| Good news for all mentors: There are some holders of copyright on lyrics who will allow the use of the lyrics for educational purposes. From: Jill Johnson <Jill@jillcjohnson.net> Hello, Steve We do not have a problem with this request. And also, if you are interested in lyrics and sheet music, you can find UWP music at www.musicnotes.com Jill -----Original Message----- From: Steve McCrea [mailto:s2314@tmail.com] Sent: Saturday, August 26, 2006 5:03 AM To: jill@jillcjohnson.net Hi , I am a teacher in florida . I would like to use up with people lyrics in classes Steve McCrea , Ft Lauderdale, FL |
| Good news for all mentors: There are some holders of copyright on mp3 files (podcasts) who will allow the use of the podcasts for educational purposes. From: onthemedia <onthemedia@wnyc.org> To: Steve McCrea <s2314@tmail.com> Subject: RE: Do you have mp3 files for education? Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 14:52:09 -0400 Steve, Thanks for your interest in On the Media and for passing it on to your students. We have no problem with you burning copies of our program from their studies. In fact, we're pleased by it. Consider our permission granted. Best, On the Media -----Original Message----- From: Steve McCrea [mailto:s2314@tmail.com] Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 10:56 AM To: onthemedia Subject: Do you have mp3 files for education? I am a school tutor. I wonder if it's okay if I distribute copies of your mp3 files to my students. I have downloaded some of your broadcasts and I want my students to listen to some of the analyses. If I tell them to go to your website, about 20% go, so I figure that I could just give them the mp3 files on a cd...but my principal wants to get permission from you before I copy the mp3 files to a cd to distribute to the students . Thanks for your time Steve mccrea, Education specialist |
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| The Campaign for Visual and Active Classrooms |
| "I want to give my students interesting stuff on CD. My students don't have access to the Internet. Help me get them access to mp3 files and educational videos." -- Steve McCrea Visual and Active teacher and tutor |
| An open letter to people who control intellectual property... Please excuse the lengthy documentation. I have assembled materials in an attempt to persuade people who control intellectual property to think about "how to use this information in the classroom and at home" -- and how to assist teachers in assembling vibrant and relevant materials for students to study. Please see the link to www.VisualAndActive.com where OntheMedia.org has been cited for assisting the Visual and Active Classroom Campaign. Do public radio organizations need more data to find out WHY their programming is essential for the next generation? Look at the following web sites: Bill Gates on Oprah: http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200604/20060411/ slide_20060411_284_101.jhtml Bill Gates with Oprah (Press release about the general state of the nation's schools) http://www.oprah.com/about/press/releases/ 200604/press_releases_20060407.jhtml Bill Gates talks about small schools: www.FindASmallSchool.com Here's one solution: Dennis Littky (who received some funding from Gates and whose program of the New three Rs was adopted by Gates Foundation) Interview on NPR on April 25, 2005 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=4618720 < Dennis Littky's organization is www.BigPicture.org His central school is www.MetCenter.org www.FindASmallSchool.com is my attempt to crystalize these concepts into a program to revitalize education. Rigorous work (that is real in the real world) Relationships (teachers really get to know the students by sticking with them for several grades) Relevant (specific to the needs of the individual students) The good news is that there is a solution: Bill Gates is funding the subdivision of schools.... and teaching is becoming SPECIFIC for students and their individual interests... teaching one child at a time. TECHNOLOGY is essential for providing materials that specific to each child's interests. A CD that has 25 programs on various countries in Asia will work for some kids and will bore other kids. The other kids might be turned on by reports about global warming or a science-friday interview about resistant germs or avian flu. The key is to have these CDs available for kids to take home to their parents and mentors....for learning together. See Alison Gropnik's work about the need for children to watch adults while adults are learning. Most children see adults who either won't work on homework or who have complete information "I know all I need to know about that." (Well, Dad, how did you learn the sizes of the planets or the capitals of other countries?) The key is to present interesting information (Where is Bangalore? Why did 200 people lose their jobs to that city?) in the home (on iPod or on a CD or on a computer or on DVD or in an email). Gropnik's essay in the New York Times January 2005 Many DVD players also play CDs, so mp3 files can be heard in the home. Steve McCrea Let's start a "Campaign for Visual and Active Classrooms" CVAC Tutor and Education Specialist www.VisualAndActive.com www.TeachersToTeachers.com See the Oprah Press Release below (Hey, there's a State of Emergency in many of our nation's schools!) ========================= FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2006 A TWO-PART OPRAH'S SPECIAL REPORT: AMERICAN SCHOOLS IN CRISIS Featuring an Exclusive TV Interview with Bill and Melinda Gates CHICAGO, IL — In a two-day special report, The Oprah Winfrey Show goes inside high schools across the country for an unflinching investigation. Oprah says, "Most Americans have no idea how bad things really are—we are in a state of emergency. I'm blown away that this isn't what is on every parent's mind when it comes to elections. That people are not in the streets fighting for their kids." On the Tuesday, April 11, episode: Bill and Melinda Gates tell Oprah that they are terrified about the disastrous consequences of American's failing high school education system. Bill Gates says, "I think it's fair to say the future of this country depends solely on renewing our commitment to education." The Oprah Winfrey Show conducts its own experiment swapping inner-city Chicago public high school students with those from a suburban school to compare the two environments with shocking results. CNN's Anderson Cooper exposes Oprah viewers to the appalling conditions of a Washington, DC, school only minutes from the White House. Investigative journalist Lisa Ling uncovers the silent epidemic in middle suburban America where the high school dropout rate has spiraled out of control. As part of this special two-part program, The Oprah Winfrey Show partnered with Time magazine to examine the high school dropout crisis in America. Some of The Oprah Winfrey Show / Time poll's findings include: 61% of Americans think that the public school system is in crisis. 52% of Americans polled believe that public schools have gotten worse in the last 20 years. 59% of respondents are willing to pay higher taxes to improve public schools. On the Wednesday, April 12, episode: Oprah joins Bill and Melinda Gates on a field trip to a cutting edge school in San Diego that may be part of the solution. Former NBA star Kevin Johnson shares why he now runs six schools in his Sacramento neighborhood. Anderson Cooper visits a groundbreaking KIPP school to see how its innovative teaching methods have overcome impossible odds. Lisa Ling goes inside the first-ever high school behind bars in San Francisco to spotlight the hidden connection between low reading scores and prison time. Plus, viewers are introduced to a nationwide campaign, which the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is helping to fund, to create awareness and get the public involved with revolutionizing the education system. The Oprah Winfrey Show/Time poll was conducted by telephone between March 28–30, 2006 among a national random sample of 1,000 adults, age 18 and older throughout America. The margin of error for the entire sample is approximately +/- 3 percentage points. The margin of error is higher for subgroups. Surveys are subject to other error sources as well, including sampling coverage error, recording error, and respondent error. Schulman, Ronca, & Bucuvalas (SRBI) Public Affairs designed the survey and conducted all interviewing. The full The Oprah Winfrey Show/TIME questionnaire and trend data may be found at: www.srbi.com and on www.oprah.com. ++++++++++++ April 25, 2005 +++++++++++ FROM THE NPR report about DENNIS LITTKY It's hard to imagine a school with no tests, no grades and no classes. But those familiar elements of education are missing at two dozen Big Picture schools in six states, each with no more than 120 students. They emphasize work in the real world, portfolios, oral presentations and intense relationships between students and advisers. Margot Adler visits one of the schools, called The Met, the 10-year-old model for the schools, in Providence, R.I. Students are encouraged to discover their passions, interning two days a week with mentors in the community who relate those passions to the real world. The student might work at a hospital, a bakery, or an architectural firm. School projects are designed by the mentor, the adviser and the student together -- and are presented orally, along with a portfolio, every nine weeks. Vimar Rodriguez, an 11th grader interested in medicine, has a neighborhood pediatrician as a mentor. Dr. Hector Cordero says she knew little when she started interning at his office. "I think she's learning a lot," Cordero says. "I think it is motivating her to go to medical school, which is the most important thing." Rodriguez contrasts her own life with those of her friends at other schools. "They don't know [what college they are going to], if they are going to get financial aid, and here I can look at different opportunities and different choices." The school measures its success in many ways -- standardized achievement scores are higher than those at the three largest Providence high schools -- but parents are most excited by these statistics: Almost every senior gets into college, 80 percent go to college, and five years later, most of those students are still in college or have graduated. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=4618720 |
