Group items tagged

How to incorporate Star Wars into Reading Workshop - tapping into kids' obsessions...... Become a Jedi Master.... Yoda as master of metacognition....

a blog post that contains some interesting book-related writing prompts - I particularly like the idea of having students read some forewords to books and think how they would introduce a text that they love. Relevant to both primary and middle/high school teachers.

Summary via The Scout Report (May 2012): "The earth sciences encompass a range of fields, including geology, meteorology, and other areas of inquiry. This website features a range of lesson plans and activities that cover these fields, designed for both high school and college classrooms. In total, there are over two dozen activities here divided into sections such as Rocks & Minerals and Earthquakes & Volcanoes. The Rocks & Minerals area is a particularly rich vein of pedagogical material. It features a mineral identification lab session and a lesson plan that probes the world of igneous rocks. Moving along, the site also includes engaging materials on the formation of clouds, atmospheric pressure, and a humorous lesson plan on thunderstorms. [KMG]"

Summary via The Scout Report (May 2012): "How does math get used in the "real world?" The short answer is that it is used to create hip-hop music, in fashion design, and through a number of other endeavors. This interactive website combines video and web interactive to help young people develop algebraic thinking skills for solving real-world problems. The series is funded by The Moody's Foundation, along with assistance from WNET and American Public Television. The sections of the site include The Challenges, Video, and Teachers. In The Challenges area, users will find video segments profiling the various young professionals who use math in their work, along with interactive tools to help students solve the challenges they are presented with. Moving on, the Teachers area includes resources for teachers, such as a training video showing how to use project materials in the classroom, along with student handouts. Visitors shouldn't miss the Basketball challenge, featuring NBA player Elton Brand talking about the problems presented by free throw shooting. [KMG]"

"  "Where I'm From" grew out of my response to a poem from Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet (Orchard Books, 1989; Theater Communications Group, 1991) by my friend, Tennessee writer Jo Carson. All of the People Pieces, as Jo calls them, are based on things folks actually said, and number 22 begins, "I want to know when you get to be from a place. " Jo's speaker, one of those people "that doesn't have roots like trees, " tells us "I am from Interstate 40" and "I am from the work my father did. "

Joyce Valenza's guide to teaching students about infographics, based on sessions she attended at last year's ISTE

"Telling a brief story around a single photograph seems like such a simple idea. Add to that a sharing element and you think: another clever web platform to distract and amuse us. But there's a lot more to Cowbird.The interface is beautiful, as one would expect from Jonathan Harris, Cowbird's creator. The Web artist and programmer behind the 2006 Web project "We Feel Fine," Harris thinks big. His goal with Cowbird: nothing less than to create "the world's first library of human experience," according to the site.While you can add audio, the focus is on the image, which floats front and center, full screen, with the accompanying story beneath in plain text. To get a feel, you'll need to spend some time with the stories posted thus far, as the site suggests."

Teaching Activity PDF. By Naomi Shihab Nye and Linda Christensen. 4 pages. A teaching idea utilizing famous Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish's work to inspire students.

Providing a wealth of resources for K-12 science educators, Science NetLinks is your guide to meaningful standards-based Internet experiences for students.

Creative Projects for the PreK-Sixth Grade Classroom

from Canada:  "Scientists and teachers work together to develop and deliver science units comprised of hands-on lessons on specific themes. There is a major focus on the experimental process of science. The lesson plans fit the BC Ministry of Education guidelines for Science K to 7. Opportunities are created to link lessons to other areas of the curriculum, such as math, fine arts, English and French language arts, and First Nations. Some lessons focus on issues facing society such as marine pollution, climate change, soil erosion, biodiversity, and the importance of protecting the environment and ecosystems. Thirty-three science units have been developed during the Scientist in Residence Program and are organized within four curriculum areas. More than 200 science lesson plans are available for download as PDF documents. These include lesson plans for field trips, thereby extending learning in natural environments. Please scroll down to view the titles of science units for each curriculum area, and click on science unit titles to view and download individual science lesson plans. If required by your browser, please enable Scripts to download documents from this web site. New science lesson plans will be posted on this website as they become available."

The Kennedy Center -- Washington, DC

list of the Google Docs which Tom Barrett has set up for people to add "interesting ways to" ..... [fil in the blank], e.g., use web conferencing in class, use wallwisher in class, use audio in the classroom....

" Creative Visions has developed educational curricula to accompany the GlobalTribe series. Each of the lessons is designed for grades 9-12 and can be adapted to fill a range of in-class hours. Lessons for each GlobalTribe episode are available as an Adobe Acrobat (pdf) file."

"Welcome to Reeko's Mad Scientist Lab. Your source of free science projects and experiments for parents, teachers, and children of all ages. Kick off your shoes. Pull up a chair. Make yourself comfortable. Oh yeah, did we mention that protective goggles are required... "