I can’t believe how quickly the summer has passed. Here in the SouthWest, we get to enjoy the Tall Ships (and the delayed fireworks show) in Amherstburg and the Harrow Fair this weekend. Both are terrific events.
There’s been no shortage of great things coming from the keyboards of Ontario Edubloggers either.
What’s interesting to me is that I found three new (to me anyway) blogs to add to my list this week.
Here’s a bit of what I had the pleasure to read this week.
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(New to me anyway)
Why I Like gMail’s New Tabbed Inbox
I’m glad that I’m not alone in liking the new tabbed approach to mail with Gmail. There’s been very little talk about it among my circles. For me, it’s been a tremendous utility for managing the amount of email that comes this way. No other service handles it so elegantly. Joan Vinall Cox wrote explaining her reasons for liking it and it’s difficult to argue with any of her points.
In fact, she goes beyond that and demonstrates her entire workflow as to how she manages the incoming. I think it’s a great post to share with your colleagues who want to get up to speed with the best web based email solution there is.
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(New to me anyway)
Seeing Mandarin taught AIM-style for the first time
I know that Sylvia Duckworth is a big fan of using the AIM approach in her FSL classroom. She shared with us this week the first post to a new blog – Using AIM to teach Mandarin. Currently at one post, it will be interesting to see what happens with this.
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Mowing the Lawn – Three-Act Math Task
Apparently, to get good marks in Kyle Pearce’s mathematics class, you have to do more than just cut his grass. You have to also prove how you’re going to accomplish this task — mathematically.
The latest in his series of Three Act Math activities talks about mowing the lawn. As I type this, I look at my own lawn which clearly needs cutting. I can’t help but think there’s a great deal of efficiencies that I could learn from this.
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(New to me anyway)
Educational Value of Math Puzzles
I love good math puzzles. I used to subscribe to “Games” magazine when it was in existence and my bookshelves have a collection of mathematical puzzles. I think my wife thinks I’m nuts but I’m a sucker for a good mind teaser. This post, on the Six Nations Numeracy blog, talks about the value of puzzles and gives a nice history of them. It’s a good read and thought generator for ways to shake up mathematics classes.
Thanks to the authors for providing such great reading.
Please take the time to visit their blogs and check out the entire posts.
You can visit these and all of the Ontario Edublogs at this link.
If you’d like to add your own Ontario blog, there’s a form there to do the task.
Thanks.
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.