"And spring comes green again to trees and grasses
Where petals have been shed like tears
And lonely birds have sung their grief."
Tu Fu, A Spring view (extract)
Springtime! Well, a little chilly, but is Springtime! This rundown of the most-read posts of March is shorter because I have been out to Brussels on work.
And March was Easter time too. So students and teachers were out from school.
On my blog I share some free pedagogical proposals and ideas for activities to include into school curriculum.
When I find something new and interesting,I love to transform these resources in pedagogical tools considering how they add to my thinking and practice.
The classroom must be an open space. Students must feel free to talk and learn about all the subjects they care about, or are curious, in and around every curriculum.
So, I really thank my usual readers - teachers no doubt! - who continue to follow my posts and reading the last ones.
Here the five most-read posts of March:
World Poetry Day at school is the most read post of the last month. World Poetry Day is an opportunity for children to be introduced to poetry in at school (all levels). It is a time when classrooms are busy with lessons related to poetry, in which students examine poets and learn about different types of poetry.
© Peter Reynolds drawing
"In celebrating World Poetry Day, UNESCO wishes also to promote the values that poetry conveys, for poetry is a journey – not in a dream world, but often close to individual emotions, aspirations and hopes. Poetry gives form to the dreams of peoples and expresses their spirituality in the strongest terms-- it emboldens all of us also to change the world."
Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO
This year is meant to support poetry, return to the oral tradition of poetry recitals, promote teaching poetry, restore a dialogue between poetry and the other arts such as theatre, dance, music, painting and so on, support small publishers and create an attractive image of poetry in the media so that the art of poetry will no longer be considered an outdated form of art but one.
I would like to celebrate on this day the Portuguese poetry for children and youth. So I suggest two books from the Portuguese poet Manuel António Pina, the Portuguese poet who died last October, 2012.
Manuel António Pina, awarded with the famous Prémio Camões 2011. He didn't wrote only for youth. Manuel A. Pina is one of most important Portuguese writers. His books are translated in Spanish, Danish and Bulgarian.
Science-fiction Literature and Google doodle. Google celebrated Douglas Noel Adams and his famous science-fiction series "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" with an amazing doodle.
Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 - 11 May 2001) was an English writer, humorist and dramatist.
Love Google doodles! They could be introduced in any curriculum as I already wrote. And I write a lot of Google doodles. It combines creativity, digital culture and motivation to fantastic school lessons. You must think about it.
Here, a good motivation to one or two lessons about Science-Fiction in Literature.
The day that Adams died (May 11, 2001) Oxford University professor and author Richard Dawkins wrote:
"Science has lost a friend, literature has lost a luminary, the mountain gorilla and the black rhino have lost a gallant defender (he once climbed Kilimanjaro in a rhino suit to raise money to fight the cretinous trade in rhino horn), Apple Computer has lost its most eloquent apologist."
April 2 is always a very special day! International Children's Book Day! It is a wonderful day for teachers who love to read in the classroom and for students who love to share new books/e-books!
I love books, I love children books, I love reading, I love reading in my lessons.
The United States was the sponsor country 2013! The theme was "Bookjoy around the World", Ashley Bryan was the poster designer, Pat Mora wrote the message that can be read here.
Oh! But April 2, 2013 haa another awesome event! Google celebrated the 366th brithday of Maria Sibylla Merian with a beautiful Doodle featuring various forms of small wildlife – butterflies, caterpillars, a lizard, and more.
Google doodle Maria Sibylla Merian's 366th Birthday
https://www.google.com/doodles/
German-born Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was one of the greatest naturalist and scientific illustrator.
Education:
You know me! I am a huge fan of reading at school. And I don't miss a good resource to introduce in every day lesson!
Today, we are very lucky! We have two fantastic activities to share with our students!
Today, we are very lucky! We have two fantastic activities to share with our students!
We could enriched International Children's Book introducing Maria Sibylla Merian as a different kind of reading.... and discovering.
Earth Hour
Saturday 23 March was Earth Hour 2013! At 8:30 PM (local time), lights switched off around the globe for Earth Hour and people have committed to actions that gone beyond the hour.
In 2011 more than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour 2011!
In 2012, more than 7,000 cities and towns in 152 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour, but Earh Hour 2013 was the largest climate campaign ever!
In 2012, more than 7,000 cities and towns in 152 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour, but Earh Hour 2013 was the largest climate campaign ever!
Education:
Students like to commit on environmental causes. A lot! They dare and they do! I wrote about Earth Hour 2011 and Talking about Earth Hour with students.
My ex-students prepared a post on their blog Hora do Planeta 2013. They are amazing! They continue their blog even they left school. They are now preparing to college. But they are enthousiastic environmentalists and they committed to continue their green blog.
I am sure that you prepared your lessons carefully and your students were well motivated to dare to save the Planet, March 23 8:30-9:00PM (local time).
UN
World Water Day & Education & Education was observed on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
Education:
As you see, educators must be prepared for all kinds of events to share and teach. March is an inspirational month! Perhaps it is about Spring?
We had World Poetry Day, Arbor Day and Forest International Day! Wow so much to talk about and inspire our students!
The success of the "International Year of Water Cooperation" and the World Water Day depends on the involvement of everyone! We start this involvement at school, don't you agree? It is at school that future citizens of the world start.
We could start with this infographic where students could vizualize the importance of Freshwater. And we continue to different activities.
As regular readers know, I have been out in Brussels to participate at the European Forum Learning Futures and Innovaton. I had to prepare my presentation the last two weeks before. And I came home on 20 March.
So, it was a bit difficult to me to write three posts in three days in a row but... not impossible.
Regular readers know that blogging is a free contribution to inspire new teachers, when I have the time between work and scientific writing.
I really hope that you will enjoy every pedagogical proposal published in March and you will discover some new pedagogical ideas to introduce in your lessons.
I thank you very much to all the colleagues from around the world that kindly read my blog but are shy (?) to become followers.
“When one is building a ship, one does not begin with gathering timber and cutting planks, but rather by arousing in people the yearning for the great wide sea.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
G-Souto
09.04.2013
Copyright © 2013G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®
March rundown of the most-read posts by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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