Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Facebook for Teachers: Everything You Didn't Know You Need to Know (and Everything You Do)


Ever wonder how to use Facebook for your teaching? Ever wonder if you should?  Has a student tried to friend you?  If you've ever scratched your head over these questions, you'll want to check out this article on Mashable, the very thorough The Teacher's Guide to Facebook.  It tells you how to maintain your privacy and discusses when it's appropriate or not to friend students.  But it goes beyond that to explore ways to use Facebook for teaching and other common situations like running activities or clubs. 
How have you used Facebook in your teaching?  Have you ever friended a student, and did that work out well or poorly for you? We'd love to hear from you!

Thursday, October 11, 2012

And now for...a guitar solo on a plant?

Science teachers might want to check out the video below.  It would make a pretty engaging project about electricity, assuming (and you're the experts here) it wouldn't electrocute your students.
Booooooom.com, an art and creativity website, had a contest in which people were asked to make a homemade machine.  As it happened the winners both produced machines that make music.  Here's one of the winning entries from Buenos Aires, Argentina:

Kraft test drummie & Robert Plant from NormanBates on Vimeo.

According to Booooooom, Cristian Martínez’s submission is a modified toy affixed with metal sponges, car antennas, and crocodiles clips. He is accompanied by his friend Isis Abigail on an oscillator, using herself and a plant as variable resistor. I love how Isis’ really goes off near the end.