3rd Post 565 Best Invention of All Time?

The countdown is on. About 2 weeks of freedom left. My mind is full of what I need to do with those 2 weeks. I was going to use this summer to create a lot of content to engage my students.

I started looking at some things that were successful last year. If you have the time, look through some of the TED videos that weren't part of our work in this program. If you want a great one that I showed to my students, here it is (a little more than 9 minutes).

The way I used it with some of my students last year is I asked them what they thought was the most important invention of all time and why? Then I showed them the following video. It would be a great way to start the year!

http://www.gapminder.org/videos/hans-rosling-and-the-magic-washing-machine/

Take a look at the site that houses the video, gapminder. It is great for stats, social studies, health and other subjects!

2nd Post 565 Information Overload

As I stated in the title, I am the victim of information overload. When my students tell me their heads hurt from thinking so much (yes, they have said that to me!). I ask them: "What happens when someone goes into the weight room and lifts way too much for too long?" Answer - the areas of their bodies that were out of shape and exercised too much now hurt from atrophy. I do feel like I have been using my brain a lot this summer, though.

I have several new plans that I want to do once I get back to school. One plan is posting some of the great quotes I have read in the readings for this class and elsewhere. I will ask my students to tell me what they think the quote means. Another plan is to do "pop-up" drills of multiplication and division tables, then throw in some integers and fractions. I will be teaching freshman again (I had a vacation from them for the last 3 years!)

Having stated these plans and brainstorming on others, I have a practice of telling my students that, plain and simple, my job is to "make them think". I will continue to do this.