Ukranian Protest

Seeing what happened in last weeks uprising in Ukraine, I thought I would share this video I saw on Youtube.

Purpose Games

Want your kids to identify parts of the cell or bones in the skeleton or countries on a map or elements in a Periodic Table or anything else.  Well at this site you can have the students do a labelling game or just make up your own.  Check out the following  on labelling parts of the heart.  Click here for the game makers page.  In the top left corner you will see this picture I placed below.  When you click on picture on the game makers page the game will start.  If you want you can click here to see the game.

Below is one for the periodic table with 30 elements that need to be identified.  Click here to see the game makers page.

If you would like one with more elements click here.  If you think you know the table inside and out, then try this one by clicking here.

eQuiz show - Jeopardy

Jeopardy is a great way to review for a quiz or test.  I posted about Jeopardy a couple of times.  See here or here .  Today I am showing another one.  You can make up your own or browse others that have been made up.  Just make up a title and your self made teacher password and you are good to go.  Pretty much easy as 

that.  No downloading anything.  To see the website click here.

Headline Clues Game

This game is brought to you by Michigan State University.  Select daily news articles from  the following topics:

Then the game will start by displaying the headline with two words missing.  The first paragraph of the article will be listed below.  From that information you can try and fill in the missing letters.  You could also play this game in class by cutting out any article you want from the news paper and putting it on an overhead transparency.  If you have a smartboard in your class this would be a good bell ringer.  Too see the game click here.

Fitness Gram Brochure Project

Here is a project that you might use in your Physical Fitness class in a health unit.  The students will produce a brochure.  Included with this word document is a rubric.  Topics included are: Cardiovascular Endurance, Muscular Strength/Endurance, Flexibility and Body  Composition.  To download the file click here.

Hans Rosling Video on overpopulation

I really like some of Hans Rosling's videos on population growth.  I have posted some before.  Here is his latest one.

Canada in WWI - smartboard review

If you are using a Smartboard then you should look at their site for some smart lessons that are already made by teachers.  Here is one on Canada in WWI by Jillian Hayward.  There are a few things in this 23 slide lesson.  You can arrow through the slides without downloading it to see if it is something you would use.  Their is a snakes and ladders game as well as a puzzle reveal and a bunch of questions for review.

To see the file click here.

Visual Thesaurus

This site displays word maps that blossom out with related words.  For example I used the word "slow" and here is what i received from my query.

This is a not a free site but you can try a few words or get a 14 day risk free trial.  To see the website click here.

Word Sense

Word Sense is a re-imagined dictionary and thesaurus where you can see connections between words.  You can start with one word and watch the pathways until you get to the word you use.  To see the website click here.

Flocabulary - Keep, Change, Flip

A rap to help remember how to divide fractions.  Keep, Change, Flip!  Sorry this would of been nice to have at the beginning of the year for your grade 9's but maybe it could be used in your locally developed math class.

Project Based Learning

 

The following video and link is for a senior academic class.  The main concept used is Project Based Learning.  From Edutopia, "To succeed in today’s complex, dynamic, and globally connected world, students need to have a depth of understanding and learning that is far more than memorization and recollection of facts and figures. Rigorous project-based learning (PBL), as well as the skills and resources for achieving it, offers a promising pedagogical approach to helping all students succeed".  To see the article click here.

Always Proof Read

Take a look at these reasons to proof read your work by clicking here.
For example

However making mistakes is all part of learning.  See the following classic video on failure.

Speaking of failure and rejection, take a look at these authors who were rejected by clicking here.

The Olympic Diet

If you have been watching CBC to get your winter Olympic fix you will have seen their ASAP science shorts.  Here is one you might use in your health or foods class.

AirPano

AirPano is a great way for students to view some of the places you are talking about in your Social Science classes or on a Lit Trip.  Take a virtual tour of places like Peterhoff in Russia (I was amazed when I took the family there, see pic below)or the Great Wall of China or Niagra Falls.  To see this site click here.

Is This Product Healthy?

The following comes from Mrs. S. on TeachersPayTeachers.  It could be used in a Health class or Foods class.  This lesson has been downloaded over 11,000 times!  If you are not a member of TeachersPayTeachers you should as it is free to register and there are many free items like this there.

Ever had a student ask, "Is this product "healthy?"

This lesson includes everything students should know about reading food labels and gives the formulas to figure out if a food is healthy enough to be in school vending machine (if a school is classified as a "Healthy School" a product must be less than 35% fat end less than 35% sugar, or no more than 15 grams of sugar).

Have fun with this easy to follow lesson that teaches skills students will use for life!!

