Snack time

What do you like as a healthy snack?<br /><br />I like to kid myself that these Kelkin chocolate rice cakes are healthy! <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzOVARih1ipp8EhUIWF02jjRfqPE_sXOviZwBUssoPxU5jhkT3jkuaoiPL1wZKImXqdlVH50uJHmd8cT-x1sMcSXzGDmtGnC0TABCAaFt76XQnX_xfiANDTNcU-tquwyGAiujVZGxs6qyg/s640/blogger-image-1262845896.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzOVARih1ipp8EhUIWF02jjRfqPE_sXOviZwBUssoPxU5jhkT3jkuaoiPL1wZKImXqdlVH50uJHmd8cT-x1sMcSXzGDmtGnC0TABCAaFt76XQnX_xfiANDTNcU-tquwyGAiujVZGxs6qyg/s640/blogger-image-1262845896.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiigOSZX0rwdM73bpHLKcdSNkw3q5QTc-cKUSL2MJZXIPX8mJ-JvBllZDM-VyRHw5689iht80Uj4t7Hp6_aqG60Csr79S6l0qHVDVRAJ7OUz0KhypgkjRAJBOA6UXR932HhoRnZzPohZ8y3/s640/blogger-image-614733888.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiigOSZX0rwdM73bpHLKcdSNkw3q5QTc-cKUSL2MJZXIPX8mJ-JvBllZDM-VyRHw5689iht80Uj4t7Hp6_aqG60Csr79S6l0qHVDVRAJ7OUz0KhypgkjRAJBOA6UXR932HhoRnZzPohZ8y3/s640/blogger-image-614733888.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht0RNEZNM6CbK7aOwrZNKOugQgDQ_7bnxbX16gUQuAg3mPC5k0MIoX7VkO4K0B6ebF-NUbcK93kcZ_FkNLZtIu403X_uwB2MabDmKb4MHNmmLPs1eIbXRUVoaKOOImUwW27_p6nu-5-zPH/s640/blogger-image--1034068717.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht0RNEZNM6CbK7aOwrZNKOugQgDQ_7bnxbX16gUQuAg3mPC5k0MIoX7VkO4K0B6ebF-NUbcK93kcZ_FkNLZtIu403X_uwB2MabDmKb4MHNmmLPs1eIbXRUVoaKOOImUwW27_p6nu-5-zPH/s640/blogger-image--1034068717.jpg" /></a></div>

Snack time

What do you like as a healthy snack? I like to kid myself that these Kelkin chocolate rice cakes are healthy!

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Celebration Church Jacksonville Music Levels Disturbing Neighbors

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoUJTYa0pM3rA31WGhHAwJtabr6Bnuro0rfWj2tooJyb0-1trVzfWuw94QlRlJvifEc9F90DuYbS0rZ2S9QJDg-Pm3CtWTNXsY16l0OOQ83Ndky2UN3ScrSY9fEt5aBwFf5qjc2AjQFi2v/s1600/CelebrationArena.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoUJTYa0pM3rA31WGhHAwJtabr6Bnuro0rfWj2tooJyb0-1trVzfWuw94QlRlJvifEc9F90DuYbS0rZ2S9QJDg-Pm3CtWTNXsY16l0OOQ83Ndky2UN3ScrSY9fEt5aBwFf5qjc2AjQFi2v/s1600/CelebrationArena.png" /></a></div>Here in Jacksonville one of the largest, fastest growing churches is <a href="http://www.celebration.org/" target="_blank">Celebration Church</a>, pastored by Stovall Weems.They recently completed construction on a new main campus facility, what they call "Celebration Arena", shown at left.They are a multi-campus site, with videos of Stovall transmitted to several satellite locations in Jacksonville. This church is our city's version of Elevation Church, and Fellowship Church. Good looking, hip pastor, with loud rock-style music. In fact, Stovall has preached at Fellowship, and Steven Furtick has preached here at Celebration. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.firstcoastnews.com/topstories/article/308240/483/Can-you-please-turn-the-music-down" target="_blank">As reported by TV-12 News last night</a>, the noise levels coming from the church during their services are so loud as to be a nuisance to the adjoining neighborhood, described by the homeowners as a "retirement"community.<br /><br />However, from the TV-12 report last night, it seems that the church is not very concerned, and would not even talk to the reporter for her story. Here is an excerpt from the TV report last night:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i><b>"Since October, Dave and his wife along with his neighbors say they have sent letters, emails and have made calls to Celebration Church asking for assistance with the noise, <span style="color: red;">but have received only one response that referenced a few pine trees planted as buffers</span>....I [the reporter] called Celebration Church and asked for an interview but was told <span style="color: red;">they would need two weeks notice and passed along contact information.</span>"</b></i></blockquote>I visited the church a few Sundays ago to hear Tim Tebow speak at the new Celebration Arena, and I can understand the neighbors' concerns. As I told many people about my visit, the one word I used to describe that church is LOUD. I have never, ever heard music and bass levels as high as in that church. The music was so loud, I felt like my inner organs were vibrating! I've been to my share of rock concerts back in the day, and nothing was as loud and deep as the music being played at the church. As I walked in, I noticed the "fog" in the air to give the arena a nightclub feel. The "arena" is beautiful - huge back screen, HD side screens, comfortable chairs - and one heckuva sound system.<br /><br />Hopefully Celebration Church will do more than just point to the pine trees, and will do something real to alleviate the concerns of Dave and his neighbors. In the TV piece last night, Dave says he is a man of faith and he felt guilty about raising the issue given that the noise is coming from a church, but he and his neighbors believe their quality of life is diminished by the noise levels on Sunday and Wednesdays. Celebration certainly CAN turn the music down, or provide some other engineering modifications to reduce the noise emanating from the property.<br /><br />It is quite interesting that while this issue is going on, <a href="http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=291927" target="_blank">our city council is addressing citizens' complaints about noise coming from Metro Park rock concerts</a> downtown. So Celebration, please be proactive and address this. If our city council is concerned about noise coming from city-owned property on a few weekends a year, certainly YOU can address the noise concerns from your own church every Sunday and Wednesday.<br /><br />And for goodness sake, Celebration Church, please talk to the reporter. Why do you need two weeks to prepare to speak to a news reporter working for our largest TV news station in Jacksonville?

Celebration Church Jacksonville Music Levels Disturbing Neighbors

Here in Jacksonville one of the largest, fastest growing churches is Celebration Church , pastored by Stovall Weems.They recently completed ...

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Report back on the East London TeachMeet 12th March

