Thanks to Catherine for inviting me! A group blog... this is going to be great!
I would like to gather some thoughts from you all on what should happen to the original KTM website. I can leave it there indefinitely as long as we continue to pay the webhost, but should we really do that? There's a lot of great information there about mathematics and language arts resources and education -- think about the indexes and the threads and just plain great posts like Ken's response to the guy who flunked out of engineering -- but it can be very hard to dig through and find it. Should we parse through it and offer a condensed, informative website for people looking for information?
Or should we write an aggregate book -- with a title something like "Our math educations, ourselves"?
Or should we leave it alone?
Information not disappearing is a big current issue on the web. If I can remember where I just read a good article on this, I'll post it.
ReplyDeleteThe basic idea is that people who have invested effort in familiarizing themselves with the information probably thought they could count on it not to disappear or change.
Memorializing it is a good idea. But if you make it into a movie, I want Jeff Goldblum to play me!
ReplyDeleteHi Carolyn!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
This is fun, isn't it!
ReplyDeleteI love seeing everyone's name turn up at the bottom of the page.
Linda Moran has a suggestion that's slightly too complicated for me to follow (without focusing!)
ReplyDeleteShe said we should port the best stuff here, using FTP (aack).
That I think is definitely a good idea. I'm going to try to get the cognitive science things over; Carolyn's greatest hits should come over; reports on research & books....
That part is relatively easy, assuming I figure out the FTP porting thing.
But it leaves the reference pages, which are very important, and it leaves the Comments, which are also very important.
And, of course, it omits the real-time narrative for both Carolyn and me, which I don't want to lose.
I've never seen a real-time first-person account of a parent dealing with his or her public school, let alone two parents.
So I'm still thinking.
I love Jeff Goldblum!
ReplyDeleteI once saw him with his then-girlfriend at the Armani store on Rodeo Drive.
They were tall.
I suggest moving this blog to the new website. Blogger has the capability to publish the blog to your own website host.
ReplyDeleteYou can then put up a link to the old archived webpages on the site.
That way you keep your cool website address and all the old data.
As to a book, my sister thinks we definitely need to do something.
ReplyDeleteHer daughter left middle school this year to do "independent studies," which the California school system offers. In theory it's not homeschooling; it's independent studies overseen by teachers. (In practice it's homeschooling, I'd say.)
Independent studies allows you to choose your textbooks and have the state pay for them. My sister used Kitchen Table Math to figure out what texts she wanted.
She'd never really read the site, and in just a couple of weeks she'd put together her math and even ELA program almost entirely using ktm posts & reference pages.
She said the site gave her huge credibility. She'd go in saying she was leaning towards Warriner's English Composition and Grammar and the teachers' jaws would drop.
Her feeling was that we need to do a very short-and-sweet book on afterschooling (or homeschooling? I've forgotten which.)
She's been asked several times to write a short, succinct how-to manual for parents whose kids are joining travel teams. (iirc)
Her daughter plays volleyball, and coaches are constantly steering parents of new players to her so she can show them the ropes.
ktm could produce a number of different books, but there's clearly a need for a short-and-sweet 100-page guide: How to Remediate Your School in 5 Easy Steps.
Step 1: Don't allow them fall behind in the first place.
ReplyDeleteStep 1: Don't allow them fall behind in the first place.
ReplyDeleteyeah, well
we're a tad past that around here
Christopher is now down to a C in math.
ReplyDeleteSo it's reteaching time.
Even Ed says so. In fact, Ed in particular says so.
I'm so fed up that if it were my call I'd probably take the C and just have Christopher keep learning real math at home.
Happy New Year. It's good to see KTM back on the air.
ReplyDeleteOne feature I think many of us liked in the old blooki was the "What's New" link. That way we could find not just the newest post, but the newest comments, too. Is there any way to point to the latest comments in the blog format? I think I've seen other blogs that highlight the most recent comments, but I can't recall which ones.
How to Remediate Your School in 5 Easy Steps.
ReplyDeleteHaving just spent New Year's Eve talking to a mom who had to pull her daughter out of a Spanish immersion school as she was way behind in math AND reading, I think there is a big need for a KTM book.
The mom is currently teaching her child the first grade reading material while she is being taught the 2nd grade work in school.
Since you're taking suggestions about the old website, is there any way to take down the commenter "registration" pages, or at least somehow scrub the email addresses from them? It's (as far as Google shows, anyway) the only place online where my newest address shows up, and I get a ton of spam to it. I'm guessing maybe removing those would help, but maybe I'm wrong about that.
ReplyDeleteThanks, and I love the new site.
"What's New" was a great feature!
ReplyDeleteDoes Blogger have it?
(I don't think so, but someone else may know a way to get it...)
Actually, some of the blogs have a "post most recent comment" feature.
Let me look.
heck - Blogger doesn't have the "most recent comments" feature.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone knows how to add a "What's New" feature, let me know.
I think Haloscan offers that feature, it's installable as a widget in the new blogger. Once you install haloscan as your comment provider you lose all your blogger commments though, so you'll probably want to switch over quickly.
ReplyDeleteoh for heaven's sake
ReplyDeletejust what I need - install something that makes me lose all comments to date
The WhatsNew feature was just a little something I whipped up for the old site. That was the good thing about that format -- I could just do things like that. I have no idea how to do it in Blogger. :(
ReplyDeleteCarolyn
ReplyDeleteyou did that??!
wow!
cool!
for some reason I thought that came with TWiki...
that was a fantastic feature
I'll get the Haloscan thingie
(widget?)
the fact that I don't even know what to call it scares me
oh well
feel the fear and do it anyway
that's what I always say
When Ed put the new iLife on his Mac everything shut down for a day or two
ReplyDeleteI was dreading installing it on my own Mac
Fortunately we've lost the software somewhere inside the gaping maw we call our home
thanks for the invite; i was afraid
ReplyDeletefor a moment there that KTM was over.
the web just gets to be more & more
of a pain in the neck doesn't it.
i don't think i wanna play anymore.
Definitely keep as much as possible - either as the old website, part of the new website, or in book form!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you're back!