News quiz for CNN Student News Video.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Social Media Survey
Have students complete this survey . Discuss the answers and encourage them to talk to their parents about the social media that they use.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
What is a person of character?
We talk about character a lot in school, but what does that really mean? What is a person of character? What traits do they show on a daily basis? The following is designed as a discussion activity with personal reflection at the end.- What is a person of character? Create a definition as a group.
- Can you name any famous people that you would consider to be a person of character? What makes them a person of character?
- Can you name any real life people that you would consider to be a person of character? What makes them a person of character?
- For the following activities, you can use this sheet to guide the conversation.
- Create a T chart and write Trustworthiness at the top with a DO and DON'T column. Have students generate ideas about what you should do to promote trustworthiness and what you shouldn't do.
- Make a T chart for the other pillars and follow the same instructions as above: respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, citizenship
- Print out enough copies for your advisory of this character rubric sheet. Have them fill it out individually and then have a discussion about what they need to work on.
Current Events: Oil spill
Oil Spills In The Gulf Of Mexico is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.
The Oil Spill: Wildlife at Risk is a graphic from The New York Times.
Rig Blast Aftermath is an interactive from The Associated Press.
Interactive: Gulf of Mexico oil spill is from MSNBC.
What Happens When An Oil Spill Occurs is an interactive about oil spills in general.
Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Disaster is a slideshow from MSNBC.
ABC News has several online video reports on the disaster.
CNN also has several video reports.
CBS News also has a page of multimedia on the topic.
Here’s a video from The Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street Journal also has a good interactive.
Gulf Oil Spill Spreads is a Wall Street Journal slideshow.
Oil set on fire in leak disaster is a simple story from the CBBC Newsround.
A Disastrous Oil Spill is from TIME for Kids.
Officials Dispatched To Gulf As Oil Spill Worries Grow is a slideshow from NPR.
Oil spill spreads in the Gulf of Mexico is a slideshow from the Orlando Sentinel.
USA Today has an interactive on the spill.
Interactive: Burning spilled oil is from The Los Angeles Times.
Tracking the oil spill is a CNN interactive.
Oil spill approaches Louisiana coast is from the Boston Globe’s Big Picture.
Oil Slick, From the Air is an interactive from The Wall Street Journal.
Oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is a slideshow from USA Today.
Southern US Gulf states prepare for oil disaster is a slideshow from The Telegraph.
CNN has just created a new page just on the Oil Spill.
Oil On The Coast is an MSNBC video.
Gulf Coast Oil Disaster is a special feature from CBS News.
Seafood Harvest Threatened by Oil Spill is an ABC video.
The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill is the title of an excellent infographic.
Pictures Of The Oil Spill is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.
Tracking The Oil Spill is an interactive from The New York Times.
Oil Spills is a very good CBS News interactive.
Here’s a picture of the oil slick from a NASA satellite.
CNN has a video of one of the first birds affected by the oil.
The BBC has several maps and graphics about the spill.
What’s going on beneath the sea? is a good graphic from NOLA.
Bad Weather Stalls Clean-up is a video from MSNBC.
What’s at stake for the environment? is another MSNBC video.
Gulf Oil Spill Spreads is a Wall Street Journal slideshow.
Oil set on fire in leak disaster is a simple story from the CBBC Newsround.
A Disastrous Oil Spill is from TIME for Kids.
Officials Dispatched To Gulf As Oil Spill Worries Grow is a slideshow from NPR.
Oil spill spreads in the Gulf of Mexico is a slideshow from the Orlando Sentinel.
USA Today has an interactive on the spill.
Interactive: Burning spilled oil is from The Los Angeles Times.
Tracking the oil spill is a CNN interactive.
Oil spill approaches Louisiana coast is from the Boston Globe’s Big Picture.
Oil Slick, From the Air is an interactive from The Wall Street Journal.
Oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is a slideshow from USA Today.
Southern US Gulf states prepare for oil disaster is a slideshow from The Telegraph.
CNN has just created a new page just on the Oil Spill.
Oil On The Coast is an MSNBC video.
Gulf Coast Oil Disaster is a special feature from CBS News.
Seafood Harvest Threatened by Oil Spill is an ABC video.
The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill is the title of an excellent infographic.
Pictures Of The Oil Spill is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.
Tracking The Oil Spill is an interactive from The New York Times.
Oil Spills is a very good CBS News interactive.
Here’s a picture of the oil slick from a NASA satellite.
