Google docs: vocabulary list

Here an example of google docs I may use in Science 9 class. This is the vocabulary list for the chapter to be done and handle to me the day of the chapter's test. Student will be able to access it at anyimes.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_khqakWN_nCvCX5g6TyzwlP5cCnhUr1QAuvENES1A6k/edit

Powerpointless. Ben'sblog

It was an interesting blog with a certain fun to read. Even if I do not not agree completly with his point of view. I do agree, a lot of powertpoint presentation I saw where not that exiting, sometimes pointless or too busy but this tool can be so useful and a big gain of time when well prepared. I went to college too and in Master or PhD degrees, I had to sit in this type of presentation constantly. A lot of them were boring due to simple facts: the slides are too busy and people have tendancy to read them and not develop the ideas in them. In master, I remember my boss telling me that the only writing you should have in a slide is the title and the rest should be an illustration of what you want to explain or prove. And you should never, ever read from the slides! Following this principle, I realized that the powerpoint presentation can be terribly useful. Once you know how to use the slides: create drawings, use pictures and videos while speaking, the use of powerpoint can allow you to develop the skill of teaching in a better way. Of course, we should use it responsably and not in everyday teaching classes.

LiveBinders: Earth and Space Science

LiveBinders on Earth and Space Science for grade 10. Just few websites that I will use in class for knowledge and activities.

Earth and Space Science

Collaborative projects. Peter Skillen

It was an interesting blog. But I would like to make some notations and change about Socrates. It is the only Greek philosopher that did not write a thing not because he dislike the writing and reading part per say. Otherwise, he would never have left his disciple Plato writing everything he said. He thought that teaching about philosophy and life is not a elitist thing (let's not forget that a small percentage of Greek at that time knew how to read and write) and that everybody should have the opportunity to learn from anyone.
Principle that is an excellent introduction for this blog on collaboration. We all know how hard it is to collaborate; we all had to do it and especially during our BEd program where we spent our time in group work. Some like it, some do not. I am in the second part of the equation.
He is right we he said that you can learn far away more from others than by yourself. The only problem would be to be with persons that can be compatible and useful in the obtention of this knowledge! Let's be honest, it's not always the case.
You have two solutions to make collaboration work: find people that are compatible and can work together. Unfortunately, because they are the same, the possibility to learn from each other is restrained. Second will be to form a group of totally different people with different skills and make them work on a blog type where each of them can do a part and share their capacity individually but in a group project. In my opinion, the best way to have the most successful collaboration.
Even if I do not like group work for myself, I do understand the importance and the use of it for the students. We just have to find the best way to make it effective.

Podcast: introduction of an interview in genetic mutations

a good way to use a podcast is for interview. In the case of Science 9 class on genetic mutations, the interview will be conduct with a university professor and researcher on the field. Students can write questions they may have and I will ask them to the specialist. It is a good way to get a different type of information on the subject.

listen to ‘interview’ on Audioboo

Understanding current curation. Nancy White

I like how the author try to make you understand the difference between collecting data and curating knowledge. But unfortunately, this concept of acquisition of data is really personnal and often we mix our own interest and the pertinence of the data for the students. Strangely, it's how start hoarding!
It is true that we need to have useful and pertinent data for our students. I guess the big difference between collecting and curating for me is the "useful" concept. Data given to students should engaged them in the road of knowledge and not bury them under a mass of information (if you want to lose a student, it is the best way).
I have to say that personaly, it is hard to make the difference between hoarding and curating; I still have the notebook I used in grade 1! I am collecting information on everything that cross my path. So this year I started a classification, the same way that the author is doing, but with my own criteria. First by subject, second by level, and third on the pertinence of the information (it is useful, can it be use in an activity? A demo? An article? Which level of Bloom's taxonomy? Etc...)
This classifications my own way to curate information and make sense in my hoarding!
I guess, to do so, we have to put our own interest and desire on the side most of the time to be able to focus on the need of our students. To find the fragile balance between what they need to know and what can interest them. It is not an easy goal.

