Adventist Schools Victoria - LEARNING AND TEACHING

Commercialised Childhood?

’…Marketing affects what children want to eat, wear, and play, and with whom they play. It also shapes what they learn, what they want to learn, and why they want to learn. And it primes them to be drawn into, exploited, and influenced by marketing efforts in schools…’

Connect, Extend, Challenge

1. How are the ideas and information presented in the quote above and the article below connected to what you already knew?
2. What new ideas did you get that extended or pushed your thinking in new directions?
3. What is still challenging or confusing for you to get your mind around? What questions, wonderings or puzzles do you now have?

utnereader:

Corporate-Sponsored Kids

A four-year-old arrives at school and starts crying when she realizes her lunch is packed in a generic plastic bag, not the usual Disney Princess lunchbox she so loves. A friend tells her she won’t be able to sit at the princess lunch table—it’s only for girls with princess lunchboxes.

A fourth grader arrives home from school all excited. He has a Book It certificate from Pizza Hut because his mother signed the form showing that he met the reading-at-home goal his teacher set for him. He pleads with his mother to take him to Pizza Hut for dinner that night.

Sixth graders are assigned the task of writing to their principal about something important that they would like to see happen at their school. They decide to ask for school vending machines that sell snack foods and drinks.

As marketing to children intensifies, what can we do to minimize the damage? Keep reading.

(via gjmueller)

True, False, or a Bit of Both?

gjmueller:

Social Media Helps Students Bond, Say Researchers

Both in and out of school, students are socializing more online. According to an annual report released last month by the Pew Internet and American Life project, 95 percent of teenagers are active online, and nearly three out of four children ages 12 to 17 access the Internet via mobile devices, making virtual connections much more integral to most students’ daily lives.

At the same time, more than 6.7 million students took at least one online class in 2012 according to an annual national survey; most of those classes require students to interact or collaborate with classmates and instructors virtually.

The closer the virtual method to live interaction, Ms. Sherman found, the better students were able to engage socially. Students using video chat—which allows the most identification of facial and body gestures, voice inflection, and other cues—had the greatest depth of social interaction, and students reported the greatest feeling of social engagement afterward. Students using text messaging felt and acted the least connected.

photo via flickr:CC | rorymarinich

Think, Puzzle, Explore, Report

1. What do you think you know about this topic?
2. What questions or puzzles do you have?
3. How can you explore this topic?
4. How might you report your answers to your questions or puzzles?

gjmueller:

Playborhoods: Why Children Playing Street Games Is the Best Measure of a Healthy Neighborhood

Children’s immediate neighborhoods—right on their block, outside their front door—are the ideal places for them to play outside. These are the safest, most comfortable places for children outside their homes because they can stay within earshot of their parents, and they can also get to know dozens of neighbors.

So, neighborhoods need children, and children need neighborhoods. Can we bring children back to neighborhoods again?

photo via flickr:CC | Treetop Mom

Compass Points

E = Excited What excites you about this idea or proposition? What’s the upside?

W = Worrisome What do you find worrisome about this idea or proposition? What’s the downside?

N = Need to Know What else do you need to know or find out about this idea or proposition? What additional information would help you to evaluate things?

S = Stance or Suggestion for Moving Forward What is your current stance or opinion on the idea or proposition? How might you move forward in your evaluation of this idea or proposition?

thedailywhat:

Think, Pair, Share

1. Examine this image, read the accompanying text, and view the interview footage
2. Take a few minutes of thinking time to consider the idea of ‘restored faith in humanity’
3. Turn to a nearby student to share your thoughts, consider your partners thoughts, and together develop a creative response

Restored Faith in Humanity…

A tourist’s snapshot of a New York City cop helping out a homeless man has gone viral, making the 25 year old NYPD officer Lawrence DePrimo an Internet hero. The photo, which shows DePrimo handing over a pair of boots to a barefoot man, was taken by Jennifer Foster, a visitor from Arizona who happened to be walking by the scene and noticed the random act of kindness, and posted to the Facebook page of NYPD [recently] the image…gained more than 525,000 likes and 40,000 comments [on social media] For the interview footage with both DePrimo and Foster, head over toNBC Today.

lizclimo:

looks pretty smart to me

Ubiquitous tech

Find What’s Funny

1. What is being made fun of?

2. What specific things make this “funny?”

3. How might you tell this as a joke without describing what you see?

Think, Pair, Share

1. Is this statement true?
2. Take a few minutes of thinking time to consider this
3. Turn to a nearby student to share your thoughts, consider your partners thoughts

explore-blog:

…from…Bill “The Science Guy” Nye…

(Source: )

Theme decorated cup cakes! What is the theme?

What Makes You Say That?

1. What’s going on?
2. What do you see that makes you say that?
3. What do you want to do about it?

(via pbs-food)

explore-blog:

1838 Technology:

The oldest known photograph of a person, 1838 – a Parisian getting his shoes shined.

[This photo] was taken in the middle of a busy street, but because the exposure time was over 10 minutes, the moving traffic wasn’t captured. Because the man stood still long enough to have his boots polished, he was captured in the daguerreotype. 

Be Inspired – Wax Lyrical

1. Allow the media to inspire you.
2. Get in touch with the feelings it inspires.
3. Put these feelings into words – don’t worry if they don’t “make sense.”