Many teachers and parents are seeking engaging opportunities and lessons for students during distance learning, especially ones that don’t require a technology or a device. One of my favorite activities is journaling. I have had students journal for years, and I have always noticed amazing growth in their writing and thinking skills. Whether you are journaling for yourself or for your students, I have been collecting resources during the past two months. Here are some of the best articles I have found on this topic. My top 10!
The history of Valentine’s Day from the History Channel.
Is there a place for love and romance — or, at least, reading, writing and research about academic aspects of it — in your classroom? Check out these amazing links from the New York Times from across many subject areas for teachers.
What do you think were the most memorable moments of the year? If you were to make a “Year in Pictures” of your own life, which moments would you include? The New York Times has selected the best photos from 2019 (LINK). A great activity for students could be having them choose 12 photos that represent their year. They could make a slideshow using Google Slides and write a short caption for each photo. The New York Times Learning Network featured this activity (Picture Prompts). I believe it would be an engaging one for all students. I am going to do this activity with my English language learners.
Yakawlang, Afghanistan, May 19 Students walked home over the mountains from Rustam school, seen behind them. Ninety percent of the school’s graduates get into college. Most are girls. Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
Iraq gets almost all of its water from two rivers: The Tigris and the Euphrates. Both begin in Turkey and make their way down the entire length of the country, before emptying into the Persian Gulf. The problem is – they are drying up. Watch this excellent video from Vox Atlas to learn more about why the history of the great rivers in this region and the problems that their citizens are currently facing as their rivers dry up.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is the most ambitious infrastructure project in modern history. It spans over 60 countries and will cost over a trillion dollars. The plan is to make it easier for the world to trade with China, by funding roads, railways, pipelines, and other infrastructure projects in Asia and Africa. China is loaning trillions of dollars to any country that’s willing to participate and it’s been a big hit with the less democratic countries in the region. This makes the BRI a risky plan as well. But China is pushing forward because its goals are not strictly economic, they’re also geopolitical. This video is a fascinating one and a nice connection to lessons related to trade and globalization.
“Governments draw borders. Governments manage borders. But humans live inside them. From the North Pole to the northern shore of Africa to the Himalayas of Nepal, the lines we’ve used to apportion the planet play a decisive role in the past, present, and future of billions.” – Vox Borders series.
A friend and former colleagued shared a video by Johnny Harris, who is the creator for Vox Borders. I was not familiar with his work or this video series on the human impact of lines on a map. It’s terrific!!! Migration, maps, and borders are topics I am very passionate about, and I think that you will like these videos and photos. I have selected a few to show you here. I will share more on my website.
Greetings from Mexico City! It has been a while since I last posted on my blog. The end of the school year kept me quite busy. School ended a little over a week ago. Our family spent five days in New York State with my family and we arrived in Mexico City last night to spend two weeks with my wife’s family. I have missed some “Ted-Ed Tuesday” posts so I am going to make up for them here. Since I am in Mexico, I will share two Mexico-related videos, one from Ted-Ed on Frida Kahlo, an artist I really admire, and the another video from The British Museum on the Day of the Dead celebration and festivals in Mexico. Both are excellent!
Video by Ted-Ed
From Ted-Ed: Learn about the life and art of Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo, who explored disability, relationships and Mexican culture in her work. In 1925, Frida Kahlo was on her way home from school in Mexico City when the bus she was riding collided with a streetcar. She suffered near-fatal injuries and her disability became a major theme in her paintings. Over the course of her life, she would establish herself as the creator and muse behind extraordinary pieces of art.
Video from The British Museum (2015)
From the British Museum: In 2015 the British Museum celebrated the Days of the Dead in a four-day festival full of color, music, storytelling and art. This beautiful documentary introduces the history and evolution of the Mexican Day of the Dead, from its pagan beginnings to the multi-faceted ceremony it is today.
Africa is a continent with 54 different countries. The largest black continent in the world and homes to more than 1 billion people, hence one in seven of any human on earth is an Africa.
A colleague shared this really neat website today, Wonderopolis (LINK). According to their website, it’s “a place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery in learners of all ages. Each day, we pose an intriguing question—the Wonder of the Day®—and explore it in a variety of ways.” Go to the website and see some the many, many wonders that are being explored. Vote on your favorite wonders too! I certainly plan to try this in my own class.
CNN10is a great website that offers 10-minute news updates. It is very student-friendly. According to their website, the “show’s priority is to identify stories of international significance and then clearly describe why they’re making news, who is affected, and how the events fit into a complex, international society. Viewers will learn from every story on CNN 10.” It replaces CNN Student News.
“What’s Going On In This Picture?” is a great site on The New York Times Learning Network. It shares an intriguing or interesting photo with no caption. Viewers are invited to create a caption after doing a See, Think, and Wonder and responding to some questions. The photo is posted on Monday and students have three days to respond to the photos in a reply box, before the newspaper shares the caption on Thursday.
