Links

Alfie Kohn

Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. The author of eleven books and scores of articles, he lectures at education conferences and universities as well as to parent groups and corporations. Kohn's criticisms of competition and rewards have been widely discussed and debated, and he has been described in Time magazine as "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of education's fixation on grades [and] test scores."

http://www.alfiekohn.org/articles.htm

Analy High School

Analy High School is a public school located in Sebastopol, California, with approximately 1300 registered students in grades 9 to 12.

http://www.analy.org/

California Algebra I Success Initiative

The California Algebra I Success Initiative: A Comprehensive Plan to Help Schools Prepare All Students for Success in Algebra I in Eighth Grade.

http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/re/ht/algebrainitiative.asp

Commonwealth Club Videos

The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum, bringing together its more than 18,000 members for over 400 annual events on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy.

http://www.youtube.com/commonwealthclub

Declaration of Jack O'Connell in support of Ex Parte Application for OSC & Temporary Restraining Order

Jack O'Connell's, Superintendent of California Public Schools, declaration in support of suspending Schwartzennegger's politically motivated manipulation of eighth grade algebra one standards.

http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr08/yr08rel150att.asp

Division and Its Discontents

There’s a narrative line that runs through arithmetic, but many of us missed it in the haze of long division and common denominators. It’s the story of the quest for ever-more versatile numbers...

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/division-and-its-discontents/

DomainTools

Check DNS records.

http://whois.domaintools.com

Drupal: Content Types

A single Drupal web site could contain many types of content, such as informational pages, news items, polls, blog posts, real estate listings, etc. WE can also easily create new, custom content types. To learn more follow this link.

http://drupal.org/node/21947

Educators for Civil Liberties

Educators working to defend the civil liberties of oppressed minorities and persecuted individuals in the US.

http://www.educatorsforcivilliberties.org/

German American Internee Coalition

The German American Internee Coalition (GAIC) was formed in 2005 by and for German American and Latin American citizens and legal residents who were interned by the United States during World War II. GAIC is dedicated to making public the little known United States World War II policies that led to internment, repatriation and exchange of civilians of German ethnicity, both in the United States and Latin America.

http://www.gaic.info/index.html

Guild of American Luthiers

Since 1972, the Guild of American Luthiers has been the foremost source of information for makers, repairers, and restorers of all kinds of string instruments. The guild is a non-profit educational membership organization whose purpose is to facilitate learning about the art, craft and science of lutherie.

http://www.luth.org/

How Not to Teach Values: A Critical Look at Character Education

What goes by the name of character education nowadays is, for the most part, a collection of exhortations and extrinsic inducements designed to make children work harder and do what they're told. Even when other values are also promoted -- caring or fairness, say -- the preferred method of instruction is tantamount to indoctrination. The point is to drill students in specific behaviors rather than to engage them in deep, critical reflection about certain ways of being.

http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/hnttv.htm

HOWTO: Best Practices for Embedding Views in Code

Good tips for optimizing and maintaining Drupal Views code.

http://www.chapterthree.com/blog/matt_cheney/howto_best_practices_embedding_views_code

Incompetech Graph Paper

Online site for printing graph paper.

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

Iroquois Confederacy and the Influence Thesis

The Iroquois people with their Iroquois Confederation were among the most powerful native groups on the American continent at the time of European contact. They remained powerful through the American Revolution. The Iroquois Confederacy and the Great Binding Law is the oldest example of a constitution on the American continent (Lutz 1998:2) It has been argued since the nineteenth century, when Lewis Henry Morgan wrote "It is worthy of remembrance that the Iroquois commended to our forefathers a union of colonies similar to their own as early as 1775" (Payne 1996:605) that the Iroquois Confederation had a degree of influence over the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. To this day, scholars are locked in a heated debate over the accuracy of that claim.

http://www.campton.sau48.k12.nh.us/iroqconf.htm

KPFA Radio

Founded in 1949 by Lewis Hill, a pacifist, poet, and journalist, KPFA was the first community supported radio station in the USA. KPFA broadcasts on 94.1 FM and KPFB 89.3 FM, Berkeley, and KFCF 88.1 FM, Fresno, California. Their signal reaches one third of the state of California.

http://www.kpfa.org/

LaTeX Wikibook

Great online resource for learning LaTeX dodument management.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX

Luthier's Mercantile

A mecca for guitar building supplies.

http://www.lmii.com/

Math for Morons Like Us

Many good examples and clear descriptions of math concepts.

http://library.thinkquest.org/20991/home.html

Mathematics and Reality

Much of this essay covers advanced topics, but you don't have to understand all the math to appreciate the essay. This is the way math should be taught.

