Holding Out for a Hero

The past six months has seen a renaissance of superheroes, particularly in feature films such as The Green Lantern, Captain America, and Thor.  The final installment of the Harry Potter movies, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, however, does not feature a superhero, but instead a hero in the classic sense – one who completes his quest and hence concludes his archetypal heroic journey. In completing his quest, Harry joins the pantheon of archetypal heroes such as Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Huckleberry Finn, Luke Skywalker, and many others.

Archetypes are recurring types of characters, events, or symbols found in stories, artwork, religions, and mythologies throughout the world’s cultures. They’ve been present in folklore and stories for thousands of years, and have garnered attention largely due to the work of psychiatrist Carl Jung and professor Joseph Campbell. In his seminal books The Hero With a Thousand Faces and The Power of Myth, Campbell compared myths from around the world and highlighted many common themes among them. He was particularly interested in heroes, and the archetypal heroic journey portrayed in world literature, art, and religion. Campbell found that many myths and stories present heroes’ journeys in similar stages. The hero begins in the everyday world and receives a “call to adventure” that enables him (or her) to leave his familiar life (“crossing the threshold”) and enter an unfamiliar world where he must engage in a series of tasks or tests. Sometimes the hero must face these trials alone, and sometimes he receives assistance from companions or other loyal helpers. The tasks ultimately conclude in a final battle, after which (if successful) the hero again crosses the threshold to re-enter ordinary life. In all, Campbell identified 17 distinct stages of the archetypal hero’s journey, which he dubbed the “monomyth.”  

The study of archetypes and the heroic journey is a fascinating addition to the classroom, as it pulls elements from art, literature, religion, world cultures, and mythology. Younger students can be introduced to common archetypes through fairy tales, such as the wise old woman or man characters, the “trickster” (usually a fox), the child(ren), and the villain. Young students don’t have to be told about archetypes per se, but may be encouraged to think about the types of characters and situations that frequently occur in fairy tales and other stories. Older students are able to delve much more deeply into the texts, relating them to similar journeys in other texts as well as in films. The Star Wars films are famously based on Campbell’s monomyth, and many other films such as The Lion King, The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, Avatar and others also feature the heroic journey. Higher level students can also examine how archetypes and the hero’s archetypal journey can be viewed as man’s search for self-knowledge.

This week’s picks feature three resources from the Gateway’s collection on the archetypal hero and the heroic journey for a range of ages. We’ll also feature many more lesson plans, activities, and information throughout the week on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so please be sure to check those pages for lots of good classroom ideas and materials.

Identifying Supporting Evidence from a Text - What is a Hero?

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2011-08-01.0719354500

Subjects: Language Arts

Grade: 1-4

Students watch a 3-minute video about Ping, a young hero who proves himself worthy to be the emperor of China. Students identify what makes Ping's behavior special using evidence from the story. This lesson is designed for grades 1-4. It includes video and support materials. This resource was produced by PBS LearningMedia, an online site offering educational materials and public media content for PreK-16 teachers.

A Story of Epic Proportions: What Makes a Poem an Epic?

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2011-08-01.6126300576

Grade: 6-8

Students learn about the epic poem form and to its roots in oral tradition. They study the epic hero cycle and will learn how to recognize this pattern of events and elements in both ancient and modern texts, including Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. This lesson is a product of EDSITEment, an educational outreach program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. EDSITEment offers lesson plans and activities for social studies, literature and language arts, foreign languages, art, culture, and history classrooms.

I Need a Hero

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2011-08-01.9522773918

Grade: 9-12 Gifted

The heroic archetype features prominently in literary analysis at the high school level. A clear understanding of, and the ability to manipulate and apply, this idea is critical to any approach to world literature for the high school student. This series of lessons was designed to fulfill the needs of gifted children for extension beyond the standard curriculum with the greatest ease of use for the educator. The lessons may be given to the students for individual self-guided work, or they may be taught in a classroom or homeschool setting. This lesson was produced by Mensa for Kids, part of the Mensa Education and Research Foundation. The Foundation is committed to the pursuit of excellence in the areas of intelligence, and focuses on scholarship, education, and awards.

~Joann's Picks - 8/12/2011~

Movies on my Mind

Movie day!  Students love to be entertained, and teachers love the chance to sit back and breathe a sigh of relief (or tackle that giant pile of grading).  No lectures to take notes on, just a passive viewing of a movie in a nice, dark, cool classroom, right?  I hope not.  I hope we can find simple ways to use movies in class as more than just entertainment.  Instead, movies can engage students and inspire thoughtful, critical thinking about current classroom topics.

