Let's try Arduino in High School!

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform that is fantastic to create interactive objects or environments. Arduino is cheap and very easy to use, so is a very powerful tool for artists, designers and hobbyists. And it is an amazing tool to teach electronics and programming. Let's try Arduino in High School!

Here you have "Arduino The Documentary":

Kids don't learn from people they don't like

Rita Pearson was a teacher most of her life. She said that kids don't learn from people they don't like. What do you think? How important are the relationships between teachers and students? In this amazing TED talk we remember the educator Rita Pearson:

Duolingo: learn a language for free and translate the web

Imagine a good free program to learn a language. Imagine that this good program is free because when you are using it you are working for them: they use the answers of your exercises to translate the web. That's Duolingo, one of the best web pages to learn a language. You can use Duolingo in your browser or in your smartphone, because there are versions for iPhone and Android. So let's recommend Duolingo to our students!

In this TED talk the founder of Duolingo, a mathematician from Guatemala called Luis von Ahn, tells us about how he invented Duolingo and Captcha:

Coursera: free university courses, everywhere

Do you want to take a course from Stanford University for free? Do you prefer Princeton? You can! How it works? Watch short video lectures, take interactive quizzes, complete peer graded assessments, and interact live with your new classmates and teachers. These courses are called massive open online courses (MOOCs). Today there are 335 courses, about Mathematics, Arts, Humanities, Economics... Take a look!
https://www.coursera.org/

BBC LEARNING

This is a very useful link for those of you who want to improve your English. It has a lot of resources for both learners and teachers. BBC Learning

The Marshmallow Challenge

The "Marshmallow Challenge" is an easy, fun and interesting activity to study how we work in groups.  This exercise involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape, string and a marshmallow. Who can build the tallest tower with these ingredients? And why does a surprising group always beat the average?

Some Study That I Used to Know

I'm sure you know Gotye's popular song "Somebody That I Used to Know".  There are a lot of versions of this song.  My favourite is this one called "Some Study That I Used to Know":



The lyrics are here.

There is also a lesson about this video in TED-Ed: What Do You Remember from High School?  It is an interesting activity to think about the importance of what we teach.

Microteaching: Electricity

A very interesting and useful approach to electricity knowledge. Electricity Micro Teaching

Microteaching: Egyptian gods

This microteaching could be a good way to make discover our pupils the universe of Egyptian culture and their religion. Egyptian Gods Micro Teaching

Microteaching: Cave art

Here you can find a beautiful microteaching about cave art. Cave Art Micro Teaching


And here you can download the Notebook version: Cave Art
Try the activities!

Microteaching: Guy Fawkes

Maribel C made this microteaching about a very British tradition: Guy Fawkes day which you can find below. Regards. Guy Fawkes Micro Teaching Lesson

Microteaching: Onomatopoeic Words

Hello again colleagues.
Both Maribeles, Mariano and me have made another microteaching about onomatopoeia in English and Spanish. Hope you enjoy it and learn a lot about this topic.
Best regards Onomatopoeic Words Micro Teaching

Microteaching superstitions

Hi colleagues!
Here you can find a microteaching about similar and different superstitions in Britain and in Spain that both Mª Isabel, Mariano and me have made. I hope you like it and you find it useful for your classes.
Regards. Superstitions Micro Teaching

TED-Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing

A new initiative from TED: TED-Ed.  Their mission: create the best video lessons in the world.  Here you have the presentation and a lesson called "Just How Small is an Atom?":





You can suggest lesson ideas!

Waiting for Superman

Waiting for Superman (2010) is a documentary about how America's public education system is failing its students, focusing on the controversial lottery to get placed in charter schools (similar to concertados). The film follows five children in urban centers across the U.S., including New York City, L.A., and D.C.. Although the documentary has been criticized for over-dramatizing the lottery process and limiting its vision to only successful charter schools, it was generally well-received and offers a critical view of the current state of American education.




The trailer is above, and you can find a review of the film in the New Yorker (magazine famous for its literary and film criticism) here.

I encourage you all to watch it online if you have the time!

Universal Human Rights Project

During the first term the bilingual section explored the topic of universal human rights. The United Nations established 30 human rights after Worl War II. In class we watched videos that explore each of the human rights. Human Right Number 1: We are all born free and equal. You can watch all 30 videos on: http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/

CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning

Hello English Breakfast bloggers!
This is my first time in a blog, so I hope to do it well.
Here is an interesting webpage link about CLIL and teaching resources:
http://www.educa2.madrid.org/web/aicole/secundaria
I've found it very useful.

Regards.

Laura

Do schools kill creativity?

Back in November, we discussed this TED talk by Ken Robinson. What do you think--do schools kill creativity? Are we educating the whole student?

(courtesy of Juanjo)