Unusual and useful sites.

Here is an interesting article on how Generation Y students are harder to teach. You can read the post here.

For those doing current events, or just interested in the headlines, Newsmap takes the latest headlines and creates a map of them. You can zoom in and click on the story you want to read and it takes you to that link. Stories are color coded according to topic and you can select from major regions of the world. As well, the size of the story box is related to how recent the post was placed there. A creative way to look at the news!

For the artsy types, Zoomquilt takes you on an never ending tour through artistic landscapes. You zoom in on the landscape and it changes to another, and then another, and then another for en eternity. Pretty cool!

If you want your students to be familiar with an excerpt from a movie, but either can't find it or don't want to show it, they can listen to an excerpt at Listentoamovie.com. They have about 1500 movies you can choose from and students simply listen to a section of it. You could have your students visualize what is going on - great for Drama or Art.

Finally, here is a great site for Chemistry teachers. Chalkbored.com lists assignments and links that can be used in Chemistry classes. Probably worth a look.

Spring Break Reading

As we near spring break, here are some interesting articles you might like to check out. This is also a good time to check out some of the previous posts on the blog that you might have liked to investigated earlier but did not have the time.

1. Digital nation - this was mentioned in an earlier posting but if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you watch it over the break. It is a documentary produced by the PBS series Frontline that looks at the impact of digital technology on our society, especially younger generations. You can view it in clips at Frontline's website. It is about 90 minutes but very interesting to watch.

2.Visual Learning - this article looks at the impact on math achievement when using visual aids.

You can see it here.

3. Internet Depression - this article looks at the relationship between how much time you spend online and depression. See it here.

4. Friends no more - this article by USA Today looks at how some people are saying "NO" to Facebook and logging off. Read it here.

5. "I" Generation has no off switch - Finally, this article looks at how the latest generation has technology as part of their DNA - figuratively speaking. Read it here.

If you have any other requests or other things you'd like to know about, please let me know. At the March staff meeting you will have time to investigate some of the posts on the blog as well as some others I will give you. Feel free to check them out any time.

Enjoy the readings and have a good spring break.