October 2011 - Posts

What is the highest result of education?


31 October 11 02:00 PM
With all the dashing about, pretending that we can make leaders of us all, make scientists of us all, pretending that the whole point of education is test score and "college and career readiness," well, it's no small joy to be working under a Principal Read More...
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Scorecard


31 October 11 09:02 AM
Rajeev Bajaj runs Global Education Advisors , originally a "one person" company with grammar issues founded using Chris Cerf's home address . Hey, Steve Jobs started in his own garage, why not? GEA has gotten (so far) almost $2 million dollars of the Read More...
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Zuckerberg Friends Cerf


30 October 11 08:11 PM
Mark Zuckerberg donated a huge chunk of money, $100 million, to Newark, to help education. A few other people kicked in $48 million more. According to the Star-Ledger , ~$11,700,000 has been spent so far. Less than 65% of that money has gone to "school-based Read More...
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Exploding trees


29 October 11 05:27 PM
The trees are exploding. We're getting a wet, heavy snowfall, and the broad leaves of our deciduous trees are catching snowflakes as well as they catch photons. Their vessels are still swollen with sap, carrying nutrients back into the ground, stored Read More...
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A jelly story


25 October 11 09:11 PM
When looking at a jelly lying at the sea's edge, a critter that uses the same genetic code as pretty much anything that has suffered the indignity of DNA analysis, it's hard to get worked up over nonsense. A physicist says that we, like the jellyfish, Read More...
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Mr. President, we "learn to live"


24 October 11 07:42 PM
The 2nd repost today, again more for me than anything else. "Through this plan we are setting an ambitious goal: All students should graduate from high school prepared for college and a career – no matter who you are or where you come from." President Read More...
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Milking Albert Pujol's big game last night


23 October 11 10:51 AM
Albert Pujols hits a lot, and gets paid well to do it. He seems like an all-around decent guy, but truth be told, I know nothing about the man other than what his people want me to know. Last night Mr. Pujols again did his thing, and many people paid Read More...
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How many teachers does it take to screw a lightbulb?


22 October 11 09:09 AM
NJ World Class Standard: 8.2 Technology Education, Engineering, and Design All students will develop an understanding of the nature and impact of technology, engineering, technological design, and the designed world, as they relate to the individual, Read More...
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Two neat things today


09 October 11 07:59 PM
We found a monarch butterfly with a tag on it--PBB 518. He hung around the zinnias for over an hour. . Getting to Mexico is tough enough, especially for butterflies, but getting there on unbalanced wings is well nigh impossible. I doubt PBB 518 is going Read More...
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"The universe is made of stories..."


09 October 11 10:31 AM
"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms." Muriel Rukeyser This is a lovely quote, and a lovely way of looking at the world, written by a brilliant poet who grew up in a world that saw the horrible consequences of reducing the world to a machine, Read More...
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Science and the ether bunny


08 October 11 04:25 PM
I like the idea of ether, the idea that light needs something to travel through, but efforts to show its existence failed, and current theories do not need it. I do, though, because it comforts me, so I have a personal relationship with ether. I can still Read More...
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"Eyn chaya kazo"


08 October 11 09:35 AM
"There can be no such creature." Daniel Shechtman, 2011 Chemistry Nobel Prize I am attempting to teach my lambs the concept of atoms. Their concept of the atom is much like the adults around them--nucleus of protons and neutrons in the middle, scattered Read More...
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My first plug


08 October 11 08:34 AM
This is a preview of a review of a must-read book for any teacher who attempts to teach science in public schools. I got a copy back in August, and have been reading (and thinking and doing and arguing and questioning and playing) with it since. It's Read More...
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