Good Luck on your exams

I am done posting for the 2013-14 school year as you should be studying for exams or fse's.  I am off on a deferred salary leave next year, so I will not be back until 2015-16.  See you then.

Names of the Provinces

had an article about how all the provinces and territories received their names.  Click here to see the post.

Perfect Pitch

This game is produced by the Kennedy Center's Arts Edge.    It uses a baseball setting to teach students about different instruments and different eras of orchestral music.  Click here to see the website.

40 interesting maps

Maps are great for the visual learner.  Here are 40 that may surprise you.  To see them all click here.

Here are three.

This one shows the countries that don't use the metric system.

This one does not need explaining

This one needs no explaining either

The Art of Beautifully Crafted Sentences

From David Didau's blog, The Art of Beautifully Crafted Sentences is worth a read for all English teachers or teachers that use English.    The article can be found by clicking here.  His blog is definitely worth following.

Engineering App Games

Here are a couple science based apps.  One is for the Android and the other for the Ipad.

X Construction is for the Android and is a puzzle game where you build bridges and see if a train can travel over it.  Sounds simple, right.  To see the app click here.

Autodesk Digital STEAM applied mechanics is a free app for the Ipad which teaches the principals of mechanics through game play.  To see the app click here.

Academi-en-Ligne

From This French Life, "Academie-en-Ligne provides .pdf guides, audiovisual tools and links to other resources that will prove helpful to students, but may also help improve your own French language skills.

The French section provides worksheets for different school years which you can print off, and there are a number of other subjects that you might want to cast an eye over."

To see the site click here.

Were are teens going?

Teens are leaving Facebook.  Where are they going? Forbes knows.  Click here to see.

Art, Music and Spinning Discs

From

The Japanese band Sour made a stunning animated video in the old school manner using 1800s technology with a modern day twist.  Take a look at the video below.

They also have a short video of how the discs where filmed. 

You can then read the article from Visual News by clicking here.

New Canadians

Over 6 million of those living in Canada were born outside of Canada.  The following infographic came from an article in the National Post.  You might be able to use this in your Canadian Geography or History course.  To see the article click here.

What Makes an Effective Lead?

I made a zoom.it from this anchor chart from here.

Coding in the classroom

Hey Dinh.  I usually stay away from video games in the classroom.  I know it is a great way to teach programming in computer science as hey if I am programming why am I programming if I am not gaming.  So here is a nice top 10 for you.  Click here.

Quizlet

This is an online flashcard site.  You can make cards to practice parts of the cell in science class or anatomy in exercise science.  You could have flash cards for vocabulary in French class.  Any factual piece of information in Geography or History.  Now you can make up your own cards with your own pictures or text, however there are thousands already made up.  My kids can practice their times tables with this now.

Here is the front of a someones flash card on the skull.

Here is the back of the card.

To see the website click here.

Money as You Grow

This site teaches responsible use of money through age appropriate activities.  The site has been selected by the American Library Association as a great website for kids.  This site is designed for ages 3 through adult.  This is a US based site but has many things that can be used in a Canadian classroom.  Click here to see the site.   I particularly like the calculator that shows how long it will take to pay be a given amount using only the minimum payment at a given percentage rate.  To see this click here.

BBC History

BBC has a history website that includes two topics for your students: Ancient History and World Wars.  World Wars is quiet extensive and under World War I if you pick "Trenches", you can go on a virtual tour.

Click here to go to their site.

Google Etymology

Google is at it again.  Do you want to know the root of a certain word.  No problems.  In Google just type the word "etymology" in quotes and then the word you are interested in.  For example I used carnivore and this is what I had returned.

Another etymology site to check out is the Online Etymology Dictionary (thanks Larry Ferlazzo).  This can be found by clicking here.

Science Buddies - Careers in Science

This site has science careers broken down into Earth and Physical Science, Life Sciences, Engineering, Math and Computer Science and finally Health.  Under each category there are many careers listed.  Just click on the link and find out what they do, key facts and information (how much they get paid, what courses you need, median salary)  and much more.  Check it out by clicking here. 

I previously posted on careers on May 9 2013 on Career Finder.  To see this post click here.  I also posted on May 30 2013 on two sites "Career Thoughts" and "Career Sighted".  To see this post click here.