I have rediscovered how awesome Ted-Ed videos are and I have decided to share one or two each week on Tuesday (hence my hashtag). Check out the Ted-Ed website (LINK) to see more cool videos. Most videos average about 4 – 5 minutes in length, and you could watch them in the car on the way to school. Learn something new, hear some fun facts, and enjoy.
Since their emergence over 200,000 years ago, modern humans have established communities all over the planet. But they didn’t do it alone. Whatever corner of the globe you find humans in today, you’re likely to find another species as well: dogs. So how did one of our oldest rivals, the wolf, evolve into man’s best friend? Learn about humanity’s first domesticated animal.
The average person experiences dozens of individual itches each day. We’ve all experienced the annoyance of an inconvenient itch — but have you ever pondered why we itch in the first place? Is there actually an evolutionary purpose to the itch, or is it simply there to annoy us? Emma Bryce digs deep into the skin to find out.
Jimmy Kimmel Asks People If Homo Sapiens Should Be Saved, And The Answers Show The Level Of Stupidity. Click HERE to see read this article and some of the excerpts from these people. Funny…well, not so funny.
I was very sad to read the news and watch the videos of the fire at Notre Dame. I feel very fortunate to have visited Notre Dame in January 2018. It is not just a French treasure. It is an international treasure. These short videos feature some interesting facts about its history.
Senna’s family struggles to survive in a bleak Peruvian mining town. Her father has dreams for her and insists she go to school. There, she discovers the transformative power of poetry. Her passion and talent seem to ensure she’ll have a better future, and be the success her father dreamed she’d be. Peruvian writer, Marie Arana, shares her experiences with Girl Rising and what it was like getting to know Senna and the community of La Rinconada.
In grade 10 Individuals and Societies (Social Studies/History), students are learning about poverty and the causes of it. The Girl Rising channel on Youtube features excellent videos from around the world. You can find them HERE.
With forced displacement reaching historic levels, schools all over the world are welcoming increasing numbers of refugee children. Teachers are facing new challenges in making sense of forced displacement and its complexities. With refugees and migrants regularly making headlines in the media and the internet bustling with information on the topic, explaining the situation of refugees and migrants to primary and secondary school children has become part of many educators’ daily work.
In this UNHCR Teachers’ Toolkit, you can find free-of-charge and adaptable UNHCR teaching materials on refugees, asylum, migration, and statelessness, and a section dedicated to professional development and guidance for primary and secondary school teachers on including refugee children in their classes.
Off the north coast of Canada’s Baffin Island, a June sun transforms snow and ice into limpid pools of turquoise. The Arctic’s perennial sea ice cover—the ice that survives the summer melt season—has shrunk dramatically. From “Here’s Where the Arctic’s Wildlife Will Make Its Last Stand,” January 2018 PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN SKERRY
SARAH LEEN HAS a job most people in the world would envy. She looks at photographs for a living. And not just any photographs — National Geographic photographs. As our Director of Photography, Leen estimates she has looked at as many images “as there are stars in the sky,” so it’s hard to narrow down her favorites. But she does that every year — here are her favorite 100of the over two million submitted to us this year, in no particular order.
Photos from our last week of school: Reflecting on our learning, sharing work from our final project and our last Out of Eden Learn footstep, and saying goodbye.
Doyeon’s Out of Eden product was featured on Out of Eden Learn’s social media channels this week. Congratulations!
It has been a memorable year! Stay in touch with me! Good luck next year in 7th grade! You can reach me at my new school address in Lusaka, Zambia: rmartin@aislusaka.org
Here are a few photos from students presenting their Moving On! projects to classmates this past week. Congratulations! We were quite impressed with you final product, research, and creativity. We will share your product with the teacher.
Please return your textbook this week. The textbook should have your name on the inside cover and match the number that I wrote down. Please give me the book, and don’t just drop it off on my desk. Thanks!
This week we began our final unit of 6th grade Social Studies, Diverse Places – Moving On! Students, in groups, selected two places to compare and contrast. They will be conducting research on the two places and focus on three areas: History, Geography, and Economy. They will also answer the questions that departing or new teachers have given them. At the conclusion of the group project, students will create a product (brochure or video) on the place that the teacher is moving to. Some sample screenshots appear above this paragraph. Mr. Nick and I loved the workstation that Joao, Ayaan, Eunseong, and Shinnosuke created for their collaboration.
On Friday, March 9th, students connected via Skype with students in Texas for what they call the BriarHill24HrWorld Tour. This is the 3rd year that Social Studies students have participated in their project, a fascinating ‘tour’ that takes their students around the world to connect with experts and other classmates around the world. Here is their blog and their 2018 schedule. What a great example of using technology to connect with others around the world.
Come to Mr. Martin’s room on Friday during recess from 10:30am – 10:45am to Skype with students in Texas who are doing a 24 hour Skype tour. They will attempt to make a call to seven people on seven different continents. They will have introductions, a short weather report, current event, and a quick conversation to learn about our school and Chennai. This is the 3rd year I have worked with this school. It’s a lot of fun! Bring your snack and come to 3126! H block students will join for the last 10 minutes of their conversation when their class begins.
Image source: Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters – What’s going on in this picture?
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