Education World Book Day & Copyright : Read... so never feel alone !

 

https://en.unesco.org/

"The power of books must be fully harnessed. We must ensure their access so that everyone can take refuge in reading, and by doing so, be able to dream, learn and reflect"

Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO

World Book and Copyright Day is a celebration to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. 

23 April is a symbolic date in world literature. It is the date on which several prominent authors, William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. This date was a natural choice for UNESCO's General Conference, held in Paris in 1995, to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone to access books.

St Georges Day 

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

• Google Doodle: St Georges

St. Georges became a heroic figure of legend who was declared Patron Saint of England in 1348. 

Today’s Doodle, illustrated by U.K.-based guest artist Ruby Fresson, honors England’s celebration of St. George’s Day and the legend behind this special day that has captured the imagination of generations. 

• Legend (England):

The legend of St. George traces its roots back to the Middle Ages when 11th-century Crusaders returned to England and shared his venerable story of valor and sacrifice. Accounts lauded St. George as a hero who rescued not only a princess but an entire city under siege from a fire-breathing dragon! Upon his valiant horseback arrival, St. George slew the dragon, a battle scene recreated in today’s Doodle artwork. Rose bushes are said to have grown across the village after the dragon’s defeat and St. George picked a fresh rose to give to the rescued princess. 

Following his success, the villagers held a massive feast in St. George’s honor—a tradition which has been passed down through the ages—as has giving a rose to a loved one in some cultures.

San Jordi

credits: unknow

via Twitter

• San Jordi festivity (Catalonia)

World Book Day and Copyright takes place today, with festivities such as the Catalan Sant Jordi – to mark Saint George's day, in honour of Catalonia's patron saint. 

World Book and Copyright Day is an opportunity to recognize the power of books to change our lives for the better and to support books and those who produce them.

https://www.facebook.com/unesco/

During the last year when most countries have seen periods of confinement and people have had to limit their time spent outside, books have proved to be powerful tools to combat isolation, reinforce ties between people, expand our horizons, while stimulating our minds and creativity. In some countries the number of books read has doubled.  

credits: iStock.com/monkeybusinessimages

During the month of April and all year round, it is critical to take the time to read on your own or with your children. It is a time to celebrate the importance of reading, foster children's growth as readers and promote a lifelong love of literature and integration into the world of work. 

Through reading and the celebration of World Book and Copyright Day, 23 April, we can open ourselves to others despite distance, and we can travel thanks to imagination. 

credits: AP hogeschool

Education:

April is a month full of good things to celebrate about literature.

April 23 Shakespeare death and April 22 Cervantes death. It's a day where books are the center of activities in schools and at home and virtual events all around the world. 

April 2nd was Christian Andersen's birthday and International Children's Book Day. 

Reading a book is in our days a large concept to adults and to children. All formats are available for those who love to read.

The goal is to engage people in reading, and to have fun doing so! 

The book covers are incredibly important and play a vital role in our buying decisions. We’re all extremely judgmental about covers. 

The pandemic has also reminded us all of the importance of books and reading for comfort and escapism, we’ve all needed it this past year. We're always glad to see when a title has been well presented, as a good cover can make or break a title. 

• Resources

Edith Ngaio Marsh: crime fiction

Edith Ngaio Marsh

https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/

Edith Ngaio Marsh was born on 23 April 1895 in Merivale, Christchurch. Marsh worked within the classic detective story form, enlivening it with the high quality of her writing and a range of erudite references. 

A crime writer and theatre director, she was internationally known for her creation Inspector Roderick Alleyn, a gentleman detective who works for the Metropolitan Police in London. She had 32 detective novels published between 1934 and 1982.

When in Rome

Roderick Alleyn series #26

Ngaio Marsh

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

Several works use theatre as a narrative context. Four have New Zealand settings – Vintage murder (1937), Colour scheme (1943), Died in the wool (1944) and Photo-finish (1980) – and there are many New Zealand references and characters. Her detective, Roderick Alleyn, who appears in all her fiction, displays the standard aristocratic confidence and a rational scepticism about human nature, but is notable, in the age of Peter Wimsey and Hercule Poirot, for his lack of eccentricity. 

