A friend of mine (Chris Copeland) sent me the link to the following content at Teach Paperless (find the link at the bottom of this post).

I think it is well worth your time.

1. Desks
The 21st century does not fit neatly into rows. Neither should your students. Allow the network-based concepts of flow, collaboration, and dynamism help you rearrange your room for authentic 21st century learning.

2. Language Labs
Foreign language acquisition is only a smartphone away. Get rid of those clunky desktops and monitors and do something fun with that room.

3. Computers
Ok, so this is a trick answer. More precisely this one should read: ‘Our concept of what a computer is’. Because computing is going mobile and over the next decade we’re going to see the full fury of individualized computing via handhelds come to the fore. Can’t wait.

4. Homework
The 21st century is a 24/7 environment. And the next decade is going to see the traditional temporal boundaries between home and school disappear. And despite whatever Secretary Duncan might say, we don’t need kids to ‘go to school’ more; we need them to ‘learn’ more. And this will be done 24/7 and on the move (see #3).

5. The Role of Standardized Tests in College Admissions
The AP Exam is on its last legs. The SAT isn’t far behind. Over the next ten years, we will see Digital Portfolios replace test scores as the #1 factor in college admissions.

6. Differentiated Instruction as the Sign of a Distinguished Teacher
The 21st century is customizable. In ten years, the teacher who hasn’t yet figured out how to use tech to personalize learning will be the teacher out of a job. Differentiation won’t make you ‘distinguished’; it’ll just be a natural part of your work.

7. Fear of Wikipedia
Wikipedia is the greatest democratizing force in the world right now. If you are afraid of letting your students peruse it, it’s time you get over yourself.

8. Paperbacks
Books were nice. In ten years’ time, all reading will be via digital means. And yes, I know, you like the ‘feel’ of paper. Well, in ten years’ time you’ll hardly tell the difference as ‘paper’ itself becomes digitized.

9. Attendance Offices
Bio scans. ‘Nuff said.

10. Lockers.
A coat-check, maybe.

11. IT Departments
Ok, so this is another trick answer. More subtly put: IT Departments as we currently know them. Cloud computing and a decade’s worth of increased wifi and satellite access will make some of the traditional roles of IT — software, security, and connectivity — a thing of the past. What will IT professionals do with all their free time? Innovate. Look to tech departments to instigate real change in the function of schools over the next twenty years.

12. Centralized Institutions
School buildings are going to become ‘homebases’ of learning, not the institutions where all learning happens. Buildings will get smaller and greener, student and teacher schedules will change to allow less people on campus at any one time, and more teachers and students will be going out into their communities to engage in experiential learning.

13. Organization of Educational Services by Grade
Education over the next ten years will become more individualized, leaving the bulk of grade-based learning in the past. Students will form peer groups by interest and these interest groups will petition for specialized learning. The structure of K-12 will be fundamentally altered.

14. Education School Classes that Fail to Integrate Social Technology
This is actually one that could occur over the next five years. Education Schools have to realize that if they are to remain relevant, they are going to have to demand that 21st century tech integration be modelled by the very professors who are supposed to be preparing our teachers.

15. Paid/Outsourced Professional Development
No one knows your school as well as you. With the power of a PLN in their backpockets, teachers will rise up to replace peripatetic professional development gurus as the source of schoolwide prof dev programs. This is already happening.

16. Current Curricular Norms
There is no reason why every student needs to take however many credits in the same course of study as every other student. The root of curricular change will be the shift in middle schools to a role as foundational content providers and high schools as places for specialized learning.

17. Parent-Teacher Conference Night
Ongoing parent-teacher relations in virtual reality will make parent-teacher conference nights seem quaint. Over the next ten years, parents and teachers will become closer than ever as a result of virtual communication opportunities. And parents will drive schools to become ever more tech integrated.

18. Typical Cafeteria Food
Nutrition information + handhelds + cost comparison = the end of $3.00 bowls of microwaved mac and cheese. At least, I so hope so.

19. Outsourced Graphic Design and Webmastering
You need a website/brochure/promo/etc.? Well, for goodness sake just let your kids do it. By the end of the decade — in the best of schools — they will be.

