Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 8/30/19

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my PLN. As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions. Thank you for coming by and visiting!

Note: Each resource is labeled with a level and subject area to make it easier to use.

Levels:  E: Elementary; M: Middle; H: High; G: General, all levels; SN: Special Needs; T: Teachers

Subject Areas: LA: Language Arts, English, Reading, Writing; M: Math; S: Science; Health; SS: Social Studies, Current Events; FA: Fine Arts; Music, Art, Drama; FL: Foreign Language; PE: Physical Ed; C: Career; A: All

Math and Sorcery – free iOS app; “Count Mathula has stolen the mighty book of Math and Sorcery and now it's up to you to bring it back. Train and improve your math skills with Math and Sorcery!Battle enemies and various bosses with math in this turn based math puzzler with RPG elements! With addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, solve the four basic math operations as fast as you can to increase your attack multiplier and cause maximum damage. Attack one or multiple enemies at once, it's up to you how hard the calculations become.”  (L:E;SA:M)

The Civil War – “Animations of key battles of the American Civil War” (L:M,H;SA:SS)

DIY Lake Science – free iPad app; “DIY Lake Science, funded by NSF, allows families and educators to investigate and learn about lakes and other freshwater ecosystems at home, at school, or anywhere you go!” (L:E,M;SA:S)

Why Do Leaves Change Colors in the Fall? – “Autumn means leaves are turning different shades of red, orange, and yellow and falling to the ground. But why? Jessi takes you deep inside a leaf to explain! (L:E,M;SA:S)

Why Do Leaves Change Colors? – “This week Reactions is checking out some seasonal science. Why do leaves change color? Spoiler: chemistry. It’s the first day of autumn and the telltale signs are here: Crisp weather, pumpkin spice lattes and most importantly, the leaves are changing colors. Ever wonder why some leaves turn red, others yellow and some just turn brown? It's all down to chlorophyll (more like bore-ophyll!) and the glucose stored inside trees that help reveal the reds, yellows and, less excitingly, browns of fall foliage.” (L:E,M;SA:S)

Original photo by Pat Hensley

My Summer Reading

In What Am I Reading? from Ideas and Thoughts, Dean Shareski asks,

“What are you reading, outside of education specific books that you think relate well to education?”

This summer I worked on my yearly goal of reading nonfiction biography books.

I read The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King. This book was excellent! I learned a lot about Mr. Rogers that I didn’t know about. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who remembers Mr. Rogers.

I also read Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs. This book was okay but a little depressing. I didn’t realize what kind of person Steve Jobs was and it was sad about his relationship with his daughter.

I read The Farmer’s Son: Calving Season on a Family Farm by John Connell. This was very interesting and seeing the farm from an individual’s perspective made it a great read.

I also read a couple of nonfiction books that were not biographies.

I read The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron. It was interesting and I am trying to incorporate some of the ideas into my life.

I also read Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling,  and Anna Rosling Rönnlund. There were a lot of interesting statistics but I found it to be a little dry.

It would be fun to have students share an interesting book, article, or movie that they have seen. Have them explain why they enjoyed it.

What have you read this summer? Please share.

Photo by Nicole Honeywill on Unsplash

Create an Environment

In Leadership from Seth Godin's Blog by Seth Godin shares,

“You can’t make people change. But you can create an environment where they choose to.”

I keep reminding myself that I can't control other people I can only control myself. 

I can't make my students study and I can't make them do their work. I can't make my students behave in the way that I want them to behave. I could tell them reasons why they should study and why they should do that work I can't make them do this. I didn't tell them why they should behave in a certain way, but I can't make them.

If I see that someone needs to change, I can suggest ways in which they can do things that will help them make this change. but if they don't want to make the change there is nothing I can do to make it happen.

 but I can change the environment in which there in that might help them make the change it easier. It might make them have the right choices to help them make these changes.

 My husband and I are trying to eat healthier and, in that way,  we hope it might help us lose weight. We don't want to be on a diet because we haven't had a lot of success with the diet. But instead, we decided to change our environment. we stock a refrigerator with ready-made salads which makes it easier for us to make the right choice when looking for something to eat. we don't have the excuse of saying it is too much trouble, but we don't have the right ingredients to make a salad. The changing environment we have made it easier to make the right choices free eating healthier foods.

In that same way, I can make the environment better for students to choose to study and did it work. This might help them make better choices and become more successful in the future. when students have choices, they tend to be less resistant to change. Students have very little things that they feel they are in control of somebody giving them more choices will help them feel in control. When students feel in control, I hope they will make better choices.

Photo by Vladislav Babienko on Unsplash