CNN has a video of one of the first birds affected by the oil.
The BBC has several maps and graphics about the spill.
What’s going on beneath the sea? is a good graphic from NOLA.
Bad Weather Stalls Clean-up is a video from MSNBC.
What’s at stake for the environment? is another MSNBC video.
Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for this extensive resource list!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Earth Day TV
Use Earth Day Television as a resource to learn about global warming, greener living, and much more!
Celebrate Earth Week by watching Life
Share this amazing series on the Discovery Channel with your students and discuss the wonders of life. You can also take some fun quizzes here.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Earth Hour
This past weekend was Earth Hour. Have a discussion with your advisees to find out if anyone participated, and if they did, how did they participate?
Earth Hour 2010 inspired an estimated one billion people, organizations, corporations and governments to come together and take a strong stance against climate change. Starting in New Zealand and following the sun around the globe, Earth Hour asked everyone to do something quite simple—turn off the lights at 8:30 p.m. local time. Just one hour for an individual, and 24 hours for the whole world.
In the U.S., where the effects of climate change are increasingly apparent, it felt good to vote for action with a light switch, dimming lights at home and watching iconic landmarks from the Las Vegas Strip to the Empire State Building go dark. Here, Earth Hour’s message hit home: We care about this country and want to turn off the lights on dirty air, dangerous dependence on foreign oil and costly climate change impacts; and make a switch to a cleaner, safer and more secure world.
You can visit the official website here.
Continue the discussion...if you didn't participate in Earth Hour this year, what can you start doing every day to help conserve energy? Why is this important to do as a global community?
Current Events: Flash Mobs in Philadelphia
We've all seen them...we've seen the most famous ones on youtube and even on the Oprah Winfrey Show! Flash mobs began as a large creative outlet organized by social media. In Philadelphia, police have begun arresting a group of teenagers for violent flash mob behaviors. Click here to read the article. Here are some guiding discussion questions about flash mobs.
These are some videos showing creative uses of flash mobs:
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Digital Citizenship: Proxy Servers
Did you know that most schools put on content filters and blocks not to annoy you, but to keep you safe at school? There are many students using proxy servers to get around school filters and blocks in order to access games, social networking sites, and possibly some inappropriate content. Here is an interesting article about what kind of information the proxy servers you may be accessing can do with information about you.
Here are some discussion questions for you to think about:
Do you think it is ok for kids to use proxy servers at school?
Why do you think kids use proxy servers at school?
Is using a proxy server like breaking and entering?
Should a student be punished for using a proxy server?
Do you think using a proxy server violates school rules compared to any other school rules?
Do you think schools should unblock all content or just some content?
Current Events: CNN Student News & Flocabulary
Here is the student news quiz for the week from CNN Student News.
This week's Flocabulary Week in Rap! See if you can use the CNN Student News above to create your own current events rap!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Did you know?
This video is a great springboard to discuss media and globalization with your students.
Current Events: Oscars & The Week in Rap
Did you watch the Oscars? What movies did you see from the best picture list. Check out this official Oscar site to talk about all things Oscar 2010!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Current Events: Chile Earthquake 2010
Here is an extensive resource list from blogger Larry Ferlazzo to teach students about the earthquake in Chile.Also, here is the latest week in rap:
End the R-word day 03.03.10
March 3rd is end the R-word day. Use the following resources below to discuss why using "retard" is harmful, cruel, and disrespectful.
- As a class or individually, you can pledge to stop using the R-word here.
- Type in a url to any website here to see how many times they are using the R-word...it will surprise you!
Will you be talking to your students about the R-word this week?
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Teens for Jeans: 212 pairs donated!!
Congratulations! We collected 212 pairs of jeans! I had the kids help me get the jeans into the car and into the mall on a very snowy day! The people at Aeropostale were thrilled and noted that we brought the most jeans in at one time to their store! Congratulations to Mrs. Pal's advisory for collecting 72 pairs! Our jeans will soon be off to Haiti. Thanks again for your support.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Current Events: Census 2010
The 2010 Census — a count of everyone living in the United States — is fast approaching! Census questionnaires will be mailed or delivered to every household in the United States in March 2010. Why is a Census important? Check out these sites to find out information about it and check out some cool facts you might not know about!A Portrait of America - Click see their stories at the top right
Technology in the Classroom...What do you Want?
