Student Data, Special Days and Unicorns

Believe it or not we are already looking down the barrel of the last quarter of the year!  Scary or what?

There are a couple of special days coming up in September that we should maybe find a way of celebrating... even if by just spending time reading.  
Whether silently, or out loud, or to other people or classes - can you think of a better way to celebrate Read A Book Day on the 6th September?  I know this is a Sunday, but hey, you know what?  We could be radical and do it on the Monday  - which would tie in very neatly with the fact that Monday 8th September is World Literacy Day!  

Of course, if it is fun stuff you want... then 6th September is also Pet Rock Day and the 9th September is for celebrating Wonderful Weirdos Day - and I know there are a few of those around.  I am pretty sure some of the students (and maybe the staff) would put me in that class - and I am quite happy to wear that tag. You need people like us around.

I am also sharing a link I came across on the MindShift site about collecting data on students.  Although I am not a teacher in any way, it made sense to me in terms of forging a good relationship with the students and although I believe we actually do a pretty good job of it here, maybe this post has a few more ideas that can be employed.  

http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/08/26/rethinking-data-how-to-create-a-holistic-view-of-students/

 Wishing you a great weekend, hopefully with more rain to come - and I will leave you with this thought:

'Always be yourself - unless you can be a Unicorn.  Then always be a Unicorn'

National Science Week 2015

National Science Week is happening now till the 23rd August and there are a number of links on the ABC Splash website to intrigue and engage your students.  Take a look and see for yourself.
http://splash.abc.net.au/newsandarticles/blog/

To celebrate National Science Week, you are being asked to think science and draw a blue-print of a great invention that would help to improve someone's life. The most creative invention could win a $30 ABC Shop voucher!  Your invention can be simple, complicated, realistic, futuristic or totally fantastical – follow your imagination!   Just draw your idea, scan it or take a photo or screen shot, and upload it… 

Read details at:

http://splash.abc.net.au/ugc-competition/-/u/1981315/get-inventing

Vocabulary, Word Power and Urban Legends.

I was asked to to find some resources that may be able to engage students and help out with vocabulary and word knowledge, and I thought that maybe other teachers would be interested in some of the sites that seemed to fit the brief. 

I have included what I think is one of the best for this; Freerice - a game that covers a lot more than just vocabulary as for every word you get right, 10 grains of rice are donated to help with world hunger - and it is a self-leveling game that adjusts to the vocabulary level of the person playing it, so it should suit all our students.  It isn't just words though, as there are sections for Maths, Science and Art... with multiplication tables to try out in the maths section.

Check them all out - and if you are wondering if you can really help world hunger by playing a game online, check the site out using Snopes.  Snopes is a site that ferrets out the truth about all those urban myths and legends and tells it like it is. 

 http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1538

http://www.eslgamesplus.com/fun-games/     (Printable board games)         

  http://www.manythings.org/vocabulary/

http://www.english-4kids.com/games.html

http://www.vocabulary.co.il/word-power/

http://busyteacher.org/13612-7-best-games-for-vocabulary-class.html 

http://www.snopes.com/

Gone Global Baby!!

Check out the latest stats for this blog!  For this week, we have had 59 hits from Russia, 12 from Australia, 6 from Hong Kong, 5 from the USA and 3 from France.  

 Who would've thought Russia would be reading it? Seriously?? We really have gone global... well for this week anyway.