Mindcraft as an Educational Tool

On December 6 2013 I posted "We are the Miners", a Minecraft video parodying the Queen song "We are the Champions".  To see this click here.  Many educators are now into Game Based Learning and Mindcraft fits the bill.  Students coming into high school are already familiar with the game.  As an educator you do not really need to know how to do the construction but just need a good idea for your students to work on.  Remember next year you will have longer classes to do projects like this.   I am posting this during the break when you can have to research a bit into this idea.

On December 12, 2013, Edutopia had an article about using Mindcraft for Cell Biology.  Click here to see the article.

The Institute of Play had an online discussion where some participants discussed the use of Mindcraft in making roller coasters in a physics class (or could be slope in math class) and using Mindcraft in conjugating verbs in Japanese class (read French class here in Canada).  The video is long though.  The webpage can be found by clicking here.  Seeing that most teachers want our classes to go semestered next year, projects like this would now be possible with your students during class time.

Recently Connected Learning also hosted an online discussion on the uses of Mindcraft as an educational tool.  You can see several of the video chats by clicking here.

There is a Google Group/Forum for teachers where I read about a teacher asking for advice on how to have a student use Mindcraft for a bookreport.  The Forum can be found by clicking here.

Minecraftedu has a links page to real world examples if you are interested in trying this in your class.  To see this link page click here.

Haiku Deck Again

I posted about Haiku Deck back in January 11 2013 as an alternative to Power Point.  See that posting by clicking here.  The key  to this software is that it is picture based with little writting, so students (or teachers for that matter) can't just put down 20 sentences per slide and just read to their audience.  Now this software is available as a web version, so you do not need to download the app if you do not want to.  You can even export the decks as a PPT or embed them into your webpage or blog.  Here is an example I took from their site.

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

Try this out over the holidays.  To visit the site click here.

Alternatives to Homework

Not saying I agree with all of this but I am sure there is a time and place for these ideas.  This came from a tweet from Dr. Justin Tarte.  I really like the second last one.  In math they always taught us The CAST rule but I never liked that as the acronym started in quadrant 4 for the C and then went to quadrant 1 for the A.  I am not sure who taught me the "All Students Take Calculus" rule (maybe I heard Harold Konrad when I was practice teaching, many moons ago)  but this acronym starts in Quadrant 1.

Get Fit in the New Year

You don't have a reason for not exercising after watching this.  If you get a chance read this article about a 90 year old triathlete, click here.

Portrait of my grandfather : 80 and still cycling from Florent Piovesan on Vimeo.

DIY Holiday Greeting Cards

 If you need to make a holiday greeting card to send to friends, consider JibJab.

 

My son's teacher made one for some of the students in his class and it was pretty funny.  I wanted to post it here but there are other students in the video that I do not have permission to post but you can see by the picture above of my son what they do.  Just insert a picture and away you go.  It does cost a couple of bucks to become a member.  Below I posted a screencast of the beginning of one I made of my family.  To see the website click here.

Top 50 Books for Teachers

Here is an infographic for teachers by besteducationdegrees.com .  If you would like to see a summary of each book click here.

Source: Best Education Degrees

Smartboard Resources

If you use a Smartboard then the software is already from this maker.  They have a site with many resources for many different topics.    I choose Health in Physical Education from the drop down menu on the left hand side,

and received many different Smartboard Lesson Plans on topics such as: Eating Disorders, Aids and HIV, Emotional Health and Wellness, Childhood Obesity, and Contraception to name a few topics.  You can easily check what is available for the subject you teach.  I did try and put Canada in from the dropdown list and it seemed to mess up so I just left in United States.  You will have to register for FREE to use this site.  To see the site click here. 

That Was History

This Youtube channel puts on videos on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  The videos have to do with historical events that happened that week in history.  Just look down their topic list to "A Day In History".    Some will be world history and others will be US history.  You will just have to tune in to see.  This might be something that you have your students watch and toss in as a  bonus question  on their next quiz or just show in class if it is pertinent to what you are teaching.

You can take a look by clicking here.

