For Robert

Yesterday, I sent out this link to our science department.  It's to a very nice online game from the Minnesota Museum of Science about human cellular biology.  This morning, Robert, one of the science teachers here emailed to say that they had just finished their cell unit last week.  A day or two late and apparently a dollar short!  I told him I would put the link up on the blog so that next year when he vaguely remembered that there was some sort of website that I sent out, I could say, "Yeah, I think I saved it somewhere."

Here it is! http://www.smm.org/tissues/index.php

Hittin' 'em Where They Live- Constitution Study Aids

Teaching is a funny business.  On one hand, you want to be a professional and be thought of as a trusted source.  On the other hand, you want to be able to convey information in a form that is meaningful for your students.  Some teachers are young enough to even be credible while talking to the kids in "their language."  Some, like me, would just look silly to the kids.

Having said that, I still think it's useful to sometimes let the kids create projects using the language and forms that are meaningful to them.  I'm not a giant rap fan, but the format does have its' uses, as in this "Bill of Rights Rap."  Our seniors just completed a unit where they had to memorize all of the articles of the Constitution and be able to apply them in certain situations.  Next, they move on to the Bill of Rights.  This video could serve as a useful study guide, in a format that they can easily memorize!


Other useful study tools would be the online games from the US Supreme Court.  These games, apparently, have been a pet project of  Sandra Day O'Connor, former Supreme Court Justice.  Our middle schoolers really love "Do I Have A Right?"

Thanks to Oswego98 for sharing the rapon Twitter and rmbyrne for sharing it on Free Technology For Teachers

The Art of the Inaugural Speeches

I've written about Wordle, a word cloud generator, before.  I think it's a great tool, and one that students can be very engaged in using.  Thanks to TechnologyInEd for tweeting this!

This word cloud gallery, from Governing Dynamo is a collection if Presidential images and word clouds made from each President's inaugural speeches.  One activity that came to mind as I played with this would be to have students look at the word clouds of the speeches of a particular president or era and have them generate a list of issues they think were important at that time.  Once they've come up with a list of issues to research, they could create presentations (using Prezi, Animoto, Glogster or any of about a thousand other tools!) to give to their classmates about what they have discovered.  A much more engaging way to learn about, say, the presidency of William Henry Harrison, or the events immediately preceeding the Civfil War than to simply listen to a lecture. 


A caution about Wordle:  There is some inappropriate content on the site which students may come across.  I would give the kids a link to a specific word cloud you want them to look at or to the cloud generator.  I would not have them search it on their own.

Animated Bayeaux Tapestry

Ok, I admit it, I love history and always have.  That's probably why I was a history teacher until I got this job.  I'll admit it, I love educational technology, too, and when you can find the two together, it's bliss.  Today's offering is the Bayeaux Tapestry, animated, from Open Culture's YouTube Channel.  The story picks up about half way through the tapestry at the appearance of Halley's Comet and just before the Norman Invasion.  My family went to Hastings several years ago, which gives the whole thing a totally different perspective. Enjoy!

Death to Dull Powerpoints!

A colleague came to the lab yesterday to tell me about this really fantastic presentation he had seen another of our colleague give in class.  The presenter had used a tool I'd read about, called Prezi.  Prezi lets you create slides, zoom in on key points, emphasize ideas, and animate your text.  Here's one I did.  To run it, click the left and right arrows or hover over the word "More" and select "Autoplay."




Frequently, people complain about having to sit through PowerPoints presentations.  None of us likes to have a presenter read, word for word, the text on the slide.  Yawn.  Just let me read it--I can read faster than you can speak! 

I always use the 6-6 rule.  No more than 6 bullet points per slide, and no more than 6 words per point.  This forces me to summarize succinctly and it requires me to know my material well.  Guy Kawasaki, a venture capitalist, has the 10-20-30 rule.  I'll let him tell you about it.

Origami in Math

 

Any one who knows me know that Mr. Math and I are not very good friends.  In fact, we barely have an acquiantance, which is why it seems odd to be posting a video about math.  This beautiful, 2-minute film is about the mathematics of origami and is worth the time just to see the fantastic creations that can be constructed out of paper!  I may need to go home and pull the origami books out of the kids closets!

(To view this full screen, right click on the video and select "Full Screen.")

Learning on the Sly

I spent a fair amount of time this week working on my Online Activities page.  The kids at my school aren't allowed to play computer games, but there are some really, really good learning activities online that I think students should be allowed to do.  Besides, we don't really have a playground for the younger students to use after lunch, so they flock to the lab to "play" games.  The reason I spent so much time working on the page this week is that several students had suggested new activities, so I wanted to look at them and then update my page.

One of the new activities was suggested by a colleague.  It's the game page from the US Supreme Court.  I know.  It sounds like a major yawn, but the 6th grade is crazy about these games.  They are fun and very educational, although I suspect some of the kids like to be able to go home to their lawyer parents and correct them. :)

Another new addition to the page is a library of physics activities.  Physics Games has dozens of activities that are fun, and teach the principles of physics at the same time.  Some of the older middle-schoolers love these activities, not realizing the great lessons they are learning about the physics of a trebuchet!

Finally, this set of activities comes from one of my Twitterpeeps, samorra. Edheads has several beautifully designed games that teach all sorts of lessons:  learn how to resurface a hip and learn human anatomy, help the state police investigate a serious car accident and learn all about the physics of high speed crashes, or, build a cell phone and learn all about where the materials used come from and their impact on the environment. 

I love the internet!