I saw this commercial come on tv while watching american idol… besides my initial reaction of “whoa - uncle phil got OLD!” i also thought that what he said during the commercial was exactly right. It’s about time that university – or school in general catered more towards the students and their technological needs and skills instead of having students adapt to the schools and their lack of technology.

Seeing as this will be the last post of this blog (my assignment is over,) I will finish it off by saying that we as teachers need to make sure that we are not falling behind in the technological advances. Students these days come from a whole other generation. It will be more beneficial for us to accommodate them than for them to adapt to us. Let us embrace the advances in technology to the fullest. Are you prepared for the challenge?

I ran into a really good website with lots of teacher resources. http://www.teachersfirst.com/ If you go on the top bar and hover over “Classroom” and then “Resources,” you will be able to search through links based on subject and grade level. There are also weekly brain twisters that you can use in your classroom for enhanced learning. (It doesn’t work on Google Chrome, so you must use either Firefox or IE)

One of the first links on the math and science pages I found was http://www.teachersfirst.com/getsource.cfm?id=10703. This is again a site on how teachers can use the Olympics in the classroom. (Go Canada Go!)

Anyway, I really liked this website and will definitely refer to this in the future. You should go visit it right now…

Photosearching at a whole new level:

Sketch2Photo: Internet Image Montage from Tao Chen on Vimeo.

I’m almost speechless. I’m always amazed at how technology gets better and better. Tao Chen, programmer for Sketch2Photo, says, “The composed picture is generated by seamlessly stitching several photographs in agreement with the sketch and text labels; these are found by searching the internet.” I could try and write more in this post about how it works, but you might as well just watch the video for yourself. Tell me if you’re as impressed as I am…

http://weburbanist.com/2010/02/07/flip-this-home-10-unbelievable-upside-down-houses/

The above link shows a whole bunch of pictures of buildings built upside down. This isn’t really related to education, I just thought it was interesting. Maybe it could be used along the same lines of using optical illusions as part of sets in one of my previous posts. Or maybe you discuss this in a physics class with your students to see how this is possible… or how it shouldn’t be possible. Either way, I just thought it was interesting and just wanted to share

I found the following post on Larry Ferlazzo’s blog. Obviously since today was Valentine’s day, this post is probably late… but it could always be helpful for next school year  : ) This stuff isn’t really in the curriculum guide, but it’s just some fun you can can incorporate in the classroom… and high school kids are always obsessed with love… so you’ll get their attention quick. ; )

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/01/08/the-best-sites-%20to-learn-about-valentines-day/

Today the Olympics will start. Especially for Canadian schools -teachers should find ways to include the Olympics in their daily teaching. Students are excited because of the Olympics and are proud to be Canadian. Teachers should take advantage of this patriotic buzz: I found a post here talking about how teachers can integrate the Olympic events in the classroom. There are links for almost every subject – even math. They are worth taking  a look at! check it out!

For those of you who struggle with math, or just need extra help, or perhaps even high school math teachers – I encourage you to check out http://www.mathtv.com

Now, I’ve only watched a couple videos on there, but from what I watched, I’m going to use inductive reasoning and conclude that most of the videos are pretty good – by good, i mean helpful. They do a very good job of explaining the topics, and you can even pick from a panel who you want to give you the tutorial. Some are even offered in Spanish.

Check it out and tell me what you think!

The typical education student should know all about lesson plans. We’ve studied them, written them, and even used them for microteaching or practicum assignments. The one part that we all spend a good chunk of time on is coming up with a good set.

For those who don’t know what that is, a set is basically the “thing that catches students attention at the beginning of the period.” It could be an activity, a reading, a quote – you decide! Most of the time, they teach us that the set should somehow be related to the topic you will be presenting for that class. Although I agree that this would be ideal, it sometimes isn’t easy to come up with a good, related set all the time.

Sometimes you don’t need a related set. The point of the set is to engage and focus your students’ attention on learning. Even if this is just something to get them to settle down into ‘classroom’ mode by giving them something to figure out – whether related or unrelated – is to me, still a good set…

For example, challenging them to solve a riddle, or what I will show you below: an optical illusion!

These work well for sets because one) students will usually quiet down while trying to focus their eyes on whatever the illusion is, 2) there are numerous sites on the internet, including http://www.moillusions.com , that have numerous examples so you’ll never run out!

Here’s the featured one of the day. Try it out! It’s trippy….

I was reading some blog but I forget where so I can’t give credit…(If I find it, I’ll edit this post and put a link)… but it reminded me of an idea I actually had a couple weeks ago without even reading the post.

One way students could use technology for a project is to find a scene from an internet clip or movie or tv show that they can challenge the science behind it – just like in the show Mythbusters.

There are a lot of movies – especially these days with a lot of remaking of the Superhero stories – that could be questioned science-wise. Is it physically possible for Spiderman or Batman to do this or that, etc.?

This way, students can actually analyze the science behind things and really show an understanding of what they know based on their presentation of their findings.

Cool?

Watch this. It’s funny if you watch the show, “The Office,” but even if you don’t, most students will see why this is funny.

We learn so much in the classroom about how teachers should be using technology in their lessons, yet there have been many times where my teachers don’t even know how to work the own equipment that they use. I’ve seen this in college courses, my high school classes, and even when I do observations in other schools.

Being a student of the “digital learners” age, I’ll give a hint to all teachers: if you’re going to use technology in your classroom, learn how to use it properly before attempting to incorporate it in your lesson. Nothing is more painful for a young student than to watch their teacher struggle with the internet or the computer in the MIDDLE OF THE LESSON. If you’re not comfortable with using technology, don’t use it! Or at least learn how to do it before you make a fool out of yourself in front of your students. Seriously – it’s frustrating for you and annoying to your students.

Haha, i’m sorry I’m going off on a rampage. (and no, Dutch – I’m not talking about you in case you’re paranoid. I’m actually thinking of some teachers I had in high school.. and some others while in college) But technology is supposed to be used to enhance the learning in the classroom. If it’s gonna end up slowing things down, what’s the point?