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Meet Me at Midnight

What it is: As I said yesterday, the Smithsonian is a wealth of outstanding online activities and interactives.  Meet Me at Midnight is an interactive adventure/comic book that takes place in the Smithsonian Art Museum.  Through this fun mystery adventure, students are introduced to American art and Artists from the Smithsonian collection.  Students are taken on adventures as they explore each item in the Root Monster’s treasure chest.  The coyote teaches about sculpture, the headless horseman about landscape, and the ballerina about light.  As students go through the adventures they will pick up art terminology.  Each story takes place in five galleries: media, technique, design, purpose, and culture.   Students will play art games and puzzles to find clues about where the artwork in the treasure chest should be returned to. How to integrate Meet Me at Midnight into the classroom: Meet Me at Midnight is a fantastic interactive game for third to fifth grade students.  The reading throughout the interactive is appropriate for 8-11 year old readers.  To me, Meet Me at Midnight feels like a fun graphic novel/comic book adventure that students can interact in.  The interactive takes time to get all the way through, once students get to certain points in the interactive, they can stop and get a code that they can plug in the next time they visit the site.  They will pick up right where they left off.   Meet Me at Midnight is a good way to pique students interest in art.  There is a lot of good learning embedded in the games and puzzles.  Because there is so much reading on this site, it would make a good reading center/thinking activity on classroom computers.  Meet Me at Midnight is really best played individually in a computer lab setting, but I think students would also enjoy playing together in a whole class setting using a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard. If your class takes a field trip to your local art museum, this site is a must visit prior to the field trip.  It will give students common language about what they see at the museum and students can complete the accompanying Kids Activity guide.  If a field trip to the art museum is out of the question, use this site as part of a virtual field trip experience for your students. Tips: Are you taking your family on a trip to the art museum this summer; start your art adventure by visiting Meet Me at Midnight! Please leave a comment and share how you are using Meet Me at Midnight in your classroom.

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Teacher Tuesday: Sir Ken Robinson, Learning Without Frontiers

Posted by admin | Posted in For Teachers, Grade Level, inspiration, professional development, Teacher Resources, TED Talk Tuesdays, video | Posted on 22-03-2011

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Sometimes it is important to just take a minute for yourself.  I know as teachers we aren’t very good at doing that, so today I am giving you an excuse…after all, it is #teachertuesday!  Last week Sir Ken Robinson spoke at Learning Without Frontiers, the resulting video is a must watch.  Go grab yourself a snack, put your feet up and prepare to be inspired and challenged!

 

I am currently working on a platform (Learning Genome) that will make it possible to personalize learning for every student, so as soon as Robinson went there I was all ears.  Here is a break down of that portion:

  • Education must be personal because children are individuals.  All children have different aptitudes, interests, and passions.  It is our duty to connect children with their own sense of possibility.
  • Human resources are like natural resources, they are often buried deep and have to be exposed.
  • We don’t know what we are capable until we have the opportunity to find out.
  • A narrow (boxed) curriculum cuts off opportunities because talents have been segregated off from the curriculum.
  • Students conclude that they aren’t good at anything because they don’t find success in the narrow scope of what is required of them.
  • Personalized education puts children in touch with their real capabilities, gives children a sense of creativity, and gives students a sense of confidence.
  • Education must be personal, economic, and cultural.

What challenges do you find in personalizing learning for your students?  Do you believe personalizing learning is important enough to take on that challenge?

Comments (1)

Daily Links 03/24/2011 | EduEyeView said on 24-03-2011

[...] 12iLearn Technology 17 » Blog Archive 7d » Teacher Tuesday: Sir Ken Robinson, Learning W… [...]

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