Here is the Time Magazine list for part two of Ms. Redden’s assignment on leadership qualities in Girl Who Owned a City. Read about one of the people on the list, comparing and contrasting leadership qualities.
To find your second article, log into Destiny and click on EBSCO Host and then Biography Reference Center. Search for your person there.
This is a re-posting of an assignment for Ms. Redden’s class.
Read the article found here and be prepared to summarize the main points about the important leadership characteristics. While your class is reading The Girl Who Owned a City, you’ll be looking for these characteristics in the children who have survived the plague.
I know that schools are pushing for more technology use and one of those ways is through student response systems, “clickers” that students can key in their responses and get instant feedback. The positive is that teachers can assess the entire class at once instead of just the one or two students that get called on per question. The negatives are the cost and, closely related, the proprietary nature of the devices. (You have to use that company’s clickers on their software.)
Socrative gets around that. This is perfect for the computer lab or a mobile lab. The teacher creates a classroom and a quiz. Socrative generates the room number. Students then go to Socrative and type in the room number. They type in their name and then are presented with the quiz.
I did my test run with a laptop and my phone, with the laptop being the teacher station. My phone showed a message that said it was waiting on the teacher. Once I was ready on the laptop, it automatically updated on my phone and I answered the sample question. The teacher station then saw what I got and started a grade report. Students don’t see how their classmates scored, which is good. They are able to see if they got the right answer if you set up the quiz to do that. There is also a game mode called Space Race where they are divided into two teams and their right answers fuel their rockets. It’s not a huge motivator, but it still beats a worksheet.
What is great is that the reports export to Excel. There is also a quiz creation template in Excel that you can import so that you can make a backup copy and not have to rely solely on an online copy. The fact that it’s free definitely helps.
With more school districts moving towards a “bring your own teachnology” policy for portable devices, I see a lot of potential for this.
Here is the answer to today’s Future Professionals challenge.
The mayor of Gilbert took time out of his schedule to answer letters that students wrote to him as part of Mr. Donoghue’s Social Studies class. It’s very relevant, and there was quite a bit of rigor, too. Students thought critically about real solutions and analyzed the situation from multiple viewpoints. What a great lesson.
Today we’re researching the properties of elements and their uses. I like this project because you have to apply what you know about the element by creating a superhero that uses those qualities.
Here are the sites:
WebElements
Dynamic Periodic Table
ChemicalElements.com
It’s Elemental
If you’re looking to practice note identification, a great resource for that is FlashNotes. It’s sorted by clef and skill level.
Treble – Beginner
Treble – Advanced
Bass – Beginner
Bass – Advanced
I especially like the frantic music in the background and the countdown timer. Nice find, Mr. Durham.
In our school, and many others, I’m guessing, YouTube is blocked. This has some pros and cons. Pro? There is some nasty stuff on YouTube. Con? Teachers can’t show clips that supplement their instruction.
That being said, here are some sites that you might be able to find clips to use:
Khan Academy – Even though YouTube’s blocked, Khan Academy videos are still viewable. These are amazing videos that demonstrate in simple language pretty complex math and science concepts.
5min.com – http://www.5min.com/Category/Knowledge has 5-minute videos (thus the name) that explain concepts in a quick but thorough manner. I easily found a video about the Homestead Act and then discovered a video from the Khan Academy about why (not just how) borrowing works in subtraction problems.
MovieWeb – Do you want to show 30 seconds worth of a film instead of the whole thing? Try http://www.movieweb.com/.
and then you have the classics TeacherTube and SchoolTube if you want to share videos (and find ones shared by other educators…I prefer SchoolTube over TeacherTube because it loads faster).
Hopefully that helps!
Picture from National Geographic
At our junior high, some of the teachers read the novel Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen with their students. In it, one of the major forces is a giant white bear.
So, how likely is it for a spirit bear to be born?
National Geographic has a great article about the Kermodism genetics that causes the white fur. The really cool part is the Punnett square visualizing how the recessive trait is passed on.
This is an excellent opportunity for science and English teachers to team up for a cross-curricular lesson.
Ms. Harvey has done a great update of her Mythology Fakebook in Excel.
You can download it here.
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