Shidonni is an innovative startup, developing the next generation of creative 'virtual' worlds for kids.
Shidonni is providing a safe environment where kids and their parents can create imaginary worlds and animals, play games and interact with friends.
Not a fan of this site for kids under 13. The "parental" email is a bit of a farce re. parental control--but where it does push the issue is on the requirement for 1 Euro for membership via Paypal. It's a bit harder to fake the Paypal account.
In Dennis Burgess article ‘ObesityPproblem stems from Laziness’, he adresses the root cause of obesity. Burgess claims the root of obesity to be laziness. He argues that America does not have an ‘obesity problem’, rather a ‘laziness problem’. More specifically, Burgess makes mention of the correlation between children and parents concerning obesity. ‘As a child, I would go outside and “play”. This involved getting up off the couch and exerting myself. But many of today’s children don’t participate in this type of play. And many of today’s parents sit on the couch right next to them’ (Dennis B. Burgess). Burgess makes the correlation by stating that the parents often times discourage active play by not setting the example. Parents would rather sit with their kids on the couch than take the initiative and go outside with their kids and take a walk or play ball. Parents do indeed play a role in their children’s health and ultimately have some effect on their children’s health. Healthy kids most often have healthy parents who encourage their kids good health by setting the example well and partaking in activity with their kids.
Excellent work here, Lizzy. You stick nice and close to the quotation that you actually introduce. Then you reflect on it some. Then you offer your own position. This is a great job.
Andrea Freeman addresses the issue of fast food in her article ‘Fast Food: Oppression Through Poor Nutrition.’ Freeman considers fast food in respects to low- income families. ‘Fast food has become a major source of nutrition in low- income, urban neighborhoods across the United States’ (Freeman, pg. 1). Less privelaged families must make do with their current financial situation. The easiest most convenient food source for low- income families is that of fast food. Therefore, parents have a direct effect on their children’s health.
NOTE - happy - happy is good. Happy kids want to learn or are more likely to learn.
Nobody should ever be penalized or put at a disadvantage for the supplies they don’t have,” Dillingham thought to herself. “But everyone’s got laundry!”
NOTE - a little digital citizenship too mixed in with online fund raising.
She couldn’t be sure whether her kids were uninterested or whether they lacked the necessary pens, paper and crayons at home.
He decided he would take his students on socially distanced bike rides across the city. “It was a leap of faith. I got extremely nervous. I was trying to find a way to connect with kids,” Clark said.
her young students are musical detectives, in search of learning. She teaches most grade levels and the school chorus.
t he’s found other ways to keep his students engaged and cycling the city. He invited students to a weekly entrepreneurship class for which they rode their bikes uptown from Dunbar to the gym where Clark works, Sweat DC. The students met with the owner of the gym and the owners of a nearby bar, Hook Hall, and the bagel shop Call Your Mother Deli to learn what it takes to run a business.
She wanted them to create their own composition, their own snowy-day song.
NOTE - different locals - maybe something with changing backgrounds.
So as one class studied architecture this fall, Daney, 54, encouraged them to walk in their neighborhood to take photos of houses of different styles: ranch, colonial, Victorian.
nd he stuck with his usual method of helping students learn about the design process, asking them to prepare a meal. They started with ideas and research, made a plan, carried it out and evaluated it. The result: soups and pastas and pastries.
Kids need connection, he said. “I think they’re starving for conversation,” including with adults.
In fifth grade, students are expected to learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide with whole numbers, decimals and fractions. Through a computer application the students have, they can program the robot to move a certain distance, stop, maybe even turn.
NOTE - use a robot or technology to achieve the same result.
With learning all-virtual, he packs a big Ziploc bag — for each student, each quarter — with things like fishing line, foam board, pipecleaners, magnets, Popsicle sticks and rubber bands. Whatever they will need for their projects.
And a lot of the math is a little sneaky. They think they are trying to get the robot to move, when they are actually measuring the angles to get it to move.”
Others complete their math problems directly on the computer, which can lead to some troubles as they try to show their work.
When Kristin Gavaza interviewed for the music teacher position at Dorothy I. Height Elementary in the summer, she told the principal she had some ideas for how to create a festive concert while students were scattered and learning from home.
NOTE - picture references a complete teacher set up of a large screen and standing desk. Sure, she's video editing yet the concept carries to teaching class too.
