Anachronistic Mom Blog

Website tips from Bill Gates

I just read the interview between Arianna Huffington and Bill Gates from the Ted conference.  In it, Gates lets drop some of the websites that he references.

I was very pleased to see him mentioning watching lectures from The Teaching Company at www.teach12.com.  Some of my favorite lectures have been from the Teaching Company and I had no idea that you could get them in DVD format and watch them. One of my favorite lecture series from them was about the making of the New Testament!

Gates, on the other hand, was touting a lecture series on Modern Economic Issues, by Robert Whaples.

If you haven't experienced them, these lectures are given by wonderful University professors. People who are steeped in their knowledge, and so passionate, so erudidite that it's a joy to listen to them.  Next time you need to take a break, check them out. They're not cheap, but you can swap 'em with friends, and I bet you can get them at the library as well.

Schwab Learning Case Study - neat stuff

I just stumbled onto this really impressive case study of the Schwab Learning foundation.  If you have anything to do with setting up community, info-usage sites, check it out.

The Joy of Teaching Kid Geeks

I have worked with geeks for years. It makes me happy.  It's fun to work with a group of people who are genuinely invested in a problem and a project - as opposed to social interactions (for example.)

Here's a very cute article from the Eide Neurolearning blog about teaching geeks, talking about what works best and the benefits of teaching a geek (or more).

On Beatrice and the Goat

You know, I always liked the Heifers International catalogs, but here's a story showing that they are real!  A lovely story, describing Beatrice, the "luckiest girl in the world," and how a goat in her home of Uganda changed her life.

nuclear bomb test sites now on Google Earth

From a new blog I just found: Luminous aether:

The Early Ed Watch Blog

I was reading a blog and just found a link to an intriguing blog called the Early Ed Watch blog, sponsored by the New America foundation.  Hmmmn.  I went to the site.  Very red, white, and blue.  Republican-looking fonts.  I then spent the next several minutes clicking on links, looking for "code words."  Things like "values," "Christian," or even "Family," but to no avail.

I clicked on the donors, and read what the Irvine foundation is doing.  Cool stuff.  Working to educate and empower workers in the Central Valley.  And finally, I saw a link to The Atlantic (the devil's own magazine!) on the site, and figured that it was OK to link to.

It's funny, but since the last congressional election, have you noticed that there are fewer "conservative code words" floating around?  Fewer Darth Vader-like individuals sniffing around our families and schools?  Gosh, I wonder if they've even given up the "special conservative handshake?"

Amazing use of the new technologies

Occasionally I see something on the internet that just blows me away.  Incredibly useful.  Very cool.  I have looked at the GoogleMaps function several times, and have even toyed with a nonprofit startup idea that lets people in towns put their stories about the history of the town right onto a map of the town (think of uploading your great-grandparents pictures and a picture of their house in 1876 and mapping it to where that space is now.)  This is cool stuff. This is neat stuff, that can augment and enrich our lives, and help our children to understand who was here before, how our towns and countryside used to look, and who makes up the melting pot of our culture. 

But that's not what I'm talking about today.  Today I want to talk about what Googlemaps is doing right now. Check it out.  A map showing the fires in southern California, updated constantly.

Wonderful stuff.  Thank you Google.

How on earth did I ever miss this site?

Check it out:  Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.  What's not to like?

Want a really cool science project for your kid?  I love this site!

It solves the age-old question of:  How to hack LEDs into LEGO minifigures for Halloween!

And of course, for the aesthetes among you, hereeee's the  Cylon Jack-O-Lantern.

Seriously, this is a most excellent site. All sorts of fun that you can have with technology at at first glance none of them seem in involve blowing things up OR large amounts of dry ice.   And their candyfab piece had me bowing to them.

Sun Safety - Happy Melanoma Month!

Wheee! May is Melanoma Month!  Gosh, that sounds fun.  When did every wierd ailment known to man get it's own freaking month, is what I want to know? Is this a DEMOCRATIC THING???  <heh>  Actually, it's pretty sensible and smacks of education, so the answer is probably yes.

I feel pretty comfortable speaking out on skin cancer, since I am, after all, one of the "blue people" in our country (e.g. light skin that looks like nonfat milk on occasion), so here goes.

Here is a UV Index Forecast Map for the USA. Type your zip code here to see an index for your town.

Did you know that Davis, California, has an entire program devoted to Sun Safety?  Granted, it routinely gets up to about, um, 105 up in Davis, but we all have a problem with the sun now.  It's much stronger than when we were kids, and I find myself blowing off sun safety way too often myself.

Did you know that you can buy bike helmets with sun visors?  And that they're better for your kids?  And that doctors are now saying that you should wear sun-protective clothing as your first-line defense against the sun, instead of just using sunscreen?

The sun's stronger. 'Nuff said.

A Glorious Kindergarten Day - Happy St. Pats!

All this week when I've dropped my son off at school, small clumps of children have been waving to one another excitedly and hunching over patches of dirt and asphalt.

"Look! Look!" they say.  "They're here!"

The teachers have been leaving small patches of gold glitter around - and helping the children to track them.  The kids have been gathering the clues in cups and bottles and sharing them excitedly.

"It's the leprechauns!" said the children to me on Wednesday.  Tomorrow we're building traps, and on Friday, they're coming to visit!"

I love my child's school. It's hilarious. The entire kindergarten population (two rooms) got together with glue guns and tongue depressors and toilet paper rolls and jars and ... oh, tons of stuff ... to make about 24 leprechaun traps.  My son's was a toilet paper tube pointed up.  At the bottom was some gold glitter, and, as he explained to me, "The leprechaun climbs down there to get the gold and it can't get back up and you trap it!"

On Thursday night, the traps were set and baited.  The children went home, excited at catching a leprechaun of their very own (SO much cooler than a hampster.)

On Friday, when we went into school, we entered a mass of activity. The traps that had been set outside were torn apart and shredded.  The classroom was an unholy mess. Every single trap was upended or on the floor or torn apart -- and there were green footprints everywhere!  I have no idea how the teachers did it (someone's back must have really hurt!) but there were thousands of footprints, leading across the entire school yard (about 400 feet), back though the sand pit, around the house, and ... oh! the joy!

The children clumped around the teachers, and shoved and pointed. They hopped with happiness.  The teachers led them on a romp for about 20 minutes until they discovered two small treasure chests, filled with gold (necklaces and small gold pieces).  The children divvied up the stash, and wore their necklaces proudly all day.

After my son joined the fray, I walked into the Kindergarten classroom for a few minutes to admire the mess.  Two boys from the third grade snuck into the classroom to look around.  One of them said scornfully "The TEACHERS do all of this." The other boy said nothing.

Adult complicity to bring children joy and excitement is such a wonderful thing.  I propose a toast to the St. Patrick's celebraters everywhere.  And especially to the preschool and kindergarten teachers who help touch our children with magic and excitement -- even in the crushingly modern days of 2007.

Happy Saint Patricks Day!