Thursday, August 19, 2010

quiet now please

"Quiet now please..." requested a teacher at the beginning of a whole school assembly, which may sound like just another ordinary day...but no!  The assembly was attended by The Edge radio station and unknown to Ms X her requests were recorded (gasp, shock horror!) and streamed live to a DJ, Dominic Harvey who subsequently passed it to a colleague who produced this wonderful "song" which was then aired on their radio station.  I have nothing but compliments for Ms X who was polite, persistent, assertive and well spoken (she has a wonderful Scottish lilt).  I like this audio version and think that Grant Brodie did a damn good job producing it.
Go on press play...you know you want to!
You remember Roald Dahl, the writer of the very popular "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"?  One of the charachters who won a golden ticket was Violet Beauregarde, within no time at all she had ballooned (literally!) and resembled an oversized blueberry.
Click here for a poem about the chewing gum addicted Violet, which is wonderful for handing out to students to write out if they continually chew gum in class.  Very old scool, I know! and on the same note, click here for a document with a valuable lesson in time management, again it can be written out for students who frequently arrive late to your lessons.
Talking of old scool, here's a glimpse of how it used to be..
Have a look and a laugh at "Seven periods with Mr Gormsby", the satirical comedy series from New Zealand featuring an "old school" teacher who isn't at all politically correct.  It's bloody hilarious!

and Summer Heights High, the Award winning Australian mockumentary starring the multi talented Chris Lilley as three different charachters, guaranteed most of you will have taught a Jonah or twenty.Available from Amazon here
Jonah Takalua Mr G Ja'mie King

Have a great week, I'll be sipping champagne at a wedding.  Hope my students behave for the reliever!

Monday, August 9, 2010

rocket scientist

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"Miss, I wanna be an astronaut"

Hey, don't we all!  So, how do you reply when a student of average academic ability tells you of their lifetime goal, their dream for the future?  To become a doctor, professional footballer, rocket scientist...?  However unrealistic it may seem to us as teachers or parents, a dream is a dream, without dreams we are nothing, so without question most teachers encourage their students to pursue their personal goal(s) and bring it as close to reality as is possible.  Although I will add that I feel it is so important to open our students eyes to the range of options available to them, so that they don't set themselves up for failure.

For those budding astronauts, NASA offers a number of scholarships open to students from all around the world, local observatories give students the opportunity to catch a glimpse of outer space and students can make the most of hands on activities and learn from displays at the space exploration section of most Science Museums.  For those millionaires amongst us, (that'll rule out the teachers then), good ol' Sir Richard Branson has made a trip into space a possible reality through his Virgin Galactic Space program. It'll set you back.$200,000 (US).  If I win lotto, I'll be online and have my flight booked in a tick.

There are a huge number of reference sites to learn about the planets, I'll start with this mnemonic.
My 
Very 
Easy 
Method 
Just 
Speeds 
Up 
Naming 
Planets 
(although given that now Pluto is no longer a planet, this mnemonic is out of date but no doubt, 
your students can think up a mnemonic of their own for the 8 planets)

and I recommend this simple overview of the solar system from CELS at Nottingham Trent University and this very cool 3D viewer from ForgeFX which also has a brief bit of info on the planets and one that I suggest to students for their own research is A multimedia tour of the Solar System.  As mentioned already, there are many more...the NASA site is obviously a good starting point.

If you like the look of the screenshot above then definitely be sure to view the Earth (or the moon) from different perspectives using this superb, truly excellent Earth and Moon viewer has been compiled by John Walker using information provided from satellites and a number of other sources.  It ranks in my top ten of favourite urls, no doubt about it!

Have you got a sense of humour? Then have a laugh at this video clip with "proof" that the Moon landings in 1969 were faked.

Moving swiftly on... we have just passed the 41st anniversary of the first moon landing.  July 20th 1969 was the momentous day as can be seen from this post 1969 edited version of a copy of The Times newspaper. 

and here is a powerpoint that I put together on the moon landings with evidence for and against them being a fictitious Hollywood movie.

And some useful moon related resources, some of which will lend themselves well to collaborative learning experiences for your students.




and there's more...
Science concept cartoons open up more possibilities for creative, collaborative learning, leave your students  in groups to discuss and debate their thoughts and ideas using the concept cartoons as a focal point, available from Amazon here

and this fabulous computer animated video clip of the Rover landing on Mars, produced by NASA, no surprises there!
and an excellent resource document "To Mars and beyond" which was put together by School Program Officers at the National Museum of Australia and The Melbourne Museum.
Astronomy is such a fun topic to teach, although I rarely find that I "teach" it as such but my students come up with questions which inevitably lead to more questions that they discuss and research by themselves individually or in groups. Exploration and knowledge of "what's out there" is akin to finding a black hole and being unable to escape as a result of the pull it has on you and the endless myriad of questions that develop.
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