Thursday, September 19, 2013

August roundown of the most-read posts



Credits: © GSouto
Sunset on Atlantic Ocean at Porto
Portugal

I know I know! Your saying August roundown of the most-read posts on September 19? Ok! You know I can explain!

First week of September, i was enjoying my summer holiday in Paris. It has been wonderful! Walking on the streets of Paris, all along the 'quais' de la Seine, traversing the beautiful bridgesvisiting Musée d'Orsay, Petit Palais Museum, Centre Pompidou, some monuments, the Bagatelles parc, attending two concerts. Oh! So nice. I had an incredible time!

Back home, I had the time to write just one post about MEDEA Awards before travelling again for two days.

This time, on work! I went to Lisbon to attend the Great Lisbon Conference on Games and TEL. Later, I will write my impressions about the conference.

But now, let's doing about August roundown. This is the five posts in my Summer Learning School Series of August. These are some posts with resources, tips and tools for you to try something  new or something you can take to your classroom now that we're all back to school. 

I added seven posts, on different subjects in August. Here my list of the 5 most-read of the month - presented in most reading order - together with a quote or two.

My frequent readers know that I write in three different languages: English, Français and Português.

And I am glad to see that the most-read post of August is Musique au collège: Debussy & Google doodle (en français). If you are my regular reader you know I am pledging for Music as a serious curriculum in shool education.

Google Doodle Debussy

Je ne pourrais pas perdre ça! Google Doodle rend hommage à Claude Debussy! Aujourd'hui, 22 août 2013, le compositeur français fait l'objet d'un Doodle mondial de la part de Google.

En effet, la célébration du 151ème anniversaire de la naissance de Claude Debussyest marquée par une animation sur la page d’accueil du géant de la recherche.
Éducation:

La Musique a toujours occupé une place particulière sur mon blog et dans mes cours de Langues. Selon moi, l'enseignement de la musique doit faire partie d'une éducation intégrale de tous les enfants, dès les premières années.

Apporter des connaissances sur la musique, développer des compétences pour écouter et produire la musique, doivent former les deux axes pédagogiques majeurs de l’éducation musicale dans l’enseignement scolaire. 

On connait bien ses bénéfices! La concentration, coordination, mémoire, auto-estime, joie, entre autres.

Pour l'instant, je vous propose juste de faire une belle motivation en introduisant le Doodle interatif 'free' dédié à Debussy dans l'une de vos leçons.

Disciplines: Langues; Musique; Arts (l'interdisciplinarité est bien venue)

Outils: Tablettes tactiles, smartphones, iphones.



La rentrée 2013. Allez! On y est depuis le 3 Septembre. Beaucoup de nouvelles réformes.

Ma pensée va aux 'nouveaux' jeunes enseignants! C'est tellement dur les premiers jours de cours! Et sans formation! Les rythmes,  les élèves - oh! ils ont le flair quand ils regardent les professeurs 'nouveaux' - et l'année sera difficile! Faut pas dire non.

Heureusement, il y a toujours des profs plus expérimentés qui vous soutiendront! N'hésitez pas d'appeler 'au secours' quand vous vous sentez paniquer!

Vacances, rythme scolaire, matières, évaluations... qu'est-ce qui va changer cette nouvelle année?

Certaines réformes seront mises en place, à commencer par celle des rythmes scolaires. 


Un meilleur accompagnement des jeunes professeurs


Ah! Voilà! On pense aux jeunes enseignants! La formation

Tout le monde sait que l'une des grosses difficultés des jeunes enseignants ces dernières années, c'était le manque de formation. Ils ne bénéficiaient plus d’une formation à la gestion d’une classe, et étaient catapultés directement dans les salles de cours, souvent dans des zones sensibles. 

Des écoles supérieures du professorat et de l’éducation (ESPE) seront créées dès la rentrée.  

Les professeurs y feront une formation pratique pour apprendre à enseigner, transmettre leur savoir, gérer mieux une classe agitée, savoir introduire les technologies. Pas si faciles que ça bien qu'ils appartiennent déjà tous à l'ère du numérique.
  

"In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they’ve never seen before. They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the modern economy. What is it like to be a child in these new education superpowers?"

Parents and Teachers:The Smartest Kids in the World. Amanda Ripley's new book is on sale since August 13, 2013. It chronicles life inside the world's new education superpowers.

In the new book, The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way, the journalist for Time and The Atlantic magazines, and author Amanda Ripley sets the scene for what is turning out to be battle for the soul of US Education.

Using PISA 2009 results as the backbone of her story, Ripley sets out to find out why it is that American students are falling behind their contemporaries in countries that aren’t as wealthy or innovative as the United States.

