Category: Education

3-12, Critical Thinking, Education, Math, Problem Solving, Teaching Tools, Videos, Websites

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Terri Eichholz

UPDATE 12/2/2021: MANY OF THE LINKS ON THIS POST NO LONGER WORK, SO I HAVE UPDATED IT ON THIS NEW POST WITH WORKING LINKS TO DIFFERENT RESOURCES.

First of all, I would like it on the record that I despise “The Twelve Days of Christmas” song.  Repetition makes me snore.  I do like the Straight No Chaser version, though…

Anyway, I am sorry to post this so late, but I just devised this lesson yesterday.  Maybe you can file it away to use next year.

My 4th grade gifted students are studying mathematical masterpieces.  We had looked at the Fibonacci series earlier this year, and a couple of days ago, I stumbled across an interesting lesson that ties Pascal’s Triangle in with “The Twelve Days of Christmas”.  We spent half our day: creating the triangle, finding patterns in the triangle, finding Fibonacci in the triangle, trying to make sense of a Vi Hart video about the triangle, and using the triangle to figure out how many gifts were actually bought each day.

Then, I lucked upon this awesome website that has a fabulous interactive which tells the current going rate of each gift in the song.  You know a site is good when the kids are begging you for the URL and writing it down so they can access it as soon as they get home.  It’s really fun to use if you have an Interactive White Board.  Although this does not tie in directly with Pascal’s Triangle, you can use this nifty recording sheet to figure out the actual total cost of all of the gifts for the year 2012.  I had my students estimate the cost of each gift before we looked at the web site.  They were pretty close to the totals for buying each gift once – but had a hard time conceiving the cost of buying the gifts multiple times (like 12 partridges in pear trees).

You may not have a chance in the next couple of days to use every resource that I’ve linked here, but I highly recommend you visit PNC’s Christmas Price Index Gift Hunt.  You may be surprised at the cost of 8 maids milking!

Apps, Education, K-12

Using the Aurasma App in the Classroom

Terri Eichholz

KITE7

Last week, I posted a couple of articles on how to use the free Aurasma app (Using the Aurasma App and Using the Aurasma App, Continued).  I also recently posted some Holiday Cards that I created with the app (and the help of a few other free apps).  I promised to gives some ideas about how Aurasma can be used in the classroom, but we are still not there quite yet…

First of all, let’s talk about sharing.  You can use the Aurasma app to create an “aura”, and the newest version of Aurasma actually allows you to make your aura public.  This means that you don’t have to use the actual device you created the aura with to see the aura when you scan a trigger image.  (If this all sounds uber-technical, you might want to scan my first article, Using the Aurasma App.)  There are three basic ways to share your auras:

  • You can share by e-mailing the link to someone.  As long as they also have Aurasma and the trigger image, they will be able to view your aura.  You could also create a QR code with the link, and post it.  But that seems a bit redundant to me, seeing as the whole reason I want to use Aurasma is because I think it’s more aesthetically pleasing than QR codes.
  • You can also share by making your aura public when you save it, and then making sure the other devices are logged in to the same Aurasma account.  This is a recent upgrade to the Aurasma app, which makes things much easier if you are using multiple devices in your own classroom, and you just want the students on those devices to see the aura.
  • Another way that you can share is to create an Aurasma channel.  This is the way I chose to share the Holiday Cards referenced above.  With this method, anyone who is subscribed to your channel can view the auras you create.  This would be ideal for a school-wide setting.  You could have parents subscribe to the channel, so they can scan auras anywhere in the school with their own devices (as long as they have the Aurasma app).  FYI, even though my instructions are iOS-leaning, Aurasma is also available as an Android app.

Things may have changed with Aurasma’s recent upgrade, but the following instructions for obtaining a channel are from Aurasma’s Forum:

“I recommend that you use the Aurasma Developer Studio, which will enable you to put all Auras into a single channel. If you don’t have a login for the Developer Studio, please fill out and submit this form : 
http://www.aurasma.com/partners/advertiser

Please don’t be put off by “advertiser” – we have many users who work in education. Note that use of Developer Studio is 100% free, because our goal is to get as many people as possible using the Aurasma platform.

Once you have a channel with all your Auras in, you can share this with everyone you want to be able to see this. You can get a sharing link for your channel that you can post via email, on a web page etc. When opened on a device running Aurasma, this link will subscribe Aurasma to that channel, and all the Auras in that channel will be downloaded to, and start working on that device. Note that any Auras you subsequently add to that channel will also be received.”

Aurasma Developer Studio is web-based, so you would use your desktop computer to create auras if you go this route.  However, it looks like the recent upgrade allows you to add things to your channel through the app, so you may not need to use the Studio once you have gotten a channel assigned to you.

So, to recap, the easiest way for you to share your auras would be to go to the above Aurasma Partners link and request a channel.  Once you have the channel assigned, make sure you save the auras you create on your device to that channel.  Then, tell anyone who wants to see them to subscribe to your channel.  It sounds complicated, but once you do it once, it becomes quite easy to share the auras.

