This is an amazing multimedia resource from the New York Times to use to teach the Haiti earthquake.
Current Events: Haiti Earthquake Multimedia
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Author Archives: mrspal1
Current Events: 5 ways to teach about Haiti right now
The New York Times has put together an outstanding resource for teachers here.
My Life 24/7 Contest: Incorporating Character Ed in the Curriculum
I was trained in Character Counts about 5 years ago. Since then, I have used their materials and website resources to build the advisory program. In the past year, they have created a new teen-focused spin off of character counts called mylife 24/7. Currently, they are running a contest that includes ethics, decision making, and character education into any curriculum via blogging or video. The class needs to come up with a video that has an ethical dimension. Some suggestions are:
- random acts of kindness
- taking care
- acting up and taking a stand against injustice
The complete instructions and lesson plan can be found here. Submissions are due February 1st, so there is just about enough time to do this with a small group of kids…I plan on doing this with my advisory this week!
Kindle: My Love Affair With Reading
I’ve had my kindle for over a year now, and can’t imagine life without it! I’ve found that I read way more than I used to just because of its accessibility. Some exciting news just broke yesterday that Kindle will now be incorporating apps into their kindle store! Click here to read about it.
All of these books I have on my kindle sample list, wish list, or are sitting on my kindle waiting to be read! Regardless of what ereader you choose, I strongly believe that ereaders are encouraging people to read more. Now…if I could just get a kindle for each of my students!
21st century learners: a vision of students today
There has been a trend on youtube where students are visually representing how they learn and how they want to learn. Below are three powerful videos that depict what 21st century learners need in the classroom. It is vital that we realize that we are preparing students for a world that we can’t even imagine right now. We need to embrace how they learn and take advantage of the technology that they are so connected to.
Higher Education
K-12 Education
I need my teacher to learn
Book Review: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
William Kamkwamba has an amazing story to tell. At 14 years old, he built a windmill to power his family’s home in Malawi. Above is a talk that he gave for Ted talks. I just finished reading the book…it is a moving and inspiring story for teens to adults. I highly suggest adding this to your “to read” list.
6 word memoirs…what’s yours?
Legend has it that Hemingway was challenged to write a memoir in only 6 words. I challenged my 8th graders to do the same. The video below shows a short collection of our memoirs. You can go here to see the entire project.
The original website can be located here.
I also used many excerpts from this book as examples:
(note: some of the memoirs are not appropriate for reading in class)
Flickrpoet: Digital Storytelling Gets Poetic
I’ve been using digital storytelling with my students via photostory, but this takes digital storytelling to another level. Flickrpoet allows you to enter a sentence, a poem, lyrics, etc. into the text box, which, in turn, will create a visual representation of your work in pictures pulled from Flickr. Imagine the possibilities for students!
TKAMB21: To Kill A Mockingbird Meets the 21st Century
So how to you take a classic book and make it relevant to kids today? You include facebook, twitter, and im into the project. My 8th graders ate this project up! If you want to see if your students truly have a grasp of character development, have them write tweets as that character. Check out my students’ TKAMB21 projects here! This project idea can be used for social studies as well…imagine creating a facebook page for a historical character! Click here to see the original instructions.
2011 Update:
Since we’ve moved to a Google Platform, I formatted the assignment for Google Docs and used a Google Site to showcase their work. Templates for Google can be found here.
Also, I just read two books that are not appropriate for students, but a total riot for adults that explore this type of writing:
Cool tool for teachers: Youblisher
Oh, how I LOVE this new site (youblisher)! It takes your own PDF files and turns them into a publication in a snap! This is a great way to publish student work! Here is an example of a project I just finished with my 8th graders TKAMB21 (To Kill a Mockingbird Meets the 21st Century). My next blog post will detail that project…stay tuned!
