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My school has a fleet of iPads available.
..and no one on the schedule. Translation: no one knows what to do with them.
Nor do I, but I want. So, education: do you have ideas to share?
I’d suggest Alchemy (mixing elements like fire and water game) and the Where’s My Water/Where’s My Perry apps (solving puzzles with water). Does anyone else have any ideas?
Nelson Mandela’s words painted on a wall in this school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
This.
(Source: canadianfeedthechildren.ca)
Google Course Builder
Google takes on Moodle, Blackboard, iTunes U and other MOOC builders by creating its own course builder. Time will tell if it takes hold, and Google is not one to shy away from releasing something only to slam it closed a few years (or months) later. There may be some hesitation to use this simply because of the reputation Google has for closing things they do not deem successes. Also, how does this match with their business model? Will K12 courses have ads for instance?
The tech specs alone (You should be a webmaster) is enough to scare 99.9% of K12 out of the building.
Here is a video about the whole thing:
Course Builder is our experimental first step in the world of online education. It packages the software and technology we used to build our Power Searching with Google online course. We hope you will use it to create your own online courses, whether they’re for 10 students or 100,000 students. You might want to create anything from an entire high school or university offering to a short how-to course on your favorite topic.
Course Builder contains software and instructions for presenting your course material, which can include lessons, student activities, and assessments. It also contains instructions for using other Google products to create a course community and to evaluate the effectiveness of your course. To use Course Builder, you should have some technical skills at the level of a web master. In particular, you should have some familiarity with HTML and JavaScript.
This is a fantastic idea! What would you do with this?
Back to school
So, how would you introduce yourself to your new students at the beginning of the year?
Visual Proof of the Pythagorean Theorem!
A simple animation visually explaining Pythagoras’ Theorem.
It would be interesting to get pupils to make their own animation, either through stop motion or with different images in paint, turning it into a gif for various mathematical rules.
Thoughts?
(Source: brainetics.com)
Resting After Learning Aids Memory
A new study suggests that maybe all they really need to do to cement new learning is to sit and close their eyes for a few minutes. Psychological scientist Michaela Dewar, Ph.D., and her colleagues show that memory can be boosted by taking a brief wakeful rest after learning something verbally new.
“Our findings support the view that the formation of new memories is not completed within seconds. Indeed, our work demonstrates that activities that we are engaged in for the first few minutes after learning new information really affect how well we remember this information after a week,” says Dewar.
photo via flickr:CC | PatrickYHC
This sounds like a fantastic excuse to have the kids play heads down, thumbs up at the end of every lesson.
Excellent website for learning languages
I have discovered this excellent website for learning languages for free.
You can learn German, French, Spanish (and if you speak Spanish, English) for free. It gives you practical tasks for learning the languages, has a bright interface and allows you to test your knowledge along the way.
Definitely a website that it could be good to allow your students to access to improve their languages. You could even have competitions as it tracks their progress.
Age range: 7 years - 70 years.
Planning: Little planning required - all it asks is for an email address and username, and most students have email addresses now.
Have you got any other free resources for learning languages online?
Outdoor play dying out?
The BBC things outdoor play is dying out, which is sad to think about. Children spend far too much time on computers and watching TV nowadays.
Fears over safety and traffic are preventing children playing outdoors, research for Play England suggests.
Almost half of parents (49%) said their children did not play outside because of fears about “stranger danger”.
The survey of 1,000 parents found nearly a third (31%) said their child did not play outside the house because of fears of an accident or injury.
The poll was released to mark Playday 2012, an annual campaign day aimed at encouraging play.
The survey found almost half (43.6%) of today’s parents believed their own children had less time to play than they did.
In a bid to boost play, community organisers across the UK are organising around 500 different events for half a million children and their families, focusing on the theme “Get out and Play”.
How much play is enough?
- The government recommends young people get one hour of physical activity a day
- This activity should be of at least moderate intensity so they work up a sweat
- Twice a week this should include activities to improve bone health, muscle strength and flexibility
Source: BBC Health
The organisers, Play England, Play Scotland, Play Wales and PlayBoard Northern Ireland, have been running the campaign for 25 years.
The aim is to raise awareness of children’s right to play and the importance of play for their health, wellbeing and happiness.
There is a particular focus this year on the benefits of outdoor play.
Cath Prisk, director of Play England, said: “Playing outside should be an everyday event for all children.
“If we want to foster the next generation of Olympians and sports stars, then we need children with confidence, who love being active and are confident in tackling challenges.
“If parents are too afraid to let their children play out… then we as a society need to address this fear.
“Whether that’s a community, living in a cul-de-sac agreeing children will be playing out everyday, a street applying to the council to close the road for play regularly, or residents volunteering to help local play projects reach more children, we can all do our bit.”
Assembling a new teacher care package
Now that the gelato has arrived, I don’t have to stick close to home.
Since my BIL’s girlfriend is going to start her first teaching job in two weeks, and she has no idea what will be in her classroom, supply-wise, I thought that I’d put together a bag of useful things that she might not know yet that she needs (so meta!).
She’s going to be teaching ninth grade physical science, and she lives locally, so I don’t have to ship things anywhere, I can just deliver the goodies next time I see her.
So far my list consists of:
- Expo dry erase markers (with pretty colors, not just red, black, blue, and green)
- Sticky notes
- Chunky pink erasers
- Pencils and pens
What else should be in her new teacher care package?
Automatic pencil sharpener, mug for hot drinks, smiley face stickers, a diary/planner, staples, paperclips, pritt stick. Any other ideas?
(Source: tomesaway)