Wordle: Science 9 vocabulary

Here an example of wordle in a Science 9 class French Immersion. I compiled the important words to know of the chapter. The size of each word will show the importance of the word to know and it is a funny way to give to them the vocabulary of the chapter.

Podcasting takes lesson. Maya Smart

Podcasting is an excellent idea to use as a teaching tool. It can allow the students to synthezise the content of a class (allowing better understanding) and share it with fellow students in the class and around the world!
Personnaly, I use iTunes university as a tool to relearn things that I partially forgot with the years.
But most of all, it is a portable learning device. Students, after creating it, can take the bus to school and listen to the review of a class or read a book review.
It is a great tool. I spend two hours in the bus everyday and listen to book while in transport;things that may not be able to do otherwise.
Thisisa useful tool that I have the intention to use in a classroom. The chapter activities can be made this way on a specific project like mutation: some will do a review, others will have a discussion about the toxicity of cigarettes and debate, etc...
Also it is not just a new technology to use and another way to do activities but students will be far away more involved in the project than just draw or read a piece they wrote.

Making the most of online translators. Charlene Polio

This article reminded me some good times in College when I tried to translate through the internet some of the papers I was doing in English. I knew I was doing mistakes in English but it was even worse when I put my paper written in French and translated. One thing I realized is that if you write complicated sentences in your own language, worse it gets through translators!
I remember my English teachers trying to explain to me that I had "to think in English and not translate"... It is one of the hardest thing to do and honnestly, it takes years to accomplish.
I liked the different methods she uses to try to incorporate the translators into French lessons, they are inovative. Although, maybe that I am old school, but the translators should be restricted to word to word translation as we use a dictionnary.
It may be a good idea to see the differences between two languages and the structures.
Personnaly, the best method I got was from a German teacher, he told us to stay simple in our sentence construction: subject + verb + complement + dot. Even if you repeat yourself several times, it is alright. In time and practice, you can be able to evoluate and write bigger and more complicated sentences .
The Human mind is not a computer, we can associate things together intuitively and a machine cannot. It is for this reason that no matter how good a translator program can be, it will always make mistakes.

ISSUU: Genes and diseases

I found this article on issuu about genes and diseases and I thought it could be a good paper for science 9 when we talk about DNA and genetic diseases. I can use it to talk about specific diseases and have a quick overview of it. It will use it for specific diseases that we talked about and the rest will be good reading!

Open publication - Free publishing

Reading matters: what is reading? Adrian Tenant

I like the methodology of the paper and the common sense of it. While reading I smiled alone in front of my computer for one good reason: students should learn those techniques not only when they read books but also when they read assignments!
Strangely, it seems that some points made in the article are followed (more or less) when students know they have to apply them in English class or even language classes but when they arrive in Science class, it appears that this part of the brain shut down completely. Science takes over reading.
It is hard for them to understand that we use words also in science book!
That is one of the mystery of teaching: how to make students use everything they learn at once and not separate subjects when they change classes. Especially reading and writing that can be use in all classes...

the elements song

I found this song on Youtube and it is a great hook/opening for Chemistry class to learn or to remember all the elements of the periodic table.



Tom Leherer' elements of the periodic table Lyrics

There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium
And gold and protactinium and indium and gallium
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium
There's yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium
And strontium and silicon and silver and samarium
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium and barium


There's holmium and helium and hafnium and erbium
And phosphorous and francium and fluorine and terbium
And manganese and mercury, molybdenum, magnesium
Dysprosium and scandium and cerium and caesium
And lead, praeseodymium and platinum, plutonium
Palladium, promethium, potassium, polonium
And tantalum, technetium, titanium, tellurium
And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curium
There's sulphur, californium and fermium, berkelium
And also mendelevium, einsteinium, nobelium
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc and rhodium
And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper, tungsten, tin and sodium.
There are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard
And there may be many others but they haven't been discovered.