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I, too, read the My Turn article and I just hoped that this woman does NOT take her turn. Yes, I do agree that the tummy rubbing lady is kinda creepy, but parents have been robbed—robbed of personal space by their own children and maybe this woman just forgot the social rules for a brief moment.

More importantly, ranting like Dennis Miller about bad parents, improper parenting, or even those untamed children is not really going to solve any problems. Albeit, getting hit in the face is not a fun experience and has merit for an extended rant; however, things could look very different from a child’s point of view.

What would you do if the Wicked Witch of the West stooped down to “greet” you? You may be frightened enough to lash out just to protect your ruby slippers and what personal space you have left. Just keep in mind that those aggressive or ill-behaved children have feelings too.

The best thing this woman can do is not kill herself taking college child development courses. Since she expects results right away, she should learn some practical strategies for interacting with children.

Family Communications, the producers of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood list some excellent advice in their Resources for Parenting including sections on Fears and Rules. They also post a monthly newsletter on helping children deal with angry feelings.

You can also take some of the many FREE CET Ready To Learn classes being offered this summer.  Each class gives practical ways to interact with children in meaningful ways while focusing on fun topics like Science or Art. Remember even those “model parents” who have all the resources and training imaginable will be surprised by something their child will do or say in public. They come with no owners manuals or guarantees. Children are the best little teachers in the world. And the test is not a whiney rant in Newsweek.It’s how you handle it. So, get over yourself, get a helmet, and go play with the kids!

–Barbara, Ready To Learn Coordinator, parent of a feisty 3-year-old boy, helmet wearer

Allosaurus fragilis.

No, that’s not the name of an album by the Police. That’s the scientific moniker for the dinosaur currently being constructed at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Through July 8th, paleontologists will be putting together the skeleton of an A. fragilis for a future exhibit at the Museum of Natural History and Science. And you can watch these scientists putting the dinosaur back together through a special Web cam available right here on CETconnect.org.

The project, called Bone By Bone, is truly fascinating as you watch the meticulous work that goes into recreating and rebuilding the past. I encourage you to check in daily.

– Brian

P.S. Of course, we have daily sightings of a certain purple dinosaur of our own right here on CET, but did you know this? Kevin Clash, the gentleman behind Sesame Street’s Elmo, was the puppeteer & voice for Baby Sinclair on the old television show, Dinosaurs.

CET is wrapping up preparing the materials for our newest educational multimedia project, Ohio Rocks! 

Ohio Rocks! is a standards-based third through fifth grade geology video with an accompanying teacher’s guide, resource CD and website. Ohio Rocks! will take teachers and students for an armchair tour of the geological wonders of our state. 

Ohio Rocks! was funded by a grant from eTech Ohio and will be provided free to low-wealth schools in Ohio and at cost to other districts that would like to purchase the kit. CET plans to make the project available free via streaming of the video on CETconnect and to making all accompanying print materials available in PDF on the web. 

Our partners on this project were Ohio Geological Survey and Cincinnati Museum Center.  We cannot give enough thanks to Mac Swinford and Mark Wolfe at Ohio Geological Survey as well as Glenn Storrs, Brenda Hanke, Bob Genheimer, and Michelle Padilla at Cincinnati Museum Center. This project would not have been possible without their advice, guidance, and use of their facilities for filming locations. The host of the series is local author Rick Sowash. The supporting website will also feature some of his tall tales and critter stories from his books, Ripsnorting Whoppers and Critters, Flitters, and Spitters. 

For a sneak peak at Ohio Rocks! check out the Mastodon Dig video under Teachers and Students on CETconnect. — Krystal

Have you ever seen a child’s face light up when they learn something? Or when you give them something that will make learning more fun? Imagine that look on a grown-up’s face.

Several months ago, Diane and I visited Crayons to Computers, a free store for Greater Cincinnati teachers in schools that meet needs guidelines. Teachers from other schools can shop if they volunteer a certain number of hours in the store. What can they find there? Anything from cereal for hungry children to electronics.

