Our Pearl Harbor Day book review is of Franklin and Winston: A Christmas That Changed the World by Douglas Wood. This book is not specifically about Pearl Harbor, but it is about what happened just afterwards, when English Prime Minister Winston Churchill took the somewhat perilous boat trip overseas to spend Christmas 1941 in the nearly-declared entrant into World War II, the United States. Despite the time it took to sail across the ocean, the book implies it was time well spent because it solidified the relationship between the two countries that would head up the eventually defeat of both Hitler and the Japanese.
This is a picture book, which I've said in previous posts that I think can be very effective for middle schoolers, even thought usually aimed for a younger audience. The story in this book is definitely a bit young for middle schoolers. However, I think it can be appropriate for this age group as "color" about World War II. That is, it gives a good sense of the two men--US President Franklin Roosevelt and English Prime Minister Winston Churchill--and the relationship they forged. It has a number of personal stories, which I think is great because I always believe it is important for students to see this figures as real people, not just heroes in a book or on a test. And it makes students think about how it used to be...when leaders took days or weeks to get together and talk, when we are so used to instant communications.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Curriculum Resource: Interactive Pearl Harbor
Since tomorrow is the 70 year anniversary of "the day that will live in infamy," I figured many of us may be doing at least mini-lessons on the Attack at Pearl Harbor. I know we will.
I found this interactive resource online that I thought I would share. It is an hour-by-hour timeline of the events of that day, interposed on maps of the area. It gives a brief summary of the action, but you can click on each event to read more about it and see photographs related to that topic. Or you can click on small images of some of the eye witnesses or people involved (both Japanese and American) and read their descriptions of the event. It was developed by National Geographic, so it is a high quality production.
It is not overly dramatic, but it is still pretty emotionally effecting...at least was for me.
Check out Remembering Pearl Harbor: Multimedia Map and Timeline on the National Geographic website.
I found this interactive resource online that I thought I would share. It is an hour-by-hour timeline of the events of that day, interposed on maps of the area. It gives a brief summary of the action, but you can click on each event to read more about it and see photographs related to that topic. Or you can click on small images of some of the eye witnesses or people involved (both Japanese and American) and read their descriptions of the event. It was developed by National Geographic, so it is a high quality production.
It is not overly dramatic, but it is still pretty emotionally effecting...at least was for me.
Check out Remembering Pearl Harbor: Multimedia Map and Timeline on the National Geographic website.
Monday, December 5, 2011
FREE Middle School Physics Kit Available
Here is another wonderful resource for middle school education. For the past several years, the American Physical Society (APS) has run a program called Physics Quest. In it, middle school students try to solve an applied physics problem, using a FREE curriculum and materials kits provided by APS.
The Physics Quests are presented as a problem within a story that is described in a comic book format. In the earlier years, the stories centered around early physics innovators, such as Ben Franklin and Nicola Tesla. For the past few years, the stories are set in modern settings, with a middle school student with extraordinary abilities (named Lucy Hene, AKA Spectra) as the protagonist.
Previous years have examined such physical topics as lasers and magnets, but this one relates to temperature and the weather/global warming issue. Students are led through four experiments that reveal clues to solve the puzzle of the extreme temperature/weather at Spectra's middle school. Best of all, if you register with APS before all the kits are gone, they will even send you a Physics Quest set with the storybook and the equipment you need to conduct the experiments.
We've done this for the past couple of years, and found it to be a fun addition to our other physics studies. While it can be done in school, the organizers also encourage other educators, including homeschoolers, Scout troops, and after school program coordinators, to participate as well.
To find out more about this year's Quest, see the APS website Physics Quest page. Or, click here to register to receive a kit to do this year's Quest.
The Physics Quests are presented as a problem within a story that is described in a comic book format. In the earlier years, the stories centered around early physics innovators, such as Ben Franklin and Nicola Tesla. For the past few years, the stories are set in modern settings, with a middle school student with extraordinary abilities (named Lucy Hene, AKA Spectra) as the protagonist.
Previous years have examined such physical topics as lasers and magnets, but this one relates to temperature and the weather/global warming issue. Students are led through four experiments that reveal clues to solve the puzzle of the extreme temperature/weather at Spectra's middle school. Best of all, if you register with APS before all the kits are gone, they will even send you a Physics Quest set with the storybook and the equipment you need to conduct the experiments.
We've done this for the past couple of years, and found it to be a fun addition to our other physics studies. While it can be done in school, the organizers also encourage other educators, including homeschoolers, Scout troops, and after school program coordinators, to participate as well.
To find out more about this year's Quest, see the APS website Physics Quest page. Or, click here to register to receive a kit to do this year's Quest.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Contest Helps Students Develop Reflective Writing Skills
Now that NaNoWriMo is over, it's time for us to refocus our writing classes on non-fiction writing. There is a national contest on a wonderful topic that may be just the thing to help us!
The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, in partnership with Target Stores, is running a reading-writing competition called Letters About Literature. In it, students write a personal letter to an author of one of their favorite books to tell them why that book changed the way they think about themselves or the world. The book can be fiction or nonfiction, even poetry, speeches, short stories, or graphic novels, but it can not be a comic strip or song lyric (even if published in a book). Also, the author can be living or dead.
