Schools : Olympic Games London 2012 : resources & ideas

Olimpic Games London 2012

https://www.olympic.org/london-2012

Google doodle Opening Ceremony London 2012

https://www.google.com/doodles/

"This is our time... When our time came we did it right... London 2012 will see the very best of us."

Lord Coe

OG London 2012
Young English fans
http://static.guim.co.uk/

Olympic Games 2012 just start and will end during Summer season in Europe and some other continents.

In the United States and other countries, the students come back to school perhaps the final part of the Games. They will be talking about their heroes, the athletes from different sports. 

Teachers are already preparing their lessons and they will include the Olympic Games into school curricula, for sure. They can't lose this wonderful experience! Such a great resource for different curricula.

Olympic Games London 2012

credits: Getty Images

via BBC.co.ok

I'm sure that a lot of students will want to talk about it. English students are the luckiest because some of them are at the Olympic stadium with their parents watching live. 

But there will be a great number all over the world that are watching live on television or on the Internet, day by day, their favourite athletes and sports. And the most curious will know a lot about OG to share in the classroom.

Teachers have been watching the Olympic Games too, and they are wondering how they might include the OG London 2012 into the curriculum. 

As I wrote before, along July and August, I will write about some subjects that could interest teachers for the next school season.

London 2012credits: Mark Makela/ ZUMA Press/ Corbis

http://static.guim.co.uk/

• Ideas & Resources for Teachers:

Here are couple of ideas and resources to evaluate and share in your courses about London 2012.

• Sciences: The Olympic Flame

How do you create the perfect flame? - An interesting question to start a Science course! 

Well, the Ontario Science Centre explored the technology behind the Olympic torches - past and present shown on the video below:

Wow! That is great! You can't miss this digital resource to explore the technology behind the OG flame! I am sure that your students will love it.

• Geography | Sports:

Google Earth:

The Google Earth Blog has pushed out July 27 a short list of Google Earth tours based on the Olympic Games in London. The list includes a fly-over 3D imagery for much of London, including the Olympic Park area.

"Google's Olympic Games London 2012" page includes London street view, Teams (students will choose teams by country), Medals, (the distribution of Olympic medals) and Doodles (every day a sport doodle since the open ceremony).

Fencing

Google Doodle London 2012

https://www.google.com/doodles/

Doodles:

Rhythmic Gymnastics Google Doodle London 2012
https://www.google.com/doodles/

Google is publishing a Doodle every day since the Opening illustrating some of the 36 sports present at the Olympic Games 2012. The Olympic Games Doodles will be an excellent digital resource to include into school curriculum.

Teachers could use Doodles to start a lesson in Sports and/or Geography curriculum inviting the students to explore the page and find all the stories about the games. It might be a simple but good motivation for cross-curricular projects.

Synchronized swimming

Google Doodle London 2012

https://www.google.com/doodles/

Examples: 

Sports: To take it a step further, you might ask students to make a research why a country produces exceptional athletes in a given sport. For example, you might challenge students to find out why United States are strong in swimming or soccer.

Don't forget to teach about values!

Google Maps

Geography: Google Maps of medal distribution will start a simple Geography lesson. Invite students to browse for medal winners by countries, then research those countries. A good intercultural activity.

BBC Olympic Sports Live 2012 will be a fantastic daily reporting to explore. There are 36 Olympic Sports that your students can choose.

During the Games, you have the Official London 2012 website to explore or get inspiration by news or stories to motivate your students in your lessons.

For example the Lithuanian swimmer young teen Ruta Meilutyte said on Tuesday that she was "shocked" (in a good way) to have won women's 100 meters breaststroke gold medal on Monday. 

At just 15 years old, this Olympic star had to do it the hard way, surviving a fierce challenge from American Rebecca Soni, the reigning world champion in the event. Such an inspirational true story!

Diving
Google Doodle London 2012
https://www.google.com/doodles/

• Going further: 

Sports: Diving (Vocational or Further Education)

Competitive diving is included in the modern Olympics since 1904. Read this incredible article Not making a splash: the anatomy of a perfect Olympic dive by Sian Barris.

JoyTunes app

http://www.joytunes.com/

• Music: app

Did you know that before sport, there was music. Music as a prelude during the 19 days of the Games London 2012

iPad has a new app! Piano Summer Games from JoyTunes. The app provides directions and feedback for playing the national anthems of forty countries.

Awesome! Propose your students the choice of a national anthem. Then, play on the piano at the Music classroom and ask your students to play on their own iPad. 

Students and teachers can download the Piano Summer Games app here. They can compete between groups in the classroom using JoyTunes by earning points for playing the anthems correctly. 

They will do wonderful progress in Music curriculum. JoyTunes could be a good piano tutor for students who have iPad.  

• English Fiction:

As the opening ceremony got underway, its sense of magical realism started to remind us many of recent fantasy films or English fiction and fairy tales. 

The Lord of the Rings featured strongly in initial history of Britain about how much the "green and pleasant land" reminded people of the Shire.