Some of the most interesting items are cast-off pieces that companies have donated rather than throw away. U.S. Playing Card donates odd cards that can be re-used in several ways, including being decorated with stickers to make matching games. Toyota donates, among other things, a strange-looking item that has become in its new life a sorting tray for Pre-K and Kindergarten students. CET currently has unneeded file cabinets and items like older adding machines in our back hallway ready to make the trip over to Crayons to Computers.

Crayons to Computers had its origins in a Leadership Cincinnati Class, and has served as a model for 30 other teacher free stores nationally. Another great idea that had its start here, with our community.

Let’s get back to that adult look of joy and surprise. Many of us here have seen it, either because we have worked in schools or with teachers, or we’ve seen them shop at Crayons to Computers. That “I can’t believe I’m getting this!” look. Let there be no mistake: teachers often spend their own money on the classroom, because many schools don’t have the money for “extras.” When I say extras, I mean snacks for kids who come to school hungry, hands-on items for kids to use in the classroom to help them learn concepts of math or science, and, yes, even a computer station to support classroom work.

It’s spring cleaning time. As your company or organization sweeps out and thinks about replacing equipment and supplies … stop. Think about donating some of those gently used but useful items to Crayons to Computers. You can make a teacher happy and a child learn.

For more about C2C, check out this Crayons to Computers video on CETconnect.
-Patsy

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates that every eighth-grader be technologically literate. During this school year, the federal government is beginning the first collection of this data from schools districts across the nation. Everyone agrees that technological literacy is a good thing and we want our students to be competent. However, the federal Department of Education has given virtually no guidance in the defining, assessing or financing of this process. So, if they don’t specify apples rather than oranges, who knows what they’ll get.

What is the Ohio Department of Education doing to provide leadership to districts in navigating this process? Are they specifying apples or oranges? In partnership with educators across the state, Ohio has developed a set of academic content standards specifically addressing technology that guide teachers and technology coordinators with a benchmark set of skills and knowledge that all schools can use as a beacon.

We’re fortunate here in Southwest Ohio to have strong educational technology leadership for the technology coordinators in our schools. Lynn Ochs from the Hamilton County Educational Service Center, was recognized at the eTech Ohio State Technology Conference as the 2007 Technology Leader Administrator of the Year. This award is presented to the technology leader administrator who provides a technology-enriched learning environment that encourages innovation, uses technology to facilitate change for organizational development and fosters an environment where learning is enhanced through the use of technology.

Lynn was selected from many deserving nominees from across the state as this year’s recipient for her dedication to area schools. Talk to any district technology coordinator here in Hamilton County and you’ll hear glowing words about the positive and effective leadership she provides. Take a few minutes to view a recent interview in our Teachers & Students area with Lynn about her work with schools. -Diane

My last two blogs (Participatory Culture. So What Is It? and Participatory Culture: Part II) focused on participatory culture and why the educational community has a role in teaching our youth how to function effectively within it. Participatory culture is essentially a virtual community that allows participants to create content with the express intent of sharing it. It is important that educators become key players in teaching our youth how to develop these skills because the practice of working together with technology as the medium is becoming more prevalent in our society. Those youths who are now fortunate enough to have the technology at their disposal are already experimenting with it, but they need direction to guide their development; and the youths who are not so fortunate need the opportunity to begin experimenting and learning. These are also skills clearly needed by many professionals now and increasingly so in the future.

So the media literacy skills needed to be a member of a participatory culture now are the same skills needed to be a member of the professional workforce of the future.

A recent article in The Star-Ledger describes an online test developed by the Educational Testing Service, authors of the SAT and AP exams given to thousands of high school students each year. The Information and Communication Technology Literacy Assessment, or ICT, gives test takers a series of tasks to see how they would use the Internet and computer programs in the real world. The tasks include activities that today’s college students and workplace professionals do on a daily basis, such as sorting messages in an e-mail inbox, using a search engine to gather information for use in a written a report and creating a spreadsheet. School administrators in districts where the test was piloted were underwhelmed with their students’ lackluster performance. Many professional educators point to this as evidence that familiarity with technology is not the same as proficiency at using it.