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKSi4cTO1BkFfa2gcIzuASsqAqaQqe3YCcKNLHKpVhr8bRgt3kJKDxwkxjrkoWA7wyZ9TZFqzeR7aVXC9-kcjywsY3iHEtD7E4lqbYBq_WpI_4ppLr5NYy1k4Kjp7-soDtqqTIOvUknjA/s1600-h/image%25255B3%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="62" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgjOT6V2_d324A7hHCnyQpVL9NfbyEAVQWjPpEUsDZrgcz4TSMQmcmX-8HvF05FQoygRn0PWsrADTTE1WJY9MALmrD56ZdFBBOL6fZxjFAGolN-ckTha8yES1HjaKKlfTN36FyG-Y201E/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></span></a></div><br /><i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Submitted by Fiona Beal</span></i><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every time I attend a TeachMeet I come away feeling inspired and encouraged after experiencing the fantastic atmosphere and enthusiastic presentations delivered by teachers. I love to see the types of innovation that teachers are employing in their classrooms. On Tuesday 12th March 2013 I attended the second TeachMeet in East London. Last time it was held at Stirling Primary (organised by Claire Dean) and this time it was held at Clarendon Primary (organised by Sharon Cox). You can read the report on the first TeachMeet in East London </span><a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2012/10/report-back-on-teachmeet-in-east-london_14.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">here</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNIrr9Vs4Bs6mpBu476qnQAmXi3P9QFwuWlC2IO7bFeyTMbwCV9t1frBL4S5FfDpgy11k3IPglGSxt0AZ2p-D9KCRyWp6j_ShiMo84BxxJWIaCr6b7fNwWzytDoOFfNJbiK3pw3oRPsi8/s1600-h/image80.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjjotBqU7oEAPZO5TzOaZmAgxsf1ekJI5gmRKkOW82SVRGnoP_crsGuK0GjXPTZzjSbWlEz76DocwxGEAQURV3C2TOpVyRIfBESDDuBgq1z9MpHA3RA0cbnNnfuHJ79KUfl0_mSL_yrMI/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But, let me start at the beginning. I left for East London in the wee hours of the morning and arrived at 8am all set to spend the morning at Stirling Primary School. I had arranged to trail their new technology integration specialist, Mary Lou Berndt as she went about her newly-created position. This is definitely the type of job that Education Departments need to introduce at all public schools to get teachers on board with technology. At Stirling the teachers in a grade are free at the same time and Mary Lou schedules a session with them. These are lively and constructive times with the aim of improving the skills of each individual teacher while also pointing the way forward for introducing technology into the daily classroom routine. I thoroughly enjoyed every session and really admire the progressive stance taken by Stirling Primary. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="width: 400px;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1SHxxfCMYKyjhEQGqxypWViheonzSNmHI0a5Gyb9zNZY29g0ZpB-UsEJWxJEHkpsyUQAosSIVO9_G_9ZOHTf2opyJki2CH47OPD4jHLoCiNE26WDcF2WuhvLxv14Az96rjkpV_Jhh4q8/s1600-h/image1.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwn2aXq_FIu6izXAj-sMN80U5qnD2oM_y6wUwJkBHYatEpxZGYALGa8Qdv6ao-o80uFfs0tMmQA2fn0jzZd2fnu_428KN9376OWRcXqck8uGRDoWeh0F2fEV3Qe4UZY-EBs_qjkNZbMc0/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="215" /></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="200"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3SGipJEoDqDMVAsqMP8qTh1fIX9eS7tniImxANfyn6-qeoLgjg3vtZRcDrEOjPJB2-qnlC2BgBxwFjhAymsmIpM90BR0XfsBa_kjR9KZ2fUU_Oy3jnhDtPFALhWC0qZbKjUvD6cME8Eo/s1600-h/image2.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Vua5olSLJ0v6_mx3hVWZUPNPTiGNW9BJk3qMMpyrSJ2IAn_xtC9wiPz1AMIqKdYVUF-wF0GOzMrAAsYDrRDDRiw8aryl3sudD5kKc4UCKL4QzO3T3I0y7uURcI7OMiJfX4JbpdgAkSs/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="214" /></span></a></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the afternoon after school we made our way to Clarendon Primary for the TeachMeet which was to be held from 3pm – 5pm. The two organisers, Sharon and Claire opened the TeachMeet and Pam King, principal of Clarendon Primary, welcomed everyone. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Who were the presenters?</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghfzA283_ZfNfL4-VKNVh33sgtS8Www9QjqhMB3Kz0wqxgBouwtwo-oQoPAEomRpkKc9JlCafIDT4LPstlwL41NnaEFU2DNLeMpX-16eX-9nCZmu-nMlF-Tarj2Kz0MpTPYd29Y9pn3kQ/s1600/qvc9fq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghfzA283_ZfNfL4-VKNVh33sgtS8Www9QjqhMB3Kz0wqxgBouwtwo-oQoPAEomRpkKc9JlCafIDT4LPstlwL41NnaEFU2DNLeMpX-16eX-9nCZmu-nMlF-Tarj2Kz0MpTPYd29Y9pn3kQ/s400/qvc9fq.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What was shared at the TeachMeet? </span></b><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>1) Claire Dean: Tweetchat</strong><br />Claire made a start by showing everyone how to use Tweetchat (<a href="http://tweetchat.com/">http://tweetchat.com/</a>) to follow the Twitter hashtag #ELTeachmeet and contribute more easily. A Twitter hashtag at a TeachMeet allows people to give feedback as the event progresses and enables others to follow virually.     Tweetchat is a marvelous way to follow twitter hashtags. All it takes is a set date, a topic, and a hashtag. Then you carry on a conversation at the set time with anyone using that hashtag. At the end of this post I will add the tweet archive of the afternoon.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJxoJSHeylJ4ILHICwlst9FbMvQcpAXJMA-63Pn2J2QbF3IbfmaR1K3n6kLMGA3RDFdeQIf58Kmj1a76nnWloXNT2szElueXW5OGvyQlV2ZSpioMW3uItVM8OKeGDKj4gjiLHHODWUEy8/?imgmax=800" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJxoJSHeylJ4ILHICwlst9FbMvQcpAXJMA-63Pn2J2QbF3IbfmaR1K3n6kLMGA3RDFdeQIf58Kmj1a76nnWloXNT2szElueXW5OGvyQlV2ZSpioMW3uItVM8OKeGDKj4gjiLHHODWUEy8/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>2) Lorraine Richter – Aurasma app for the iPad</strong><br />Aurasma is an iPad app that allows you to connect digital content with real-world objects. This is amazing! When the Aurasma app “sees” a picture you have selected and created an ‘aura’ with,  it triggers a video, an animation, a photo, a sound file or whatever you have connected to it.  This would be amazing to use on a classroom board display to make certain items come alive with more details; or you could use it on a worksheet to lead to further information.  </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwA-iNiCCqtRRlk2BuXRBWNmYWi9CYt3j0Mehcg6RznPTu6tL9KM6JFRaqntS1XjgEYYQXxme2MOJHE6NPXV7kFVQR90SRnAp5Bz_BuvjczjF6CvyYBr2-6OUrndbnic7mLfBKjQERqwE/s1600-h/image67.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdhk-PT1WEDTkobr7r-qAuzcE_ytUzEJAomy4DimHgbW1NKWhD5JTOwowbR-H6MD3OgeQT2-VrT15lvNkztD7vSatYgGa7tUhpydNX_i2RiZlxJtNXJhV9d6LuVJWh75KT_DdeId-sduo/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCgc4epu-rFRVaw9fB9k4cwrTvctvolPUYlz4DeGTFZMB5gryOUeWGsaJnzqR4dfxTpQjbRV3MNr967GG18j-1Cx1chthfaOJKfMFFWhuNEd6-hn7cfsuUJamAIFY0ElwTwrcJrYXQzm0/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lorraine used a video by Taylor Swift to demonstrate how this works. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nhPpGLZi7OI" width="420"></iframe></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>3) Leana Bassett – Jib Jab</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leana got us laughing hysterically with the video she showed featuring her principal, Mr Johnson and other members of the school management, using Jib Jab. In Jib Jab you can choose one of their music videos and add a photo of a character. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitKEB-YNRJd6Le_JNsXCgS_AsyR5RpUilSHgvXsukRncrPidtAa3fVU2V78YVM5metbytlKtv3PqdxYnwpQTbwekwF4XLEKLf01vLqafCkaf5YFhJ5toJM5UFfMXfrqocLYemsPJ5z-Ho/?imgmax=800" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitKEB-YNRJd6Le_JNsXCgS_AsyR5RpUilSHgvXsukRncrPidtAa3fVU2V78YVM5metbytlKtv3PqdxYnwpQTbwekwF4XLEKLf01vLqafCkaf5YFhJ5toJM5UFfMXfrqocLYemsPJ5z-Ho/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">STEP ONE: Open </span><a href="http://www.jibjab.com/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.jibjab.com/</span></a>. <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Become a member – it’s cheaper! Or at least persuade someone else to pay your membership fee…</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">STEP TWO: Sign up – It’s easy as pie!<br />STEP THREE: Now sign in<br />STEP FOUR: Choose your format, occasion, video… whatever floats your boat!</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikIQciHg4q0__nZGkTJC5Rtx4BNov0Z_KHznvKA_GacCcLje7Qo_cnCtCaWMIokrLshuzHhDsQFeLx4BlZ03DXNImOioipLjz9psXPgINX98d6NY2xoma6tz540Uk9PcvmUVnf6_q46cI/?imgmax=800" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikIQciHg4q0__nZGkTJC5Rtx4BNov0Z_KHznvKA_GacCcLje7Qo_cnCtCaWMIokrLshuzHhDsQFeLx4BlZ03DXNImOioipLjz9psXPgINX98d6NY2xoma6tz540Uk9PcvmUVnf6_q46cI/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">STEP FIVE: Choose your 'victims' wisely!