Tag: YouTube

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School’s out Friday

Time for another School’s out Friday post. It’s back to work next Monday for me and many other Victorian teachers. School’s been out for a little while for me now so I’ll have to try and get my groove back!

This is Lucas Cruickshank  acting as Fred, his 6 yr old anger management issues character. He’s made about 17 videos for YouTube featuring Fred and had over 45 million views. 45 MILLION! Mind boggling stuff. This video alone has had 4,096,153 views. He sounds like Spongebob Squarepants to me and is equally annoying, but he obviously holds appeal for an audience of what I assume must be a teen or younger audience. If this is what holds their attention then no wonder some of them aren’t interested in the academic content offered in our schools today!  

Have a great weekend. (Enjoy Monday!)

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School’s out Friday

Yes, I am aware it is Thusday and not yet Friday. Tomorrow I’m flying to Sydney to see Garr Reynold’s, of Presentation Zen fame, present about effective presentations. I’m so excited, particularly so because I’ve extended my stay until over the weekend and am going with one of my closest friends. I am taking my laptop, but I’m not intending to post (much). I’m looking forward to the no doubt exhilarating presentation and a relaxing break in the wonderful city that is Sydney.

Thought you’d enjoy this presentation from Mark Gungor about the differences between men’s and women’s brains. If only I’d known this years ago; could have quelled many a marital dispute along the way! 

Hope you have a great weekend (when it finally arrives!)

  

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School’s out Friday

Time for another School’s out Friday. I’ve been on holidays for a week now, but many schools finished today for a two week hiatus. I’m sure you’re up for a bit of a laugh and who better than Melbourne’s own Hamish and Andy to provide just that. This is them engaged in Team Ghosting – Ghosting being a sport they claim to have invented. It requires you to invade the personal space of other people by walking as close as you can to them without them noticing. It’s caught on and been banned in a few schools apparantly. An interesting thing I noticed when watching was the location where this footage was shot – it’s the corner of Swanston St. and Grattan St. and the building they’re in front of used to be called the Melbourne College of Advanced Education; this is where I studied to become a teacher. A little while ago now!!

Have a great weekend.  Rest up those of you who’ve just made it to the hols.   

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School’s out Friday

Yes, I know it’s Saturday. I spent most of last night trying to get my Sliderocket presentation finished and cached. I’ll explain that drama in my next post. Yesterday was the last day of term for me for three weeks and aren’t I glad. That’s not because I want to see the back of the students I teach; far from it. I love my students; they are so giving and bring such joy to my life. I’m just really tired and need some time to regroup and recuperate.  

I first saw this video of Taylor Mali performing his slam poetry ‘What teacher’s make’ on Dennis Harter’s blog, ‘Thinking allowed’. My nine year old son watched it with me. I loved it when he agreed with Taylor when he said he wouldn’t let students go to the toilet because they were bored. My son laughed and said that’s what he does when he’s bored – asks to go to the toilet!   

I just love how Taylor expresses the essence of teaching in this piece. Making a difference is what we do when we’re doing our job well; this should be recommended viewing for all teachers. Taylor deserves a standing ovation. 

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School’s out Friday

Yes, it’s that time again. School’s out Friday. And aren’t I glad to see this Friday. Teachers everywhere are battling through this time of year when assessment and reporting are occupying much of our thinking space. It’s been a lean week for me in terms of this blog – I’ve only posted twice!

Definitely need a laugh to see in the weekend. A colleague sent this to me today and I couldn’t help but join Ethan as he laughed at the simple joy that comes from tearing a sheet of paper. Oh, to have such an uncomplicated life!

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School’s out Friday

This YouTube vid is another recommendation from one of my students. It’s Matrix Ping Pong and is some very clever work from Japan I’m assuming. Being Friday night, I’m too tired to do some further investigation into its origins. It really is a clever piece of theatre – it takes a while before you realise there are people controlling both the ball and the people.

Hope the weekend treats you well.

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Life = risk

I find videos like the one above inspiring. I think it’s good to be reminded that not everyone who has succeeded in life had an easy road to success. When you’ve reached adulthood and worked for quite a few years, I think you know that for every step forward you’ve had to take quite a few steps back. Anytime you tackle something new you take a risk and you have to be prepared to wear the possibility of failure.

That’s how I feel about trying to get people to understand why I think it’s so important to move our students forward with their use of technology as a learning tool. I wonder how our classrooms will look in 10 years time – will the teacher directed classroom still be stock standard practice, or will our focus be on empowering our students to become self-directed learners with teachers as companions and guides in the process of learning? This process is not all about technology, but it can go a long way towards opening up our classrooms to learning experiences that can help our students understand the power of global connections.

It’s a risk to walk this road, but it’s a risk worth taking. No doubt there will be backward steps along the way, but it may result in something great for all of our students. 

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School’s out Friday

This is sorta, dunno, nothing. It’s a fun video on YouTube that was first shown to me by a member of staff. A student recommended it today as a School’s out Friday post. If you’re not Australian, pay close attention to the table and the array of food items on display. There are some iconic items symbolic of Australian cuisine. Despite the strong Australian accents evident throughout, I’m sure this video will be easy to relate to by people from other countries – teenagers worldwide display attributes like this at times!

Have a great weekend!

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Make your maths class fun.

Think I’m having a YouTube week. Flicked into Twitter very briefly today and saw a tweet from Jeff Utecht with the link to this video. Here’s a way to start your next maths lesson – ‘I will derive’ is the name of the YouTube video. It’s all about calculus and uses impetus from Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I will survive’ to make a maths concept more interesting. Who said maths was boring!