http://learning.snagfilms.com/film/search-for-the-afghan-girl
The search for the mysterious “Afghan Girl,” whose haunting, green-eyed gaze captivated the world in a NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine cover photograph, takes EXPLORER on a world-wide journey in an attempt to solve the case of a missing person. In January 2002, photographer Steve McCurry, who took the 1984 photograph and has been searching for the girl ever since, traveled to Pakistan with a National Geographic EXPLORER team to search one last time. The refugee camp where the original encounter took place was about to be demolished. War in Afghanistan continues. The plight of refugees there and in Pakistan is worsening. Has the “Afghan Girl” survived? With a lot of detective work and a little luck, the EXPLORER team, together with McCurry, finds a woman who could be the “Afghan Girl.” How can they confirm that this is the same person as the child photographed nearly 20 years ago? National Geographic uses several methods, including state of the art iris recognition, the FBI facial recognition techniques and the technology used by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Sigourney Weaver narrates.
Learning Questions
1. Where does photographer Steve McCurry begin his search to find the “Afghan girl”?
2. Who are the “elders” in the refugee community and what is their role?
3. What does Steve McCurry say he looks for in people’s faces?
4. What is the meaning of “Afghan girl’s” real name?
5.What does the Afghan woman ask from America when Steve McCurry finds her?
6. What did you like about this film?
Join The Discussion
Don’t be shy, leave a comment below. Educators, students and parents can use this forum in a number of ways:
+ Start a classroom discussion
+ Tell us how you used this educational video for learning
+ Or, just leave a regular old comment on what you thought of the video
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is on January 27th.
Auschwitz After 65 years-Photo Essay-Time
Holocaust Remembrance Multimedia Presentation from Glencoe
Lesson of Auschwitz Interactive from CBS News
Holocaust from How Stuff Works
Holocaust Remembrance Day is recognized internationally on January 27th. Breaking News English lesson provides audio support for the text on that day.
ESL Holiday Lessons | International Holocaust Remembrance day (kinda of a game)
Life in the Shadows; Hidden Children and the Holocaust
Online Holocaust ExhibitionsFlight and Rescue: Journey of Survival
Hilters’ Rage from Thinkquest
From TeachersTV, This classroom resource contains six Key Stage 3 history lesson starters on the Holocaust, featuring archive footage, personal testimonies from survivors and other material.
Dr. Michael Wesch of Kansas State University along with his students, produced the viral video A Vision of Students Today almost 4 years ago is producing another video. His next video is tentatively titled The Vision of Students Today. Dr. Wesch needs teachers and students around the world to contribute to the new video. To contribute, find a video camera and record a two minute clip of scenes you see during the critical learning moments of your school day. Then upload your contribution to Professor Wesch’s YouTube Channel between Jan 17 and February 15.
Click here to read all of the details about this new collaborative video project.
Brad Flickinger of School Technology Solutions blog and a great post, Unbelievable Tech Projects for Students. I can relate completely, way back when, I also stumbled onto the www.MabryOnline.org website and saw the projects he is discussing. I was totally blown away as well. Brad says:
“So here I am, four years later, still burning with the same passion that was ignited inside of me back in 2007, working on unbelievable tech projects for elementary students. Check out their latest work at www.BethkeElementary.com and look for KBOB Studios.”
Bethke KBOB Studios
Podcasting
Web Shows
Movies
OurStory captures photos, v
ideos and writings into a lifelong interactive timeline. Users can collaborate to create the photo-history timeline of a relative, their family or another group. Guided templates and interview questions help users organize the content and prompt recollections of the stories behind the pictures; comment and photos from family and friends are easily gathered by email. Completed life stories can be preserved in a single, lasting, privacy-controlled online showcase, in bound books or on DVD. http://www.ourstory.com
Wow, this looks like an amazing tool. My mind is spinning with ideas of how this could be used in the classroom and personally.
“Why teach with documents?
When we ask students to work with and learn from primary sources, we transform them into historians.…more
When we ask students to work with and learn from primary sources, we transform them into historians. Rather than passively receiving information from a teacher or textbook, students engage in the activities of historians — making sense of the stories, events and ideas of the past through document analysis.