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">STEP SIX: To add more faces – just upload<br />STEP SEVEN: Edit your victims! (Removing wrinkles and double chins are at the discretion of the editor ;)<br />STEP EIGHT: Preview your masterpiece<br />STEP NINE: Now pay and download<br />STEP TEN: Hit the ‘forward’ button and enjoy!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>4) Fiona Beal – Exciting Times ahead with Microsoft and SchoolNet</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fiona from SchoolNet showed how the <a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2013/04/join-partners-in-learning-network.html">Partners in Learning Network</a> works and encouraged teachers to join the network to find really rich resources of all kinds. The current <a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2013/04/join-one-of-microsoft-innovation.html">Partners in Learning Forum competition</a> is open and teachers are encouraged to upload an activity to the PILNetwork to stand a chance of being selected as one of the 20 finalists for South Africa. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnRjFmU8-Xw55PqDz076apBDTZFVKTSc7YBFuR7ED2P8OG6vewEuGvECQb_-Ft5Ku3DRv5mec7QexmJEi4q5QyADacSEDutusoUtum6fhuDGLnvKmriGyBAPl68LLsb4YII9CsYequMvI/s1600-h/image75.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTgUoBEmy8cZgAaexqCyjJJOaieSl59hhpRMPKwFVh1HfvYnAI3zj-2ZvlPs153GpjI3vkXmz1oTWoL1f6Bs8Cfz_TW2Nf_Ca-AOc6ooBlNPXZxW7ammGsQoIOGla0TYayQ1B_t8QM4o/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaYnHQ-EeixqolOUFoLEdyO48r3mXobvlia5joeYiAxn4XBONTWO1Vqbnk_sobKkTjgPkuISpy2W0pS2FWiKGaMYgiMrbqBLf8clQwWUmKQ4fP9WA1Typs1Kmm3w9qzLIm6hUNLCubbQU/s1600-h/image12.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtxwQ4cGqMj0Xyssz3af625Rfmw5mPeZz1a-_WpoJhKSKMEq7oUG4TNUhSnMoHgNYR0u0ICciRZw7oWHGcZahJG3cyl0KlBhqq9IVo7D-ZWQVh5gPsSnTlQKq3LpkqCAylDJZEFs7q89g/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The second part of her talk centred around the offerings of SchoolNet which you can be regularly updated on by becoming a member (free membership). <a href="http://schoolnet.org.za/conference_2013/">The SchoolNet Conference</a> is taking place in July in Bloemfontein and teachers were encouraged to register on the conference page of the SchoolNet website.</span><br /><div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS49M7LJpNPNbBN-KW2QWeF-ijT9nw1EJDSbVFnJgopjwXky8EUi7EYKnaHqx9ckQUIImxNhLA-jONJsjZUb5BiPCY3RyM_nztw7_5dXnefprOzI_b-bLcCeMAu4vPYBTIwudsu59RILc/s1600-h/image16.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMJ-a8aknZI0I03HZZqey5L1WgaIPO0jg8QjbUX_wO8vpwESBeh9x2JSh6dksaS-_NOsJlWGCr5mnD9mNk8GGF__EkrEML_hL-TtPaNWDmjsFwYwWV6ULPoQeVCptTNOm0QR-FVXaIjRc/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>5) Fiona Beal – African Storybook Project</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a wonderful Literacy project that is being funded by Britain and piloted in three African countries starting this year. The aim is to build up a wonderful website of stories for the Grade 1-3 children of Africa. The project is looking for stories and offers teachers <a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2013/04/our-short-free-online-course-digital.html">a free digital storytelling and writing course</a> starting on the 15th April. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYmP0WTTdCs5qU8j-kD3Pb_VMcfTbf5DoEAAAhOOeryFEgTsrUeICQej8MCgb14uKNxwMiRraQGwFBFXWOJnueyz-tPnN069bx_j6tBDCFEC22i5Z6gmfUFAwyc0o5Ett7pxmVATcVtOM/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>6) Liesel Kuger – use Google Forms for assessment</strong><br /><a href="http://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=87809">Google forms</a> are a wonderful way of creating quizzes, surveys, polls and assessments that can make a teacher’s life much easier. The form does the work. Liesel showed how using Flubaroo with these forms for more advanced grading.  You go to Tools - Script Gallery – search for and install Flubarroo. It creates a Grades tab in your spreadsheet. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhoo6_9bwAvbtZBYKhIjyB4azelUJjr0DUtZEpw1GGbKm9AbrO3gto4GNAUjqfA6avwijGJ0phbl0OmEFr0OY_dC3Wtz8stqdnaZZJ08mTvU2Wjs0Z6IX_y3J0DZL0tr-8LvlQPR1dSNw/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>7) Jenna Vorster – Khan Academy</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jenna spoke about using the acclaimed free Khan Academy to supplement Maths lessons in the classroom. <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/">www.khanacademy.org</a> This can be used as a website or as an app on the Ipad. The Khan Academy can be accessed on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy/about">YouTube</a>. Jenna demonstrated a fractions video and how useful it can be in the classroom. Jenna finds the students learn better with visuals like this. You can download the videos to you computer if necessary. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaog-3G3jnYVN2eiz0CVzmIQUTmrvpLd62aipRBtQdDgCMkAUVGnQX1di_AHDSPA4zTLD2Cm16sc8HbUnLmrzRbTA6_TEGDNjmrL6HYkhwt8uuItWFV4yKl3l3rt3ASCoNPhmbb7rdJoQ/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>8) Sharon Cox – Class Tools</b><br />Sharon spoke about the marvelous site known as Class Tools (<a href="http://www.classtools.net/">http://www.classtools.net/</a>). It allows you to create free games, quizzes, activities and diagrams in seconds!  Sharon gave examples of the <a href="http://www.activehistory.co.uk/plagiarizr/">plagiarism checker</a> and the mindmap and brainstorm tools on Class Tools. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjph8lXKBYa0PXf504Nh3r6LhUzjEEuJUXPKN5wcdF88AAsNlsdwMyXCiPQ9SVSqd-tcy01Jh4FjDmBM4TNFoU7QEFG21Nhkwyf8g2YwIFlZBIG3xdPEcsmvtl7FEJC5NlcahgBkiqUxrc/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>9) Sharon Cox – Todays Meet</strong><br />TodaysMeet (<a href="http://todaysmeet.com/">http://todaysmeet.com/</a>)  is a backchannel tool that helps you and your learners to connect with others in realtime. It is almost like having a private twitter account for an activity you are doing. Students can add comments and give feedback during the lesson. You can set a time limit for the information to be available. This site is great for brainstorming. Sharon demonstrated how it all works during her presentation. </span><br /><span style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVD8PBApusEeCp2BYuyR-pS12riqRCwEXQ_KaJ7U47irqyr4UZf4YbqBCzBDbRYsgw6MeU2xEO5jnC69LCGd0Jh4SSAivfrdx4rxCEGEPhTMZ5x-k2nIgUzKjx7EfLugENDv_3qB7I9Us/?imgmax=800" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVD8PBApusEeCp2BYuyR-pS12riqRCwEXQ_KaJ7U47irqyr4UZf4YbqBCzBDbRYsgw6MeU2xEO5jnC69LCGd0Jh4SSAivfrdx4rxCEGEPhTMZ5x-k2nIgUzKjx7EfLugENDv_3qB7I9Us/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>10) Rod Harris shared his Interactive Mark Book in Excel</strong><br />This can save a teacher hours! He showed us how to create it and how it all works. He has aligned his markbook with the current CAPS for Intermediate Phase.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq5SfrjBtsAGftO4B5JpJ9THtzXaO4QTDKaWhif14Hap4f5AxmldH_j6NrzZHNuLwlefsqnhrgBEMCBRAU8ZQRFNjTgUrC5M9PKcJGwn5pMWzPfqPPNp91XfpfCCDhlf4IaKDGgxP4vp0/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="383" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>11) Sam Botcher - Audacity</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Audacity is a free audio recording and editing programme that can be downloaded free from the Internet. It is very easy to use for making audio podcasts. Sam demonstrated radio adverts for chocolate made in groups using Audacity.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_rOD4tbpts0DLG9CHADhzVgI45OSQkVQ4e8wIYx2VCexrxqgM2dQAig2T6j1XXm4puZivwWJmYrUfJlzWg4M-jqsKfmm-WAUGhDDMW9MX7Z5lmWrx1dLcSnU2JnyldazuGxeBpPsipXU/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sam added some sites where she found free sound effects.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ2umjjIIZ7cKwyvPtM9mapsudCM0do9zHk_XljKpegxV9bXhs2yIU8pWK7yYBrv1nYNal2P2pJbEO81yVZdwMipmdNpKIrGom8JMtpyiYc_13fqV83BKCyPHzi1M0DVpW7XtpCXFDq5s/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">11) Sam Botcher – Pixntell for the iPad</span></strong><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sam showing an IPad app Pixntell for creating narrated picture stories.The free version only allows five photos. She gave lovely examples using five pictures that have added effects and voice overs. These can be uploaded to YouTube if desired.  This app is great for explaining recipes. Sam gave a step by step demonstration on how user-friendly it is. The link Sam gave to an article on how to use five photos in the classroom can be found <a href="http://maps.playingwithmedia.com/story-in-5-photos/">here</a>. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNRFh6Dk9XQ45k1cZlHZV_nMJSVgPudo9rC9fMTiBKniQgmLyWV8yu7HEoriyuSRiTZ-A5ang_YI6hqDkB5ayKKLTVf9pF_ijqKlEFSIX0ogqCD6J5AMcty0Pt3lvCaF9ohDhv8p8g8d0/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>12) Mary Lou Berndt – Pinterest</strong><br />Mary Lou demonstrated using Pinterest which is one of the most popular applications available currently. Teachers can use Pinterest to create different boards according to different subjects.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSxSMYQILp3vn2MHC1KUQx9u_v1AP2De0EcIvOPtJhzn16OCNbDuqN0jwNWHXoLIGwhfnRYU3znFyEuSviYGMqjAKrhpdhLb4PxMJ3ZkgO_HoSkYbIEUxsTkCKV7ghu2iWucd3lsHdPDw/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>13) Mary Lou Berndt – Flipped Classroom</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mary Lou spoke of the different role that is required by the teacher when using the flipped classroom approach. Teacher changes from a sage on the stage to a guide on the side. Mary Lou used a <a href="http://prezi.com/oboi0gkggmnk/the-flipped-classroom/">prezi</a> to demonstrate the flipped classroom. She showed the various applications one can use for the flipped classroom. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5sMm-9qYlSQJA3Mi_lZepfWK1a1lQeUcwr2wGF6VxGRlhlXYbmSHMjJs0L1oxneVUElm1-RVtB72b3PVsVhdcj68KAncdxbsoQTVE_qHDDrVFCv5pv6xxXQh1KiWKQG_Oa53IsInlVtU/s1600-h/image100.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8RQWNpf8_4WQKdnjdPCAeOJPb9meThyphenhyphenvb5-4F6ybcEkij3VVCOXlsBEX-OYzFVVx0AWcpJgQu_vGhy4ZlJ_ov3UykZz1N1HIvfqhIsiypJcdPFE12lx28PSFgX5H2IsQ32nct0h21b54/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mary Lou’s principal, Mr Johnson, was very impressed with this idea and sent a tweet saying:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNwk69ob3Lmp0ml9yGRQ3u_9g9MP4ltmJAsigmvg7SG5C8uhxkHTch2AQFC0PNUybEJnP9Lbe2BBsrnRCJiin0rB_E6qQsPnvAfAj-YIa3s6Y6xwiRWZJZTWwbTlzMC7nFpVO0pA7U_0k/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>14) Shailey Lucas – Talking Friends app on the iPad</strong><br />Shailey Lucas showing an app called Talking Friends. You can use this app to record lessons. The little creatures that you select will repeat it. This is very cute. Shailley had us giggling as we watched her demonstration of this. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLYsV66D-wUlM5_FBfNVvb-maQa7_Wldab-o7T9qgjpCQ_Usb1JZV2IwR_USdOHrbHY8DOCKTTmBgAaoRXOQIkVS2qElRH7pTZuRwFRwlT81Kg0cBdxOs2cRAYGs8wP5TLoyFR5S6lCE4/s1600/EL+TeachMeet_Shailey+Lucas_Talking+Friends1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLYsV66D-wUlM5_FBfNVvb-maQa7_Wldab-o7T9qgjpCQ_Usb1JZV2IwR_USdOHrbHY8DOCKTTmBgAaoRXOQIkVS2qElRH7pTZuRwFRwlT81Kg0cBdxOs2cRAYGs8wP5TLoyFR5S6lCE4/s320/EL+TeachMeet_Shailey+Lucas_Talking+Friends1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipPeC5BASFkPxLgnUvsVXpNJb4BeboRCvCHegk3yL5aVj7UMJ92eCuQtvnO1WiJWLM-FX9nHb1icG99TUBLzYwI5TwxKGt9j9NoW0ykEhz4KImKcmuThgbnw6BVQxRljE25SwkqtXupaM/s1600/EL+TeachMeet_Shailey+Lucas_Talking+Friends2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipPeC5BASFkPxLgnUvsVXpNJb4BeboRCvCHegk3yL5aVj7UMJ92eCuQtvnO1WiJWLM-FX9nHb1icG99TUBLzYwI5TwxKGt9j9NoW0ykEhz4KImKcmuThgbnw6BVQxRljE25SwkqtXupaM/s320/EL+TeachMeet_Shailey+Lucas_Talking+Friends2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>15) Drik Greef – Free degrees</b><br />Drik Greef is the Chief Education Specialist of the Eastern Cape for e-Learning. He spoke about free degrees that one can do online overseas. This hasn't reached South Africa yet. These degrees are offered by the best universities in the world. <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5875092/plan-your-free-online-education-at-lifehacker-u-spring-semester-2012">Lifehacker University</a> is a search engine that gives the list of free degrees. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Drik gave other examples of places to find free degrees.</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSJF2AVq5kSr0GuIqicaXGOwo1hIUDw5lzscu7u1UACtlWNUFskiPgNwXYnBXF_bIol4CjUmjpvwY3iCrXiwt8KPVzizl_NeSZq_ouLDtzh_1D8ADJoOxVTugGLIQxCU-T_CQcLNkPolk/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixLBTVselKSXKE7aHiuYmE3Bt2fxKZowcCsMThwXEfIj6SCTupEV1WBeubSadya8IVwXE59eI5WvrzBpot1xlPn8aTDH-uiUM85fAtI4xO08C5GG7vG_WC5eWyvuXPurpqPhVun0J3RXc/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZz4lW7CH99qJ67IEBpPy3p1b5fJZ9uvuzQjLpfnA2kMsxNiOJY-ar9fZpmO_4KMRKup_bASvoKzEWynsKC_RXnMrL2Vik38iwioREOa3C6ZA_gg7y8aQkT0ZjWxr5Do4U8nf5KJZfpFQ/?imgmax=800" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZz4lW7CH99qJ67IEBpPy3p1b5fJZ9uvuzQjLpfnA2kMsxNiOJY-ar9fZpmO_4KMRKup_bASvoKzEWynsKC_RXnMrL2Vik38iwioREOa3C6ZA_gg7y8aQkT0ZjWxr5Do4U8nf5KJZfpFQ/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">16) Drik Greef – Codes for Teachers</strong><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Drik also spoke on using QR codes on worksheets. This is useful for homework. If the students scan the code on a phone they can immediately get further information relating to the task. In a Grade 1 homework worksheet they could scan and then listen to a song or say the poem for example. Drik gave some great ideas. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaVCPBQbZbUjwe6uxQ7AGm7cgv26T_flqd1ivknFyjRymf1hMQ7WsKCRO9pEE3jl4Hy8tpiUY1sG0iMEgqh_6PSKXJ7bc-KlDttLTJJybAZbr9lrZtjWeucBBlQi9a6EQstIcBC_Gzl2c/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></span></div><br /><strong><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Spot prizes</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></strong> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were a lot of spot prizes from sponsors such as Microsoft and the local PC shop – in fact there were enough for all the presenters and quite a number of people that attended. Sharon and Claire used the <a href="http://www.classtools.net/education-games-php/fruit_machine">Random Name Picker</a> to select the spot prizes winners.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br /><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="width: 400px;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" width="133"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnkT2dJE7IGQvPu9faFwU5JPnz1cF6ie0OWNfTdWv9gxEEqgfXcovRnIJVBF2POti8BVzLn_jTkBeBMYyCOW1-0-6LObFsiX5ULCjqULTUQo8CIchmwxoTH3XYOmhEVcfxfCduIr9FE28/s1600-h/image45.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIxmtnf8JgYCcPzMiOwuL_qgXcGvPQQNR6HrsH9cWwE-xIrKmWZfTzWQbn5s9XD9CagSEWXY1tqsHsVUQLYI6uu20WVU8l9iIloz6QdFLVqZu43gDRVfzoEkF6koPvVqLga5MIKhOfjRw/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="130" /></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="133"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFte4FOoOaxfNtteKaqG0ZgbZ8lhdQx_GgGtP-OkxnLfLqIZtBZ6uIJG7WzSQ4-6-dLLpEdw4tQipBG2XaRMH8haFhTsVskazyrzA8PwsGzgfcX1UQ-3RWnOBaMLCj8WF1eGTVP71CheY/s1600-h/image49.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5N9s6dTrQFBqIbTqnGoIhGcAVKbCmk4oVJC-5vgiJUDLXuwCoYhQ_JGD8m_Q18m_99UXMR-KVKVEpFgTckQgGEMzNVU7sGKDgmoX4MKulDBZ9yziaF1H71hmDoNtoqH4ouadRsCF4yTU/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="138" /></span></a></td> <td valign="top" width="133"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwo7hr0dMjVCCmW4WwCpFFxYeG4hb1-LIcCXCl1SnN8Xtj3Z_kiqoxT9-I-hia0sRJ1-MJGEfPfp8ixgvNlh0MA-x2QPYWq2vaM7Rm9zX0B60CJZ183VSbGHoYz0-0AbFKF1EHKor4vCM/s1600-h/image53.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="107" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5pmFVfQRYy9M0Zxv6WtcDNhGYAkzXb9lNMEekn7hq_49-dWrD-jtaWngKttTFfd_9IsyetRpaoQS601Q83ETHJ2fnskcn8EDmQ6cK9zgJ7z6Xixgxwq_WDkCwvl40041EkfcgT9ZZThA/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="137" /></span></a></td></tr></tbody></table><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Twitterstream</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></strong> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Twitter hashtag  #ELTeachMeet, used for the event, was summarised using Storify if you would like to view it. <br /><a href="http://storify.com/fibeal/tweet-archive-for-east-london-teachmeet-on-12-03-2">http://storify.com/fibeal/tweet-archive-for-east-london-teachmeet-on-12-03-2</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong><br /></strong></span><strong><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Final comment</span></strong><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was a superb afternoon, in fact a superb day. If you live in the East London area you won’t want to miss the next TeachMeet which will be held in September at Stirling Primary.  Watch the <a href="http://teachmeet-southafrica/" target="_blank">TeachMeet-South Africa</a> wiki for details. Thank you for organising this wonderful professional development event, Claire and Sharon. </span></div></div>

