tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-120039852024-03-13T00:12:08.241-04:00Paddy-WopYou are on a stool with a Catholic guy looking at the world through ethnic eyes.MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.comBlogger452125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-21039413496094847292023-02-09T14:03:00.003-05:002023-02-09T14:09:12.030-05:00It's almost universally agreed that as students move through their K-12 lives, their opportunities to be truly creative and playful with ideas get fewer and fewer as they go. Instead, they spend more of their time thinking about how they can be successful at school, getting more inside the box instead of out of it<p> will@bigquestions.institute
<p>“The exercise of imagination is dangerous to those who profit from the way things are because it has the power to show that the ways things are is not permanent, not universal, not necessary.” ~Ursula K. LeGuinMrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-62871587826689359332021-05-26T16:54:00.000-04:002021-05-26T16:54:33.235-04:00Gary Kasporov Talks to Morning Joe about Politics and the Power of Chess<iframe width="427" height="240" src="https://<iframe width="427" height="240" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nExl9Vx4oMA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-90802375266083874942021-03-12T18:03:00.000-05:002021-03-12T18:03:55.628-05:00<h1>Chess Empowers Children!!</h1>
Chess empowers children. Most children live in a world where they have very little control over what happens to them and those around them. They are not in charge.From the time that they awaken in the morning until the time that their eyes close at night, adults are telling them what to do, other children are pushing them around. Chess Empowers Children!!<p>
In graduate school I devoured a book by Johann Huzinga, a Czech sociologist, entitled Homo Ludens (Man, the Player).The theme of the monograph is that human beings empower themselves by playing. One of the main ways that children learn to become adults is by playing, particularly board games. Chess, in my view, may be the greatest of board games.<p>
By learning to play chess your children are empowering themselves in a way nothing else can, including school. They learn how to think in disciplined, creative ways. Thinking always wins over physical force. Who makes more money, the player or the owner? Chess teaches children to play games. Games are the controlling metaphor of our society. Everything we do is framed as a game. Our heroes are game players. <p>
Jane McGonigal, a brilliant PhD, wrote a book called Reality is Broken, in which she elaborates on the power of games to make us better. McGonigal defines games as having four basic elements: 1. A goal 2.Rules 3. Feedback 4.voluntary. I would like to add a fifth, at least for chess. Games are social. Children will make friends playing chess.<p>
We teach all of those elements at the US Chess Center in ways that no other chess programs do, The most important skill that we impart to young humans is abstract thinking and problem solving,with that comes confidence. You win the game by producing problems your opponent cannot solve (checkmate) and solving the problems that your opponent presents to you. Chess is hard!!! The rules are complex. Feedback is instant and clear. The game demands the combination of ideas and melding of goals to win. In a saturday chess tournament a child might create and solve 200 problems of a very abstract nature. How many problems do you solve every day?<p>
On the chess board children learn to be in charge. They learn that there is no one to blame for what happens on the board other than themselves. Excuses have no place on the chess board. Chess is truth! We teach that to your children!<p>
The traits that you acquire playing chess will help in school if school interests you. Thinking is the greatest trait that a human being can display. Chess is also very inexpensive. You can get a quality set for less than $10 dollars and the library is full of books. Do not overlook our classes.<p>
Sit down and watch “Searching for Bobby Fischer” and “Brooklyn Castles” with your children. I would also try “Life of a King”. <p>
Remember, Chess is hard!!<p>
MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-20041740707680602432021-03-02T14:21:00.004-05:002021-03-12T12:03:11.162-05:00Discovering chessI started to play chess over 60 years ago. I will continue to play as long as I can set up the pieces. I am not a super player for sure, but I can play a solid game. Chess has made a significant difference in my life. I am a better teacher because I play chess.<p>
I started to play when I was about 8 years old. The older kids on my block taught me how to play so that they had someone to beat. They defeated me for quite awhile but I got better each time I played a game. I still remember like it was yesterday, the first time I won a game. I ran off Hankey Pauley’s front porch all the way down the street shouting and yelling to tell my mother!! I was so happy!<p>
It made me want to read books about chess. There were a few books in the local library and all the kids on the street fought over them. We all got chess sets to play with, most of them cheap plastic design with hollow pieces and masonite boards. I filled my pieces with plaster of paris so that they were heavy enough to stay on the boards outside in the wind. I used to read Treasury of Chess Lore under the covers with a flashlight after lights out.<p>