Primary sources motivate students and pique their curiosity about history. Seeing familiar document formats like letters or photographs encourages students, while unique document characteristics capture their attention and prompt them to investigate further. Documents involve students in the process of historical inquiry when they ask questions, discover evidence, and participate in debates over interpretation.
Teaching with documents can engage students. They begin to see connections between past and present. Documents with signatures or notations personalize history. Primary sources give students opportunities to empathize with figures of the past and to understand history from varying perspectives. The varied nature of primary sources also provides students the opportunity to connect their historical understanding to other subject areas like geography or math, to a collective national heritage, and to their modern lives.
Primary sources often inspire students because they provide new avenues for learning about the past. Documents can illustrate abstract concepts or help students make connections between seemingly unrelated information. Students can begin their historical studies through graphical materials that they may be more comfortable with — photographs, maps, and posters.
Through their analysis of a variety of documents, students learn to find multiple perspectives in history. Primary sources guide students to the realization that all accounts of past events are subjective. Following practice with primary sources, students begin to recognize bias and question where historical information comes from. Students learn not only to question the reliability of sources but to reference multiple sources for information while doing historical research.
Primary sources encourage higher order thinking. As historians, students can link documents to see cause and effect relationships, fit historical pieces together to understand a whole story, understand historical events in context by relating primary sources to mathematical data or geographic locations, and assess primary sources as evidence to formulate interpretations about the past.”
Silvia Tolisano of the blog Langwitches, the Magic of Learning has an excellent post about this site. It all began as a Tweet from Suzanne Whisher. So I am little off topic here, but I just have to mention, that PLN networks are so powerful. I saw Suzanne’s Tweet tas well and I subscribe to Silvia’s blog. As I have said over and over to my students and to teachers in the field. You really need a PLN, embrace blogging and subscribe to some, have a Twitter and Plurk account, join Classroom 2.0, and there are lots of educational Facebook and Nings out there. Start doing at least one thing, I have no doubt, fairly quickly you will be hooked and learning everyday.
I think there will be a part 2 to this post!!
K-12 Online Conference Presentation Teasers!
The 2010 K-12 Online Conference starts on Monday, October 11th with Dean Shareski‘s pre-conference keynote. The next two weeks, 40 presentations by educators and students from around the world will be posted both to the conference blog and the conference Ning. Five presenters have created short, “teaser videos” to whet our appetites in advance of their full presentations. I’m really looking forward to learning from these educators AND students in this year’s conference!
- Kathy Cassidy will be presenting “Primary Digital Portfolios” with her students in our Student Voices strand.
- Dolores Gende will present “C4 Leveraging the Power of Wikis and Blogs in Student Learning” in our Student Voices strand.
- Rodd Lucier will present “Creative Commons: What Every Educator Needs to Know” in our Leading the Change strand.
- Lorna Costantini will present “Digital Parent Engagement – Supporting Student Learning” in our Leading the Change strand.
- Monika Hardy will present “Students Redefine School” in our Student Voices strand.
A complete list of 2010 K-12 Online Conference keynote speakers as well as presenters is available. If you have not already, please join the K-12 Online Conference Ning to “register” for this FREE conference. Also follow K12Online on Twitter and Facebook! Hashtag: #k12online10
from Learning Today Blog, Lauren Grossberg
YouTube has used this idea to start a new project, Life in a Day, which is organized by Kevin MacDonald and Ridley Scott. The basis of the project is to find out from people all around the world what different things they do on an everyday basis. Participants from all over the world recorded and uploaded a part of their life on July 24, 2010.
From the thousands of submissions they have received, they are sorting through them and making them available for public viewing. The channel, has many videos that visitors can explore and watch. They are grouped by geographic region, so you can pick out specific places that you want to watch videos from. You can also search by tag to get more specific results.