teachmeets Report back on the East London TeachMeet 12th March

Submitted by Fiona Beal Every time I attend a TeachMeet I come away feeling inspired and encouraged after experiencing the fantastic atmosph...

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Holistic Review — Shaping the Medical Profession One Applicant at a Time — NEJM

<base href="data:"><div style="color: black; text-align: left; " class=""><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Modern medicine has been characterized by rapid and accelerating progress in biomedical sciences as the foundation for clinical practice. In 1910, the Flexner Report established these sciences as the core of medical education.<span style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class="ref"><a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1300411#ref1" rel="#refLayer" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 104, 146); text-decoration: none; position: relative; top: -0.4em; line-height: 0; " class="showRefLayer">1</a></span> Admissions committees at U.S. medical schools have, for the past century, focused their attention largely on predictors of success in the foundational science curriculum, relying heavily on academic performance in the biologic and physical sciences and scores on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) in selecting applicants for medical school.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Abundant data support the contention that performance in the medical school science curriculum and on the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 are predicted by performance on the MCAT and in the undergraduate science coursework required of medical school applicants.<span style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class="ref"><a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1300411#ref2" rel="#refLayer" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 104, 146); text-decoration: none; position: relative; top: -0.4em; line-height: 0; " class="showRefLayer">2</a></span>Key aspects of behavior, character, and performance that are essential for the practice of medicine, however, cannot be predicted from these measures. In addition, performance on standardized tests and in undergraduate sciences is influenced by myriad social, demographic, and economic factors that limit the utility of these measures in large segments of the potential applicant pool for medical school.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Over the past decade, individual medical schools, supported by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), have been working to expand the frame of reference for evaluating applicants for medical school. These efforts have come together under the "holistic review" rubric endorsed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003: "highly individualized, holistic review of each applicant's file, giving serious consideration to all the ways an applicant might contribute to a diverse educational environment." Under such an approach, a school "seriously considers each `applicant's promise of making a notable contribution to the class by way of a particular strength, attainment, or characteristic — e.g., an unusual intellectual achievement, employment experience, nonacademic performance, or personal background.'"<span style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class="ref"><a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1300411#ref3" rel="#refLayer" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 104, 146); text-decoration: none; position: relative; top: -0.4em; line-height: 0; " class="showRefLayer">3</a></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">The AAMC Holistic Review Project has defined holistic review in medical school admissions as "a flexible, individualized way of assessing an applicant's capabilities by which balanced consideration is given to experiences, attributes, and academic metrics . . . and, when considered in combination, how the individual might contribute value as a medical student and future physician."<span style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; " class="ref"><a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1300411#ref4" rel="#refLayer" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 104, 146); text-decoration: none; position: relative; top: -0.4em; line-height: 0; " class="showRefLayer">4</a></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">A holistic review process therefore emphasizes attributes, including learning ability, that are associated with excellence in physicians. Applicants are evaluated according to criteria that are institution-specific, mission-driven, broad-based, and applied consistently across the entire applicant pool at a given school. Holistic review does not abandon the assessment of aptitude in science. Rather, it places such measures in the broader context of the applicant's life experiences, with a particular focus on adversities overcome, challenges faced, advantages and opportunities encountered, and the applicant's demonstrated resilience in the face of difficult circumstances. Each factor, be it the undergraduate grade-point average (GPA), the MCAT score, or the leadership roles assumed in volunteer service organizations, is evaluated in the context of the complete portfolio of information available about the applicant. That is, a given level of accomplishment for one applicant may look very different in the context of another applicant with a different life story. Medical schools have many more qualified applicants than they can realistically interview, so holistic principles must be applied from the initial screening through the entire admissions process for their desired effect to be realized.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">The imperative for a diverse physician workforce in an increasingly diverse society is one important driver of the move to take a more expansive view of excellence in medical student selection. This more comprehensive approach to considering a multitude of factors in evaluating all applicants provides a context for the inclusion of race, ethnic background, language, culture, and heritage, among other factors, in a way that is educationally sound and legally viable. The AAMC's Experience–Attributes–Metrics Model includes consideration of many dimensions of applicants, broadening the context in which their development, accomplishments, and potential can be evaluated. The metrics include grade trends in addition to the usual GPA and MCAT scores; attributes range from fields of interest, intellectual curiosity, and maturity to languages spoken, gender identity, and family status; and experiences may include everything from education and research to general life experiences.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">In 2003, the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) became one of a number of U.S. medical schools to launch a systematic transition from a traditional admissions model based largely on the review of academic metrics to a comprehensive, holistic review process. It was a slow and deliberative transition, but by 2008, changes in the BUSM admissions program were clear and substantial, and the effects were evident in the entering class of 2009.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">The BUSM Committee on Admissions first developed a mission statement for itself that reflected the concepts in the institutional mission statement and then created a set of decision-support tools using performance metrics, characteristics, and behaviors that are identified in that mission and used in a clearly defined and universally applied manner. The <a href="http://www.nejm.org/action/showImage?doi=10.1056%2FNEJMp1300411&iid=t01" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 104, 146); text-decoration: none; " class="viewType-Layer viewClass-ImageViewerLayer">table</a> shows one such tool: a list of desirable traits for physicians matched with the elements of applicant data that reveal or predict those traits. Direct measures of these traits are often unavailable, so proxies are used. Holistic review is an information-hungry process; electronic processing greatly facilitates both the application and the evaluation of the program. Experiences, attributes, and academic metrics are evaluated and scored in a systematic and consistent manner across the entire applicant pool, with due consideration to the demonstrated validity of various criteria in predicting success in both medical school and medical practice. The BUSM program uses structured interviewing, rigorous training of participating faculty and staff, and systematic evaluation of data elements, all of which minimize the influence of conscious and unconscious bias.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Since BUSM became engaged in holistic review, the profile of its entering class has changed dramatically. Other factors, including changes both at the school and within society at large, have certainly influenced the school's ability to select and recruit strong students, but holistic review is at the core of the process. Students are culturally, linguistically, racially, ethnically, and demographically more diverse than previous classes, and according to the standard measures of undergraduate GPA and MCAT score, they are at least as well prepared academically (the average GPA and average MCAT score were 3.66 and 33.62 for the entering class of 2012, as compared with 3.57 and 31.68 for the entering class of 2008). Students from groups underrepresented in medicine now make up approximately 20% of the entering class, as compared with 11 to 12% before the adoption of holistic review. We observe that students are more frequently engaged in our campus community and in outside activities, and graduating students pursue a broad range of specialties and career paths. The general sense of the faculty, particularly those who teach our small-group problem seminars, is that the students are more collegial, more supportive of one another, more engaged in the curriculum, and more open to new ideas and to perspectives different from their own. Some of these observations are subjective and difficult to quantify, but there is a striking, and uncoached, consensus among the experienced faculty members.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">More ...</font></div></div><a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1300411" class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1300411</font></a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; " class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Holistic Review — Shaping the Medical Profession One Applicant at a Time — NEJM

