Virtual and Augmented Reality
Virtual Reality in classrooms has made learning more fun, engaging, and exciting for students!
Google Cardboard allows students to experience virtual reality in a fun, non-expensive way! You can get it, fold it, and look inside a world of cardboard! It is a virtual reality experience that is cheap for students and teachers! You can learn more about Google Cardboard here!
A great app to use with Google Cardboard is Google Expeditions! Google Expeditions allows students to go on virtual trips anywhere of their choice! There are two modes of the app, “Guide” for teachers and “Explorer” for students! Each expedition contains several panoramic scenes, curriculum connections, notes, and discussion questions! This allows the viewers to see the expeditions in a 3D view! Learn more about Google Expeditions here!
Thanks for viewing! 🙂
Blog Post 10
Out of Eden Walk!
The first destination I chose from the walk is the Holy Lands! The Holy Lands consisted of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, West Bank, and Israel. The Holy Lands seeded the three great monotheistic faiths. On April 28 2013, there was a border crossing of Saudi Arabia. It consisted of a converted car carrier hauling sheep and camels.
The second destination I chose from the walk is Silk Road! On December 24, 2015, there was the border crossing on Kazakhstan. The Caspian Shore gave way to the wind-raked expanse of western Kazakhstan’s steppes. They crossed at night and the crossing consisted of 3200 miles. This crossing was a significant one and was a milestone.
The third and final destination I chose from the walk is the Riverlands! This consisted of Pakistan and India. It lasted from February 2018-October 2021. The walk traversed an emerging center of global power by navigating through a maze of waterways across fertile South Asia. The Out of Eden’s Walk’s global trail eventually meandered down to the river-fed plains of South Asia.
You can explore the Out of Eden Walk like I did here!
I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for viewing 🙂
Changemakers
Mental Well-Being Module
This week, I decided to check out the “Mental Well-Being” module on we.org! This module focuses on mental health challenges that students face everyday and what teachers can do to help.
Tips in this module that I think will be helpful in my future classroom are to work with parents, reduce classroom stress, and to find the good and praise it. Working with parents is important because it will create consistency in working with students who struggle mentally. Reducing classroom stress is important because it won’t make the students feel so pressured. One way to do this is to assign homework due in two days rather than the following day. Lastly, finding the good and praising it is important because students struggling with mental and behavioral issues often suffer from low self-esteem, so it is important to make them feel confident about the good that they do.
I definitely want to take all of this into consideration in my future classroom. Many students have a stressful home life which can lead to mental health issues. I would want school to be their safe space and make the environment feel like a safe one for them. You can check out my screenshots of the module I viewed below!
Thanks for viewing! 🙂
Hyperdocs
This week, I found a hyperdoc on padlet that really sparked my interest. It’s called “Where’d You Get Those Genes?” It talks about people’s genes and traits and how common they are for everyone.
The hyperdoc talks about things as simple as how people can curl their tongue, or how many people have blue eyes. It also talks about inherited traits and learned behaviors. Curling your tongue and have blue eyes for example, would be identified as inherited traits.
The hyperdoc also discusses plant characteristics. A plant’s inherited traits could contain what color it is. A plant’s learned behavior could be how fast it blooms or how tall it is judging by how much sunlight it gets or how much it is watered.
This hyperdoc was so fun to view and was definitely an educational one! I look forward to using hyperdocs in my future classroom! You can view the hyperdoc here!
Thanks for viewing! 🙂
Virtual Field Trip
This week, I took a virtual field trip to The Colosseum in Rome, Italy! It is safe to say that this experience was definitely a great one, especially because I’ve always wanted to visit Rome. I was able to view 3D images of The Colosseum so that I can feel like I am actually in Rome!
The Colosseum surprisingly took less than ten years to build. This was possible because the Romans were very good at an architectural technique that they knew well. This was called the arch. Arches were the Roman’s main element of their architecture. The amphitheatre can hold up to seventy thousand people in it. Entry had been free for all Roman citizens, however, they were sat in sections based on their social status. This is very similar to how people are seated in theatres nowadays as well. The closer you were sat to the arena, the higher your social status was. People used to go to The Colosseum for shows such as fights between exotic animals or men between animals. The event that excited the audience most was the gladiators.
