Chicagoland Teachers

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Comment by Kelly Farrow on September 13, 2009 at 2:58pm

NCTE's National Day on Writing is coming up! http://www.ncte.org/dayonwriting

FROM THE WEB SITE:
Writing is a daily practice for millions of Americans. But few notice how integral writing has become to daily life in the 21st century.

To draw attention to the remarkable variety of writing we engage in and help make writers from all walks of life aware of their craft, NCTE has established October 20, 2009, as the National Day on Writing.

To celebrate composition in all its forms, we are inviting diverse participants --students, teachers, parents, grandparents, service and industrial workers, managers, business owners, legislators, retirees, and many more -- to submit a piece of writing to the National Gallery of Writing.

Comment by Jason Gray on September 12, 2009 at 9:14pm

Ryan, that article on education and gaming is really interesting. Being a math guy, one thing that I can really remember about math in 1st grade was playing Number Munchers. It was a split 1/2 class and I used to compete with the 2nd graders. Whenever people would finish their 'normal' assignment, they could go play the game. Oddly enough, I think I learned more about adding and subtracting from that game than I did through flash cards... it may have been because of the competition, but I started loving math because of that game. Sadly,I think adding some gaming could be beneficial only to some subjects and only to some degree. Being an avid gamer I would love to say, "Video games all day!" but I just could not see that working for subjects such as Government (maybe you would have to break into the capitol and steal the Declaration and kill security guards or something? ... and then read it word for word?). Awesome article though

Comment by Ryan Goble on September 6, 2009 at 12:26pm

Howdy Chicago folks - some of you might get a kick out of the "What the F**K is Social Media" slideshows in the New Media and Tech Group.

Comment by Ryan Goble on September 3, 2009 at 3:07pm

Hey folks,

If you haven't joined the fledgling "Gaming Group" you might want to check it out. Today there was an, I think, "essential," article about Quest To Learn - a new video game based school in NYC. Frank Baker hipped me to the article.

Note: It is from the British version of The Economist so you'll read about "maths" and other such linguistic curiosities :)

An excerpt...

Periods of maths, science, history and so on are no more. Quest to Learn’s school day will, rather, be divided into four 90-minute blocks devoted to the study of “domains”. Such domains include Codeworlds (a combination of mathematics and English), Being, Space and Place (English and social studies), The Way Things Work (maths and science) and Sports for the Mind (game design and digital literacy). Each domain concludes with a two-week examination called a “Boss Level”—a common phrase in video-game parlance.

In one of the units of Being, Space and Place, for example, pupils take on the role of an ancient Spartan who has to assess Athenian strengths and recommend a course of action. In doing so, they learn bits of history, geography and public policy. In a unit of The Way Things Work, they try to inhabit the minds of scientists devising a pathway for a beam of light to reach a target. This lesson touches on maths, optics—and, the organisers hope, creative thinking and teamwork. Another Way-Things-Work unit asks pupils to imagine they are pyramid-builders in ancient Egypt. This means learning about maths and engineering, and something about the country’s religion and geography.

Full post here - I would love to hear what folks think about this school concept.

BTW - For the record - I'm awful at video games - even Pac-Man.

Comment by Ryan Goble on September 2, 2009 at 4:33pm

Yeah, I'm back commenting again. A lot of you are probably already members of the "Making Shakespeare Pop!" group - if you dig the Bard and you're interested in his relation to popular and contemporary culture you might consider joining that group.

Today I did a pretty cool post with the front page of yesterday's Chicago Tribune. The headline was about our our brilliant and extremely literate ex-governor here in Illinois Rod Blagojevich. Not only does the man have cool hair, but he has a Shakespearian vision of himself.

In the post you'll find a bundle of Shakespeare allusions plus info on how to get jpegs of newspaper front pages.

Check it out, comment, join - at the very least this post will give you (esp. if you follow politics or teach English) a good laugh.

Full post here

Comment by Ryan Goble on July 2, 2009 at 10:46am

Hey Chicago people! I don't have anything Chicago specific to add this morning but I do want to remind people to get out there and join special interest groups that you might be interested in. Over the summer, I'm not blogging a lot but I am always busy loading resources to "make curriculum pop" into the groups.

Today the following interesting resources/ ideas were added:
In the Graphic Novels and Science Groups:
How Comics Can Save Us From Scientific Ignorance

In my personal Fav "Teach with the Moving Image Group":
Amnesty International Film Curriculum Guides

In the US History (and a lot of other groups):
Project Idea: Civil War Facebook Page

And lastly, since I learned how to copy source code today an impressive series of links from the Literary Allusions in Popular Music Wiki Page that I loaded into the Popular Music Group.

Please check out these resources out and do join any group that might inform your practice!

NYC public schools just ended last Friday so my summer just started! I imagine y'all have been off for a few weeks - very cool.

"Don't stop 'till you get enough!"

RRG:)

Comment by MarcoGK on April 28, 2009 at 6:48am

I teach AP Psych and "regular psych" Both psych classes are one semester long and I am looking for ways to cram a full semester (1st semester) class into a month shorter (second semester) time frame. Any tips would be greatly appreciated

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