HELIOLITH

Schwarzenegger wants to slice $4.8 Billion from CA Schools Mid-year.
So the governor wants to take away money that we had planned to receive - and in some cases have already spent… this while EdVoice.org reports that California (”CA”) was ranked 46th in per-pupil funding!
When I search the publication they referenced (Education Week), all I […]

A professor of mine just forwarded around an op-ed written by Professor David Cole of Georgetown Law School from the Washington Post about laptops in the classroom: Laptops vs. Learning, and I couldn’t agree more. I just wrote the author back with my thoughts, which I thought I’d post here.
Dear Professor Cole,
I appreciated your […]

I thought that since the clocks are turning back tonight, I’d use the extra hour to come up for air, re-initiate the space with voice, text, and life. If you wondered where I’ve gone (as I do when someone whose blog I’m accustomed to checking up on goes quiet for a while), I’ve […]

The LA Times’ opinion page carried an interesting story Wednesday: that the Bush administration is reluctant to release the results of a study we paid for through the National Literacy Panel. An administration that touts science publically seems frequently at odds with accepted research (global warming, evolution, etc.)
Panelist Robert Slavin, an education professor […]

My lately dizzyingly busy personal life (a new baby, the end of the school year) having held me back from writing as I would like, my vision of content is shifting slowly toward a more child-friendly message. An activist that I once worked with told a group of teachers as we were trying to […]

“The difference between a genius and an ordinary person is not genetic potential, but the ability to direct day-dreaming,” says Tony Buzan. He’s the man who invented mind maps - the spider-like diagrams now found in every classroom and boardroom… His guiding principle is that we are not stuck with the same IQ for life: […]

Long live Brazil my friend! The New York Times today (password) runs a nice piece on Brazil and their increasing promotion of opensource software, that many in the open source community have been following closely. (mirror: Int’l Herald Tribune)
They credit “President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva [with turning] Brazil into a tropical outpost […]

Driving home from work on Friday night I was listening to KPFK 6:00 news, which in part plays Free Speech Radio News. That evening, FSRN ran a special report presented by Azania Al-Shabazz, a 6th grader at Crossroads Middle School in Harlem, New York. I was so in awe of the entire spot […]

In researching the ACLU’s position on Proposition 69, I discovered this gem of resistance. In Missouri, attorneys for 16 year old Brad Mathewson are suing the school that has prohibited him from wearing 2 different gay-friendly shirts. One that simply says “FHS gay/straight alliance” and another with a rainbow and […]

Hijole!
Check out this
8th Grade Exam from Kansas in 1895. Could you pass it right now assuming that 70% accuracy is passing? Be honest! eep!
care of kottke.org via boing boing