Sunday, January 16, 2022

Education : Best of 2021 : Semester #1

 





Looking back 2021 I've come up with a roundup of what's been the best posts of my blog The Digital Teacher G-Souto

As I do during the first week in January every year, I took some time off to relax with family. I went for some days to a Spa in front of the Atlantic ocean, the other side of street. So good! The weather was marvelous, sunny day, 21º degrees. Wow! We deserved it. after long weeks raining.



Furadouro, Ovar, Portugal
@GSouto

I'm respecting the Covid-19, now Omicron, measures since December. Yes, we are better than most European countries because we have 90% vaccinated people. However we must be very prudent, using the mask and keeping social distance. 

Christmas season in family not easy, but better than last year. We use always masks in the street, at the cinema or some concert.  We have our vaccination certificate with us to go to the movies or at a restaurant.





credits: Eli Imadali for Chalkbeat


Well, school year was not bad. In-person lessons have been possible 2nd and 3rd trimester 2021. Students and teachers finished the school year with satisfaction and joy. 

Some cases of Covid-19 but the classes continued. Teachers were replaced. Students accomplished pandemic rules staying at home. They could continue their studies on distance learning.

Better than the past years, 2019 and 2020. Most schools have been closed. Distance learning was the great allied for students and teachers. 

Students don't like distance learning. However they received meaningful feedback on their progress and support until they achieve the goals. 





Distance learning
via Google Images

Children an teen are happier at school, they learn better, develop social skills, they need to be among their school mates, learn in-person lessons, having teachers near. It was possible. 

Below you’ll find the top posts of first semester 2021 containing different themes: education & IT, Covid-19, history, languages, art, science, environment, literature, e-safety, sports, dance, children's books, animation.





credits: iStock


The selection is based on page views but also based on pedagogical relevance of the most-read posts.

I kept the order of the most viewed, and eliminated the posts that seemed less relevant. The main reason? Sometimes some posts acquire too much visibility, not for their value but for the keywords that the search engines "like" indexing.



crédits: Loe Lee


Je suis ravie de partager avec vous le Top des billets les plus lus sur mon blog The Digital Teacher G-Souto, 1er semestre 2021 . Vous continuez à me suivre presque quotidiennement. Je me rends aussi compte que souvent des étudiants me visitent.

Je vous en remercie, chers enseignants, chers lecteurs, de votre intérêt et m’efforce d’être toujours au plus proche d'événements concernant des idées pédagogiques afin de vous présenter des ressources et outils pédagogiques, au numérique ou pas. 

Pas si souvent comme les années precédentes à 2019. Les plusieurs confinements, des écoles fermées, l'enseignement à distance, la vaccination, tout ça m'a enlevé um peu le désir ou la force physique d'écrire.

Les outils technologiques dû le Covid-19 ont souvent substitué l'enseignement en présentiel accompagné. Dans quelques pays, les écoles ont été rouvertes. Comme chez nous, le Portugal. Bien qu'une partie de l'enseignement ait continué à distance pour les élèves confinés pendant ce temps.

Des grandes thématiques: éducation, Covid-19, langues, science, cyber-bullying, culture, littérature, animation, arts, environnement parmi tant d'autres.

Des ressources pédagogiques en ligne, et des adaptations personnelles de façon à permettre à tous les élèves la réussite dans leur parcours scolaire.


Here are the most popular posts 1st semester, 2021:

Le Top des billets semestre 1, 2021:


My usual readers know I write in English, French and Portuguese. Let´s begin...




















 









credits: Tom Wang/ Shutterstock




"The COVID-19 pandemic has caused chaos in education worldwide. 

Some 1.6 billion school and college students had their studies interrupted at the peak of the pandemic -- and it’s not over yet.  

Today, school closures continue to disrupt the lives of over 31 million students, exacerbating a global learning crisis."


Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General's message 2022

Countries around the world have temporarily closed educational institutions in an attempt to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

These nationwide closures were impacting hundreds of millions of students. Several other countries have implemented localized closures impacting millions of additional learners.



credits: AP

"Unless we take action, the share of children leaving school in developing countries who are unable to read could increase from 53 to 70 percent.  

But the turmoil in education goes beyond questions of access and inequality." 

Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General's message 2022

For example, the Republic of Uganda reopened the schools after two years of closure.





"Si les enfants s'en réjouissent, entre temps, ils sont nombreux à ne pas avoir pu suivre l'enseignement à distance." 


There's hope. Vaccines were developed and people have been vaccinated all of the world countries. Teachers and some students have been vaccinated.




Please pay attention. Follow the OHS advices.

Hoping to have inspire you in your lessons all over the last year.

May 2022 be year of hope for all of us, be brave, teachers and students. And don't forget to keep social distance, and use your masks. Oh! wash your hands often!

Teachers are teaching with passion in such difficult moments. Guiding your students the best you can helping them to adapt to a different world and prepare to a new the future. Give them hope, joy help them not to be so anxious.

Your mission from the heart!


G-Souto

16.01.2022
Copyright © 2021G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®


Education : Best of 2021 : Semester #1 bG-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.






Saturday, January 8, 2022

Schools : Professor Stephen Hawking : Google Arts & Culture exhibition & other virtual resources

 



Stephen Hawking

via Financial Times

Anyone, anywhere in the world should have free, unhindered access to not just my research, but to the research of every great and enquiring mind across the spectrum of human understanding."