20. High School Algebra I
Within the decade, it will either become the norm to teach this course in middle school or we’ll have finally woken up to the fact that there’s no reason to give algebra weight over statistics and IT in high school for non-math majors (and they will have all taken it in middle school anyway).

21. Paper
In ten years’ time, schools will decrease their paper consumption by no less than 90%. And the printing industry and the copier industry and the paper industry itself will either adjust or perish.

This info is from TeachPaperless.

When a person dies, what happens to their Facebook account? 

The walls of friends who have passed away have been quickly filled with memories and comments, wishing them well. Though I thought it was a little disturbing the first time I witnessed it, I have found the responses and wall posts on Facebook to be interesting. 

But this article shows what Facebook plans to do in the future with such profiles.

By BARBARA ORTUTAY (AP) 

NEW YORK — Death doesn’t erase the online footprints that people leave in life and Facebook won’t either, though it will make some changes.

The five-year-old social network will “memorialize” profiles of the dead if their friends or family request it.

Such accounts will be different from regular Facebook profiles.

For example, the site will remove any contact information and bar people from logging in. The person’s profile also won’t appear in the “suggestions” section of Facebook, and only the deceased person’s confirmed friends will be able to find them in a search.

The development comes as Facebook becomes an important social hub for its more than 300 million active users worldwide to keep up with friends and family.

This article was found HERE.

You can now sign up for an invitation to Google Wave. It is amazing! I cannot even come close to doing it justice. Just watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6pgxLaDdQw

Sign up fast because you never know how long it will take to get the invitation.

This is an interesting little video that is showing how those annoying little security boxes on websites where you have to decode a funky looking word. By doing so, you are helping computers to decode obscured texts that Google scans for use on Google Books. Pretty cool.

This video was found at Lifehacker.com

Google Fast Flip has been released. I will be using it in my classes tomorrow.  When you type in a topic, Fast Flip will find it major publications.  Click on each thumbnail to read the story.  This is a fast way to digest a large quantity of information.

Here are some plans I have for it over the next few weeks:

1. current event discussions
2. looking for examples of grammatical constructions
3. examining visual rhetoric
4. searching for logical fallacies
5. looking for vocabulary words in context

I would LOVE to know some of your ideas.  Please leave any you have in the comments.

I will be the keynote speaker at the fall conference in Martin, TN this coming Saturday (Sept. 12).The West Tennessee Writing Project is running the conference, and they have an awesome series of breakout sessions:

I cannot describe how honored I am to be asked to speak at this conference.  I have 30 different technologies to explore in a little over 90 minutes.  It is going to be an intense sprint through the list, but if I do not make it to the end, I have some thorough handouts they can use to pick up where I left off during my presentation.To see the brochure, go to  West Tennessee Writing Project’s website  and you’ll find it just below the picture.

I purchased a copy of Janet Allen’s Inside Words this summer at a workshop. Among the AMAZING activities in the book I discovered the Frayer Method. (Click HERE to see a demonstration of the Frayer method with vocabulary).

When I saw it, I immediately thought of how useful it would be to use this to teach voice/style within your students’ writing. If you had them fill out a graphic organizer like the one used with vocabulary above, you could really get them thinking about their own writing.

Then I started thinking about how useful it would be in teaching the differences between the literary periods I teach (everything from romanticism to modernism). Because the influence of these period is often subtle and lacking a strict definition, this will certainly be useful for me next year.

Anyway…this post was more for me than my readers. Just thought I’d share, though.

Here are some PDF worksheets that feature the Frayer methods:

What is the Frayer method?

Frayer Vocabluary PDF

Be sure to watch the video about this at the bottom.

I am very excited about the possibilities with Google Voice.  After waiting about two months, I finally received an invitation today.  It is basically like having a phone number that does not connect students/parents to your personal life. And it emails you transcripts of your voicemails. Therefore, you can always have a record of student/parent phone messages.  Or you can record the actual calls as documentation (check on local laws for that).  I believe that as long as you say you are going to record the call, you are okay.

Here are all the things Google Voice does:

First, you get a number that you pick from a list.  Mine incorporates my school’s initials.  I decided on that so that it would be easy to remember.  When people call my my Google Voice number, it goes to my cell phone, where I can do all of the following:

(ALL OF THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION CAME FROM THE GOOGLE VOICE WEB PAGE.

