Who lives in an Easter Island Moai under the sea?

Squidward J. Tentacles of course!

Last week when I went to Will Richardson's conference, I left work for my students to complete. They had a reading comprehension packet titled "Ancient Visitors?". The article focused on the strange buildings/drawings of ancient civilizations. I figured this tied in nicely with last month's study of science fiction and this week's focus of distinguishing between facts and opinions. I didn't think much about it and planned to go over it as a class today.

Fast forward to this morning . . .

We are going over the passage, and I am reading it aloud. I'm reading the part about the Easter Island Giants, when a student stops me.

"Ms. Willis, have you ever watched Spongebob Squarepants?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well, those pictures of those statue things, they look a lot like Squidward's house."

I told him that he was right and that it did look like Squidward's house.

Then the assistant principal came in to talk about a fashion show that she's planning. While she was talking I did a Google Image search for a picture to compare it to. I wound up at I actually found a website that talked all about how his house is designed to look like an Easter Island Moai. I couldn't believe that someone did this research and posted it on answers.com but I'm sure glad they did. As silly as it is, because of this person's research I was able to facilitate a connection for my kids.




Will my kids remember where Easter Island is? Probably not.
Will my kids remember what a Moai is? Probably not.
Will my kids remember that Squidward's house is supposed to look like an ancient statue?
DEFINITELY!

Which Technologies Will Shape Education in 2008?

When I first read the title of this article, I thought it said "Will Technologies Will Shape Education in 2008?" . . . my reaction was: YES! Of course the technology will influence the state of education! Then I realized that I read the title wrong . . . silly me!

I am only one and a half semesters into my work with TEAM and I'm already seeing the way technology has affected my life. I don't really use the bookmarking tool on my computer anymore, why bother when I can tag it and then it'll be saved for me on the web whenever I need it. And when I have a question there is no need for it to bother me, I can contact anyone in my network in a matter of seconds via plain old email or Skype. Instead of "my network" consisting of my colleagues in my building, it now consists of just about any alphageek or educator regardless of where there are located. I can collaborate with just about anyone, anywhere.

So which technologies do I think are going to have the biggest impact on education in 2008?
I don't know exactly, but I think that any technology that makes collaboration easier and faster are pretty good bets!

The Right Kind of Professional Development

I know I complain a lot about the various meetings that my supervisors make us attend because most of them are pointless and just waste our valuable time. Back in January I was sent an email from one of my supervisors asking me if I wanted to attend a slew of technology PDs; however, many of them were very similar to the workshops that we have for TEAM, so I politely declined. A few days later I received another email from her asking me if I wanted to attend The New York City Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. I thought it sounded interesting, so I read on . . . the featured speaker was going to be Will Richardson. I figured that this was not an opportunity that I could pass up, so I got permission to go and have been anxiously awaiting my March 5th, trip to St. John's University to hear him speak.

He was simply amazing!

Of all the meetings I've attended over my three years of teaching this on was by far the best. I felt like I truly was learning and discussing things that were relevant and important. He even made a few references to his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, which I have been reading (and I highly recommend). He also gave us a link to his wiki that contains all of the information that he spoke about. If you ever get the opportunity to see him speak, take it! I know I will again!