National Geographic Kids online Creature Feature about anacondas. Find facts, photos, and video. Learn more about animals online doing games and having fun.
Using the built-in camera, kids easily capture a series of photos of the physical world around them, and immediately play back a stop-motion animation. After recording audio, kids can upload their animations to Facebook and YouTube, inspiring friends to create and share their own imaginative stories.
"Imagine, create, share! Kids easily make animated stories with crafts, toys, or anything hands-on, to share with friends and family. myCreate is a learning tool validated by thousands of teachers and parents around the world for enhancing creativity."
Gamifying blogging. Floats some students' boats. Extrinsic motivation, can it become internal? I think some of my kids a few years ago really got into the number of edits/editing status as top editor on the wiki, then moved on to just being productive for its own sake.
BUT, I bet there are other badges that you could come up with that would be more meaningful (Questioner, Connector, Etc.) AND they could be bestowed by the kids on each other.
Both the author of the article and the people she criticizes are making a fundamental mistake. It is an illusion that kids once learned facts in some deeper way. If the tree octopus had been presented in a book, the kids would have made the same mistake. Much of traditional teaching was not about absorbing certain facts but about learning techniques for accessing those facts. The internet and google really have changed the way we access information. The real challenge is how to restructure knowledge itself to take advantage of the new forms of accessibility. And as for using technology in the classroom: banning computers is like forcing kids to memorize arithmetic tables in an age when everyone has a calculator. We don't need slide rules nor an abacus and there is no reason to teach kids how to use them.
Games have the potential to make math more relevant or engaging, Pink said, but if they lead to standardized thinking about getting to the one right answer, that can be problematic
If the only aim of a game is for points and badges, the game has little benefit for the player. For a game to be compelling and a good source of learning, it should be capable of providing rapid, robust, regular, and meaningful feedback.
Students who are driven by external rewards (grades, trophies), will be fare worse than those who are self-directed, motivated by freedom, challenge, and purpose
When students assessed themselves, they held themselves to a higher standard. This changed the way he looked at the kids.
"Jobs in education, Pink said in a recent interview, are all about moving other people, changing their behavior, like getting kids to pay attention in class; getting teens to understand they need to look at their future and to therefore study harder. At the center of all this persuasion is selling: educators are sellers of ideas.
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Every employer I know of (and I would assume that you are no exception Colin) wants engaged employees who are passionate about their jobs. Most employers do not want employees who hate their work but persist through it anyway. It is a fallacy to believe that we are teaching our kids that the heart of innovative capability (and therefore their future job prospects) is best served by doing something you hate for an extended period of time no matter the consequences.
But I have to focus on what will get them work, even if that will hurt them, society, the companies that hire them and everyone around them.
"Why are you so convinced that my son is going to be an academic or an investment banker?" Because as far as I can tell, those are the only two things that schools prepare kids to be.
and that the stuff that he loves (art and music and video games) will be a great future for him and the stuff he hates (math and science) is something he will never compete in, never have a chance at.
But school doesn’t care, because school does not have the objective of helping my son produce the maximum amount of value in the future that he will probably encounter. School cares about ensuring that he knows how to take tests, follow directions and can do math that he will never have to care about for the rest of his life.
Most employers do not want employees who hate their work but persist through it anyway. It is a fallacy to believe that we are teaching our kids that the heart of innovative capability (and therefore their future job prospects) is best served by doing something you hate for an extended period of time no matter the consequences.
San Francisco-based kids' app platform Fingerprint is teaming up with UK educational app maker Mindshapes. The two companies are collaborating on a series of new digital learning activities called "appisodes," which combine both storytelling and games.
"A programme that brings live fish into classrooms to teach the fundamentals of biology not only helps students learn, but improves their attitudes about science, a new study finds.
The study of nearly 20,000 K-12 students, who raised zebrafish from embryos over the course of a week, found that kids at all grade levels showed significant learning gains. They also responded more positively to statements such as "I know what it's like to be a scientist." The results, to be published by the journal PLOS Biology, suggest that an immersive experience with a living creature can be a particularly successful strategy to engage young people in science, technology, engineering and maths."
"For kid makers, having a dedicated space to work on projects can be pretty wonderful, and it just might help them create more than they ever imagined. A workspace doesn't need to be huge -- a small workbench that is efficient, compact and flexible in its use and storage can fit almost anywhere. Here are some tips on how to design and set up a mini maker space made just for your kids."