Engaging Introductions for First Day of Class One of the things I always try to do at the beginning of class or even a short workshop is give participants opportunities to start building community — and this means that introductions should be engaging for everyone! Here are a few I have tried myself. Collaborative/Connected Introductions I recently tried this approach in a workshop on scholarly collaboration, that I called “collaborative introductions” but can better be called “connected introductions.” I think it would work well for any classroom context, even very young kids. As I introduce myself, I highlight elements of myself (mother, teacher, blogger, worrier, etc).For each element of my identity, I ask who else in the room has it in common. I loved how participants didn’t just focus on exact matches, but tried to find any connection. Guess Who Introductions Sometimes you are entering a roomful of learners who already know each other (think senior class of high schoolers or seniors in a particular major in college). Your Ideas?
OpenStax Chronicling America Mexico - Geert Hofstede If we explore Mexican culture through the lens of the 6-D Model©, we can get a good overview of the deep drivers of Mexican culture relative to other world cultures. Power DistanceThis dimension deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal – it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us. Power Distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. At a score of 81, Mexico is a hierarchical society. This means that people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. IndividualismThe fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members. Mexico, with a score of 30 is considered a collectivistic society. Mexico scores 69 on this dimension and is thus a Masculine society. Long Term Orientation
These Maps Divide the World into Four Income Groups The Global Finance Magazine recently released an article comparing countries by income across the world for 2015, sourcing data from the World Bank. Gross National Income (GNI) per capita is the final income earned by a country’s residents divided by the total population. Countries are divided into 4 different groups: Group 1 - Low income: $1,045 or less Group 2 - Lower middle income: $1,046 to $4,125 Group 3 - Upper middle income: $4,126 to $12,745 Group 4 - High income: $12,746 or more Based on the data of 204 countries, below is a breakdown of the number of countries that fall within each of the 4 income groups listed above. Group 1 - Low income: 17% Group 2 - Lower middle income: 25% Group 3 - Upper middle income: 26% Group 4 - High income: 32% North America Take a look at the breakdown of income from the 11 countries labeled above. High income: 4 countries Upper middle income: 6 countries Low income: 1 country Central and South America Europe East Africa Oceania by Raul
Flag Stories 30 Of The Best Books To Teach Children Empathy | TeachThought 1. El Deafo Going to school and making new friends can be tough. But going to school and making new friends while wearing a bulky hearing aid strapped to your chest? That requires superpowers! The Phonic Ear gives Cece the ability to hear—sometimes things she shouldn’t—but also isolates her from her classmates. 2. August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. 3. The author of the beloved One for the Murphys gives readers an emotionally-charged, uplifting novel that will speak to anyone who’s ever thought there was something wrong with them because they didn’t fit in. 4. 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. In Wonder, readers were introduced to memorable English teacher Mr. 5.The One and Only Ivan Having spent twenty-seven years behind the glass walls of his enclosure in a shopping mall, Ivan has grown accustomed to humans watching him. 6. 7. 8. Cerulean is on the brink of collapse. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 18. 19. 20.
OER Commons Random Writing Prompt Generator with Google Sheets When our students go to write a poem or story or other creative work, a blank page can be both exciting (with so much potential) and intimidating (where do you begin?) One method to help inspire our students’ imaginations is to provide them with writing prompts. It can help them think of new ideas, jog their memories, make a connection, or simply inspire them to try out a topic. But where can they get writing prompts? Certainly there are loads of helpful websites providing multitudes of prompts. However another option is to use a Google Sheet. To prove this I have used Google Sheets to create a “Random Writing Prompt Generator” that randomly pulls from a list of about 2,000 adjectives and 1,000 nouns to create over 2 million unique prompts. You can get a new set of 20 random prompts by refreshing the page in your browser. Students should write down any prompts that seem interesting to them, then refresh the page to get a new list of prompts. =INDIRECT("Adjectives! Help with Rhyming
Grouping Tools for the Classroom Creating groups for differentiation can be hard or easy, depending on how many students you are working with and how often you want to shuffle your groups. In each group, you may want to allow students to self-select a role with accompanying responsibilities or randomly assign the role. This isn’t a difficult task. Another task that can be more onerous is randomly splitting up your class roster into equal-sized groups. Before we explore those, let’s revisit roles and responsibilities students may have. Roles and Responsibilities In my classroom, I like to set up students in a group with various roles and responsibilities. *Adapted from Daily Teaching Tools’ Cooperative Learning Tasks While entire books have been written about cooperative learning, you are hoping to define individual group member roles in a way that eliminates problems, and facilitates the work of the group. Dividing into Groups Tool #1 – Instant Classroom Group Maker Tool #2 – Google Sheets Random Group Generator Save