Now, that doesn’t mean teaching a whole new set of skills. Instead, it means building on the core competency skills already taught with an expanded set of media literacies that encompass social skills as well. The expanded media literacy skills should not be taught in isolation. They should be used as a means of teaching science, math, language arts and social studies.

Just as I’m using this blog to communicate my thoughts about education, students can use technology to synthesize and share what they’ve learned in the core content areas. They can blog, produce and post a video, create an interactive website, contribute to a wiki or use many other virtual podiums to share their original content. All of these avenues allow students to practice the skills that their future employers will expect them to have. And who better to teach those skills than teachers? –Diane

Did you happen to see Dracula on MASTERPIECE THEATRE on Sunday night? My husband and I caught it, anticipating a creepy good story.

Creepy it was. Yes, indeed. And the actors were, I thought, terrific. Costumes, production all around — very, very nice. But it wasn’t really Dracula, you know.

Have you read it? I discovered Dracula by Bram Stoker (audio version) when I was in 7th grade. Wandering through the public library, I was looking for a “real” book … something that wasn’t too babyish. This was, I am embarrassed to say, in the days before YA (young adult) lit really took off. We had Paul Zindel (My Darling, My Hamburger), we had early Judy Blume (Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret), and we had a few others that the school librarian usually hid from us when encouraging the girls to read Nancy Drew and the boys to read … well, the boys to read.

And there it was on the shelf. Dracula. Read me, it said. I am not for kiddies. So I did, and it certainly made an impression.

But I digress. It’s a great story. The Dracula of MASTERPIECE THEATRE was, out of context, a good story too. Creepy? Oh, yeah. But not the same. The story and several of the characters are changed. It’s not just that the interpretation is different — goodness knows Dracula is open to all kinds of interpretation. But major characters have been changed and some plot elements are very different.

Does it matter? Okay, I’m a former English teacher. To me, it does matter when someone goes messing with a great novel. But what do you think? Is it all right to place a famous novel’s name on something that is pretty removed from the original story? What about just associating with the name? Heck, the Coen brothers do that all the time. Is O Brother Where Art Thou? really based on The Odyssey? Nah. But it bears some neat resemblances that make watching it more fun. (If you have the soundtrack, read the insert and what the brothers Coen say about linking the film to The Odyssey. Like much of what they do, it’s amusing.)

I don’t have all the answers, but I know what I think. Here’s my recommendation: Be well read, and form your own opinions! And post them here! ;)  -Patsy

CET has several email options available for various interests, and we want to grow those in the coming year. Here are some examples:
*Get the heads-up for on air and online video: Join the CET Connections enews, a email update of programs and special announcements.
*A general educators’ listserv with information for the classroom, professional development and more: Join EduFriends. A listserv is an email tool that allows those who join to share information with a group of people who have the same interests.
*Educators who have a special interest in the arts can join CETarts

What other e-updates would you like to see available for delivery to your email? Special programs in science? Current affairs? Let us know by leaving your comment here or emailing CET. -Patsy

Among the top videos being viewed over the last few weeks on CETconnect are the Earth Expedition videos brought to you in partnership with the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens. If you haven’t had a chance to check them out, you’ll find them under Teachers & Students. There is an introductory video about the project of teachers traveling the world to bring back science adventures to their classrooms, and then several videos covering specific trips. -Patsy

School teachers, homeschoolers, parents and other educators have a friend in PBS TeacherSource. If you haven’t visited TeacherSource, take a moment to click through. There are lessons based on recent and upcoming PBS programs and series, but also thorough searchable databases of lesson ideas that range from PreK through 12th grade in Arts & Literature, Health & Fitness, Math, Science, Social Studies and Library Media. There are links to NewsHour classroom resources and even links to useful outside resources.

Also don’t forget to visit CET’s Teachers & Students section regularly for local resources and links to national resources.

I could go on and on about PBS- and station-related resources, but I’ll just add one more this morning: for our teachers of students with special needs, be sure to visit LD Online from WETA in D.C., where there’s all kinds of information for educators, including LD-gifted combination support. -Patsy