When lab partners go BAD! 

Not only fulfilling the instructions, but really pretty, too. 

Another approach to the set-up instructions 

One approach to the roller-coaster challenge. 

MAY WEBSITE OF THE MONTH

I found this gem on the Joanne Jacobs website. Though he is not a technology or science teacher, I selected it because he writes about his struggle to teach in terribly difficult circumstances in London, England:

Possibly the choicest, fruitiest discovery of the extended Easter break was realising I'd contracted worms from my delightful students.

Threadworms. Pinworms. Intestinal parasites.

Think about that.

At some quiet, unnoticed moment, these paragons of hygiene, this new model army of well-scrubbed cherubs have passed from their hands to my hands trace fecal matter, and I have gone on to ingest the stuff.

Ugh.

I need to say that again, just once. Ugh.

AN EXCEPTIONAL WOMAN

This is not technically related to teaching or education. It is the story of a VERY brave woman



who used the technology she had access to, in order to stand up for what was right:

During the tense days of Ukraine's presidential elections last year, Dmytruk staged a silent but bold protest, informing deaf Ukrainians that official results from the Nov. 21 runoff were fraudulent. Her act of courage further emboldened protests that grew until a new election was held and the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko , was declared the winner...

Go - check out the link - you won't regret it.

HOW-TOS ON BLOGGING

I've been blogging for some time, but there's a lot I don't know. So, I appreciate it when someone explains how some feature or concept works.

The Mudville Gazette offers some pointers on blogging, including using Blogrolling to "ping" when you've updated your blog. Now, I'm sure that many more experienced bloggers know about this, but if I ever read it, I'd forgotten it. Apparently, without using a ping, those Blogrolls don't show the Update Message next to the link.

I can't wait until summer - I'm going to go into learning mode, and get up to speed on all the features of my favorite software and services. I know I'm going to learn how to do all the things I probably should already be doing, but just don't know are easily within reach.

TOO IMPORTANT TO IGNORE

Normally, this blog is strictly non-political. I prefer to limit my posts to the technology and profession of teaching.

However, an action by the Association of University Teachers (AUT) of Great Britain, declaring a boycott of Israeli universities led me to make an exception.

The Council of the AUT -- a trade union and professional association for over 48,700 UK higher education professionals -- unanimously passed the two motions to boycott the institutions of higher learning at an executive union meeting held on the eve of Passover, evidently to deliberately exclude its Jewish members.

That action was not opposed, as

AUT executive president Angela Roger cut short the session and moved to deny a right of reply to opponents of the motions. The session was then directed towards a vote, and a "lack of time" was cited as the reason preventing challenges to the motions from being heard

Previous actions included discrimination against Israeli students, and

In July, two Israeli academics were fired from their posts at two linguistics journals as part of a larger boycott of Israeli academics and educational institutions.

Prof. Gideon Toury of Tel Aviv University and Dr. Miriam Schlesinger of Bar-Ilan University were removed from their posts by Egyptian-born Prof. Mona Baker of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

Baker was one of more than 100 academics who signed a letter in The Guardian newspaper in April calling for a boycott of Israeli academics "until such time as the Israeli government abides by U.N. resolutions and opens serious peace negotiations with the Palestinians."

I believe that we need to act pre-emptively to forestall any similar actions by our professional organizations, and to go on record as opposing the AUT actions. Follow the links below to send a comment to your professional unions:

• NEA - National Educators Association
  
• AFT - American Federation of Teachers
  
• American Association of University Professors

Or, you can add your support in an email to me, along with your professional affiliation, and I'll forward it to the appropriate group.