The Caffeinated Carbivore

Voki for Education Newsletter View more documents from Matthew Farber . With special thanks to Matt Farber for original posting of newsletter!

That's right. The Queen of England has a YouTube channel. Still trying to convince your students' parents that YouTube and Twitter are useful in the classroom? Brittany Spears has the largest Twitter following to date. Ashton Kutcher beat CNN to the million mark. We all know that the media influences our culture, and vise versa. Our culture has never been static, but with the dawn of the media age it's become increasingly mashed up and user-run. In a world where creative ownership is increasingly fuzzy and a great deal of humor comes from cross-media references, a good teacher must teach students how to use many mediums correctly and to their greatest advantage. Enter social media lesson plans. For example: Our current President's use of multiple mediums buttressed his campaign. We clearly need to teach our students how to use social media properly-it's influencing the world around them. More importantly-they can provide a piece of that influe...

Make history come to life! Present historical characters in your classroom-give them their own quotes, or even YOUR voice. Younger students really enjoy Voki-making their own characters or seeing history speak to them. For older students, I create current characters (they don't respond as well to robots) to introduce history lessons:

If your voice is gone after a day of teaching, you're talking too much. Our students are vivacious and lively-why not let them lead the discussion? Students who speak up in class are 1. More likely to retain knowledge 2. Spark conversation and ideas in others 3. Learn how to interact with others 4. Build social skills So how exactly do you spark an organic student discussion? Try a Socratic Circle! Here's our old buddy Socrates himself to introduce us: The Question: A Socratic Seminar opens with a question (posed by the leader). An opening question shouldn't have an obvious right answer-we want discussion! A good opening question helps participants think back to a text as they speculate, evaluate, define, and clarify all the issues involved. Move the group forward by asking more questions-playing devil's advocate. The Leader: The leader plays a dual role as leader and participant-keeping the discussion focused on the text, asking follow-up questions, helping p...

So you've checked out some lesson plans that use Avatars . But what if your students don't have computers, or your classroom doesn't provide enough computers for each student? Here are some helpful tips to use technology in the classroom even if you are limited in the number of computers or computer access . If only one computer has internet access, create a skype account for the class . A teacher can often create a partnership with other teachers through their PLN . Use a microphone and allow your students to see other students in another country, and talk to them too! This allows students to become a part of the global community by (1) using the internet and (2) interacting with those of a different culture.

Not always. As good green citizens and teachers , we know how to recycle just about anything. That being the case, you will find that Voki avatars can easily be added to your pre-existing lesson plans. Avatars are good aids for 1. Teaching character development 2. Teaching the meaning of new words via avatar dialogue 3. Giving shy students a voice 4. Decrease gender divide in classrooms The following are a few Voki lesson plans that you are welcome to use. In September, you will find a plethora of Voki lesson plans at Voki.com . Public Speaking Algebra 2 Ethical Communication

Max and Mary is a 2009 stop animation story from Australia. This is no Christmas Clay-mation special though; these characters deal with asylums, broken hearts, and substance abuse (one chocolate, one sherry). With the help of lightheartedness that we grant animation, these characters deal with serious issues through humor, letters, and a distinct sense of humanity. The reason I like this story for class so much is that it's a great example of show AND tell. For artists, it's show : the use of color (brown for Mary, grey for Max...where do students see red used?). For writers , of course, it's tell: how does Max speak? What details does he pay attention to, and how does this shape his character (to be fair, his dialogue is characterized by his disorder...does his disorder make his character, though?). The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-Time is another great example of an autistic character-seeing the world through a different set of eyes is very enlightenin...

I've often been told that my personality suits me for the role of "lifetime professional student". Granted, going for your Phd means I'll be a student until age 28 at least, but I don't think those individuals realize how correct they truly are. Though spoken in irony, a teacher really is a "lifetime professional student". I learn a lot from my students; they are constantly teaching me about my strengths, limitations, and sometimes my mannerisms, too. The most important thing they've taught me is how to include technology into my lessons. Last year I taught three classes of introductory public speaking. Most students would rather have lemon juice poured over thousands of paper cuts than even walk into this class on the first day. To be fair, public speaking is one of the biggest fears in America. To lighten the mood, I show the plight of Dwight on the first day. I remind them that they will not sweat profusely or sound like communists (unles...