Archive for the ‘cool links’ Category

This Wednesday: Science of the Winter Olympics Webinar

Monday, February 8th, 2010

logoSounds cool! From the Learning Games Network:

As part of our Learning Games webinar series, we invite you to join us this Wednesday, Feb 10, 2010 for Olympics Science: Online Resources for the Classroom from NBC Learn.

Description: On February 12th, the torch will light over Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Join the Learning Games Network’s Alex Chisholm and special guest Norman Cohen, producer at NBC Learn, to bring the science of the Winter Olympics home to your classroom.

NBC Learn has collaborated with the National Science Foundation to create this series of video resources and lesson plans demonstrating the links between the laws of physics and the principles of chemistry, and downhill skiing, bobsledding, and other sports.

We hope you’ll join us this Wednesday, Feb 10, at 7:30pm EST to learn more about how NBC Learn can inspire students by approaching the science of sports from a new perspective.

Links:

NBC Learn: http://nbclearn.com/olympics

Lesson Plans: http://lessonopoly.org/svef/?q=node/9086

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Happy New Year!

Monday, January 4th, 2010

“I can UNDERSTAND pessimism, but I don’t BELIEVE in it. It’s not simply a matter of faith, but of historical EVIDENCE. Not overwhelming evidence, just enough to give HOPE, because for hope we don’t need certainty, only POSSIBILITY.”

- Howard Zinn (author of A People’s History of the United States)

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Back to School – What do students want from teachers

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Educational Leadership:Giving Students Ownership of Learning:What Students Want from Teachers

Back to school time is here – and I’m going through the files to find inspiring, practical ideas for nurturing student leadership, creativity, and lifelong learning.

This is a great article from Ed Leadership (ASCD) for back to school. What do students want from teachers? What makes them feel in charge of their learning? Students said:

  • Take me seriously
  • Challenge me to think
  • Nurture my self-respect
  • Show me I can make a difference
  • Let me do it my way
  • Point me toward my goals
  • Make me feel important
  • Build on my interests
  • Tap my creativity
  • Bring out my best self

There are more details in the article, but aren’t these some great reflection starters for the school year?

Sylvia

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Inauguration Day

Friday, January 16th, 2009

Well, the plans are finalized – next Tuesday, January 20, 2009 I will be in Washington DC for Inauguration Day. It’s still unknown if I’ll be able to GET to the actual Inauguration; there are various websites predicting a major traffic and transportation meltdown. But I’ve got a warm jacket and walking shoes so if need be, I can hike it!

All over the country and around the world, people will be watching on television, and I hope a lot of students get to watch too. Kevin Jarrett has pulled together some Inauguration Day Resources for teachers and students to explore for background information and lesson ideas.

Think of me while you are warm and dry!

Sylvia

PS I’ll try to Twitter and send pix, but it’s expected that the text and Internet will be heavily taxed in the area. Follow me on Twitter if you’d like to see me try!

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2008 in review from the Generation YES blog

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

Found a cool little widget just in time for a “best of 2008″ post. According to Postrank - these are the Generation YES blog posts that measured the highest in “audience engagement” for 2008. How do they know? Did they engage you?

Get your own Postrank widget here.

Happy New Year!

Sylvia

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Royalty free music, sounds and images

Friday, November 21st, 2008

Here’s a great list of royalty free music, sounds and images by Mathew Needleman. Mathew is a Los Angeles area educator who teaches video techniques, so this list is right on target for K-12 use.

Bonus! Check out Mathew’s session for the K12Online Conference, Film School for Video Podcasters.

Superbonus! Mathew’s site for Digital Storytelling in the Elementary Classroom.

Sylvia

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More on Fair Use and ending copyright confusion

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

Last week’s post, Fair use explained for educators announced a new resource, Fair use explained for educators announced a new resource, The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. In the comments, Kristen Hokansen, a Pennsylvania educator and tech coach added more support resources that deserved a new post all their own!

Kristen actually attended the announcement event in Philadelphia and helped create a wikispace called Copyright Confusion that will become a forum for educators. If you have time, watch the ustream and a live blog of the event that are archived here, there are some really great points brought up. Kristen also wrote about the event on her own blog The END to Copyright Confusion~and a new beginning that adds more explanation and nuance to this very confusing subject.

Kristen says, “I encourage folks to visit, and join, and share how they are dealing with this release and encouraging folks to exercise their rights as content creators under fair use. I also recommend checking out the Teaching About Fair Use page on Temple Media Lab’s site. There are all kinds of great lessons, examples, case studies and materials that can be used to help develop understanding.”

Sylvia

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Physics Simulations Online

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Passed on from Michael Steinberg of New York City – PhET Physics Education Technology – a terrific website full of fun, interactive simulations of physical phenomena. There are simulations for biology, physics, chemistry, math, electronics and more.

There are lessons and workshops for teachers, research support and lots of support materials.

The simulations can be run online or downloaded and run offline, and there is even an option to easily download all the simulations in one package.

These simulations look terrific and have easy to use controls and help integrated into each one. Unlike some interactive simulations, these have measurement tools built in so they can be used to support real science learning. Many of them have also been translated into many languages, and are open source so they can be modified if you want.

Check it out!

Sylvia

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All day buffet for the soul

Saturday, July 12th, 2008

“It’s a simple idea: Inspire Action. Change the world. Have Fun. Because doing good shouldn’t feel like a chore.”

Alldaybuffet.org is a site created to connect people with causes that matter.

Enjoy.

Sylvia

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Student-written help guides

Monday, March 31st, 2008

Kern Kelley’s students in Maine have created a web-enabled comic book style help guide for the Google Doc applications they are using. Kern blogs at The Tech Curve, and I’ve written about Kern and his students before, they are very involved in student-centered ways to use technology.

Direct link to: Overview of the Google Online Applications

This is a terrific project for students, and useful for a school! Since you create it yourself, students can add customized details about your server and network, remind readers about the Acceptable Use Policies, and make suggestions for using these tools.

I’ve blogged about student-created video help guides before, and all the reasons that these are terrific projects for students. These comic-book creations are another idea to accomplish the same goals!

The online PDF viewer is called Issuu (pronounce “issue”). It’s a new, free Web 2.0 application. You upload a PDF and it converts it to a very slick looking viewer. There are tools to share these through email or embed them in a blog, Facebook site, or other ways. It’s new, so take care in its use with students. The user agreement does say you have to be 18 to upload. I didn’t see anything “bad” in the PDFs that are shared on the home page, but you never know.

Sylvia

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