Education, K-12, Motivation, Research, Science, Teaching Tools, Videos

How We Learn

Terri Eichholz

Recently, Larry Ferlazzo published a couple of round-up posts that listed “The Best Videos for Educators in 2012 – So Far“.  I recommend you take a look at them.  (Here is a link to the second one.)  I pinned a few of them to my board of “Inspirational Videos for Students“, but this one probably would not be classified as inspirational.  However, it is a great metaphor for the way we learn, and why it is so important for us to stretch our thinking in new directions as often as possible.  If you are unable to view the embedded video below, you can also find it at http://youtu.be/BEwg8TeipfQ.

Education, K-12, Parenting, Teaching Tools

To a Bright Kid with Trouble(s)

Terri Eichholz
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photo credit: A.Ddiction via photopin cc

In view of recent disturbing events, of which the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, is the latest in a series, I thought this post from Tamara Fisher at Education Week Teacher would be particularly apropos for today.  Although it is addressed to a “Bright Kid with Trouble(s)“, I think that all of us who work with children could benefit from the resources and advice in Tamara’s article.  And, her words may remind you of a gifted kid whose life you touch, who may need help and not know how to ask for it.

Books, Creative Thinking, Education, K-5, Parenting, Teaching Tools

Little Thinkers

Terri Eichholz
Leonardo da Vinci "Little Thinker" doll from Unemployed Philosophers Guild
Leonardo da Vinci “Little Thinker” doll from Unemployed Philosophers Guild

My series of  holiday (or any time) “Gifts for the Gifted” continues today with a set of adorable dolls and puppets from the Unemployed Philosophers Guild.  The Little Thinkers dolls include a wide array of influential personalities from different cultures and fields of study.  There are scientists, philosophers, artists, musicians, revolutionaries, and even radio hosts (N.P.R.’s Carl Kasell).  Inspire your own little thinker with a cuddly Galileo or Frida Kahlo.  And if your child has an active imagination, you might want to look at the very reasonably priced puppets – which include some of the same notable personages, but also offer a few different ones, such as Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela.  I would bundle one of these with a children’s book; you can find several of the famous names in Chicago Review Press’ “For Kids” series, some of which are listed on this Amazon list.

I know a lot of parents are considering bestowing iPod Touches or iPads to their children for Christmas, so next Friday, I will be giving a list of apps that you might want to load on your child’s iDevice before you put it under the tree.

Here are links to my previous “Gifts for the Gifted” posts:

Craniatics

Camelot Jr.

Little Bits Holiday Kit

Wedgits

Q-Bitz Extreme

2013 Guinness Book of World Records

Also, you might want to take a look at my Pinterest board, which has even more ideas.

 

Apps, Art, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Education, K-12, Motivation, Videos

Using the Aurasma App, Continued

Terri Eichholz
Aurasma in action at Shaw Wood Primary School
Aurasma in action at Shaw Wood Primary School

Yesterday, I posted instructions on using the free Aurasma app on your iDevice.  Included in these instructions were how to use the plethora of “Overlays” provided within the app.  Once, you create an “Aura” these “Overlays” are short animations or videos that can will appear on top of a trigger image when you use Aurasma on your device to scan the trigger image.

But you are not limited to the “Overlays” provided by Aurasma, numerous and entertaining though they may be.  You can also add your own “Overlays” within the app.  For example, suppose you have a student who has created a work of art.  You would like to display the art on a bulletin board, but you really want people to see and hear the child describing her artwork as they are viewing it on the board.  You could do this with a QR code, of course, as I explained in this post, but you could also use Aurasma, which will make it appear as though the student is actually standing in front of the artwork as she explains it.  Another way you might use a “homemade” overlay would be with a textbook picture or a worksheet.  You could have a video that explains a certain concept or gives hints, and it will appear every time a user holds their device over the trigger image.  Here is how you could do this:

1.)  First, decide what your trigger image is going to be.  In the first example, it would be the child’s artwork.

2.)  Then, decide what you want to happen when the image is scanned.  In this case, we want a video of the child explaining her work to appear.

3.)  Using your iDevice that has the Aurasma app, videotape the above scene with your camera app, and save it to your Photos.

4.)  Open the Aurasma app.  Tap on the Aurasma logo.

5.)  Tap on the +.  Near the bottom of the “Create” window, tap on the “Device” tab.

6.)  Tap on the large +, and choose “Photo Album”.

7.)  Find the video you created and choose it.  Select “Use”.

8.)  After it process, give the Overlay a name, and tap on “Finish”.

9.)  You will be asked if you want to create an Aura with that Overlay.  Tap on “OK”.

10.)  Take a picture of the artwork.

11.)  Choose where you want the Overlay to appear on the artwork.

12.)  After it processes, add details (see my previous post for more info on this).

13.)  Once it is done, it will give you a message that the Aura has been added to your device.  After that, whenever you use the Aurasma app to scan that art, the video will appear over it.

Below, you can view a short video on ways Aurasma can be used in education.  Next week, I will give some more ideas on how this app can be used in the classroom.  (You can find it at http://youtu.be/5qRcIek4NY0 if the video does not show below.)