Children's books:

Luci's Light

Margarita del Mazo

Illustration: Silvia Álvarez

https://www.amazon.com/

A tale all about how important it is to shine as brightly as you can, with the light that we all carry within us and makes us unique.

Luci's Light

Margarita del Mazo

Illustration: Silvia Álvarez

https://www.amazon.com/

Winner at the 2016 Gellet Burgess Award - Society & Culture

My Neighbor

Ignacio Sanz

illustration: Eva Poyato

https://www.cuentodeluz.com/

Synopsis:

Childhood and old age go hand in hand in this beautiful poetic text.

My Neighbor

Ignacio Sanz

illustration: Eva Poyato

https://www.cuentodeluz.com/

Age-related increases in wisdom and life experiences, is a drive to give to children in a meaningful way. The aging population has “distinctive qualities” to meet the needs of youth. 

Older adults are exceptionally suited to meet these needs in part because they welcome meaningful, productive activity and engagement. They seek – and need – purpose in their lives. 

As for older adults they benefit as well, experiencing emotional satisfaction in relationships with young people. One way to achieve such contact is through volunteer service, which is associated with better physical health and cognitive performance for aging people. From a societal view, these interactions are positive, too.

https://www.facebook.com/unesco/

UNESCO encourages us to challenge ourself, to explore new topics, formats, or genres that out of our ordinary. 

The goal? To engage people in reading, and to have fun doing so! Now is the opportunity to: As a celebration for this year's World's Book and Copyright Day, UNESCO has created a Bookfacechallenge

(link is external)

Inviting students, teachers, readers from around the world to testify and express their love for reading by participating to this challenge.

"Books  are  a  means  of  accessing  the  deepest  places in our minds. Page by page, books light a path for us to roam, unbound by time or borders. In other words, books give us freedom." 

G-Souto

23.04.2021

Copyright © 2021G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Education : World Book Day & Copyright : Read... so never feel alone by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Education : Brilliant app, math and science : Learn think !

https://brilliant.org/

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”

Plutarch

Brilliant app is for anyone who has an interest in mathematics and science. The app replaces lecture videos with hands-on, interactive lessons. It’s a better (and more fun) way to learn.

Dive into advanced, creative problem solving and improve domain knowledge and critical thinking skills. Learn how different domains, like number theory and computer science, are interconnected. Discover how core math and science concepts apply to modern topics.

Brilliant's entertaining and educational course library is great for beginners, and also includes intermediate and advanced topics for teachers and lifelong learners. 

Creators:

Brilliant is made with the loving efforts of lifelong learners from MIT, Caltech, Duke, the University of Chicago, and more.

"We’re passionately working on delivering the very best math and science education on earth. Your age, country, and gender don't determine what you are capable of learning. You do."

https://brilliant.org/

Principles:

Brilliant creates a culture of learning around inquiry, curiosity, and openness to failure. All of our courses are written with these principles of learning in mind.

Effective learning math & science:

• Excites

The greatest challenges to education are disinterest and apathy.

• Cultivate curiosity

Questions and storytelling that cultivate natural curiosity are better than the threat of a test.

• Is active

Effective learning is active, not passive. Watching a video is not enough.

• Is applicable

Use it or lose it: it is essential to apply what you're learning as you learn it.

Learn more here

screenshot: Brilliant app (tablet)

https://play.google.com/store/

screenshot: Brilliant app (smartphone)

https://play.google.com/store/

. Learn to think

Whether you want to hone your quantitative skills, improve your knowledge of science and technology, be a smarter parent for your inquisitive kid, or simply stay sharp, Brilliant helps you grow as a curious and ambitious person.

2. Become a better problem solver

Brilliant's approach to learning is active, not passive. Through active problem solving, Brilliant helps you build your quantitative intuition. Learn frameworks for thinking and solving challenging problems, instead of memorizing formulas.

3. Enjoy new challenges every week ... and now every day

With free, curated weekly problems, you can gain timeless knowledge and flex applied problem solving skills in bite-sized sessions. Stay fresh and discuss your favorite solutions with an engaged community of lifelong learners.

screenshots Apps

via Google Play & iOS

Master concepts by solving fun, challenging problems. Brilliant app helps students learn real math and science through conceptual quizzes that are both entertaining and educational.

