Saturday, November 27, 2004
[Free Educational Software GCompris]
[Free Educational Software GCompris]: "GCompris is an educational software which propose different activities to kids from 2 to 10. Some activities are game oriented, but always educational. You will find some activities in the following topics:
computer discovery: keyboard, mouse, different mouse gesture, ...
algebra: table memory, enumeration, double entry table, mirror image, ...
science: the canal lock, the water cycle, the submarine, ...
geography: place the country on the map
games: chess, memory, ...
reading: reading practice
other: learn to tell time, puzzle of famous paintings, vector drawing, ...
All in all, gcompris proposes more than 60 activities and it continues to evolves. gcompris is a free software, you have the possibility to adapt it to your needs or to improve it, and, why not, to share your work with the kids of all the world."
computer discovery: keyboard, mouse, different mouse gesture, ...
algebra: table memory, enumeration, double entry table, mirror image, ...
science: the canal lock, the water cycle, the submarine, ...
geography: place the country on the map
games: chess, memory, ...
reading: reading practice
other: learn to tell time, puzzle of famous paintings, vector drawing, ...
All in all, gcompris proposes more than 60 activities and it continues to evolves. gcompris is a free software, you have the possibility to adapt it to your needs or to improve it, and, why not, to share your work with the kids of all the world."
Saturday, November 20, 2004
southerndave: Dogged
southerndave: Dogged: "One of my co-workers wandered into the office after lunch yesterday, just about laughing her head off. It took her about half an hour to explain what was so funny, but by the time she managed to tell the story the rest of us were cracking up as well. It's a corker.
Seems she was driving back to work when she queued up at the give-way at one of the roundabouts in town behind a flat-deck farm truck with a couple of dogs standing around on the deck. (They'd have been tied up so that they could still stand up and move around a bit but couldn't fall off the sides of the truck. That's fairly normal around here and the dogs seem to reckon it's great fun).
An old black Falcon full of bogans pulled up in the lane next to the truck. It was one of those cars where the stereo would have been more expensive than the car... you couldn't hear the traffic over the doomph doomph doomph doomph of whatever the hell it was they were playing. Driver had his window open and had his elbow half out of it being the Real Tough Dude.
One of the farmer's dogs figured out that the Falcon was its territory and marked it in the way that dogs normally do. Right next to the driver's window. The open driver's window. Right over the driver.
Farmer then pulls away from the give-way completely oblivious to the drenched bogan in the car next to him. Or to my co-worker cracking up laughing. Or the driver behind my co-worker who was also cracking up laughing.
As far as I'm concerned that's one dog that earned his dog-roll that night..."
Seems she was driving back to work when she queued up at the give-way at one of the roundabouts in town behind a flat-deck farm truck with a couple of dogs standing around on the deck. (They'd have been tied up so that they could still stand up and move around a bit but couldn't fall off the sides of the truck. That's fairly normal around here and the dogs seem to reckon it's great fun).
An old black Falcon full of bogans pulled up in the lane next to the truck. It was one of those cars where the stereo would have been more expensive than the car... you couldn't hear the traffic over the doomph doomph doomph doomph of whatever the hell it was they were playing. Driver had his window open and had his elbow half out of it being the Real Tough Dude.
One of the farmer's dogs figured out that the Falcon was its territory and marked it in the way that dogs normally do. Right next to the driver's window. The open driver's window. Right over the driver.
Farmer then pulls away from the give-way completely oblivious to the drenched bogan in the car next to him. Or to my co-worker cracking up laughing. Or the driver behind my co-worker who was also cracking up laughing.
As far as I'm concerned that's one dog that earned his dog-roll that night..."
MacCentral: Florida school district talks to Sting on iChat AV
MacCentral: Florida school district talks to Sting on iChat AV: "Music students of the Manatee School District in Bradenton, Florida talked to music legend Sting on Friday using Apple's iChat AV, an iSight camera and a PowerBook G4. Sting spoke to students from the Telewest Arena in Newcastle, England an hour before he was to perform a concert for his latest tour.
Manatee School District official Margi Nanney told MacCentral in an interview on Friday that the students were very excited about talking to Sting and they learned a lot about the musician. Students asked Sting everything from 'what it's like to be famous' to 'what kind of music he likes.' Sting, who spent about an hour with the students answered all the questions, while stressing the value of getting a good education.
'Computers are a critical technology tool for our students and this is a perfect demonstration of how this cutting edge initiative can be applied in the classroom,' said Dr. Tina Barrios, Manatee District Schools' Supervisor of Instructional Technology.
Manatee District Schools' one-to-one laptop initiative, EDGE (Education Through Global Experiences) has been in the works since 2001. Following the lead of other school districts across the nation, the district has spent nearly two years in planning the program and has completed a series of pilot projects to ramp up the program.
At present, there are 5,229 Apple laptop computers in classrooms at 11 elementary, 3 middle and 2 high schools in the district. Manatee High just received 2,000 laptops this month. Eventually all Manatee County Schools will have the laptop technology available for all students."
Manatee School District official Margi Nanney told MacCentral in an interview on Friday that the students were very excited about talking to Sting and they learned a lot about the musician. Students asked Sting everything from 'what it's like to be famous' to 'what kind of music he likes.' Sting, who spent about an hour with the students answered all the questions, while stressing the value of getting a good education.
'Computers are a critical technology tool for our students and this is a perfect demonstration of how this cutting edge initiative can be applied in the classroom,' said Dr. Tina Barrios, Manatee District Schools' Supervisor of Instructional Technology.
Manatee District Schools' one-to-one laptop initiative, EDGE (Education Through Global Experiences) has been in the works since 2001. Following the lead of other school districts across the nation, the district has spent nearly two years in planning the program and has completed a series of pilot projects to ramp up the program.
At present, there are 5,229 Apple laptop computers in classrooms at 11 elementary, 3 middle and 2 high schools in the district. Manatee High just received 2,000 laptops this month. Eventually all Manatee County Schools will have the laptop technology available for all students."
Tricks of the Trade:
September 2004 Archives: "If you have to give a poor grade to a student you know is going to object, put a lesser grade beside it on the paper and then scribble it out (but not so much that the student can't make it out). It will make them think that you originally gave them the lesser grade but then raised it after some thought. 99.9% percent of the time this will prevent them harassing you. "
