Youtube Playlist: Oceanography

The YouTube playlist that I created is intended to be used as supplements in a unit about oceanography. The first video in the playlist is a crowd pleaser, featuring the ever popular Bill Nye the Science Guy (Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!). It is a quick clip that introduces the topic of ocean currents which could be played before we conduct our own wave and current experiments. 

The next video is interesting to the max giving us information on the Deep Sea. First we learn about submarines, how they are built, why they are useful, and even meet a submarine builder. Then, we go on a dive into the abyss 3,000 feet down. It does an excellent job detailing each zone of the ocean while we are in it. This video would be great to watch with a fill in the blanks hand out to match each zone with a description. It also could be used as a prompt for creative writing about their own deep sea adventure. The third and final video is full of facts. Perhaps not intended to be watched as a class, but to be accessible for students who are interested in the deep sea. To see the videos for yourself simply click Here.

SMART Board Video: A Few Handy Tricks

For today's post I have tracked down two videos that I think offer some interesting ways to use your SMART board in your classroom.

The first is Titled 5 Tips and Tricks for the SMARTboard and it was uploaded by Adam Bellow.

The video opens with the fact that a SMART board alone isn't enough for great lesson plans which leads into our first tip: You don't even need the smartboard to plan your lessons; explaining that all you really need is the technology from the Smart Notebooks on your computer. The next tip shows us three features of the Magic Pen that are activated by different pen strokes. The third tip is to use the My Content folder in your gallery in order to have quick access to frequently used pictures. The fourth tip is that documents and PDF's are draggable when you import them onto the screen. The fifth and final tip is one that would have been handy while I was substituting last week: To erase the full screen circle all the writing with the eraser and tap the middle of the board. 

The next is titled 5 Minute PD on how to use Smart Exchange uploaded by Jesse Herbert.

In this video you will get a quick overview of just a few of the features on Smart Exchange. First, you learn how to create an account. Then, we are shown some of the different ways to search for lesson plans. In the video we see an attendance activity and we are walked through everything from downloading to importing to customizing. This video was a quick intro to smartboard and helpful in walking through the whole process of integrating Smart Exchange plans into your own classroom.

Youtube Kids: Not Just for Kids (PLN 2.3)

This article introduces us to the creation of Youtube Kids. The brief article details a few of the features included such as built in channels with children’s favorite programming, and parental monitoring. While reading the article it seemed that it was targeted to the youngest of children with the mentioned programming featuring Sesame Street, and the like. However, after further exploration into the app I believe it could be a beneficial tool in a classroom of much older children through their elementary school career. 

The first thing that makes the new website appropriate for classroom use is the fact that all of the content is filtered to be age appropriate. This makes it easier for a teacher to keep tabs on what their students are looking at. It also makes it easier for kids to find relevant videos for researching projects without getting a lot of junk videos to sort through.

The second thing that makes it appropriate for classroom use is that the content that is filtered is specifically for kids…… which sounds a little redundant and induces some “thank you captain obvious” remarks from you, the reader, right? Well what I mean by this is that more specifically than just being appropriate from a language and sexual, stand point; it is information provided in a way that is UNDERSTANDLE and RELATABLE. This means that if a student is looking for videos of why the sky is blue, this will be explained in a kid-friendly manner instead of a scholarly level. This again makes it easy to research and include content in projects.

A Photo a Day Keeps the Students Engaged (PLN 2.2)

If you are a math teacher or tutor, like myself, I am sure you have struggled to find ways to get kids interested in math concepts and to convince them that math really does come up in everyday life. This article, posted by a teacher named Mrs. Chapman, introduces a unique way to connect concepts to real life while integrating technology. The genius teacher decided to incorporate pictures (taken with a cell phone or camera). 

 Courtesy of 3B Bees Twitter Account

She created a prompt for a different subject to photograph each day. The subjects ranged from polygons, to pyramids, to doubles plus or minus one. Students were allowed to create their own examples or simply snap a pic of one out in the real world. The concept of looking for ideas learned in school out in students’ daily lives could be incorporated into any school subject and is a great way to get students engaged and using technology. You could even link online with other classrooms to compare pictures they found. To read the article for yourself head over here.

Fantasy Football, Geopolitics? (PLN 2.1)

Peanut butter and Jelly, Salt and pepper, Fantasy Football and Geopolitics. – wait, what was that last one?! You read correctly. Two terms that don’t seem to fit together were combined in 2009 to encourage kids to get interested in global news stories. In an article found on KQED News I read the story of exactly how it happened. The article by Greg Toppo tells us of a teacher, Mr. Nelson, who was disheartened after he started in a class 9^th grade students who were anything but engaged in global affairs. When recalling the disinterest he claims,

“I was kind of shocked, when I started teaching, at how zombified ninth graders were. They just sort of looked through me.”

Toppo, Greg. "Teaching Geopolitics: Fantasy Football as a Learning Game."MindShift. KQEDnews, 4 May 2015. Web. 07 May 2015.

The only thing that Nelson thought they seemed to be interested in were video games. This love of games, the article claims, was shared by Nelson as well. Though the games he played were a bit different than the games of his students. Fantasy Football was the game that held Nelson’s interest and he began to notice it helped him further his understanding of football and what would happen behind the scenes. To build his team and make the greatest decisions he spent time studying team members and stats. Then a lightbulb clicked.

To get his students interested in foreign affairs and world news he would challenge them to build a fantasy geopolitics team. The winning teams would be the teams whose countries were featured the most in news stories. Everyone suddenly became interested in studying who was in the public eye. Things like earth quakes and revolutions could suddenly throw a loop in everything so students had to stay up to date in order to keep their teams strong.

The game started on Google spreadsheets but moved into news trackers, and student created facebook debriefing pages. The game has now blossomed into this website for teachers to use. To read the full article for yourself click here.