With free Problems of the Week, students can solve and discuss fascinating problems with members around the world. If you enjoy these problems, then it’s time to subscribe. Once you do, you’ll have access to courses with hundreds of guided exercises on everything from logical reasoning to artificial neural networks.

credits: Unknown

via Google Images

Method:

In school, students are often trained to apply formulas to rote problems. But this traditional approach prevents deeper understanding of concepts, reduces independent critical thinking, and cultivates few useful skills.

The capacity to think critically separates the great from the good. We can grow this capacity by trying — and often failing — to solve diverse, concrete problems.

1. Start with simple questions and stories that build your foundation and intuition.
2. Ramp up to solving problems that seemed beyond your ability.
3. Study different ways of solving the problems that are out of your grasp.

credits: Getty Images/peshkov

For ages 10 t0 110

Get started as a beginner with the fundamentals, or dive right into intermediate and advanced courses for professionals. Brilliant has courses for ambitious students and people of all ages.

Master essential skills

Build confidence with hands-on learning. You'll get to see concepts visually, interact with key ideas, and solve challenging problems that get you to really think.

Stress less, learn better

Enjoy fun storytelling, guided problem solving, and making lots of mistakes while playing. On Brilliant, your natural curiosity will drive you, not the threat of a test.

credits: unknown

via Google Images

Education:

Brilliant app is an educational platform, designed to help make learning fun and accessible. Designed around focused lessons and relatable situations, Brilliant allows students to explore complex science, technology, and math topics in ways that make learning exciting.

With the Brilliant app, there’s no punishment for getting the answer wrong. Instead, a wrong answer is an opportunity to learn.

Whether students guess the correct answer, or are 100% wrong, they can see student-submitted explanations of how the correct answer can be found. Other students can then vote on the explanations, ensuring that the best and most understandable are provided.

• Brilliant app is free

To unlock the full experience, you need to sign up for a subscription plan. That’s $24.99 for the monthly plan and $119.99 for the annual plan.

• Available: 

 iOS App Store

  Play Store

Language: English

screenshot iOS Apple Store

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/

Expanding on their learning platform, Brilliant recently introduced their Daily Problems feature. These give students an opportunity to flex their mental muscles and learn new things every day.

The Daily Problems come in a variety of subjects, from algebra, chemistry and computer science.

Today 20 April 2021

Triumphant balance

https://brilliant.org/daily-problems/

Each Daily Problem provides an “insight” lesson that gives enough detail to get you on the right path, and the questions are typically presented with a multiple choice answer.

Each topic is divided into various levels with 1 being the most fundamental. The problems offer a path of learning that encourages critical thinking.

credits: Unknown

via Google Images

Remember:

Some of questions are easy to solve, while some take hours. Students don't have to worry about getting an answer wrong. They can always check

Brilliant is a great way to learn and have fun. Its approachable, and allows you to learn a little (or a lot) whenever you want.

Some of the questions are easy to solve, while some take hours. You don’t have to worry about getting an answer wrong. You can always check answers from user submissions to figure out the solutions to such problems. And you can vote on explanations that impressed you.

Get new ideas :

Facebook : Brilliant Math

Facebook : Brilliant Science

Brilliant is a great way to learn and have fun. Its approachable, and allows students to learn a little (or a lot) whenever they want.

G-Souto

20.04.2021

Copyright © 2021G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Apps in Education : Brilliant app, math and science : Learn to think ! G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sources: Brilliant/ GooglePlay/ iOS Apple

March in Review & Johannes Gutenberg 200th Anniversary : resources

Portrait of Johann Gutenberg (c. 1398-1468)

painting: Anonymus

https://www.britishmuseum.org/

Johannes Gutenberg, born Johann Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg on the 14th century, Mainz in Germany, was a German craftsman and inventor who originated a method of printing from movable type. This revolutionary technology made the knowledge found in books both affordable and accessible to the common person for the first time in history.

An artist's visualization of Johannes Gutenberg in his workshop

Fine Art Images/Heritage Image/age fotostock

https://www.britannica.com/

"Johannes Gutenberg has influenced the development of humankind like no other. He was a visionary, skilled engineer, businessman and perfectionist. As the brilliant inventor of printing with moveable type, he triggered a media revolution which continues today.

