Soon I will be leaving for my annual summer camp adventure, but before I go I will be going on a trek to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. I have included the trek details below for those who may be interested.

Here’s the itinerary for my upcoming trip to Philmont.

Formatting note: Activities tend to happen after the backpacking is done. Elevation changes are estimates. There may be some side hikes to places not on our itinerary that will add some distance and allow for some additional opportunities and photos.

Day 1- Opening Campfire

Day 2- Ranger Training (Philmont Training), See the World’s Only Tyrannosaurus Rex Track-
Backpacking Distance- 2 Miles
Elevation Change- Not much
Ending Elevation: 7200 feet

Day 3-Archaeology, Tour Petroglyphs, Conservation Project
Backpacking Distance- 2 Miles
Elevation Change- about 1000 feet
Ending Elevation: 8200 feet

Day 4- Western Lore, Horse Rides, Cantina Show, Chuck Wagon Dinner and Breakfast(no dehydrated food)
Backpacking Distance- 5 Miles
Elevation Change- about 500 feet
Ending Elevation: 8500 feet

Day 5- Rock Climbing and Rapelling
Backpacking Distance- 6 Miles
Elevation Change- about 1000 feet
Ending Elevation: 9500 feet

Day 6- Burro Racing 12 Gauge Shotgun Shooting and Reloading
Backpacking Distance-7 Miles
Elevation Change- An up and down day, last 3 miles gain about 1000 feet.
Ending Elevation: 10200 feet

Day 7- Trail Camp- No Activities
Backpacking Distance: 5 Miles
Elevation Change: Another up and down day last two miles push us over 11000 feet
Ending Elevation: 11500 Feet

Day 8- .30-06 rifle and Reloading
Backpacking Distance: 5 Miles
Elevation Change: Next two days are all downhill (-1500 feet)
Ending Elevation: 10000 feet

Day 9- Gold Mining and Panning, Mine Tour, Blacksmithing, “Stomp” show
Backpacking Distance: 7 Miles
Elevation Change: Continuing downhill mostly (-2000 feet)
Ending Elevation: 8000 feet

Day 10- Cabin Tour@Hunting Lodge, Western Lore, Branding
Backpacking Distance: 6 Miles
Elevation Change: Up and down but not much of a change
Ending Elevation: 8000 feet

Day 11- Side Hike Tooth of Time
Backpacking Distance: 5 Miles
Elevation Change: Up and Down day (1000 feet up and down during the day)
Ending Elevation: 8000 Feet

Day 12- Return to Base camp
Backpacking Distance: 5 Miles
Elevation Change: (-1000+ feet)
Ending Elevation: <7000 feet

Backpacking Distance (not including any side hikes): 54 1/2 Miles
Highest Elevation: 11800 feet
Longest Day: 7 Miles

Looking for more information?
Check this site out: http://www.philsearch.org/ Click on Treks. Scroll down the page and click on Trek 5. There is our itinerary. You can also see photos from previous groups. I hope to submit some of my own after the adventure.

Thanks to all veterans and current members of our armed forces.

Stand silently in straight lines with your friends.

Why is this still taught in schools?

I honestly can’t think of a time as an adult where I’ve had to stand in line silently with my friends. Of course at church services and other religious occasions you are expected to stand quietly, but I don’t think it is my place to teach students how to behave in those environments. In my teaching setting now, I wouldn’t presume to teach my students how to behave in a religious environment. Even when I taught in a Catholic school this was hard for me (mostly because I’m not Catholic).

I instead teach my students to stand in line (when necessary) and keep a reasonable (usually whisper) level of talking. Of course they know that when an adult is speaking they are to be quiet and listen to the speaker. They are also taught that different adults and teachers have different expectations.

What do you think?

What are some other rules/behaviors we teach that are unnecessary?

Here are some interesting things to follow using Twitter. If you are not familiar with Twitter, check out this link for a good introduction. http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter.

Biology/Ecology

@WildEarth This is the Twitter stream for Wild Earth TV Wild Earth TV broadcasts from the Djuma Private Game Reserve. They have a web cam and also post live video from frequent drives through the reserve.

@UntamedScience This is the Twitter Stream from Untamed Science and the EcoGeeks Podcasts.

@EarthVitalSigns If you are looking for information about Global Climate Change from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Exploration/Adventures

@Rich_Wilson Rich Wilson is the Skipper aboard the Great American III which is participating in the Vendee Globe Solo-Non Stop around the world race. This Twitter stream includes frequent updates of his trip. Also check out sitesALIVE for teaching resources. Here are a few additional resources from Loraine a technology teacher at the Jackson School.
http://www.vendeelglobe.org/en
http://ehrweb01.aaas.org/sail/

Space Science

Space Shuttle Missions

@STS_119 STS 119 Discovery scheduled for launch on February 1, 2009.

@STS_126 This was the most recent mission from November of 2008. Check out this page for more information. http://www.space.gs/08/sts-126/

@NASA … for general information from NASA.

@Astrospace … space and astronautics news. http://www.space.gs/

Moon

@LCROSS_NASA… Lunar mission to the poles to see if there is water ice near one of the poles. See also http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/

@LRO_NASA… The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter scheduled for launch in April of 2009. See also http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Mars

@MarsScienceLab Here’s information on the next science mission to Mars due to launch in 2011.

@MarsPhoenix This was the twitter stream for Mars Phoenix which stopped transmitting from Mars on November 10, 2008. It is still active with news from Mars.

