Marsha
Rogers
2400 Interlachen Road #110A
Spring Park, MN 55384
952-471-1127
msrogers@mchsi.com
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December, 2003
December 7
One of the advantages of using the Internet in your classroom is that students can access materials that before now were available to only a few people in limited locations. Thanks to the Internet, all of us can access these heretofore limited resources.
The Library of Congress has made available many of its collections online. The "American Memory" collection makes available a broad variety of original sources for both study and entertainment. Topics from Agriculture to Theatre and more are covered. It is a great first-hand resource for students doing research in American History and Government classes. It is most definitely for high school and college level students.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html
The American Museum of Natural History has many exhibits online. The "Petra: Lost City of Stone" gives a brief but informative overview of the stone city built in the Jordan Desert and flourished between 100 BC and 100 AD. It's a good resource for upper elementary/middle school students studying the Middle East cultures.
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/petra/
The Art Institutes of Chicago site provides information on current exhibits and provides . They are currently showing a Manet collection. By clicking on the "Collection" link you can find some games for students to play with the art works.
http://www.artic.edu/aic/index.html
Gander Academy has a great list of museums on Inventors and Inventions.
http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/inventorsmuseums.htm
December 10
Are you running out of ideas for daily writing exercises? I recently came across a couple of web sites that can be used for helping students develop writing fluency. Remember, in these exercises the key is fluency... not mechanics and not organization. The goal is to get some ideas on paper. You can either have the students go to the sites or, if you have younger students, you might want to use the sites as a resource for yourself.
This site also has character name generators, character generators, and story idea generators.
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/gens/writechallengegen.php
One Word provides you with a word a day. Older students can use the site themselves. You have one minute per word. You don't have time to think...just write. With younger students you can choose the word of the day or choose a word yourself. Give them 1-3 minutes to write.
http://www.oneword.invisibleland.tv/
December 21
This week I came across some really great sites to support your science and geography programs. They are in the form of games, but they help provide some interesting teaching and review possibilities. I personally have played some of the games and find them engaging.
I played this game myself. It's wonderful. Students can play against themselves or others. The site is appropriate for all ages and abilities. The most difficult levels will even challenge the geography experts. It's free.
http://www.geosense.net/
If you are studying U.S. geography, the following site is great again for various levels of ability. From identifying the states as the most basic level you and your students can explore over 500 facts about the United States.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm
The following is a link to a great word search for earth science. It deals with terms used in the study of the earth's crust. You do need a Java engine installed on the computer. Students can click on the word search and play the game more than once. It changes the order of the words in the search. http://www.quia.com/web is the entry point for all games available at Quia. There are games for all fields of study. If you join Quia, you can develop games (some of the templates are available to you) that fit your curriculum specifically. It is well worth a site check-out.
http://www.quia.com/ws/348003.html
I hope your holidays are happy and peaceful. I will return with the newsletter after January 1. In the meantime, I will be putting all the recent messages into the archive at my web site.
December 28
One way to develop language is to play with it. Have your students come up with some "daffynitions" to some of the vocabulary you are using in your classroom. I have included some examples below. To start off, you might have to provide your students with a list of words. You will be surprised how quickly they come up with a "vocabulary" of their own. Be prepared, some of the "daffynitions" will border on unacceptable. You will be surprised at how much more of the original definitions students remember.
Arbitrator \ar'-bi-tray-ter\: A cook that leaves Arby's to work at McDonalds.
Avoidable \uh-voy'-duh-buhl\: What a bullfighter tries to do.
Baloney \buh-lo'-nee\: Where some hemlines fall.
Bernadette \burn'-a-det\: The act of torching a mortgage.
Burglarize \bur'-gler-ize\: What a crook see with.
Control \kon-trol'\: A short, ugly inmate.
Counterfeiters \kown-ter-fit-ers\: Workers who put together kithcen cabinets.
Eclipse \i-klips'\: What an English barber does for a living.
Eyedropper \i'-drop-ur\: A clumsy ophthalmologist.
Heroes \hee'-rhos\: What a guy in a boat does.
Left Bank \left'bangk'\: What the robber did when his bag was full of loot.
Misty \mis'-tee\: How golfers create divots.
Paradox \par'-a-doks\: Two physicians.
Parasites \par'-uh-sites\: What you see from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Pharmacist \farm'-uh-sist\: A helper on the farm.
Polarize \po'-lur-ize\: What penguins see with.
Primate \pri'-mat\: Removing yur spouse from in front of the TV.
Relief \ree-leff'\: What trees do in the spring.
Rubberneck \rub'-er-nek\: What you do to relax your wife.
Selfish \sel'-fish\: What the owner of a seafood store does.
Subdued \sub-dood'\: A guy that works on one of those submarines.
Sudafed \sood'-a-fed\: Bring litigation against a government official.
Another game to use in language play is to name a group of objects. There are actual words to describe a few things, like a pride of lions, an exhalation of larks, a school of fish or a gaggle of geese. Students can make up a whole list of their own words to describe a group of anything like "a swirl of gasses" or "a dance of leaves." The object of this is to have the group "name" also describe the noun. Again, there might be some that border on the unacceptable. This was a word game that some of my students played all year long.
For other educational links, please
visit my column at Backwash
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