A Tech Tool (Toy?): paperplanes.world

File this under the "how could I use this for a lesson" file... (with thanks to my twitterfriend, Kyle Calderwood, for sharing...)

1. Grab your phone and head over to paperplanes.world. (Seriously, you should do this right now...)

Another Six Helpful Resources for Teaching Geography

Those of you who are regular readers may know how much I love geography. I think maps are cool. (I was that geeky kid studying the maps in the back of the social studies book in elementary school...)

I'm always on the lookout for fun geography sites, tools, lesson ideas, and repositories, and I keep stashing them away when I come across them. In case you are interested, a few previous posts of geographic resources...
Eight Helpful Resources for Teaching Geography
Seven More Helpful Resources for Teaching Geography
And Six More Helpful Resources for Teaching Geography

Of course, it seems like there always another new one that crops up. So, in no particular order, here's my latest batch...

And Six More Helpful Resources for Teaching Geography

Image by Enrique Flouret [CC BY 2.0]

I have shared my love of geography here before, and though I'm not a geography teacher in an official sense, I think that every teacher should help foster a little geographic awareness in their students--in very much the same way we say things like "every teacher is a reading teacher" or "every teacher teaches writing."

Previously I've shared a few collections of fun resources you might be able to use to help your students develop a greater sense of geographic awareness; you can check out Eight Helpful Resources for Teaching Geography and Seven More Helpful Resources for Teaching Geography to help you get started.

It's in this same spirit that I offer this collection of six more resources. Enjoy!

Jargon

Oh, don't you just love educational jargon? (I sound like I'm being sarcastic, don't I? Maybe I am...a bit...but to be fair, I think every field has it's own jargon, and since I'm in education...)

Here's a toy for you to play with, edubabble lovers: check out ScienceGeek.net's Education Jargon Generator.

It will produce gems such as...

"We will unleash standards-based engagement structures via self-reflection."

"We will disintermediate child-centered education within a balanced literacy program."

"We will harness group-based mastery learning throughout multiple modalities."

"We will morph over-arching learning in authentic, real-world scenarios."

I'm sure you don't know anyone who talks like that though, do you? :-)

Maybe it's because I'm starting to think about the new school year that is just a few weeks away, but I'm almost ready for a game of buzzword bingo. Anybody else want in?

Created with wordle.net using selected text from ScienceGeek.

Tech Tool: Make Your Own Animated GIFs

I love animated gifs. Sometimes they just hit your funny bone, right? Like this one, for instance:

Even Vader loves pizza. [Scrounged from Smosh.]

So maybe you want to create your own animated gifs? Maybe you could use one for that online course you're teaching add a little interest and humor? Or maybe you just want to try and create the next viral hit?

Seven More Helpful Resources for Teaching Geography

One of my most-viewed posts to date is titled "Eight Helpful Resources for Teaching Geography." I'm glad this was--apparently--such a valuable collection of teaching ideas, because I think we (American educators) need to do a better job of teaching geographic awareness, frankly. So it's in that spirit that I've collected another seven resources that might prove beneficial for teaching geography...

Image by Kenneth Lu [CC BY 2.0]

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 20

An empty baggie?

I have this baggie in my desk. It is empty. I can't remember when I put it in there either. But it's a sign of my frugality, and my packrat nature. Because I'm sure I'll find some use for it!

I remember one of my education professors--nearly 20 years ago--telling us that "good teachers are 'scroungers'...they are always on the look out for things that could be used for teaching a lesson." I guess I embody that. I have so much stuff that has made it's way into my desk drawers "because I might use it someday," it's almost ridiculous.

I've been writing each day this month about something I have in my desk. Usually there is a story involved. Almost always there is something I can connect to some part of my teaching practice. Rarely are things just..."there."

I have a bunch more junk I could keep writing about, but all good things must come to an end. This series of posts has been an awful lot of fun for me, and it was a different twist on what I usually do on the blog; this is normally just a place for me to work out my thinking on whatever it is I've been reading about, or researching, or doing in my teaching practice lately. Thanks to those of you who have commented, or interacted with me on Twitter or Facebook, or even stopped me in the hallway to share your reactions to this series. That is the best part of all for me: when I get feedback from you folks on the things I'm putting into pixels here.

