Category: Teaching

Suggested Reading for 03/03/2008

I’ve found the following to be interesting reading material. I’d like to write a full post regarding each but I just don’t have the time. Instead, I’ll just mention them and suggest that you take a look at them.

Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss.

Designing Interactions

Top 10 Ed-Tech Stories Still Resonate in 2008 – from eSchool News

Taking the One Laptop Per Child XO Laptop to the Preschool Classroom – Anne provides several strategies that she has used with preschool children.

Carl Dickerson gives the gift of literacy to low-income children – We need more people like this.

What I’d Teach the Teachers – An interesting perspective on effective teaching.

Is Plagiarism a Problem for eLearning?

Take a free course from MIT.

What Do They Need to Know?

Interactive Periodic Table

Does Testing Crush Creativity?

Teacher Dropouts: Why?

NETS-S: First or Second Edition?

Happy Leap Day

It’s February 29th. Happy Leap Day everyone!!! Here are 15 activities to help you celebrate. You can also learn a bit more information about this date here.

On this date in…

7 Engineering Wonders of the Modern World

Wow! I’ve seen these engineering feats many times but I still find them impressive. Each has set world records in size, engineering, etc. “From Venice to Boston, Egypt to England, here are seven amazing engineering wonders of the modern world.”

How do you think students would respond to these images, stories, video, and information?

6.3 Earthquake in Nevada

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 shook Northeastern Nevada this morning at 6:16 AM. The quake was reported to have been felt in California, Nevada and Utah. Full details are available here.

Consider integrating this current event into your class. Off the top of my head there are good math, science, research, writing and service activities related to this event.

Classroom Resources

Educational TV Programs

I’ve been pleased to see a resurgence in quality educational television programs recently. Even better is that our kids are choosing to watch these programs over the just-for-entertainment children’s programs. Both the teacher and parent in me would like to take the creators of these shows out for pizza to say thank you. I hope this is a trend that we see continue to grow.

Here are some of the shows that I’m talking about. Be forewarned that the educational value in a couple of these won’t be immediately obvious, so watch the program in it’s entirety.

  • FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman – Problem solving, math, science, engineering, team work, research/ scientific method
  • WordGirl – Language arts, vocabulary, literacy, problem solving
  • Super Why! – Reading, phonics, vocabulary
  • Cyberchase – Math, science, technology, problem solving, data collection and analysis, trail and error, real life application
  • Gerald McBoing Boing – Music, history, creativity, audio learners
  • Pinky Dinky Doo – Vocabulary, story telling, imagination, creativity

I know there are probably others, but the kids are all asleep and I can’t ask them for help right now. Please share your comments and suggestions as I’d enjoy the feedback and ideas.

Cell Phones as Learning Tools

Have you ever seen cell phones used in the classroom? Have you ever considered using cell phones in the classroom? If you keep an open mind you’ll find that there are some potential benefits in integrating cell phones with teaching and learning. “This video highlights the work of Carla Dolman and Gord Taylor and the grade 8 and 9 students of Craik School.”

Certainly there are things that must be considered when using cell phones in the classroom, but the effective use of math manipulatives also takes careful consideration and preparation. I’m just throwing the idea out there for discussion.

Space Shuttle Lands Safely

Atlantis landed safely a short while ago. Congratulations to everyone involved on another successful mission! I realize that shuttle flights no longer grab the front page headlines but the contributions of these missions and the associated research to education are incalculable. I encourage teachers everywhere to keep up with future missions in your classrooms. Not only are there strong ways to connect these space missions with math and science, but there are also strong language arts (journaling, reading, communication, etc.) and social studies (current events, timelines, etc.) connections. And you never know just how inspirational your students will find this.

Total Lunar Eclipse Tonight

All you early birds might want to stay up a little bit later this evening to witness the total lunar eclipse. It will be the last we’ll see until December 2010, so take advantage of this opportunity. This eclipse is expected to last over 3 hours and the Moon will be in totality for about 50 minutes of that time. During that time the moon will change from its usual grayish appearance to an orange/deep red color.

The following illustration of a lunar eclipse is from Weather.com.

http://www.weather.com/maps/news/severewinterforecast/lunareclipsesetup_large.html?from=hp_news

The Weather Channel via kwout

More information (including a good video) about lunar eclipses is available here.

Teaching, Learning, Technology and the Future

Let’s discuss the following quote in regards to teaching, learning, technology and the future.

The future is already here – it is just unevenly distributed. — William Gibson (Attributed)