KML Curriculum and Instruction Blog

I attended the Google Anywhere School yesterday in Chicago and learned about some new tools and updates to tools that I was already using. You can find my travel diary from the conference here . ScreenCastify is an extension that teachers and students can use to easily create videos with a webcam or by "filming" the screens of your computer while providing explanations.  They just updated the free version to include trimming and editing options.  I even learned how to make my own gif with my group! Below are some of the tools that might be used in various departments: SOCIAL STUDIES Google Tour Creator - We created a tour of Mt. Everest base camp. Google Tour Builder Google Expeditions ( list of field trips available) and Google Earth can be used to explore areas throughout the world. SCIENCE https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wImGnftAz5BL_Qj3PREUIHic50SQks8s/view OK Go Musical Group Google Science Journal (Free App) https://sciencejournal.withgoogl...

I received a free copy of Clearing a Path for the Gospel - A Lutheran Approach to Apologetics  by Arthur A. Eggers and Geoffrey A. Kieta and have begun reading it. I enjoy reading the perspective of a scientist who warns us about overstating our case for creationism by citing scientific evidence for a young Earth and attacking the scientific evidence for an "old" Earth and universe.   A quote that has stuck with me is: "Science can only measure things as they appear, not as they really are.  Therefore, there cannot be anything called "true science" which will find precisely what the Bible says. Efforts of sinful human beings simply cannot duplicate the revelation of the Lord." The authors also contrast "apparent age" (as measured through scientific dating techniques) vs. "actual age."   The apparent age is the best science can determine with the techniques that scientists currently have.  They also explain that anytime something is c...

My father-in-law shared a copy of  And She Was a Christian - Why Do Believers Commit Suicide (published by NPH) by Peter Preus (a LCMS pastor).   His wife committed suicide.  He shares a short history of the views of suicide in the Christian church and then shares his interpretation of Bible passages as the apply to Scripture based on advancements we have made in better understanding mental health issues.    It opened my eyes to the struggles that many have with mental illness and depression. One quote that I am wrestling with is this: "Your loved one (who committed suicide) died because, according to his merciful wisdom, our God and Savior deemed it was time for him to die?" I'd love to hear reactions to this quote.

How can we break down the content silos of high school courses so that students can see the connections between skills and content of each course to one another and to the roles of their lives? How can we better carry out our mission statement and help our students meet the exit outcomes of our school? In the spring of 2017 Matt submitted a proposal for the Teach to Lead Summit (organized in part by the US Department of Education) to collaborate with the freshmen teachers at KMLHS to answer these questions. To his great surprise, his proposal was accepted, so he headed to Columbus, OH, with Dan Albrecht and Josh Lindner on May 5 to do just that. You see the logic model for their project here or at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ityK9DUvTvC_Q5hQItcJ17Y2htUJM7662NIvqlfI3pM/edit?usp=sharing.

Infographics: An Easy Way to Increase Visuals in the Classroom At the Wisconsin Association of Teachers of Foreign Languages conference this past weekend, one of the sessions was about the use of infographics in the classroom.  Infographics visually organize information about a topic. Doing a simple internet search for infographics about an idea (world religions, periodic table, derivatives) provides you with a variety of charts and pictures that can help students look at information in a new way. If none of the results give you what you were looking for, you can also create your own on a number of different sites. Infogr.am and Piktochart are two popular ones. Piktochart also has an option that you can use to break down the infographic in visual chunks as an alternative presentational tool for a PowerPoint. You could also have your students use an infographic as an alternative to making the classic poster.  As with all material you bring into the classroom, review info...

I recently attended the Wisconsin Art Education Fall Conference at Bruce Guadalupe Community School in Milwaukee.  The most beneficial sectional was given by Concordia University's Director of Art education, Dr. Gaylund Stone. Dr. Stone's presentation focused on conceptual bases and their vital role in curriculum development.  Citing from such educational scholars as Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (UbD) as well as Ernest Boyer, Dr. Stone proposes six conceptual bases, in order of importance, that should be the first factor in curriculum development, even before standards, objectives, or outcomes. Human Purpose: Who am I? Why am I here? How should I then act? Sense of Place: time, space, social setting; Where am I? How do I know? Life Experience: birth, life, death, health, wellness Language Forms: visual, auditory, verbal Interpersonal Behavior: communication, relationships, social structures Production, Consumption, and Conservation: within culture (work-leisure-play...

...instead, negative capability is what being a Christian is all about. The great English poet John Keats defines negative capability as when an individual  "is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason" rather than "being incapable of remaining content with half-knowledge" ( http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/essay/237836?page=2 ). Keats doesn't say that we shouldn't be curious or that we shouldn't use reason; instead, he says that some things defy reason and can't be understood by rationalizations...and that we have to be okay with it.  People are most successful when they can ponder, but at the end of the day, there has to be a certain measure of acceptance of uncertainty. So, how do Christians live in "uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason"? Paul writes, "Beyond all question, the  mystery  from which ...