It looks like everything worked. I’m sure there will be some plugin/widget/theme details that break down, but it looks pretty good so far. And the admin interface is suh-weet!

OK – now the nerve racking part. Deleting old files and replacing them. I had this explode on me last month so I’m hoping it goes a whole lot better this time around. It’s nice to have the backed up database and files just in case. See you on the other side.

Time to do the upgrade to WP 2.7. The new admin interface looks very shiny and bright. The new plugin installer allows for looking up and installing plugins from right within the admin interface will no doubt cause me to blow up my blog as I install reams of incompatable plugins. My FNF (favourite new feature) so far is the upgrader which upgrades the WordPress install from completely within the admin interface – no more download, copy over old files, re-create config file. That will be nice and should help to keep everyone’s WP more up to date and secure. OK – here goes. Step 1 – back up everything!

I’ve just been reading Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach’s post Letter to my colleagues, and some of the ideas in there made me feel a little uncomfortable. My discomfort stems from some concerns I’ve had recently about some of the comments I’ve read on twitter and in various blogs. Maybe I’m imagining it – I hope I am – but there seems to be an increase in some subtle teacher bashing by implying that teachers are an impediment to educational reform, if not an impediment to learning. I think that this is absolute nonsense. If there is a need for revision of the way young people are taught in schools, and I happen to think that there is, then the change will be implemented by teachers, not in spite of them. Here’s one of the statements that made me uneasy: I am often … Continue reading »

A thought struck me a couple of days ago, and I tweeted (twate?) it thus: I was struggling to articulate what the problem was and, more important, find some way of teaching it in an appropriate way. “It” in this case is taxonomy, the bane of every biology student and, as I have learned, their teachers. Here’s how I was taught it: All living things are classified into 5 Kingdoms: Monera Protista Fungi Plantae Animalia Each kingdom is divided into several phyla. For Kingdom Animalia, as an example, it is divided into the following phyla: Porifera Cnidaria Platyhelminthes etc. etc. ad nauseum We were taught the taxomonic hierarchy starting at the broadest level of organization. First we learned about all 5 kingdoms and their major phyla. For the animals, we were also taught some of the classes and orders. This … Continue reading »

As I mentioned in a previous post, one of my students said he would drink a milkshake made from his pants if their video (Energy Man) passed the 300 mark for views. Well, it did so he did and the whole sordid affair was recorded on video for posterity. Watch here for any further developments in the Energy Man saga!

I’m normally not a “did you see this cool video that {insert name of person here} blogged about?” probably because I assume that if you read this, you read all the other people I do on a regular basis. Maybe this is an erroneous assumption – I’ll have to give that some thought. But this is too cool to not mention. Alec Couros posted about The YouTube Symphony Orchestra project and I think it is worth passing along or prodding people’s memory about. The culmination of the project will be the performance at Carnegie Hall in New York of a new symphony written by composer Tan Dun (whose creds, according to Wikipedia, include composing the score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Here’s the pitch by Tan Dun and several others: How’s that for an authentic assessment for music students? So … Continue reading »

About a month ago, I showed my Flip camera to some of the students in the school’s video club. They thought that it was pretty cool, so I gave them the challenge to use the flip camera and put together a short video in one week, including time for scripting, filming and editing. They were also interested in submitting a video on the theme of energy conservation for a contest so they decided to combine the two ideas. Here is the result:   One of the students (the one who plays Energyman) remarked on Friday that if the view count reached 300, he would eat a milkshake made from his own pants. I’m not suggesting that we make the video go viral or anything like that, but if you were interested in letting friends know about the video, you can … Continue reading »