Chronically Curious (The Independent Educator)

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Steve McCrea: Short Biography -- key websites by a math and "test prep" teacher

Steve McCrea is certified to teach ESOL, English, Middle school Science (grades 5-9), Math, and Social Studies. He recommends books and websites related to BigPicture.org and looks for opportunities to use the teaching methods of Enrique Gonzalez (Highland Park High School in Los Angeles) in his classes.
WORKSHOPS by Steve
"The Integrated Curriculum and the two-teacher school"
Free Chapter 1 www.tinyURL.com/littkychapter1
Free Chapter 4
Part 1 of the Big Picture video
Part 2 of the Big Picture video

He uses the digital portfolio system of High Tech High (San Diego) and the project system of Matt Blazek (www.TinyURL.com/mattblazek) and Dennis Yuzenas (WhatDoYaKnow.com).

Click here to get more information

Steve has taught ESOL since 1997 and he encourages his teenage students to reach out through www.BIBPenpals.com (a volunteer program with Skype).

He leads test prep classes at Broward College and encourages people to visit www.FloridaTestPrep.com and his youtube channel for free tips youtube.com/MisterMath. He looks forward to assisting students to build their careers at iGeneration Empowerment Academy.

Dr. Fischler's book to train teachers using quotations and commentaries

Testimonial about Littky's book

List of books available by Mario Llorente
Books by Matt Blazek
WhatDoYaKnow.com by Dennis Yuzenas

A project that lives on the web: a visit to major baseball fields

One of the benefits of keeping an open channel to my students and former students is the random email message that crawls into the in-box. I remind my students to SEND ME A TEXT MESSAGE that reads "Look at your email messages. I sent something about xxxx"... but I happened to see the following anyway:

Mr. Steve: I met a very interesting young man at work he is currently doing a project called the American baseball journey where he goes to all the different baseball park during summer look it up the website is http://www.americanbaseballjournal.com

So let's look at a well-organized project. I'd like to see more reflection (in addition to the photos)...

Professional Development: Improve our penalties and grading

http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Overview/Grading-Smarter-Not-Harder.aspx?utm_source=eblast&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=gradingsmarter-email-73014

there are some tips about grading

see the videos at the bottom of the page

http://bcove.me/z2pq8stb "supply an explanation for why you choose two questions."

Penalties and brushing your teeth...

http://bcove.me/eiygg0sx

1. does the student care about the penalty?

2. does the penalty fit the aim?

3. how often are you using the penalty?

4. is the penalized person in control of the variables? Is he in the best position to make a decision? Teachers give out zeros....

I want to grade learning instead of compliance.

5. How do you professionally apply a penalty to a student who works until midnight to help his family meet the rent? Or the student who has his utilities cut off? The penalty needs to fit those students who have difficulties outside the school. How do we build systems that are robust and work for everyone?

Penalties for the learner

http://bcove.me/7v0pehib

we blend things that are not related to learning into different measurements of learning... in one test.

late by one day, 10% penalty.

late paying your parking ticket at the hospital, we get a lower blood pressure score. It's okay to talk about dismantling practices that are not effective.

Check the link

Let's learn more about single-gender programs: Focus on Franklin Academy in cooper City, Florida

Here are some links that might catch your attention:
a school that is based on Ben Franklin's teachings
a school that includes chess in the curriculum
a school that separates students by gender

Here are some interesting quotes from the website.

See links about Single-Gender classrooms

particularly the work of Michael Gurian

Girls doing better

As an optional enrichment program, chess allows students to develop a broad array of critical reasoning and problem solving skills. Chess provides a creative environment for students to practice analytical and logic puzzles using strategy, geometric spatial relationships, combined resource utilization and time management all in a game the students enjoy. Our program accommodates all levels of students from the first-time beginner to the seasoned tournament player. Students can continue to develop as players by joining the after school chess club or participating on the school tournament chess team.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

How can we share audio recordings? Is there a sharing service like YouTube for audio files?

CLick here

Here are 5 ways to make and share audio recordings using websites.

FILES visit this review

Another Procedure to develop independence in students: Volunteer to help the Open Office project

http://openoffice.apache.org/get-involved.html

One of the critical areas that many teachers need to cover is "Here's a project that is worth putting time into." If you want to support free software for others, why not see how you can help?

CLICK here to learn more

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Procedure in Test Prep Classes: What to do when the instructor is late

Traffic, car problems, mobile phone is uncharged, loss of phone...

There are a number of reasons why an instructor might be late. Students can use the time in class to build their skills.

a) Go to MajorTests.com and look for difficult problems
Work together to solve difficult problems and develop the skill of collaboration
Learn more about Tony Wagner's Seven Survival Skills

In short, if an instructor is late, or has not shown within 45 minutes, you can still stay and get benefit from your classmates. Look at the aims of the class and the study materials. What would you teach if you were the instructor? Then stand up and offer some problems, ask for suggestions about the approach to take to solve the problem and ask how the three main questions can be applied:

What is the pattern? www.LookForPatterns.com
How can we rewrite this information (flexibility)
What can we do to increase our Brain Resilience? www.AmenClinics.com and the 12 Prescriptions for Brain Health

For additional comments about "what to do when the instructor is late to class," please call (954) 646 8246 or send email messages to VisualAndActive@gmail.com

TINYURL.com/stevemccreatips2000

Advice for an owner of a small business about Office 365

TIPS for small business owners.

If you want to manage your own website, why not use these tips from my student Lutz:

ADVICE TO AN OWNER OF A SMALL BUSINESS

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/business/office-365-create-a-website-for-your-business-FX102997524.aspx

I'm convinced that it makes sense to keep your business IT infrastructure as simple as possible. In practical terms, that means you should avoid using different platforms and technologies for all kind of communication (email, calendaring, conferencing, web, social). This will lead to a affordable, stable and easy to maintain solution for you.

Check out Microsoft Office 365. The Office 365 Small Business Premium plan might be the right one for you.

Best, Lutz

Leaders (and we are all leaders) might explain WHY we need to work together

Start with WHY (a book)
Teachers might be attracted to this title... Instead of starting with "What we need to study this week...", we could start with "Here's WHY we need to study."