Infonews n°275 du 07/05/2006
What is Memorial Day?
Official Site
Figures for all US wars
Military Protocol
Arlington Cemetery
Memorial Day Entertainment
Lesson Plans
Memorial Day Activities
UK government reshuffle
On the BBC
Two pages on Wikipedia
Intellectual Journey, Challenging the Conventional Wisdom: Conversations With
John Kenneth Galbraith (from [LII New This Week] May 4)
Obituaries
Biographies
Drawing and Speech-Provoking ESL Activities
Green Design/Sustainable Architecture: Resources (from [LII New This Week]
May 4)
Buildings & Land: Home Resource Efficiency (from [LII New This Week] May
4)
Build it Green (from [LII New This Week] May 4)
California: Green Building Design and Construction (from [LII New This Week]
May 4)
Handicraft for the gifted (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Thursday, May
4th)
Violin
The Price of Home Makers
Sensing the World (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Thursday, May 4th)
Business & Economics Research Advisor (BERA): The Oil & Gas Industry
(from [LII New This Week] May 4)
O'Reilly Digital Media: Article Archives (from [LII New This Week] May 4)
Freevlog: Tutorial (from [LII New This Week] May 4)
Teach! Watch the Movie
Adaptation for Differentiation ( from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Wednesday,
May 3rd)
**** Blogs and Podcasts on Tappedin
Memorial Day in the USA celebrates the end of the Civil War each year on the last Monday in May. Mow it has evolved to celebrating patrioticism, peace and honor all those who died in a war. It is also called Decoration Day (because people decorate the tombs with wreaths), Confederate Memorial Day (in Tennessee and Louisiana), or Soldiers' Memorial Day. This year, Memorial week-end will be on May 28th 2006, and Memorial Day on May 29th. There will be lots of patriotic parades and people going to the cemeteries, but another part of the Americans it is just a long sunny week-end fit for outings and barbecues....
What is Memorial Day?
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/Holidays/celebrate/memorial.html
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761552044/Memorial_Day.html
http://www1.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/history.asp#hist
http://www.pbs.org/memorialdayconcert/history/
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyseneca/memorial.htm
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may30.html
*** http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/memorial/?page=home (very
comprehensive, with history and videos of veterans stories, plus a timeline
of US wars, including the "war on terrorism" (Afghanistan) and the
Iraq War : http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/memorial/?page=timeline4 )
Official Site
on this official site from the US government,
"The White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance" find:
- the song : "On this Day"
about the song : http://remember.gov/OnThisDaySong/tabid/55/Default.aspx
song ( by Sara Evans ) : http://www.remember.gov/moment/documents/OnThisDay-SaraEvans.mp3
lyrics: http://www.remember.gov/moment/documents/LyricstoOnThisDay.pdf
- a timeline of the US wars, with figures of the wounded and killed
http://remember.gov/HistoryOfSacrifice/tabid/57/Default.aspx
- in "history of sacrifice" the last war quoted is Desert Storm,
with only 363 killed (they only mention soldiers killed in battle)
http://remember.gov/HistoryOfSacrifice/DesertStorm/tabid/90/Default.aspx
- there is a timeline of terrorism, which stops on the 11th of September
http://remember.gov/TollOfTerrorism/ChronologyOfTerrorism/tabid/92/Default.aspx
Figures for all US wars
Find there official figures about how many soldiers took part in each war,
how many died , were wounded or survived. Note that Desert Storm killed 10
times more people in service (non theater!) than in battle, and that the last
wars (Afghanistan and Irak) at put together under the title 'War on Terrorism
(2001-Present)'
http://www1.va.gov/opa/fact/amwars.html
Military Protocol
Flag protocol
http://www1.va.gov/opa/feature/celebrate/docs/flagdisp.doc (guidelines
for flag display)
http://www1.va.gov/opa/feature/celebrate/docs/flagfold.doc (how
to fold the US flag. very easy)
Taps or tattoo, a 24-note bugle call
http://www1.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/history.asp#taps
The 21-Gun International Salute
http://www.mdw.army.mil/content/anmviewer.asp?a=50
Arlington Cemetery
In this very famous can be found the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and JFK
's tomb.
