Best Learning Games of 2013

Larry Ferazzo, of Edublogs, lists what he considers the best learning games of 2013. They include World Geography Games, Inca Investigation, The China Games, Plan It Green Live, Broken Picture Telephone, Jay Is Games, Earth Picker, Lifesaver, Room Escape Maker, GR8CTZ—Great Cities of the World, and LocateStreet. This is the second of the 2013 lists. The first list features Wonderground, Pursued, GeoGuessr, Depression Quest, The Republica Times, Breakaway, Quandary, and Review Game Zone. The Edublog includes links to the recommended games. You’ll also find links to the best games of previous years.

Getting Kids Moving with Sqords

It’s like a pedometer, but not exactly, and sort of like Fitbit, Nike+FuelBand, and Jawbone Up products. This device, known as a Sqord, is designed for kids. Although, it’s not on the market yet, it is being tested by kids, who wear the Sqord PowerBands like a watch. Called one-part game platform, one-part social network, and one-part fitness tracker, the Sqord is like a smart, virtually indestructible pedometer. It tracks action, not just steps, doesn’t need recharging, and comes in great kid-friendly colors. All kids need to do is to swipe their Sqord over a sync station to input their action score. Online, they can compare their score with others, send messages from the Sqord library, and get rewards for their success. According to an NBC News study, children using Sqords didn’t want to stop moving. Schools, like Patrick Henry Elementary in Arlington, Virginia, are discovering the same thing.

Yoga for Student Stress & Anxiety

How about inserting Yoga into your school curriculum? Researchers from Boston’s Brigham and Woman’s Hospital studied high school juniors and seniors who were given yoga class or regular PE classes for a period of ten weeks. Psychological testing showed that the students taking the yoga classes did better in mental health. “Mood problems, anxiety and negative emotions stayed the same or improved among yoga students, but grew worse among those taking regular PE.”  Although not a research study, Celeste Bunting, Head of Lower School at Worcester Prep in Maryland, offers yoga classes to preschool students, because she believes that the sessions help with the mind/body connection, coordination, and focus. Those interested in offering yoga in their schools should look for routines that are appropriate for the targeted age group since the moves introduced must be safe for the students involved. Lead researcher in the Boston study, Jessica Noggle, Ph. D., says, “Yoga may serve a preventive role in adolescent mental health.” —And perhaps it may help students of all ages.

Body Puzzles for the Mind: Fitness for Your Students

Smart Moves: Body Puzzles for the Mind is a fitness program designed to make your students think while listening to music and working through simple to complex body puzzles. The 52-minute CD, which could be called “calisthenics for the brain” includes forty different puzzles. The exercise puzzles are recommended to be used for three to five minutes twice a day in order to help students reduce stress and get their minds ready for learning. The DVD/Video and DVD/Software versions are both priced at $69.95, but district-wide pricing is available from FableVision, which offers the product.

Teacher Morale at 20-Year Low

The MetLife Survey of THE AMERICAN TEACHER, completed between October and August of 2011, talked to 1000+ teachers K-12 by telephone, to 100+ parents and guardians of students in Grades 3-12 online, and almost 1000 students in Grades 3-12. According to the Executive Summary of the report, only 44% of teachers are satisfied with their job and many feel that their job is not secure. Twenty-nine percent of the teachers interviewed said, “They are very or fairly likely to leave the profession.” Why? Answers given by those in the survey included problems of school budgets; layoffs; larger classes; lack of salary increases along with higher insurance costs; reductions in programs in art, music, foreign language, and physical education; reductions in health services; lack of up-to-date technology; and pessimism about student achievement. In 2008, the MetLife Survey showed that 62% of teachers were satisfied with their jobs. 

