Carnival of Education - The Winter Hibernation Edition

Welcome to this week's Carnival of Education and to my blog. Thank you to Education Wonks for letting me host the Midway today. The school is (finally!) out and you may be sick'n'tired of it, but you cannot possibly be tired of reading good posts by education bloggers - who could be?! Fix yourself some coffee, sit back and enjoy!

Let's start at the source, the Education Wonks. The Dover decision on Intelligent Design has been issued, and here is the latest response: God And Man In Pennsylvania: Part VII.

Dr. Freeride of Adventures in Ethics and Science also has thoughts on the Dover ruling and what it means to teach biology in school, as well as some experiences with plagiarism.

From An Educational Voyage an informative and link-rich post: The Socratic Method and Accountable Talk:

"Mr Garilkov details an experiment whose objective was to see whether he could teach these third grade students binary arithmetic (arithmetic using only two numbers, 0 and 1) only by asking them questions."

The Biotech Game Of Life is a group effort by Kaan Biron, Stephanie Cheung, Arthur Kwan, Mei Mei Tian, Jane Wang, and Sara Wilcox of The Science Creative Quarterly. It's essentially a game that allows a student to go through the whole biotech therapeutic development and FDA process. Very cool gameboard!

From Going to the Mat, a thought-provoking post on Reading as Opposed to Literature Class:

"When did the teaching of reading--a skill, become the teaching of literature--a subject matter?"

Lauren of Feministe wrote her Final Thoughts on Student Teaching:

"Disappointingly, I found that in many ways I am the teacher I always hated. Even worse, I found that this demeanor is, at times, necessary."

I wonder if Lauren has students like this: Get Lost, Mr. Chips and his friend used to have a strange game when they were kids. They drew the nastiest, crudest pictures of their teachers - letting out all those anti-authoritarian aggressions - in the paradoxical belief that in doing so, they'd be nicer to them: Teacher Voodoo and Juvenile Dabbling in the Occult.

HipTeacher appears to have had a great last day of school.

Tall, Dark and Mysterious: So, what IS the point of those introductory college statistics classes, anyway? Dunno, I got an easy A, forgot it all the next day, then re-learned it once I started generating my own data a year later.

The state that i am in is in a state of frustration, judging from this post: Assistant Assistance:
"I've been having a difficult time with my teaching assistants lately, and I've spent a good deal of time thinking about just what I should do about the situation."

Diane Weir does comparative analysis of....nope, this is a warm reminiscence about Snow Days:

"When I was a kid, the town's fire horn would sound the "2-2-2" signal to let folks know school was closed. I can still remember how the deep bellow echoed through the downtown."

Steven Krause warns us all: Never write a textbook!

You can just scroll down a bit on my blog, or you can click on this link to see why I really run this blog: "I Love Positive Feedback!" Perhaps Steven Krause should consider self-publishing.

Atheist Revolution did some legal investigation on Graduation Prayer:

"Is school-initiated prayer at college graduation legal?"

Ms. Cornelius of A Shrewdness of Apes has some interesting students, including 'The Slasher' - A Do-Over on Dropping Out:

"I’d like to hope that this story has a happy ending. We've all had kids like this. But you know what they say-- insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result."

Waterfall is a teacher who decided to quit writing her online journal, called a "blog", with a title "A Sort of Notebook", and instead write her blog - or is it a "journal" - offline into a real notebook titled "A Sort of Blog". I hope she comes back online soon - look through her archives for some cool teaching posts.

How is Web 2.0 learning changing the very way we design our schools? The Science Leadership Academy will open in Philadelphia in September 2006, and it will be a better school because of the blogs. These links detail the interaction between two education bloggers -- the principal of SLA, Chris Lehmann (who blogs on Practical Theory) and school facilities expert Christian Long (of Think:Lab):

Chris I: Open Source School Design, Blogging and Why This All Matters

Christian I:Design a School, Web2.0 Style!

Chris II: Web 2.0 School Design -- Something Powerful is Going On

Christian II: Science Leadership Academy and Web2.0 School Design

Eric of East Ethnia is expanding on the use of blogs in teaching that he started last year: New blog for my students.

Assorted Stuff would agree, I bet, while Bud may worry a bit.

And I meander about the teaching blogging and using blogs in teaching on my other blog, too: Schools in Blogs, Blogs in schools.

Mamacita of Scheiss Weekly sent two posts and I gladly included both:One voice, but whose?

"I do not believe there is a 'War against Christmas.' But I do think there are battles being fought about it."

The clock will tick away the hours one by one. . . .:

"One student is still working on her final exam. Everybody else has finished and gone home. This student has been struggling all semester, and I hate to hurry her, and I won't hurry her. She can have all the time she needs."

DeputyHeadmistress from The Common Room sent Teacher's Exam, part two, the second half of her great, great grandfather's teaching exam from 1900. See what he had to pass in order to get his teaching certificate.

Muse of Me-ander is in Big Trouble!:

"I've been getting into big trouble at work recently. I can't keep my mouth shut." See how it ends.

From Patricia Graham of Oxford University Press Blog, the last part of a series of posts: Schooling America: Achievement: 1983-Present.

Right On The Left Coast preserves an old and nice habit: Thank You Notes:

"I don't know about other teachers--and I certainly don't ask!--but I always write thank you cards and bring them to school the first day after Christmas Break ends."

I hope First Year Teacher writes the Thank-You cards, too.

From Personal Finance Advice comes some interesting advice: Let Your Children Teach You To Save Money!:

"Sometimes the best way to cut expenses in your family budget is to let your children take over the finances and let then teach you how to save."

Reb Chaim HaQoton sent a history and religion lesson: From Maccabean Warriors to Hasmonean Kings to Roman Slaves

Henry Cate of Why Homeschool was there! Report of Joanne Jacobs' kickoff meeting for her new book "Our School."

Starling Hunter of The Business of America is Business is teaching this year in the United Arab Emirates, at the American University of Sharjah, just outside of Dubai: Sand and Deliver:

"One topic which gets frequently discussed around the water cooler is the state of education in the Emirates and Gulf States, in particular, and the Arab world, more generally. But we are not the only ones talking about it. So are high government officials and the local English-language media."

Friends of Dave is asking: Is is Really Just About Money?

"There are some funding issues in public education, but raising taxes to give schools more money without making needed structural reforms isn't going to be money well spent."

From The Median Sib, a question: A 'Balanced Calendar' For Schools?

"People who have been in a district with a balanced calendar have told me that they like it - a lot! I haven't had the opportunity to talk with anyone who has experienced a balanced calendar who didn't like it."

What It's Like on the Inside defends the public school system in Maybe It Isn't Just Us:

"People pay a lot of money in order to get a degree. Wouldn't we think that there would be more for the money besides a piece of paper? Why isn't there?"

From Get on the Bus, a part of an inspirational speech to a school on career day: Five things I wish I knew in high school.

Finally, last but not the least (hey, some people may read carnivals backwards!), Half Sigma explains why there are Too many people going to college:

"First of all, we know that people with more years of post-secondary education have higher average salaries. But why?"

It was great fun reading all of these posts while putting together the carnival. Feel free to look around this virtual home of mine and thank you all for coming. Also, the winners of the 2005 EduBlog Awards have been announced, so you can go there and find even more good stuff.

This midway is registered at TTLB's carnival roundup.

Next week's Carnival of Education will be hosted at home, at The Education Wonks. Submissions should be sent to: owlshome AT earthlink DOT net. Submissions should be received by 9:00 PM Eastern on Tuesday, December 27th. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the Midway should open next Wednesday morning.