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Monthly Archives: July 2006

Dear Senator

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Send your message in opposition to DOPA by going to the US Senate website and locate your senator with the Find Your Senators dropdown menu in the upper right corner of the page.
This is my letter to Lisa Murkowski. Feel free to model yours after this one. I used Vicki Davis’ blog post and [...]

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Too Safe

Saturday, July 29, 2006

The illogic in Rep. Ted Poe’s speech is indicative of blind panic.
“Social networking sites such as MySpace and chat rooms have allowed sexual predators to sneak into homes and solicit kids,” said Rep. Ted Poe, a Texas Republican and co-founder of the Congressional Victim’s Rights Caucus. “This bill requires schools and libraries to establish (important) [...]

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DOPA and the New Bubble

Friday, July 28, 2006

The World Trade Center atrocity happened in September during moose hunting season. All of the bush planes in Alaska were grounded along with general air traffic in the US. Never mind that there were hunters out in the bush waiting to be picked up who had no idea why their ride didn’t show. Terror reached [...]

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Community Plumbing and Literacy Lessons

Monday, July 24, 2006

A home repair project has me thinking about literacy lessons, student blogging technology, and the pros and cons of do-it-yourself design. The do-it-yourself method has always been my approach to practical problems.
A great thing about living in rural Alaska is that construction permits are not required unless you’re financing with a bank. This is obvious [...]

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The Last Frontier

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Maxine Greene’s Teacher as Stranger was written for teachers who want to look beyond slogans and conventional beliefs about education in order to discover what is demanded of us as we engage in the work of shaping human consciousness. The book was written over 30 years ago, but the questions Greene posed are strikingly apropos [...]

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A Bum Steer from the IRA

Monday, July 17, 2006

From Borderland’s Ministry of Barnyard Literacy Rants:
Timothy Shanahan, the current International Reading Association president, claims he never said that kids shouldn’t read in school. But he damns himself in his own defense by making a narrow argument against devoting class time to SSR (sustained silent reading).
Shanahan appraised the IRA mission,
According to its [...]

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Susan Ohanian’s Resources

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

I learned yesterday that Susan Ohanian included Borderland on her list of Featured Resources. I’ve had a link to Susan’s website in my sidebar for a long while – maybe since I began writing here, and her resources offer opinion, research, and background information that is both useful and interesting. Susan offers inciteful commentary in [...]

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Yukon Time

Monday, July 10, 2006

“A mind at full ease with itself would not need to slither onto a page; a serene mind would not need to speak its mind.” (Bruce Sterling, Shaping Things, p.34)
Before I dive back into the edublogging action with all of the linking and thinking, I’m going to take a breath and exhale slowly. We were [...]

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