Month: October 2010 (page 1 of 3)

Here is a graph of the spending on education in public K to 12 schools in the US compared to the spending on education outside of K to 12 schools from 1950 to 2007. The data is from this site thanks to @jasonflom. Please comment below if you see an error in my math.

So what this graph shows is that there is an incredibly strong relationship between the money spent from all sources on public K to 12 education in the United States and the money spent from all sources on all other education in the US. Since the funding for sources outside of public K to 12 education have very different funding sources we know that this funding situation is not a function of federal or state policy.

In other words, since funding for education has been increasing regardless of the policy behind the funding, it must be that the education just costs more today than it did years ago. Some obvious reasons for this are that the technology in schools has changed over the years and costs more and land costs have risen above the cost of inflation.

Today a teacher came and found me and thanked me. I had helped her class a few times while they were learning how to produce their podcasts for her class. She was having a bad week, but when she listened to the results of the podcasts, she was really pleased and it made her week.

You can listen to her podcasts here. 

http://stratfordmyp.podomatic.com/

Clarence Fisher ( @glassbeed ) had a great quote in an Elluminate session I listened to yesterday.

For our parents that complain about their students learning how to become global citizens and learning digital literacy because of privacy issues, ask them "would you take your child out of math class?"  (summarized)

Such a good point to bring up. It sounds ridiculous to take students out of math class because we see that as a core skill. However, global citizenship & digital literacy are exceptional important skills, ones that I would argue are as important as learning mathematics. Once you turn the conversation about technology into a discussion of the other skills that students learn through the technology you can change the tone of a conversation about privacy. We can teach kids how to be "safe" online and how to manage their own digital footprint more easily if they are establishing their presence through a safe environment.

Here’s a new version of my subscriptions to different blogs through Google Reader in OPML format. Please feel free to download this and edit as you see fit. 99% of these blogs are related either to technology or educational technology and all of them are relevant to teachers. You should be able to import this file into your own feed reader without difficulty.

Download file here

Here is the email I’ve just send to George Abbott, our new education minister in British Columbia. Let’s see if he responds.

Dear Mr. Abbott,

Here’s a presentation I’m giving this Wednesday to the teachers at my school on Connecting your Classroom. After viewing William Eaton‘s presentation last Friday at the CUEBC conference I decided to present on a similar topic to my own staff, using a couple of his ideas (which I’ve referred in the presentation). The idea is that every classroom can be connected in various ways, and I’m showing 5 of the ways we can connect based on the domains of curriculum, community (in this case experts), student work, and the world. Check out my presentation below.

I’m just using this page to store book recommendations I’ve been getting through Twitter. Feel free to comment and add your own suggestions if you don’t see them in my list.

• Different by Youngme Moon
• Lost at School by Ross Greene
• Fair Isn’t Always Equal by Rick Wormelli
• Mindset by Carol Dweck
• The Genius in All of Us by David Shenk
• Iconoclast by Gregory Berns
• Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin
• Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner 
• An Ethic of Excellence by Ron Berger
• Catching Up or Leading the Way by Yong Zhao
• Making Learning Whole by David Perkins
• Better, Complications by Atul Gawande