Modern medicine has been characterized by rapid and accelerating progress in biomedical sciences as the foundation for clinical practice. In...

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11 kinds of people I've noticed and how to decide who you want to be

Very few people are do-ers - the kind who get things done and take care of business. <br /><br />Here's what I've observed.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-12wnRiq0TUyQv267snNABHPVCv099k9kzmTitpYAwvmiFpV_9DZxYUnRQ65vTQr7ZnPKc9zLb2ca6k-_olwYxRS86p0t2vwnyOhJEGdGPh-_JOkWzaAPpet4PWrqtSQ8bkau3vEaqcRg/s1600/ihateyou.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-12wnRiq0TUyQv267snNABHPVCv099k9kzmTitpYAwvmiFpV_9DZxYUnRQ65vTQr7ZnPKc9zLb2ca6k-_olwYxRS86p0t2vwnyOhJEGdGPh-_JOkWzaAPpet4PWrqtSQ8bkau3vEaqcRg/s320/ihateyou.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h2><b>The poo-poo-ers</b></h2>These people ALWAYS complain and NEVER EVER do anything but complain. Our society loves a good controversy so these people gain a group of followers of bitter, angry people who feel the world is out to get them. Everyone is a hypocrite? (OK, I agree on that one, but still, the person saying it better watch out too. ;-)<br /><br />No one is ever right, everyone is corrupt and only a few people in the world are ok -- the poo-poo-er him/herself and his/her buddies. Don't waste your time trying to please this person -- you'll just get -- yep, you know what - all over you. You'll never be good enough.<br /><br />These people show up at board meetings and church meetings and everyone groans when they stand up because you know that you'll all feel much worse and sad to be a human being after they sit down. These people see the world through poo-covered glasses. I guess there's a place for this kind of person, but just not near me. Pew!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8wo-qgHiYnnUekr9LIfjAgvsQIFUGno12iKQxiMWCCuua0qjzl6uff4qRj9Zzz2X9nERTrB3XV0HbBi4ficyvWpULTXLoPrkEcVjM5s1Dzy6Lwk2Pc7ZQde9xDikT6XTKx0UDcCs4zK0W/s1600/iStock_000005803734XSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8wo-qgHiYnnUekr9LIfjAgvsQIFUGno12iKQxiMWCCuua0qjzl6uff4qRj9Zzz2X9nERTrB3XV0HbBi4ficyvWpULTXLoPrkEcVjM5s1Dzy6Lwk2Pc7ZQde9xDikT6XTKx0UDcCs4zK0W/s320/iStock_000005803734XSmall.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h2>The look-through-ers</h2>These people are always reading and looking at the latest greatest. Like perpetual shoppers who have all of the catalogs and look at them daily but never buy, these are often veritable repositories of information. They know a lot and are exposed to a lot.<br /><br />If not careful, they can become paralyzed from making a decision and doing anything because they know that something new will come along tomorrow that they'd rather have instead. So, instead of doing something, they often just continued to look - finding lots of answers but never the answer for their situation.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXvByAOgxpvPBoPA7Kypqpfjh3n8kHhYaFtsMM5Uk0dJAxz6BGHka79l1sggCM-wjdlDbkRpmrQAoMh0zfNcdUV0VhrCNuhr4OSl2vzKIYvVDSGKAo-uY4ZLSWg4F6UZeV3NLipOCdYsAC/s1600/iStock_000005792724XSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXvByAOgxpvPBoPA7Kypqpfjh3n8kHhYaFtsMM5Uk0dJAxz6BGHka79l1sggCM-wjdlDbkRpmrQAoMh0zfNcdUV0VhrCNuhr4OSl2vzKIYvVDSGKAo-uY4ZLSWg4F6UZeV3NLipOCdYsAC/s320/iStock_000005792724XSmall.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h2>The get-round-to-ers</h2>These people know what they need to do but never quite understand the difference between the urgent and the important. It is always on their list, they always plan to do "it" but "it" -- the important, visionary thing that really needs to happen -- never gets done.<br /><br />These people are often afraid to let go and delegate the minutiae of their jobs because that minutiae is what makes them feel job security. If they do a thousand tiny things, they'll never be replaced because they're "indispensable."  They never figure out that people can be hired to handle minutia but a true visionary is the one that gets the big bucks.<br /><br /><h2>The froo-froo-ers</h2>These people will curl the hair on a poodle before sending him out to be a bird dog -- the things they do are lovely, embellished and often beautiful but ill suited for the task at hand. Like putting on lipstick before sitting down in a dentist's chair, they often focus on things that are so trivial and banal and unimportant -- but they insist these things be done painstakingly well -- that others groan when they come to a meeting.<br /><br />I've seen some in authority this way and it means that there will be several ill-fitting mis-guided Oscar-awards-like experiences that just don't fit what is needed. When people tell them it is froo-froo -- these people just assume everyone the critics are poo-poo-ers who don't understand that "everything" should be done with excellence.<br /><br />No, not everything should be done with excellence. Sometimes, marginally important jobs can be done sufficiently to get the job done -- for example, napkins can be put on the table in the lunchrooms without tying a ribbon around it. Maybe the ribbon might improve learning in the school -- but I doubt it -- just give the kids the napkins, let them eat and get back to class. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidCcXH_3wu30mFqEarEVXOrUhzIAs5gJ3i1k0iiAzcmk1eh5ItuuUXHd772XdPzsSrVlVf0QriqKDKKqctgQlq3n-rjC5fsLhGe7MQSB_FNUuJJhKgPPLyDN8QFPKPI7L5nFeu3TJdJHQi/s1600/bigstock-The-Complaint--878239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidCcXH_3wu30mFqEarEVXOrUhzIAs5gJ3i1k0iiAzcmk1eh5ItuuUXHd772XdPzsSrVlVf0QriqKDKKqctgQlq3n-rjC5fsLhGe7MQSB_FNUuJJhKgPPLyDN8QFPKPI7L5nFeu3TJdJHQi/s320/bigstock-The-Complaint--878239.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h2>The pontificators</h2>These people pontificate and analyze everything. They sit on the sidelines and watch others do and analyze everything about what they done. They've always been able to find a misplaced comma in that brochure or a mis-said word quoted in the paper.<br /><br />Count on them for a great analysis of what should have been done and could have been done. They'll give you great wisdom after the fact, but ask them what to do next week and they'll hedge their answer and give you both sides in the hope that one of the sides will be right and they can easily forget that they didn't give you an answer.<br /><br />They have a huge need to be fortune tellers of the future so they say a lot of words, like throwing spaghetti against a wall, hoping something will stick. They sound smart and most of them are, they often lack the backbone to make a decision but wish they could.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwFGOKLwowWwJ-dQd3beogxeclWKWFEth7KSnjDSptnMOM3tJWZpP8hDV2GCImzc-HRSGsHaynHRd5jxRJdha7gigF5vGFexYp2WS7KFeJhxqZXF6ZZa9YcZSLivGdUElbbFXucuiF4hlj/s1600/bigstock-Spring-Entertainments-3161773.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwFGOKLwowWwJ-dQd3beogxeclWKWFEth7KSnjDSptnMOM3tJWZpP8hDV2GCImzc-HRSGsHaynHRd5jxRJdha7gigF5vGFexYp2WS7KFeJhxqZXF6ZZa9YcZSLivGdUElbbFXucuiF4hlj/s320/bigstock-Spring-Entertainments-3161773.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h2>The never-follow-through-ers</h2>These people start down great paths but can't quite finish. It is kind of like the person who leads in a cross country race but decides to run another race halfway through the first one and takes off across town to get to the starting line. Call it short attention span or just an inability to finish anything they start -- they start things alright but they just can't seem to finish. It might be fear or indecisiveness but these people have to learn to get the job done.<br /><br />They blow bubbles of progress that pop moments after they are born. Lots of hot air but not much permanence there.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVOvX7ytv_JL6nXpn458j2oT70aKnHBlhWvE8O8ec_P-Oip0vxei_CncA2tSDYf2CRZaRnEGTO_suwfkf7vB_qK7soICvJC_kOoHVvNkIHlGwNmHxXvx_q3wKQ7NAceN5baVpmkR34836k/s1600/iStock_000013746797XSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVOvX7ytv_JL6nXpn458j2oT70aKnHBlhWvE8O8ec_P-Oip0vxei_CncA2tSDYf2CRZaRnEGTO_suwfkf7vB_qK7soICvJC_kOoHVvNkIHlGwNmHxXvx_q3wKQ7NAceN5baVpmkR34836k/s320/iStock_000013746797XSmall.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h2>The preener seeners</h2>These people love to be seen. They are great at picking winning causes and positioning themselves at the front to be seen. Sometimes they swoop in at the last minute and take credit. Because they are often well spoken, they are put out front to speak and give the sound byte to the media.<br /><br />There are times that a good, honest doer may look like a preener seener, because they are well spoken and have their act together, but there are times that charlatans look like do-ers but really are just stepping up to take a bow and another step up. Don't mistake having a public job like a superintendent as being a preener seener. <br /><br />There's one big thing that separates the preener seener from the do-er who has a job that needs to be public: the willingness to share the spotlight. A preener seener wants all of the focus to be on him/her -- perfectly coiffed - this person says "I" a lot and takes credit for everything.<br /><br />The do-er, however, will call the names of others when in public and make every effort to take others and put them on stage to give them credit, with a particular attention to those who can do nothing to help their career in return. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJlV53XhlnUqs4MNck7jzWmmRBz_asHCFq_Gb3mHSGaMULETh6b-8KuYdPaHnpBeau72yEk4VQshzZIXMW5ZfMtttS4zv1rin4hTWZhLCTAx7t0pz_L5iYROe-ZwyA8RuZ-dQnbJQ-U_2J/s1600/iStock_000004176631XSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJlV53XhlnUqs4MNck7jzWmmRBz_asHCFq_Gb3mHSGaMULETh6b-8KuYdPaHnpBeau72yEk4VQshzZIXMW5ZfMtttS4zv1rin4hTWZhLCTAx7t0pz_L5iYROe-ZwyA8RuZ-dQnbJQ-U_2J/s320/iStock_000004176631XSmall.