Mark Rios reads from The Last Lecture

Alerus Financial commercial/business banker Mark Rios, read from Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture for yesterday's session of Literary Lunches.

Rios, originally from Hawaii, served in the military in active duty. He has a degree in education from the University of North Dakota. He has one daughter; she is a graduate of Red River High School. And his wife Sandy graduated from Grand Forks Central. 

The Last Lecture is a collection 53 lectures and stories Pausch gave after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2007. Although Pausch knew he was going to die, he wanted other people to know who he was and he wanted his children to know about their father. Paush said that "We cannot change the cards we are dealt....just how we play the hand."





Submitted by GFC freshman Matt Orr and GFC English teacher Nancy Devine

Skype in the classroom

Teachers already use Skype to connect with other classrooms around the globe, bring in guest speakers without asking them to travel, and take virtual field trips. Now, Skype is making it easier for them to do so.
The company launched Skype in the Classroom, a dedicated teacher network, on Tuesday. Using the platform, teachers can create profiles that describe their classes and teaching interests. They can also search a directory of teachers from all over the world by student age range, language and subject. (from Mashable)

The above comes from Mashable, an online news source for all things Internet. To learn more, click here.

Words and pictures come together

Phrasr is an interactive web-based application that uses Flickr images to illustrate the phrases that users submit. She can choose every image and then publish the entire phrase, which is shown as a personal slide show.

 

To learn more, click the above hyperlinked text. 

Phrasr is brought to you by Pimpampun.Who and/or what is Pimpampun? Click on the hyperlinked text below to learn more.

Who and/or what is Pimpampun? Take a look at the following from Pimpampum.

We want to imagine that there are thing to do on the Internet, and we want to do them. We believe on the Internet made by people, because of it we want to give them tools to change it. Touch, break, shake Internet. And generate unpredictable new realities.

Click here, to learn even more about Pimpampun. 

UND Writers Conference begins tomorrow

This spring, the UND Writers Conference celebrates its 42nd anniversary.   In 1970, the late John Little, a professor in UND’s English Department, was missing some of his literary friends from the South.  He decided to invite them to share their words here in North Dakota, and thus a rich artistic tradition began.  Since that first conference, some of the most laudable names in literature have visited the UND campus, including Allen Ginsberg, Truman Capote,  Edward Albee,  Louise Erdrich, Thomas McGrath,  Sherman Alexie, Jon Hassler, Alice Walker as well as 2008 attendee, Sir Salman Rushdie.

More than 3000 lovers of literature from all over North Dakota, as well as beyond our borders descend on the campus to listen to panel discussions, readings, and ask their questions of nationally and internationally prominent authors.

The above comes from the UND Writers Conference website. 

For a schedule of writers and events, click here.

Looking at student work

Looking at Student Work is a website designed to get:

teachers looking together at student work with colleagues focusing on small samples of student work reflecting on important questions about teaching and learning using structures and guidelines ("protocols") for looking at and talking about student work

The above comes from the Looking at Student Work website. Click here, to learn more.

Picture books in teaching

Picture books have been used in the primary grades for decades, but they are a quick and convenient way to help older students activate their prior knowledge.  There is a new focus on picture books that deliver difficult content in simple language.  Picture books are a great model for student writing, as they contain vivid language and a variety of text structures.  The beauty of using picture books in the upper grades, middle and high school, is that they can be read in a few minutes and provide students with information connected to the concept or skill being introduced. (from the West Virginia Department of Education)


If you're thinking about how picture books could be used with older students, do check out the above hyperlinked text. The site includes a number of resources. 


This is all a part of West Virginia's Department of Education Strategy Bank. To check it out, click here.

Edutopia's video library online

Edutopia has a variety of online videos showcasing learning in a variety of classrooms. Take a look at the one below.


To look at the entire collection of videos at Edutopia, click here.

Participating in an online community

Welcome to Classroom20.com, the social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and Social Media in education. We encourage you to sign up to participate in the great discussions here, to receive event notifications, and to find and connect with colleagues.

Classroom 2.0 is a free, community-supported network. We especially hope that those who are "beginners" will find this a supportive comfortable place to start being part of the digital dialog. Because of spammers, we have to approve all memberships here. While your membership is pending you are still welcome to peruse the site or attend any events!

Classroom 2.0 is a Ning focused on Web 2.0 tools. To learn more about Classroom 2.0, click here.

TED...a gentle reminder

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize. (from the TED website)

TED has been referenced here before. Consider this post a gentle reminder.

Lots of math

This blog has two main themes: one is mathematics and the other is multimedia. The mathematics part will discuss ideas behind mathematical concepts from elementary to undergraduate topics.  For now, I will be concentrating on discussing mathematics concepts from Grade 6 through Grade 12, although, from time to time, I might post topics in lower or higher levels. (from the "About" page of the blog Mathematics and Multimedia)

This blog is rich with resources, including an extensive blogroll. To explore, click here.

Resources for using graphic novels for learning

"Graphic novels have been gaining acceptance in classrooms and school libraries across the nation — and for good reason. They can often motivate even the most reluctant readers to turn page after page, becoming wrapped up in the images and text they contain, and this makes graphic novels amazing teaching tools on a wide variety of subjects. If you’re looking to make the most of this media for engaging your students and exploring the great stories they have to tell, here are some great ways to enrich your classes with graphic novels that any teacher can employ in the service of a every age group possible." (from Online Classes.Org)

To learn more, click here. There are resources not only for language arts but also for other content areas.

The Civil War in characters

The Washington Post is tweeting the Civil War.

