Monday, July 21, 2014

on finding emaze...

Powered by emaze

emaze is a user-friendly presentation platform
more "bendable" than PowerPoint and Prezi
offering a range of templates and effects - including 3D + animation

and
it's FREE!

Above is my first attempt at using emaze.
I have reduced the size for this blog post, but it can be enabled to full screen.)
I wanted to trial some possibilities
but there are more...

sound
videos
may be added...

Storage possibilities include
online
email

and it may be shared on
Twitter
Facebook


The free version does not allow a download, but it allows links and embedding.


To teach is to keep learning

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Unknown Man 'E'...




There is so much darkness behind the glitter of the pharaohs...
Rameses was a man who sought fame and glory
but there were those wished to terminate his golden journey..

Did Unknown Man 'E' connect with Ramses?
Both lay in the tomb of kings...
However Unknown Man 'E' was not fully mummified - he had a sheepskin...


Amazing that with all the studies of Ancient Egypt, we still are finding untold stories...

This video is for this who still are enchanted with the histories and the mysteries of Ancient Egypt...


The video could be used for:
History - enhancing the wonder of the life of pharaohs
English - review of a documentary


More reading on the history of theories about this mummy are HERE.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

what if...


card created using my photo + haiku  and 3D Postcard Generator


what if
you took a class of reluctant Shakespeare-suffering Year 9 students
outside

to take roles in Romeo and Juliet

there was a verandah and a couple of steps at the old drama studio
now used as a small chapel

the steps faced the oval

what if
the only instructions given the students were
sit anywhere as the audience
and
use anything in the immediate environment
if you have a role to play

what if
the students liked the idea
kinda
but enjoyed being outside the classroom

what if
as lessons passed
role players did not want others to take their roles
and the audience enjoyed asking the role players
questions about their character
what they were thinking
how they felt
as part of the last minutes of each lesson

what if
students owned their roles
and actually began
acting
in character

what if
the audience
loved the play
more and more
encouraging
the role players
to be
more and more
in character

what if
more and more
I had less and less to do
except
watch

what if
the students were sad
that the play
ended


what if
I was sad
too




Wordle: 21st Century Teacher Portfolio - blog wordle 15.7.14

To teach is to keep learning

Monday, July 14, 2014

Celebrating the Value of Failure...

team work
Thomas Edison did not "invent" the light bulb overnight.
There were many trials.
 He said,
I have not failed; I've simply found ten thousand ways that won't work.
(In fact, many claim he only improved on the electric light bulb
that had existed for up to 50 years before his 1879 U.S. patent.
The first light bulbs lasted 150 hours while Edison's lasted 1,200 hours
Further, Edison did own a power company.)

instant failure is a time to:
take a walk
reflect
think differently
improve the trial
feel excited about a new idea

instant failure wears a harness
and
checks the safety net

alternatively
instant success has the potential for:
unforeseen hurdles
loopholes
weaknesses
pride before a fall

instant success
heads for
free fall
without a parachute

Failure may help us to discover what we seek to learn
AND discover many byway, unexpected ideas as well.

A naval engineer, Richard Jones was trying to design a meter to monitor power on naval battleships.
He worked with tension springs and one fell to the ground from a shelf.
It kept bouncing
and bouncing...
The slinky was born in 1945...

Walt Disney's first animation company went banktrupt.
He was fired by a news editor because he lacked imagination.
Some say he was turned down 302 times before he received financing for Disney World.

JK Rowling was penniless, recently divorced, and raising a child on her own,
when she wrote the first Harry Potter book on an old manual typewriter.
 12 publishers rejected the manuscript!
A year later, Barry Cunningham from Bloomsbury agreed to publish her book
but insisted that she get a day job because children’s books were not money spinners.


It almost seems to mean that
big failure
has the potential
with persistence
to breed
big success


Let's teach our students to face failure with strength and not give them
a false sense of success.
For too long we have worried about students' self esteem
and cultivated it with a barrage of successful comment.
Their self esteem should not be built on false values in the protected school world
leaving it prime for a huge downfall out there in the open real world.

Let's give our students pride in beating failure.
Let's give them a rock
not shifting sands...


I have long believed in the merits of failure as a means of progress...

 
To teach is to keep learning

Sunday, July 13, 2014

on finding Padlet...


I have just found Padlet...

It is an easy-to-navigate app enhancing the teacher-student connection...

In Term 3, I will be conducting a Haiku Workshop for secondary students.
I decided to create a visual wall of prompts with Padlet.
I can make a choice to simply screen this wall to the students,
or
I am considering that students should create a wall of prompts with accompanying haiku in addition to this one.

All haiku are mine...
I am being a role model...
Past experience has taught me that writing with the students inspires even the reluctant writers...


NOTE
The free version is quite effective. The cost versions have more bells and whistles.
Padlet comes as a convenient Chrome extension too.

To teach is to keep learning
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