BBC News: “Primary eudcation ‘too narrow‘” – article arguing that early education focusing too much on math, English, and testing is leaving kids with a deficient education.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized – the video does a pretty good job of breaking down how our economy got the way it is today.

iSerenity – room too quiet (or has an annoying noise in the background)? Use iSerenity for soothing ambient noise?  I particularly like the Library Lullaby.

“My Top Tips for Teaching Teens” by Alan Sitomer – examines issues such as teaching teens to “bounce back,” change their attitudes, set goals, never give up, etc.  Well worth reading.

Last, but definately not least, two sites that highlight the Inauguration of President Obama.  The first is “The Big Picture” from The Boston Globe which has photographs of the event and from around the world.  The second is from Gigapan and has one large photograph that you can zoom or pull out to get the whole effect of the swearing in of President Obama.  Yes, it’s a little late in the scheme of things, but it’s still useful!

Just saw the new baby giraffe at Riverbanks Zoo on the news – TOO CUTE!  Hard to believe that at 10 days old he is nearly as tall as I am!  Next to cats (of all types), the giraffe is my favorite animal.  They are so weird looking, but cute and fascinating.

I love the fact that Riverbanks allows you to feed the giraffes – which lets you get up close with them.  When we took the biology classes there last year, the giraffes were the crowd favorites.

If you haven’t visited Riverbank’s website, I encourage you to do so.  They have a live webcam – today they are featuring the Koalas.  The last time I watched, they featured the penguins.  I wonder if they’ll feature the giraffes soon now that baby Lewis has arrived?!

For the first time in MONTHS, my RSS reader is finally empty!  Here are some of the items I found interesting:

CNN.com: “Parents of truant kids can face jail time” – “While students have always suffered the consequences of playing hooky, parents in DeKalb County, Georgia, are facing one of the more aggressive anti-truancy programs in the country, one where punishment can include time behind bars.”  On the one hand, it’s about time parents are held accountable for their kids…on the other, now the schools get to deal with students who don’t want to be there and will most likely cause disruptions in class.

BBC News: “Google Earth Revives Ancient Rome“ – “Google has added a new twist to its popular 3D map tool, Google Earth, offering millions of users the chance to visit a virtual ancient Rome.”  

Kevin Jarrett over at “Welcome to NCS-Tech!” blog shared the following – “TestToob.com – student-generated scientific video community.”  I am linking you to his post so you can see what it’s all about since I I haven’t registered on TestToob.com to explore it myself.

Ken Rodoff over at “The why of it all” blog shared “this is your student on myspace,” a music video from a young woman cautioning kids about what they post on myspace – that it could come back to bite them in the end.

Awesome video shared by Mike Sansone over at the ConverStations blog: “We Are the World – And a Small World it Becomes.“  The post and video refer to Playing for Change: Peace Through Music.

Also, just saw a commercial for TNT’s “The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice,” and while I found the previous two movies to be kinda corny, as a librarian I loved Noah WIle’s line in this new one: “I think its only fair to warn you that I am in fact a librarian!”  Go on over to TNT’s website and watch the preview – you know you want to!  *grin*

Odds & Ends is back! I took a little time off and my RSS Reader is slam full of articles for me to read. I’m slowly getting through them. I’m not ready to declare RSS bankruptcy as I would hate to miss something good! Anyhoo, here are some nuggets of information, technology, or news I’ve found so far…

Pat Hensley over at the Successful Teaching Blog posted “Just Doing What’s Right” that brought me to tears over the compassion of those teens! Boy, I’m sure getting emotional in my old age. Be sure to read the comments and follow the link to another example of kids doing what’s right! Now if news reports had more of these types of stories to share, I might just watch the news again!

Edutopia: “Young Minds, Fast Times: The Twenty-First-Century Digital Learner” by Mark Prensky

A little math humor “I Will Derive” video from College Humor brought to my attention by FrancyLibrarian at the Gargoyles Loose in the Library blog. Too funny!

CNN.com: “School defends drunken driving hoax” – Okay, I find this disturbing. I can see where the authorities were coming from to want to “scare kids straight,” but I think this went overboard. This probably did more damage to the kids than deterred teens from driving drunk.

And lastly, a few news articles I found interesting from BBC.com:

• “Spain treats child phone addicts” – Guess it was bound to happen sooner or later, but I figured it would start with computer games before phones! My question, what do 12 & 13 year olds need with cell phones? Shouldn’t the parents have been monitoring their usage BEFORE things got so out of hand?
• “‘Non-planet’ Pluto gets new class” – “Sorry, Pluto, you’ve been demoted, but to sooth your feelings, we’re going to call all masses like you “plutoids,” what do you think?” Come on, couldn’t they come up with a better name than that?
• “The changing face of Africa” – visual proof that man is destroying the planet faster than nature ever could.
• “Sudoku-playing jurors halt trial” – What! How could the jurors be so rude! This is life and future you’re going to be deciding! I realize lawyers tend to love the sound of their own voice, and you may have been a bit bored, but please, show some respect!

BBC News: “Isolated tribe spotted in Brazil” – It is hard to imagine in this day and age that there are still parts of this world unexplored.

CNN.com: “How to harvest solar power? Beam it down from space” – I found this alternative energy source idea very appealing.

CNN.com: “Stonehenge was a place of burial, researchers say” – I so would love to visit this site. Maybe one of these days!?

New York Times: “Billboards That Look Back” – Creepy. I’m against this. Security cameras are one thing, but billboards that are “watching” me is going too far in my opinion.

New York Times: “The Miracle Fruit, a Tease for the Taste Buds” – I think this would be interesting to try…wonder if it would make “health” foods taste better? Maybe I’d be able to eat Brussels sprouts and other good for you foods I can’t stand. Of course, at $2 – $2.50 a berry, I don’t think it’s something I’ll be trying anytime soon.

MyRocketbook.com – I haven’t had a chance to explore completely and I’ve only looked at the free access stuff for the Scarlet Letter, but looks good! When I have time (ha, ha) I’ll see what it takes to register to access the rest of their offerings.