Both teachers and students can use this tool to incorporate into class projects, lessons and other activities involving global studies. It can be a way to give insight on students and kids who are just like you but live on the other side of the world. It can also lead the way for other projects and learning activities, like pen pals or projects with other countries. No matter how you use it, this channel can be an excellent tool in the classroom.Life in a Lad YouTube Contast
A friend of mine send me the link to this video from the NBC Nightly News about how one of their teachers is actually teaching the history of 9/11.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
World History for Us All is a FREE, Web-based curriculum that has two major elements: a logical conceptual framework of guiding ideas, objectives, rationales, themes and historical periods; and a rich selection of units, lessons, activities, primary documents and other resources linked to the overarching conceptual structure. The curriculum proposes the idea that humankind as a whole has a history to be investigated and that a world history course may be more than a study of various “cultures,” each disconnected from the others. The framework’s unified chronology organizes the human past into nine Big Eras, each encompassing changes around the globe. The curriculum does not use civilizations as the main units of history, but developments within major societies are richly explored.
Wouldn’t it be fun to do this. I want to share this project with my education majors. If you are reading this, please send your Postcard, from where ever you are living and I am going to introduce this project to my pre-service teachers. HELP PLEASE!
Cyndi Danner-Kuhn
Kansas State University
352 Bluemont Hall
Manhattan, KS 66502
Postcards Please!
By EDTE.CH blog
“We are hoping to connect with lots of different schools right across Australia for our topic work this term. This will help our children to really understand what life is like today for their peers throughout Australia.
But for an old fashioned pen-pal style idea we welcome your postcards, because after all there is still something special about receiving mail – the physical kind!
If you are an Australian teacher or educator we would love to have you and your class send us a card. The postcard could be about your town, city or state or even a famous landmark you are close to.
We have two classes doing the Australia topic so if you could please send 2 cards one addressed to Mr Barrett’s Class and the other to Mrs Bartholomew’s Class.
John Davies Primary School
Barker Street,
Huthwaite,
Sutton-in-Ashfield,
Nottinghamshire,
England.
NG17 2LH
As we gather your cards we will photograph them and update your location on a Google Map. Don’t forget to add your class blog address if you have one – our Year 5/6 classes will be starting their own soon.
Please let us know if you can help and we look forward to seeing your cards in the post!”
Wouldn’t it be fun to do this. I want to share this project with my education majors. If you are reading this, please send your Postcard, from where ever you are living and I am going to introduce this project to my pre-service teachers. HELP PLEASE!
Cyndi Danner-Kuhn
Kansas State University
352 Bluemont Hall
Manhattan, KS 66502
Wordia.com is a high-quality online dictionary: a professional authoritative textual dictionary but with one big difference… Like a traditional dictionary, Wordia allows users to search for the spelling, meaning and etymology of a word but what makes Wordia unique is the ability for users to explore the personal connotation of word through video.
Video brings words to life!
In professional, semantic terms, Wordia takes the denotation (the textual definition of a word) and encourages members of the public to explore the connotation (the personal meaning) through the familiar medium of video. We’ve found that video helps a user to learn or recollect the meaning of a word much more easily then just a textual definition. Video gives the dictionary a new dimension and new contextual richness.
Your words, your video!
Wordia is a collaborative resource: anyone can explore the meaning of a word and more than one person can explore the meaning of same word. Where we have more than one video definition for the same word, we rank them, so the community can vote on their relevance. You can bring words to life and explore the personal connotations of a word in anyway you chose. Filming styles such as rap or comedy, poetry or performance are a cool way to express yourself.
We love an expert!
The Wordia team also creates professional knowledge-based video with experts, authors, sports-stars etc. These ‘Orators’ (as we refer to them) bring a unique insight and expert authority to the words they explore on video.
We’ve recently launched Wordia Schools: a private learning resource that groups curriculum subject vocabulary – the subject key words that educators teach on a daily basis.
Darren Cannell (http://twitter.com/dcannell), an assistant principal in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Canada. He and his family will be embarking on a worldwide trip, traveling to 35 countries starting in September, and that as part of his travels, his 2nd grade son will be blogging about it.
