Two sites to share with high school students

These two sites have some great tips and advice for high school students.

10 Things I Wish I'd Known in High School

Top 5 Things to Learn Before you go away to College

I will be sharing both with my students. I feel that both give some great, practical advice to students and are well worth the time to share these with them.

Great quote from a friend

A friend of mine posted this on his Facebook page last night. I haven't had a chance to speak to him about it, but I loved it and think all students should see this and understand what it means. I have seen it before, but I don't know who the original writer is:

"The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the WILLINGNESS to learn is a choice.."

How many of our students forget that they have to put in effort to learn, not just sit in class. Every student can learn. Every student learns in a different way and not all students will be great in every subject, but they can all learn something if they try.

I also found this quoted on another website that had some other great advice for students.

Ask Polaris - Engineering Career Help

Ask Polaris is a site set up by a variety of Aerospace organizations, including AIAA, AIA, and FAA. The site is a great resource for students who are interested in Aerospace Engineering and also has information on engineering in general. There is information on college selection, college admissions, high school preparation, and career guidance. There is also a section for parents.

Each of the cooperating organizations also have educational sites.

This site is a must see for any student interested in engineering, especially in the aerospace field.

(I'm a little partial to this as my undergrad degree is in aerospace engineering and I worked as an aerospace engineer for 10 years before becoming an educator.)

Sputnik anniversary

October 4th is the anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, the first man made satellite, by the Soviet Union.

Tech&learning has a great link to a timeline about Sputnik's launch and the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States.

NASA has a great site about Manned Space Flight, and some great timelines of the history of Spaceflight.

Free Photo Editing Software

Photoscape is a very powerful, free, photo editing software. It allows you to modify and correct photos, add frames, add captions and graphics, and even create collages. I was very impressed in how easy it was to use and how powerful it was. Check out their site for some great examples of what you can do with it.

Thanks to Online Tech Tips for the tip about Photoscape.

Boolify helps students learn about web search

"Boolify makes it easier for students to understand their web search by illustrating the logic of their search, and by showing them how each change to their search instantly changes their results."

The site uses graphics to show students how using boolean terms like "and, or, not" change their search results. It is very easy to use and I was surprised at some of the results I got by using the boolean terms.

It's free to use. You can also check out this post and video about Boolify.

Upcoming Conferences

I just wanted to tell everyone about some upcoming educational technology conferences:

1. TechForum Northeast ( http://archive.techlearning.com/events/techforum/northeast09/ )

This is a great technology and education conference. It is Friday, October 23rd, at the Palisades Conference Center in NY (right over the Tappan Zee bridge). I went last year and it was a really great experience. I am moderating one of the round table discussions this year. More information is available at the web site I listed above. Click on "Program" to see a detailed program of the day.

TechForum Southwest ( http://archive.techlearning.com/events/techforum/southwest09/ ) is November 6th in Austin, TX.

I'm assuming it will be as good as TechForum NE since it's the same people running them both - www.techlearning.com

2. Virtual TechForum ( http://www.techlearning.com/section/VirtualTechForum.aspx ) This is a FREE, virtual conference. It is a school day, but you can log in during free periods to do live interactions, and you can always go on to see the archived material later.