Infonews n°298 from 18/02/2007
Enlighten Me!
- Solve the mystery
- Download guide books
Activities from the US Mint
Dolch sight word flash cards
Daily teaching ideas and essay prompts (from The Classroom Flyer, Thursday,
February 15th)
Why Kids are Afraid to stand up to Bullies (from Educational CyberPlayGround
K12)
Dress Codes, Character Education, Recommended Resources (from Educational CyberPlayGround
K12)
Resources on Black History month
'I have a dream" with subtitles
New recyclable mobiles
Video exercises about catering
British Vogue Fashion Shows (from [LII New This Week] February 15)
Virtual Courseware in Sciences (from The Scout Report -- February 16)
Online Mathematics Textbooks (from The Scout Report -- February 16)
English words in French language
Ending Oil Dependence (from The Scout Report -- February 16)
Educator Resource Center from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (from
The Scout Report -- February 16)
Conférence sur le CECRL de M.Goulier à Reims
Appel à contribution de l'APLV
Enlighten Me!
I explored this site for young US children, and selected two activities, an
online mystery to solve, and three books to download. You can invite your
students to visit them on their own, or do it as a whole class activity with
an overhead projector.
http://www.superpages.com/enlightenme/
- Solve the mystery
The mysteries are rather long to solve, and there are many characters, but
our students like online game, so they may get really involved. You can hear
some of the pages as you read them. There are 8 different mysteries to solve,
but they all take place in the same town, so players have access to all the
characters each time. To solve the mystery, their first task is to choose who
is relevant and who is not. Then they select the phone number of one character
and call him : you can then read the answer which contains a clue...
have fun!
http://www.enlightenme.com/enlightenme/superthinkers/pages/selectmystery.html?name=d
- Download guide books
Download or just read online these books which explain in easy English how
to make a book, a movie or a jigsaw puzzle. Those guidelines will help children
make their own creation, but there are no programs to make them online : the
books and puzzles are handicraft made on paper and cardboard, and the film
is real one, made with a video camera and edited on an "easy to use"
editing program (no program is recommended). Those books are meant for US under-tens,
but you can study them with lower intermediate students or adapt the ideas
for older students.
http://www.superpages.com/enlightenme/superthinkers/pages/book.html?
Activities from the US Mint
The US Mint offers several online games and activities for children.
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/
Some games are very basic and uninteresting, but some others contain interesting
information (a coin memory game, find out which president is on the coin) although
some of those might be a bit difficult for lower intermediate students (time
machine) . As always, there is a big gap between the games (dress the soldier,
catch the balls, etc.) and the content of the games, such as information about
how many copper coins you needed to make a silver during the secession war
(after all, it's the site of the Mint!) or how many time Washington crossed
a state... explore the site and find out for yourself:
Coin memory game
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/games/coinMemoryGame/
Identify the presidents
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/games/presidentialPortraits/
Time machine
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/timeMachine/
Lesson plans (that you can link to president's day)
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/teachers/lessonPlans/
Resources for Presidents' Day
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/
Cartoon : birth of a coin (without sound, unfortunately!)
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/cartoons/birthOfACoin/
Dolch sight word flash cards
What is this method? "The Dolch words are the 220 most frequently found
words. Students who learn these words have a good base for beginning reading.
Many of these words cannot be sounded out because they do not follow decoding
rules. These words must be learned as sight words." (quotation from the
second site below).
"Use the first link underneath for the Dolch word list on printable flash
cards. The 2nd link offers a beautifully illustrated word list, also on printable
flash cards, while the last link provides a pre-test vocabulary quiz along
with numerous flash cards." ( from The Classroom Flyer, Tuesday, February
13th)
http://www.kizclub.com/teachers/sightword.pdf
http://www.janbrett.com/games/flash_card_dolch_word_list_main.htm
http://www.mrsperkins.com/dolch.htm
[ this seems to be based on the global reading and memorizing of words....we
know it is no longer allowed in French schools to learn how to read and write
French, but I don't think there is any regulation concerning English...or is
there? ;) ]
Daily teaching ideas and essay prompts (from The Classroom Flyer, Thursday, February 15th)
This interactive calendar offers ideas for each day of the month : what happened
on that day, a quote of the day, and several essay prompts for all levels.
