School videos have morphed from the familiar VHS tape for the VCR to a variety of digital video formats delivered through DVDs, computers, interactive white boards and the Internet. However, like all educational resource media, it’s not what method of conveying ideas to students that counts, but how well you use design your lesson to optimize your instructional media.

Educational Video resources still have some unique benefits:

1. Video is an essential tool for studying works of literature. Instead of seeing words on a page and struggling with archaic language, your students can see the characters in full costume with all the settings in place. By reading sections of a work and then showing the corresponding section of a dramatization, you reinforce the language with visual and audio sensory input to help student build context for the story and an understanding of the elements of the story.

2. Videos can enhance practical sessions. Modeling of behaviors, processes and activities are especially helpful in classroom lessons because of time and resource restrictions. For example, elementary scientific videos can show how the questions are asked and how experiments are run. By showing a science process video, you can then move into lessons and experiments with your students understanding what they are supposed to do so there is more time for personal inquiry and discovery of the actual concepts. A Because video allows for slow motion replay, a school video can show students exactly how a particular technique or maneuver is done – especially if the video itself shows it in close up.

3. Videos can show things that normally can’t be seen with the naked eye. Those who film videos use techniques like photomicrography (i.e. using a microscope while filming), night vision and time-lapse photography. This has some immense benefits for science classes.

4. Videos make the impossible possible. Through viewing a video, your students will be able to visit the bottom of the ocean, the centre of the earth, the moon or the middle of a volcano – or else travel through time.

However, videos have to be used correctly, as is the case for all educational media resources. A lesson that involves just plugging in the machine and switching it on won’t be as effective as one that is carefully planned. You need to activate your students for the coming lesson.

Lessons involving school videos should have three phases:

(a) Before viewing: this is where you should explain why you’re watching the video and give some “point”, usually the lesson objective, to watching it.

(b) While Viewing: Don’t just switch it on. Start the video; show an image; stop the video. This is a perfect point for anticipatory set questions or a KWL activity. As you continue through the lesson or the video, use the video for summarizing, predicting and hypothesizing all the while vocabulary is being introduced verbally and usually with text and definitions. Discuss the vocabulary and then use is as part of your guided lesson and general practice. There are many opportunities to expand on concepts that support your lesson objective. By being familiar with the video you are using your efficiency for time and material will be greater.

(c) After watching. Make sure you allow for some time for discussion or an activity after viewing in order to emphasize the points that you wished to make by showing the video. Refer to the video clips and have your students make connections with the new information they learned and how they can build ideas from it.

Mistakes you don’t even know you’re making can be impacting your lesson. Watch this Free video “The 7 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make Using Video in the Classroom” for some important information on why you should be using school videos and how to use them effectively. Next, download the Expert Guide to add to your lesson planning materials.

By: Kimberly Stohlman

About the Author:

Are you a grade school student or a high school student? Are you the parent of a student who is attending an elementary school, middle school or high school? Are you someone who wants to become an art teacher or science teacher? If you are a parent, do you remember what things were like for you in your art and science classes? Art and science classes can be a lot of fun and I will always possess some fond memories of them. This article discusses the difference between supplies that are needed for some students in their art classes and supplies that are needed for some students in their science classes.

Coloring Things

Students who love or need to color things must have supplies that pertain to coloring. Students who love or need to color objects are going to require having a supply of crayons and markers.

Drawing Characters and Objects

Students who love or need to draw various things such as people, animals, places and objects must attain supplies that pertain to drawing. These students definitely must have things such as chart paper, special construction paper, scissors and a ruler to create straight outlines and precise paper cuts. Colored pencils and other special pencils are usually a necessity for including outlines and employing the use of colors while creating drawings, cartoons and comic strips. Students who draw should also receive books that teach one the fundamentals and techniques of drawing as well as how to employ creativity and a strong imagination.

Painting Things

All students who love or need to paint things must have an apron to protect their clothing from paint. Students who paint need paint and a paint brush. Students who work with water colors need water color palettes and a water color brush.

