Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 12/29/2011
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Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ: The ballot or the bullet
A Martin Luther King, Jr. Lesson plan from my friend @teacherdude in Greece. This is what he does in his class. Make sure you prescreen movies and make sure that age appropriate films are selected. It is interesting how he handles the discussion in the oft tumultuous Greece.
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This is from one of my favorite teachers on Tumblr - magical teacher. Here, she shares an infographic from AOL the "11 Days that Shaped 2011" to use as a writing prompt and suggests that you have students develop their own infographic for their life in 2011. What are the 11 days that shaped your life this year?
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Kinect Lesson Plan with Body and Brains: Kicking Your Way to Mastering Math | KinectEDucation
Get this. A lesson plan using Kinect, teaching math, and aligned with common core standards. This includes handouts. For grades 3-6. If you have a kinect at your school, you'll want to follow kinecteducation.com
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This is a great post with guidance on helping people use email more efficiently. If you use Google apps for domains, the tools that let you analyze your email use will be great. If you teach digital citizenship and literacy, this is a great starting point for teaching about email. No, email is not free, it costs us time.
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The New York Times Accidentally Spams More Than 8 Million People
Oops. Spam makes the best organization look incompetent. Best option is to admit it, make sure it doesn't happen again. I find schools and organizations that don't have a clue about how to send an email (by using blind copy instead of to everyone on the planet) increasingly annoying because there is always someone on the list who doesn't respect the emails of others and starts spamming.
Use email well in your organization.If you teach digital citizenship, conversations about spam and proper email etiquette should be part of what you teach. This would be a good conversation starter. -
Teens Stand Up as Abolitionists | hollyboardman
Teacher Holly Boardman has added her voice to the blogosphere. She's doing great work online promoting the cause of abolition and I've enjoyed reading her tweets. Here is a phenomenal overview of how she has integrated this topic into her literature classroom where she uses writing, literature, and the topic of slavery to make literature of all kinds relevant to her students. How can you make literature relevant and do the world a service? Take a read of Holly's blog.
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Resources for teaching about the Titanic
January also includes the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Start on this page and on the left you can drill down by age to find the appropriate resources for the age of your students. (You may have to log in to be able to do this. You'll need a free account.)
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Martin Luther King, Jr. Resources
Several lesson plans and activities for Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, coming up in January. This is one of my go to places for resources online. Contribute what you're doing so others can download them. (there is also a download contest right now so you can share a great idea and win as well.)
Lots of good ideas including assemblies from UNICEF, videos, and an analysis of his "I have a dream" speech to use in your speech class. -
Recycling Christmas cards - Resources - TES
Ideas to recycle Christmas cards. Use those lovely cards in your classroom instead of buying new paper in January and promote an awareness of taking care of the earth.
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Essay Writing Toolkit - Resources - TES
If you teach essay writing, you'll want to download this powerpoint toolkit. It is a new resource just uploaded to Tes on December 9th. If you teach writing, you'll see a lot of information here.
"A comprehensive guide to essay writing. The toolkit contains over 50 activities to help students improve their essays, as well as a wealth of other information, ideas and links. All aspects of essay writing are covered." -
Distracted Driving | One Text or Call Could Wreck it All | Distraction.gov for Teens
A website targeted to teens about distracted driving. It starts with a test to see how long you can keep your eyes and mind on the road. A great site for health classes or driversed. It is a bit tricky because it tricks you into doing something you might not should do but it does make a point. some kids will say it is lame but it is a start.
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VoiceThread iOS App for itouch/ipad + Posterous - Be the Change
So, you want to use digital storytelling in the classroom. Here Beth Sanders writes about what she is doing with the voicethread app. Some great classroom ideas here.
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STEM Research Program for Teachers Accepting Applications -- THE Journal
The Siemens' STEM program for teachers is an outstanding program for Science, Technology, and math teachers. I highly recommend this program as I've been there for a one day part of their program at Discovery Headquarters and, as always, the work Discovery did was outstanding. You can apply by February 9th.