From the introduction: This essay is about mathematics and reality, how they relate and differ. I always feel the strength and imagination inherent within mathematics is abandoned by its terse presentation. Few students are ever aware of just how capable math is at handling what we see before our eyes and within our minds. Sure, we can calculate the trajectory of a comet with stunning accuracy, but to consider ourselves, our universe, and all we see before us—reality, and not simply manifestations of it—in a purely abstract mathematical framework is considered beyond the scope of mathematics and an arrogant breach into the realm of philosophy. But reality in disregard of our experiences—a reality stripped to the mathematics we use to understand it—suddenly transforms into a pristine and integrated place. Forces such as electromagnetism become “connections” on “principle bundles.” These are rigorously defined mathematical concepts independent of physical underpinnings. Matter itself, as corporeal as we imagine it, becomes as abstract as the forces governing it. As ethereal as space and time, matter corresponds to “sections” of an “associated vector bundle,” and mass to a particles’ “drag” through a “Higgs field.” These claims are not infallible (likely, they don’t even make sense, though that is not the intent), but they are what the Standard Model of particle physics asserts.

http://www.math.nyu.edu/math_club/math_and_reality.pdf

Open Secrets

Follow the money. OpenSecrets.org is a nonpartisan guide to money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy. Whether you’re a voter, journalist, activist, student or interested citizen, use their free site to shine light on the U.S. government. Count cash and make change.

http://www.opensecrets.org/

Project for a New American Century

Yes, it's true. These people really do want to expand the global US corporate empire using ever increasing military power. Bush may have faded into the brush, but the schemers who sent him on his tragic "crusade" are still waiting and scheming. This site proudly proclaims their macabre "principles" and goals. Can't say we weren't warned.

http://www.newamericancentury.org

QuakerBooks Catalog

An extensive catalog of great books.

http://www.quakerbooks.org/pdf/catalog-09-quakerbooks.pdf

Rick Toone, Luthier

If your music is art, if your vision is unique, Rick Toone will shape the wood, bend the metal, solder the connections to give you the tool to let your beast run wild.

http://www.ricktoone.com/

Sonoma Valley High School

Sonoma Valley High School is committed to providing high-quality education to a diverse student body. They seek to achieve their goals through a challenging curriculum, quality teachers, and an atmosphere that emphasizes communication and cooperation. Together, these elements create a safe and engaging learning environment in which all students can excel.

Advanced Math Placement

The Advanced Geometry program is for 8th/9th graders who have completed a full year of standards-based Algebra I. There is not an expectation that students have covered any Geometry skills in their Algebra I program. SVHS looks for very strong Algebra I skills and very strong study skills for the Advanced Geometry placement.

http://sonomavalleyhigh.org

Stewart MacDonald Fret Calculator

http://www.stewmac.com/fretcalc.html

Stone Bridge School

Stone Bridge School is a unique public school, an independent charter school, that offers an educational program more typically found in a smaller, private school setting.

http://www.stonebridgeschool.org

Surfer Math

A local service created and staffed by Napa Valley educators offering tutoring, homework support, and test prep.

http://surfermath.com/

The Study of Mathematics, by Bertrand Russell

In regard to every form of human activity it is necessary that the question should be asked from time to time, What is its purpose and ideal? In what way does it contribute to the beauty of human existence? As respects those pursuits which contribute only remotely, by providing the mechanism of life, it is well to be reminded that not the mere fact of living is to be desired, but the art of living in the contemplation of great things. Still more in regard to those avocations which have no end outside themselves, which are to be justified, if at all, as actually adding to the sum of the world's permanent possessions, it is necessary to keep alive a knowledge of their aims, a clear prefiguring vision of the temple in which creative imagination is to be embodied.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25447/25447-h/25447-h.htm#IV

Toxic 100 [Corporate] Air Polluters

The Political Economic Research Institute maintains a list of the top 100 air poluters. They focus on corporations, but it's probably worth noting that the worst poluter is more than likely the US military which is exempt of EPA regulation or oversight.

http://www.peri.umass.edu/toxic_index/

Toxic Woods, HSE Sheet 30

Due to excessive corporate influence on the US government, it is often difficult to get reliable, government-sponsored information on the health hazards of wood. Most European governments are far ahead in both information and regulation. This overview is printed by the government of Great Britain.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/wis30.pdf

US Department of Peace

Once upon a time in the US...

http://www.thepeacealliance.org/files/outreach_material/bill_111th.pdf

WaldorfTeachers.com

A popular site for Waldorf teacher job postings.

http://www.waldorfteachers.com

Winplot: Free equation plotting tool

http://math.exeter.edu/rparris/winplot.html