Worldmapper: The world as you've never seen it before

Worldmapper: The world as you've never seen it before



What an incredible tool for looking at the world. These maps re-size countries based on the topic of interest. Just clicking through the religious maps was an eye-opening experience. Take a look at these two maps.
Which one shows the population distribution of Christians, and which shows Muslims? Interesting stuff.
To see, so clearly, the distribution of populations based on religions illustrates the need to tone down divisive rhetoric, and learn how to co-exist with other belief systems. Looking at sheer population maps is a wake up call when we consider everything from economies, food production and globalization. What a great alternate lens through which to view the world.

Think Different at Students 2.0

Think Different at Students 2.0
Take a few minutes, click the link, and read this article straight through to the end. It is worth your time.

This is what believe in. This is why I love my RSS feed - it gathers content like this for my professional development as a teacher. This is why I love education. This is why I believe in ALL students. This is the clarion call for educators.

Everyone should have an RSS feed. We all need to be supported as we endeavor to "think different".

The Site for Books & Readers - Shelfari

The Site for Books & Readers - Shelfari
When I see cool applications like this, I just lose my head! What a great way to share books and start discussions. It was easy to link my Shelfari account to both my blog, and my Facebook account. The most fun for me was reading all the comments and reviews for Breaking Dawn. It was just released yesterday! WOW seems to be the most popular response.

Summer Reading

Reading is my compulsion. Absolutely love it. Last week I unpacked the first lot of our summer book order. Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer hadn't been released yet so it wasn't in the box, but I can wait. I think.

On the subject of reading, I am really hoping that students got the message about our One School, One Book project. We chose A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a boy soldier, by Ishmael Beah. As part of this project Kate Richmond and I are working together to plan a series of discussions and presentations to bring depth and global awareness to the reading experience.

As part of this process, we went to see a presentation at the Needham Public Library by a group called HERvoices. Their mission is to share the voices and important roles of women around the world, with this presentation focusing on the unique work in developing a model for non-violence in Wafir, a remote area of Kenya. This model was so successful that during the recent civil unrest, the Kenyan government turned to the women of Wafir and asked for assistance in adopting their model.

This will add a fascinating layer to our discussion of A Long Way Gone, and what happened in Sierra Leone.