Teachers have used movies and filmstrips in the classroom for many years.  At the most basic level, movies can serve as tools to support and reinforce concepts taught in class.  Science classes can watch science films, history classes can watch historical documentaries, and English classes can watch the film versions of books they read in class.  Movies can also serve as the backbone for emergency sub plans in place in case of unforeseen absences.  Some teachers stretch the use of movies even further by watching popular movies that share some link to the material they have taught in class.  For example, a biology class might watch Outbreak or Osmosis Jones, or a history class might watch Shindler’s List following units on related topics. 

In some classrooms, movies are used as a special treat for students, with no apparent link to the curriculum at all.  In this way, movies become more of a babysitter than an educational tool.  My daughter’s first grade class watches a movie every Friday while teachers scramble to catch up with their grading and planning.  I know this is a much needed work time for teachers, but I can’t help but feel that some important learning time is being sacrificed. 

No matter what kind of movie you are showing in class, most students find movie days to be a nice change of pace from the daily grind.  Joann’s Picks this week bring a fun twist to using movies in the classroom by introducing ways to use the movies kids WANT to watch to strengthen their understanding of topics they are learning in class.  As teachers, we can come up with creative ways to link popular kids’ movies to the important topics we are teaching.  With some planning, we can promote active participation and creative thinking on movie days, and we can feel good that our students are getting the most out of their school day. 

If you have a popular movie in mind, contemplate the math, science, English, and history concepts you can tie to it.  Create your own connections and assignments, or search the Gateway to see if someone has already begun the process for you!  I searched for examples of creative uses for movies in the classroom.  I hope this short list can help you find ways to incorporate popular films in your classes.  If you have ideas you have used in the past, please share on our blog, Facebook, or Twitter pages.

Movie possibilities are abundant for history teachers.  The History in Film series of lesson plans takes a traditional approach to using movies in the classroom.  Each film on the site includes an outline, timeline of events, and homework questions related to the movie.

ReadWriteThink has lots of activities that connect popular movies to concepts in the language arts classroom.  Decoding The Matrix: Exploring Dystopian Characteristics through Film uses The Matrix to help high school students compare and contrast different types of societies.  Exploring Satire with Shrek is a fun way to use the children’s film to study satire.  Cover to Cover: Comparing Books to Movies is a great tool for language arts students to analyze and compare books and he movies that are based on them. 

The movie Contact can help start conversations about how technology interacts with scientific knowledge.  This lesson plan shows how you can use this movie in your classroom. 

P.E. Central has created a set of activities that can be used along with popular movies to encourage physical activity.  These are some original ways to use movies in the P.E. classroom.

One very creative connection between Hollywood and the classroom comes from the University of Southern Mississippi.  In Macroplex Cinema: Polymers Go Hollywood, students learn about the science of polymers and do simple experiments demonstrating how polymers are used in special effects.

This list shows the variety of resources available to help you include movies in your classroom.  We look forward to learning about ways you have used movies with your students.

~Peggy's Corner - 6/24/2011~

Bright Ideas

The cover of my newest Popular Science announces the 5th annual Inventions of the Year. As I read through some of the ideas, I wonder why I didn’t think of them! The inventions, including a handheld bedbug sniffer, armored stun gloves, and prenatal disease-detecting pens, were mostly developed in peoples’ homes and school laboratories. About half of the featured inventions were created by students, again leading me to wonder how we can inspire students to develop a lifelong drive to create and innovate.

If necessity is the mother of invention, then invention must be the mother of entrepreneurship. If students don’t have the ability to create a product or idea, they won’t have anything to produce, patent, market, and sell. Joann is featuring entrepreneurship resources this week, and I have chosen resources to develop skills for inventing and innovating. We don’t want our students to become smart little drones who are really good at filling in bubbles with number 2 pencils. (Can you tell we are in the middle of standardized testing at our school?) Ensuring the students have the required knowledge is necessary, but we want them to use that knowledge to become the innovators and entrepreneurs who can change the world.

I wrote a blog post on the topic of inventions last August, which can be found here. I still love George Margolin’s idea that all kids are born inventors. We need to find a way to foster kids’ spirit of innovation so they continue to be inventors throughout their lives. I feel like this is an area that we often glaze over due to a lack of time. The following activities will challenge kids’ creativity and give them practice inventing and creating. (Shh…don’t tell your students, though, because they might think you are just letting them have fun.)

One of the hardest part of including something “extra” like inventing or entrepreneurship in students’ education is figuring out how to fit it into subjects that are already jammed with standards to be met. In my search of The Gateway to 21st Century Skills, I found teaching resources for inventing that could find a place in classrooms of all different subject areas. Don’t forget that if you find an activity you like, you can use the Standards Suggestion Tool at the bottom of the description. This will help you determine where the activity fits within your state standards so you can find the best place for that activity in your curriculum.