“PISA could not tell me how those countries got so smart, or what life was like for kids in those countries, day in and day out, compared to life in America,” 

Amanda Ripley's book 



Credits video: Amanda Ripley's website 

So, she followed three Americans embedded in these countries for one year. Kim, 15-year-old, moving from Oklahoma to Finland; Eric, 18-year-old, exchanging a high-achieving Minnesota suburb for a booming city in South Korea for a year; and Tom, 17, leaving a historic Pennsylvania village for a gritty city in Poland

According to Amanda Ripley, parents have a critical role to play - but not always in the way we think. Effective parents "let their children make mistakes and then get right back to work. They teach them good habits and give them autonomy," 


Perseid 2012
David Harpe, Boulder USA

"We have found that one meteor shower produces more fireballs than any other," (...) "It's the Perseid meteor shower, which peaks on August 12th and 13th."

Bill Cooke, NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office 

Catching the Falling Stars: Science curriculum. According to NASA research, the upcoming Perseid meteor shower produces more fireballs — bright meteors that streak across the sky — than any other annual shower, earning it the title of "fireball".


Of course, you must keep the idea of the beauty and the pedagogical watching of this marvelous summer falling stars shower.

Education:

Most of us were on vacation. But students could watch this exciting event of the summer with family or in campus summer.

Back to school, i you are a Sciences teacher you can do amazing lessons displaying this video or other to explain the Perseid show.

"The Perseid are the highlight of the astronomical calendar and a must see! They are ideal for those who want to see a meteor/ shooting star for the first time.






"Every child needs nature. Not just the ones with parents who appreciate nature. Not only those of a certain economic class or culture or gender or sexual identity or set of abilities. Every child."
Richard Louv

Education: Time for Vitamine 'N'. It is not the first time I write about the importance of Nature in Education. Children's Day: let's go outdoor; Environmental Education and outdoorWorld Environmental Day in School EducationIberian wolf as environmental education; are some of the publications on my blog. My regular readers know well.



So The Nature Principle and Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv could be interesting for parents and for teachers, of course if they are new for you.

Education:

Research suggests that exposure to the natural world – including nearby nature in cities – helps improve human health, well-being, and intellectual capacity in ways that science is only recently beginning to understand.

What do we know about how human beings, particularly children and young people are affected by the absence of nature’s intrinsic benefits? 

And teachers! Believe it! Nature is also good for stimulating creativity. Research shows that children play more creatively in free, outside space and will be more creative in school activities.

Well, we all deserve some vacation after a good school year. And summer time is the most most enjoyable time of the year. Hoping you had a wonderful summer time break and you are back to school fresh and full of new ideas to share with your students in the classroom.

G-Souto

20.09.2013
Copyright © 2013G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Licença Creative Commons
August rundown of the most-read posts bG-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.


Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Schools : Léon Foucault in Physics curriculum : resources





Léon Foucault 
credits: BNF/ Gallica

Jean Bernard Léon Foucault was a 19th century French physicist who made contributions to a number of areas like photography and polarization. However, he is probably best known for the creation of the Foucault Pendulum, which is the the focus of today’s interactive Google Doodle on what would have been Foucault’s 194th birthday

When the pendulum was first displayed in Paris in 1851, it captured the world’s attention. The Foucault Pendulum was the first experiment that demonstrated the Earth’s rotation in an observable way.

  • Google Doodle:



Google Doodle Léon Foucault's 194th Birthday

No, today is not about Nicolau Copernicus ! The interactive Google Doodle of today, September 18th is about the celebration of the 194th anniversary of the French physicist on Foucault. It is based on the Foucault pendulum - an innovative device Foucault created to demonstrate the effect of the earth’s rotation.





Leon Foucault uses his pendulum to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth at the Pantheon in Paris, 1851 
illustration by Mary Evans, Science Source

Foucault was born the 18 September 1819 in Paris. He presented his theory of Earth’s rotation at an exhibition in Paris, in the Meridian of the Paris Observatory in 1851, building a 67-metre pendulum that moved clockwise, proving the ground below it was moving counter-clockwise. Foucault caused a sensation with his famous pendulum experiment.

A few weeks later, Foucault made his most famous pendulum when he suspended a 28-kg brass-coated lead bob with a 67-m-long wire from the dome of the Panthéon, Paris.

The original bob used in 1851 at the Panthéon was moved in 1855 to the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in Paris.





Léon Foucault and his pendulum at Panthéon of Paris
credits: Fototeca Gilardi 

  • Some biographical notes:




Léon Foucault
via Science Photo Library

Foucault was born the son of a publisher in Paris on September 18, 1819 and originally studied medicine, but was forced to give it up after developing a fear of blood. He is described:

"Nothing about the boy announced that he would be illustrious some day; his health was delicate, his character mild, timid and not expansive. The frailty of his constitution and the slow way he worked made it impossible for him to study at college. He was only able to study successfully thanks to the help of dedicated tutors watched over by his mother."