The tweets describe the events that lead up to the Civil War in the words of the people who lived them. Tweets appear on the day events happened 150 years ago and come from official military records, congressional inquiries,  state archives, memoirs, letters and newspapers.

Below is an example of a tweet.

CivilWarwp Atty Gen Edwd Bates: "Pres Lincoln's 1st Cabinet Council--intended, I suppose 2 b formal & introductory only--in fact, uninteresting." about 16 hours ago via HootSuite 

To learn more, click on the above tweet.

Spanning the years

In yesterday's session of Literary Lunches, Grand Forks Central technology education teacher Joe Ford addressed discrimination. He began his reading by drawing students attention to a Converse National 1964 yearbook of state champions, a document that shows the teams of white students and black students were separated; in other words, they didn't play one another.

Then Ford read a section from basketball player Bill Russell's memoir Red and Me about how Russell and his African American teammates responded to a segregation at a restaurant. The "Red" in the memoir is Red Auerbach.

In Red Auerbach, Russell found his partner, and over 13 years they won 11 N.B.A. championships. During that time, from incidents on court and off, Russell slowly came to trust Auerbach the man as much as Auerbach the coach or general manager. “Red and Me,” which he wrote with Alan Steinberg, is the story of their relationship. (from Bill Bradley at NYT)

Ford also read from with a selection from Red Auerbach's book Let Me Tell You A Story: A Lifetime in the Game.  John Feinstein is co-author of the book. 

Ford concluded with a selection from Abe Winter's Memoir of an Unknown Sports Writer. The selection featured Grand Forks Central graduate Glen Hansen, part of GFC's 1970s state basketball champion team.

The Book Whisperer on the power of a book

It's as if we share a secret--my students and me--a secret that people who don't read can't understand. We know that books hold magic inside them. We know that books ease pain. We know that books rescue boring afternoons. We know that the best books sink into our skin and change who we are. This is my hope for my students--that they find a powerful book that becomes a part of them. The baggage of their lives should include a book or two. (Donalyn Miller at The Book Whisperer blog)

Donalyn Miller is a 6th grade language arts teacher in Texas who is said to have a "gift": She can turn even the most reluctant (or, in her words, "dormant") readers into students who can't put their books down. Donalyn is the author of The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child (Jossey-Bass/Education Week Press). She first appeared in teachermagazine.org in the popular"Creating Readers" Ask The Mentor column. She writes about how to inspire and motivate student readers, and responds to issues facing teachers and other leaders in the literacy field.

To read more, click on either of the hyperlinked texts above. 

Erin Baumann addresses the 'r' word

Video forthcoming

Video of Special Olympian Kristin Baumann isn't yet up. As soon as possible, it will be.
Thanks so much for your patience.

Spread the Word

Yesterday a very special guest came to Grand Forks Central in support of the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign.

Special Olympian Erin Baumann, who was born with Down Syndrome, read a speech she had written about how derogatory words affect people with intellectual disabilities. She told those who attended the session of Literary Lunches what it's like to have Down Syndrome and what it's like having people use those derogatory words.

She gave many of the students and teachers who attended much to think about in respect of the use of words like "stupid," "dumb" and the ever present R-word. Baumann also brought up an important legislative point, Rose's Law.

In October 2010, "President Obama signed Rosa's Law, making a simple, but monumental change in the language used to refer to individuals with disabilities. The law, named for Rosa Marcellino an 8-year-old girl with Down Syndrome, will change the phrase 'mental retardation' to 'ntellectual disability' in all federal statutes."

Monday we will put up a video of Baumann so you too can hear what Baumann had to say and learn what websites you can visit to help those intellectual disabilities and those who are participating in the Special Olympics.

submitted by GFC senior Justin (Jfish) Fischer

Feasting with books

To celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday yesterday, the readers at Literary Lunches supplied books and some food, namely some green eggs with ham (prosciutto, actually).

Grand Forks Central family and consumer science teacher Rhonda Peterson and junior Sam Hape did a two voice performance of the Seuss classic Green Eggs and Ham with Hape easily fitting into the role of Sam-I-am.

They also read  The Foot Book, an homage to, of course, the foot, and The ABC Book, a litany of alliteration and/or tongue-twisters.

Who was Dr. Seuss?

Theodor Seuss Geisel (pronounced /ˈɡaɪzəl/; March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) was an American writer and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone.^[1] He published 44 children's books, which were often characterized by imaginative characters, rhyme, and frequent use of trisyllabic meter. His most celebrated books include the bestselling Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Horton Hatches the Egg, Horton Hears a Who!, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Numerous adaptations of his work have been created, including eleven television specials, three feature films, and a Broadway musical. (from Wikipedia)

To learn even more about Seuss, click here to visit Seussville.

Words have power

At yesterday's session of Literary Lunches, Grand Forks Central special education teacher Kelli Henke reminded us that "words can hurt people."

Henke, who read in conjunction with the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign, brought us into the world of House Rules, Jodi Picoult's novel about Jacob, a young man with autism.  In the excerpt Henke read, Jacob's mother Emma tells us about her son who's interested in forensics, so much so that he stages a fake crime scene at their house.

Emma also addresses words, in particular labels. She says, "It's a term [Asperger's Syndrome] we use to get Jacob the accommodations he needs in school, not a label to explain who he is. "

Below is the United Kingdom version of the book trailer for House Rules.

More great resources

Comprehension is the reason for reading, and vocabulary plays a significant role in comprehension (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000). The question is, What kind of instruction best promotes the development of comprehension and vocabulary? (from Reading Rockets)

To learn more, click the above hyperlinked text.

Reading Rockets if  full of resources. To browse topics at Reading Rockets, click here.