Good luck on your exams

Good luck on your exams.  I will return to post after exams on February 4th.

Canadian History Essay Contest

If your a grade 9 or 10 student in Canada and would like to win $1000 here is a Canadian History Essay Contest.  To see the website click here.

Accommodations and Hotels

This website has many different tabs to look at but I noticed this little vocab on Accommodations and Hotels.  I thought it might be appropriate as our French teacher was in the library talking to the grade 8 students about The French Trip.  Frederic has a nice set of common words that you might use on a trip as a vocab list.  To see the site click here.

Chemistry & Physical Science Task Cards

From the Teachers Pay Teachers website.  James has a bunch of free sample task cards for you to download on topics such as: matter, ionic bonding, periodic table, atomic structure, covalent  bonding and much more.  The free digital download is in the top right corner.  You have to register but it is free.  Also the full set of cards is available for purchase.  To see the website click here.  

The 1984 Apple Macintosh Commercial

On this date January 22, during Superbowl XVIII in 1984 Apple Macintosh launched it's 45 second commercial that was only aired once.

Readwritethink has several lesson plans associated with this commercial.  If you are reading a dystopian novel with your class you might want to see the lesson plan they have for this commercial by clicking here.  If you are teaching advertising in one of your classes you might want to look at the lesson plan they have by clicking here.

Financial Football

On January 31 2014, I blogged about this site.  With the Superbowl coming up in less than two weeks I thought I might post it again.  You may want to use this in your business class.

To play this game, click here.

Are your electronics fueling the deadliest war in the world?

 Kimberly Thielen-Metcalf posted a full lesson plan you might want to use in your geography class.
To see the lesson plan click here.

Grammar Flip

GrammarFlip is an online interactive website to help students master grammar.  The format of the lessons are a short video /  slide show followed by a review exercise that is made up of multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank questions.  To see the site click here.

Sliders for Dynamic Math Presentation

With desmos you and your students can create dynamic math with their sliders.  I thought an obvious example was working with the parameters in a parabola.  What do the "a", "b" and "c" do?  Note in the video below to get the square for the parabola I used the ^ key.  Check out their site by clicking here.

One Tab

I just found a new Chrome extension called OneTab.  If you are like me when you get on your computer, you open the 4 or 5 must go to pages on different tabs and keep them open all the time.  Well you can save them all as one tab.  Thus the name OneTab.  Here is one of mine at work.

You also have the ability to share your OneTab with others. If this appeals to you, go to the website by clicking here.  Make sure you lock your OneTab or as you click on the links they will be removed.  To lock your OneTab select the More icon and select Lock this tab group.

Marketing Lesson Plan - Mr. George

Yesterday I posted about some great lesson plans from Mr. George about World History.  Well he is back again.  If you are a business educator and need a marketing lesson plan well this site is definitely for you.  I  like the  20th Century Consumerism unit that Steven George has in the third column.  To see this great site click here.

World History Lesson Plans from Mr. George

If you are teaching World History you might want to check out Mr. George's World History Lesson Plans site for his course.  The syllabus might not be the same as your course but if there is anything in common he has some great handouts and ideas that you might be able to use in your course.  To see his World History Lesson Plans click here.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday

Here are some articles and primary sources you might use for your English or History class as next Monday is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day in the US. You have to sign up at Readworks.org to use the links highlighted below but registration is free.

9th-10th Grade

"Jan. 15, 1929: Martin Luther KIng, Jr. Born"
Lexile: 1200
This article is used with the generous permission of HISTORY®

"Oct. 14, 1964: King Wins Nobel Peace Prize"
Lexile: 1320
This article is used with the generous permission of HISTORY®
 

11th-12th Grade

"Martin Luther King Jr."
Lexile: 1630
This article is used with the generous permission of HISTORY®

"Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination"
Lexile: 1600
This article is used with the generous permission of HISTORY®

"10 Things You May Not Know About Martin Luther King Jr."
Lexile: 1400
This article is used with the generous permission of HISTORY®

"Selma to Montgomery March"
Lexile: 1530
This article is used with the generous permission of HISTORY®

"March on Washington"
Lexile: 1430
This article is used with the generous permission of HISTORY®

"Civil Rights Act"
Lexile: 1450
This article is used with the generous permission of HISTORY®

"Voting Rights Act"
Lexile: 1410
This article is used with the generous permission of HISTORY®

Reactions - Everyday Chemistry

This Youtube channel has a few videos but I thought I might point out one in particular as I am hungry.  It is "The Science of the Perfect Grilled Cheese Sandwich".  The video is only 3 minutes and 15 seconds long.  

Ceiling Decorations in your Classroom

Some interesting ideas on Periodic Table for your science classroom.  The first is from Scott Byrum

The next one I saw on the Bond with James website.

Lastly, I know word walls have gone passe but how about a word ceiling?  Hey just a thought.  

Maybe you will not use these ideas but just maybe it will get you thinking on how you can use the space at the top of the room.  

Black Out Poetry

If you are doing poetry this semester or next semester Black Out Poetry might be an option for your class.  Also if you teach Art you might be interested in trying this.  If your library has many weeded books or old magazines or even newspapers they could be used to tear apart.  You will need many coloured pencils and pens that your students can use and some space like the desks in my library.  Below are some examples of some high end Black Out Art.

To see Tyler Ducas's work click here

To see Sue Olson's work click here

To see Angela Watson's work click here

Here is a picture from @MrsCraigsClass of her students completed work hanging on the classroom walls

Black Death and Napolean

I have posted about Mrs J and Mr B's youtube channel before.  To see this click here.  All their music is here but I came across one of their videos while I was helping a student find some information on the Black Plague for a student.  To see their video on Black Death see below.

And if you were in high school in the 80s you remember "Gone Daddy Gone" by the Violent Femmes.  Well if you are also teaching about Napolean, here is another one for you.  It is too bad Mrs J and Mr B are not putting out any more videos.

7 jours sur la planète: TV5

Discover and learn specific vocabulary used in televised news reports.  Watch 3 news reports each week to hear words used in context.  Click here to download the free itunes app.

Is Algebra Necessary?

The article by Patrick Hohner entitled "N Ways To Apply Algebra With The New York Times" is a rebuttal to Andrew Hacker's New York Times essay "Is Algebra Necessary?"  If you work with formulas in your Math, Science or Technology class you might want to look at this article that has several examples that you might use in your class.   To see this article click here.