Jules Lissajous





Le Petit Parisien, November 2, 1902 
on the 50th anniversary of the experiment of Léon Foucault

His career as a physicist began shortly after, assisting and collaborating with  Alfred Donne and Hippolyte Fizeau.

In 1885 Foucault discovered that the force required for the rotation of a copper disc becomes greater when it is made to rotate with its rim between the poles of a magnet, the disc at the same time becoming heated by the eddy current or “Foucault currents” induced in the metal.






Foucault knife-edge

Two years later he invented the Foucault polarizer, and in 1888 devised a method of testing the mirror reflecting telescope to determine its shape – the so-called Foucault knife-edge test which is still used in amateur telescopes.

Foucault died of multiple sclerosis on February 11, 1868 at the age of 48 after being made a member of many of the top scientific societies in Europe.

His name among those of seventy-two French scientists, engineers, and mathematicians is engraved on the Eiffel Tower.





credits: UC Davis


Education:

“His teachers described him as lazy, he did not submit work on time, so that his mother had to employ tutors to educate him at home."

As we know, sometimes, the best students in school are not the 'genius' they will become! Einstein, and a good number of great scientists, musicians or poets demonstrate that.

From time to time we discover 'little genius' among our students! They are not the brightest in the classroom, but we feel that they have something special And we do everything to help them to understand their inner skills in order to develop them later,  finding their own path.

They are disconnected from the school, distracted, sometimes with a 'disruptive' behavior and even too shy. We pay attention and encourage them as 'special' students they are and need a different kind of individual encouragement in-person lessons and online learning.


Resources:

  • Interactive Doodle:


  • Well, the Google doodle will be a good interactive digital resource to include into school curriculum, if you a are teaching Physics.

    The Doodle allows students to manipulate the swinging bob according to where on earth they happen to be.

    Level: Secondary Education

    Curriculum : Sciences ; Physics.







  • Videos:












  • Books:




Léon Foucault
William Tobin

  • Sciences et Histoire : langue française




Foucault's Pendulum
Umberto Eco,1988


In 1988, the Italian novelist and essayist Umberto Eco wrote "Foucault's Pendulum" which will become a world bestseller translated into France two years later.

Synopsis:

Bored with their work, three Milanese editors cook up "the Plan," a hoax that connects the medieval Knights Templar with other occult groups from ancient to modern times. This produces a map indicating the geographical point from which all the powers of the earth can be controlled - a point located in Paris, France, at Foucault’s Pendulum.(...)

It would be interesting if students - up-to 15 years-old - read this novel  of multilayered semiotic adventure created by Eco. A superb cerebral reading.






After all, we can always enriched our lessons with different resources and activities. You can include Foucault's pendulum into different lessons and organize events or activities with the students to present at the school.

Schools are the best networks of 
teaching and learning. Schools and teachers have an important role aiming to renew and reinvigorate global knowledge as they have the mission to educate children and adolescents as future citizens.


Be creative! Use your imagination and students creativity. They are the great motivators to our lessons!



G-Souto



18.09.2013
Copyright © 2013G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Licença Creative Commons
Schools : Léon Foucault in Physics curriculum : resources by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Out on work ! Lisbon ! Great LX International Conference on Games & TEL




Great LX | Great Lisbon International Conference 
on Games & TEL



Great LX | Great Lisbon International Conference 
on Games & TEL




Lisboa, Portugal
photo: Nuno Trindade, Photography



Lisboa, Portugal
photo: Nuno Trndade, Photography


Out to Lisbon to attend the Great Lisbon International Conference on Games & TEL September 15-16, 2013. The Great LX will take place at ISCTE - IUL, Lisbon.

Claudio Dondi, Edelberto Costa, Maja Pivec, Ana Passos, the organizing committee presidency of the GREAT Lisbon Conference on Games&TEL is convene to join speakers and participants for an interesting and pleasant moment for the future of learning in Europe.





Great LX | Great Lisbon International Conference 
on Games & TEL

To have contact with the Games Based Learning (GBL) method is to know the new trends in Europe (and, come to discover, in the world) on the development of structured learning development of behavioral skills using digital fun games.


Some speakers are well known. I think the conference will be great. I hope so! 

I will let you know when I come back.

G-Souto

15.09.2013
Copyright © 2013G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Licença Creative Commons
Out on work ! Lisbon ! Great LX Conference on Games & TEL bG-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.