Exploring The Mine, The Super Hero Squad, and EDLINE Quiz maker

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

68 days passed after the collapse of the mine in Chili that trapped 33 miners deep within the earth before they were all successfully rescued.  There are so many lessons to be learned by our students from this entire experience.  My own children asked me questions like:
Where is Chili? (Geography lesson waiting to happen)
What is a miner? (Occupation lesson waiting to happen)
What did they eat? (Health lesson waiting to happen)
Can they breathe? (Science lesson waiting to happen)
Has this happened before? (History lesson waiting to happen)
Why were they down there? (Environment lesson waiting to happen)
How did people know that they were alive? ( Communication lesson waiting to happen)
How far underground were they? (Math lesson waiting to happen)

Below is a wonderful website that shows a diagram of the depth of the miners in relation to well-known landmarks.  This is a great way to show your students just how deep these brave men were.  This website also has profiles of all 33 miners.  Simply click on the thumbnail of each one to read a short biography about them.  
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2010/09/world/interactive.chile.miners/?hpt=T2

Are you a SUPER HERO?
The Super Hero Squad website allows students to create their own super hero comic strips and comic books. Templates are provided which make the creation process pretty easy. You can select the backgrounds, characters, and special effects that you want to use to make a really cool creations.  After creating scenes, students can add dialogue boxes to their comics. I think that this sounds like so much fun.  What a cool way to give life to a creative writing story. Click on the link to check it out! http://superherosquad.marvel.com/create_your_own_comic

Here is a comic strip that I quickly created on the site.  I LOVE this.  I think that our students will too!



Edline Quiz Generator

EDLINE just keeps getting better and better.  A few days ago I sent out an email message explaining several new features that are now available to all PA faculty and staff.  Here is the list:

QUIZ - Automatically graded for you and sent directly to your grade book. One-time submission by students.
INTERACTIVE ASSIGNMENT - Automatically graded for you and sent directly to your grade book. Multiple submissions by students.
SURVEY – Polling student and parents.
HOMEWORK HAND-IN  - Go paperless!
DISCUSSION THREADS - This is VERY similar to a blog (but very basic).

I hope that each of you are excited about these new features as I am.  Today I am going to highlight the QUIZ feature.  My son is in the 7th grade.  He has Mrs. Gorman for ENGLISH. She kindly took on this project with enthusiasm and has started using the QUIZ generator in EDLINE as a replacement for the grammar workbook for her class.

"I cannot say enough good things about EDLINE’s quiz maker. Instead of assigning workbook pages for homework and spending valuable classroom time grading them, I now direct the kids to my Edline page, where they complete their homework online and receive immediate feedback regarding their grade and any incorrect answers. And, as if things couldn’t be better, the grades are immediately sent to my GradeQuick! No paper shuffling, no tracking absent students down for their missing work, no time wasted in class… Only the positives of excited students, impressed parents, and one ecstatic teacher – ME!!!"


Below is an outline of that Mrs. Gorman provided her students to guide them on how to complete an assessment.  Last night, I watched Jackson as he completed his assigned on-line quiz.  It took him about 5 minutes or so and it was nice to watch his face as he saw his score immediately.  Yes, this is called a QUIZ but in this case it was homework.  He was able to look up every answer that he wanted to.  I hope that you will use this feature to work SMARTER and not HARDER.  What a fabulous way to save yourself time and give the students instant feedback at the same time. 

Please feel free to get started on your own with this feature. However, an on-line training session will be offered on Oct. 27th (details will be provided after you email to sign up) and an in-person session will be offered on Nov. 15th.