Author Archive | Robin Neal
Interactive Video (Part Two): Mozilla’s Popcorn Maker
To my shock and horror, my students claimed to have never seen a PopUp Video. They were vaguely aware of VH1 and suspected that some old people still watch it? If it even exists? We were brainstorming uses of Mozilla’s Popcorn Maker, and I was sharing that a colleague had a great idea of using the free online tool to make a PopUp video of a presidential debate.
Read MoreInteractive Video (Part One): Flipping at TED-ed
You, like me, have spent a fair amount of time watching on-line videos. Who can blame us? When we need a break from grading, routines, or vacuuming, lovely owls, talking dogs, or five people playing one guitar are irresistible draws.
Read MoreFlipping Isn’t Just About Video: A Better Approach to Vocabulary
I would tell you how I used to incorporate vocabulary in my English classes, but I’m betting you already know. Chances are we pretty much did the same thing. I now do something different. Flipping a classroom is not really about turning lectures into videos; it’s about freeing up class time for more one-on-one interaction [...]
Read MoreDesign Thinking: It’s Natural to Be a Bit Confused
Socratic Ignorance can teach us something about our attitudes toward Design Thinking. Socrates earned his rep for being a wise man by admitting, “I don’t know.” When he wanted an answer, he would go to the experts of his day and unleash a series of questions that eventually lead to the politician, economist, philosopher, teacher, [...]
Read MoreDefending Kony 2012
Chances are you have already seen this month’s most viral video, Kony 2012, a polished and provocative thirty-minute film produced by Invisible Children that seeks “not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.” As I write these words it has already received 63 million views, [...]
Read MoreDown With Posters
I despise glitter. It’s proudly gauche and sinisterly invasive. Once a bedazzled project crosses the threshold of my classroom, the insidious sparkles permanently lodge in every nook and cranny. Months later my forehead looks like Lady Gaga’s because I’ve accidentally scratched my head after brushing up against an errant drift of pixie dust. I ban [...]
Read MoreMaking Grammar Sticky With Google Docs
I spent many hours in elementary school diagramming sentences, parsing parts of speech on spidery branches of sentence trees. I must admit, though, I never found this procedure painful. For me the activity compartmentalized language. The parts of a sentence worked like Lego bricks, and once I understood the various “shapes” of grammar, I found [...]
Read MoreSymbolics: How To (Pt. 2)
If you are reading this post, you have most likely read its companion that explains what a Symbolic is. If you have not, I encourage you to do so before reading on. In this post I want to give a “meat and potatoes” explanation of how I introduce Symbolics and help students complete each step [...]
Read MoreSymbolics: Making Abstract Thinking Concrete (Pt. 1)
A Symbolic is a concrete representation of abstract thinking, a picture that demonstrates how ideas interact and work. I use Symbolics as an alternative evaluation tool, and I have found a way to use Flickr to make the entire process much more effective. I explain how later in this post. These videos explain the concept [...]
Read MoreGet Students to Care About Copyright
In my own classroom, I fight the good fight every day, wrestling with students who want to use copyrighted music or images in their work. I’m writing literally here. I’m not afraid to throw a kid in a headlock for slipping the latest Owl City release into a slide show. I realize, however, students are [...]
Read MoreBlog Sponsors