@MarsRovers Spirit and Opportunity’s official Twitter Feed. Its hard to believe that they have been on Mars for five years already. For more rover information check out: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Saturn

@CassiniSaturn From the Cassini Equinox Mission to Saturn

To Boldly Go…

@PlanetQuest Looking for planets beyond our Solar System with JPL.

It might be interesting to set up a iGoogle Page or a Pageflakes page with these feeds to use as part of a classroom science page. Or if students were studying a particular topic they have some resources to follow.
Feel free to add other similar sites in the comments.

Our school has been using Engrade since the beginning of the second quarter. Prior to switching over (I had been using Thinkwave Educator, fantastic customer support there!) I set up an account and emailed them a few basic questions. To date none have been read. Why? Does customer support exist with Engrade? It certainly seems like it should. After all there is a prominent button that says “Email Engrade Support”. I understand that I am not paying for this service, but I would have expected that at least the emails I have sent would be read.

Here’s an example of outstanding tech support. We bought a Smart Board 8 years ago (well past warranty) I started having difficulties with it a couple of weeks ago and emailed their tech support email. Within two hours I had a response. Two hours for a product that in tech terms is an antique.

Thinkwave Educator is similar in that any issues I have had with both their free accounts (currently) and with their paid products I have always received prompt and accurate customer support.

Is Engrade going to provide support for their product?

But Annja had a hard time buying it.
Rogue Angel: Golden Elephant by Alex Archer

One of my favorite archaeology/fantasy authors. I have not read this one yet but have read the 12 books preceding this one.

Rules:
* Get the book nearest to you. Right now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Write this sentence – either here or on your blog.
* Copy these instructions as commentary of your sentence.
* Don’t look for your favorite book or your coolest but really the nearest.

Thanks to Stephen Abrams of Stephen’s Lighthouse and Doug Johnson (Blue Skunk Blog)for this rather interesting (and easy) meme.

Bloggers, you’re it.

And now for a variation…

Follow the same rules as above but this time use the most recent book you finished.

Alex Henry’s only three boats were lost and he saved his own life by grimly hanging to the bottom of an out of control craft he had been riding in, clinging tenaciously for several hours before finally being rescued by one of Amherst’s aides.

The Conqueror’s by Allan W. Eckert

A narrative of the French and Indian War focusing on the rebellion around Detroit led by Chief Pontiac. I started reading this in October to get ready for my hike along the Chief Pontiac Trail in southeastern Michigan.

What is the closest book to you and what did you last read?

Last week one of my Travel bugs (Scout Bear) celebrated its third birthday.Its birthday is the day I started him on his geocaching adventure.

A travel bug is a geocaching item that has been given a unique code that is trackable using the geocaching.com website. Generally the travel bugs are small items that have a small tag attached to them. Scout Bear is different. It is one of the Post Office Bears in a Scout Uniform.

He started close to home near Auburn Hills, Michigan and has traveled over 10,000 miles. He has met many scouts along the way including Cub Scout Pack 25 from Princeton, Massachusetts and the GPS Scouts who took it on the MidState Trail while they were getting ready for Philmont. (Interesting note: I will be going to Philmont this summer as well) He has traveled to 11 different states and Mexico during the three short years he’s been on the trail.

This could be done as a sort of modern Flat Stanley type activity with a class and their own travel bug. The only difficulty is the random travel of the travel bug. Travel bugs have been known to disappear (someone finds them and doesn’t log them into the site or just keeps them) or they end up lost.

My students need help with identifying parts of speech. As part of our daily language activities we have been using the SmartBoard and playing Grammar Ninja as a class. Grammar Ninja is a cool program that allows students to learn the parts of speech. A sentence is posted on the screen with a direction to find a particular part of speech. Students select the word they think matches that part of speech. If they are right a green circle shows up, if they are wrong the word explodes and the program tells them the correct part of speech for that word. If they are not sure of what the part of speech is, there is a box that will give them a definition of the part of speech they are to find. At the end of several sentences it shows the time it took the students to answer all of them. There is a penalty for each wrong answer. Pretty simple, but the students seem to enjoy it and are eager to participate in class.

You can use the program from the website and it is available as a download. If you download it you can also use a feature that allows you to create your own sentences. This may be a good way to increase student learning. Students could create their own sentences and label the parts of speech. They could then enter them into the program for other students to try.

Initially I had the students participate randomly. Now each table has to complete a sentence on their own. While one group is working, the other groups are writing their answers down on paper to compare with the other teams.

UPDATE:
I was made aware of this program through a Tweet by Riptide_Furse. Thanks Andy, I couldn’t remember where I found out about this.
Unfortunately my SMART board is not working as the cable finally died. Our SmartBoard is about 8 years old and I feel fortunate it has lasted this long. A new cord is in the process of being ordered and I hope to be back using the SMART board soon!

The picture below is a Wordle from my Delicious bookmarks. A wordle looks at a groups of words and highlights the words that appear most frequently. It could be used on a selection of text or as I have done my tags from delicious.
You can check my bookmarks here: http://delicious.com/techicebreaker

My laptop computer has been acting strange lately. The strange issue I have been having occurs after I shut my computer down and turn it off. When I shut off the computer the hard drive light comes on and it continues to run. If I unplug it, it will drain the main battery down to nothing.
The details:
Compaq Presario V2000
1.86 gHz Pentium M Processor
Windows XP Service Pack 2
1gB of memory

Any suggestions?
Other than get a Mac, which may happen anyway.

UPDATE
Just a few weeks ago I bought a new Inspiron 1525 from Dell. I am getting used to Vista slowly and enjoy the rather large amount of hard drive space I have now. Thanks for your help and suggestions!