The Teacher Toolbox

Here are a collection of art lessons that I developed a while ago and finally have them available as my online art school. The lessons cover the exploration of hues, tints, shades, tones and monochromatic artworks. By the end of this series of lessons the students have a very good understanding of how to mix the colours that they desire and a fair idea on how colour can convey mood in an artwork.

I find that having these artworks displayed around the walls and across the ceiling gives a real lift to a classroom. Have fun with these.

Whilst not meaning to be political, I’m a feeling a slight need to vent a tad today

According to the feasibility study that our beloved democratically elected leader commissioned. It has been found that nuclear energy is a viable alternative to fossil fuels here in Oz and that we could be producing weapons grade plutonium within 15 years.

Sorry Mr H… but any fuel that leaves a radioactive legacy for the next 10 000 years or so is immoral & should not even be considered as an option. Yep. Immoral!

Get nuclear off the agenda! Start funding alternative energy research big time! Then get on with the real issues of social justice and a ‘fair go’ for ALL your citizens.

Oh, & on the software front the cartoon was done with a piece of open source software called Inkscape with a bit of colour in Photoshop but could have easily been done in Gimp Shop if I got off my butt and learnt something new

Cheers

Adrian

Here is a great problem solving puzzle that the kids really have to think about and use the ‘constant manipulation’ strategy to solve. Many do tend to get really frustrated with the puzzle but this then becomes a teachable moment. Have fun with it. Adrian.

When learning to read and write, auditory discrimination is an important skill. Many people focus heavily on the initial sound in a word and often the final consonant sound gets overlooked. The newest word game on my site, developed by Billy in Ireland, focuses on the final sound of a word. e.g. ‘g’ as in ‘dog’

This game was my first attempt at developing all the illustrations myself using my new Wacom tablet. The learning curve has been pretty steep but in the end I am rather pleased with the results.

A special thanks has to go to Linda from Wacom Australia for pointing me in the right direction to solve my brush problem

I’ve just started my seven year old son off with his own blog http://code-samuel.blogspot.com . I’m not sure where it is going to lead to but he is very happy to be getting hits to his page (we put a free Sitemeter counter on yesterday) and comments from his friends and family. A few days ago he managed to present his blog to his class and needless to say, he was chuffed. Mind you, it is still an effort to get him to sit and blog as he wants to be a soccer or cricket star this week

Today he has written a draft about a piece of chess software that we just bought. That review should be finished in the morning once he has his shoes and socks on and is ready for school. He loves the Chessmaster because it plays better than his dad hehehe. He has also reviewed a piece of free Math software that he likes called Timez Attack and would be useful to many of my readers as well as Age of Empires II. You can also see what he thought of his first Blues Festival and see why he will tell his friends about it for years to come.

cheers

Adrian

PS Do feel free to leave him a comment and mention where you are from.

In putting together the homework ideas website I remembered how much the students love one of my favourite Science demonstrations.

BUT BE REALLY CAREFUL.

For many of the students that have problems with reading I find giving them a readers’ theatre gives them a little more motivation to read. Plus… once they rehearse it for a while and then present it to an audience they feel chuffed with themselves.

cheers

Adrian

Since I don’t have access to the night sky in my classroom One of my favourite homework tasks is to get the kids talking about astronomy. About 3 times a year I send home the month’s Sky Map. The children learn so much and it is nice to get a little awe and wonder into the curriculum. The activity always creates heaps of discussion.

Soon you’ll be able to print out December’s chart for either the Northern Hemisphere of the Southern Hemisphere (That discussion in itself is often a good starter hehehehe).

Check out how I use the Sky Maps and where to get them here

Little Hint - Work out why East and West are on the wrong sides & explain it. This will save you a fair bit of time later on

cheers

Adrian

Over the years I have been both praised and chastised for the homework tasks that I set. Recently I received an email from an ex-student (10 years later) who thanked me for being the one teacher that encouraged her to think. From this I’ve decided to put the many tasks that I have developed up on the Internet for people to choose to use if they deem them worthwhile and relevant to their student body.

The tasks are designed to have children and parents explore the world and foster thinking, research, questioning, attitudes to learning etc, etc. Here is a sneak peak at the very beginnings of the site.

It also needs to be noted that I have just started a cartooning course with my 7 year old son and the drawings are my initial experiments with my new Wacom tablet.

cheers

Adrian