For this week's open topic in advisory, let's talk about what YOU (the students) wish you could do in the classroom. If YOU were the teacher, what technology would you incorporate? Would you ban cell phones? Would you ban ipods? How can cell phones and ipods be used in your classrooms? Be creative...would you attend school through a virtual world like second life? How could you use skype to learn? If it were up to you, what technology tools would you have available to every student in the middle school?
Post your ideas here! Double click on the wall to add your sticky. You can even add pictures, audio, and video!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Teens for Jeans: Now helping Haiti!
Teens for Jeans is now helping Haiti. Click here to read about what they are doing. Not only will we be helping our local homeless teens, but homeless people in Haiti. Bring in your jeans to help support Haiti!
Current Events: Haiti 360 degree video
Check out this 360 degree video from CNN. More 360 degree videos by immersive media can be found here.
Current Events: Haiti...a short history
What do you really know about Haiti? Click here to see a slideshow about it. Or here for a timeline vie.
Current Events: Haiti Earthquake Multimedia
This is an amazing multimedia resource from the New York Times to use to teach the Haiti earthquake.
Current Events: 5 ways to teach about Haiti right now
The New York Times has put together an outstanding resource for teachers here.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
It's Teens for Jeans Time!
We will be supporting the Aeropostale Teens for Jeans program again this year! We will be collecting jeans (teen size to adult) from January 19th until February 11th. The advisor with the most jeans donated will win a dress down day!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Marshmallow Test: A Lesson in Self Control
The marshmallow experiment is a famous test of this concept conducted by Walter Mischel at Stanford University and discussed by Daniel Goleman in his popular work. In the 1960s, a group of four-year olds were given a marshmallow and promised another, only if they could wait 20 minutes before eating the first one. Some children could wait and others could not. The researchers then followed the progress of each child into adolescence, and demonstrated that those with the ability to wait were better adjusted and more dependable (determined via surveys of their parents and teachers), and scored an average of 210 points higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
- What do you think of the results of the study?
- How do you think self control can help you in school? How does it make you a better student?
- Why would someone with self control be a more dependable person?
- What are some things that you have difficulty controlling in your life?
- Design your own marshmallow test...what items could you use to "tempt" other students in your advisor group?
NPR: Current Events Multimedia
NPR has great current even resources here. They also have an incredible multimedia page that has video and podcast articles about what is going on in the world today as well as in the arts. You can even listen to podcasts of the news on an hourly basis.
Friday, January 1, 2010
We are what we do
We are what we do is a small way to get your students thinking about doing things to help make the world a better place.
Here are 5 ways to use it in your advisory.
You will need to register yourself. I plan on using it to track my advisor's actions as a group. You can even have your advisor come up with a simple action and launch a campaign! Here are some sample actions that students are doing right now!
Reflection 2009: Self Portrait
The questions below can be done individually or as a group, but if they are done in a group, make students feel comfortable knowing that they don't have to answer every question. You can have fun with this and have students take their own self portraits with a camera and post them in your room.
- What did I learn last year?
- What was my greatest accomplishment over the past year?
- Which moment from last year was the most memorable and why?
- What’s the #1 thing I need to accomplish this year?
- What can I do right now to make this year less stressful?
- What have I struggled with in the past that might also affect the upcoming year?
- What was last year’s biggest time sink? – Steer clear of this in the future. Setup physical barriers against distractions if you have to.
- Am I carrying any excess baggage into the year that can be dropped? – Physical clutter, mental clutter… eliminate the unnecessary so the necessary may shine bright.
- What have I been avoiding that needs to get done?
- What opportunities are still on the table?
- Is there anyone I’ve been meaning to talk to?
- Is there anyone that deserves a big ‘Thank You’?
- How can I help someone else this coming year?
- What are my top 3 goals for the next 3 years?
- Have any of my recent actions moved me closer to my goals?
- What’s the next step for each goal?
- What am I looking forward to during the upcoming year?
- What are my fears?
- What am I most grateful for?
- If I knew I only had one year to live, who would I spend my time with?
Link tv Know the News: Current Events
Know the news is part of Link tv, where it give viewers a perspective on world news that might not be typically seen in the United States.One is a Remixer activity where students can edit news clips of the same event from different countries or networks, add their own commentary, and post it online. Teachers need to register in order for their classes to participate.
It also has a News Challenge game that can be played without registering. Two different short news clips are shown, and then questions are asked about them.
Finally, in its Watch and Rate exercise, viewers rate different clips on journalistic qualities.
Newsy: The News with More Views
Newsy is a site that — in short videos — compares how major news events are covered by media throughout the world.
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