THIS LESSON IS INCLUDED IN THE BEST HEALTH CURRICULUM: A COMPLETE SEMESTER OF HEALTH LESSON PLANS AND IS ALSO PART OF THE "NUTRITION UNIT." (See links below)

The lesson starts with a 23-slide PowerPoint lesson and follows up with a worksheet where each student will pick a product or label and read it on their own.

28 pages of step-by-step teacher directions follow the PowerPoint and make teaching this lesson easy!

The PowerPoint will teach students how manufacturers may try to deceive consumers and why it's important to know how to discern the information on a label (beware of unrealistic serving sizes, deceptive servings per container, misleading container information, etc). Students will learn how to pick what's worth reading on a food label and how to understand a food label.


To download the Teachers directions in Word click here.  To download the student presentation powerpoint click here.  Mrs. S. link to this on TeachersPayTeachers can be found by clicking  here.

Infant Mortality Rates

Window into Global History

This website has several lesson plans and videos covering such topics as: conflict, migration, power, economic systems, human rights, factors of production, social structures and political systems.

To see the website click here.

Student Designed Infographics

I really love infographics.  I have posted several times about them.  My last post was on Valentines Day last week. To see it click here. If you teach a Data Management class I thought having the students design an infographic would be a great FSE or project.  I was reading Catlin Tucker's (an Honors English Teacher) blog and she uses infographics quite frequently.  From her blog, "During our Of Mice and Men unit, I linked to infographics on both mental health and mental illness in America. When we read To Kill a Mockingbird, I linked to infographics focused on racial inequality in the justice system, the death penalty, and the prison system in the United States. These visual displays of information were a powerful way to expose my students to facts and research and help them to conceptualize what infographics look like".

In fact she has a great assignment that she uses to have students create infographics.  To see her blog on this click here.  If you like her post and would like to possibly use this in your class make sure to read the comments and especially her replies at the bottom of the article.  This might be a great way for students to research project but not in the traditional manner yet still cover topics such as: preparing for research, accessing resources, processing information and finally transferring learning.

Persuasive Writing

Here is another anchor chart that I made a zoom.it from.  This originally came from here.

Biointeractive

Do you want science lesson plans, short films, animations, classroom activities or slideshows?   This website by The Howard Hughes Medical Institute might be what you are looking for.  Too see the website click here.

Walking On Egg Shells

I posted about Spangler and Science back in April 23 2013.  To see that post click here.  If you are discussing structural integrity or strength of an object you need to look no farther than the egg.  Even though the shell is thin, its shape gives it strength.  Check out the following video by Steve Spangler or check out the link to the resources for this video on his site by clicking here.

cell labelling interactive

This might be a quick ticket out the door item if you have a computer or smart board in your science class.
Click here to go to the website.

Infographics

I have previously posted about making Infographics, see my post on December 19 2012 by clicking here or my post on September 13 2013 by clicking here.  In these previous posts I discussed three different sites to make infographics. If you don't know what an infographic is then here is an example.

by yodalondon.

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

 Thanks to Richard Byrne for the following two sites that you can make infographics.

Using Presenter you can make interactive Infograpics.  To see their site click here.

This is a drag and drop presentation tool where you can make graphics, presentations, flyers, business cards etc.  To see the site click here or see the video below.

Timeless Truth

When you are running short on time, what should you do first?  If you are a student, your week may be something like, I have homework due in Math class, a quiz in Biology, a test in English, track practice after school every night, work three nights a week, group project due, your hobbies and your cousin is coming in from out of town.  You get the picture.  Teachers you have similar things like make lessons, mark tests, coach in the morning, pick your kids up after school etc. Watch this video as it helps put things in perspective.

It is a powerful message to put the big rocks in first.  When kids get stressed, just remind them of that.

Crash Course Psychology

Hank Green of Crash Course is at it again.  If you have never seen Crash Course check out their English Literature, History and Science videos on Youtube.  They are fast passed and on target.

This time he is tackling Psychology.  This would be great for a preview or review.  Take a look below.

Interactive Art

The first site reminded me of first year Calculus where we rotated a 2 dimensional curve segment about a fixed axis to create a 3 dimensional curve.  We then had to calculate the volume of said object.  If your not a science/mathematics person you don't care so let's get to the art.  On String Spin, first you draw your curve.

This will be the shape that we will then rotate about a vertical axis.  I decided to make a screencast of the next few steps so you could see the rest as a video.  Take a look at the embedded youtube video below.  I forgot to mention in the video that you could play around with colour.  

If you would like to try this site click here.  There are other ones you can play around with.  You can try snowflakes in 2d and 3d by clicking here.  You can try the Scribbler, which is cool if you write your name by clicking here.

BBC - World War I

The BBC now has an interactive webpage to mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I.  To see this click here.

Tour the World

This eight and a half minute video rocks.  It sings all the countries of the world with some nice drawing.

Music by Renald Francoeur, Drawing by Craighton Berman, and Video by Don Markus.  