Here is an resource to get your students thinking about making something new from something old. The activity, “Is It a Thingamajig or Thingamabob?” challenges students to create something new from junk. You can expand this simple idea to create a “creation station” in your classroom, where students are encouraged to come and tinker when they are “bored.” There are plenty of similar creative activity ideas on the Gateway to help get the creative juices flowing at your school, and we will continue to discuss encouraging creativity in future posts.

Once students have an idea and a prototype of a creation or invention, they will need to know how to test it. “Testing 1,2,3” shows students how to test an invention using one of my all-time favorite activities, the egg drop experiment. I like this activity because students come up with so many solutions to one problem.

You can challenge students to solve other simple problems that relate to units in all different subjects. Adding a hands-on component could make the unit more exciting. Check out the following examples for cross-curricular ideas.

If you are working with music or studying the science of sound, a fun creative project for your students is designing their own musical instruments. I did this in middle school, and I loved it. You can take pictures of their final products to display in “The Virtual Museum of Music Inventions.” My soda bottle flutes could have really taken off if I could have shared them like that! In a physical science or physics class, you might want to try the “Inventions Using Simple Machines Project” or the online Levers and Pulleys Rube Goldberg machine building activity.

Inventions and innovations have played a huge role throughout history. The Library of Congress has a fun online game for students to learn about some of these inventions. Try playing the game “What in the World Is That? Ingenious Inventions Throughout History.” I played the game, and trying to figure out what these unusual inventions were was a fun challenge. Make the activity even more meaningful by having each student find and research one unusual invention to create your own game. When you get to the Library of Congress site, click on activities tab at the top, and “What in the World is That” is the last activity listed.

Encouraging our students’ creativity will help improve their problem solving abilities. We want our students to grow up and be able to solve problems, fix things that need fixing, and ultimately make our world a better place to live. I hope the resources above will help you increase the amount of creative activities available to your students.

~Peggy's Corner - 5/19/2011~

Thinking Critically about Racism

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically... Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education."
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

What an important point to consider as educators! We are not here to simply create students with more “book smarts” or skills to get by in the world more easily. All educators, from high school to elementary school teachers and administrators, are part of a team responsible for developing critical thinking and character in each student. This character development has many facets, and one important aspect of this character education is an understanding of racism. The opening quote came from an article written by Dr. King in 1947 for the Morehouse College student paper. I think the points he made in the article are just as applicable to teachers of every level today as they were in 1947. If we can begin addressing issues of racism with our young students, hopefully it won’t be as big of a problem by the time they reach college.

In honor of MLK Day and Black History Month, we chose racism for our topic this week on The Gateway. Joann selected some wonderful racism resources, and I want to encourage you to look a little deeper into some of the providers she suggested so you can find even more tools to help your students think critically about racism. Depending on the subject and level you teach, these tools may be helpful for creating lessons to use throughout the next month. If it won’t fit into your schedule during the month, you may just want to look through the sites and bookmark them to use in your class whenever a racism issue comes up that you want to address. These activities are not meant to just teach about the history of racism. They are created to teach students how to think critically about the problems of racism and how to solve them.

One activity that really caught my eye was a simulation using “The Sneetches” By Dr. Seuss. The activity comes from Teaching Tolerance. Their collection of classroom activities includes professional development tools as well as many K-12 resources aimed at teaching students tolerance in different situations. This site is very relevant to the discrimination we see today against particular groups of immigrants and ethnic groups in the United States. If you have witnessed any of this type of discrimination or racism in your school, or if you just want to prevent it, you might find some very useful activities here.

Another site Joann found is RaceBridges. This site also has a great collection of resources to help students and teachers explore race relations and diversity. They even have a guide to help teachers create a diversity club for their schools. I really liked the fact that they tied the ideas of racism to creating an anti-bullying climate at schools, a topic that is immediately important for many schools today. There is a drop-down menu on the right side of the page where you can choose which type of lesson plan you want to view. Be sure to check out some of the lessons that include stories read by professional storytellers.

Racism is an important topic to cover at any time of the year. It might have the most impact on our students during times when they are seeing discrimination occurring in their schools or in the media. These are only a couple of resources to help you include a discussion of racism in your classroom. Please be sure to share any other resources you like and join our conversation on Facebook and Twitter to learn more.

