I love February because it’s when I get to teach engineering to my tech students — culminating with National Engineers Week, February 18-24, 2007. My middle school tech classes will spend all of February learning about engineering disciplines and working engineering projects. In 2006, my students built bridges out of craft sticks, designed ping pong [...]
Archive for January, 2007
Last fall, I used Club Penguin to teach internet safety to my students in grades 4 to 6. These students introduced me to the wildly popular social networking site for tweens so it was only fitting that I find a way for them to use it at school. What is Club Penguin? In Club Penguin, [...]
Thanks to the Educational Change blog, I learned about using Vyew with Skype as a study tool. An opportunity to use the Vyew part came up this week when a student needed some help in physics but I couldn’t commit the time face-to-face. “I’ll call you at 5pm,” I told the student. I knew it [...]
I just experienced something amazing: a former student came to tell me that a lesson he’s learning in another class is familiar because he remembers it from my class. I love this job! Last year this kid was in eighth grade. His class created a radio play whose central teaching point was the storytelling pyramid. [...]
Dr. Altman is a physics teacher who solves problems and posts the videos on YouTube. Unfortunately, I can’t embed the video on a WordPress blog but here’s a link: Dr. Altman AP Physics video. What struck me about this video (like the 57 others posted by the good doctor) were the comments: sheilamc43 (3 months [...]
Since reading Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, I’ve been a fan of Cory Doctorow’s writing. Now, there’s Overclocked, a collection of short stories. The Kirkus review bills these books as “computer-related and bulging with knowing SF references”. Overclocked is available for purchase at traditional booksellers and for free download. Each short story is [...]
I just signed up for a free account at Gliffy, which bills itself as a web based diagramming program that feels like desktop software. It works a lot like Visio. Signup requires an email address, so I probably won’t use Gliffy with my middle school students — which is a shame. I continue to struggle [...]
