Category: Research

Cartoon Students Presenting to Class
3-12, Creative Thinking, Fun Friday, Games, Independent Study, Research, Student Products

Host a Classroom PowerPoint Party

Terri Eichholz

My daughter began college in 2020 when the majority of her classes were still on-line and most extracurricular activities were still shut down. She lived in the dorm, but was definitely not experiencing the typical first year for obvious reasons. When she started talking about “PowerPoint Parties” that her close friends would host, I thought that was another amazing example of how creativity can be born from constraint. They couldn’t go out to many places, so they found a way to entertain themselves inside.

PowerPoint parties are when small groups of people meet and — you guessed it — show PowerPoint presentations. But these are not the “Here is what I learned about Abraham Lincoln” kind of presentations. Sometimes there is a theme for the the party, such as “The Best TV Show Ever” or sometimes participants are just invited to do one on whatever they’re passionate about. One of the favorites that my daughter’s friends have shared is when they pick which Disney character each of their friends would be. It seems that, usually, the purpose of the presentations are to persuade — and to entertain, of course. Sometimes they offer prizes at these parties, but not always. There are also parties where the presentations are timed (usually 3 minutes) or there is some kind dress code that goes with the theme.

I recently saw a TikTok from a teacher (Noelle Cheney) where she let her students have a PowerPoint Party in class (wouldn’t this be a fun class reward?) and here are some of the topics her high school students did: why you should give us a free day every other Friday, why baby trucks (aka compact trucks) are stupid, why the Shrek tetrology is a piece of cinematic brilliance, and why Miss Cheney should get a fish as a class pet.

I like the class pet idea if you work with younger kids. Some others could be: things you like that no one else does, the best board game, which fictional character would make the best president, the best super hero, where your class should go on its next field trip, or even a theme proposed by your students.

PowerPoint parties can be a fun class reward, interspersed as Brain Breaks, used on those chaotic class days right before a holiday, or an introduction to Genius Hour. You could also make them “semi” educational. For example, if your class has just finished a novel you could host a PowerPoint party where they argue which dog each character would be and why.

What are the benefits of PowerPoint Parties? Practicing persuasion, research, technology, and presenting skills, giving students the opportunity to use their creativity, learning more about each other, and bringing some laughter into your classroom!

Do any of you use PowerPoint parties in your classroom? Comment below!

@noellelovessloths This is a genius idea that you can use for several different lessons. 10/10 recommend #powerpointnight #teacherlife #highschool #noellelovessloths ♬ original sound – matt
Independent Study, K-12, Research, Teaching Tools

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Terri Eichholz

Back in 2015 the United Nations adopted 17 goals that they hoped the world could achieve by the year 2030.

If you have students who are doing Genius Hour/Passion Projects, etc…, the Global Goals are a great entry point that can help them to determine what is meaningful to them. For example, my fifth graders did their Genius Hour projects based on, “What breaks your heart?” and they could use the Global Goals to drill down to specific actions that could be taken to make change. Another example of a project related to the Global Goals, which I describe in this blog post, was the Art Drop Day my colleague facilitated with his high school students.

I have a Wakelet Collection of resources for the UN Sustainable Development Goals. It can be a bit overwhelming when you first start delving into them, so I have some suggestions if you are just beginning. The World’s Largest Lesson has a page specifically aimed at those who are introducing their students to the Global Goals for the first time here. It includes videos and lesson plans, and even a link to teaching younger children about the goals. For access to even more ideas, you can visit their resource page, where you can do filtered searches.

There are also a couple of e-books on my list. This one is a cute story that introduces the goals (good for younger children), and this one explains each goal in simple language.

One resource that I found is great because it gives practical suggestions that anyone can do in their everyday lives to help with each goal. I also like this video, which shows students that there are three ways that you can help: invent, innovate, and campaign. That could be another way for students to funnel Genius Hour projects, by having them conclude with one of those three actions.

We are inundated daily with news of things going wrong in the world. By introducing students to the SDG’s, we can empower them to make even small changes that are steps toward righting those wrongs so that they can feel less helpless and overwhelmed.

jellyfish floating
3-12, Independent Study, Math, Research, Science, Websites

The Deep Sea

Terri Eichholz

The Deep Sea is a fascinating website designed by Neal Agarwal (@NealAgarwal). Neal has placed the creatures of the ocean at their typical depths, and you can scroll down from 18 meters at which you find Atlantic salmon and manatees all the way to the deepest part of the ocean at 10,901 meters deep. Little pieces of trivia are interspersed here and there, such as when you reach the point that is equal to the distance to the height of Mount Everest.