~Peggy's Corner - 1/27/2011~

Primary Colors

Every year in the weeks between Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Black History Month, teachers produce lesson plans and activities on the subject of race and racism. It’s an important topic, and one that is hopefully addressed throughout the school year as needed, rather than relegated to a six-week period each year. Still, the subject of race can present a challenge to many teachers, especially in a racially diverse classroom where misunderstandings can easily bloom.

Classrooms in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and other countries have become increasingly diverse, with students of different races, ethnicities, religions, and abilities comprising a typical classroom. Studies have shown that children notice racial differences from a very young age, but do not ascribe any particular sentiment to one race or another. Research also reveals that while most young children prefer their own race over another’s purely due to familiarity, they do not formulate negative opinions about other races. They note the physical differences, perhaps ask about them, and move on to something else. Racism rears its ugly head later in life, as a purely learned behavior.

In discussing racism in the classroom, teachers should note the difference between prejudice and racism, which are often used synonymously. Racism is a form of prejudice where one ascribes negative attributes to another person or group based purely on racial characteristics. Prejudice is a preconceived, negative opinion about something, usually untested by actual experience. I am, for example, prejudiced against tripe. I’ve never eaten it, and so therefore have no direct experience of it, yet I just know that I don’t like it.

Discussing racism with students requires thoughtful sensitivity and an awareness of the differences between the students, as well as their interactions with each other. Different ethnicities and gender can present additional challenges when discussing race in the classroom, and cultural differences can sometimes prompt seemingly prejudicial actions that can be mistaken for racism. To avoid the discussion of racism with students, however, may unintentionally suggest that it’s a topic that is too difficult or “wrong,” and best ignored. Diversity should be celebrated – a concept sometimes easier said than done, but essential to the fabric of strong schools and communities.

My picks this week focus on different aspects of racism, from a lesson on discrimination based on appearance for younger students to a high school lesson on the legal implications of racism in the U.S. I’ll also be featuring many more resources on racism on The Gateway’s Facebook and Twitter pages throughout the week, so please be sure to check in.


Anti-Racism Activity: The Sneetches
Subjects: Language Arts, Social studies
Grade: 1-5
In this early grades activity, students learn about unfair practices in a simulation exercise and then create plans to stand up against discrimination. This activity is a produce of Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The project offers free educational materials aimed at reducing prejudice, improving intergroup relations and supporting equitable school experiences in the U.S.

We All Have a Race: Addressing Race and Racism
Subjects: Social studies, English
Grade: 4-10
This lesson plan helps students to understand the concept of race better, to distinguish between prejudice and racism, and to learn ways to stand up against racism and to act as allies with students of different races. This is a basic beginning unit to consider race and racism with respect and discovery. This lesson was produced by RaceBridges for Schools, a project that provides tools and resources for teachers and students to motivate them to build stronger and more inclusive communities.

Racism: Law and Attitude
Subjects: US history, US government
Grade: 9-12
In this lesson, students will learn the difference between de facto and de jure discrimination in the United States, and understand the challenges in creating and enforcing laws that make certain racist actions and speech illegal. This lesson is a product of Discovery Education, which provides educational digital resources with the goal of connecting classrooms and families to a world of learning.

~Joann's Picks - 1/27/2011~

Digging Deeper into the First Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in America is a time for students and teachers to take a little break from school to reflect on the history of our country and to give thanks for all that we have. For many, it’s a time to take a vacation where we eat WAY too much and get up at crazy hours of the morning to get a head start on the Christmas shopping! In an attempt to help students understand the origin and the meaning of the holiday, many teachers teach Thanksgiving lessons during the time before the holiday. Some teachers choose to focus on the gratitude associated with the season, hoping to instill some of that thankfulness in their students. Other teachers choose to focus more on the historical events in the United States that inspired the holiday. Interactive internet resources can bring the classic study of pilgrims and Indians to a new level. We can do more than make neat hats and hand turkeys!

My search of The Gateway to 21st Century Skills for Thanksgiving activities led me to a couple of good resource collections that I want to share with you. The first group of activities is from The Learning Network: Teaching and Learning with the New York Times. These current event based activities extend the topic of Thanksgiving in many unconventional ways. Their lessons are divided into three categories: food and meals, history and culture, and politics and current events. Some lesson topics include the biological effects of overeating, challenges of cranberry farming, American Indian Art, and considering the phenomenon of Black Friday. The site also includes printables, related New York Times articles, and older primary sources for student research.

Scholastic has also put together an extensive compilation of First Thanksgiving activities. Their “Everything for Thanksgiving” site includes lesson plans, interactive web tools, archives of live chats and webcasts, book recommendations, and a virtual field trip to a re-creation of the Plymouth plantation (or Plimoth, as the pilgrims would have spelled it). We tried out the virtual field trip and the virtual tour of the Mayflower. They were both very nicely done. The lesson plans include guides to help teachers use the online tools in classrooms of all different levels.

