Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it-Marian Wright Edelman

Looking for feedback, info on NING. I've been a fan, but now recently heard some negative press. Can you confirm? Thanks!

Giving back to your community and children changes lives, even in the smallest way: http://ping.fm/R3dLv

Learning and Designing in 3D Environments: Webinar begins in 20 mins. http://ping.fm/bZR5r

Learning and Designing in 3D Environments: Webinar TONIGHT @ 7:30pm: More Details: http://ping.fm/wQrFQ

Join the MI AECT Chapter & Dr. Karl Kapp as he discusses: learning & developing instruction in various 3D environments: http://ping.fm/69ILS

Help me bring awareness and take an active role in finding a cure for Breast Cancer: http://ping.fm/PgpxT

Looking 4: Any recent research re: (1) Tech Integration PD, & (2) Social Networking in K-12 Education, & (3) Designing PD

Out and About Day 2 - Midtown Detroit

Yesterday I blogged about Detroit business along Livernois between McNichols and 8mile. Today, I'll tell you about my 5 mile walk around midtown Detroit on Friday. The walk was three-fold: it was another gorgeous day, I needed to exercise, and needed some ingredients for the brunch that I made today. Here is a link to the brunch. It's a recipe I saw made on Rachel Ray's TV Show...DELICIOUS! We didn't include the egg.

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/knife-and-fork-croque-madames-asparagus-tips/

The main ingredients were purchased in Detroit, and the other items we had around the house.

I left my midtown Detroit apartment located near Wayne State University, and headed to campus to pick up a paper from my professor's door. I then walked with my environmentally conscious tote bag from my parents place of employment...MSC. My first item was bread. I wasn't in Detroit very long until I heard about the infamous Avalon Bakery. I personally try to stay away from buying breads and pastries, etc., because as my Julie says "I'm allergic to those types of carbs...they make my butt swell!" I love the quote! Anyway, for this particular recipe I needed some good homemade bread, and also needed some hamburger rolls for our dinner on Friday night...cheeseburgers on the grill. They were so good! So I picked up a soft loaf of bread and hamburger rolls from Avalon. OUTSTANDING! Everything in there looked fantastic! From the hard crusty breads, to the cookies, to the Greek spinach pies.

Time to continue on to track down some Gruyere cheese and sliced ham. I walked into the neighboring Goodwill's Goodwill organic food store to see if they could point me in the direction of the cheese, and a customer in their recommended going to the Eastern Market for the meat and cheese. She said I wouldn't be able to walk to the Eastern Market, but I was sure I could. What great practice for my 2nd 60 mile Breast Cancer Walk. I headed from Cass towards Woodward and wanted to make a stop in the gem of a store I discovered a few weeks ago, Kim's Produce. Kim's husband, Hollis, was working and I asked him if he thought I could make it to the Eastern Market walking, he said sure. They kept my bread purchases, and I was off to in the warm sun to the Eastern Market.

Once I got to the Eastern Market shopping area I had no clue as to where I was going. I just kept on walking and asking people for the cheese place named, R. Hirt Jr., Co. I found it, and couldn't believe that at that very moment I had access to over 400 gourmet cheeses. I thought to myself, "My friend Denise would LOVE this place." I purchased some Gruyere cheese and headed off to find sliced ham. I walked up Russell street and came upon Wigley's Meat, purchased the ham and was back to the midtown area.

When I arrived back at Kim's Produce I purchased my last few items: asparagus, and tomato and onion for the burgers! :) Great day out and about in Detroit!

Detroit Declaration-Be part of the change. Help change a historical city: Sign the declaration today! http://ping.fm/sUIvg

Out and About in Detroit - Warm Day 1

The weather this past week has been in the mid 60's in Detroit (except for today), so I took advantage of the warm temps and headed out and about for a walk. Darius lives in the University District of Detroit, and when getting onto some of the expressways we travel on Livernois. The street is lined with businesses, some opened and some closed or boarded up. I decided to set out for my afternoon walk along Livernois and check out some local Detroit businesses. Throughout my five mile walk I came across some stores that I can't wait to go back to:

My first stop was at Foot Locker where I discovered my next pair of running sneaks. As I walked down towards 8 Mile, I saw a few clothing stores, salons, and an old furniture stores. Nothing that I was really looking for, so I didn't stop in the stores. I crossed over Livernois at 8 Mile and head south on Livernois. This side had a lot more places that interested me.

The first being Bakers Keyboard Lounge. I've heard about this place a few times from locals and it must be a historic lounge. Darius and I have a "Things to do in Detroit" list and this is one of the places on it. They have Jazz artists almost every night of the week. Stop by the website and pick a night that may be of interest to you. If you're one of my friends here in Detroit and are interested in going then lets make it a date together! Baker's also has dinner and lunch menus for dining in or carrying out.

