New York Times Vocabulary Contest

On Tuesday we had I posted about a contest about performing some of the Bard's work on Hamlet.  The New York Times is also running another contest in their Education section on "vocabulary".  Make a 15 second video on any word that has appeared in The NY Times Word of the Day section (click here to see some) and post your video on Instagram, Youtube, Vimeo etc.  You can read about the contest by clicking here.  This could be done as a class project in Media Arts or English class.

World Aids Day

From 

World Aids Day is December 1. This information could be used in a Health class or possibly in a Geography class.    To see the W.H.O. website click here.  Maybe your students could make an infographic on this topic.  To see how to make infographics, see my post on December 19 2012 by clicking here.

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

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

Guy Fawkes Day

Yesterday November 5 was Guy Fawkes Day.  An interesting day of celebration in the UK.  To learn more see the following videos.  The first is an animation by Red Beetle Films.

The second video is a BBC documentary.  It is in 6 parts.  Playing the first one will seamlessly run into the other parts.

Interview with Canadian War Veterans

Seeing that November 11 is less than a week away, I thought some respect to our War Veterans might be appropriate.  Maybe your students could go out and interview some local war veterans of the many conflicts that our local heroes have been involved in.  Here are some interviews for you.  Also Veterans Affairs Canada has a video on their site called Heroes Remember and it is about Dieppe and includes the transcript of the video.  It can be found by clicking here.

Google Classrooms Fieldtrips

Google is at it again.  They announced Monday their new launch.

Watch a video about what they are doing below.
To see the the Classrooms click here.    This is what Tech Crunch has to say about the new launch, "Field trips generally venture only as far afield as the local heritage village, where you’re likely to catch pilgrim ‘Ezekial’ behind the butter churning hut sneaking a modern-day cigarette. Google wants to offer a more far-reaching experience, with a new Connected Classrooms initiative that lets classes take “virtual field trips” using Google+ Hangouts. So instead of learning about pioneer times from a local drama student who has to keep the goat stables clean in addition to infotaining the kids, you’ll check out the Seattle Aquarium, Minnesota Zoo or the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Google says that teachers already employ its social network in classrooms, but the Connected Classrooms program is designed to make it easier for more of them to do so. It offers not only those virtual excursions mentioned above (along with a number of other destinations), but also provides teachers a chance to work together on class plans and learning experiences for use both in the classroom and out.

Field trips take place at specific times, since they’re actually live hosted events that offer interactive learning experiences, and teachers can check out Google’s calendar to find out more. The first three are happening today, where Seattle Aquarium staff will take classes participating underwater; the Minnesota Zoo explores the Black Bear and their habit of sleeping through the colder seasons; and Solar Impulse, a long-range solar plane project, offers a chance to speak with the founders and learn about the design of its wing and cockpit. Upcoming trips over the rest of the month include virtual photo walks and museum tours provided by National Geographic and others."

New York Times Hamlet Performance Contest

The New York Times Arts section is running a contest.  They are seeking students' short  Hamlet videos.  When they say short, they mean short.  Fifteen seconds is the maximum on Instagram, so that is what you get.  Fifteen seconds to perform some Hamlet. The best videos will be featured on nytimes.com later in December.   Maybe your class can do this.  Maybe you will be discovered!  Maybe not.  Who knows.  Give it a try.  For more details click here.

Football based punctuation lessons

This lesson could be used in other courses by changing the material but the concept of the game would be the same.

From Chuck Memering of Southgate, MI, US
Materials Required: I have converted my back bulletin board into a football field with 6 ft. X 8 ft. paper goal on the wall next to it, a chalkboard and the material you teach.
Activity Time: 45 minutes
Concepts Taught: Language Arts

After teaching my students proper professional editing marks
for the first two weeks of the year, I am ready to start football season. We
team teach, and I have four blocks of Language Arts class. Each block
chooses a team name and competes against an imaginary opponent each week.
The two blocks with the best record play for the hallowed Language Arts
Football Championship Trophy that I keep in the school's trophy case.
Set up: I have converted my back bulletin board into a football field with 6
ft. X 8 ft. paper goal posts on the wall next to it. You can make a smaller
field on paper if space is a problem. I would not sacrifice the field goal
posts though. They are a huge part of the excitement. After field set up,
you will need to make your yardage cards. Write yardage amounts in 5-yard
increments on 1 X 1 inch squares of paper and laminate them. I made 30 five
yard gains, 25 ten yard gains, 20 fifteen yard gains, 15 twenty yard gains,
10 twenty-five yard gains, and 5 fifty yard gains. I also threw in 5 fumbles
and 5 interceptions to keep things interesting. Now, all you need is a chalk
board and the material you teach.

Playing the game: Start the game with a coin toss to determine if the class
gets the ball first or is on defense first. We'll be optimistic and say they
won the toss. Start them out on their own 25-yard-line. It is first and 10.
Have two students working as teammates come up to the board and draw a
yardage card. Let's say they drew a 15 yard gain. You can now put an
incorrect sentence on the board to be edited or ask them a question about
whatever it is your teaching. I use it for everything I ever cover in my
class. If they get it right, they gain the yardage they picked (in this case
15 yards). If they don't get it right it is now 2nd down and so on. They
move down the field until they get a touchdown or have to settle for a field
goal. This is where the goalposts come into play. Whoever scores the
touchdown, gets to kick the extra point with my Nerf football. When students
are on defense the game is played the same, except that they are trying to
stop that week's imaginary opponent from gaining the yardage they draw.

Overview: It's a fantastic mastery learning technique. Whatever we learned
in September is kept fresh in March through Language Arts Football. My kids
are excellent editors because of it also.