My Reading Mapped

If you use Google Maps this could be great in your classroom.  From their site, "This site is an extenstive compendium of documentaries, in the form of interactive Google Maps on Historic Events. In a sense it is a library of maps that allow you to do much more than just watch and read. You get to digitally experience the event by finding and zooming in on the locations you read about in the related eBooks. You get to follow the explorer from location marker to location marker on almost a day-by-day basis. You get to see up close the actual ancient ruins, forts, and pyramids. Many of the maps have Google Earth KML files that enable you to digitally walk the map in 3D and experience the exploration for yourself."

I looked at the WWII battles but there is so much more at this site.  Click here to visit it.

Mon Cahier D'Europe

The French Ministry of Education produced 3 pdf's about the countries of the European Union.  The one shown below is for 13-15 year olds (in France).  This could also be used in a Travel and Tourism class for students that speak French.

You can look at this document as a multimedia book by clicking here or download the pdf document by looking here.

Theme

Here is another zoom.it anchor chart from Katie Klohn's website.  Click here to see her site.

Christmas Calculations

I know not everyone celebrates Christmas but for those that do this might be a nice math lesson for your essentials math class.  This one is from edgalaxy.  To see it click here.

Build an atom

Want to build your own atom? Well Carl Wieman took half his 2001 Nobel Prize money in Physics and used it to make Physics Education Technology.  Here you can make atoms with the following link by clicking here.  Just grab some Protons, Neutrons and Electrons and go to town.

Moon Phases Explained with Oreos

A cool infographic about the moon's phases using oreos.  This might make a great poster for your Science classroom.  Maybe shoot over to Staples or Vista Printing or one of the other stores and have one made.  To see where this came from click here.

A Sandy Hook Parent's Letter to Teachers

From Sept 18 2013

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the tragedy that took place at Sandy Hook  Elementary School.  The article I have linked is from a parent of two children that attended Sandy Hook.  One child died in the shooting.  Her article is a passionate piece that all teachers should read.  To see the article click here.
I also thought this short video was pretty powerful.

Girls Who Code

As Computer Science Week comes to a close, I noticed this site.

From their site, "Launched in Spring 2012, Girls Who Code is a national nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in the technology and engineering sectors. With support from public and private partners, Girls Who Code works to educate, inspire, and equip high school girls with the skills and resources to pursue opportunities in computing fields."

To see their site click here.  Also similar to yesterdays article I posted about Chicago Public Schools making Computer Science mandatory, the following article is about other school boards trying to do the same.  To see that article click  here.

Exercise and Learning

We should all know by now that exercise helps learning.  The following are some articles on this topic:

From the New York Times - How Physical Fitness May Promote School Success

From ABC News - Bikes, Balls in Class: How Phys Ed Transformed One School

From Scientific American - How Exercise Jogs the Brain

From the New York Times - Phys Ed: Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter?

Chicago Public Schools and Computer Science

Looks like Computer Science will be a mandatory topic in Chicago now.  With the US's S.T.E.M. (science, tech, engineering and math) initiative I think this is a great idea.  Let the debating begin.  To see the article in the Chicago Sun-Times click here.

Economics of Being a Consultant

I saw this infographic at Nowsourcing.com.  Do you want to be a consultant?  Take a look at this.

The Historical Thinking Project

This site includes 25 lessons on the War of 1812.  It also has 6 articles with accompanying resources on:
Establishing Historical Significance, Using Primary Source Evidence, Identify Continuity and Change, Analyze Cause and Consequences, Take Historical Perspectives and Understand Ethical Dimensions of History.  Looking under the "Lessons" tab there is an interesting lesson on "Canada's Reaction to the Outbreak of War: 1914 and 2001, along with resources.  Check the website out by clicking here.

Geography Genius

This is a game where students are shown a flag of a country from around the world and they have to guess from a list which country it is.  If they want when that flag is done the can click on the "Learn More" link to, you guessed it, learn more about that country.  To play the game, click here.

This game is produced by Taking It Global.  It is a great organization to learn more about what you can do as a teacher to empower youth about global matters, either click here or watch the video below.

What is TIGed? from TakingITGlobal on Vimeo.

Symbolism in writting

As a 16 year old student in the 60's Bruce McAllister decided to write 150 novelists to see if they used symbolism in their writting.  He wrote Ayn Rand, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Jack Karouac to name a few.    Pretty interesting responses.  To see the article click here.  You may also want to look here.  