Using Plimoth Plantation’s “You are the Historian: Investigating the First Thanksgiving” site is like taking your students to an interactive museum exhibit, without all the hassle. The site allows students to view a letter written by a Plymouth colonist, the only eyewitness account of the 1621 harvest celebration, including a translation and a historian’s notes. They can tour a typical colonist’s home and see what daily life was like for members of the Wampanoag tribe. The investigation includes an online tool for students to create their own mini museum exhibit (a printable poster). You might also choose to use this activity as a starting point for a larger investigation. If you do that, you could consider assigning a slide show (try Animoto), a glog, or something we recently discovered: a Museum Box as a culminating project. We found Museum Box in an iLearn Technology blog post. Thanks to Kelly Tenkely for always sharing her finds!

I hope this Thanksgiving season finds your class full of grateful students who are ready to learn all about how the holiday started. Between these collections, Joann’s picks for this week, and our suggestions on Facebook and Twitter, you will be sure to find a Thanksgiving activity that will tie nicely into your plans.

~Peggy's Corner - 11/19/2010~

Giving Thanks

I pretty much haven’t met a holiday that I didn’t like, but Thanksgiving is kind of special. It’s relatively low-key, and the notion of taking some time to really appreciate what we have – and to give thanks for it – is a winning notion. Each day most of us relentlessly multitask in order to wring the most benefit out of every possible millisecond. Some of us juggle work that needs to be reviewed and graded, attend to student needs, coach sports teams, and oversee a host of other activities. Many of us live from deadline to deadline (and paycheck to paycheck) and generally run on all cylinders from dawn to late night. It’s hard – modern life is hardly the days of leisure predicted by 19th century futurists. Yet despite the stress and the constant need to always be “on”, available, and present, most of us have much to be thankful for.

Yesterday in the classroom, the teacher asked her students to write down what they were thankful for. There were some of the predictable third grade answers, such as “candy,” and “my Xbox,” but some were quietly profound. “I’m thankful for my granpa’s keemotherpy” was one. Another student wrote that she was thankful for her family – not an uncommon entry in the class, except that her father had recently rejoined his family after several tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the perfect time of the year to perhaps ask your students what they are thankful for. What are you grateful for?

In addition to lessons that ask students to consider the concept of gratitude, many schools also focus on traditional Thanksgiving themes, such as the Pilgrims, Wampanoags, the Mayflower, and so forth. The Gateway has a rich collection of lessons and activities that can be used in the week leading up to Thanksgiving; three lessons are highlighted below. The resources that I’ve featured this week ask students to think about Thanksgiving in different ways and perhaps from a different perspective than they have previously – a good pre-holiday exercise in critical thinking skills! As always, I’ll be featuring a multitude of lessons, activities, and other K-12 resources from The Gateway and other entities on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Please take a look.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Become a Thanksgiving Historian
Subjects: US History, Technology, Research skills
Grade: 2
Students may be surprised to find out that some ideas they have about the history of Thanksgiving are actually myths. In this lesson, students become true "Thanksgiving historians" by completing a Venn diagram about the Wampanoag people and the Pilgrims with information acquired through Internet searches. This is a great lesson to help students develop online research skills, as well as separate historical fact from fiction. This resource is a product of the Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX), an award-winning education portal that provides best practices, lesson plans, and educational podcasts. This lesson is aligned to Alabama Content Standards.

Thanksgiving: A Turkey’s Point of View
Subjects: Writing
Grade: 3-5
Things may not always be as they first appear! The purpose of this lesson is to expose students to several stories from different perspectives. They will compare and contrast different points of view on the same topic, and write a story from a character's point of view. This lesson by Laura Beeler is part of HotChalk Learning, a portal that provides an online learning management system and lesson plans to educators.

Thanksgiving Mourning
Subjects: English, US History
Grade: 6-12
Much of the Thanksgiving story focuses on a peaceful, cross-cultural exchange between the "Pilgrims and Indians." While it's true that the Wampanoag and the Planters shared in a harvest celebration, within fifty years, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people. In this activity, students will review two written works by Native American authors. They will examine how diverse groups can perceive shared experiences differently, and review commentary from indigenous writers about Thanksgiving. This lesson is a product of Teaching Tolerance, a division of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Teaching Tolerance is dedicated to reducing prejudice, improving inter-group relations, and supporting equitable school experiences for students. They also provide free educational materials to teachers and other school practitioners in the U.S. and abroad.