Next my friends and I wanted to learn more so we all signed up at the Buffalo Museum of Science for chess lessons. We all gathered together every saturday morning at the bus stop and rode the city bus across the city to the museum. In the winter we brought our snow saucers with us and rode them down the large hill that was being built for the new City Expressway. It was wonderful. Everything was about chess and no one was telling us what to do. We learned to take care of ourselves. <p>
I will always remember my chess teacher from the Museum. He only had three fingers on his move hand (no thumb or pinkie) and used to throw the pieces it seemed across the board but they all landed where they were supposed to be. We played every Friday night at each other’s houses and every Saturday Morning at the museum. We took turns. <p>
After the museum we all wanted to go to the Queen City Chess Club in downtown Buffalo. I didn’t go. My parents didn’t want me to go down there on Friday night so they offered me a new catcher’s glove in lieu of the dues to the club. Baseball was my other love (girls were coming) and I sort of deserted chess for it. I ignored chess for a few years but I never forgot it.<p>
I rediscovered chess in high school and made the school team in senior year. I watched Johnny Bench play his first game in Buffalo and knew I was never going to be a major leaguer. I joined the USCF at 19 and finally became a member of the Queen City Chess Club. I still watch baseball but I play chess!<p>
I am going to write about chess and what it will do for your children and for you. Please follow along with me. Share your ideas about chess and what I have to say with the blog.<p>
MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-86721951900018455372017-04-08T14:25:00.000-04:002017-04-08T14:29:01.334-04:00I love writing and I have been interviewing local writers and I thought I would post one of the shows here on Paddy-Wop.
<iframe width="427" height="240" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nExl9Vx4oMA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-91929529048576922292016-08-08T20:41:00.001-04:002016-08-08T20:41:14.765-04:00Digital Messaging Matters in 2016As the school year gets ready to start the annual battle over digital devices and messages is about to start. I love the blog Dangerously Irrelevant, and found a great post on this very subject. I recommend that you read this <a href="http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2014/10/our-technology-messages-are-important.html"> post.</a>
MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-33906993475127651872016-03-08T20:48:00.000-05:002016-03-09T12:45:17.107-05:00Focus on Learning not Teaching!!!<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;">To put it simply, innovation in schools today is far too focused on improving teaching, not amplifying learning</span>. -Will Richardson</span><br />
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</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Will Richardson has come over to the side of students and written a great piece that teachers like me were calling for years ago and as a result were driven out of schools. These ideas are the new mantra and being put forth as new ideas. I am happy that we are finally realizing that the internet has truly made education self education. Read <a href="https://medium.com/@willrich45/stop-innovating-in-schools-please-b9246151be7#.uscn2bufs">Richardson's article</a> and jump on the bandwagon if you are not already there!</span><br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;">We don’t let students pursue the questions most in their minds. More often than not, the sole audience for the work students do is the teacher, and it serves no real world, authentic purpose. Our kids’ passions and interests are ignored in favor of compliance to the curriculum.</span>-Will Richardson</span></blockquote>
MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-83083964106828174392016-03-04T07:51:00.000-05:002016-03-04T07:54:44.567-05:00<h1><b></b>Radical ideas on Education</h1>
<a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/02/27/noam_chomsky_for_secretary_of_education_bernie_sanders_needs_to_make_this_revolutionary_call_for_our_public_schools/"> Bernie on Education</a>MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-69299455537889910992015-02-25T19:58:00.001-05:002015-02-25T19:58:29.485-05:00I am writing something in PaddyWop because I really have nothing to say today, I figured if I went back to a venue that I used to be very productive in, then I might actually write down something that someone finds interesting and valuable to read.<br />
<br />
I would love to start my own pulp magazine or website, which was filled with stories and poetry that I write myself. I am a teacher by practice, and I hope that I may teach writing in the Natalie Goldbery way. Just write, I think that her method fits in very nicely with what is called pulp speed writing. Pulp speed writing simply means producing 1,000, 000 words per year. That means writing 3000 words everyday, rain or shine. That is a lot of words....a lot of words.<br />
<br />
So we will try to use these rules of writing. Life has no order,<br />
<br />
1. Once you start, Keep your fingers moving.<br />