A page to bookmark!
http://www.everydayteaching.com/
Why Kids are Afraid to stand up to Bullies (from Educational CyberPlayGround K12)
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/safe.html
Ken Rigby and Bruce Johnson's research document bullying at schools; and children
serve as passive bystanders to bullying. Why don't they intervene and when
it's appropriate for them to do so?
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/greatergood/current_issue/rigbyjohnson.html
[ with videos, links and students who explain what they felt. for intermediate
students.]
Dress Codes, Character Education, Recommended Resources (from Educational CyberPlayGround K12)
Bastards of the Party: The Evolution of Bangin'
It documents how the CRIPS and Bloods emerged from the ashes of the Black Panther
Party and how the closing of the 14 largest factories in the LA area took the
hope of unskilled workers and handed it over to offshore drug dealers and onshore
programs that kept money for counseling/intervention for themselves and was
used as an excuse for class division along racial lines.
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/dresscode.html
[ these documents are not meant for students' use, and are rather difficult
to read, but the information and the links are worthwhile : they examin the
topic of dress code in depth and from all perspective, including historical.]
Resources on Black History month
Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer offers a lot of interesting and useful resources
in its newsletter from February 16th. Just have a look there and make your
choice:
http://www.riverdeep.net/portal/page?_pageid=338,1&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL#3
'I have a dream" with subtitles
Our colleagues Yvan Baptiste and Laurence Bernard have worked a lot to produce
this online version of MLK's famous speech, with English subtitles appearing
at the right moment all along. Congratulations!
http://www.absolutenglish.org/file/smil/mlkstreamsmil/ihaveadream.smil
Another colleague, Séverine Magnin, has put online the worksheet she made for
her students to help them understand the text (use it with the subtitles for
very weak students, but this worksheet is more efficient with the video without
subtitles)
http://perso.orange.fr/ririne2/1erelv1/i-have-a-dream-co.pdf
New recyclable mobiles
On e-teach, Sylviane Vialaneix recommends Antenna, this online exhibition from
the London Science Museum:
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/
You can for example discover everything about recycling mobile phones in Dead
Ringers. The game is uninteresting, but the various information are fascinating
: do you know that we will soon compost our mobiles, battery included?
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/deadringers/
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/deadringers/blingbling/146.asp
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/deadringers/phoney/122.asp
The site offers several small articles, each about a specific topic. You can
invite your students to visit this site from the computer room, and then report
their findings to the class, or hand you a written report.
*** And there are also some audio files with interviews of users. You see the
person, hear his or hear words and you can also read it. Short and useful to
train students to aural comprehension!
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/deadringers/voxpops/index.asp
Video exercises about catering
Our colleague jean Le Mauff has made for his catering students several hot
potatoes exercises based on videos. They can also be used by other type of
students, because many of them can get interested in learning about the tasks
of a bartender or a fast food cook...
http://lemauff.jean.free.fr/catering/
British Vogue Fashion Shows (from [LII New This Week] February 15)
Photos from the fashion shows of major fashion designers in London, Paris,
Milan, and New York. Includes news updates and photos from key collections
of women's ready-to-wear and menswear back to the autumn/winter 2001-2002
season. From British Vogue.
http://www.vogue.co.uk/Shows/
[ there is also a 'celebrity' section
http://www.vogue.co.uk/Gallery/Baftas_2007/Default.html
and a blog section called 'Camilla says...' with Camilla Morton's impression
on the last shows, parties or other events going on. It is too difficult to
understand for even upper intermediate students, but teachers may find there
interesting information and useful links to other sites.
http://www.vogue.co.uk/blog/camilla-says/
Virtual Courseware in Sciences (from The Scout Report -- February 16)
As part of a collaborative project between faculty members at the California
State University-Los Angeles and the National Science Foundation, the Virtual
Courseware website brings together a number of thematic instructional resources
for science educators. Some of the resources include activities that deal
with earthquakes and global warming. Within each
module, visitors will find a number of self-guided tutorials and explanatory
materials for instructors to use in their classrooms. One real gem here is
the “Virtual Dating” section, as students and educators will get the opportunity
to learn how geologists and archaeologists determine the ages of rocks and
ancient artifacts. The site also makes the module on earthquakes available
in Spanish, titled
“Terremoto”. With a mix of activities, assessment exercises, and instructor
materials, this website will be a great find for science teachers working with
college or high school students. [KMG]
http://www.sciencecourseware.org/eecindex.php
http://www.sciencecourseware.org/eec_main.html
[ interesting for all autonomous transcurricular tasks (TPE) or for teachers
who teach physics, biology or geography in English. From the home page about "global
warming" click on "tutorials"
and then choose whichever interests you. I found
"greenhouse effect' and carbon cycle' especially well made and convincing:
http://www.sciencecourseware.org/eec/GlobalWarming/ ]
Online Mathematics Textbooks (from The Scout Report -- February 16)
More and more instructional materials in the field of mathematics can be found
online today, though for several years, it was difficult to find high-quality
textbooks in their entirety. Fortunately Professor George Cain of the Georgia
Institute of Technology has created this website to remedy that situation.