~Joann's Picks - 11/19/2010~

Off Key: Using Music in the Classroom

I love to read success stories like the one Joann shared about the new music teacher at her school. It’s wonderful to see a music teacher step out of their comfort zone to bring the love of music to students, but what about schools like the ones in my town that don’t have a music program at all? How far does a regular classroom teacher have to step out of their comfort zone to successfully bring some kind of music education into an already-crowded curriculum?

There’s nothing like walking into a kindergarten class and hearing the kids sing “My Uncle’s Ukelele” with abandon. You don’t know that one? I bet you learned songs about phonics, weather, and everything in between when you were in the primary grades, too. Primary teachers often have a special gift of being silly and singing with their students. In these younger grades, students really appreciate the silliness as they jump and dance to the tunes, getting out some energy and learning at the same time. As students get older, there is less time available for music with so much class time needed to prepare for tests and meet the standards required for each grade. With some creativity, you might be surprised at the small amount of time it will take you to integrate music into your lessons. Music may help your students prepare those tests and meet those standards instead of just taking up valuable class time.

Sensory triggers like sights, sounds, and smells can prompt emotions in students that help them remember facts and scientific processes in a fun way. Maybe you are not the type to sing or play an instrument in front of your class. Luckily, kids seem to appreciate our efforts even when our tone or pich is less than perfect! Thanks to the internet, you are not on your own. Even the least musically-inclined teachers can help their students learn with the help of songs, videos, and activities available for free on the internet.

I grew up with the educational videos of Schoolhouse Rock (Do you remember Conjunction Junction and How a Bill Becomes Law?) You can find lyrics to all of the old Schoolhouse Rock videos along with links to the music videos on YouTube. These videos might seem outdated, but I have to admit that I spent a little more time than I probably should have spent watching them. (It was in the name of research!) These videos have catchy tunes and are a fun and memorable way to introduce concepts to your class. The lessons they teach range from math to social studies to science. If you are looking for more contemporary videos, try They Might Be Giants. Their videos from “Here Comes Science” are very well done, and could be right at home in elementary to high school classrooms. If you search YouTube, you can find videos from their collection. A couple of my personal favorites are the biology song called “Bloodmobile” and chemistry song titled “The Elements.”Check them out…you won’t be sorry, and you might even learn something new!

Adding educational songs like these is one way to integrate music into your curriculum. There are other simple things you can do, even if you aren’t a music expert. History and Social Studies teachers may want to start a unit with popular songs from a particular era. Maybe you can play a different song each day to set the mood as students are coming into your class. Instead of assigning a report at the end of a unit, your students can demonstrate their knowledge by writing new lyrics to a popular song. One teacher challenged her class to make musical instruments from recycled materials for a class competition. This activity challenges students’ creativity as it helps them gain a better understanding of music and how instruments work. Another teacher used music and movement at the beginning of every morning to get her students’ wiggles out for the day. For more ideas about music integration search the hashtags #musedchat #musiced on Twitter.

Sing it loud and sing it proud! Let’s show our students that music can be a part of many different subjects in our lives this week. I will be using the music video “Solid, Liquid, Gas” with an experiment for sure, but if I sing along, I can’t guarantee it will be on key. At least we’ll be having fun!

~Peggy's Corner - 11/4/2010~

It's all in the map

The resources Joann picked this week are fun examples of how to include interactive maps in your classroom. If you haven’t checked them out yet, please do. Really…who hasn’t wondered where they would end up if they tunneled through the earth? All three resources would be great for a geography classroom, and an interactive piracy map could tie in well in a history class or even an English class if you are reading about pirates.

In last week’s post about the oil spill in The Gulf of Mexico, I talked about a tool created for Google Earth to compare the size of the spill to metropolitan areas. This creative use of Google Earth helps put context to the actual size of the disaster. Most of us are pretty familiar with the area around where we live, but not all of us have been out in the ocean off the coast of Louisiana.

Another interesting use of Google Earth is a project by Thomas J. Petra called Real-World Math. He has a whole collection of lessons and group projects that use Google Earth to help introduce and clarify many traditional and non-traditional math topics. It’s neat to have students figure out the volume of a pyramid in class, and it works even better if you can bring in pyramids for them to measure. With Google Earth, you can take it to the next level. Students can use the measurement tool to actually measure the Great Pyramids in Egypt. If only we could afford that field trip…

Many of the resources that I found in my Gateway search focused purely on geography, like map puzzles from Owl and Mouse Software. These puzzles allow students to manipulate maps, making the concepts seem a little more real. Maps truly are tools for adventure. National Geographic has created some fun games to help students hone their map skills. Check out the games here. Another fun game was brought to my attention by another Twitter user, @blairteach. This game tests your knowledge of European cities by challenging you to land a plane as close as possible to that city. Try it for yourself to see how much European geography you know. Let’s just say that I could use a little work! Maybe a trip to Europe is in order.