The next place I stopped was a shoe store, I didn't grab a card, but I think it was called SHB. Either way I was loving the fact that I saw this little bar area as you walked in. Very cool. They had a few other items besides shoes: purses, sunglasses, belts, and a few hats. One hat in particular that I loved, but as a full-time college student it is currently not in the budget.

I continued down the street and came upon 1917 American Bistro (the carryout menu says the website is coming soon, so I put the link in for future reference). Darius mentioned this place, so I figured I would grab a menu. It was a quaint little bistro with a nice atmosphere. They are open daily: Mon-Sat 11am - 11pm, and Sunday 10am-3pm. They offer catering services onsite and off, and also have carryout available. They invite large parties as well.

The next place entered was SCCS - Simply Casual Clothing Store, and found a shirt that I will have, maybe not right this moment, but I will be going back to buy it. As I continued to browse around, oh what to my eyes shall appear...another bar like I saw in the other store. So I had to ask. These stores are owned by the same person and on Friday and Saturdays you can enjoy some complimentary drinks while you shop. Such a cool idea! Can't wait to go back and sip some wine while I buy my new shirt!

My next stop was Shabach High Praise Bakery....YUM! They had a ton of baked goods and everything looked delicious! Not figure friendly, but sweet tooth and chocolate craving heaven! They do custom cakes and also have bagels and ice cream. Be sure to stop by and visit them. As I continued down the street towards McNichols I kept seeing this boy with a green apron on pushing a cart. Since living in Detroit, I've become accustomed to seeing almost anything and everything that I never though existed, but once I finally caught up to this boy I saw one of the coolest market and business ideas. Shabach Bakery had an employee out walking the streets to spread their sweet treats to other local businesses. GREAT IDEA!

Children

I watched the movie Precious last night. Great performances, but very painful and hard to watch. A movie that shows that we are sometimes aware of certain situations, but are too removed from them in our own lives that we forget that they are even occurring to others.

I came across this quote and found the timing to be befitting after watching that movie:

"If our children are to approve of themselves, they must see that we approve of ourselves."-Maya Angelou.

A night out for a great charity: http://ping.fm/0buve

TAKE 5mins & watch this: http://ping.fm/2XQ7H - Thanks Vicky Davis for sharing at MACUL.

Redesign Starbucks Coffee Cup: http://ping.fm/wKKqq

Just shopped @ Kim's Produce in midtown Detroit. Support local business: http://ping.fm/ns0kM

Meeting the MI Online Graduation Requirement

Along with learning from others at last week's MACUL conference, I too was able to share information and resources for assisting Michigan educators with meeting the online learning graduation requirement.

All information from both presentations can be found at:

http://macul2010.wikispaces.com/

ENJOY!

The iPhone App Support Group: Leslie Fisher

Attending session with Leslie Fisher: lesliefisher.com

Now over 200,000 apps; 200 new released daily

Save battery = turn 3G off, wi-fi, bluetooth, dim the screen

Funny Things:
Take picture of your screen: Hold Home button and click button on top of phone. Pic is stored in your photos.

Hold .com button for other .extensions

Open Tabs in Safari by clicking and holding on a link

Can email 5 photos at a time

Keeping up with new apps: AbbShopper and has RSS feeds: http://appshopper.com/
App Community - Appolicious.com

Teacher Productivity Apps:
Calendar on iPhone isn't so group - instead - App for Google Calendar: SaiSuke - Cost $9.99

Evernote: Free service - Take notes from anywhere and all get uploaded to your Evernote account

Twitter Apps:
Tweetie - Cutting Edge - truncating of URL's; nice interface, doesn't do a good job at telling you what is new

Ecofon: Not as pretty but she likes this one the best

Twitterlater - Includes a Map feature of tweets



Boxcar - will push notify you if tweet, @reply, rss, facebook, email - free for one service, $1.99 for each additional feature

File Synching - Dropbox - works in conjunction with getdropbox.com

UStream - Viewer = view Ustream, Recorder = record videos, Broadcaster = record and push

iVideo Camera - 10fps - $.99

Photo Sharing:
Flickr
Smugmug
Blossom

Mapping Apps
Loopt - for friends only; control settings; tells people where you are at;
Foursquare
Gowalla

Around Me - Free; different then Yelp because Yelp is driven by user comments.
My POI's

Navigation Apps:
CoPilot Live - $34.99
Tom Tom - $99.99 - her opinion the worst ones
Motionx GPS Drive - $2.99, spend an extra $20 for the voice addition

Misc:
Sportacular Pro
Yelp - for the 3GS Users - Monocole Feature (jealous!!)
Fast Food Premium
Viper Smart Start - User your iphone to start your Car! (yes, there is a God)
Red Laser - Takes pic of barcode and then compares online prices
Bableshot - take a pic of something and it will do language translations
Run Pee Mobile - Tells you which point of the movie you is safe to run to bathroom
Shop Savvy: like Red Laser but looks locally as well.