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Here is my concern. Most public radio stations are ignored by 95% of the public... Partly because most people don't have someone who introduces them to NPR or PRI Newspaper readership is also down, partly due to the Internet and "I get my news on TV" THE CAMPAIGN FOR Visual and Active Classrooms aims to get students using newspapers and radio as sources of information (for visual and audio learners). =============================== I give my students the option of speaking their answers to essay questions, a process called "performing your understanding" by Howard Gardner and lois hetland, pioneers in alternative ways of assessing understanding (in Cambridge, Mass.) Students who are afraid of writing complicated words will often use those words in their oral answers (records on digital cameras).... These are urban 7th graders who meet most of the stereotypes the university-trained professionals have about middleschoolers who come from low-income families... Yet they "dig" geoquiz when I bring it in to play on my computer or off my mp3 player (hey, it would be easier if I could burn it to a cd!)... We calculate how many miles it is to veracruz, how long it would take to get there by car, how many gallons we would use, cost of the trip, we explore history (what flags have flown over the city, what armies have landed there), we ask questions about soil, terrain, pollution, air quality (getting into science)... And this begins with a short paragraph spoken over the radio and sent in a podcast. The curious kids go farther and they check out the global hit and technology podcasts.... I've read Thomas Friedman's book about The World Is Flat. Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind also underscores the need for changing how schools are taught. Bill Gates has an opinion about the size of schools (see www.findasmallschool.com) and he was on Oprah's show April 11-12 to promote his effort to resize (subdivide) large high schools to make the schools small enough so principals know every student by name. The urgency is on teachers to present relevant material to diverse students, so we need books on cd (guternberg.org) and radio programs on CD. Several columnists have agreed to allow their columns to be placed on CD, too. Books - Newspapers - Radio... We need videos of mentors (Gates and Littky say we need adults to show how studies are related to the real world) so I created www.mentorsonvideo.com which shows the letter from onthemedia.org I'm calling from the frontline of the battlefield and I need more ammunition Sharing means having more The Giver Gets (source: Marshall Thurber) ====== Is this message clear enough for the people who control intellectual property? Do they want concerns over copyright to hold back students from becoming inspired to learn more about the world? I'd pay a royalty. Just tell me the terms. I can't use radio programs for homework if some students don't have internet access... Hey, even Up With People, the singing group, lets me use their lyrics. Thank you for listening Steve McCrea The campaign for visual and active classrooms Www.visualandactive.com Frequently Expressed Concerns FECs 1. Why should a teacher, who works within a constrained budget, be expected to pay for CDs? Even at 15 cents each, each teacher will have to give away thousands of CDs each year! Response: I have a choice... What do I want to look back and see when I'm on my deathbed? See the table below. 2. What will happen to the CDs after the students don't want them anymore? They'll just toss them! Response: Maybe we should forget about printing brochures. Most of them end up tossed in the trash.... IN other words, can you see the power of having just 1 percent of the CDs? If only 1 out of a million CDs are heard, that's 10,000 kids who are turned on to the power of mp3 for the spoken word. MP3 is more than music... 3. Who has time to download hundreds of mp3s and then burn them one at a time off a laptop computer? Response: Why not engage the help of a parent? Contact a CD duplication company and ask for some pro-bono assistance. Let's accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, What is your FEC? |
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| Start a CD Give-away program in your school or in your classroom CLICK HERE for suggestions |
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| Start a CD Give-away program in your school or in your classroom CLICK HERE for suggestions |
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| Our Book Mentor The Big Picture We recommend Littky's book about "Education is Everybody's Business." especially pages 62-68 |
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| The Deathbed Review 1 I spent 4 hours watching TV every week night I spent $5 every other week on a dessert and drank a great cocktail at least once a month. ($6 a month) Over ten years I spent about $1250 on dessert and $720 on great cocktails. |
| The Deathbed Review 2 I spent 2 hours watching TV every week night and I spent an hour talking to kids by phone and an hour downloading cool mp3 files from radio shows and burning CDs I gave away 100 CDs every month or about 1000 CDs each year. (15 cents each) I burned up a 1 to 3 CD duplicator, costing $500 Over ten years I spent $2000 on making and distributing CDs for students and parents. What will you see when you review your life? |