Since the study of maps is generally limited to geography, it was refreshing to see some resources that combined the study of maps with other subjects. I found some on The Gateway that could easily be implemented into a history or science classroom.

History is often intertwined with the geography in which it takes place. The following two tools take advantage of that fact to bring interactive mapping into the history classroom. This interactive conflict map allows you to view all the conflicts and Nobel peace prize nominations during the 20th century. Shipwreck Central allows students to search for shipwrecks around the world and to view video clips of some of the world's most famous shipwreck sites.

If you are a science teacher, there are plenty of ways you can work in interactive maps and tracking tools to your lessons. A multimedia presentation from National Geographic and iExplore about the Galapagos Islands is a very good introduction to an ecology or evolution unit. Google Earth also offers some different animal tracking tools that are a good addition to a biology classroom. I know one class that has been tracking falcons and owls all year with a nest cam. The kids have a great time learning what the birds do on a day to day basis. They have also viewed maps and live cameras of the space shuttle and the International Space Station. These are all easy ways to bring real-world context to things you are teaching in class.

If nothing else, look at some of these cool tools for yourself. I certainly had fun figuring out what they could do, and I am excited to see how we can successfully bring the tools into the classroom.

Walk Like An Egyptian

Whenever I talk to students about ancient cultures, they seem to divide into two camps. There are the kids who find it cool to learn about how ancient peoples lived, and then there are the kids who don’t quite see the point (“hello, they’re, like, dead!”). Generally, though, most students come around to like learning about ancient civilizations, and to see that despite the centuries that separate us, we still share many of the same concerns and problems as ancient cultures.

Ancient Egypt was a sophisticated culture that was, in many ways, light years ahead of its time. Thousands of years before antibiotics were developed, for example, ancient Egyptians treated infections with moldy bread. They also invented calendars, black ink, ox-drawn plows, paper, irrigation systems, locks, and (much to Lady Gaga’s delight) eyeliner. Several millennia later, the ancient Egyptians are still trend-setters.

This week, I’ve selected three resources from Egypt’s Golden Empire, a collection of great materials based on the documentary series by PBS. The lessons include free online video clips from the series, as well as interactive features designed to maximize the students’ virtual immersion in ancient Egyptian life and culture. One reason that I like these lessons so much is their breadth: the inclusion of varied hands-on projects, video clips and interactive maps, writing exercises, and discussions all allow for kids of different learning styles to soak in the content, as well as flex their creative muscle. The lessons also include resource lists for additional information. PBS is the nonprofit public broadcasting service that provides high-quality television programming to the U.S. and beyond. Their companion Web site offers free video vignettes, teacher resources, online games, and more. The lessons below are all aligned to McREL standards.

A Day in the Life of an Egyptian
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-03-21.1794667111
Subjects: Ancient history, World history
Grade: 6-12
Just like life in the modern era, the daily lives of ancient Egyptians varied according to their social class. In this lesson, students learn about social orders in ancient Egypt, and the day-to-day responsibilities of the various classes.

The Queens of Ancient Egypt
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-03-21.6870685874
Subjects: Ancient history, World history, Women’s history
Grade: 6-12
Women in ancient Egypt enjoyed many of the same legal and economic benefits as men. This lesson focuses on some of the great Egyptian queens, such as Nefertiti, Tiy, and Nefertari – all of whom were held in high esteem by their husbands, the pharaohs. Students examine the reasons that these women were powerful, and how they influenced the lives of their subjects.

Architectural Marvels
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-03-21.9053693648
Subjects: Ancient history, World history
Grade: 6-12
The ancient Egyptians were master builders and craftsmen. Thousands of years later, we still marvel at the pyramids they created. In this lesson, students study great architectural structures erected by the Egyptians, including temples, obelisks, and pyramids. Students learn how these objects were constructed, the purposes these structures served in Egyptian culture, and what modern day people can glean from examining them.

~Joann's Picks - 5/1/2010~

New Beginnings

A new year ushers in a sense of anticipation, with new expectations and new goals to strive for. This week’s picks focus on these elements in one way or another.


The Importance of Setting Goals
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2008-12-19.6728780760
Subjects: Economics
Grade: 9-12

January usually brings about various resolutions: more exercise, fewer desserts, better money management. And our well-intentioned resolve usually drains away within a few weeks. Sound familiar? Well, this lesson may just help high school students stay on track financially by discussing the importance of goal-setting in money management. Topics covered in the lesson include long-term and short-term goals, savings, and investments.

