YES!!! According to the site below, I’m only 57% addicted. Barely over half. Pffft! That’s nothing. I can kick it ANY time I want.
OK… so I wasn’t quite totally honest with a couple answers, but I thought some of them were obvious gotchas. Like, have I ever thought of something to blog about while in the shower. Come ON! No serious blogger will say Yes to that one if you’re looking to keep your addiction score down. What were they thinking?
http://www.gapminder.org/downloads/presentations/human-development-trends-2005.html
Thanks to Jaron F (how many Jaron’s do YOU know?) J for sharing a site with me that led me to Gapminder. Watch this video on Ted that features this VERY cool tool. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92 This one is for your sociology teachers. Send it to them. Tie them down and MAKE them watch it. They’ll be glad you did. Then watch the one on the gapminder site itself: http://www.gapminder.org/video/video/1—health-money–sex-in-sweden.html You’ll get an idea of how that tool works. This is perhaps the BEST presentation I’ve EVER seen – and not one powerpoint-like slide. Watch for yourself.
The top link, however, is a direct link to a particular Presentation (More presentations found in the Left Nav area) that you’ll like. THAT is the one that your sociology teachers will be bookmarking. Just watch the first one dealing with Income in the world. (Hint: we’re VERY lucky people to be living where we do.)
Enough talking. Go check them out!
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/
Thanks to Sue S, again, for sharing this site. Here’s one for your English teachers. It’s the Center for Programs in Contemporary Wring at the University of *Pennsylvania. Hear poetry read by the authors and others. Check out the Anthologies area and in particular the Dada Sounds section. This may not be MY cup of tea, but I’ll bet it would make for a great (threaded?) discussion with your upperclassmen. Have them listen to some of the work in the Stray Singles Index area and blog about them, perhaps. This is also… well.. so much more.
My only frustration with the site is that it had so many file types, and I still don’t have Real Player installed so I couldn’t watch a couple of the movies. But, for the serious English class that is studying poetry, this site is a must-see.
* Anyone here remember watching the old Jiminy Cricket? Do you remember the song that he would sing about the Encyclopedia? E-nc-yc-lo-pediaaaaa. Well, that’s how I learned how to spell Pennsylvania when I was a kid. It fit to the same tune and rhythm that Jiminy used for Encyclopedia. To this day, when I type or spell those words I mentally do so to that tune. I even type them to the rhythm. Er… is that a sign of a sickness? J
http://learningandlaptops.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-does-literature-say-about-human.html
I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Anne Smith from Arapahoe SD at the NECC conference in Atlanta. I’ve pointed you to her site before (http://tipline.blogspot.com/2006/12/tips-power-of-blogging.html) . While I didn’t get to talk with her as much as I would have liked, I did talk to her long enough for her to suggest that I check out the student work that was done for her final project of the year. I will let you read it as she wrote it so that I don’t misspeak about any part of it.
But, you should see – you NEED to see – the student projects that she has posted there. You need to see them for a couple of reasons. First, they are OUTSTANDING! Second – these are 9th graders! When I see work like this I keep thinking, “My, how we underestimate them.” Third, I LOVE the idea of this assessment – AND of the BIG question that she put forth at the beginning of the year, “What does literature say about human beings?” Fourth, I love how they made this assignment personal. Watch their movies. Listen to them. My, how we underestimate them. Fifth, this is BOUND to give you ideas for other ways that YOU can assess your students. Perhaps, rather than marching them through a multiple choice test, if you give them the opportunity to tell you what the stories mean to them, you will find a MUCH deeper understanding of the stories than you thought.
Check out her rubric, too. As she says, the students worked with her to develop that rubic.
Hats off to Anne and especially to her students whose work is shown here.
http://the-moon.wikispaces.com/Introduction
http://meneame.wikispaces.com/ – in Spanish (give anyone an idea?)
I was on the Wikispaces site today and clicked on a couple links to see what others are doing with the wiki. Above are four wikis that I thought would spark a bit of creativity in you. Check them out. Did any of them give you an idea for what you’ll do with YOUR students next fall?
MANY thanks to Sherri M for sharing this one.
http://krampf.com/experiments/Science_Experiment11.html
Can YOU cut a hole in a 3×5 note card large enough to crawl through? Robert Krampf can. Check it out. Don’t share this with your students until they return in the fall. He films an experiment of the week for his site. You HAVE to check out some of the others linked along the left side. Browse around this site. You’ll find LOTS of good things to do with your science classes, too.
Caution: For the younger, more invincible students, remind them NOT to try the tablecloth experiment on mom’s good china. J
My only question – why no feeds?
http://k12handhelds.com/mashups/
I stumbled upon this page after seeing her post on the Classroom 2.0 ning site. The above page contains some links to some great resources for free visual materials, from clipart to videos, and all licensed on the “Copyleft” licenses. (See her description of that on the site.
While you’re there, scroll all the way down to see her post on free audio resources, as well. The click Previous Posts to see other episodes of hers.
