Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

I made the decision to install Office 2007 knowing that the textbooks aren't available yet. We've been comparing and contrasting Excel XP and Excel 2007 and creating our own textbook for about two weeks now with excellent results! But now we have one week until spring break and I want some excitement! These are great moments that can either drone on or can be used as exciting, stimulating times of learning and I teach computer fundamentals, so I have the world at my fingertips. So, meet my Amazing spring Break Project! This project teaches how to insert comments and hyperlinks into excel and gives me a cumulative assessment of the things already taught: templates, formulas, charting, making posters in Excel. I'm very excited about this project and just wanted to share it with you here! (Remember, feel free to use this, but you cannot sell it!) My Spring Break - Excel Project Your project will have three sheets. It will be turned in by e-mailing it as an attac...

This quote from Scott over at Dangerously Irrelevant . It was a pass along from an administrator: The school district is legally obligated to protect our students from the outside. It is not legally obligated to prepare them for the outside. It's like the picture to the right -- if we didn't teach how to drive around a curve in driver's ed. If we didn't teach brakes in drivers' ed, how many kids would hit this wall? What?!? Scott says it well: "This statement elevates CYA thinking over social justice concerns about technology access/usage and workforce preparation for disadvantaged students. This statement is reactive, not proactive, at a time when we desperately need forward-thinking school leaders." Scott's post is dangerously RELEVANT and the comments are incredible! Preparing our young for their release into "the wild" This is what I say to that administrator: If I was preparing to release an animal into the wild, I would sl...