So as a thank you, here are eight more weird things I have in my desk, just to keep you wondering...

Do you clip your nails in class? Ewww! (I don't...)

A finger-flinger rocket...that has potential for lots of lessons!

Mmmmm...freeze dried coffee crystals... (I don't drink this stuff.)

Because everyone should have a rubber ear in their desk...

Sometimes pliers come in handy.

A bag of shredded cash...approximately $165 in this bag...

An inflatable microphone should be part of every teacher's bag of tricks. 

Looney Tunes are the best! That Coyote and Roadrunner...physics lessons!

So there you go, teachers. Consider becoming a "scrounger," if you aren't one already. Start stashing that weird junk someplace in your classroom. You never know when a rubber ear, or a bag of shredded cash, or a recycled sandwich bag will be just the thing you need for that lesson.

Keep it weird, my friends.




---

(This post is part of a series about the weird stuff teachers have in their desk drawers. You can read more about this project here, and I hope you'll share the stories of the weird stuff you have in your desk too!)

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 7

(This post is part of a series about the weird stuff teachers have in their desk drawers. You can read more about this project here, and I hope you'll share the stories of the weird stuff you have in your desk too!)

What...is...that...?

Is that a bag of plastic meat?

Yes. Yes, it is.

Recipes for Slime

Science teachers, make some slime and let the kids play!

I was a middle school science teacher for many years, and now I am privileged to teach future teachers how to teach science. Every science teacher should know how to make slime. The kids love it, and there can be fantastic science learning that happens by playing with slime!

My two favorite slimes are easy to make, and don't require any chemicals other than those you can probably find at your local grocery store. Here are the recipes for oobleck and glurch...

Rough Day? Permission to Play

Teacher, do you ever have those days where everything feels overwhelming?

Students are challenging.

Colleagues are not being very collegial.

Administrators have unrealistic expectations.

Lessons fall flat.

The paperwork seems unending.

Technology didn't work out the way you had planned.

The sum total is a rough, rough day.

I'm sure you never have days like this...

Okay, you probably do. At least, I know I do.

And on those kinds of days, do you feel like knocking down a wall?

The Nine Teachers You Meet at School

My son and I share a common bond in our love of Legos. Yesterday I snapped this picture of a sort of bizarro "Super Friends" team assembled from our collection:

Quite a team, right?

This morning, I started thinking (and laughing) about this picture again, and my thoughts turned toward teaching. This crazy picture reminded me of the many different approaches teachers take to their teaching practice. So, if you'll indulge me, here are the nine teachers you meet at school:

Hooray for Trivia!

I love trivia. Random facts are just good fun!

If you feel the same way, may I suggest you check out Mental_Floss? I've been getting their magazine for about a year now (it is amazing) and I follow them on Twitter (@mental_floss) for the fun facts, quizzes, and odd lists they share regularly.

But none of this prepared me for the Most Interesting and Amazing Fact Generator! You must go check this out right now. Please.

Minecraft: Boosting Creativity in Education?

My kids love Minecraft. Have you played it at all? I put the "pocket edition" on my iPad, and now they fight over who gets to play it. You can download the free version (there are iOS and Android versions) to at least give it a whirl.

The best description I can give for the game is virtual Legos, generated in blocky, pixelated graphics, with zombies. (Who wouldn't want to play that??) The game can be played in two modes: "survival," in which the goal is...survival (the zombies are coming!), and "creative," which is all about creating your own unique world. The name comes from the two main tasks you undertake in the game: "mining" for picking up resources, and "crafting" structures and objects from those resources. The game has been around for a few years now--there are PC/Mac and Xbox versions too--and the folks who create the game are always adding updates. On the pocket edition my kids play it's a one-player game, but the other versions allow for multi-player interaction, and you should see some of the amazing things teams of players build!

A few screenshots from my kids' games, so you get the idea of what it's like:

In creative mode, players can fly over their world to see it from many perspectives.

Out on the boardwalk...Notice the treehouse on the tiny island.

