Archive for February, 2011
50 Best Weather Blogs
February 26th, 2011
Want to know not just what the weather is going to do, but when and why? Then you should have a look at some of these hugely popular weather blogs. From simple instructions on how to make your own clouds to images of them depositing huge quantities of rain over America and how that rain has increased due to climate changes, you will find it all in our 50 Best Weather Blogs.
Live Weather Blogs
South Atlantic Delaware, Inland Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington D.C., West Virginia
New England Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
Middle Atlantic New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania
Gulf Coast Region Coastal Region of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas
East South Central Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee
East North Central Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin
West South Central Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas
Mountain Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, Utah, Wyoming
Pacific Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington State
Canada – It is a big place with lots of weather, so use the search facility for your area
Weather for Kids Blogs
Web Weather – What causes clouds, hurricanes and blizzards, and how you can predict them yourself
Met Office – The UK weather site also has a section for teachers and parents on how to educate children about the weather.
Weather Wiz Kids – Great resource for weather education with a section for kids to submit their own weather photos
Enchanted Learning – Coloring printouts, worksheets, rhymes and activities are all suggested on this easy-to-navigate site
Franklin´s Forecast –Weather experiments from the Franklin Institute include how to make your own weather station
AccuWeather Kidz – Today´s weather and an explanation of what causes it, together with a look at “today in weather history”
Space Weather – NASA´s guide to how events out in the cosmos affect what kind of weather you are getting today
Netmums Weather – A guide to activities your kids can participate in to learn more about weather (indoor ones too!)
Ed Heads – Interactive games for kids and class lesson plans for teachers on this easy-to-use weather site
Wild Wild Weather – Quizzes, activities and all-round weather info presented by WHNT-TV (Alabama) meteorologist Dan Satterfield
Weather Forecaster´s Blogs
The Weather Alternative – Long range predictions with the reasons why and a look back to see how successful they were
Big Storm Picture – Jaw-dropping quality images posted by a professional photographer with an eye for a storm
Cut to the Chase – A fascinating and well-written storm chaser´s blog with chase career mileage of over 93,000 miles!
Weather Sage – Using astrometeorology to predict future weather patterns
Almanac USA – Long range weather forecasts for your area and how they are derived
Watts Up With That – Commentary on science, weather, technology and climate change
Capital Weather Gang – The Washington Post forecasters comment on the weather
Storm Carib – News throughout each hurricane season with updates from each island
Weather Underground – Weather news, chat and resources from around the globe
Windfinder – Ideal blog and resource for snowkiters, windsurfers and kite surfers
Storm Nut – Globe trotting blog by a senior Weather Channel meteorologist/forecaster
Storm Pulse – The API blog that predicts upcoming storms and records weather conditions
Xtreme Weather Blogs
Storm Chasers – The Discovery Channel´s own blog showing video footage of the most recent storms that have chased
Extreme Weather – The Huffington Post dedicates a whole section to extreme weather news and photographs
Extreme Weather Guide – Updates on statistics published in the book of the same name in 2007
Examiner Weather – Extreme weather conditions reported nationally and “city by city”
Backing Winds – Plenty of excellent photography compliments Nebraska storm chasing exploits
Weatherzine – Excellent images, pictures and videos featuring weather extremes in the States
Max Mayfield – The Director of the National Hurricane Centre (until 2007) blogs about hurricanes
Davies WX – A senior meteorologist blogs about tornados – why they happen and why they don´t!
Climate Concern Blogs
Real Climate – Popular and comprehensive blog which backs up often contentious issues with links to scientific studies.
A Few Things Ill Considered – A weekly round-up of Global Warming news and don´t miss “How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic”
Brave New Climate – Excellent and resourceful blog on climate scientology – includes possible scenarios for 2060
BBC Earthwatch – Heightening public awareness of worldwide environmental issues
Climate Ark – Over 200,000 links to authoritative articles and climate change news items
Deep Climate – Uncovers climate science disinformation with educated views on the perpetrators
De Smog Blog – Clears the way through much of the PR nonsense relating to climate change
Only in it for the Gold – You would not want to be a politician obstructing environmental progress!
Things Break –Understandable science about why there is global warming and what causes it
What on Earth – NASA´s own blog about climate change – with quite stunning images
Tags: Blogs, Weather Blogs
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From the comments: data on college readiness sparks public education complaints
February 25th, 2011
johnnywestmi: MEA began it’ take over of the education system in 1964. Education has steadily declined ever since then. The mantra of their defense has been “we need more money”. When are we all going to wake up to the fact that the MEA is a failure organization and disban it from control of our children’s preparation for life! The MEA has failed. Fire them now.defenderguy: So much for the stimulus dollars! A few weeks ago, I read a journal article that said Westwood had received something like 1.2 million? Their “restructurin” plan was to change the titles of the principal and assistant principal, but keep the same folks in place? Their Superintendent has the credentials to be a Supt, but lacks the basic skills. Her comment that things are too complex for her to understand? When will this insanity end? That district needs to be taken over by the State and ALL administrators replaced!
bowserfan: Clowns like Flanagan ARE the problem. They’ve been blowing through huge amounts of amount for decade after decade. They create a “problem” then prescribe their “cure.”