I loved being able to visit The Colosseum virtually and hope to visit it in person some day! You can also visit The Colosseum virtually by clicking here! Thank you for viewing! 🙂
Subtitles
“Extr@” (German) with English subtitles!
I watched a German show called “Extr@”! I viewed the first episode which you can find here!
The episode consisted of four characters which were Sascha, Anna, Nic, and Sam. Sascha and Anna are roommates and Nic is their neighbor. Sam is Sascha’s American pen pal from seven years ago. He comes to visit her in Germany after he writes her a letter. What I noticed about the characters is that they fantasize over American men and women. Sascha and Anna give American men the stereotype that they all look like Brad Pitt! The characters hang out in Sascha and Anna’s apartment in the city, which is similar to what young Americans do with their friends too.
What I found similar to my culture in the show is that the girls dressed the same as girls my age do in America and they also have fun and crack jokes with one another. To me, the only thing I found different in the show was the food they ate and their language. They ate curryworst in the show which was assumed to be a popular food in Germany. They traveled by walking, biking, or taking a bus in the city. The weather in the show was sunny and they go to the Love Day Parade for fun! I can tell that the characters valued friendship the most through the whole episode.
Overall, I found the German culture to be quite similar to American culture in the show. However, there was no mention of politics or economic issues which is almost always brought up in American shows. The physical surroundings in the show reminded me a lot of New York City because of the buildings and I did not see anyone travelling by car.
I hope that this post will encourage you to view more foreign shows with English subtitles! Thanks for viewing! 🙂
Sail the 7 C’s: Chapter 2
Microsoft Translator!
In chapter 2 of Sail the 7 C’s, I learned about a learning tool called Microsoft Translator. Microsoft Translator makes it possible for teachers to communicate with students whom do not speak the same language. This tool makes it easier for schools to have interpretation services.
Microsoft Translator can be used strictly in English as a captioning or transcription tool. It can add captions to meetings or create a transcript for a classroom conversation. Many students can benefit from having access to subtitles, captioning, or live transcription, especially if their first language is not English in an English classroom. I will definitely want to use Microsoft Translator in my future classroom if I have students whom do not speak English like me. Check out this Microsoft Translator tutorial below!
I hope you enjoyed my blog post, thanks for viewing!
Sustainable Developmental Goals
Goal #2: ZERO HUNGER!
A goal of interest to me from the Sustainable Developmental Goals is Zero Hunger!
A non governmental organization called Rise Against Hunger is focused on Goal #2: Zero Hunger. Rise Against Hunger is working achieve this goal by ensuring access by all people to safe nutritious and sufficient food all year round, wants to end all forms of malnutrition, and ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices. Rise Against Hunger is doing their part to help, and you can too! People are donating everyday on their linked website to help end hunger. See the link to donate here.
We can all do our part to achieve Sustainable Developmental Goal #2 Zero Hunger! Thanks for viewing!
Empatico
The tool I chose is “Empatico”. I chose this tool because I like the fact that as a teacher I would be able to connect my students with other classrooms around the world!
What I find useful about Empatico is that it allows students from across the globe to communicate with each other so they can all work and brainstorm together. I think this is also helpful for students to develop social skills and gain a new perspective on what other classrooms may be like in different countries. See how Empatico works here!
I would use Empatico in my classroom by finding a partner class for my students to work with based on similarities! I would have our students work together through video chat for certain assignments so they can all brainstorm and learn from one another! You can check out Empatico here!
Thanks for viewing!
Collaboration
Teachers can collaborate with their students using multiple web tools including Microsoft Teams inside the classroom! This allows teachers to interact better with students and allow them to learn more effectively. Teachers are also able to keep better track of students’ progress and their grades.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams has allowed teachers to keep track of students’ reading progress. This is a helpful way for teachers to see where their students are at with their reading.
You can check out @mtholfsen ‘s tweet about it here
Microsoft Teams has also created a course for teachers to take so they can fully use teams to their advantage and use it in their classrooms effectively with their students. @MSEduCentral had made a tweet about this to make teachers aware of this tool. Using this tool will also save teachers a lot of time inside their classrooms.
Check out @MSEduCentral ‘s tweet here
See more information about Microsoft Teams here
Thanks for checking out my blog!
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