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/ (official
site)
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/photo_gallery/index.html (lots
of photos!)
http://www.mdw.army.mil/content/anmviewer.asp?a=22&z=2 (tomb
of the Unknowns)
http://www.mdw.army.mil/factsheets.htm#Arlington (fact
sheet)
http://library.thinkquest.org/2901/ (several
links)
Memorial Day Entertainment
For many people in the US, memorial week-end is just a long week-end in Spring.
- Find here ideas of entertainment and recipes for picnics, barbecues and grills,
or how to roast a pig (Memorial Day Luau) ....
http://entertaining.about.com/od/memorialday/
http://bbq.about.com/mbody.htm?once=true&
http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/egg/egg0596/pigout.html
http://southernfood.about.com/od/browniesbars/r/bl50615d.htm (discover
the S'Mores Bars, and they taste better if you grill the marshmallows on a
camp fire!)
- and here an example of a memorial Day program in the Marriot Hotel in Jacksonville
;)
http://www.sawgrassmarriott.com/emailblast/memorial_day/
Lesson Plans
- Memorial for September 11th (with links to poems and drawings)
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ArtSSLAOMemorialForSept11LessonOnViolence-812.htm
- Education world suggest links to some lessons for American children to explain
the meaning of the day or widen the subject to citizenship or create a "Wall
of Peace" in the class....
http://www.education-world.com/holidays/archives/memorial_day.shtml
Memorial Day Activities
- Create a booklet (patriotic)
http://www.teachercreated.com/pdfs/lessons/020524pt.pdf
- Write a poem
A Cluster Word Web is included in this lesson plan integrating language arts
and social sciences, where students first explore why Americans have a Memorial
Day holiday, and then groups will work together to create a poem. Use the 2nd
link above for a different version of Memorial Day poetry for earlier grades,
creating an acrostic poem instead.
http://www.eduplace.com/activity/memorial.html (cluster
web poem)
http://www.teachercreated.com/lessons/020524pt.shtml (acrostic
poem)
http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/clusterweb2.pdf (.pdf
version of a cluster web)
UK government reshuffle
Listen to the story, and access the vocabulary
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2006/05/060505_blair.shtml
learn more on the BBC website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4975938.stm
and watch a video of the report and the reactions of the public
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4975938.stm#
On the BBC
John Kenneth Galbraith died on April 29th 2006 at the age of 92. This Canadian-born
Harvard professor wrote over 30 books on socio-economic issues, the most famous
of which was The Affluent Society in 1958. See this article on the BBC, and
a video of his life:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4959302.stm
Two pages on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Galbraith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.K._Galbraith
[ remember that the information on wikipedia are not completely reliable since
they are not checked by experts. But those pages provide interesting links.]
Intellectual Journey, Challenging the Conventional Wisdom: Conversations With John Kenneth Galbraith (from [LII New This Week] May 4)
Transcript and video of an interview with John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006), "Professor
of Economics at Harvard for more than fifty years; writer and author of more
than 20 books, including 'The New Industrial State' ... [and] advisor to President
Kennedy." Some of the interview topics include good writing, U.S. Third
World policy during the Cold War, political leadership, and intellectuals in
government. From the Institute of International Studies, University of California,
Berkeley.~
http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/21368
transcript : http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/Galbraith/galbraith1.html
video : http://webcast.ucsd.edu:8080/ramgen/UCSD_TV/7126.rm
[ for advanced students]
Listen also to an interview + audio where
"Galbraith discusses the errors in our thinking about economic development."
http://aurora.icaap.org/talks/galbraith.htm
Obituaries
Here is his obituary from the BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/330355.stm
and our colleague Pierre-Frédéric Ehrer recommended this obituary from the
NYTimes on eTeachNet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/obituaries/30galbraith.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1146456000&en=5a89320c6fecfb1c&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin
Biographies
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Galbraith.html
http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/galbraith/bio.html
http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/galbraithbio.html
http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Philosophy/Galbraith.htm
Drawing and Speech-Provoking ESL Activities
What's outside the window?
Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Friday, May 5th suggest this interesting drawing
and speech-provoking activity :
"What's outside your classroom windows? You might be surprised at all
the different results you will get with this art project, where a window frames
the creativity."
http://www.kinderart.com/drawing/window.shtml
You can use it in your ESL lesson :
- the students have first to understand the instructions ( pencil, draw, et
les suggestions avec might be...);
- then they draw and finally show their drawing to the class.
- they can ask the others to emit hypothesis on what they see (it could be,
it might be, or just maybe, perhaps it is...) ,
- play a guessing game (is it an animal, a thing, a person...?)
- without showing it, they will describe their drawing in English to a friend
who will try to reproduce it (then compare!)
- describe their drawing orally and say why they did it ( from "This is
a butterfly because I love butterflies" for the beginners to " I
imagined I saw a plane because I am always dreaming of planes/travelling, etc;" for
the most advanced.)
Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer also suggests this other activity : "Introduce
your students to graphic design and illustration with this unique lesson plan,
where they will use various art materials to build an illustration using the
letters of a word. Good word choices are included."
http://www.kid-at-art.com/htdoc/lesson70.htm
You can explain the activity in English and show them examples, then invite
them to do their own drawings with a word they like or which inspires them.
Just as the previous activity, you can them organize an oral session around
their drawings.
Don't forget the display their drawing in the class. You can also print them
all in a booklet ( with the word included in a short sentence at the bottom
of each drawing) so that each student will have a reminder of the activity
and also learn the words the others illustrated.
Green Design/Sustainable Architecture: Resources (from [LII New This Week] May 4)
Extensive bibliography on sustainable design of buildings, with listings
for dictionaries and encyclopedias, handbooks, histories, journals, and resources
for codes and specifications, design, building materials, construction methods,
environmental health, energy, case studies, and more. Includes links to additional
research guides on solar design, day lighting (natural lighting), and other
design topics. From the Environmental Design Library, University of California,
Berkeley.
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ENVI/GreenAll.html
[ very interesting especially for students in Interior or Building Design :
how to design a sustainable building (energy, lighting, envelope)
http://www.energydesignresources.com/
You can even download and use for free (after registration) the eQUEST software
: "
the QUick Energy Simulation Tool"
http://www.energydesignresources.com/resource/130/ ]
Buildings & Land: Home Resource Efficiency (from [LII New This Week] May 4)
Consumer guide to sustainable and energy-efficient home design, with fact
sheets on appliances and lighting, home cooling, household greenhouse gas emissions,
water efficiency, construction of new homes, environmentally friendly building
materials, renewable energy (such as solar and wind power), indoor air quality,
and recycling. From the Rocky Mountain Institute, an energy policy research
organization.
http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid167.php
[ for technicians in building, design and energy conservation. See also the
page from LII with interesting links about green, sustainable buildings :
http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/21374 ]
Build it Green (from [LII New This Week] May 4)
Find overviews of the green building philosophy and products, a materials
database, fact sheets about selected materials, green building guidelines for
new construction and remodels, and related material. From a San Francisco Bay
area group "whose mission is to transform the building industry so that
buildings are remodeled and built using green practices and products." Some
material is specific to the San Francisco Bay Area.
http://www.builditgreen.org
[ for students in building and environment. With the green building guidelines
for several states
http://www.builditgreen.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=guidelines
and interesting links in the case studies
http://www.builditgreen.org/resource/index.cfm?fuseaction=national ]
California: Green Building Design and Construction (from [LII New This Week] May 4)
Collection of documents about green (sustainable) buildings, "structure[s]
that [are] designed, built, renovated, operated, or reused in an ecological
and resource-efficient manner."