At the end of the day their cure is for us to give them more money and repeat the cycle.RamJet327: No surprise. You have weak parents whose kids are telling them to buzz off as soon as they turn 16 and get a car from mom & dad for their birthday. By the time they graduate, all they are thinking about is enjoying this higher plateau of ‘freedom’. Then they spend the next 8-10 years partying, working part time and refusing to move out of their parent’s house. Then they’re shacked up and living off their woman’s WIC benefits
Tags: Education, Education Complaints
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If you can’t build relationships with students
February 25th, 2011
“Why is it,” Dr. Reedom mused recently, “that you can have a group of students in one teacher’s room and every student is engaged and on task and having success, but you can take that same group of kids and put them in a different teacher’s room and it is complete chaos? We have all seen this happen—what is behind this?
Really, it is more about what the teacher is doing than what the student is doing. And so as it turns out, what the teacher does matters a great deal.”
A former teacher and school administrator and currently a nationally acclaimed trainer, Dr. Reedom sees a direct correlation between the perhaps mundane classroom management strategies a teacher employs and the teacher’s capacity to deliver high-quality instruction.
“I don’t care how much you know about chemistry, or math, or literacy: if you can’t build relationships with students, you’re not going to have success as a teacher. When teachers know how to engage and motivate kids, it goes a long way with minimizing disruptions in the classroom; and when disruptions are minimized, real learning can happen.”
What she said.
Tags: Build Relationships, Students
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Kremen School Alumni honor 5 for contributions to education
February 25th, 2011
Three central San Joaquin Valley educators and a Fresno couple who are California State University, Fresno alumni will be honored for their contributions to education by the Kremen School of Education and Human Development Alumni chapter at a dinner at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 3.
The honorees are:
Misty Her
Misty Her, the principal at Southeast Elementary School in the Fresno Unified School District is the recipient of the Noted Alumni Award. Born in a remote POW camp in the mountains of Laos, Her overcame many challenges life to become an elementary teacher in Fresno Unified and then a principal at Burroughs Elementary School before her current assignment. Her has been recognized by the Hmong community as a “role model” for children and young women.
Dr. Berta González
Dr. Berta González, associate vice-president of Fresno State’s Division of Continuing & Global Education, is the Professional Alumni Service Award winner. Under her leadership, partnerships have been established abroad, and her division promotes student and faculty study and exchanges. González also manages development of special courses, conferences and professional training and has 41 years of experience at various public schools, colleges and international settings.
Elaine Sotiropulos
Elaine Sotiropulos, the AVID regional consultant/coordinator for the Fresno County Office of Education, and her husband Kopi Sotiropulos, co-anchor of “Great Day” on KMPH, Fox-26, share the Friend of Education Alumni Award. Elaine Sotiropulos serves 120 schools in a six-county reason through the Fresno-based AVID Program (Advancementvia Individual Determination). Kopi Sotiropulos worked in television and
Kopi Sotiropulos
movies in Hollywood before returning to Fresno, where he joined KMPH as a weathercaster who has made hundreds of excursions to schools and other venues throughout the region.
Jim Vidak
Jim Vidak, the Tulare County superintendent of schools, is the 2011 recipient of the Kremen Noted Alumni Special Recognition Award. He has been an educator for 45 years after serving at all levels of public education. Vidak, who is in his sixth term as superintendent, is active in civic, community and statewide organizations including a term as president of the California County Superintendent Educational Services Association. He has received the Top Dog Alumni Award in Education from Fresno State, the Association of California School Administrators Superintendent of the Year Award and installed in Hispanic Roundtable of Hall of Fame.
“We selected five outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of education,” said Susan Schlievert, president of the Kremen Alumni chapter. “Each honoree clearly deserves recognition for enhancing the quality of education in our Valley.”
The banquet honoring this year’s awardees is scheduled in the East Room of the Residence Dining Facility at Fresno State. The event is open to the public. Tickets are $40 and are available in Kremen Building, room 205 (associate dean’s office). For more information and to make reservations, call 559.278.0249.
Tags: Education, Kremen School
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Making School More Affordable
February 24th, 2011
1. Look on Amazon.com and eBay for curriculum books and educational games/toys. Very often, you can find exactly what you’re looking for at a fraction of the price. And if you’re not sure what you’re looking for, go to a store and look around until you’ve narrowed it down, then come home and see if you can find it online. Earlier I blogged about a series of comprehensive curriculum books I like using – I’ve found copies of those books on Amazon for a dollar.
2. Depending on the workbooks you’re using, you can sometimes place a plastic sheet protector on top of the page and have your child use an erasable marker to write down their answers. Then wipe the sheet clean and reuse it. When that child has worked their way through the book, you can use it again for the next child, without having to erase all the answers or purchase a new book.
3. If you have friends who homeschool, set up a workbook co-op. If your friend Jane has a fifth grader and you have a child in fourth, you can borrow Jane’s books next year when she doesn’t need them. Using the plastic sheet idea is great when borrowing – you can utilize the information without marking up your friend’s book.
4. Talk to your friends about what books and games they recommend, and maybe let your children play with those things at your friend’s house so you’ll know if they’ll enjoy that item before you purchase it.
5. There are kazillions of free homeschool resources online, from worksheets to download to atlases and dictionaries and thesauruses all at the click of a button. The Internet makes homeschooling so much easier – if you need to look something up, presto! If you want to show your child a picture of an iguana, you don’t have to make an emergency trip to the library – pull it up on the Internet! Sign up with a good provider at a reasonable price and then really use it to supplement your school.
By doing a little product research, using your creativity, and asking questions, you can maximize your homeschool budget and (hopefully) keep from spending a lot of money on things you’ll never use.
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