Be Imaginative, Create a Comic Strip

Need some time to relax and play like a kid. Try out the MakeBeliefs Comix.com site. Create your own comic strips easily. Then imagine young children using the site to create comics, practicing their literacy and imaginative skills. In addition to writing in English, students can write in Spanish, Italian, and other languages. There's a Teacher Resource section. Check out "About the Author" to learn about the site's writer and illustrator. Try creating a few panes in a comic strip with the options available: characters, text boxes, think bubbles, objects, sizing, moving, and backgrounds. Remember to give your strip a title and to list yourself as its author. Use the Next feature when you are ready to print, or email your creation to a reader. It takes a little trial and error to get going, but it should not take you long to create your first comic. Have some fun and a few laugh! Let us know what you think.

YouTube Now Accepts College Applications

Some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions of higher education now encourage applicants to submit a YouTube video as part of their application. Okay, this might be a good idea on the surface. High school students already enjoy making videos and uploading them to YouTube. But what the college application now be made public via the Internet? Here are two videos high school seniors submitted as part of their application to Tufts University. Given I found them on YouTube and can easily embed them as ready-to-play on Blogger.com, what do you see as the pros and cons of college application materials moving to public spaces and social networking sites? Here's Chania Cohen's "Walk in My Shoes" video she used for her application. (Click the arrow to view it; the videos is shorter than 2 minutes.)



Here's Amelia Downs' math nerd and dancing video, also part of her Tufts' application.



These videos and others that students have submitted to YouTube as part of their application packet have had over a 3,000 hits as of yesterday. Tufts claims that this year as many as 1,000 applicants submitted YouTubes. Given the number, it is understandable why an admission committee finds YouTube a convenient storage site and easy way to access and organize reams of digital materials.

Some schools even send with acceptance letters a video that pops on the screen as soon as the student opens email. For instance, Yale sends a rendition of "High School Musical."

What's your response to the use of videos, especially ones available on the world wide web, as part of the college application packet? How do you feel about the application process being in public view? When was the last time a college essay had that many readers? Will a centralized blog or wiki, available to the public, be the way students submit essays? Or is the visual nature of YouTube and its capacity to store large video files that make it more so the go-to venue for telling admissions committees, and in the meantime the rest of the world, "Who Am I."

10 th Grade Graduation to Begin 2011 in Connecticut

The New Haven Register today ran a story about the soon-to-be 10th grade graduation in the state. Parents and teachers offered responses to the article. Read both the article and comments. I know I have posted on this topic two times in the last week, but given the reality that this initiative is in our own backyard, let's be knowledgeable and keep current of the dialogue. Read all about it at: State to Test Early Graduation Initiative. And see the other two blog postings from last week that speak to the initiative on both the national and state level. Even consider posting a comment on the New Haven Register page; there is place that invites comments.

Logo from New Haven Register, online.

Graduating High School After 10th Grade

Just this past Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010, I posted an article, High Schools to Offer Plan to Graduate 2 Years Early, about students getting a jump start on college. I am now posting a link to read about the issue from the perspective of several educators including college presidents. Check on this debate using a posting from The New York Times, Feb. 18, 2010: A Diploma in 10th Grade?

The Gates Foundation has already funded such initiatives and plans to be involved in the 10th grade graduation initiative. School systems are likely to join the bandwagon knowing both private and public funding will be forthcoming. The federal government has already earmarked funding, and states have applied for the funding. One of the states to start the program in the immediate future is Connecticut, as part of the federal initiative. Several towns and the cities will be participating, and invitations have been sent out statewide.

Those of you interested in secondary education should keep current of the issue. In fact, those interested in education in the earlier grades might want to consider how the traditional K-12 curricular sequence will change with implementation of this plan.

After reading through the postings about the debate, via A Diploma in 10th Grade?, what is your position, and why?

Share PowerPoint Slides with Your Department and Students

A convenient way for a group of educators to collaborate and share their slide presentations is through the site SlideShare, at slideshare.net. Check into how Texas A & M University's Writing Center uses the site to share its instructional slide shows with its students as well as other viewers. View some of the presentations to understand the purpose of why the university has mounted its instructional presentations in SlideShare. Consider how SlideShare or similar slide sharing sites might be used in other educational settings such as at the K-12 level? (Be forewarned, you will need to tolerate some ads, but the site is free, and has lots of potential.)

What Does the iGeneration Mean for Teaching?

Tech-Savvy 'iGeneration' Kids Multi-Task, Connect posted in USA Today offers viewpoints on the effects of social networking on children of today. Although research has largely focused on the multi-tasking skills of preteens and teens, researchers are now looking at how those under 10 are responding to the variety of technological media surrounding them and how this environment will affect how they develop and will be motivated to learn in school.

A 12-year old from West Hartford, CT is quoted, reminding us of the frequency with which people her age post videos on Facebook via webcams. Another youngster of 3 is described as having "a collection of nine cellphones; four are the non-working cast-offs of family members, and the others are plastic, including Cinderella, Tinker Bell and Dora the Explorer. She also has a plastic pink-and-purple Barbie laptop, which has its own mouse and programs that teach math, vowels and Spanish, as well as some computer games."

What is your response to the research findings and reports cited in the article? What do you see as the implications for teachers as the newer generations progress through school?


Photo is from the article with the byline and note:
By Joe Brier, for USA TODAY
Heather Nokes, 18, watches as her 3-year-old sister Kaci, 3, uses a Barbi Learning Laptop for math and spelling practice, while Wendy, 13, holds her cellphone in their Winchester, Va., home. All born after 1990, the sisters are considered part of what sociologists are calling the iGeneration.