Flowers for Algernon

I read anteresting book about technology and education. Flowers for Algernon. It's about a man and a mouse and a lot of interesting science. Charlie Gordon is a retarded person who undergoes a brain operation to make him smart. It works, but only temporarily. The story is a real tear jerker. Algernon was the mouse that was first experimented on. They grow to be quite the pair of friends.
Anyway, Algernon dies and Charlie reverts back to himself at the end of the book.

The Space Shuttle Needs You

We all saw on TV last week that the space shuttle successfully blasted into orbit. What you might not know is that NASA is currently looking for teachers to be a part of it's Educator Astronaut Program. We all remember the tragic accident back in 1986 when Christa Mc Auliffe lost her life along with the rest of the Challenger crew. However, most of you probably don't know that NASA continues to make educators a viable part of the shuttle crews. If you ever had an urge to blast off into space I suggest you contact your local NASA recruiter today.

The Lewis and Clark expedition has always been one of my favorite stories. Their is a lesson plan on Nationalgeographic.com/expeditions that uses an interactive website and various internet sources to tell the story of this great American adventure. After reading all if the info provided about the background of the issues, students are asked to try to convince Congress why the expedition should occur. This would be a nice prelude to a present day scenario in which we could have students write a simalr letter on for the exploration of Mars. What do you think?

Technology lesson plans

It is amazing how many social studies lesson plans are out there that incorporate technology. I have found five good ones. I will share them with the class next week.

digital native cop-out

We immigrants learned technology hard way. We learned that with a good educational foundation we could problem solve our way into using the new technologies as they emerged. The kids in the video want it too easy. Education is all about learning how to learn. They should spend a little more time hitting the books instead of wining about the lack of techno-savvy teachers. If I send my kid to Stanford, he better not wine about the teachers.