Mountain View Discussion Board

I found this song while looking through NPR one day. It deals with a 3rd grader taking a standardized test, but easily applies to all of us at every level and in every subject.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6705929 

The International Polar Foundation has several science animations that can be viewed on their website:

http://educapoles.org/index.php?fun_zone/Multimedia_animations&s=7&rs=13&lg=en&pg=0 

They also allow you to download a zip file that has all of the animations so that you do not have to be online to view them.

http://www.polarfoundation.org/docs/projects/ipf_cdrom_051014.zip 

This is a simple generator that allows you to pick the type of warning sign, the symbol for the sign, and a self-created message to include on the sign.

http://www.warningsigngenerator.com/ 

Dallas Country Schools, a partnership of Dallas-area districts, has put together an analysis of every released TAKS test and placed their results on their website:

http://www.dcschools.com/TAKS/default.asp (link also on right link bar)

Analysis includes detailed analysis of every TAKS item, why correct answers are correct answers, what kinds of distracters/incorrect answers were used, how did students think/compute that caused them to answer incorrectly, and what information will help teachers focus their instruction more specifically.

http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf 

The graphs are especially convincing when you look at the tail ends and see the sharp spike in data in the last few years of the 20th century.

Please share this website with your middle and high school students. Included in the data are statistics on hourly income range, projected growth unitl 2014, and required education and training by profession. What is surprising is that 1% of physicians and surgeons have high school experience or less! The site also offers links to videos about most of the professions.

http://www.careervoyages.gov/top50occupations-main.cfm?language=english 

With science fair looming in the near future, many of your students will have to display the MSDS for the chemicals they used (if any). Flinn Scientific has over 1300 Material Safety Data Sheets online. If you are looking for specific chemicals, they have a search engine you can use.

http://www.flinnsci.com/search_MSDS.asp 

Sargent-Welch also has MSDS online:

http://www.sargentwelch.com/article.asp?ai=244 

Many students are unaware of careers in math and science. They also might have questions regarding college courses, employment, and salaries. This website has online information, PDFs, and PowerPoints describing careers in math and science.

The Sloan Career Cornerstone Center:

http://www.careercornerstone.org/resources.htm

From their website: http://teachersnetwork.org/

Teachers Network is a nationwide, non-profit education organization that identifies and connects innovative teachers exemplifying professionalism and creativity within public school systems. Over 40,000 public school teachers have received Teachers Network grants and fellowships in the areas of curriculum, leadership, policy, and new media.

Knowing that teachers know best what teachers need, our goals are to support teachers in designing their own professional development, to document and disseminate the work of outstanding classroom teachers, and to help provide teachers with the knowledge and skills to become leaders in their classrooms and schools.