iPhone iPod Touch version - math game for kids that is free. Why not download this for the car and let them play it a bit to help them with math. For elementary age children.
Chinese New Year Collection with many different lessons at all age levels along with downloadables to use. If you are expecting your students to have global literacy, you cannot afford to ignore China. This is a fun time to teach about it - kids love dragons and fireworks!
Tons of interactive white board resources - FREE ONES from @Tesconnect - I'm sending all of these to our kindergarten teachers. Lots of great free stuff. Tes is in the UK so sometimes the terms are different but great resources.
With the titanic lesson plans and activities many of you are doing (I've shared these recently) here is a lesson plan to introduce grades 4 and 5 to World War 2 including a Powerpoint that you can use.
Debating global issues is an important part of global competency. Here are some important and sometimes controversial issues like Child soldiers, nuclear weapons, child labor, Aids, poverty. Some very nice frameworks to use as we are ending the school year. After you finish your year end tests, you should consider some global competency lessons in your classroom to help students be aware of the world and also develop critical thinking skills. This is a great place to start.
A moon landing simulation that requires students to understand mass, thrust, fuel consumption, and lunar gravity. This has been used with all ages of students.
I love this conversation from Natasha Devon, body image expert and recovered bulimic. Please read to help get inside the mind of what we're dealing with here and the messages from media (particularly to girls) about how we "should" look, "should" behave, and "should" be so we can be happy and live good lives. So much of it is manufactured unattainable hogwash, but still many of us (including me) struggle with self esteem issues that come from the fact that we aren't the "type" of person we see in the media who is a "popular" person. Criticize as you will, but it is reality for many of us.
From Natasha:
"I have one hour to convey the message that inspired my business, Gossip School; just one hour to emphasise the importance of self-esteem, to give these young people the tools to recognise negative messages from the media and to convince them that it is OK to be themselves, however they look."
Earth Day is April 22. Here are lesson plans for Earth Day that you can then use to tie into Arbor Day the next week. Environment, sustainability are both important topics that should be discussed in every school.
This is a hands-on laboratory unit from the U.S. Department of Energy exploring the concepts of heat and movement. Teachers set up six laboratory stations that will introduce students to the basic concepts of thermodynamics, including atomic structure, atomic and molecular motion, states of matter, heat transfer, thermal expansion, specific heat, and heats of fusion and vaporization. It also includes a unit exam and teacher demonstrations.
Can giants exist? This question for middle and high school has students use volume and surface area to determine if giants can exist. This is for geometry.
Inquiry based projects can have great results.
An autobiographical writing skills powerpoint and activity including a differentiated lesson plan and more traditional one. I like having different options. This is for older (high school) students.
A friend of mine passed this lesson plan on to me with this note to Literature teachers:
"Sick of Jacobean literature meaning Shakespeare? Check out this resource on Christopher Marlowe's Faust. "
I think that this is a very good point and is the type of lesson that AP literature would use in the US. There is a reading guide, powerpoint, and it also incorporates John Milton's Paradise Lost as a comparative text.
For those working with elementary students integrating global competency, these 428 lesson plans and activities are great ways to cover geography and the cultural literacy that is needed by today's students.
Topical studies are great. The London Marathon just happened and marathons are increasing in popularity here in the United states. Here is a video about the marathon, but also lesson plans about the Battle of Marathon, information on training to improve fitness and just what it takes physically to train for a marathon. Health and history lessons here.
A body image lesson from Media Smart. The UK is using this as part of their "body confidence" campaign but it is a great set to look at for those working with body image and self esteem of any kind. There are a lot of great media smart resources here for guidance counselors and health teachers.
In the UK, a very large selective authority admits that grammar school pupils favors wealthier children. The test has now caused schools to be warned against using the test because affluence plays a role in the results. Additionally, they imply that because of the influence of affluence that ethnicity is also a factor. Because coaching can have such an impact, and those with more money pay for coaching, it has been discredited. However, one could take this and apply it to the SAT in the US. I'm an SAT coach at my school and those who go through the process and take it seriously, do improve their scores much more. It is hard to remove affluence from influence but I think it is good to get this out on the table and let people know about it.
Interesting, a biology lesson using a style from "the Apprentice" to provide peer feedback in the area of forensic entomology. Themed lessons like this add interest, especially if it is a program that kids watch.