Every book, every printed text, every digital message stems from his ideas."

Gutenberg Foundation

Google Doodle celebrating Johannes Gutenberg

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

Google Doodle:

Today’s Doodle celebrates Johannes Gutenberg on the anniversary of this day in 2000 when the Gutenberg Museum launched a retrospective exhibition in his honor.

When it comes to first impressions, no other historical figure made one quite like the inventor of the mechanical movable type printing press.

This revolutionary technology made the knowledge found in books both affordable and accessible to the common person for the first time in history. 

Johannes Gutenberg

credits: Gutenberg Museum

https://www.gutenberg-foundation.com/

Some information: 

Gutenberg was the son of a patrician of Mainz. What little information exists about him, other than that he had acquired skill in metalwork, comes from documents of financial transactions. 

Exiled from Mainz in the course of a bitter struggle between the guilds of that city and the patricians, Gutenberg moved to Strassburg (now Strasbourg, France) probably between 1428 and 1430. Records put his presence there from 1434 to 1444. He engaged in such crafts as gem cutting, and he also taught a number of pupils.

Theodoor Galle after a drawing by Jan van der Straet, c. 1550

 in the British Museum

https://www.britannica.com/

By the late 1430s, historians believe Gutenberg began to develop a more efficient text printing device in an attempt to pay off debts from a failed mirror business. The machine he invented (essentially a retrofitted winepress) replaced the hand-carved wooden letter and graphic blocks of traditional printers for easily-cast metal type, which were then dipped in proprietary ink to print entire pages at once. 

credits: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

https://www.britannica.com/

Gutenberg’s next eureka moment came in 1450 with his invention’s first successful print: a Latin book on speech-making. From here, Gutenberg was off to the races as he innovated labor by hiring an assembly-line team to produce books quicker than ever! A testament to the power of human creativity, the Gutenberg press printed up to 3,600 pages on an average workday, fueling the first large-scale production of books in Europe. 

By the 16th century, an estimated 200 million books were in print thanks to Gutenberg invention, which gave birth to a new era of mass communication and a new branch of media: the press. 

Project Gutenberg

https://www.gutenberg.org/

Today, Gutenberg’s legacy lives on with Project Gutenberg, an online library with over 60,000 free books. 

• Education:

Project Gutenberg is a open access library of over 60,000 free eBooks. Students can choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online. 

They will find the world’s great literature here, with a focus on older works.  If they click on “Bookshelves” they can browse by genres. 

Check out “Best Books Ever Listing” under “B.” Or search the catalog.

No fee or registration! 

No special apps needed!

Other resources:

Invite your students in-person lessons or distance learning to watch the video Discover how Johannes Gutenberg's printing press increased the literacy and education of the public on Britannica by Prof. Hellmut E. Lehmann-Haupt, author of Gutenberg and the Master of the Playing Cards.

And now let's write about the posts of Mars. The world continues to be affected by pandemic restrictions. In so many countries schools are still closed. Millions of students don't have access to in-person lessons. In Portugal, in-person classes reopen next Monday, Secondary schools and Universities.

As my usual readers know, I write in English, French and Portuguese.

Here are the most popular posts of the last month:

Wow ! Spring is back ! Let´s breath !

Ensino: SG GamEmotion : Apoio adolescentes contrôlo de emoções : um projecto a seguir !

World Theatre Day !

Et voilà le Dictionnaire des Francophones numérique, ouvert aux lecteurs.

There are measures to deal with coronavirus outbreaks in place across European countries and other continents.

Many involve the reintroduction of restrictions that had been eased after initial lockdowns. Other reopen little by little.

Here in Portugal, kindergarten and Primary schools reopened last 15 March.k-12 reopened last 5 April. High junior schools and universities will reopen next Monday, 19 April. Teachers continue to be vaccinated and students Covid-19 tests.

We were under a fifth national lockdown. Finally, students will have in-person lessons after three months remote learning. 

Be safe! Take care!

G-Souto

16.04.2021

Copyright © 2021G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

March in Review & Johannes Gutenberg 200th Anniversary : resources by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.