Audio Boo - Record and audio file and post to web (free)

She is still going, but I have a presentation at 2:30, so I'm posting and signing off. Check out her website: Lesliefisher.com

Web 2.0 and Web 3D Session - Vicki Davis

Attending session with Vicki Davis @ #macul2010 conference: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/
http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/

NetGen Future of Education Project - Keynote written by middle school students
Title: No Future Left Behind

"The future is trying to get in and you BLOCK IT! The future is ours and you have to give it to us. I can't create the future with tools from your past. Teach me to think. Teach me to create. Let the future in. We want to talk to the world. The future called and I told them you were busy. WE know you're trying. We know you care. We know you have to follow the rules. We know you're afraid. We are not cheating we are collaborating. We want you to help us. We need your help. We need your guidance. We don't need your permission. The future is happening...outside of school...we're there already."
Written and produced by Suffren Middle School:
http://vodpod.com/watch/1408982-no-future-left-behind


We go to conferences and come back and don't use what we learn. Need to start using the day we get back.

Out of 4,000 kids from 25 countries...they've only had to ban 6 students

www.eracismproject.org (8th Grade)

www.digiteen.org - (9th grade) MUST EDUCATE TEENS THE APPROPRIATE USE; but I ask...how can teachers when many are so afraid and unaware themselves.

It's not about technology. It's about technology "let's us DO!"

Cell phones are there. Lets admit it. Students are on their mobile FB app all day. We educators must embrace them, just like iPods, iTouches. Compared to use of calculators in 70s.

Takes teachers about 3 years to get use to something.

Finland has the best education system. "Teacherpreneurs" they pick curriculum, books, etc.

"My life isn't over because we are in a recession. We need to get over our excuses and make the best of it. I have stuff to do." (I loved this statement! Get moving people and START DOING!)

The tools in schools have changed
Library 1.0 - I need to go and look something up; Read, view, listen, write on paper

The tools in schools have changed again
Library 2.0 - I need to go to the library and Wiki, NING, Shoot Video
It's about helping them connect and learn from others.

"What you can access is what you get."

Are you literate? Yes or No? Can you download an audiobook? Can you download books to a mobile device? Can you record or edit an audiobook?

Students from Bangledash need to complete an e-portfolio in order to graduate.

Can you search Google for a definition through text message? Yes or No? If no, does that make you illiterate?

Should be talking to our students about location based apps.

K-Nect: Gave kids SmartPhones for Algebra....MATH SCORES HAVE GONE UP.

Exercise boosts brain power (Kids jump up and down every three hours for 30 seconds...will increase tests scores)

We would rather block everything INSTEAD OF TEACHING SELF CONTROL.

Important to teach students how to use RSS reader. She makes the parents responsible for providing them with a Google account. IT IS A SCHOOL SUPPLY.

Teaches Twitter in 9th Grade. Links them to professionals who are covering the topics they are currently learning. It is literacy. Twitter is your personal answering system.

Open Sim is free. - Virtual Worlds have become open and accessible to all of us in the past 2 or 3 months.

The word Literacy is evolving. We have to choices of change. Either be a victim or be a change agent.
L4L - Learning 4 Life

F - alse
E - vidence
A - ppearing
R - eal

We have to get past the FEAR.
1. Build Portals
2. Embed your PD in your learning during the week! :) Must take it in small bites. Pick three. Make your own to do.
3. Tag and share work
4. Differentiated Library
5. Good Gaming (Spellingcity.com; iear.org)
6. Archive Student Work - DON'T DELETE - You are just giving them wastebasket work
7. Digital Citizenship
8. Add people to your library (things that network people; calls it EDUCATIONAL NETWORK, not social network. Must teach students how to separate the two. Think.com; uses NING privately in 8th grade; 9th grade to public NING.
9. Social Entrepreneurship (Time to start improving our worlds using these tools).

Attending and presenting at #macul2010 today and tomorrow.

MI's University Research Corridor: http://ping.fm/ntl46

Cell phones in the classroom: http://ping.fm/JbHJQ

MI Schools Fail to Win Funding: http://ping.fm/NKBi7

US DOE Releases National Education Technology Plan http://l.pr/a4c61/

Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it. -Marian Wright Edelman