Conducting Science Experiments and Working with Liquids

Students who possess the desire or need to conduct science experiments or participate in projects that involve liquids must be supplied with things such as a beaker and a flask. Students who work on projects that involve acids, gases or hot liquids must possess an apron and safety goggles. Students who work with dead frogs must be supplied with a scalpel and other equipment that pertains to the art of dissecting frogs.

Learning Some Elements

Students who adore or need to learn about some of the earth’s elements and minerals must have supplies that pertain to this. For example, they should be provided a chart of the earth’s natural elements and minerals and perhaps samples of some elements and minerals.

You have learned about the supplies students need for an art class and a science class.

By: Todd Hicks

About the Author:

There are gender differences in learning styles specific to science, math, engineering and technology (STEM) that teachers of these subjects should keep in mind when developing lesson plans and teaching in the classroom. First, overall, girls have much less experience in the hands-on application of learning principles in lab settings than boys. This could occur in the computer lab, the science lab, or the auto lab – the principle is the same for all of these settings – it requires an overall technology problem-solving schema, accompanied by use and manipulation of tools, and spatial relation skills that very few girls bring with them to the classroom on day one in comparison to boys.

Let’s look at some of the reasons why girls come to the STEM classroom with less of the core skills needed for success in this subject area. Overall, girls and boys play with different kinds of games in early childhood that provide different types of learning experiences. Most girls play games that emphasize relationships (i.e., playing house, playing with dolls) or creativity (i.e., drawing, painting). In contrast, boys play computer and video games or games that emphasize building (i.e., LEGO

]]> http://www.socialstrike.net/gender-differences-in-learning-style-specific-to-science-technology-engineering-and-math-stem/feed 0 http://www.socialstrike.net/the-hardest-lesson-of-all-teaching-children-about-death http://www.socialstrike.net/the-hardest-lesson-of-all-teaching-children-about-death#comments Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:28:13 +0000 admin http://www.socialstrike.net/the-hardest-lesson-of-all-teaching-children-about-death

How many uses can you find for a dead fox? When I happened upon one recently whilst out walking with my children, the poor lifeless creature suddenly became the catalyst for an important family moment. It was an opportunity to talk about death. You won’t find ‘thanatology’ on the curriculum at school, yet it’s the one subject that every child will have to deal with at some point. Thanatology is the little known word used to describe death education, a taboo in our society, especially when dealing with children. They learn about birth in sex education, but our final rite of passage is rarely acknowledged by either school or home.

It is estimated by Winston’s Wish, a charity that works with bereaved children and their families, that 5% of children will experience the death of a parent or sibling, and 10% will lose a parent, carer, close friend or relative. Most children will be aware of the death of someone more distant, or will lose a pet. No matter how idyllic we try to make childhood, death will always be there to cast a shadow.

The modern child’s relationship to death is likely to be a puerile one. Many children are exposed to high levels of glorified violence and death through television and video games. At Halloween they play ghoulish games to confront fears about what lies beyond the grave. However, most children are unlikely to have ever seen a real dead body, or possibly even had a meaningful conversation with an adult about our final destiny. It is important that we share with children the reality of death, not in a morbid, fearful way, but as a natural process and great mystery. We all want children to inhabit a happy, positive world, but to deny them the reality of death also denies them something about the reality of life. In the words of the popular spiritual writer, the late M.Scott Peck, ‘When we shy away from death, the ever-changing nature of things, we inevitably shy away from life.’ Also, if we do not allow the concept of death to gently permeate children’s lives, they will be ill prepared if sudden tragedy were to strike.