Amazing Apps to Use in Elementary Classrooms or Homes

Jinny Gudmundsen, USA Today, recommends five super apps for children. One is free and all cost only a few dollars. There’s Painting with Time for the iPad “which lets kids explore how things change over time. With this app, which was partially funded by the National Science Foundation, kids select from tubes of paint that represent different intervals of time.” For example, if landscape is selected, the tubes represent the seasons. When children “paint” with their fingers, they can transform the scene into colors of the different seasons. Other of Gudmundsen’s favorites are the stories: Hogworld: Gnats Adventure for the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android, and Kindle Fire, where children engage in adventures through 3D visuals, sounds and interaction; Cinderella – Nosy Crow Animated Picture Book for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, in which the characters talk to the reader, and on the iPad2, the reader’s face shows up in all the mirrors; and Auryn – Van Gogh and the Sunflowers for the iPad, an eBook that brings Van Gogh’s life and painting to life through visuals and interaction. The app Out-A-Bout for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad uses parent-child interaction as it teaches early reading skills and encourages physical play. The app involves the reader in the story through photos and recordings. All of these apps would be wonderful for our Preschool to Primary students.

Science of NHL Hockey

NBC Learn, NBC Sports, the National Hockey League, and the National Science Foundation have partnered in the release of the 10-Part Series, The Science of NHL Hockey. Science concepts will be featured throughout the series to help “students and teachers see how the principles of science enable players to perform actions such as quickly stopping on ice, passing the puck to a teammate, shooting a slap shot and making a great save.” The movements are captured on high-speed cameras and use frame-by-frame to show science concepts such as Newton’s Laws. Some of the videos in the series will begin Saturday, January 28^th, 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. They will also be available on NHL.com.

Fight Child Obesity with Education

With the growing problems of childhood obesity, educators throughout the nation can do their part in solving this problem by helping children understand why eating the right foods is important. PBS LearningMedia offers a variety of resources on nutrition including a video from Idaho PTV about the absorption of protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water. The video asks students, “What does your body need?” and explains why food like sugars don’t give the nutrients needed. Another PBS resource covers the role of Genetics in Obesity. Some people lack a chemical in their brains that doesn’t tell them when they have eaten enough.  These people are always hungry and always eating, and therefore, gain too much weight. However, people who do not have this problem can also become obese if they eat foods, such as fast foods, that are too high in unhealthy fats and sugars. PBS Learning Media also includes close to 500 resources related to health and physical education. You can search these by media type such as audio, document, images, interactive, and video. 

How to Get Teachers Involved with Tech

Some teachers love technologies and find all sorts of wonderful ways to enhance their courses with computers, other digital devices and media. They are constantly learning about new ways to use tech in their teaching and are eager to tell others about their successes. Others are slower to adapt and seem hesitant to get involved with hardware and software given to them for their use. Years ago, after purchasing what I thought was a particularly wonderful (and expensive) software product for my teachers, I learned that every educator wasn’t going be enthusiastic about what I thought was perfect for their classrooms. The expense was a waste of money. From that experience, I learned two things: (1) that as the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow Study noted, you have to be patient with teacher adoption of technologies, and (2) you have to work with your teachers to find out what types of technologies will work for them and their preferred methods of teaching. In other words, wait until they are ready, while perhaps giving a little push by discussing with them what technologies they could and couldn’t use. Tech only works in classrooms if teachers want to use it. As for that software that no one used—this year there was a request that we purchase that product—a new version, of course. For more on getting teachers to use technology, see Teaching with Technology.

Learn More About Google’s Offerings

Everyone’s talking about Google Docs and how they are useful and economical for our classrooms. Google’s place to start you off right provides you with information about creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations online; sharing and collaborating; safely storing and organizing work, and controlling who can see documents. You might want to take some time to experiment with Google collaboration in action by watching the collaboration demo for documents, spreadsheets and drawing. Google also offers videos that may be helpful in learning how to use Google sites and Docs, understanding Google Chrome, etc. There are Google Webinars as well that you may want to take advantage of.  Check them out at the Google Resource Center.