Friday, December 29, 2017

Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 12/29/17

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

Smithsonian Learning Lab – “The Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access created the Smithsonian Learning Lab to inspire the discovery and creative use of its rich digital materials—more than a million images, recordings, and texts. It is easy to find something of interest because search results display pictures rather than lists. Whether you've found what you were looking for or just discovered something new, it's easy to personalize it. Add your own notes and tags, incorporate discussion questions, and save and share. The Learning Lab makes it simple.” (L:G; SA:A)

Music Crab – free iPad app; “Music Crab is an educative application to learn music notes by having fun with an innovative and playful learning method! It allows to all how read music on a sheet music in a fun environment through a new learning method. With Music Crab, learning music and music notes has never been easier!” L:G; SA:FA)

Skyview Lite – free app; “SkyView® Lite brings stargazing to everyone! Simply point your iPhone, iPad, or iPod at the sky to identify stars, constellations, satellites, and more!” (L:G; SA:A)

The True Size of – “It is hard to represent our spherical world on flat piece of paper. Cartographers use something called a "projection" to morph the globe into 2D map. The most popular of these is the Mercator projection. Every map projection introduces distortion, and each has its own set of problems. One of the most common criticisms of the Mercator map is that it exaggerates the size of countries nearer the poles (US, Russia, Europe), while downplaying the size of those near the equator (the African Continent). On the Mercator projection Greenland appears to be roughly the same size as Africa. In reality, Greenland is 0.8 million sq. miles and Africa is 11.6 million sq. miles, nearly 14 and a half times larger. This app was created by James Talmage and Damon Maneice. It was inspired by an episode of The West Wing and an infographic by Kai Krause entitled "The True Size of Africa". We hope teachers will use it to show their students just how big the world actually is.” (L:G; SA:SS)

The Physics of Skiing – “The purpose of this page is to summarize frequently asked questions about the physics of skiing. The physics of skiing is a recurring topic on rsa. These calculations and interpretations were contributed to by a number of regulars, and some not so regulars, on rsa.” (L:H; SA:M,S)

 Original photo by Pat Hensley




Thursday, December 28, 2017

Tips for Disney World

I have some friends who will be visiting Disney World next year and I wanted to give some tips that we learned from our visit a couple of weeks ago. Hope you find this useful.

General Tips:
1.     If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet and you are an AAA member, call the AAA in Orlando and check to see how much the discounted tickets are. We could only get them in FL and not anywhere else.
2.     If you buy an annual pass, you have to order your magic bands online and have them sent to your home or you can go to the Magic Kingdom Passholder office to get one. They did say that you won’t get a special attachment though unless you order it online so we waited until we got home. We used our cards in the park which you will still need to get your parking for free.
3.     We avoided the Magic Kingdom from Friday to Monday which seemed to be the busiest times.
4.     We didn’t carry a bag in so we could skip the bag security line. We put snacks in our pockets. I carried a nylon bag that was able to be folded in my pocket. Once we got through security, I opened the bag and we emptied our pockets.
5.     Bring along an empty water bottle (old soda bottle) that can be filled up at water fountains.
6.     Wear comfortable shoes.
7.     Be flexible. If lines were long at one ride, we went to a shorter one. Lines were shorter around lunch time, dinner time, and after dark.

Magic Kingdom (suggest at least 2 days):
1.     We got a FastPass for Space Mountain and headed to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad first. We usually rode this twice before the lines got long.
2.     Peter Pan ride – not worth a wait longer than 30 minutes which means we skipped this ride. We have ridden it before and if you miss it, you aren’t really missing anything.
3.     You need a FastPass for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train which is a lot like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
4.     The Carousel of Progress is always wonderful and there usually isn’t any wait time.
5.     The People Mover is a great ride when you are needing a rest.
6.     We liked the rotisserie chicken at the Starlight Café in Tomorrow Land.
7.     Pirates of the Caribbean – the first seat has a high chance of getting wet/soaked. If you don’t want to get wet, ask for a different seat.