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h2>The jump-in-to-ers</h2>Haste, rush, hurry, NOW NOW NOW. I've read that the most successful people are slow to make a decision but after the decision is made, they are slow to change their mind and stay committed to the cause.<br /><br />This person is the antithesis of that-- jumping in and making quick decisions without all the facts is what this person does. Sadly, this person doesn't stay committed and will just as quickly change course. If this person was a boat, they'd be riding in circles in the bay - -never coming into harbor and never going out to sea.<br /><br /><br /><h2>The I-know-everything-because-I'm-rich-er</h2>Being rich means that a person is very likely good at managing money - that is it. Being rich is not a stamp of intelligence, higher learning, higher morals, or a higher calling. Mother Theresa gave up her worldly goods to help others and was the person you called on if trying to understand how to help the poor in India.<br /><br />Wealth is a blessing and those who wear it well often hide it from the world and use it to help great causes. Beware of the arrogant wealthy person who arrives with money and opinions in tow - they will spend all of their money to prove they are a good, knowledgeable person. Honestly, I'm not going to ask the person born on third base how to hit a home run, I will however, ask the kind of person who has earned money from nothing because those are the action oriented kind of people I like.<br /><br />If you can find a wealthy person who is humble and helpful, they are truly a blessing upon this earth and treat them well. <b>That is the kind of person who should be rich.</b> Being wealthy isn't a sin so don't treat someone poorly or disrespectfully because they are wealthy -- wealth doesn't mean a person is obnoxious, I've known many very great men and women who were wealthy and saw it as a responsibility to help others.<br /><br /><h2>The slackers</h2>Yes, these people are there. They show up, clock in, go through the motions, clock out and go home to veg in front of the tv. Their goal is to expend as little energy as possible so it is saved up for R&R. A good day is one that is uneventful as possible so they sign up for as little as possible.<br /><br />They often like a good story and enjoy hanging out, but doing something is an anathema to them. They miss the point that legacies are built when you work hard and work worth doing and live for the weekend.<br /><br />Having this person in your group makes you feel like you're a mule harnessed to a dead horse.<br /><br />I say "<b>wake up the horse or bury him</b>, too many people want and need jobs to let these hang around." Of course, sometimes people look like slackers because their hope is gone and don't think things will ever change. Sometimes a do-er (see below) can look like a slacker because froo-froers or never-follow-through-ers are in charge and the do-er is frustrated because nothing ever gets done so they feel it is hopeless to try.<br /><br />Be very very careful if you're a leader when you criticize the slackers. The slackers in a demoralized organization may actually be your do-ers who are sitting out rather than taking the cheapshots and potshots of a toxic organization of negativity or dysfunctional management.<br /><br /><b>Many doers take vacations as slackers until they decide they are ready to do again</b>. Good managers recruit doers. A former doer who looks like a slacker is most likely just a doer taking a break. Good leaders know this and resist the desire to criticize people who do nothing. A lot of great leaders may be in this category at this point in time for various reasons.<br /><br />If you're taking a vacation as a slacker, ask yourself if this is really the right thing for you to be doing? You can be more.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii3G4qCrhzRtkEKkOhepzR542gK0_fX-CTP6t_LCTqCqzBCGK8kPcniytS9enAJNCKL0flVjsWL-xIEQYGczrPj7WF7CmkPZgufoFPsYraURG5XLpWZlrWE975lgCPS2z17yQ7ZbIFMWSU/s1600/img_0046_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii3G4qCrhzRtkEKkOhepzR542gK0_fX-CTP6t_LCTqCqzBCGK8kPcniytS9enAJNCKL0flVjsWL-xIEQYGczrPj7WF7CmkPZgufoFPsYraURG5XLpWZlrWE975lgCPS2z17yQ7ZbIFMWSU/s320/img_0046_01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h2>The do-ers</h2>Doers are rare, beautiful, practical people. They don't always know the answers but have a habit of looking at the facts, making the best decision possible, staying committed and getting it done. Doers are known and sought after because they DO IT.<br /><br />They have an uncanny ability to cut out the froo-froo, ignore the poo-poo, use the wisdom of the look-throughs to make a decision, and even to recruit some of the do-ers who have been taking a break in the slack-stack to come out of retirement and start doing again. <br /><br />If you have a doer on your staff, their doing is contagious so treat them well, you have a gift. Because doers can get discouraged. If too much of the other roles are taking a lead in the organizations - most doers will tune out and quit. It would be like trying to pull a truck out of the mud when the back of the truck was chained to a tree -- why would you keep pulling?<br /><br />Doers are practical people with one exception. Sometimes doers spend so much time doing that they don't spend time being. We are human be-ings not human do-ings. Your self worth isn't measured in how much you do -- sometimes you just have to be. Take time off and take a break - your kids and parents are getting older and so are you and none of us lasts forever. Will one more day at the office really make you a happier person?<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg66q8rDmKk16ZDEwuJqhIHDUxAitz8a5yrnSqPqEIg5R40fEPIhK03QhVtACu25RVUTNPKKGC5jRbPGO8MZj2hUanVB6Vw7mRmANWLRmfnFcL4i9KcuS4WpmtF5hH2y7mkQIPIKgp52tYZ/s1600/bigstock-Will-you-choose-I-am-a-Winner--21747167.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg66q8rDmKk16ZDEwuJqhIHDUxAitz8a5yrnSqPqEIg5R40fEPIhK03QhVtACu25RVUTNPKKGC5jRbPGO8MZj2hUanVB6Vw7mRmANWLRmfnFcL4i9KcuS4WpmtF5hH2y7mkQIPIKgp52tYZ/s320/bigstock-Will-you-choose-I-am-a-Winner--21747167.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h2>How can we all become doers?</h2>Don't be discouraged if you think you're one of the first few I named. This is just an unscientific observation from a person who is most often a do-er but sometimes takes a trip into other roles too. We all have tendencies to be each of these at different times. I've been ALL OF THESE at some point in my life, probably far too much than I wish to admit.<br /><br />When I'm at a standstill in life I have to ask myself:<br /><br /><ul><li>Am I trapped in my own negativity?</li><li>If my cell phone's voice recorder was accidentally triggered in the day and my words were broadcast over the PA, would I immediately try to figure out if I was having a negative conversation that I wouldn't want heard?</li><li>Am I continuing to look at options without making a decision? </li><li>Are the people around me sensing it is time for me to make a decision and I'm still "looking at options?"</li><li>Am I letting the urgent things in my day keep me from focusing on important, visionary things?</li><li>Do I need to delegate some less important things and clear my schedule to DO something important?</li><li>Am I listening to those around me about the importance of what I want to do? </li><li>What is the body language of people when I have a new idea that we're going to do? </li><li>Do I let other people contribute to help get my ideas more central to the mission of my organization?</li><li>Do I spend a lot of time talking and hoping to be right?</li><li> Am I always saying "I told you so?" </li><li>Do I wish more people would just "listen to me" but never offer solutions? Maybe I need to put myself out there and make some decisions.</li><li>Do I finish anything I start? </li><li>Do I start new things before enough old things have closure so I can make forward progress?</li><li>Am I focused on being seen, getting credit and moving forward my career or will I call attention and give credit to others who deserve it?</li><li>Am I a slacker? </li><li>Am I too tired to do anything or have any ideas? </li><li>Am I so discouraged that I've moved myself from do-er status to slacker status just to heal up before I start again?</li><li>Am I a doer? </li><li>Do I pace myself and take care of myself and my personal relationships? </li><li>Do I take time to be a human being and not just a human doing?</li></ul><br /><br />It helps if we all step back and take a look at where we are and where we're going so we'll know what success looks like when we get there.<br /><br />Hope you've enjoyed my unscientific observations on the world and that you'll consider the kind of person you want to be in your life, your classroom, your community. Life is short and we need people who are unselfish, hard working, and have character.<br /><br />You have already shown yourself exceptional because you are reading what others write. Take some time for introspection time today.<br /><br />Take this article for what it is, a rambling view into the weaknesses of most of us. It isn't scientific nor meant to be and there are more things in life than this. In fact, I've let this post sit in my draft for over 3 months knowing that someone is going to email me about this or that, but you know what. I've reread this again and I think, the observations of people are right on. ;-) So, I'm going to do it and move on! Have a great day!<br /><br />If you were writing an article on the kinds of people you've known, what would be your categories?<br /><br />