The competition is divided into three levels. Level 1 is for 4th-6th grade (students must be at least nine in order to participate) and letters are expected to be 100-400 words long. Level 2 is 7th-8th grade, with letters that are 300-600 words. Level 3 is for high schoolers (9th-12th grade) with a recommended 500-800 page length. Students can enter through their schools or as individuals, and homeschoolers are specifically encouraged to enter (apparently a number of winners have been homeschooled).
While the exercise is worthy just in itself, there are some great prizes for the winner. Two national winners for each level will get to choose a favorite library (school or community library) to receive a $10,000 grant from Target. Those winners will also each get a personal Target gift card for $500. There will also be four national honors awards for each level; the national honor awards come with a $1,000 grant to a favorite library and a personal $50 Target gift card.
The website also has a great 36-page Teacher's Guide with lesson plans and worksheets to help students write an appropriate reflective essay on their chosen book. The worksheets not only develop generic essay writing skills, such as crafting an engaging opening paragraph, but lead students to see the difference between a reflective essay and other types of writing, such as book reports, literary analysis, or a simple fan letter.
All in all, this looks like a wonderful project to me. I've already discussed it with my son, and we definitely plan to be working on it this month to be ready to submit something by the deadline, which is January 6, 2012. It combine something we love (books) with something we need to develop (nonfiction writing) with a focus on appreciation, which is a virtue that we trying to expand on during this holiday season.
We hope lots of you will join us in this competition. If you do, please enter the book that you (or your child/ren or student/s) choose to write about in the comments below.
The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, in partnership with Target Stores, is running a reading-writing competition called Letters About Literature. In it, students write a personal letter to an author of one of their favorite books to tell them why that book changed the way they think about themselves or the world. The book can be fiction or nonfiction, even poetry, speeches, short stories, or graphic novels, but it can not be a comic strip or song lyric (even if published in a book). Also, the author can be living or dead.
The competition is divided into three levels. Level 1 is for 4th-6th grade (students must be at least nine in order to participate) and letters are expected to be 100-400 words long. Level 2 is 7th-8th grade, with letters that are 300-600 words. Level 3 is for high schoolers (9th-12th grade) with a recommended 500-800 page length. Students can enter through their schools or as individuals, and homeschoolers are specifically encouraged to enter (apparently a number of winners have been homeschooled).
While the exercise is worthy just in itself, there are some great prizes for the winner. Two national winners for each level will get to choose a favorite library (school or community library) to receive a $10,000 grant from Target. Those winners will also each get a personal Target gift card for $500. There will also be four national honors awards for each level; the national honor awards come with a $1,000 grant to a favorite library and a personal $50 Target gift card.
The website also has a great 36-page Teacher's Guide with lesson plans and worksheets to help students write an appropriate reflective essay on their chosen book. The worksheets not only develop generic essay writing skills, such as crafting an engaging opening paragraph, but lead students to see the difference between a reflective essay and other types of writing, such as book reports, literary analysis, or a simple fan letter.
All in all, this looks like a wonderful project to me. I've already discussed it with my son, and we definitely plan to be working on it this month to be ready to submit something by the deadline, which is January 6, 2012. It combine something we love (books) with something we need to develop (nonfiction writing) with a focus on appreciation, which is a virtue that we trying to expand on during this holiday season.
We hope lots of you will join us in this competition. If you do, please enter the book that you (or your child/ren or student/s) choose to write about in the comments below.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Kiplinger Publishes its Annual List of Best Value Colleges
Kiplinger has published its annual report on the colleges that it rates as the best value colleges. Many of the same colleges are at the top of this list. For example, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hills is the number one value among public colleges for the 10th year in a row. However, that may not be the case next year, since the board is raising in-state tuition by 15.6% for next year, and similar percentages for the next several years. Part of the justification for raising tuition to that extent is the fact that UNC-Chapel Hill has been recognized by Kiplinger and other as such a great deal, compared to other public colleges.
Among private schools, Princeton University appears to continue to offer the best financial aid program. According to Kiplinges, the average Princeton grad leaves owing only a little over $5,000 for his/her undergraduate education. Of course, these kinds of average statistics can be misleading; if you go to school with nine millionaires who can afford the tuition outright, while you need to borrow $50,000, that averages out to a mean debt of $5,000. Nonetheless, Princeton is generally regarded as the school among the Ivy League colleges that does the best job in providing sufficient aid to allow anyone who does get in to be able to attend.
There are two things that are interesting to look at between the two lists. One is the average debt upon graduation. Graduates of even the #1 bargain public school, UNC-Chapel Hill, owe an average of over $15,000, while quite a few few of the top schools have a significantly lower average debt upon graduation. Secondly, while Chapel Hill as a four-year graduation rate of nearly 75%, and my alma mater, the College of William and Mary, as well as the University of Virginia, have four-year completion rates of over 80%, most of the other top "bargain" public schools have four-year completion rates in the 50 percentiles, or even the 40's. Obviously, this is related to the debt burden, because having to extend your education beyond four years increased the years paying tuition and probably the overall debt. This is one of the reasons that public university may not be quite as much of a bargain as they seem.
