The Google Cultural Institute

The Google Cultural Institute allows you to view exhibits and collections from museums and archives all around the world. Explore cultural treasures in extraordinary detail, from hidden gems to masterpieces.

The site has three main categories: Art Project, Historic Movements and World Wonders.

Google Cultural Institute home page

Here are some examples using World War Two as a topic:

One of the great functions is the ability to save documents into a favourites style section to create your own collection from a range of different collections.

A link to the site can also be found on the Arts and History pages on this site.

QR Codes

This year I have created posters covering the major body systems relating to Year 12 PE using QR Codes. These posters are designed to go up on the walls in the Year 12 room as well as be used in the students private study spaces at home. They will act as a constant reference point for what is essentially a rote learning task. Each poster has at least one QR code that links to an online video explaining the body system in more detail.

QR codes are extremely easy to make and there are many sites that allow you to generate them. I used the web site qrstuff.com.

There are many uses for QR codes in the classroom and limited only by your imagination.

  • send a QR code home on a parent letter or piece of student work linking parents to some extra relevant information.
  • Put a QR code in the school newsletter that provides extra information for parents on a relevant topic.
  • Provide a QR code(s) on student assignments linking students to key resources.
  • Create a walk around the school using QR codes to hide clues that allow students to move to the next clue in the walk.
  • Create revision tasks/questions with the answers (or possible answers) in the form of QR codes. These could be in the form of text, links to websites or You Tube videos.
  • Put QR codes up around the classroom that take students to websites or information that enhances the learning of a current topic in the classroom.

Below are screen shots of each poster that I have created. If you would like to access the posters the links are provided below.

Screen Shot 2015-01-13 at 7.27.33 pm Screen Shot 2015-01-13 at 7.27.59 pm Screen Shot 2015-01-13 at 7.28.27 pm Screen Shot 2015-01-13 at 7.28.51 pm

Body Systems QR Posters

Carol Dweck – The power of yet

In the video below Carol Dweck talks about a school she visited which instead of using a failing grade used the words “not yet”. As Carol discusses this simple wording sends a whole different message to students. Carol also talks about getting students to view “difficulty” and “effort” as the way to learn and improve and not as things that should make them feel like giving up or an indication they are dumb.

Are our classrooms places that encourage and teach a growth mindset, to view difficulty and effort as important keys to learning? NO I mean really, do we teach it!

OR

Do we enter our classrooms expecting very little from some and a lot from others? We have all heard teachers make comments like, “I could write their reports now, their results won’t change much, I could have predicted it from the start of the year!” As easy as this and similar comments are to make they all contribute to the perception that some students in our classes will never amount to anything more than they already are. We don’t want to encourage a fixed mindset in our ourselves or our students.

Students soon pick up on our perceptions of them. If we have an attitude that they will never improve or don’t have the ability to do so then they will soon take on this attitude as well. As hard as it may be at times we need to teach students the value of effort and persistence with learning they find difficult.

Click here to find out the difference between fixed and growth mindsets.