CALL_IS_VSL

"Geeky teachers have brought Minecraft to subjects ranging from history to biology to probability. The game is being rolled out to every secondary school in Northern Ireland this month. If you're a parent, you've noticed Minecraft offerings spawning in your local summer camp listings. The Chicago Architecture Foundation offers a Minecraft camp for budding builders. Ninety-two libraries participated in the International Games Day Minecraft Hunger Games tournament, andcrowned a 13-year-old girl as its champion. And, I've helped launch Connected Camps' Summer of Minecraft, a new in-game online camp. "Progressive educators have been advocating for games-based learning ever since Carmen Sandiego, Oregon Trail, and Reader Rabbit opened up a new market for consumer children's software in the '80s. SimCity demonstrated how a building and tinkering game could be embraced by parents, kids, and educators. And, Scratch shows how kid-centered learning communities can thrive online. "Minecraft is part of this lineage of learning games, but it fundamentally rewrites the playbook." This blog talks about why Minecraft is so popular with kids and with educators alike, referring back to Papert's experiments with "turtles." My 9-yr-old granddaughter is totally absorbed by the game and the games within the game she can play. She's even venturing into the "survival" mode where exploration includes fighting zombies. What's not to like?

"Whether it is to solve a problem, plan a project, or develop new story ideas there are plenty of occasions in the course of a school year for students to brainstorm together. I still believe that nothing beats getting together in a room to swap ideas in person, but that's not always practical or possible. For those times when in-person brainstorming sessions are not possible, the following five tools offer a good way to host brainstorming sessions online." t/h R. Byrne

A Pinterest-type site with short reviews of lesson plans for teaching with film, and descriptions of films that might be used for education, especially those with cross-cultural interest. Will take some willingness to hunt, though there is a search engine.

EDPuzzle let's you insert questions, add notes, and make the flipped classroom more interactive at home. You need to use one of the video sites that EDpuzzle offers. This YouTube video shows how to crop a video, add notes, and so on.

"Yesterday, I published a post about the Google Sheets Add-on called Online Rubric. This morning I had a couple emails from folks with questions about how to use it. The video embedded below provides an overview of how to create a rubric in a Google Sheet." t/h R. Byrne

A great collection of links with many tools and ideas.

A great video on how to get the most out of observation. In-service teachers express what they want to observe, and look for in students learning. Instructing teacher gives everyone the lesson plan first, and asks teachers to look for students really learning. After the observation, the teachers debrief in a group, focusing on how students arrived at the learning experience. (12 min. video with questions)

Shows how and why to use video of yourself during teaching practice to determine how to grow as a professional. Uses only a Flip camera and a tripod.

The Internet Archive has millions of free books, movies, software, music, etc., and the Wayback Machine, which can help you find things that have been removed from the Internet. A great resource for content- or project-based learning, or research in general.

It's suprisingly easy to search for images by type, size, color, and copyright-free. This training video (5 min) by R. Stannard shows you how to do it.

About 50 ways to show how video can be used in the classroom for learning/teaching language skills, culture, assessment, etc. Also divided by European standards proficiency levels and by age/school class.

R. Stannard explains some of the resources at the Video For All website.

R. Stannard shows how to use Fotobabble, which allows you to upload a picture and then add voice. Great for language practice/learning.

R. Byrne: "NASA's Eyes on the Solar System offers 3-D tours of the solar system in your browser. You can put the tours on auto-play or go through them manually. You also have the option to explore the Solar System without the guidance of a tour. I tried it both ways and found it much easier to use the tours as a guide for exploring the Solar System. The tours have some multimedia elements included in some of the stops as you move along." Download the app to get the videos. Also works on mobile devices. Mind-blowing.

Links to famous works by classical composers. A great site to explore, or use for background music to projects. I started listening critically to classical music at age 14 because of an enlightened high school principal who played classical music during study hours and commented on it, too, and it's always been a joy.

A student-driven digital portfolio tool -- mobile- and computer-based.

10 Ways teachers can get their students to connect to each other and to the content. Brief description of lessons and their purposes.

Very useful article with ways to give students concrete examples with citations and references. Easily replicable in your own class. Academic writing.

"A project based learning method is a comprehensive approach to instruction. Your students participate in projects and practice an interdisciplinary array of skills from math, language arts, fine arts, geography, science, and technology. .... "To help you start using PBL, we've created age-appropriate, customizable project checklists for written reports, multimedia projects, oral presentations, and science projects. The use of these checklists keeps students on track and allows them to take responsibility for their own learning through peer- and self-evaluation. " This site contains numerous rubric starter templates for each of the grades and for a wide-variety of topics. A way to get started.

R. Byrne discusses ScreenCastify, Snagit for Chrome, and Google+ Hangout On Air (when no one else is in your Hangout). With detailed instructions and several instructive videos showing how. Screencasts are often the best way to show students how to do something, and students can easily make them to show each other or to demonstrate their expertise in something. My 9-year-old granddaughter is making screencasts of her game play with Minecraft just for fun.