Author: Shawn McGirr

Co-host of Middle School Matters Podcast.
TechBy Shawn McGirr, ,

Social Studies and Virtual Environments: ISTE SL

Tonight I had the opportunity to “attend” the presentation in Second Life on Social Studies and virtual environments.  The presentation was hosted by ISTE and presented by Spiff Whitfield who leads the Second Life group, Virtual Pioneers.  They meet every two weeks and tour together.  It began as a small group of teachers in New England and has expanded to include teachers in other countries.  They can be found over at the Lighthouse Learning Island (Kathy Shrock).

“Spiff” highlighted several places they have visited:

  1. Chateau de Versailles:  Tour guides available.
  2. The Alamo at ISTE Island.
  3. Antiquity, TX – a real town, includes role play simulations
  4. Olana History Museum:  a replica of Frederick Church’s home.
  5. Alhambra, Spain – The site is a crossroads between Muslim and Spainish cultures.
  6. Virtual Babylon (somewhat locked down) – actual pictures of artifacts.
  7. Holocaust Museum – delivers the same effect as the Washington D.C. Holocaust Museum and includes some of the elements of the D.C. exhibits.
  8. Land of Lincoln – replicas of Lincoln’s Whitehouse, a typical town of that era, Civil War encampment, a library, and numerous resources on all things Lincoln.  (Thanks Daisyblue Hefferman for the info!)
  9. Virtual Harlem – a virtual tour of Harlem in the 1920’s including the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater.
  10. Caribbean House Oronoque Brownstone – architecture from 1920’s Harlem.
  11. Plymouth Replica, Plymouth 1620 – There are native islands around as well as this one that pertains to Pilgrims and Puritans.  There is a tour of the Mayflower in the harbor as well.
  12. Capitol Hill North – Tour government buildings.
  13. Norma Underwood’s Island (EduIsland) – resources for teachers.

Check out the Virtual Pioneers video describing their tours and association.  They also have a Ning site where you can connect with them.

NMSA08, TechBy Shawn McGirr,

Will Richardson’s Session

I think one of the statements that made me think the most came out of
Will Richardson’s session the first day.  He talked about how he had
his kids take classes via Skype from “teachers” across the globe on
subjects they self-selected.  I had to chuckle when he described how
one lesson couldn’t finish because the teacher was a 12 year old in
Sweden and it was past his bedtime, so the teaching had to come to a
close for the afternoon.  The opportunity to choose one’s teachers
from a pool of teachers across the globe and move outside the brick-
and-mortar school is a powerful notion in an age of electronic
portfolios.  There were a great many things to take away from the
conference, but the potential of that idea has weighed heavy in my
reflection on the conference, especially when considering the places
we could go with curriculum in the future and the variety of subjects
that could be offered if a collaborative community of middle schools
harnessed it.  Yes, potentially years away . . .

NMSA08By Shawn McGirr

NMSA08: Day One – Pre-Conference post

Woot! I’m in Denver! Made the short walk over to the convention center and into the queue for registration. Really short lines in the express check-in made getting the conference materials a breeze. The non-express lines were not huge, but there was a short wait time involved. Exhibit hall opens at 9:00 I believe and then the three concurrent sessions with Alan November topping off the day. I’ve got two sessions picked and am working on the third. In the short space of time between all of those, I might change the other two, so I’m not stating what sessions I’m going to here.

Judith Baenen is presenting on H.E.L.P. Living With A Preadolescent and I might go to that one on Friday. I have heard her speak before in Ohio and always walk away reminded of the foibles of transescents in a humorous way, who the adult is in the classroom, and how I can be a better teacher for my students.

Picked any sessions yet yourselves? Let us know and let NMSA know over at NMSA08.ning.com.

By the way, if you see Troy or I, stop us and say hello.  One of us might have some bag swag for you …

advisoryBy Shawn McGirr

Advisory Idea: “Wreck This Journal”

Take up journaling with a twist.  Keri Smith has created a journal that fits in nicely with advisory.  Wreck This Journal is designed to create something new and unique through destroying part of the journal in the process.  Pages like “Chew this page” and “Draw with glue” approach journaling from a much different angle than students are used to.  It takes the student into another way of looking at an everyday task.  The final project in the journal is to tape it shut and mail it to yourself, a sealed time capsule of the year.  I’m told that some Language Arts teachers use it in their classes so asking around the building first might be a good idea.  Any of you used it with your students?

advisoryBy Shawn McGirr

Economics

Math and Language Arts have taken center stage since NCLB and mandated state testing.  With the recent economic events and news, there’s a good opportunity to integrate both with Social Studies in the next 40 or so days.

The National Council on Economic Education provides resources on economics that can be purchased, however there are a number of online printable resources you can get for free. Relevant topics include:

Real Estate – Home buying

Supply/Demand/Cartels – Gasoline

Risk vs. Return on Investment: I, II, III

Banking – Credit

There are many more and they have the correlation to the National Economic Education standards listed either in the lesson plan or on the site itself.  Some of these could be used in an advisory as a lead in to a discussion about local jobs and microeconomic principles.

MSMBy Shawn McGirr

A Fish Tank for Your Classroom!

They say that watching fish can lower your blood pressure and reduce stress.  Both of those are coming with the beginning of school and so in the interest of keeping our audience healthy and entertained, I’d like to direct you to the Lake Superior State University’s Fish Cam.  Use this on your computer at work to reduce your blood pressure and stress.  This way you won’t have to clean an actual fish tank, feed actual fish, or worry about which kid is going to take them home for the summer!  Now where did I put my fishing pole and WonderBread Silver Streaks . . .

I’ll be on Lake Michigan this week going after the salmon.  Wave and I’ll wave back.