Provides details about green building materials, training programs for California
state and local government, state initiatives and programs, and other general
and California-specific green building resources. From the California Integrated
Waste Management Board.
http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/GreenBuilding/
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/21356
[ for architects and those studying environmental design. Discover the Ecovillage:
http://www.ecovillages.com/
with lots of precise documents, including plans for houses:
http://www.ecovillages.com/Images/map3.jpg (master
site plan)
http://www.ecovillages.com/Files/Scheme_A_3.pdf (plan
for a house)
environment considerations
http://www.ecovillages.com/Pages/environment.html
and even the profile of the future residents
http://www.ecovillages.com/Pages/villagelife.html ]
Handicraft for the gifted (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Thursday, May 4th)
Anyone studying Ancient Greece or Rome? How about Egypt? This site from Canon
offers print and assemble reconstructions of great buildings of the world,
from the Parthenon in Greece, to the Roman Coliseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa,
a windmill from Holland, a sphinx from Egypt, the Statue of Liberty, the Sydney
Opera House, and more, for upper level students.
http://cp.c-ij.com/english/3D-papercraft/building/index.html
[Splendid work of art if you can finish it.... In school, you can invited interested
students to work on the instructions in the guide.]
Violin
If your students study music, and especially the violin, this site is for
them. You can learn how to play, read about famous violin players, and ***
read the poem and listen to the song about
"the master's touch" depicting how the touch of a master player changed
the price of a violin at an action sale.
http://www.sheilascorner.com/sheila.html
in "study" : Study and practice (left hand, harmonics, etc.)
in "teach" : the Master's poem plus buying and listening guides,
and teaching tips
the song : http://www.singingauctioneer.com/p1cut6.ram
in "music" : several famous musical pieces explained and commented
and also "history", "bows", "violins" and "famous
players".
The Price of Home Makers
This week, the staff at Waltham-based Salary.com released an intriguing study
that shows that a full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year
if she were paid for all the diverse tasks she performs.
Read the article in the Scout Report and follow the links they suggest to a
video report and various articles, including one on changing roles of fathers
and mothers in the past 100 years.
An excellent starting point for a debate in class.
http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/Current/inthenews.php
Sensing the World (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Thursday, May 4th)
Get the latest in biomedical research with this online publication, on how
our senses work to help us interpret our world. Learn about sensory receptors,
breaking the color code, brain scans, and more in this fascinating account
of how we record and relate to our world as humans.
http://www.hhmi.org/senses/senses.pdf
[ a whole 63p book online, with photos and interesting texts. An excellent
resource for advanced students, Biology teachers, TPE and teachers interested
in technology, especially nanotechnologies.]
Business & Economics Research Advisor (BERA): The Oil & Gas Industry (from [LII New This Week] May 4)
Guide to researching topics related to the oil and gas industry, covering
history, cartels and organizations, production, refining, transportation and
storage, marketing and distribution, trends, and alternative energy sources.
Includes resources for company research, statistical sources, and news and
analysis. From the Library of Congress Business Reference Services.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/BERA/issue5/issue5_main.html
Lots of references are not online, except for the history page, which includes
interesting Selected Internet Resources (scroll down)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/BERA/issue5/history.html#modern
[ for advanced students]
O'Reilly Digital Media: Article Archives (from [LII New This Week] May 4)
Collection of articles about audio, video, and photography technology trends.
Some of the topics include computer music videos, digital image management,
digitizing videotapes, MP3 players, vocoders, and digital bookmarks. Includes
a mix of highly technical pieces and beginning articles such as "What
is Podcasting" and "What is Vlogging." From O'Reilly Media,
publishers of books on computers and technology; articles are written by O'Reilly
book authors and other industry experts.
