K-12 EDUCATIONAL CYBERPLAYGROUND EXPERTS

RingLeaders do the difficult instantly, but the impossible might take a few minutes cause they're always playin' around.

Ring Leaders are National and International Award Winning Experts who happen to be the Best, Nicest, Smart e-pants People in the Country. The creative lunatics. The authentic voices. The community activists. The visionary entrepreneurs, reaching out beyond their own ego. The madmen and madwomen with a mission. The people that give something back. The culture jammers. The ones making a difference . . .     in other words they are my friends :-)

RingLeaders are Experts in their fields who Volunteer to help you. We are so lucky that they make themselves available like this and isn't it why we all just love the net !?!

A prerequisite of any Knowledge Management system should have Knowledge Development as its base and as your focus. Keeping skills up to date is a major challenge, and knowledge management is an activity relating to Knowledge which as been already developed.

Getting a good education means seeking out good teachers in any subject and paying attention. And asking lots of questions. These experts have already invented the wheel. . . go be their apprentice! Go play with them.

E-mail A RINGLEADER
When you need Guidance, Information, Direction, or Opinions.

KAREN ELLIS 
Founder of the Educational CyberPlayGround <> Guavaberry Books <> National Children's Folksong Repository project <> Producer of Standing In The Shadows of Motown <> the Funk Brothers Web Quest  <> K12 Online Curricula

One of the Best Ways to Sum Me Up:
A researcher filmed children romping in a school playground at lunch hour each seemed to be "doing his own thing." When they played it and rolled the film, the two fit perfectly-- for all of the film's four and a half minutes. But there was no music playing in that playground, says the author, "Without knowing it, they were all moving to a beat they generated themselves." music and rhythm are part of what draw us into the larger body of the superorganism. 31b
Careful study showed that the group was moving in synchrony to a silent rhythm. Edward T. Hall of Beyond Culture hid in an abandoned car and filmed children romping in a school playground at lunch hour. Screaming, laughing, running and jumping, each seemed superficially to be doing his or her own thing. But careful analysis revealed that the group was moving to a unified rhythm. One Little Girl, far more active than the rest, covered the entire schoolyard in her play. Hall and his student realized that without knowing it, she was "the director" and "the orchestrator." From The Dance of Life, The Other Dimension of Time, by Edward T. Hall, pp. 154-156, 1983 by Edward T. Hall
Associates; Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, NY
Eventually, the researchers found a tune that fit the silent cadence. When they played it and rolled the film, it looked exactly as if each kid were dancing to the melody. But there had been no music playing in the schoolyard. Said Hall, "Without knowing it, they were all moving to a beat they generated themselves." William Condon was led to conclude that it doesn't make sense to view humans as "isolated entities." And Edward Hall took this inference a step further: "an unconscious undercurrent of synchronized movement tied the group together" into what he called a "shared organizational form."
Frederick Erickson Professor of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles has written (with Jeffrey Schultz) The Counselor as Gatekeeper: Social Interaction in Interviews and numerous papers on the conduct of face-to-face interaction, with particular emphasis on the role of rhythm in the regulations of interaction and on the influence of listeners' activity on the discourse production of speakers. He has been an innovator in the use of film and video to study situations of oral discourse. During 1998-99, he was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California. a socio-linguistic micro-analyst at Interaction Lab, Grad School of Ed, U of Pennsylvania, studies Rhythmic synchrony. (Psych Today, 11/87, pp. 37-8) 36b
So  . . . who should you celebrate? That fabulous third-grade teacher your kid has -- the one who sees each of her 23 charges as unique-quirky souls who are in totally different places on their developmental paths toward becoming their cool-peculiar selves. The third-grade teacher whom you should avoid at all costs? The one who's got everything under control, with all of the kids sitting at their desks, completely unable to express themselves.
You want leadership? Go find a fabulous third-grade teacher, and watch how she "plays" the classroom.

JOE MESSINA
Grammy & Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Jazz Guitarist, Master Musician, Teacher and Funk Brother starring in "Standing In The Shadows of Motown" Movie

CARLA BENSON
Most recorded background vocalist in the history of the music business and considered a city treasure by Camden N.J.
Section Leader for the Background Vocalists featured on stage and screen with the Funk Brothers "Standing In The Shadows of Motown"

JOEL BERNSTEIN
Photographer, Musician, Author, Archivist, World's leading authority on musician Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and many more.

BUDDY KIRSCHNER Music Promoter North East U.S.
Jimmy Cliff, Buddy Guy, Little Feat, Bluegrass legends Ralph Stanley, Bonnie Raitt, Asleep at the Wheel, James Hunter, Bob Weir, and many many more.

ARTS EDUCATION

JOHN BROOMALL Executive Director
The Pennsylvania Alliance for the Arts and Education

AMY SOSNOV ESQ. Sosnov & Sosnov
President New Jersey Shore Arts Association

GLEASON SACKMANN - Biography "Internet Pioneer" Science Teacher, Musician

SACKMANN started the First Original online School Directory in 1993

ECP COMMUNITY MAILING LISTS
Net-Happenings, New-List, K-12 Newsletters, Network Newsletters for
Teachers, Administrators, Buisness, Parents, Policy Makers, Education Vendors.
Post Announcements, Newsletters, Online Projects, General Info

LINGUISTICS

DR. JOHN RICKFORD Internationally recognized Linguist.

DR. ROBIN SABINO American Virgin Islands English Creole Expert and Terrific Gal.

JACQUELINE SMITH University of the Sciences in Philadelphia Designs Facilities for Multimedia Classrooms and Presentation Centers aka the classrooms of the future. Technology used in the classrooms for students in the 2nd millenium.

AL HASKVITZ
USA Today selected Al as one of the top 20 classroom teachers in the nation in 1999.
1997 National Teacher's Hall of Fame Inductee and wonderful person.
CONTRIBUTOR TO THE K12 CURRICULUM AREA

ART WOLINSKY - Teacher, Professional Staff Development, OII, Find Guidelines and Resources For Your Classroom.

FERDI SERIM- Teacher, Director Online Innovation Institute, Editor Media Methods Magazine, Newly elected CoSN Board of Directors.

RESEARCH REFERENCE LIBRARIAN

DAVID DILLARD - Research Librarian Expert Temple University

ETHNOMUSICOLOGIST

CORDLEY COIT - Culture Keeper from the studio, to the field, from the U.S. to Europe.

DR. CHARLIE KEIL
Musicians United for Superior Education (MUSE) - We integrated the arts, teach dancing skills first, and have the best and most holistic way into drumming, musicking, and dramatizing.

INTEGRATED ARTS

DR. SUE SNYDER Principal Member, IDEAS: Inventive Designs for Education & the Art

SPORTS AND RECREATION

DR. MICHAEL JACKSON - was always in trouble for being a Ring Leader :-) Professor Sport Administration Temple University, who brings excellent Resource People to play on the CyberPlayGround.