One number for all your calls and SMS

• Call screening - Announce and screen callers
• Listen in - Listen before taking a call
• Block calls - Keep unwanted callers at bay
• SMS - Send, receive, and store SMS
• Place calls - Call US numbers for free
• Taking calls - Answer on any of your phones
• Phone routing - Phones ring based on who calls
• Forwarding phones - Add phones and decide which ring

Voicemail as easy as email, with transcripts

• Voicemail transcripts - Read what your voicemail says
• Listen to voicemail - Check online or from your phone
• Notifications - Receive voicemails via email or SMS
• Personalize greeting - Vary greetings by caller
• Share voicemail - Forward or download voicemails

More cool things you can do with Google Voice

• Conference calling - Join people into a single call
• Call record - Record calls and store them online
• Call switch - Switch phones during a call
• Mobile site - View your inbox from your mobile
• GOOG-411 - Check directory assistance
• Manage groups - Set preferences by group

Because of the nature of English, it is difficult to give concrete definitions to parts of speech (verbs can work like nouns; nouns can be verbs), but grammar books tend to avoid this fact, thereby leaving students completely confounded when they return to the texts to complete assigments. I have found the MOST AMAZING grammar book ever; it has helped many students who couldn’t quite get this often loathed aspect of the English curriculum.

Analyzing English Grammar by Thomas Klammer is be an awesome resource for those students who cannot get past the inconsistencies of grammar. EVEN BETTER NEWS: It is in its 5th edition, but there have only been very minor changes, so you can find really cheap copies (here it is on amazon.com or half.com).

The reason it is so good is because it provides different tests to go through to figure out if a word is a noun, verb, etc.  These tests are kind of like the duck test (if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and waddles like a duck, it is a duck). This works because the authors focus on the FORM and FUNCTION of each word.  They look at how the word appears (FORM) as well as how the word works in the sentences by using frame sentences (fill-in-the-blank sentences that you can insert the word being examined into to figure out what it is).

Here is the noun chart from the book:

TESTS FOR NOUNS

Formal Proof:

1. Has a noun-making morpheme (governMENT)
2. Can occur with the plural morpheme (governmentS)
3. Can occur with the possessive morpheme (government’S decision)

   Function Proof:

1. Can directly follow an article (THE government, A government)
2. Can fit in the frame sentence: (The) ________ seem(s) all right.

Here is the verb chart from the book:

TEST FOR VERBS

Formal Proof:

1. Has a verb-making morpheme (criticIZE)
2. Can occur with present-tense morpheme (criticizeS)
3. Can have past-tense morpheme (criticizeD)
4.  Can occur in present tense (criticizING)
5. Can occur with past-participle morpheme (had fallEN, was citicizeD)

Function Proof:

1. Can be made into a command (CRITICIZE the novel!)
2. Can be made negative (They did NOT criticize the novel)
3.  Can fit in one of the frame sentences
   1. They must ______ (it).
   2. They must ______ good.

The book does the same thing for clauses and phrases.  I love this book so much that I have purchased two copies of it.

Tonight I was looking at the Play insert in the Birmingham News (which covers arts and entertainment here in our lovely city) and discovered a very interesting list.  There were three bookstores listed, and each listed their top best sellers for the week.

Alabama Booksmith (one of my favorite bookstores for first editions)

1. Dear Amrican Airlines by Jonathan Miles
2. Book of Dads by Rick Bragg
3. Rick Bragg Family Trilogy by Rick Bragg
4. The Help by Katherine Stockett
5. In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White

Little Professors Books (always good to local schools)

1. Disillusion by Kanika Reese
2. Birmingham Then & Now by Todd Keith
3. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
4. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Shaffer and Annie Barrows
5. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Milestone Books (A wonderful little nook that treats bibliophiles right.)

1. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Shaffer and Annie Barrows
2. Glenn Beck’s Common Sense by Glenn Beck
3. Alabama Bomber Boys by Donald Wilson (a local author)
4. Christy Miller Vol 1 by Robin Jones Gunn
5. Driftwood Summer by Patti Callahan Henry

So why did I find this interesting? I thought it would be interesting to do the same thing for local libraries to look for trends.  It might be interesting to look at what various social circles are reading.

Cathy, any way to look at what different grade levels are checking out from our library?