J.K. Rowling
Opening Ceremony London 2012

http://25.media.tumblr.com/

There was Harry Potter saga in part driven by the participation of JK Rowling reading a short text in the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012, July 27.

Mary Poppins

 credits: Mike Blake / Reuters

http://static.guim.co.uk/

Although the Harry Potter character Voldemort was not officially part of the proceedings, he was linked to Mary Poppins when a flashmob mass of Mary Poppins clones appeared to vanquish one of the odd monsters in the ceremony.

• Curiosities:

Inventor of the protocol upon which the Web is based, UK scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee, live-tweeted from the stage. This is real social culture!

Sir Tim Berners-Lee

https://c479107.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/

Students might to learn more about the inventor of the World Wilde Web. 

• For fun:

Sometimes, at the end of a lesson, we must give some 2 minutes for relax. In Portugal, we have lessons of 95 minutes. It's important to make a break and let the students have 2 minutes of fun in the middle (45 minutes) learning and playing.

James Bond and the Queen

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/

"Good evening Mr Bond," the Queen said on the clip, before they left together, apparently heading towards the Olympic Stadium in a helicopter.

• James Bond & and the Queen:

There has been a great speculation if James Bond participad at the opening ceremony, and about what his role would be. At the Overture, we all watched him collecting the Queen and brought her to the ceremony in a spectacular manner. Oh! My! Just awesome!

In a combination of pre-filmed and live footage, James Bond escorted the Queen to her helicopter.

Then, above the stadium, Bond escorted the Queen out of the helicopter with a parachute. This was rapidly packaged into image macros of the jump captioned with mimetice acronym. Social media users were very enthusiastic about this episode. And we as well.

London 2012

credits: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/

Other resources:

• BBC page entitled Your Olympic athlete body match is a funny page: adding details for height and weight, students can match with some athlete. No matter what they hang up, they are probably a similar size to an amazing world-beating athlete! 

• Quiz: London 2012 The Olympic quiz here

Enjoy, preparing your lessons! I am sure that you will have wonderful plans and your students will be happy to learn in a funny way the curriculum.

G-Souto

31.07.2012

Copyright © 2012G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Schools : Olympic Games London 2012 : resources & ideas by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

References:

Credits: video Ontario Science Centre | Youtube
            video Apple | iTunes

6th edition of the Global Junior Challenge 2012

Video of the fifth edition of the Global Junior Challenge 2009
Credits: GJC

The Global Junior Challenge is the international competition that rewards the innovative use of technology for the education of 21st century and the social inclusion. 

Promoted by the Municipality of Rome the GJC is hosted every two years by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale under the High Patronage of the Italian Presidency and the sponsorship of the Italian Foreign Affairs Minister.

Rome, Campidoglio

http://www.gjc.it/2012/

The GJC is a unique opportunity to reflect on the importance of the challenges posed by 21st century education and the role of technology in didactic innovation, social innnovation, development and the reduction of world poverty.

This year there will also be other special categories, a novelty for the 2012 edition: “ICT for the integration of migrants and refugees” in collaboration with the United Nations Alliance Civilization (UNAOC), “ICT for sustainable environmental development” in partnership with Legambiente.

http://www.gjc.it/2012/en

The Global Junior Challenge is an international competition rewarding the most innovative projects for the Education of 21st century and the Social Inclusion.

The competition, promoted by the City of Rome, and organized by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, is held every two years.

The Global Junior Challenge takes place within the context of Italian Digital Agenda and Europe 2020. More precisely, the aim of the Global Junior Challenge is to encourage young generations and their teachers to use of the new technologies, exchange experiences and emulate successful initiatives. 

http://gjc.gioventudigitale.net/2004

To me GJC was an important moment of my life as an innovative educator and author of Digital Open Resources to my students, in Secondary education (High Junior School).

In 2004, I participated at Global Junior Challenge and submitted my e-learning project Kidzlearn Lugares & Aprendizagens.

When I received an email from Silvia Celani, responsable of Global Junior Challenge telling me tha my e-learning project, Secondary education, Kidzlearn Lugares & Aprendizagens  was among the finalists projects. 

And she invited me behalf the Global Junior Challenge to go to Rome to present my project at the exhibition of the Finalist Projects at Palazzo dei Congressi in Rome to share my pedagogical and innovative experience with thousands of students and their teachers.

 Palazzo dei Congressi/ Roma

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/

Kidzlearn Lugares & Aprendizagens was a finalist project on the category up-to 15 years old.

Stand 473: Gina Souto

Global Junior Challenge 2004

at Palazzo dei Congressi, Roma

Never forgot the stand 473 - Kidzlearn Lugares & Aprendizagens – PORTUGAL just in front of the great door that opened every day to thousands of Italian schools students and teachers to visit us.

They were absolutely amazing! Asking for details, testing the activities on Kidzlearn Lugares & Aprendizagens, asking, choosing, doing, laughing and learning languages online trough educational free open resources created for me to young students. 

Teachers was so curious, asking me how my students work online in the classroom or after school time, at home. They were surprised and so motivated.

At the final ceremony,  I was very proud of my work! You can read my chronicle here (Portuguese language). 