Students who are intrigued by the ocean and/or unique animals would love this site, and you can also integrate math with comparisons to other distances. For example the world’s current highest building, the Burj Khalifa, is 828 meters high. When you get to around that depth, you can find Giant Oarfish, which can grow to 11 meters long. Have students brainstorm ocean creatures they know and estimate where they might be found in “The Deep Sea.” To learn more about deep sea creatures that may or may not be on The Deep Sea site, check out this slideshow from the Smithsonian Institute that includes the frightening-but-cute yeti crab.

exotic reef manta ray swimming undersea in sunlight
Photo by Svetlana Obysova on Pexels.com

By the way, Neal Agarwal has a variety of other interactive sites that might interest you here. There’s a 3d “Design the Next iPhone” where you can not only drag and drop components that you want to had, but you can also create a video where your phone is “announced.” If you like the philosophical discussions generated by the classic “Trolley Problem,” try “Absurd Trolley Problems” for some macabre humor. And there’s more! I’m definitely adding his site to my “Fun Stuff” Wakelet. Although I must admit, comparing my hourly wage to other on the “Printing Money” site was not quite as fun…

positive black woman talking to radio host
history, Independent Study, K-12, Research, Teaching Tools, Writing

International Podcast Day

Terri Eichholz

So, I’m in the middle of curating resources for my September Holidays and Celebrations Wakelet collection (still working on it, but it is public if you want to take a look), and I found out that September 30th is International Podcast Day. Have I mentioned that I love podcasts, and that there are so many ways to leverage them for engagement in the classroom? I even wrote an article about “Podcast Pedagogy” last year for NEO. Whether you want to have students listen to podcasts (see my article for tons of suggestions, including Smash, Boom, Best) or create them, podcasts are a nice way to give students opportunities for more choice and creativity in their learning and assessments.

I discovered a couple of new resources since I wrote that article that I am adding to my September Wakelet, but I’ll also include here. First of all, I saw this nice idea for a podcast listening station from Stacy Brown (@21stStacy) on Twitter:

Also from Twitter, Chris Hitchcock (@CHitch94), shared this spreadsheet of podcasts that relate to history to use with secondary students.

If you’re looking for ways to celebrate International Podcast Day, this page has good suggestions. I realize that it’s over a month away, but these are activities you definitely you want to plan ahead of time rather than the night before.

This page from Building Book Love has excellent recommendations for podcasts for both elementary and secondary. There are also links to some TPT pages the author has created for listening and responding to podcasts.

There are a few other links on my Wakelet if you want to delve deeper. If you haven’t tried using podcasts yet, I hope that you will take the leap because they are definitely a valuable educational resource that I think has been largely untapped so far!

MC Hammer
Critical Thinking, history, K-12, Random Thoughts, Research

Jon Stewart, M.C. Hammer, and Data

Terri Eichholz

I spend a lot of time curating random things that interest me (see my NEO post on my curation methods here) , and I sometimes find obscure connections that inspire me to group them together into a blog post. As I was browsing my “Blog Ideas” Wakelet after my morning dog walk, I rediscovered a couple of resources I’d saved that correlated quite well with the podcast I’d just been listening to, Smartless. First, I’ll share a screen shot of this tweet from @AlvinFoo:

Next up, I have the updated Interactive Media Bias Chart, which has also been included in my Wakelet for “Evaluating Online Information.” (My daughter had originally shown me this site when she was taking a Journalism class last year, and I found it fascinating.) Whether you agree with its findings or not, it’s definitely worth discussing with older students when talking about current events and/or the reliability of news sources.

And, lastly, I have a quote from Jon Stewart that he attributes to M.C. Hammer (beware an expletive near the beginning) — and it is something we should never forget when looking at any data, including standardized test scores in education (click here if the embedded audio does not appear below):

There is nothing quite so satisfying as finding a way to tie together so many seemingly disparate topics in one post, so I consider my work done for today 😉

Independent Study, K-12, Research

Design for Change

Terri Eichholz

The single most impactful adjustment I made to my curriculum in the later decades of my teaching career was to make room for students to work on issues they chose that were interesting and relevant to them. This was scary for me because I never had any idea where the year would lead me. But I learned so much along with the students that the risks I took and mistakes I made were definitely worthwhile. One year, my small 3rd grade class decided to investigate overfishing for their Genius Hour project. (I always did a group Genius Hour project with my 3rd graders because it was their first year doing major research in Gifted and Talented, and my classes in that grade level were generally tiny.) If you had asked me at the beginning of the year about my interest in overfishing on a scale of 1-5, I would have said 0. But these students were all passionate about the ocean, and that is where their interest took us. Weeks into their research, I was just as committed and concerned as they were – especially after our Skype session with a journalist covering the issue.

From that project to many others that I could describe where students were making plans to solve real-life problems, the message was clear – when students see the value of their work, they are much more engaged and ultimately become more empowered. This is where the Design for Change website could help you. Instead of starting from scratch as my students and I did, you can begin with a framework that is chosen by your students. With racial justice, educational equity, and climate change as the three main topics to select from, they can then find out more from podcasts and other materials that have been curated to guide them on paths toward making positive contributions toward our world as they learn. Whether you want to do a long-term unit, or focus on “Empathy Warmups,” “Design Sprints,” or “Community Action” individually, the free resources on this website – including a teacher platform to monitor progress – will give you much more support than I ever had when my students initially began passion projects.

Design for Change has a site for the United States and a global site. Both boil down the Design Thinking process to these four steps: Feel, Imagine, Do, Share. The global site even provides toolkits written for specific countries in their major languages. There are also options for using the materials virtually or in face-to-face environments.

Though we can’t always do this in education, I found that engagement comes quicker if you start from a place a student already values rather than working to convince a student, “this is what you should value.” But students often need to investigate a bit to realize what is important to them, and this is where Design for Change can help.

use your voice inscription on gray background
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