Anyway, to see the list of the best values in public education, see this chart.
To see a similar list for the private universities, see this chart.
Among private schools, Princeton University appears to continue to offer the best financial aid program. According to Kiplinges, the average Princeton grad leaves owing only a little over $5,000 for his/her undergraduate education. Of course, these kinds of average statistics can be misleading; if you go to school with nine millionaires who can afford the tuition outright, while you need to borrow $50,000, that averages out to a mean debt of $5,000. Nonetheless, Princeton is generally regarded as the school among the Ivy League colleges that does the best job in providing sufficient aid to allow anyone who does get in to be able to attend.
There are two things that are interesting to look at between the two lists. One is the average debt upon graduation. Graduates of even the #1 bargain public school, UNC-Chapel Hill, owe an average of over $15,000, while quite a few few of the top schools have a significantly lower average debt upon graduation. Secondly, while Chapel Hill as a four-year graduation rate of nearly 75%, and my alma mater, the College of William and Mary, as well as the University of Virginia, have four-year completion rates of over 80%, most of the other top "bargain" public schools have four-year completion rates in the 50 percentiles, or even the 40's. Obviously, this is related to the debt burden, because having to extend your education beyond four years increased the years paying tuition and probably the overall debt. This is one of the reasons that public university may not be quite as much of a bargain as they seem.
Anyway, to see the list of the best values in public education, see this chart.
To see a similar list for the private universities, see this chart.
Friday, December 2, 2011
How Good Is Your Color Perception?
For those of you visual people, or people with highly visual learning students or children....
I've been working on some web design lately for one of our homeschooling projects, and I came upon an Online Color Challenge by x-rite. Now, I am not a very visual learning; I'm much more of an oral learner, and a textual learning. But I thought I was pretty good at color perception.
But according to this online test, NOT! I did so much worse than I thought.
Nonetheless, it is a relative quick, but I thought fun and interesting thing to try. My son is an extremely visual learner, but seems to be much less oriented to color than I am. So I will be interested to give him this quiz and see if he does better than I do.
But try it yourself by clicking here. And let me know how you do. Am I the only one who found it much harder (or, that is, performed much worse) that I thought?
I've been working on some web design lately for one of our homeschooling projects, and I came upon an Online Color Challenge by x-rite. Now, I am not a very visual learning; I'm much more of an oral learner, and a textual learning. But I thought I was pretty good at color perception.
But according to this online test, NOT! I did so much worse than I thought.
Nonetheless, it is a relative quick, but I thought fun and interesting thing to try. My son is an extremely visual learner, but seems to be much less oriented to color than I am. So I will be interested to give him this quiz and see if he does better than I do.
But try it yourself by clicking here. And let me know how you do. Am I the only one who found it much harder (or, that is, performed much worse) that I thought?
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Match Your Writing Style to Famous Authors
So our glorious adventure of NaNoWriMo has come to an end! I really enjoyed the experience, but it was intense. Today is the first day in a month that I haven't written some of, or even thought about, the contents of my great American novel. Instead, I developed a Survey Monkey poll, worked on a website, played around with designing a logo, drafted a promotional email for an upcoming event, and trying to figure out how to create an email sign-up list for a big project we're doing. Oh, and of course, made sure we did science, art, PE, math, writing, and Spanish today. You know, just the ordinary day in the life of a non-NaNoWriMo homeschooler....
It has been so long since I've read any Asimov that I don't know if I think that is true or not (and, of course, even thinking of any comparison is an insult to him). But whatever the website does, it does it pretty consistently, because I put various blog posts and some other writing in as well, and Asimov came up pretty often. And when I put some of my son's posts or other writing it, he gets totally different authors than I do.
I think it could be a great thing to use with middle schoolers and high schoolers. Because once the program tells them they write like whoever, that's a great incentive to get them to read some of that person's books and analyze on their own any similarities or differences.
So I don't know how legitimate it is, but it is fun to try. Click here to check it out. Add what famous author your writing style compares to in the comments below.
But one last thing that I wanted to share about NaNoWriMo (which if you aren't into, you are probably sick of hearing about by now) is this fun website I found. It is called I Write Like, and it analyzes any text you've written and input to the site and tells you what author your writing style is similar to. It looks at word choices and sentence structure and such to figure it out.
So, of course, last night I put my entire novel into the Analyzer and discovered that, according to this website, ....
It has been so long since I've read any Asimov that I don't know if I think that is true or not (and, of course, even thinking of any comparison is an insult to him). But whatever the website does, it does it pretty consistently, because I put various blog posts and some other writing in as well, and Asimov came up pretty often. And when I put some of my son's posts or other writing it, he gets totally different authors than I do.
I think it could be a great thing to use with middle schoolers and high schoolers. Because once the program tells them they write like whoever, that's a great incentive to get them to read some of that person's books and analyze on their own any similarities or differences.
So I don't know how legitimate it is, but it is fun to try. Click here to check it out. Add what famous author your writing style compares to in the comments below.
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