This presents an idea that your senior students could do as a class project (at college or university level, you might be surprised).  Come up with a few questions and then look up some authors email addresses and then email them.  Summarize the responses using an infographic and then post your results.  Or write up the results formally and have the class publish them in some scholarly publication.  Some students could be in charge of coming up with the questions.  While others could come up with a list of  authors.   Others would have to find a way of contacting these authors.  Another group could summarize the results.  While the last group could put the infographic or scholar article together.  Just a thought.

Human Rights

Today marks the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations.  You can see the declaration by clicking here.   The following zoom.it is from zenpencils.com.  Just use your mouse to zoom in or out.  This would make a lovely poster for your classroom.

NBC Learn

I previously posted about Hockey Fitness on October 3 2013, click here to see this post.

The Science of Hockey by NBC LEARN has short videos with transcripts and lesson plans on various topics such as Newton's Laws, Force and Impulse during a collision, Reflexes and Reaction Time to name a few.  To see this click here. 

They also have The Science of Golf and The Science of Football.  The Science of Football lesson plans however only covered from grades 6 through 8 whereas The Science of Golf had lesson plans for grade 6 through 12.  To see the Golf click here and to see the Football click here.

You may also want to check out there Chemistry Now section that is appropriate for High School students.  To see the Chemistry Now click here. 

They also have other topics such as: Science Behind the News, Changing Planet, Science of the Winter Olympic Games and The Titanic.  You can see these by clicking on any of the first 3 Science of sports above and then looking for the link on the left hand  side of the page.

Java Math

This was blatantly hijacked from

We are the miners - A minecraft parody of Queen

From the blog of Wesley Fryer:

My 15 year old son is a huge Minecraft fan, and loves both watching and curating creative Minecraft videos on YouTube. Periodically he shares some with me, and this evening we watched “‘We Are The Miners’ – A Minecraft Parody of Queen’s We Are The Champions (Music Video)”. As a long-time fan of Queen, I really enjoyed the clever lyrics as well as the enhanced Minecraft animations. If you’ve got a Minecraft fan in your house or classroom, consider sharing this video with them and discussing the kinds of creativity it took to make it.

Smithsonian X 3D

 The Smithsonian Institute will make public access to some items along with their 3D data sets to the public. They have tours along with these items as well as many links to videos and other information about the items they are exhibiting.  Take a look at the video I made of the website.

Here is a video that the Smithsonian put out about X 3D

Mindset Again

I previously posted on Oct 18 2013 on Growth Mindset.  To see this click here.
I recently saw a tweet  by Aileen Swenson that had a nice picture summarizing mindsets.

Hour of Code

Just a heads up that next week is

You can read about The Hour of Code by clicking here or if you are a student and would like to learn more or participate, click here.

You might want to show this to your Junior math classes to let them think about taking Computer Science next year.  It is less than 10 minutes long.

Cardboard Potraits

  

From Odditycentral, "English artist Giles Oldershaw has a very unique talent. He can take discarded pieces of cardboard, the kind pizza boxes are made of, and turn them into amazing portraits of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe or Marlon Brando using only the cardboard’s layers to highlight their features.

58-year-old Giles Oldershaw is not the world’s first artist to choose cardboard as his favorite medium. Renowned artist Chris Gilmour has been building detailed cardboard landscapes for years, and Scott Fife’s realistic cardboard busts have won him international acclaim, but Giles sets himself apart through his unique creative process. He begins by drawing the outlines of his portraits on a piece of cardboard with a pencil, then uses an assortment of tools like tweezers, scalpels and scissors to remove certain layers of corrugation, card and protective coating to give his artworks more depth. "

This process might give your art students some ideas of what they can do.  Maybe give it a try.  To see Giles website click here.  Too see Chris Gilmour's website click here and to see Scott Fife's website click here.

Stanford History

Besides the obvious US history lessons you would expect from this site, they have World history lessons grouped into Ancient, Medieval and Modern.  For example the Modern history has a lesson plan on Nazi Propaganda.  Powerpoints for the lesson are made for you.  To see this site click here.

A Blog About History

This is an interesting site that occasionally posts tidbits of  World History gleamed from the world's press.

You can see this site by clicking here or you can follow them on twitter @historytweeter .