I like money. I’m sure you like money. In fact, I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t like money. And therein lies the problem. It’s far easier (and more fun) to spend money than to save it. This lesson doesn’t just talk about the basics of saving and investing, but also discusses the concepts of goal-setting in a personal context to students. Students are asked to set personal financial goals for themselves, and then evaluate those goals. I think the self-evaluation component of this lesson is key to really getting kids to understand the feasibility of their planning processes – is this realistic? Am I disciplined enough to follow this savings/investment path? Does a particular savings goal look as good in real life as it does on paper? Time will tell, but lessons such as this make for a good start.

This lesson was produced by ALEX, a project of the Alabama Learning Exchange. ALEX is an award-winning education portal that provides lesson plans, education-related podcasts, best practices, and Alabama professional development activities. Lessons are aligned to Alabama Content Standards.


From ’00 to ’10: Defining the Decade
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2009-12-29.8665282203
Subjects: Writing, Current events, History
Grade: 6-12

The end of a decade always brings reviews of notable events that have occurred during that time, but the years 2000-2009 are of additional note because they were also the start of a new millennium. In this lesson, students research and review their choices of the most important events and developments of the decade. This lesson was published by The New York Times Learning Network, which offers free lesson plans and other educational materials based on content that appears in the renowned newspaper. The lesson is aligned to McREL standards.

I like this lesson for several reasons. Students are required to research, reflect upon, and select developments and occurrences from the past 10 years that they deem important. Depending on the age of the student, the decade may well represent the bulk of their lives to date. While some events may be ubiquitous (such as 9/11, for example), others may be surprising in that they may have a very specific, personal significance for a student. This type of personal context in view of larger events is always a good reality check for educators, I think, and helps them to keep the pulse of what influences and affects their students. I also like the creative options offered by the lesson, where the kids can create videos or trading cards in which to present their top picks in addition to the more traditional essays and timelines.

Intriguing Beginnings
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2007-11-24.0437674888
Subjects: Writing
Grade: 3-5

One of my favorite opening lines ever is from Samuel Beckett’s Murphy: “The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.” It never fails to provoke a snort of laughter, but maybe that’s just me. Anyway, opening lines in novels have the power to instantly captivate readers – remember “Where’s Pa going with that ax?” from Charlotte’s Web? What kid doesn’t want to keep reading to find out – yes – just where is Pa going with an ax? This lesson has students review examples of good writing, and the essence of a beginning that “grabs the reader by the shoulders, shakes them up, and throws them back in the chair.”

Opening lines can make or break a novel. Not literally, of course, but many kids (and adults I know) make book selections on whether the first few lines seem interesting. Opening lines that grip a reader can instantly transport that reader into the author’s world and vision. That’s a true gift. This lesson allows elementary students to see the design and planning in the writing process, and that good writing doesn’t just happen. Published authors have to work at their writing, just as kids do, and I think that’s an important lesson for students to learn. The lesson is sure to keep students engaged: In addition to researching and reviewing memorable opening lines from some of their favorite books, the kids craft their own catchy opening lines, and videotape skits presenting their favorite opening lines. This lesson was published by Beacon Learning Center, an online educational resource and professional development center that offers standards-based resources and professional development activities. “Intriguing Beginnings” is aligned to Florida's Sunshine State Standards.


Martin Luther King, Jr. and Me: Identifying With a Hero
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2009-12-10.0464877015
Subjects: Language Arts, US History
Grade: K-2
In addition to ushering in the new year, the month of January also brings us Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Talking about Dr. King with young students is a great way to explore the concepts of bravery, equality, and heroism. It can be difficult, however, for kids to identify with someone who lived and died long before they were born. This lesson, published by ReadWriteThink, provides a plethora of activities that are all built around students exploring the connections between themselves and Dr. King.

One of the things that I like about this lesson is that it offers lots of ideas for teachers to fully engage their students in the material. At this young age (kindergarten through second grade), past events are often difficult for kids to identify with. Also, many kids at this age still associate heroes with caped crusaders with superhuman abilities. Here, students compare and contrast their lives with that of Dr. King, thereby helping them to build connections, and view historical figures as real people like themselves. Heroism, then, is something we can all aspire to. Masks and capes are optional.

ReadWriteThink presents free resources in reading and language arts instruction. Each lesson is reviewed prior to publication by at least two teachers, as well as by members of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). So yeah, they’re that good. Lessons are aligned to NCTE/IRA Content Standards.

~Joann's Picks 1/1/2010~