Kidzlearn Lugares & Aprendizagens

elearning project | Secondary Education

Gina Souto, Author

Kidzlearn Lugares & Aprendizagens was the first project for Secondary Education using ICT to enhance Languages curriculum, Portuguese, French foreign language.

You want yo know how it started? Read the entire experience on "Le défi d'un apprentissage pris à coeur" on  ÉduFLE.net an educational network in French. You can also read on my blog (French Language).

The first online learning experience for my students used in formal and informal learning, complementing the school curricula in a blended learning process.


Later, a lot of French teachers or educators teaching French and Portuguese as foreign languages use Kidzlearn Lugares & Aprendizagens in their lessons

 with success. They wrote me telling me their good experiences.

Kidzlearn Lugares&Aprendizagens

http://www.porto.ucp.pt/projectos/kidzlearn/

"Kidzlearn Lugares&Aprendizagens offre agli studenti la libertà di scegliere l’attività o le attività a seconda dei loro interessi o ritmi di apprendimento, indipendentemente dal luogo, dalle ore e dal momento. 

Nel dopo scuola o senza andare a scuola, nel contesto di un corso di francese or portoghese o semplicemente per piacere, gli studenti più giovani possono apprendere una lingua divertendosi o anche per superare le difficoltà che incontrano durante i corsi ufficiali. 

Nello stesso tempo, non sono soli, ma in contatto con l’insegnante in classe. Se non si tratta di miei studenti, possono contattarmi per e-mail o attraverso Messenger (gli orari sono elencati nel mio sito web). 

Come ho avuto modo di scrivere nell’editoriale, abbiamo dato luogo ad una pedagogia comprensiva per questi studenti che hanno problemi di apprendimento e, senza volerlo, siamo arrivati a praticare questo tipo di metodologia in relazione agli studenti che presentano un ritmo di apprendimento molto rapido. 

Inoltre, ho introdotto una motivazione allo studio della letteratura, presentando dei testi e degli autori a questa fascia d’età. 

Kidzlearn Lugares&Aprendizagens | FrançaisLE

http://www.porto.ucp.pt/projectos/kidzlearn/

Kidzlearn Lugares&Aprendizagens si deve totalmente al mio coinvolgimento e alla mia passione per l’insegnamento e anche alla mia creatività e volontà di avvicinare maggiormente i miei studenti. 

Il mio progetto è nato dall’osservazione diretta in classe, che spesso vede la concomitanza di lingua madre e lingua straniera, all’interno della quale gli studenti superdotati si vedono spesso obbligati a seguire i ritmi di apprendimento di studenti con problemi. 

Kidzlearn Lugares&Aprendizagens | Portuguese

Cartoon: Cristina Sampaio

http://www.porto.ucp.pt/projectos/kidzlearn/

Senza pensarci, si è partiti da una nuova pedagogia, questa volta esclusiva. Questi studenti hanno un ritmo di apprendimento molto più rapido rispetto al gruppo o alla classe. Ho dedotto che dovessi occuparmi di questo problema, e che dovessi occuparmi di loro proprio nei momenti in cui si vedevano un po’ messi da parte mentre dedicavo maggiore attenzione agli studenti in difficoltà. 

Da qui, l’idea di concretizzare delle attività complementari ai corsi di lingua madre prima, e poi dal 2001, di lingua francese. 

Posso proporre delle attività in classe ad uno o due studenti, mentre gli altri lavorano in maniera diversa, secondo la specificità del loro livello di apprendimento o le loro difficoltà. Quindi, ognuno dei miei allievi lavora secondo il proprio ritmo o gusto. 

Kidzlearn Lugares&Aprendizagens presenta un ulteriore vantaggio: gli allievi possono seguire delle attività nel dopo-scuola, a loro scelta e inviarle per e-mail. Allo stesso tempo, possiamo lavorare con Messenger (gli orari sono elencati sul mio sito), a seconda delle capacità o delle difficoltà, avendo indicazioni e suggerimenti, e potendo contare sulla correzione della pronuncia in rete (conversazione in diretta) ."

So, as you see, you must not lost this incredible opportunity to show your educational project to the world.

Education:

The 6th edition of the Global Junior Challenge is a unique opportunity for teachers and students to reflect on the significance of digital literacy, whilst exposing them with to the vast range of high quality solutions proposed by other youth from around the world.

The GJC competition is open to everyone: associations, public and private institutions, cooperatives, schools, universities, companies and individuals of any age from all around the world.

Registration:

Registration has been extended to July 31, 2012. You can enter your project here 

Rules:

All projects that were still in operation as of December 31, 2011 and addressed to youth up to 29 years of age and which use new ICT technology for education and training.

Read more here

Award Ceremony:

The programme for the 6^th edition of the Global Junior Challenge, the international competition that rewards the innovative use of technology for 21st century education and digital inclusion.

It will take place in Rome, 17-19 October 2012. 

Program can be read here

«Les langues sont comme la mer, elles oscillent sans cesse.»

Victor Hugo

G-Souto

28.07.2012
Copyright © 2012G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

6th edition of the Global Junior Challenge by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.