After watching this video try this quiz by clicking here.

Readworks and Black History Month

I have previously posted about ReadWorks.org on November 26, 2013 about science passages and comprehension.  To see that click here.  Readworks has posted material for Black History Month.  To see this material click here.

French Smartboard Files

Maybe you can use these smartboard files on verbs in your junior French classes.

Avoir - Etre

ir regular verbs present tense

immediate future

er regular verbs present tense

present tense verbs

Elements 4D

Yes this app is not 3D but 4D.  The Ipad - Ipod app is an Augmented Reality app that allows the users to put together blocks (which can be downloaded here) representing elements to make compounds.  You can download the software for free by clicking here.  See the video below to see how this works.

ThingLink and Slope

I previously posted about ThingLink on November 1 2013, see here.  I saw some interesting ThingLink posts on math, particularly the concept of slope.  Go to this link to see the actual ThingLink on Mary Kate Brennan's page by clicking here.  There are others that students made on this page at the bottom.  It might give you some ideas of something you and your students can do.

Jenga Review

From Flapjackeducation

This would be great for a review at the end of a unit.  It really does not need to be math.  You could make up review questions and then packing tape them to the Jenga blocks.  The QR codes could be made easily from many different sites.  See my post on February 22 2013 by clicking here.   You need a website to host the solution that QR links to but our board has free webspace for all teachers or you could use a free easy service like Tackk.  You do not have to register with Tackk but your pages expire after seven days.  Better to just register for free.  Another way would be to set up a free blog at blogspot.com and just put in a bunch of posts, where each post is an answer.  Each of these posts would have a unique URL.  Just a thought.

To play.  There are several different ways. One way to play would be to have the team/person who gets a wrong answer to keep pulling blocks.  If you are correct, the other team goes.  Whoever drops the stack loses.  I am sure you can come up with other ways of playing.  

The QR codes are just to keep you, the teacher, out of the loop of being asked if they are right or not.

Great Test Answer

Think about your knowledge based questions or you will get this.

Science of the Winter Olympics

Sixteen videos dealing with the science of the Winter Olympics were produced by the National Science Foundation for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and can be found by clicking here.  They have now produced more for the 2014 Olympics.

To see the other videos click here.

My Bike

Completely stolen with gratitude from Kristen Swanson, even the "irregardless".

Just last week, my mountain bike arrived in San Francisco. A few years old, my bike has seen its share of wear and tear.

My Little Mountain Bike!

Irregardless, I was excited and hopeful. After having the bike for a few days, I realized that it was a "real machine" that would save me lots of time. I began riding my bike back and forth to work, shortening my trek by over 20 minutes each day. Wow! What convenience! What speed!

And then, something BIG happened. Instead of merely using my bike to do all of my old tasks faster and more efficiently, I started to expand my horizons.

I used my bike to visit new neighborhoods and towns. I saw things I hadn't seen before. Because the bike allowed me to widen the radius in which I could travel over a short period of time, I could meet different people, try different foods, and have different conversations.

In short, the bike allowed me to learn and connect with new people, places, and information. However, it's important to note that I didn't reap these transformative benefits until I realized that my bike had more offer than merely increasing the efficiency of my old tasks.

It's a big world out there. And my trusty bike is helping me try it out.

OK-- now, take my personal experience and SWAP the word "bike" for "iPad, Chromebook, etc" in the story above. SOUND FAMILIAR!!?!?!??!?!?

The South Will Rise Again, not

I saw this tweet from erasmus45.  Do you see any correlation?

The Art of Light Painting

Fifteen dazzling artists are highlighted in this article along with a vimeo video school step by step lessons to produce your own light painting.  To see the article click here.

Breakfasts From Around The World

Maybe you can use this in your Foods class or a class that is looking at different cultures.  The infographic came from lemonly.com or can be found by clicking here.

Peanuts & Sports - Economics of Sports

This quiz based game is about, well as it says Economics and sports.  It is from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.  To see the game, I mean quiz, click here.

World War I and II front lines map video

To see how the front lines changed in daily/weekly time frame see the following videos by Emperor Tigerstar embedded below.

World War I

World War II - Europe

World War II - Europe and the Pacific

The Man Who Did Not Salute Hitler

Are you teaching World War II.  If so here is an interesting picture I saw tweeted.

I then fired the picture into Google Image and found out the name of the defiant gentleman and his story.  Click here to read the story.

Grammar Bytes

This site has many (I mean MANY) handouts for students to do.  The topics include:
comma splices and fused sentences, fragments, irregular verbs and many more.    The handouts can be done online interactively to get the answers.  To see the website click here.

Story Bird

With Storybird you can create your own short stories with wonderful background art.  Easily inspire the reluctant readers and writers in your class.  To see their website click here.