Curiyo

This browser extension for Chrome and Firefox allows you to click on a word you don't know or a person's name so you can get more information about them from sites you would probably search for information from anyways.  The thing is this information pops up in a a little box so you don't have to open up another window.

To see Curiyo's website just click here.

Colossal

Want some ideas how to use everyday items in you art?  Take a look at Javier Perez's work by clicking here.  Maybe you can challenge your students by giving them an everyday item and ask them to use it for inspiration for a piece of art work.  Just a thought.

Another article shows how Guy Laramee uses old books to make art.  Since we have been weeding the library I could have and still might be able to get you some cheap art supplies for just a donation.  To see this article click here.

And finally you may have seen Sagaki Keita's doodle work before. The beautiful work is all done with small cartoonish drawings embedded to make the larger image.  Click  here.

Hip Hughes History Again

I previously posted about Keith Hughes, a  history teacher in Buffalo and his youtube channel.  You can see this post on "Monotheism and Polytheism"  by clicking here.  Now he does not do music videos like I posted last Wednesday but he does a rather quick job on many topics.  

Today I would like to highlight one that you might be able to use in your class.  He titles it "The French and Indian Wars For Dummies".  Take a look at his other videos.  If your a teacher, it may give you some ideas and if your a student, you may find some videos to help you study.

Free Comic Book Day

Guess what this Saturday is?  Yes I know Friday is Kennedy Relays, the greatest track meet in the Universe but Saturday is Free Comic Book Day!  To get more information on this great event click here.  English teachers, maybe you can work this into a class assignment.

Math and Gaming

If you are teaching a computer science course or teaching a math course you may want to look at this article on Edudemic by clicking here..  It talks about how much math you actually use in programming game code.

Worksheets by Mathops

This site has broken down each unit of many high school classes into component lessons.  The lessons might be okay for your students if they miss class, but there are other sites that do this well.  I posted about Mathispower4u on April 29 2013 (click here), which has some great organized videos by unit.  There is also Khan Academy and others.  What I really like about MathOps is the worksheets they have for each unit.  Just click the Worksheets link before section 1 of each unit.  To see the website, click here.

Kahoot - Game Based Learning

Have you ever played one of those trivia games in a restaurant (one with a license for adult beverages).  Time ticks down and you have only 4 or 5 choices.  You get scored on how quick you answer.  Well Kahoot is a way to teach and learn with a phone or tablet using  game based pedagogy.  

You need to register but it is free.  To see the site click here.  Maybe everyone in your class does not have a smart phone but I am sure you could do this in groups where at least one student has a phone or mobile device.

Watch these grade 9 students using Kahoot.

Causes of Untimely Death

I saw a tweet from Bill Gates that led me to this Wired article on deaths by various causes.

You can read the Wired article by clicking here.  There are some very interesting interactive visualization tools to compare this data.  This might work well as a starting point in a health class or science class.  Note Suicide is a large block than Violence.  Look how large Road Accidents are, which I imagine include drinking and driving which really are not accidents.

What does John Locke say?

Do you teach Civics or a government class?  You or your students might want to watch Mr. Betts parody of "What does the Fox say?", which I posted on Friday January 17 2013. Click here to see that post.  Hey maybe your class can do a group FSE on a topic and pick a song and do  something like this.

 If you like this video for teaching, see my post on "History and Literature for Music Lovers" by clicking here.  Below is an example of Mrs B work to Lady Gaga, "Poker Face" about Catherine the Great.

On that note, if you are in St. Petersburg, you have to visit The Hermitage.  We visited two summers ago and it was FANTASTIC.

I also love that many of Mrs B and Mr J's music selection is early 80s.  See below.

French TV Education

Many resources here for advanced French language learners.  There are interactive quizzes in many subjects such as Physics and World History, all in French.  A bit too tough for me with my limited background but some might be just right for your students.  To see the website click here.

Bad Math Flickr

Many of these pictures could be used for starters in your math class as a discussion.  As this is a British site many of the prices are in British Pounds.  One pound is 100 pence.

Buy one as it is cheaper.  To check out this site,  click here.

Mullet Mathematics

If you lived in the late 70's, early 80's you saw the Mullet and Rat Tail.  Well here is an article that might be of interest in your essentials math class on Mullet Math.  To see the article click here.