The Blog of Ms. Mercer

Fortunately after that, I did get into a presentation in the next session, and I only had to get there about 40 minutes ahead of time (the number dropped as the day wore on). Also, the ONLY handout I got was a discount coupon, a business card, and a button. People are putting materials online, [...]

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This was a day that did not start off well. Folks going to EdubloggerCon have largely had the place to ourselves up until now, but today the hordes arrived. I’m hearing figures anywhere from 13,000 to 20,000 for projected attendance. I arrived at a time that I thought was early, 8ish for a session starting [...]

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http://flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/352382915/
Reflections on the school year
This was a year where I was perhaps overly ambitious. It was my first year in the computer lab, and I had a blast, but I was like a kid in the candy shop, in that I wanted to try it all. Here are some highlights, with cautionary tales:

VoiceThread - Group [...]

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Here is an interview with my husband. He is an African American who has spent time working in urban schools (he supervised and AmeriCorp tutoring team in Oakland, California as I was working on my teaching credential and substitute teaching there). He also grew up in a large foster home with parents from the pre-WWII [...]

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Another crazy-arse week for me. As you can see I’ve been keeping a low online profile, which dates back to the week before. I don’t know if I’ve shared about what a crazy place, in a good way, that I work at. Lots of stuff happening all the time. These last few weeks were even [...]

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Continuing the discussion about what (poor) African American kids need (but this could apply to any kid in the “have-not” group), I started with this video from Bloggingheads.tv where Debra Dickerson (Mother Jones) shares that she wants to have schools in the black community become so good that whites want to go there.
I think this [...]

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Clay Burrell has a very popular post that has generated a huge number of comments at Muhammad Ali: A D- Student? Or an F- School? | Beyond School
And teachers - English teachers, especially, but any teacher using writing to assess understanding and merit in your classrooms - ask yourself, in this age of user-created video [...]

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Sorry dear readers that I have not been writing about what I’ve been doing with students recently. A number of things have conspired against this. First, I’ve been administering state tests (I have a small group doing the modified assessment). My big project that I’m finishing up is the Revolutionary War Timeline project. That has [...]

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Lo and behold I had one of those moments today. Administrators in my state are required to undergo technology training to renew their licenses, and my principal is in the midst of that training right now.
First, I had a great audience. As wonderful as he is,  my principal has a very quick mind, and really [...]

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It’s spring, and a young scholar’s mind turns to thoughts of…well anything but what you’re teaching is what it seems like these days. I’ve seen more kids not just goofing off (hey, I wanna goof off), but crying, and having a bad time. Don’t get me wrong, lots of them have a good reason to [...]

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