The children’s bereavement charity The Gone Forever Project is pressing the Government and Teacher’s Training Agency to include death education in the school curriculum. It wants to ensure that all teachers are trained in the awareness of the issues which surround loss and bereavement, as part of their initial training. Teachers can include death education across the curriculum, as part of emotional literacy in Personal, Social and Health Education, or funeral rituals in Religious Education. Death could also be discussed in science lessons in terms of the lifecycle of the natural world. Schools also often have to respond to real deaths, either of a pupil, a parent or teacher. My son’s junior school recently held an assembly in memory of one its pupils who had died of leukaemia. Helium balloons were released by the children with goodbye messages. Holding such a ceremony was controversial amongst the staff, some of whom thought it might be unnecessarily upsetting. When I went to collect my children, many pupils were weeping. It was terribly sad, but I felt that as well as being an important farewell ritual, it also reminded us all of the value of life. Parents and children seemed to be acutely aware of how much they loved each other that day.

Parents will find that opportunities to discuss death with their children will spontaneously occur. On the simplest level you can point out to your children the cycles of birth and death that exist in nature. Notice together how the flowers first bloom, then die, how autumn and winter follow spring and summer. Discuss the ageing process by observing the physiology between old and young; and like the fox we found at the roadside, there are likely to be animal corpses to contemplate.

The death of a pet often provides children with their first experience of personal grief, and for this reason is a positive learning experience. When a child’s pet dies a parent needs to be sensitive about the loss, no matter how small the animal. An important way of doing this is by making sure there is a thoughtful goodbye ritual. This reassures the child that the pet was cared for, as well as providing a focus for their bereavement. Debbie Orme runs ‘Goodbye My Pet’ a company that makes attractive cardboard pet coffins and grave markers. It also supplies a helpful ceremony book to guide parents and children through a simple pet funeral at home. ‘I get lots of letters from families telling me how much the funeral helped them all come to terms with the loss of their pet. Parents also say that the experience enabled the family to share their beliefs and feelings in a way they wouldn’t normally. Adult pet lovers have used my coffins and ceremony booklets too, with similar results.’ Debbie Orme believes that although the loss of a pet is a sad event for children, if handled well, it can also become a meaningful and memorable family experience.

Children all deal with bereavement in different ways. Typically they may express their feelings through actions rather than words. Young children may wet the bed, cry and seek attention or feel unwell. Older children my display changes in personality, show sleep and appetite disturbances, find it hard to concentrate at school and become depressed. Some children may show no obvious signs of bereavement at all initially. It is quite usual for grief to come in waves and for a child to feel sad one moment, and the next seem perfectly happy. Although talking to children about the death of a person or animal that they love may be one of the hardest things we ever have to do, it is one of the most important ways we can help as they journey through their grief.

Children’s levels of understanding about death

Under twos
Have little concept of death but will still miss the deceased and sense the upset.

Two to four year olds
Find it hard to understand that death is permanent, and may ask when the deceased is coming back.

Five to ten year olds
They begin to understand the finality of death, and can have lots of questions about it.

Adolescence
The finality of death is more fully understood. It may be a time of high emotions, and a reluctance to open up and share with you.

By: Debbie Orme

About the Author:

Second grade science projects are simple and fun to do. You should pick a topic that can hold the interest of the children. At this age they are just learning how to figure things out for themselves, instead of being spoon fed information, and they’re very eager to learn new things. It’s very beneficial to children to start doing experiments at this age; it stimulates their mind and encourages them to think things out.

Some fun experiments for second graders would be to see if a certain type of animal prefers one food over another; such as, do ants prefer sugar over bread? What about white sugar over brown sugar? Other fun 2nd grade science projects is the traditional volcano model, however while this is fun for the kids, it’s not really answering a question. Another idea might be to see if animals behave different when they’re faced with a visual reflection of themselves like a mirror.

If so, what do they do? Try to play with their reflection? Maybe get mad at their reflection? Maybe they even get scared. Does it make a difference if the mirror is up close or a distance away from them? One fun project for young kids might be to see if the shape of a paper airplane affects the distance it will fly. You can test this out by making a long narrow plane and a short stubby plane and seeing which one flies further. There are tons of fun projects for this age group; it’s just a matter of picking one out of many.

By: Dee Schrock

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