I just wanted to take the time to that the ISTE 2012 organizers for doing something I haven’t seen yet at a conference. They allowed non-paying attendees to visit the exhibit hall. My kids spent several hours in the hall and left with big smiles on their faces, and lots of fun freebies. Thank you ISTE!
The BrainHoney Bee was totally checking out my wife.
This is the second year I have participated in MOvember, a fun activity to raise awareness about men’s health, specifically prostate cancer. What we do is grow a mustache during the month of November and try to raise as much money for prostate cancer. Last year I shaved my beard (that I have had for 20 years) & let it grow back. This year I am set on not letting my beard grow back until December, so that I can really highlight my “mo.” I’m getting lots of questions about shaving, and I have even received a few donations on my MO page. My goal is to raise $200.
Below is my MO, two weeks old.
Make a donation to support the fight against prostate cancer. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Originally posted at TeachPaperless.
10. Work doesn’t get “lost” in the bottom of a backpack.
9. Save space (no file cabinets).
8. Nobody ever forgets their pencil.
7. Collaboration is easy from anywhere.
6. No carrying notebooks (only netbooks).
5. Students are building digital portfolios.
4. No more “no-name” assignments.
3. You never have to wait in line for the copier.
2. Save paper, save the Earth.
1. The dog can’t eat your homework.
You can go paperless in your classroom, or at least reduce the use of paper while improving your lessons. Begin planning for a paperless Earth Day, Friday, April 22, 2011.
Need some ideas about alternatives to paper? Feel free to add more.
Go paperless for Earth Day!
Teach Paperless blog by Shelly Blake-Plock
Share ideas for going paperless on this Google Doc.
Pledge to go paperless.
See the list of over 1400 teachers from around the world who have pledged to go paperless for Earth Day.
See a map of these teachers.
Subscribe in iTunes (or leave a review)
For several years now at my school we have celebrated an annual event called “Peace Day.” The idea of this event, started by Jeremy Gilley, is to have one day of the year with no fighting, no war, just peace. This has been a powerful event at school year after year, and the idea of one day of peace, hopefully moving toward many more days of peace, made me think that this is a good model for making other changes that will better society.
I decided to apply the same idea to a “paperless” day at school. The idea was to do something that has a positive ecological impact while promoting the technology integration push at my school. I proposed to the high school student government that our school be paperless on Earth Day (April 22), and it was enthusiastically adopted by the students.
After speaking to a few people at school about going paperless I decided to try to make a greater impact with this idea. I started tweeting about it and was getting a very positive response. I made contact with Shelly Blake-Plock, the leader in paperless education, and shortly thereafter he had a post on his Teach Paperless blog about the idea. He also created a place where teachers can pledge to go paperless for Earth Day. Take a look at the list, which has over 650 teachers from all over the world pledging to go paperless.
I also started a Google Doc and wiki page for sharing ideas on alternatives to using paper.
Consider taking the pledge, and think about this first paperless day as one step toward finding alternatives for paper in your class, and improving instruction with the use of technology.