2. Lose control<br />
3. Be specific<br />
4. Do not think<br />
5.. Do not worry about punctuation, spelling or grammar<br />
6. Feel free to write junk<br />
7. Go for the jugular<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KnJz0ApZggk/VO5vn01w_dI/AAAAAAAAB3Q/_8f3i2mCOx4/s1600/wqw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KnJz0ApZggk/VO5vn01w_dI/AAAAAAAAB3Q/_8f3i2mCOx4/s1600/wqw.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-41823516325204967722015-02-11T07:59:00.000-05:002015-02-11T07:59:07.046-05:00Bernie Sanders<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MOx1PYO_BnY" width="560"></iframe>MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-59378828785822585952013-09-02T18:25:00.000-04:002013-09-02T18:25:02.647-04:00To the "barricades"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ykFMTcRV7xI/UiUPnzyeIaI/AAAAAAAAAzc/q6BrZ7-_N_8/s1600/sjs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ykFMTcRV7xI/UiUPnzyeIaI/AAAAAAAAAzc/q6BrZ7-_N_8/s320/sjs.jpg" /></a></div>Here is a cross post from 6AM thoughts.
I discovered a new type of "school" that is spreading across the Netherlands. It includes so many ideas that I have thought about and tried actually in a face to face world. Rather than try to write about them I thought that I would just embed a video that describes the school so well.
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/72815459" width="500" height="316" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
Let me know what you think.MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-80991582243873913402013-07-26T09:58:00.000-04:002013-07-26T09:58:20.484-04:00Teaching Students in Digital Reality<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GYv9J6ILLis/UfJ7ZZqPTII/AAAAAAAAAys/A0Ngwmj41Kk/s1600/smartphoneHands.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GYv9J6ILLis/UfJ7ZZqPTII/AAAAAAAAAys/A0Ngwmj41Kk/s400/smartphoneHands.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">"Students still need guidance, so that part of the job is still very much relevant. Students also need knowledge to be explained, and shown how it all fits together. In other words, teachers and schools are still required"</span><br />
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The above statement serves as the standard apology for the school paradigm. It is almost mandatory to be included in some form in any article or video that calls for a new way of learning or you will be branded a radical with nothing to say. It is what prevents and real change from taking place. The classroom of school where things are explained and fit together in the patterns of prevailing world view needs to give way to a conversation where information is fit together in a collective analysis. School was not friendly to Einstein, to Bill Gates, to Steve Jobs, to Ken Robinson. The essential power that human beings now have to access the sum total of human knowledge from their hand (smart phone) make school, as it is presently professionally organized, not only irrelevant, but a hindrance to human creativity. <br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">"Information is now available to anyone who is connected, and is available practically whenever they want.</span>" is a brilliant insight that does not need to be apologized for. We no longer need a professional teacher class teaching a fixed body of knowledge. <b><span style="color: red;">We need to share the code of the alphabet and other literacies with learners and join them in the social construction of reality through past experiences, present data input, and future rearranging of the elements of reality. We do not need to learn to think outside of the box, we need to throw the box away</span>.</b>MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-57737436156516043782013-07-26T09:28:00.000-04:002013-07-26T09:28:01.559-04:00Longest Railroad Video on You Tube!!!Everyone who knows me, knows that I love trains and the blues. Well I found a video that claims to be the longest train video (real life) currently on You Tube. It is almost 2 hours long:). I was in heaven. I have embedded it into this post. Enjoy any or all of it.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/SjRwsglDD2c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-36630774557278840572013-06-05T09:57:00.000-04:002013-06-11T08:22:03.199-04:00A video statement of philosophyI have created a video about my <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cfv8jbnU5M">philosophy of education</a>. I hope that you enjoy.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-Cfv8jbnU5M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-66793469669546832042013-05-21T22:12:00.000-04:002013-05-21T22:12:06.368-04:00
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G7nSpWTNHjI/UZwowf3DKhI/AAAAAAAAAyM/iLKAXc106ZU/s1600/Montaigne.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G7nSpWTNHjI/UZwowf3DKhI/AAAAAAAAAyM/iLKAXc106ZU/s320/Montaigne.jpg" /></a>
<blockquote>For, in truth, custom is a violent and treacherous schoolmistress. She, by little and little, slily and unperceived, slips in the foot of her authority, but having by this gentle and humble beginning, with the benefit of time, fixed and established it, she then unmasks a furious and tyrannic countenance, against which we have no more the courage or the power so much as to lift up our eyes. We see her, at every turn, forcing and violating the rules of nature: "Usus efficacissimus rerum omnium magister." -Montaigne </blockquote>
