers (dangerous) "saudi driving skating dangerous"
"Sidewall Skiing"
What else should I carry on my pen drive when I next go to a school that has no Internet?  What should I share with students?   Send me your suggestions.

The Flipped Classroom and Katie Gimbar

The Power of Posters

The Misguided Belief in Learning Styles  Dr. Clark
Myron Dembo and Keith Howard, Steven Stahl   Let's make these names better known.

Dr. Deming's 14 points, the 11 points for Labor (employees) and his insights into the pursuit of Quality as a way to improve any system (organization).  Focus on the process.

The New Learning Revolution and the impact of Deming (in some schools) as reported by Jeannette Vos and Gordon Dryden  TheLearningWeb.net

Songs as a source of vocabulary
Lenka "The Show"  "I'm just a little bit caught in the middle... life is a maze..."
Annie Lennox and Marcus with the Kindle commercials  "you're the twinkle in my eye, you're the one who makes me sigh..."
Brandi  Carlyle  The Story:  "Every line across my face tells you the story of who i am, so many stories of where I've been ..."

If you have other topics that you can add to this list, please contact me.  This is the list that I carry into a school in my head, ready to make sketches on the board to guide students with stories.   The more I learn about instructional technologies, the more I am ready to stand in front of a board and the more I can use a sheet of paper on a desk to guide a discussion.   Keep inventing new ways to use the Internet... each innovation drives me closer to students with colored pens and paper.


Go ahead, watch The trailer...

A message to my former students:  keep in touch the way Hannah did.   (Thank you, Hannah).