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One of the steamiest, most widely read novels of love, scandal, sex, and betrayals in world history has nothing to do with shades of any color - not even gray. In Heian Japan, court society placed a heavy weight on obedience to rules of behavior and class.  People who did not appreciate the value of life, beauty, and education were out of sync with their society.  In the midst of this world, the first ever novel was written - by a woman, for women - about living life in a way that is good while enjoying the pleasures that tempt evil. The Tale of Genji You MUST watch the video at this link to catch a glimpse of the scandal, gossip, romance, and drama that unfolds in the novel. Visits from spirits are a metaphor for the lovely world readers visit when they read The Tale of Genji.Courtesy Library of Congress Digital Collections How could I have ever taught the Heian Period in Japan without having my sex-crazed teenage students read excerpts of this novel?  I've ce...

The end of 8th grade is an important milestone.  It's a sign that adolescents are now teenagers, that they are ready to take on a more active role in their own educational experience, and that they have mastered the basic skills of reading, writing, reasoning, and mathematics.  In high school they will refine these skills and start their journey toward adulthood.  But, before they dive into the new challenges and opportunities that high school will offer, they deserve to dive into a few pools this summer. I truly hope the 8th graders of Walter S. Parker Middle School, the intelligent, funny, and talented young adults I had the pleasure to spend each school day with this past year, will enjoy a well-deserved safe and fun summer. Here's a short video of their last days in middle school.

Smart phones and mobile devices are a seamless part of our children's lives.  Why shouldn't they be a seamless part of the school day? I happened to have had lunch and recess duty today with the 8th graders at my middle school.  I brought my iPhone and started snapping pics of a few of the phones and devices that were either on the cafeteria tables or were being used casually by students as they ate. These kids were doing nothing wrong and I had no reason to be suspicious of them.  Their devices are simply a part of the way they function.  Heck, my iPhone is a part of the way I function, as evidenced by my method of gathering information (taking pictures with my phone) and compiling it for this post (using a collage app called Pic Stitch ). In EdTech, a magazine dedicated to technology integration in K-12, a recent article claimed " Parents Agree Mobile Devices Can Make Learning Fun ."  But I think that was only half the story.   Mobile devices sho...

Vine , an app that Twitter dropped on us mere months ago, is a massive success . It's not clear that Vine is the answer to the social media video problem, but it does appear that the service has solved a number of obstacles inherent to video that have traditionally kept it from mainstream success... The genius with Vine is that you can upload only six seconds of footage.  Six seconds is nothing - more like an animated GIF. And Vine's editing process is stupidly simple. -Eliza Kern, GIGAOM  It is so easy to use and attractive to social media consumers that Vine posts to Twitter outpaced Instagram posts to Twitter last week . On June 7, four days after Android released a version of Vine, Topsy Analytics, a San Francisco company that gathers and analyzes tweets, reported that the six-second video application had garnered 2.86 million shares on Twitter.  This number of Twitter shares surpassed those of Instagram, which had roughly 2.17 million shares. -Alana Abrams...

Maya city of Palenque The Maya were an impressive people. They built massive stone pyramids and temples throughout huge cities without the wheel or beasts of burden. They organized and conducted commerce via a complex system of roads throughout their geographical area of the Yucatan Peninsula and beyond. They used terracing, raised crop beds, and slash and burn to grow plentiful crops to feed a growing population in less than ideal agricultural conditions. Maya number system The created a complex calendar that calculated the 365 day year and used a combination of math, astronomy and science to be more accurate than any civilization on Earth at the same time. They were the first to contemplate and use the concept of "zero" in their system of mathematics. But which achievement is the most remarkable? Using the Document Based Question information from the DBQ Project and my own knowledge of technology, my students presented their arguments tech-styl...

About 100 of the 8th graders from Parker Middle School went on a climbing field trip today.  I know it was a good day for them because... They pushed themselves harder than they'd planned to.  They cheered for each other unconditionally.  They were exhausted, hungry, and proud at the end of the day. Couldn't have picked a better way to spend a hot Friday just before the end of the school year. Tech Check: I used some copyrighted music in the video so the restrictions require that it must be viewed on a PC and that it can't be viewed on smartphones or mobile devices. Click here if you're interested and  check out metro ROCK .  They did a fantastic job motivating the kids, keeping them moving, and teaching them about balancing safety and risk-taking.

For a couple days only half of the 8th grade (about 100 students) were here at Parker Middle School while the rest traveled on a school trip.  Four subject area teachers had to come up with a way to keep them busy, happy, and learning. Challenge accepted. First we looked into the educational movies that are playing at the nearby IMAX at Jordan's.  We found Galapagos .  It is only 40 minutes and can be watched in glorious 3D!  Here's the trailer. Then we discovered the Teacher Resource Packet also available online. Before we knew it, we were English, Spanish, and History teachers guiding 8th graders through concepts like tides, currents, geology, and natural selection. Day 1 : In preparation for the film our students learned about natural selection, island formation through volcanic eruptions, and scientific poetry.  In my class they were tracking the survival of animals with various adaptations (paper dots of differ...