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