Don't be a monkey.

Start with a cage containing five monkeys.

Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result – all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him.

After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.

Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that’s the way it’s always been done round here.

And that, my friends, is how company policies are made.

Replace company with education. Don’t just do something because it’s “how we’ve always done things”.

Don’t be those monkeys.

Stephenson, G. R. (1967). Cultural acquisition of a specific learned response among rhesus monkeys. In: Starek, D., Schneider, R., and Kuhn, H. J. (eds.), Progress in Primatology, Stuttgart: Fischer, pp. 279-288.

Mentioned in: Galef, B. G., Jr. (1976). Social Transmission of Acquired Behavior: A Discussion of Tradition and Social Learning in Vertebrates. In: Rosenblatt, J.S., Hinde, R.A., Shaw, E. and Beer, C. (eds.), Advances in the study of behavior, Vol. 6, New York: Academic Press, pp. 87-88:

Overlap?

Decide for yourself?

Randomize List

Do you need to randomize a list of words or phrases? This site allows to you to copy and paste any list. In just a few seconds it creates a randomized list of you original list. No sign up is needed. http://www.randomizelist.com/

New Design Same Great Stuff

Thanks to the folks at Blogger we have a nice new design but still have lots of great resources. Enjoy.

Creative Commons and Copyright

This video helps to explain Creative Commons and Copyright.

Thanks to YouTube & iLLiaC January 25, 2008 based on the Comic written & illustrated by Alex Roberts, Rebecca Rojer, & Jon Phillips (found at http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Shari.. Editing and Narration: Ben McCorkle Soundtrack: "Naughty Hula Eyes," Andy Iona (Public Domain)

Vocaroo

Did you ever need a fast and easy voice recorder. This is the easiest to use online voice recorder I have seen. Click record and start recording. When finished press stop. Preview and record again or e-mail your recording, post to the web, or download the wav file.
http://www.vocaroo.com/

Interactive Quizzes

This is a great site for all grade levels and content areas. Based upon the Virginia State Standards.


http://www.iq.poquoson.org/math.htm#1

Read the Words

Read the Words is a text to speech utility which allow for copied or typed text. You can download your audio MP3 and use on a blog or wiki. Give it a try at: http://www.readthewords.com

Quizinator - Free online quiz maker.

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Butns - Multiple destinations for a hyperlink

Butns enables you to add more destinations to each hyperlink on your website, allowing your users to choose exactly where to go to get more information. This sentence contains a butns link for the word Africa. Click on Africa and see.

http://butns.com/

Social Media - A New Fad?

So many "great new innovative" ideas in education come and go. Is Social Media the latest fad? Should we jump on yet another band wagon? Check out the video below and decide for yourself.

Word Games

Make words starting with a provided letter. Second and third words must also include additional provided letters. The faster you go, the more points you get. Can be played in English or French. Explore other word games on the parent page as well.

http://dictionary.reference.com/fun/

Name Picker - random word picker

This site offers lots of fun classroom gadgets. I especially like the "Fruit Machine". You can copy and paste a list of words in the machine and it will randomly choose one. You could have your students define these words or categorize them. You might even input your class roster and use it to pick lab partners.
Don't forget to explore other cool tools on this site as well.

http://classtools.net/education-games-php/fruit_machine/

Mouse Mischief - A mouse instead of a clicker system.

Mouse Mischief can transform teaching and learning in the classroom. Mouse Mischief integrates into Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, allowing teachers to create interactive presentations that engage and excite every student in the classroom. Approximately 5–25 students, each with his or her own mouse, can answer multiple choice questions and draw on a shared screen. You can download Mouse Mischief free of charge. If you think you might like this program contact the tech department.

http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint/mouse-mischief/default.aspx

MorqueFile - photos, images, and more.

This site is a must stop for anyone using photographs, graphic design, images, or digital still cameras. There is even a tutorial and tips section. Images are free and can be searched using filters such as color and other styles.

http://morguefile.com/