Inspiration 11 kinds of people I've noticed and how to decide who you want to be

Very few people are do-ers - the kind who get things done and take care of business. Here's what I've observed. The poo-poo-ers The...

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Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 04/11/2013

<ul class="diigo-linkroll"> <li> <p class="diigo-link"> <a href="http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2011/04/15-fantastic-ways-to-use-flipboard.html">15 Fantastic Ways to Use Flipboard</a> </p> <p class="diigo-description">Flipboard is an excellent tool (now it has curated magazines you can distribute for your classes.) It is a wonderful RSS reader and monitoring tool.</p> <p class="diigo-tags"> <span>tags:</span> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/edu_newapp">edu_newapp</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/eduapp">eduapp</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/edapp">edapp</a></p> </li> <li> <p class="diigo-link"> <a href="http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/04/8-outstanding-ipad-apps-to-create.html">8 Outstanding iPad Apps to Create Tutorials and Flip your Classroom ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning</a> </p> <p class="diigo-tags"> <span>tags:</span> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/iPad">iPad</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flipped_classroom">flipped_classroom</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/apps">apps</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/edu_newapp">edu_newapp</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a></p> </li> <li> <p class="diigo-link"> <a href="http://www.teachthought.com/technology/23-things-every-teacher-should-be-able-to-do-with-an-ipad/">23 Things Every Teacher Should Be Able To Do With An iPad</a> </p> <p class="diigo-tags"> <span>tags:</span> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/ipad">ipad</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/apps">apps</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teacher">teacher</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/expectations">expectations</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/skiils">skiils</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/edu_newapp">edu_newapp</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/edapp">edapp</a></p> </li> <li> <p class="diigo-link"> <a href="http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2013/03/30/create-an-all-ipad-class-radio-show-with-audioboo-bossjock-goodreader-soundcloud/">Create an All-iPad Class Radio Show with AudioBoo, Bossjock, GoodReader, & SoundCloud</a> </p> <p class="diigo-tags"> <span>tags:</span> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/ipad">ipad</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/podcasting">podcasting</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/workflow">workflow</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/audioboo">audioboo</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/soundcloud">soundcloud</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/edu_newapp">edu_newapp</a></p> </li> </ul><p class="diigo-ps">Posted from <a href='https://www.diigo.com'>Diigo</a>. The rest of my favorite links are <a href='https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher'>here</a>.</p>

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 04/11/2013

15 Fantastic Ways to Use Flipboard Flipboard is an excellent tool (now it has curated magazines you ...

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