As Professor Cain notes on his site, “The writing of textbooks and making
them freely available on the web is an idea whose time has arrived.” Here
he offers links to sixty-five different textbooks, including those that deal
with multivariable calculus and several introductory texts on probability.
Overall, the site is a fine resource, and it will be of use to both budding
math scholars and those who teach them. [KMG]
http://www.math.gatech.edu/~cain/textbooks/onlinebooks.html
[ an impressive and precious resource for those who teach math in English :
free textbooks online!]
English words in French language
Advanced students will enjoy discussing this text, presenting a French MP who
wants to ban all English words, like web, business or newsletter from the
French language. Read the text and listen to his interview (in English, of
course!). I suppose students will react to phrases like :
"we French have been imperialists long before them" !
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2007/02/070209_frangliase.shtml
You can download the transcript, the audio file, and access other articles
on the same topic.
Ending Oil Dependence (from The Scout Report -- February 16)
Concerns about the United States’ dependence on oil are nothing new, and various
policy solutions have been around for decades. A number of scholars and experts
have been attempting to address the subject, and one recent paper from The
Brookings Institution offers a number of thoughtful ideas on this important
concern. Released in January 2007, this 25-page paper written by David B. Sandalow
offers a number of ambitious proposals aimed at reducing oil dependency in
the US. Some of his proposals will sound familiar, as he includes references
to the inherent possibilities in widespread adoption of biofuels, the adoption
of smart growth policies, and the potential benefits of plug-in hybrid engines.
Sandalow also offers some more specific details on how the auto fleet might
be transformed over time, and also how the fuel supply might be transformed
as well. It’s a thoughtful work, and one that will be of interest to policy
analysts and others who are concerned with this vexing issue. [KMG]
http://www.brookings.edu/views/papers/fellows/sandalow20070122.pdf
[ very comprehensive report offering real solutions in all the fields : the
auto fleet, the fuel supply and the protection of the environment.]
Educator Resource Center from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (from The Scout Report -- February 16)
The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum has come up with a new resource for
educators that go beyond a number of the traditional disciplinary boundaries.
With interactive modules and learning activities that place a premium on
inquiry and project-based learning and critical thinking skills, these resources
make it easy to see how architecture, graphic, and media design can enhance
the teaching of subjects that include mathematics, language arts, and environmental
studies. These resources are designed for use by grades K-12, and visitors
can search all of the lesson plans by subject or grade. The “Resources”
section also contains links to external resources, curriculum guides, and videos
from public programs. Additionally, educators can also offer their own ratings
and assessments of the various educational materials they find on the site.
[KMG]
http://www.educatorresourcecenter.org/
[ for teachers and advanced students in design, more orientated towards clothing
or environmental design (not industrial design). You can find lesson plans
and videos, but the videos are mainly for educators and are actually videotaped
conferences (university level)
http://www.cooperhewitt.org/EDU/ ]
Conférence sur le CECRL de M.Goulier à Reims
Emmanuelle Bogé nous informe que la conférence sur le CECR donnée par Francis
Goulier à Reims en Septembre dernier est en ligne. Vous pouvez voir un résumé ou
la vidéo complète découpée et organisée sous formes de questions auxquelles
il apporte des réponses.
http://www.ac-reims.fr/datice/langetrangeres/cecr_portfolio/cecr.htm
[ la page propose aussi des liens pour aller plus loin.]
Appel à contribution de l'APLV
Les « Langues Modernes » lancent un appel à contributions :
"Le Cadre européen commun de référence pour les langues et le Portfolio
européen des langues : où en est-on ?"
Lire les détails sur le site de l'APLV-Langues Modernes
http://www.aplv-languesmodernes.org/article.php3?id_article=245
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