Open Classroom Conference This Weekend

The conference starts Friday night, and goes all day Saturday.
It's titled:

Get Up, Stand Up; Democratic Education as a Right

There's lots of good stuff, including:

Deborah Meier and Jane Andrias, talking about progressive education.

Review and discuss the education reform issues brought up in the film Waiting for Superman. Brit Satchwell, Ann Arbor Education Association president (that's the teacher's union) will help the group develop "talking points" in reponse to the film. [I think this is a really great idea. I haven't seen the film because I thought it would upset me; the idea of developing talking points in response to it sounds like an excellent plan.]

There will also be small group discussions led by Chris Curtis (current Slauson principal), Stewart Wood, and Irene Allen.

The conference is at Camp Ohiyesa, which is about a 40-minute drive from Ann Arbor.

Find out more and get a registration form here.

Warren Buffet, You're A Cool Man

This is a great letter explaining why Warren Buffett is donating 99% of his wealth.

Hat-tip to Mark Maynard, another cool man. (And cool blogger.)

Landslides and Lakes: Geology, English, Hydrology

Warning: This post is not about Education. It is about my education, though.

I've been completely fascinated by a blog that Ed Vielmetti sent me to: Dave's Landslide Blog. I've been learning a tremendous amount about geology and geography (okay, I already knew a fair bit, but not about landslides). They seem to happen around the world nearly every day.

Right now there is a huge lake (at least 12 miles long and over 300 feet deep), growing daily, that was formed by a landslide in January. It is about to overflow any day now, with the possibility of a ginormous (I like that word) flood. Many villages have already flooded, more are about to be flooded. All in a part of Pakistan that I didn't even know about. And there are all sorts of politics going on in the area. The Pakistan-China road (Karkoram Highway) has been blocked and flooded. And if there is a disaster, it will be because the government didn't step up to the plate and prepare. Did I mention that the area is incredibly beautiful? Welcome to Gilgit-Baltistan, where the Attabad Lake has formed in the Hunza district. The lake is about to overtop tomorrow or the next day. How big will the flood be? I've been checking, practically hourly. (Picture taken from Dave's Landslide Blog.)

Another thing that is really interesting to me is the English of the Pakistani news sources--the English reads really differently from ours. Turn in to the Pamir Times to see what I mean. It reminds me of a debate I read about in one of my English classes, over whether there is, or should be, a single World English, or multiple World Englishes. Reading the Pakistani news sources, I lean toward Englishes.