Easy to Use iPad Animation Creator

So you want to have your elementary or middle school students create short, narrated animations on their iPads? I just came across a nifty app to do just that.

Check out Tellagami. This free app is ridiculously easy to use. After downloading it, I handed the iPad to my 7-year-old and told her to check out the new app. First use, she had figured it out in about one minute with no coaching from Dad.

Easy to animate. Gestures added automatically and the mouth
movements sync to the audio (or text-to-speech) quite well.

The Joys of the Apple II

By User Apple2gs, via Wikimedia Commons

If you were a child of the 80's (and maybe even the 90's), did you have an Apple II (or Apple IIe, or Apple IIgs) in your classroom? If so, here's a bit of nostalgia too good to pass up...

Block off an hour or so and go check out http://www.virtualapple.org/. You won't be sorry.

The site is an emulator for all those classic games you used to play: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, Lemonade Stand, and...the grand-daddy of them all...Oregon Trail!

The games load up right in your browser, but you'll have to install a plug-in for them to load. (This is easy, and free--when you try to play a game for the first time, follow the on-screen instructions and you'll be in game-mode in a matter of minutes.)

Yes, the graphics are just as awful as you remember them. Yes, the sounds are midi-generated silliness. Yes, the games are just as awesome today as they were all those years ago.

And even though the graphics are bad and the sound is worse, I think your students could still learn from these games. Okay, sure: some of them are just ridiculous...but you could say the same for some of the schlocky apps you probably have on your classroom set of iPads today!

It might also be worth sharing this site with your students' parents...just the sort of old-school fun for parents and kids alike for the summer doldrums of "Mom...I'm bored!"

(Thanks to my Twitterfriend @sjunkins for sharing this great site!)

PBS LearningMedia

Great online curriculum resource to share with you here: PBS LearningMedia.

A selection, just for examples: (with suggested grade levels)

• An interactive introduction to chemistry (6-12)
• An interactive means of helping students understand topographical maps (6-12)
• A video interview with Brian Selznick, author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret (4-7)
• A video of ideas for building structures from recycled materials (PreK-5)
• A "President for a Day" game to help students understand the many parts of the President's job (3-8)

And this is just the tip of the iceberg! There are thousands of video clips, interactives, games, and lesson plan ideas. You can search by keyword, or browse by grade level, subjects, standards, or collections to find just the right tool to support your students' learning.

You can check out a few items to see if it's the sort of thing you'd use, and then you are asked to create a free account if you want to use more. Totally worth it! (Plus, it's free!)

No matter what grade level or subject you teach, you're likely to find something here that you and your students will find interesting!

Tech Tool: Story Starters

English teachers, this one is for you. Check out the Story Starters tool on Scholastic.com.

I was visiting a student teacher yesterday and she was starting a new unit on creative writing with her 6th graders. She had a variety of tools to help them generate ideas for stories, but this one was probably the class's favorite.

A screengrab from Scholastic.com

Fantastic Contraption: A Physics Simulation

Okay, it's a game. But it'll teach your students some physics concepts and problem-solving strategies in the midst of playing a game. (And who ever said you can't learn anything by playing a game?)

Interesting Tech Tool

Check out phrase.it. It will let you do things like this:

Or this:

phrase.it will let you add cartoon word bubbles to your own images. I have all kinds of ideas about how you might use this for school projects--is your mind running yet? At it's simplest, you could have them very easily create a comic. More complex: I'm imagining multigenre lab reports in science class including a comic-style series of pictures to illustrate their procedures.

No sign-in required, so students could use it with out an email account. Completely free, and very, very simple to use, and free and simple is the best!

Do take a minute to read the fine print. You have to own the images you use, so keep that in mind. Also, be wary of how this sort of tool could be abused. (Have you met middle schoolers?) But with some guidance, this could be a great, useful tech tool to add to your toolbox.

A Game to Make You Think

In case you are running stuck with things for your middle schooler (or high schooler, or yourself...) to do over Christmas Break, let me encourage you to play a computer game. But this game is serious. It's a serious game--one intended not only to entertain, but also to educate.

The name of the game is Third World Farmer. The goal: survive as long as possible.