The Teacher Toolbox

New Tables Game – Beat the Calculator

Adrian — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:47:54 +0000

I’m currently doing a favour for a friend of mine and working with her son because the lad is ‘beating himself up’ about his maths knowledge.

Here is a game I’ve made for him that encourages him to reflect on how mental computation is often more efficient than using a calculator. NB Over the years I’ve found that adding a little ‘competition’ with boys often provides them with a little extra motivation to learn the basic facts than constant worksheets

Download Beat the Calculator

Spore Machinima

Adrian — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:14:53 +0000

I do so love playing with this technology with Samuel (Mr 10)!

Spore has a video capture function built into it so we just grabbed a heap of video shots of one of the characters and put them together in Movie Maker with his current favourite joke. Too easy!!!

Subversion is a Necessary Part

Adrian — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:42:35 +0000

A few years back after giving a keynote to a rather large group of educators, one of the ‘invited officials’ beckoned me over.

“I like you & I especially like your quote, ‘Subversion is a major part of innovation and it is our job to subvert’. Come sit by me.”

This conversation has always reminded me of Dorothy Parker’s, ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say, come sit by me.’

Farmville – Lost Black Sheep

Adrian — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:49:05 +0000

When it comes to Farmville sheep wandering across my Facebook news feeds I’m starting to believe catharsis is so much more fun than rationality

Feel free to send this to anyone who you think needs to see it. hehehehe

Warhammer & Digital Storytelling

Adrian — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:59:01 +0000

Another of the things I love about machinima is the irreverent humour. Feel free to make humourous suggestions for the dialogue of this comic

Plus, I think I mentioned it before, I love leaving these sorts of things on display in classes for a week and having the students think about what should be added to the language bubbles. Mulling it over for a while tends to produce great results.

Alternate Digital Storytelling

Adrian — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:38:52 +0000

In the coming weeks I’m flying off to Mackay to run a whole day Gifted & Talented workshop on machinima.

I’ve been working on ideas for this workshop for the last few months and am just about to launch an online image bank that will not be blocked by school filters. (If you know what I mean hehehe).

I’ve already completed a collection of Dawn of War, Second Life and, thanks to JoKay, World of Warcraft images. I anticipate that these collections will go live in the next few days.

Call for Help - If you can help out with PG rated images from your favourite video game feel free to email them to me so anyone can have a go at this type of story telling.

Google Moon & the LCROSS Impact

Adrian — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:04:12 +0000

With the passing of the 40th anniversary of the first Moon Landing Google has added the Moon to Google Earth. So last night I added a few Moon Exploration Ideas to my website that you might like to explore.

I’m also looking forward to the LCROSS impact and data being added to the software in the coming weeks and months.

So how will you celebrate the current Moon missions with your class? Surely you can’t wait until they ‘DO SPACE’ in Yr 6!

cheers

Adrian

PS The last few Tweets from the LCROSS spacecraft caused a small chuckle.

How to Write Large Numbers Using Roman Numerals

Adrian — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:43:17 +0000

Over the last week or so I’ve been reading a book by Matt Groening (The Simpsons Handbook: Secret Tips from the Pros) and tonight is my first experiment with drawing a character with an overbite

Oddfellows & Comic Life

Adrian — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:46:49 +0000

After a long day I was just having a little play with my Oddfellows , my new Digital Camera & Comic Life

Mars Exploration in the Classroom

Adrian — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:01:05 +0000

Built into Google Earth is Google Mars. It works exactly the same as Google Earth ie you can zoom in, zoom out, fly over, explore and do tours. This software offers a beautiful opportunity to explore Mars in the classroom as never before possible. Wow!

Now as an architect of the children’s learning I believe the power of the software would come after you had the students explore the most interesting facts and features of the planet. Try having the students write a readers’ theatre play where they are taking a tourist group to Mars and have them incorporate their new knowlegde into the play. This play would then be performed as a virtual tour of the planet for other classses around the school.

Tonight I’ve added a few teaching ideas for using Google Mars in the classroom to my website. Feel free to check out Google Mars in the Classroom.