Thursday, July 9, 2009

An Inconvenient Truth

Here is my write up for my "Using Media to Teach Science Students about Global Warming" lesson unit. I don't know if I did all the technology stuff correct but I hope so. Thanks for everything Lesley. It was truely a great class. I will recommend it to others.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Administrative Support in my school

I believe I have a lot of support from my administration on changing my curriculum as long as I stick to the science standards which I have to cover. I have a lot more freedom in my science electives then with required courses. The biggest problem in my school is that we don't have the technology to carry out a lot of the activities we talked about in class. There is 1 projector for the entire science department, the computer lab has to be booked weeks in advanced because there is only one for the entire school and many sites are blocked. I know there are ways to unblock sites but the administration usually tells us to deal with the 1 computer technician in our school who is very busy. A colleague of mine spent an entire period trying to access You tube so she could show clips that she downloaded for her lesson. She finally was able to connect with 5 minutes left in the period. I am one to spend my own money but who can afford laptops for all their students. I really want to take some time this summer to start researching grants that would help me get this technology for my classroom. It is sad that the technology that is available to my students, their cell phones, are strongly not allowed in class. Many students not only have cameras and video recorders but also internet in their pockets and we can't use it. Don't these policies need to be changed if schools aren't going to provide us with the tools we need to educate our students.

Larry Gonick cartoon books

Hey guys, some of us were talking in class about how great cartoons are in class. Larry Gonick has published a lot in history and science and has them listed on his website if you want to check them out.

Larry Gonick Cartoon Books

The frequent use of the word "retard"

This is something I found interesting a few months ago when the movie "Tropic Thunder" first came out. Check out the clip first.


There was a lot of controversy over this film. Many people wanted to shut the movie down because of the frequent use of the word retard. I remember watching what I believe was the Today show which discussed how this movie portrayed "retard" different then other films like "Something About Mary" or the one with Johnny Knoxville, the title does not want to come into my head right now. If anyone has any comments on this I would love to hear them. I often here a number of students, teachers use this term and it shocks me just as they use "fag" or "queer" so readily. Let me know what you think about the clip or if you have anything else to add.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Disney's Up


I wanted to get some different views of the movie so I tried some different sites and different searches. First is just a typical review from an online source which is NJ.com. Then I went to you tube to find a video review which I found from NY Post.com. I was looking for a bad review of the movie but had a hard time searching and finding one. Perhaps I just don't know how I would have to search for that information, perhaps Disney is using its wiley ways to hide that information from us. On the other hand I wanted to find a kid's review or the movie. I found a kids site for movie reviews but I am sure it is run by adults. Still I was able to see some clips and I am looking forward to seeing the movie but I am reading to watch it with a critical mind.

Up Review from NJ.com

NYpost.com movie review













Kidsworld movie review of Disney's Up