Epcot:
1.     Get a FastPass for Soarin’ and head to TestTrack first. We rode this a couple of times before the lines got long.
2.     Single Rider lines in Testtrack goes quickly.
3.     The Living on the Land ride is wonderful and informative.
4.     Mission: Earth is a pretty cool ride. The more intense has a lot of pressure but fun.
5.     In the World Showcase: Mexico and Norway have fun rides.
6.     China – seeing it in 360 degrees is wonderful.
7.     We like to eat either in the Land or in China.
8.     Club Cool – hosted by the World of Coca-Cola has free drink samples. Great if you are hot and thirsty.

Animal Kingdom:
1.     We got a FastPass for the Mt. Everest roller coaster and headed to the back for the Safari ride first. We usually rode this twice before the lines got long.
2.     Riding the train to Rafiki is fun but there is a walk back to the facility from the train.
3.     Nemo the Musical is wonderful. Hubby doesn’t like musicals but loves this one.
4.     It’s Tough to Be a Bug in the Tree of Life is wonderful too.
5.     See the Tree of Life come alive after dark. It is fabulous!
Primeval Whirl reminds us of an old-timey roller coaster they used to have at Myrtle Beach.
6.     We have eaten at the Yak and Yeti counter service and also the Barbecue counter service and both were great.

Hollywood Studios:
1.     We got a FastPass for Rockin’ Roller Coaster and went to the Tower of Terror first. We rode this several times before the lines got long.
2.     We rode the Star Tours ride which was good.
3.     This park took us only half a day because most of the park is under renovation. We were a little disappointed in it because there weren’t a lot of attractions and the lines were long because of this.
4.     If I had a limited number of days at Disney World, I would skip this park.

Have you visited Disney World? Do you have any tips to add to this? Please share.

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Knitting Podcasts



 One night during our knitting group, we talked about the podcasts that we watch or listen to so I thought I would list them here along with a link to their site. You can listen to most of them or watch them from their website or you can subscribe to them on iTunes or YouTube. They are listed in alphabetical order and when I knew where they were located, I added that in to the list. If you have any other recommendations, please add a link to them in the comment section below.

Name
Loc
Podcasters
Type
Link
1
90% Knitting

one person
video
2
Actually Knitting
NC
one female
audio
3
Carolina Fiber Girls
NC
two female friends
audio
4
Cozy Up with the Stitchin' Sisters
Canada
3 sisters
video
5
Down Cellar Studio
MA
one female
audio
6
Dramatic Knits
IL
friends: one male/one femaie

7
Fibre Town Podcast

one female
video
8
Geeky Girls Knit
WA
mother/daughter
video
9
High Fiber Diet

one female
audio
10
Knit Picks

business
audio
11
Knitmore Girls
CA
mother/daughter
audio
12
Knitting Pipeline
IL
one female
audio
13
Knitty McPurley

one female
audio
14
Knitworthy

one female
video
15
Meanwhile At the Castle

2 sisters
video
16
Never Cast Off

two female friends
video

17
Ninja Chickens
NC
one female
video
18
Pen, Hook, Needles
NJ
mother/daughter
video
19
Prairie Girl Knits

two female friends
audio
20
Round the Twist
CO
one female
video
21
Sassypants Knitter Podcast
SC
one female
video
22
Sockmatician
UK
one male
video
23
Stockinette Zombies
MN
two female friends
video
24
Suburban Stitcher

one female
video
25
The Bakery Bears
UK
husband/wife
video
26
The Fat Squirrel Speaks

one female
video
27
The Grocery Girls
Canada
2 sisters
video
28
The Knit Girllls
MO, TN
two female friends
video
29
The Knotty Knit Wits
OR
two female friends
video
30
The Yarn Hoarder
IL
one female
video
31
Twinset Designs

twin sisters
audio
32
Yarniacs

two female friends
audio