October 2022 Newsletter
Are your leaves changing colors? Are your students excited about what they’re learning? Are you excited about what you’re teaching?
We hope to help you with two of those three questions, and have a bundle of ideas and suggested free resources for you in this, the Next Vista monthly newsletter!
Cool Contest
After a slow period during the first two years of that pandemic thing, we’re back with the 90-second edu-video contests that students and teachers all over the world have used to share creative ideas. It’s called Creative Storm ’22, and we want you and your students to take part!
How does it work? Students have all kinds of thoughts about how to describe to others what they’re learning. We want those ideas in videos so students near and far can get the benefit of something that effectively is a, “Look at it this way,” message.
If your students have trouble with one topic or another, please consider asking those doing well to try putting together a video that explains it in some way so that it can help others learn. We’re happy to help with your planning, as well. Let us know, and know that it’s part of the nonprofit’s mission. That is, there’s no cost to you.
Posts with Prompts
This week’s cool video prompt is a story about a young man whose passion for sound and audio connected him to possibilities he’d never imagined for himself. It’s a story of family, music, and blue whales.
The NVIV posts form a resource of dozens of ready-to-go activities for your students. That may be what you need for a discussion, a writing assignment, or just an opportunity to wonder at the coolness of the world. If you’d like to be in a small mailing group that gets notifications of these every week, let us know.
Questions and Cool Stuff
About once a month, Richard Byrne of the ultra-awesome Free Tech for Teachers site and I do a free Zoom show to answer questions that people send us about using tech in schools. We also share cool free stuff, because we’re just really nice guys.
This month’s show is coming up fast – Tuesday, October 4th, at 8p Eastern / 5p Pacific. We hope you’ll join in!
Taking part is free, though you do need to register to get the link. To do that, go to this page, and click the link under Upcoming. On that same page, you’ll find all our previous episodes available for those who need something a little different to binge.
Learning Like Wildfire
With more and more extreme weather, we took on the challenge of helping more people learn about wildfires – what they are, how to prevent them, and what to do if your community is threatened by one. We’re on the front end of a three-year project, and invite you to get in touch with us about it.
It’s a project in which students get simple video material from experts, and reinterpret them in videos designed to appeal to others their age. If you’re interested in having your students take part, just let us know. There are all sorts of interesting extras for doing so – free webinars with foresters, firefighters, and state parks folks, free PD for using video in the classroom, and more!
image by Tengyart from Unsplash (license)
Super Sips
Most folks find sipping on a warm coffee, tea, or chocolate a good thing to do. Very few folks actually give away a $5 Starbucks gift card to help make that happen. As it turns out, we’re in that second group, and would love to give one to you.
If you want to be in the drawing for next month’s giveaway, go to the Creative Storm ’22 contest page and give it a look. Once done, let us know what you think, and for a bonus entry, tell us what video you’d make if you were putting something forward to help folks learn something you know.
Our September winner is Konni in den Bosch, so we send a big congratulations Konni’s way!
image by Nathan Dumlao from Unsplash (license)
First Finish
We hope this is a time when you and your students have hit a good stride on how to make your time together inspiring for you both, and also hope that what we create and share is helping make that happen. We welcome your ideas on how to do that even better, and hope to hear from you!
May you inspire, and be inspired, each and every day.
Sincerely,
Rushton and the Next Vista team
Rushton Hurley (@rushtonh)
Next Vista for Learning (@nextvista)
Muchas Freebies
We love sharing cool free stuff, and invite you to help us out. You can find the best of what we’ve gathered over the years on the Next Vista Resources pages, but if there is something free and powerful you love that you don’t find there, let us know about it using our resources submission form.
Images in the freebies section are screenshots from videos or web pages unless otherwise noted.
Worth the Watch
* On the Canadian entrepreneurial front, we’ll highlight Jaeson Cardiff, the CEO and co-founder of CleanO2 Carbon Capturing Technologies. In this video from Pique Action, you’ll learn how Jaeson’s company is turning carbon emissions into soap, and why. (4:40)
* This montage of high-definition footage of Egypt seems a little haphazardly arranged, but that doesn’t take away from the beauty of what one gets to see. Find pyramids, the Nile River, the Cairo Mosque, and more in this short travel piece. (3:03)
* The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) does all manner of cool stuff for studying the oceans, but this less-than-one-minute video about the barreleye, a fish with a transparent head hit the next level of biological wonder for me. Learn more in this article from The Guardian. (0:54)
* The Japan-based art group teamLab has this beautiful video showing kids interacting with their own artwork in a virtual aquarium. It’s a great piece for getting in touch with your inner 1st grader! Take a look at teamLab’s website to learn more. (2:50)
* This Art Insider piece about David Zinn’s sidewalk art is a cool and playful look at how one might engage others with chalk. (3:04)
* This piece is a sophisticated and beautiful commercial. What is it advertising? Your students might have several answers. It’s from National Geographic and is called Visit the Okavango Delta in 360°. Take advantage of being able to move the camera with your mouse or trackpad to watch the animals walk by. (3:36)
Worth the Read
* What if a local company encouraged its employees to serve as substitute teachers as a way of helping out and better understanding the schools it serves? Read about one case where this is happening in this EdSurge post called Edtech Company Encourages Its Employees to Volunteer as Substitute Teachers.
* An article titled, “How To Handle Entitled Students,” is one that gives concrete advice to teachers who might make the significant mistake of shifting the rules for some students. Note that there’s a difference between how one treats students and how one teaches students, and this article addresses the former well.
Worth the Try
* Teachers interested in developing projects with classrooms in other parts of the world might look at Empatico. The program is specifically for Grade 1 – Grade 8 classes, and while free, does require signing up. You’ll find their mission and an introductory video on the organization’s site. The reviews on Common Sense Education are strong.
* The New York Times sent six photographers around the world to take pictures of animals in a variety of settings. The page is loaded with great things to see, read, and prompt conversation.
* The U.S. organization iCivics provides almost three dozen explainer videos on different aspects of the United States Constitution. At the bottom of the videos page, there is a link to a time-stamped, 48-page PDF with the transcripts of all the videos, as well. A nice resource for anyone engaged in thinking about how a government can be.
* I love a good visualization, and this one from Visual Capitalist about how Americans in different age groups spend money could launch all kinds of discussions. Hat tips to Preethi Lodha for her work with the graphic, and to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for the data.
Recent Newsletters
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Last Bit
I started to choose a nice jack-o-lantern image, but then I saw this culinary beauty, and decided that it was much more in sync with my interests.
image by Irina
from Unsplash (license)
See you next month!
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