His son’s blog can be followed 
http://daxjournal.darrencannell.com/
His blog had a Google map showing all the places they will be visiting. What a trip, wish I was going, but I am looking forward to following his adventures on his blog. A 2nd grader blogging, wow and Kudos to Mom and Dad!!
Daxtin’s Travel Journal
Starting on September 2o, 2010 Daxtin and his family will be travelling around the world this journal will be about this eight month journey.
Last year one of the best ads released during the SuperBowl was this simple ad by Google. Shortly after the release of this video, Google asked you to make your own search stories. Simply go to http://www.youtube.com/searchstories and start creating your story. This could be a great way to teach students search skills. Give students a start and end point. For Example, Jeff Utecht, of The Thinking Stick blog has many great ideas. For example, rocks for the start and volcanoes for the end. Then the student does the research and brings the two together.
Rick Rees, and Apple Professional Development trainer recently conducted a workshop in Tupelo. The teachers that he worked with were introduced to iLife & iWork and would you believe they started school this week, first week of August. Braden Bishop, one of the workshop participants contacted Rick to share his iMovie that he made to introduce himself to his students.
This is the scenario:
Braden connected some big desktop speakers with a subwoofer to his computer and had everything set to go. After his new high school students came in to his Economics class on the first day of school, he shut the door, didn’t say a word, turned out the lights, and turned the video on. He said “they were kinda floored.” and that “three of my six periods stood up and clapped…and DIDN’T EVEN know me!”
Thanks Rick for sharing Braden’s project, it is simply amazing. What a creative way to use iMovie too! Check out Braden’s work. When you watch it you’ll know why his students were excited. What a great way to start the year. Although, starting school the first of August, oh my!!
This picture was made using green screen and PhotoBooth. Kevin Honeycutt, Mike Cook and others from ESSDACK built this VW Bus out of plywood. It was also used and the check-in desk and Podcasting studio during the conference!! In fact, this is what Kevin was working on when I interrupted and had him SKYPE into my class and talk to my summer tech class of pre-sercvice teachers.
Link to Photos from Kevin from the conference
I just returned from the Podstock 2010 conference in Old Town Wichita. It was AMAZING. I mean amazing. I presented two sessions, Celebrate Kansas Voices and the first session I did, Changing the Face of Teaching one Teacher at a Time was packed out the door. That is a bit unnerving for sure. But what a great group of teachers, it truly was the audience that made my session interesting, they had questions, and shared resources and had opinions. It was a rich discussion. Such fun!!
Actually, as I was walking from my hotel room in the very cool Hotel at Old Town that morning to the conference facility across the street, I was thinking to myself, “I sure hope nobody shows at my session, so I can to one of theother sessions. Man, there were so many good sessions. I am feeling very honored needless to say.
I do think it speaks more to the conference organizers Kevin Honeycutt and ESSDACK, for having the right variety and number of sessions for the number of folks in attendance. Podstock is just a different kind of tech conference. There is tons & tons to learn from the sessions, but more from the people. The conversations are so very rich. It is not overwhelming or high pressure. I don’t know about you, and I do love to attend ISTE, but ISTE is somewhat overwhelming, just because of the size. Podstock is small by comparison. I think the intimacy is what makes it so darn powerful. There really is the opportunity to get to know and talk to everyone at the conference. I met so many teachers that I now feel connect to. My PLN just grew, which means I grew and have more people to call on for help when I need to.
Everyone was sharing resources and things from sessions via Plurk. So even if you weren’t in the session, you could get the resources. My Plurk handle is (cyndidannerkuhn). I have been a Plurk user for some time, but, I always considered myself more into Twitter (cyndidannerkuhn). BUT, this experience really showed me the power of the conversations that can take place in Plurk. I think tomorrow in my summer class of Pre-service teachers, I will show Plurk in-depth, usually I do Twitter in-depth and just mention Plurk.
So, please be watching for the shout-out on both about 2:00 Monday and help my very apprehensive pre-service teachers learn about Plurk and Twitter and the power of a PLN.
