Most people remember the first chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring for the main event, Bilbo’s party and all that entails. However, much like all of Tolkien’s works, there is an extra layer. In the first few pages of the chapter Tolkien puts on a masterclass of showing, not telling, the class divisions inContinue reading “A Long-Expected Party of poverty”
Category Archives: Education Blog
What is 21st-century literacy?
I recently finished a course about integrating literacy into all subject areas. While the course focused on strategies for teaching reading and writing skills outside traditional language classes, I began to question literacy as a concept. To me, literate people can derive meaning and information from media. But what does literacy mean in 2024? AreContinue reading “What is 21st-century literacy?”
Let’s Go Outside! from Cornell
Today I finished the Let’s Go Outside! How to Connect Kids with Birds and Nature hosted by The Cornell Lab BirdAcademy. Anyone who wants to get young children outside more often will benefit form the course. Of all the ways I could have spent an afternoon, this was one of the best. The best part of theContinue reading “Let’s Go Outside! from Cornell”
Kingdomino in Space
I have decided to try a deep dive into Kingdomino because it is simple enough to easily analyze and (more importantly) my son enjoys playing it. As a skillbuilder, Kingdomino excels at spatial reasoning. The gameplay involves laying tiles to most efficiently build sections of land. The rules as written explain that players must build a 5×5Continue reading “Kingdomino in Space”
The Math of Kingdomino
Kingdomino is a light-weight and highly regarded tile-laying game. The simple rules and strategy make it perfect for families with young children. Kids quickly learn that there is a tradeoff between turn order and selecting the best tiles. If you choose a high-scoring tile this turn and you will almost certainly get the last to choose next turn. ScoringContinue reading “The Math of Kingdomino”
Girls, STEM, and Board Games
The movement to get more girls into STEM is laudable and ongoing. Leaving aside any social and cultural barriers to girls in STEM fields, in Boys and Girls Learn Differently, Michael Gurian claims that male brains are gender-advantaged for spatial and abstract reasoning, and female brains are gender-advantaged for socialization and relationships. There are manyContinue reading “Girls, STEM, and Board Games”
Mike Tyson Was Right – AP Research
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. I have been loving this first year of teaching AP Research. I’m still not sure I’m doing everything well, but I enjoy it and the students are engaged. Research requires me to be so much more flexible than any other course I’ve ever taught. Continue reading “Mike Tyson Was Right – AP Research”
The Hive Photo Safari
This is a great post by BGG user @dodger. They used their learners’ love of Hive as an excuse to lead a photo safari and find insects (and a spider) living in natural environments. Ideas like this are what make teaching fun. @dodger combined a game and field trip into a creative activity. There areContinue reading “The Hive Photo Safari”
Defining “Better” with Toy Cars
High school students often struggle narrowing and defining their research topics. A common topic looks something like “To what extent do short videos affect teenage health?”. That’s an incredibly difficult topic to research, in large part because we haven’t defined “health.” Are we talking obesity? Blood pressure? Kidney stones? The possibilities are endless. Helping ourContinue reading “Defining “Better” with Toy Cars”
There’s no More or Less, you need to cite sources
I recently came across a copy of the More or Less card game even though it’s a UK exclusive. In my continuing quest to jam games into my clases, I found a fun way to incorporate it into my AP Research course. First, More or Less is an extremely simple party game. One side ofContinue reading “There’s no More or Less, you need to cite sources”
The Keasy Depot 