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/articles.csp
[ "what is podcasting" : http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/07/20/WhatIsPodcasting.html
*** an excellent picture showing how it works : http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/images/oreilly/digitalmedia/2005/07/WhatIsPodcasting_setup.jpg
make your own podcast : http://makezine.com/blog/archive/make_podcast/index.html
" What is Vlogging/vodcasting" and how to get started:
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/digitalmedia/2005/07/27/vlog.html
for technicians... ]
Freevlog: Tutorial (from [LII New This Week] May 4)
Basic instructions for creating your own vlog (or video blog), a blog that
primarily uses video to convey its content. Includes screen shots, sample video,
and links to blogging and video tools. Also available in five other languages.
From a website that reviews vlogs.
http://freevlog.org/tutorial/
[ Free software and tutorial to learn how to make your video blog. Requires
Quicktime.]
Teach! Watch the Movie
"Four public school teachers start their career in some of the toughest
schools in America, in the Los Angeles school district. What does it take?
How did they fare during their first year of teaching? You can watch this 35
minute award-winning film online, and then send us your feedback on the film.
Start a discussion on this documentary by sending your comments at:
classroomflyer@riverdeep.net " (
from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Thursday, May 4th)
"TEACH chronicles the determination and commitment of four young teachers
as they fight the real fight: educating our children.
Davis Guggenheim's award-winning documentary reveals the human side of the
story: showing what it takes to survive the first year teaching in America's
toughest schools. (35 min.) " ( from the website)
http://www.teachnow.org/
[ A 35mn video (no transcript) to discover what a first year of teaching is
like in the US and what problems they tackle with. See the meeting of teachers
with problem children : is it much different in France? ]
Adaptation for Differentiation ( from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Wednesday, May 3rd)
Find nine types of adaptations here for differentiated classroom instruction,
including task size, support, time,level of student participation, and more.
http://www.uni.edu/coe/inclusion/strategies/types_adaptation.html
[ ideas of how to implement differentiated teaching adapted to each student's
abilities.]
**** Blogs and Podcasts on Tappedin
Our very active colleague Barbara Dieu from Brazil invites you to an online
virtual meeting about blogs and podcasts at the Blogstreams Salon on Tappedin
with two teachers specialized in blogging and international webpublishing projects
on
Sunday, May 7th at 23:00
http://tappedin.org
This virtual meeting is basically a chat, but the hosts can also show you webpages,
and the discussions are always rich and interesting. If you wish to take part
and you have never been to Tappedin, go there first, register (it's free, but
you have to create your profile if you want to be identified. You can also
take part as guest) and get used to the many features of the platform and the
chat. Once the discussion session is started, everything goes very fast and
you have to know how to use the many features to answer quickly. When you go
to Tappedin, you first get to the reception desk where you will find someone
who can help and guide you at anytime of the day or night.
Here is what Barbara says about the meeting:
" The Blogstreams Salon group started right after the Evo workshop on
blogs I co-led with Aaron Campbell and Graham Stanley in 2005. It
welcomes all teachers interested in blogging and international webpublishing
projects. We get together synchronously to chat informally, sort out teachers'
doubts, examine and discuss innovative work and international webpublishing
projects. The Blogstreams Salon
group meets on the first Sunday of the month at 21:00 GMT."
This first Sunday of May I have the pleasure to welcome two very dynamic and
creative colleagues from Brasilia: Isabel Teixeira and
Carla Arena. They will be sharing with us their work with blogs and podcasts.
Isabel works at CILT (Centro de Línguas de Taguatinga) and is an active member
of iEARN.
http://www.ltnet.org/cac/aac/educatorsprofile/isabel/index.htm
Carla is Multimedia Resource Consultant at the Binational Center Casa Thomas
Jefferson.
http://baw-06.pbwiki.com/CarlaArena "
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