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Showing posts from January, 2013

Support for IPads

While the debate over a school wide move to 1:1 implementation of iPads for students begins, I am weighing in. I represent myself as a teacher at Lamoille who has been collecting facts, asking good questions and learning from experience. I believe iPads for LUHS students is a sound idea even though I was originally a skeptic. I loved laptops until discovering how iPads as personal devices become an extension of a student, amplifying abilities and assisting with weaker skills. I have just returned from a sabbatical in New Mexico where I volunteered in a public school literacy program. I piloted E Literacy programs with a donated E reader and my own Ipad. Both offered capabilities to the non traditional learner that are unmatched by teaching with paper, pen, textbooks and a backpack. For early readers confronting reading disabilities or frustrations while learning to read aloud I used the following free features- speech to text, touch activated pronunciation, word highlighting applicati

Our School isn't ON with MLK Day

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link to published article Inauguration Day falls on the legal public holiday for the birthday of Martin Luther King January 21, 2013. Whether this was coincidence or a conspiratorial plot it is the second time that this holiday has coincided with a presidential inauguration. (Remember President, Bill Clinton, 1997?) MLK day has been a federal holiday since 1983 when it was signed into legislation however, it has   only been recognized as a national day of service since 1994. Dr. King's legacy as a motivator and Civil Rights leader is celebrated through services that are meant to empower individuals, strengthen communities, bridge barriers and create solutions to social problems. (United We Serve) (King Center Website).  Individual or communities that volunteer for organized projects or design their own should consider the tangible and spiritual gains made through their involvement. This is well and good except that I am unable to find organized service projects here in the s