Saturday, January 30, 2010

Our Student Work Site

I've posted the new student samples that we received from Janet today to our drop.io site.

Please feel free to upload your own student work to the site anytime:

http://drop.io/teachingforjoyandjustice/blog

Student Art Collaboration with Victor Ochoa

Thank you to Callie for sharing her student's collaborations with artist, Victor Ochoa, at MAAC:





Monday, January 18, 2010

New TED Talks

I am sending out a new feature if you are a fan of Global TED Talks that I believe is pertinent to our group:

Dear Global TED Community,

Over the past couple weeks, we've been introducing a significant new feature on TED.com.

It's called "Best of the Web". Essentially we have begun linking to the best talks out there that were NOT recorded at a TED event.

Today, for example, to celebrate Martin Luther King Day, we are posting his world-changing "I have a dream" speech given back in 1963. No matter how many times you may have seen it, it always inspires and provokes. And we're proud to have a page dedicated to it, to facilitate a conversation around the searing issues he raises, all still so relevant today.

You can see a few other early selections here (in the 'Show by Event' selector on the left, scroll down to the bottom to "Best of the Beb"), including:

Michael Sandel: What is the Right Thing to Do?
Robert Sapolsky: The Uniqueness of Humans
Edwidge Danticat: Stories of Haiti (Which Margit Boyeson was kind enough to recommend to SDAWP too!)
...and the famous "last lecture" of Randy Pausch

Rethinking Schools Edition



Thank you to Makeba Jones who sent us a reminder that the new issue of Rethinking Schools is out and it is aptly titled "Reading For Justice"

Here is a taste of some of their cover stories:

Cover stories:
"Save the Muslim Girl!"
by Özlem Sensoy and Elizabeth Marshall
In the years since 9/11, books like The Breadwinner and Broken Moon have become staples in many English classes. But does this young adult literature about Muslim girls build understanding or reinforce stereotypes?

Baghdad Burning Heats Up World History
by Jody Sokolower
It's always a struggle to work current events into history classes. A blog by a young Iraqi woman about her day-to-day life in Baghdad provides an opportunity to connect the medieval Abbasid Empire to today's news.

Breaking the Silence on War
by the editors of Rethinking Schools.
In our editorial, we probe the silence in classrooms, as in the streets, on the escalating U.S. war in Afghanistan, now in its ninth year, and the continuing war in Iraq. As teachers struggle with increasing pressures and scripted curriculum, there is little critical discussion of these events—they have become part of the wallpaper of life. Why has this happened? How can we break the silence?

Do's And Don'ts of Teaching Black History

Thanks to Kim who sent us a link from the Teaching Tolerance website on the "Do's & Don'ts of Teaching Black History"

http://www.tolerance.org/activity/dos-and-donts-teaching-black-history

If you are not already familiar with this website it also offers classroom lessons and activities for every grade level K-16. It also has teacher toolkits and professional development opportunities.