Parks Canada Resources for Teachers

Just found this gem for Canadian geography teachers!

http://www.pc.gc.ca/apprendre-learn/prof/itm2-crp-trc/crp-trc1c_e.asp

Twitter, Facebook, and social activism: newyorker.com

Twitter, Facebook, and social activism: newyorker.com

Check out this link which talks about the "social networking revolution". Very interesting!

Photo editing with Picnik

Today we are learning how to edit photos for use in class as visual learning tools.

Here is the original photo of my farm in Ontario:

 Using Picnik, I applied the effects of Boost, 1960s, and several goofy stickers:

In my second attempt, I used Heat Map, Posterize, HSL Filter, and Crystallize to achieve a completely different effect:

Picnik will be a great tool to share with my students!
Next, I used Splashup. I applied Emboss, Add Noise, and then Invert to make it look like an old photo negative!

Twitter

While I can see the benefits of using Twitter as a distance education tool, I believe it is simply another technology used to avoid face-to-face communication. In a high-school classroom, where a major goal of teachers is to prepare their students for the "real world", I believe young people need MORE rather than LESS personal interaction. Students need to overcome their fears of voicing their opinions to their classmates. Plus, I feel that Twitter is capable of less than other social networking sites, therefore I feel that it is obsolete. I think actual discussion in the classroom is much more valuable. Sorry Twitter!

Thought-Provoking Image

Canadian Geography Links for Teachers

I thought I would make a list for geography as well. Hopefully you'll find these links useful!

Something for every age group from the popular magazine:
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/

A pretty informative site:
http://www.yourcanada.ca/geography/

Natural Resources Canada (provides example test questions for any age group):
http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/auth/english/learningresources/quizzes/index.html

A cool competition with which to get your classes involved:
http://www.geochallenge.ca/geochallenge/default.asp

A great resource for teachers:
http://www.ccge.org/

Feel free to let me know of any others you might find!

Link to Canada History Game

Thanks to Lawrence here is a link to the first finished part of the game I blogged about last week. You can download and play for free. Enjoy!

http://www.historycanadagame.com/page.php?sid=42

Canadian History Links

This website provides a very detailed history of Canada which breaks things into eras and other categories that would be very useful for students to understand the various connections in history:
http://canadahistory.com/index.htm

This is the blog by the creators of the previous website:
http://canadahistory.org/

The source of the infamous "A People's History" videos:
http://www.cbc.ca/history/

An extensive resource for Canadian history including very useful and detailed timelines:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCETimeline

This site provides a list and description of a number of Canadian content movies that would be great in the classroom:
http://www.movingimages.ca/catalogue/Canhistory/Canhistory.html

A great site with links where students can learn about and discuss Canadian issues in new ways and with other young Canadians:
http://www.histori.ca/default.do?page=.index

One of my favourites, it gets young Canadians talking about  important issues:
http://fyicanada.ca/index.do

A good resource for older students:
http://historywire.ca/en/index

New Game Will Be An Excellent Resource for Canadian History Teachers!

Sir John A, a new computer game based on the popular game Civilization, is being developed by a group of students from Queen's University. When finished, the game will be an excellent tool for Canadian history teachers.

www.queensu.ca/sps/publications/op_eds/20090416_Press_re_Axworthy.pdf