0930WarmUp

Watch the video: A Vision of K-12 Students Today
@ http://schoolwaxtv.com/vision-k-12-students-today

How accurately does it describe your own educational experience?

Leave a comment!

dmac

0929WarmUp

Ever dream about being a concert pianist? Or the 2nd cello in a symphony orchestra?

Here's your shot. Try it out @ http://contrapunctus.thirdangle.org/

Leave a comment!

dmac

0928WarmUp

What was the most interesting building you ever saw? The Eiffel Tower? The Colliseum? The Taj Mahal? How about the Donut Building?

Let's take a look at some interesting architecture @ http://vacations.com/appetizing-architecture

and

http://www.urlesque.com/2009/08/13/buildings-that-look-like-food-photos/.

Feel hungry?

Leave a comment!

dmac

0924WarmUp

There is some interesting new technology that lets you post just about anything on the web.

Check it out @

http://www.moomeo.com/

and

http://posterous.com/

How does it work?

Figure it out and leave a comment!

dmac

0923WarmUp

Ever look up a word and wish you could just "see" it?

WordSift is a new visual tool to learn vocabulary. Try it @ http://wordsift.com/.

More sites that generate words are:

http://watchout4snakes.com/creativitytools/RandomWord/RandomWordPlus.aspx

and

http://www.wordconstructor.com/

Leave a comment!

dmac

0922WarmUp

You've heard of information. You've heard of a graphic.

What's an infographic?

Look it up @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_graphics

Check out a good example @ http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kelsey-keith/designage/infographic-day-job-voyager

and

http://flare.prefuse.org/launch/apps/job_voyager

Another great site for infographics is @ http://coolinfographics.blogspot.com/

Search the web and try to find another example of an infographic.

Leave a comment!

dmac

0921WarmUp

What's a high school diploma worth?

Check out the charts @ http://www.mdrc.org/area_fact_33.html

and

http://www.census.gov/schools/census_for_teens/012671.html.

What could be more motivation to stay in school?

How much more does having a high school diploma mean to you over a lifetime of work (30 years)?

How about a college degree?

Or a master's degree?

Figure it out and leave a comment!

dmac

p.s

Take a look at some high salary positions @

http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/swzl_salaryrangenarrow_40.html

0918WarmUp

Got a dog? Got a cat? Wish they could talk sometimes?

Got a great website for you. Check it out @ http://www.talkingpets.org/

Leave a comment!

dmac

0917WarmUp

You've heard of Google. You've heard of Bing.

How about Oamos? What is Oamos? The wildest search engine on the net.
Oamos not only pulls in text--but images, music, etc. When you enter your search criteria in Oamos the search engine returns news, images, synonyms, music and video related to your inquiry. Search results are streamed in “audiovisually more or less objective or entertaining, with or without sound, with or without links.” You can try this search tool for up to three minutes (per search).

Check it out @ http://www.oamos.com/index.php?hl=en&t=1

Leave a comment!

dmac

0916WarmUp

What is cartography?

Look it up @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartography.

There are many sites on the web that allow you to mess around with cartography. Check it out @
http://www.zeemaps.com/
and
http://www.quikmaps.com/
and
http://www.umapper.com/
and
http://maptrot.com/
and
http://www.scribblemaps.com/#
and
http://maps.google.com/

Leave a comment!

dmac

0915WarmUp

Color is the spice of life. Without it, we would be surrounded by a world of black and white.

Experiment with color by creating a kaleidoscope @

http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/colors/Colors.html.

Leave a comment!

dmac

0914WarmUp

Ever want to report on the traffic? How do they do it?

Take a look at the Mass Highway Department(soon to be the Mass Dept of Transportation)'s webcams.

What's the traffic at the Weston tollbooth right now?

Check it out @ http://www1.eot.state.ma.us/

Leave a comment!

dmac

0911WarmUp

Today is the anniversary of 911.

What happened on that day?

Look it up @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks

Check out these websites about 911:

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/archive-4/

and

http://makehistory.national911memorial.org/

and

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1921566,00.html?xid=rss-photoessays

How old were you when it happened?

Leave a comment!

dmac

0910WarmUp

Every time you turn on the news you hear of another hurricane, earthquake or some form of natural disaster. Why do they happen?

Check it out @
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2008/aug/31/gustav and http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2008/jan/23/earthquakes and http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2008/jun/09/chinaearthquake

When is it going to happen to us? Leave a comment! dmac

0909WarmUp

Today we are going to get started with Scratch.

Check out the Scratch websites @ http://scratched.media.mit.edu/

and

http://scratch.mit.edu/

Leave a comment!

dmac

0908WarmUp

President Obama is making a speech today about staying in school:

Read about it @ http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/

Leave a comment!

dmac

0903WarmUp

Do you recycle?

Bottles, Cans, Paper....How about your house?

Check it out @

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/09/02/garden/20090903-recycled-slideshow_index.html

Look at another site about truly weird domiciles @ http://www.oddee.com/item_96556.aspx

Here's just some sites about very odd or just plain cool buildings:

http://www.oddee.com/item_94046.aspx

http://www.oddee.com/item_96713.aspx

http://villageofjoy.com/50-strange-buildings-of-the-world/

http://villageofjoy.com/50-strange-buildings-of-the-world-part-ii/

Have fun and leave a comment.

dmac

0902WarmUp

Today, I am going to introduce you to my favorite magazine: Wired.

But first, Find something interesting to investigate at the Wired website @ http://www.wired.com/ .

Leave a comment!

dmac

0901WarmUp

Welcome to another year of GrokIt!

GrokIt originally appeared 2 years ago. While teaching at RHS, I conceived it as the digital equivalent of the Do Now or activator you may be used to other teachers giving to you to start the class.

Interestingly enough, I believe the blog has taken up a much more important role in my classes.

I envision using GrokIt as a hi-tech portal to get you and your energies focused on the class topics of the day by hyperlinking around the net to:

•discover state-of the-art technologies
•bump into some engaging topic
•just enjoy a fun and interesting website.

My hope is to try to kindle a spark of interest in computers and technology.

After all, the World Wide Web and everything in it was created by software developers, computer programmers, web designers, all kinds of techie people of which you are the next generation.

I also want to create a class community, a public forum from which you could express your opinions and see the opinions of others about these topics.

So here's today's GrokIt.

Online carbon calculators help users determine the amount of carbon emissions they (or their household) is responsible for introducing into the environment. This kind of interactive exercise can be a good language-development opportunity, as well as one for expanding content knowledge in either science or social studies.

Figure out how much carbon you are spewing into the atmosphere by using these tools:

http://www.zerofootprintkids.com/kids_home.aspx

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/education/ecologic/games.htm

http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/

http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/

http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/consumerConsequences.html

http://www.onedidit.com/test/

http://www.waterfootprint.org/index.php?page=cal/waterfootprintcalculator_indv

Leave a comment!

dmac