Free online resources

The LIVESTRONG resources in Joann’s picks this week shed light on a very important topic in many of our lives and the lives of our students. A cancer diagnosis can bring questions that you, the educator, may be unprepared to answer. The LIVESTRONG resources give you tools to tackle the subject with confidence. The resources are very comprehensive, including student and teacher reproducible materials, extension activities, and videos. They even have a booklet that goes along with an ARTHUR PBS Go episode called “The Great MacGrady” to introduce the topic to younger students. The problem remains that I discussed in the last post, though. How do we integrate this into our standards-based teaching?

Over the past several years, my 12 year-old has had to deal with a teacher battling breast cancer (successfully), another teacher whose young husband ultimately lost his battle with cancer during the school year, a friend whose father is dying, and a teammate who is currently in remission. As you can imagine, it’s brought on a lot of discussion in our house. What’s been missing, though, is a discussion of it in the classroom. It’s not been uncommon to hear the kids talk about cancer during a carpool session – “What exactly is cancer? What does it do to your body?” It’s a topic that lurks in the shadows, and one that many adults don’t want to discuss.

April 22 marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, a day conceived to raise awareness of the Earth’s environment and our ecological health. Much progress has been made during this time: creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act are just a few examples of how the public and government have worked together to institute environmental change. Much work, however, still needs to be done. According to the World Health Organization, over 80% of disease in the developing world is due to water-related illnesses. Currently, about 20% of the world’s population (roughly 1.1 billion people) lack access to safe drinking water.

As April arrives and I think about my own taxes, I realize how little I understand about how income taxes work. Benjamin Franklin believed “… in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.

Americans have long had strong opinions about taxes. Occasionally in our history there have been tax revolts, such as the Boston Tea Party, the Whiskey Rebellion, and more recently, California’s Proposition 13 in the late 1970s. Once a year – every April 15 – an elderly man in my neighborhood flies the Jolly Roger from his flag pole in protest. On the flip side, Oliver Wendell Holmes said that taxes are the price that we pay for civilization, and many concur. Taxes pay for our roads, our schools, social services, national security, and many other things. Due to hearing dissenting opinions about taxes, students often have many questions about them, and the role that taxes play in our society.

Math: you either love it or hate it. Some people get it and some people feel kind of like Scottish comedian Billy Connolly when he said, “I don't know why I should have to learn Algebra... I'm never likely to go there.” If your students are asking where they will ever use math in the future and you are wondering how to show them what an important tool math is, maybe it’s time to try some new activities. There are some really neat resources online for struggling students and for those who just need a little change of pace in the math classroom. Let’s not treat math like a required class that we just have to push our students through so they can pass the test. Math can be fun, too!

What is algebra exactly; is it those three-cornered things? - J.M. Barrie

J.M. Barrie, beloved playwright and author of Peter Pan, was obviously not particularly enraptured by algebra. In fact, many students, at one time or another, will probably hate algebra. Shocker, I know. There’s even an “I hate algebra” group on Facebook. Some students will mutter about how learning algebra is a waste of time – when will they ever use it?? – but the fact is, they will indeed use it throughout their lives. Calculating costs, profits, interest rates, and distance are just a few examples of how algebra is applied in the real world.

Leonardo da Vinci once wrote, “Study the science of art and the art of science.” As an artist, observer, scientist, and inventor, da Vinci showed us the importance of having a well-rounded set of skills and knowledge. Many of us aspire to create this kind of thinker in all of our students. 93% of Americans agree the arts are vital to providing a well-rounded education, according to a 2005 Harris Poll commissioned by Americans for the Arts. Meryl Streep asserts that “Young people who learn the arts do better in every phase of their lives.” Despite this, funding for art education is one of the first things many districts decide to cut when budgets are tight.

We all know that the current economy has forced schools to make some difficult cuts. In some districts, arts education is being downsized, or eliminated entirely. Throughout history, the arts have been central to people’s enjoyment and understanding of the world around them – art is deeply embedded in all world cultures. Art can be incorporated across the curriculum in a variety of ways: using different types of media to illustrate a book report, to highlight historical events, to illustrate or explain scientific theories – the possibilities are endless. The resources below are a sampling of some free online tools from The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, one of the crown jewels of American museums.

There is an amazing variety of educators on The Gateway to 21st Century Skills. We are linked together by the common goal of making a difference in the lives of our students while still having time to maintain a life of our own outside the classroom. We teach a wide range of grade levels and subjects, and we all want to equip our students with the right skills to succeed in the 21st century. When we cook a meal, we need a full set of spices to create just the right flavor. In teaching, we need to use a full range of tools and types of activities to complement the variety of students and teachers working together to become productive members of 21st century society.