Stephen Hawking

Happy birthday Professor Stephen Hawking! The cosmic superhero never ceased to amaze his admirers. I am one of his admirer!

As I do during the first week in January every year, I took some time off to relax with family. 

Well, today, 8 January let's talk about Stephen Hawking...


 



  • Google Doodle:

Today, 8 January, Google released a Doodle celebrating what would have been Stephen Hawking’s 80th birthday. One of history’s most influential scientific minds, English cosmologist, author, and theoretical physicist. 

From colliding black holes to the Big Bang, his theories on the origins and mechanics of the universe revolutionized modern physics while his best-selling books made the field widely accessible to millions of readers worldwide. 





Stephen Hawking's 80th Birthday


Google worked with his family to create a video Doodle that gives us a condensed version of his life. Moreover, the tech giant used Hawking's famous computer-generated voice to narrate his work and experiences from the time he graduated. 

The two and a half minute-long video gone live in the US at midnight ET 8 January (9pm PT) and includes a narration in the physicist’s own computer-generated voice (created and used with permission from his estate) outlining his work and painting a message of hope for the future.

"Here’s to an innovator whose astronomical impact changed how the world understands the universe!" 

Doodler Matthew Cruickshank






Stephen Hawking
credit: David Montgomery/ Getty Images

  • Some biographical facts:

As we know, Stephen William Hawking was born on this day in 1942 in Oxford, England. Fascinated by how the universe functioned from a young age, his curiosity and intellect earned him the nickname “Einstein.” 

Following a diagnosis with a neurodegenerative disease at 21, the music of composer Richard Wagner and the loving support of his future wife Jane Wilde motivated Hawking to dedicate himself to physics, math, and cosmology. 

In 1965, Hawking defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Cambridge, Properties of Expanding Universes, which presented the revolutionary theory that space and time originated from a singularity, a point both infinitely small and dense, best known today as the key characteristic of black holes. 





Stephen Hawking

credit: David Montgomery/ Getty Images

https://www.gettyimages.com/


That year, Hawking was accepted as a research fellow at Cambridge’s Gonville and Caius College - his academic home for a lifetime of research. Hawking’s obsession with black holes led to his 1974 discovery that particles could escape black holes. This theory, coined Hawking radiation, is widely considered his most important contribution to physics. 







credit: Menanhem Kahana/ AFP/ Getty Images


In 1979, Hawking’s groundbreaking work on black holes prompted Cambridge to appoint him as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a position held by Isaac Newton in 1669. Hawking’s doctoral thesis was released to the public in 2017 on a University of Cambridge website, which crashed due to enormous amounts of traffic.





A brief
ster
1st edition (1988)


In 1988 Hawking catapulted to international prominence with the publication of A Brief History of Time. The short, informative book became an account of cosmology for the masses and offered an overview of space and time, the existence of God and the future. 

The work was an instant success, spending more than four years atop the London Sunday Times' best-seller list. Since its publication, it has sold millions of copies worldwide and been translated into more than 40 languages. 





Stephen Hawking
credit: Frederick M. Brown/ Getty Images, 2010


The scientific icon and cultural figure made tremendous contributions to physics and cosmology, deepening and expanding our understanding of the universe, and the lifecycle of black holes.

He also made grave warnings about the future of the planet.

In recent years, Hawking has implored humanity to keep thinking about the long-term future of our species. He has expressed grave concern about climate change and whether we should consider the advent of artificial intelligence (AR) as a threat to humanity. 




Stephen Hawking
Bedder/Getty Images 
for Breakthrough Prize Foundation

He has said colonizing other planets will be essential for our long-term survival. 

“We are running out of space and the only places to go to are other worlds,” 

Stephen Hawking



Stephen Hawking
The Royal Society


Education:

"Extraordinary quotes on life and the universe would make a wonderful short animated film. Not only is animation visual, its fundamentals are built on time and space, subjects that align perfectly with cosmology."

Doodler Matthew Cruickshank

Stephen Hawking would've turned 80 on January 8th, 2022 had he still been alive. While he's no longer with us, his contribution to our understanding of the universe remains immense and shouldn't be forgotten. 

As teachers, we can not forget neither our students the physicist and brighter star Stephen Hawking as an innovative mind, a visionary and creative mind in the field of cosmology. 

We must pay tribute to a man who didn't give up diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21. His courage, persistence and scientific work inspired us as global audiences in the millions. 

The message? 

"To approach life with the energy, humor, and optimism that Stephen did every day."

Doodler Matthew Cruickshank


Resources: 

  • Infographics




credit: BBC/ Comic Release
via Biography


  • Google Arts & Culture

Google Arts & Culture is celebrating Stephen Hawking with a new exhibition : "Meet the man who changed our understanding of the Universe!"





"Meet the man who changed our understanding of the Universe!"


"It can be done!"

Teachers! Here's a wonderful motivation to include Stephen Hawking into your school curricula. Every curriculum! The virtual exhibition on Google Arts & Culture is marvelous. The introduction is so touching! His message of hope to a better understanding of our planet must be seen and heard by our students!

"I have spent my life travelling across the universe inside my mind."


To young students, begin with the video doodle. They will love hear the voice of the scientist. And will follow him.

"Be brave, be curious, be determined!" 


G-Souto

08.01.2022
Copyright © 2022G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com® 
Licença Creative Commons
Schools : Prof. Stephen Hawking : Google Arts & Culture exhibition & other resources ! by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.