a resource for students and teachers
From the category archives:
In TOK we began to investigate Reason as our Way of Knowing, and how statistics relates to this. Two people came to mind:
Hans Rosling and his website Gapminder.org. Here is an analysis of statistics by Rosling using his website that is similar to the TED Talk we watched in class:
Chris Jordan and his Running the [...]
{ 3 comments }
As we begin our discussions on the short stories of Jorge Luis Borges, I wanted to post some clarifications, and a location–this post–where we can add our reflections. Please feel free to also add your discussion questions to this post ahead of time, if you would like your classmates to see them before your discussion [...]
{ 18 comments }
In order to avoid the dreaded curse of slideuments (presentations that are basically word documents pasted into a PowerPoint and helpful to no one), I wanted to point my students to some handy resources and ideas for creating presentations that are effective, memorable, and visually stimulating.
Two helpful websites that write about and compile presentation ideas [...]
{ 0 comments }
Behold the third and final part of a podcast series titled “Some Thoughts on Writing and Life.” In this part, Sarah, Aidyn and Christina make some conclusions about Anne Lamott’s book Bird By Bird: Some Thoughts on Writing and Life and relate it to their own experiences with writing. I have been pleased with how these [...]
{ 0 comments }
Here is the second part of a three part podcast series titled “Some Thoughts on Writing and Life.” In Part 2, Rachel, Selma, Cinthiya further investigate aspects of Anne Lamott’s book Bird By Bird: Some Thoughts on Writing and Life with a critical eye. They also relate Lamott’s ideas to their own writing strategies and [...]
{ 0 comments }
We have been having some interesting discussions and presentations in TOK class investigating language as a way of knowing, and we have also begun to explore the differences between written and spoken language, as well as whether or not we should preserve our current language structures, or let them evolve naturally over time.
The idea of [...]
{ 20 comments }
I am finally uploading the first part of a three part podcast series titled “Some Thoughts on Writing and Life” that my 11th grade English Literature class completed after reading and working with Anne Lamott’s book Bird By Bird: Some Thoughts on Writing and Life. This text was one of three that we studied this [...]
{ 0 comments }
“I’ll Fly Away” is my favorite song in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? This version was recorded by the wonderful Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss.
{ 2 comments }
Not only are students lucky and fortunate to participate in an art trip to Italy, but also an art trip to Italy that coincides with La Biennale di Venezia, referred to simply as “La Biennale,” which is a contemporary and avant-garde art exhibition hosted by Venice every two years. Today we visited the part of [...]
{ 3 comments }
Our last day in Florence was an eventful one, which began by crossing the river Arno over the Ponte Vecchio, walking through the ancient city walls and up the hillside for a magnificent view of the city. This view provided the unique opportunity for students to sketch the cityscape that we have been exploring for [...]
{ 1 comment }
The beautiful weather continued in Florence as we spent the morning exploring the Uffizi Museum, which houses works by Da Vinci, Botticelli, Lippi and Raphael, among others. Students spent time sketching works in detail and learning from the Italian masters. We then visited the tranquil San Marco Monastery, discovering the beautiful frescos painted directly on [...]
{ 0 comments }
Upon our arrival last evening, we were welcomed to Florence with beautiful weather and delicious traditional Tuscan cuisine. Today we were on a mission to experience as many churches as time and energy would allow us. We started with a climb up the cupola (dome) of the Duomo–the Cathedral of Santa Maria di Fiore–where we [...]
{ 0 comments }
I wanted to provide a few “visual illusion” links to some of the example we have been looking at in TOK class (like the illusion above, which is in fact not an animation, except that our mind creates one). This website has quite an impressive collection of them. Below I’ve also embedded a link [...]
{ 1 comment }
The English and TOK Source Books are intended to be a source of students’ own thinking. In addition to the contents and entries I assign, students should be exploring the Texts we study in new, personal and unique ways. I am using Text with a capital “T,” meaning a novel, poem, film, commercial, advertisement, short [...]
{ 0 comments }
“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside and look around. . . What do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. . . The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do. . . These people are still part of that system. [...]
{ 15 comments }
Although I suppose I usually read viewing or reading lists with a very critical eye–especially ones requiring that I do things “before I die”–two lists of these type intrigued me as I was reading the blog Largehearted Boy, one of my favorite places to go in an attempt to keep updated with interesting literature and [...]
{ 0 comments }