A friend of mine invited me to a book discussion on some essays of Michael Montaigne. The above quotation came from an essay entitled "Of Custom, and that We should Not Easily Change a Law Received". He goes on to say "if we consider what we have ordinary experience of, how much custom stupefies our senses." We sell ourselves to the habit of custom so that we can expand the quantity of existence without any thought to the tyranny that we accept so that we lose all of the creativity and originality of our humanity. And then something happens that liberates us from the prison of age and expectations. We do not know how to cope with the backlash that awaits us because the weight of society beats us down, makes us conform. MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-49712370013413489602013-03-06T21:35:00.001-05:002013-03-18T06:54:38.248-04:00<object width="480" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=4271734"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=4271734" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="480" height="360"></embed></object>MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-38554103563328851972013-01-01T16:31:00.001-05:002013-01-01T16:37:46.140-05:00Happy new Year 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eNEIixyEd_8/UONVq3fXseI/AAAAAAAAAuc/OQpA-xNhIMo/s1600/HNY2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="177" width="284" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eNEIixyEd_8/UONVq3fXseI/AAAAAAAAAuc/OQpA-xNhIMo/s400/HNY2013.jpg" /></a></div>
Happy New Year to everyone out in the blogosphere!!! The spirit of liberation is blowing through the School For Tomorrow. The first of the fixed periods has disappeared in the morning sessions as the floaters (math and science) no longer have assigned times and lengths of presentation. We are moving forward!!! It began with breakout TDP and is now gaining momentum. <br><br>
I want to attempt a definition of a Trans-Disciplinary Program. Bruder describes it "The transdisciplinary approach is a framework for allowing members of an educational team to contribute knowledge and skills, collaborate with other members, and collectively determine the services that most would benefit a child." He goes on to say "A transdisciplinary approach requires the team members to share roles and systematically cross discipline boundaries. The primary purpose of this approach is to pool and integrate the expertise of team members so that more efficient and comprehensive assessment and intervention services may be provided. (Bruder, M.B. (1994). p71). <br><br>
In German speaking countries, a trans-disciplinary approach looks to the " integration of diverse forms of research, and includes specific methods for relating scientific knowledge in problem-solving" ( Mittelstrass, 2003).
Jean Piaget introduced the idea of trans-disciplinarity as the unity of knowledge beyond the disciplines. The International Center for Trans-disciplinary Research (CIRET) established the idea that trans-disciplinary approaches transfer the methods of the disciplines to each other to examine a problem and is radically different from interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches.
Basarab Nicolescu, a Romanian philosopher, describes three methodological postulates that are necessary to operate from a trans-disciplinary perspective. First is the idea that reality exists on many different levels and must be approached from as many of them as possible. Second, the logic of the middle of reality, where things tend to go, must be recognized and finally, third, the immeasurable complexity of reality. The purpose of trans-disciplinary study is to understand the present world in terms of its social reality. The space between the levels of reality and the disciplines is full of information which we can make sense of only through a trans-disciplinary approach. <br><br>
Collaboration is also an essential characteristic of a trans-disciplinary approach. Everyone involved in the learning must be a part of the definition of the learning objectives. It is through this collaboration that everyone involved in a trans-disciplinary approach "becomes uniquely capable of engaging with different ways of knowing the world, generating new knowledge, and helping stakeholders understand and incorporate the results or lessons learned by the research" (Wickson, & Carew, . Russell, A.W., 2006). <br><br>
So a trans-disciplinary approach starts from a simple premise. There are many ways of knowing the world. A TDP group must then look at the world using many different methodologies or ways of knowing. The ways of the poet are as valid as the ways of the research physicist or the historian. They examine reality from a distinct perspective. All members of the group learn and use the different methodologies to examine what "they want to know". The purpose of the rest of the group is to help a learner do that. Sort of how your guild helps you on a WOW quest. <br><br>
Whatever we do in our TDP sections, we must all be involved, as both teachers and learners. We all want to know stuff and we all have experience in ways of learning, of coming to know. We have to learn what others know as learners and we have to teach what we know to those who want to learn it.
MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-8760504857395664492012-12-13T06:55:00.000-05:002012-12-13T06:55:28.865-05:00A song and new album from the Drop Kick MurphysIt is the season of Christmas from the Drop Kick Murphys. Enjoy and chuckle at the truth behind the exaggeration of song.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qTx-sdR6Yzk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-56163881715637461372012-08-28T08:15:00.000-04:002012-08-28T08:15:32.393-04:00Chris Matthews takes off the Gloves!!!Chris Matthews finally confronted the hidden issue in the campaign...Mitt is White and Barak is Black..
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MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-39657969640212524612012-08-21T07:43:00.000-04:002012-08-21T07:43:21.147-04:00The World Beyond the WordHere is a great slide share from Stephen Downes on the world after text only!!
<iframe src="http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/slideshelf" width="490px" height="470px" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border:none;" allowfullscreen></iframe>MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-66727124207877317002012-08-11T09:08:00.000-04:002012-08-11T09:08:35.184-04:00Big Jay McNeely - Live in LA blowing up a storm<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/uFBTP3E1VkE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>Maybe it will blow away the pain of thinking about Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney's running mate. The people need to speak!!</p>MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-90146546846264155052012-08-10T16:43:00.002-04:002012-08-10T16:43:56.901-04:00Get Down Blues---the real thing-just Wailing!!!<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/s9EJChkMW1k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-42404044099840158482012-08-06T07:48:00.000-04:002012-08-06T07:49:14.997-04:00GYOD (Grow your own dinner)A great Ted Talk that the Innovative Educator (Lisa Neilsen)brought to my attention and I thought I would bring to you. Stephen Ritz, a South Bronx teacher, made school real for his students. If only we all had his courage and imagination.
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</object>MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-50411041653795286652012-08-04T08:43:00.000-04:002012-08-04T08:43:16.745-04:00BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)I am a huge advocate of BYOD in school. If you have thought at all about the issue, then this video is for you. If you have not thought at all about the issue then this video is a great place to start. If you do not care about the issue, then this video may just tickle your curiosity. Give it a look.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SSXyfX8ABhA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>AMrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12003985.post-44594842755420214132012-08-01T07:23:00.002-04:002012-08-01T07:23:24.299-04:00<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9336055-american-uprising" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="American Uprising" border="0" src="http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nocover/111x148.png" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9336055-american-uprising">American Uprising</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4361485.Daniel_Rasmussen">Daniel Rasmussen</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/143590801">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
American Uprising changed the way I look at the world. The measure of a book to me is<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hTes4ATyLkU/UBkQhV1gK7I/AAAAAAAAAs0/UzzybsBpss8/s1600/Rasmussen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="275" width="183" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hTes4ATyLkU/UBkQhV1gK7I/AAAAAAAAAs0/UzzybsBpss8/s400/Rasmussen.jpg" /></a></div>
that it teaches me something about something I am interested in and changes my mental image of this subject. In the case of American Uprising that subject was slavery. I never understood the relationship between the sugar islands and the Louisiana Purchase. I knew there were sugar plantations in Louisiana but not to the extent that they existed. Sugar Slavery was different from Slavery in the rest of American states and territories and this book illuminates that difference clearly. <br /><br />The book's problem is that it lacks the usual historical method of verifying of its conclusions about how the Uprising occurred. The nitty gritty of the uprising is not what is important about this book. The real value of the book is its illumination of slavery in the new American territory. This may not have been what Rasmussen set out to do, but it is what he accomplished brilliantly. <br /><br /><br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/891984-norman">View all my reviews</a>MrChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05825255080995135384noreply@blogger.com0