I brought a friend with me to Podstock, Cathie Klein, teacher, Seaman High School, 9th grade center. Cathines teachs a career life skills type class. She had never been to a tech conference before and during our 2+ hour drive home we talked about the conference non-stop and how she could convince her administration that more teachers from her school needed to attend Podstock next summer. She told me about all the ideas she learned to integrate into her classroom this fall. We were going a hundred miles a minute (talking, not driving). Anyway, it is so exciting the impact this had on us both.
I wish more tech coordinators and administrators would attend Podstock next July 15-16. It would be an eye-opener for them for sure. I am sure it would hlep them move forward with technology in their schools. At the very least, it might give them a new perspective and get the conversation started.
My wheels are turning! I am trying to think of a way I could make PODSTOCK2011 a required part of my summer technology class. It would be such a rich experience for my pre-service teachers to come learn and become a part of the conversations with these amazing teachers. Not sure how to make it happen, but clearly, I am going to be doing some serious researching, thinking and likely arm twisting. If you have ideas or suggestions, please post them in comments.
So, I guess, what I am really trying to say is, mark your calendars for July 15 & 16 next year and plan to attend Podstock 2011. Join the Ning at http://podstock.ning.com/ so you can keep up on developments. You will be glad you did!! I PROMISE.
Links and Resources for Podstock2010 (I will keep adding more as I find them)
Podstock, or What’s a New Yorker doing at a Kansas regional ed tech conference?
Wallwisher site with tons of resource
Voicethread, the Power of Plurk
Digital Revolution on Wallwisher
Plurker with Podstock resources
Kimberly Wrights Website (Mayor of Podstock or was it Podsock?)
Diigo Bookmarks from Karin Bell
http://www.muzzylane.com/ad/index.html
An irreverent, surprising, and fresh approach to teaching social history to secondary schoolers, American Dynasties is an immersive digital video game where players live the lives of Americans from eras past.
Imagine a learning experience where students are thrust into the everyday hustle and bustle of a century or to ago. Where they find themselves enslaved in an antebellum town, or caught up in a strike in a Massachusetts textile mill, or riding the rails in the Depression. Where they’ll need to have all their wits about them to survive in these unfamiliar environments.
Check this site out, it is pretty darn cool. CLICK HERE
I love photography. It wasn’t until I started doing Project 365 as a new year’s resolution that I really started to be so intrigued with it. Often times, I find myself pretending I’m some professional placing things or people, looking for lighting, finding unique angles, etc… but it is most definitely fun. Last night when I was uploading my photo for the day to my Flickr account I started to think about how Flickr could be used in the classroom.
To read the full story, CLICK HERE
P.S. I started the Project 365 too, was trying to shoot a photo everyday with my iPhone, I lasted about a month!! I applaud Elizabeth!!!
The last couple of days Wesley Fryer, Moving at the Speed of Creativity has been doing reviews of online video editing software. The first two compared were Jaycut and YouTube. And today Stroome and Kaltura.
I knew about and had experimented just a bit with Jaycut and YouTube, but Stroome and Kaltura are new to me. From what I can read so far, Stroome looks like it might have some possibilities. I still love iMovie, but for online, in a pinch, or for Windows users, these FREE online services might just do the the trick.
Stroome: http://www.stroome.com/
Kaltura: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaltura
YouTube: http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/06/edit-video-in-cloud-with-youtube-video.html
Jaycut: http://jaycut.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsOEfMiPndA&feature=player_embedded
K-2: Your Buzz & Woody: What toy is your absolute favorite? Write down 3 words (or sentences) that describe why you like it.
3-5: If You Were a Toy: Pretend that you get to be the voice for a Toy Story 3 toy. What toy would you be? Why would that toy be the perfect fit for your voice?
6-8: Toys Trashed?: When you outgrow your toys, what do you do with them? Do you think its best to keep them, give them to a younger family member or to charity, or to throw them away? Why?
9-12: The Gender of Play: Ken gets teased for being a girls’ toy. Do you think that children gravitating toward traditional toys for their gender is a natural tendency of children or a result of how little boys and girls are treated differently?
YouTube Block? Try this site
Thanks to TeacherHUb for this resource.
