Tornado Safety - Teachable Moment

If you live in MN, you probably heard the news that a record 36 tornadoes were spotted across the state yesterday.  Several people were killed; homes, businesses, and farms were damaged.  It's a lot to take in... especially if you don't speak English well and come from a part of the world where tornadoes are unheard of.

When I was teaching ESL full time, in our weather unit we ALWAYS talked about tornadoes and tornado safety: what to do if you heard a siren, staying away from windows, going to the basement, etc.  But I frequently sensed that my students "just didn't get it."  They told me flat out that they didn't believe that tornadoes could happen in the city, that they were safe where they lived.  Then just last summer, there was a tornado right in the heart of Minneapolis.

This morning's news makes for a powerful "teachable moment" regarding tornado safety.  While none of us want to terrify our students or make them feel unsafe, it's vitally important that they know what safety precautions to take when a tornado warning is issued.

Here are some online resources with photos, news stories, and safety information you can use:

WCCO.com story:  http://wcco.com/weathernewsstories/NWS.damage.tornado.2.1759448.html
WCCO.com photo slide show:  http://wcco.com/slideshows/tornadoes.storms.across.20.1758304.html
Minnesota Public Radio story and photo slide show:  http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/06/18/minnesota-tornadoes-severe-weather/
Tornado FAQ from the Storm Prediction Center:  http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/index.html
Tornado Safety Info from the Red Cross
Test your knowledge with the Severe Weather Quiz:  http://wcco.com/quiz#08_0422_severewxquiz


Image source: http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/tornadoes080711.htm: University of Minnesota Climatology Workgroup.

"Your Disease Risk" Website

This is an interesting, free (and largely ad-free) interactive online tool that's accessible to adult learners with high intermediate reading skills.  It allows users to self-assess their risk for 5 major diseases (cancer, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, and stroke) that can be affected by prevention measures like a healthy diet and exercise.  To use the tool, you enter information about your height, weight, waist size (you might need a measuring tape for this one!), diet, exercise habits, smoking habits, etc.  When you're finished, you see results that give a rough risk-level assessment along with recommendations for ways you could reduce your risk.

You can find it here:  www.yourdiseaserisk.siteman.wustl.edu.

It would make a nice extension activity for learners who are working on a health unit, or as a resource for a health literacy curriculum.

If you try it, let me know what you think!

Why Geometry Matters

Check out the first item in the NewsCut blog for today: http://bit.ly/d6wGN8

Then follow the link to find out what's wrong with the info-graphic (it leads here: http://bit.ly/aookgS).

Here's the graphic in question.

What's wrong with this thing?

 Hint: it's a math problem. Geometry, specifically. Apparently, the people who made this graphic forgot a basic rule of geometry. Or, maybe they got it wrong on purpose, thinking that most of the rest of us don't understand math concepts, either.

If you're teaching Geometry, try bringing this info-graphic to class. See if your students can spot the mistake! It's a great teach-able moment where Geometry intersects with current events in the news.

Interesting Commentary on Web 2.0, Brain Science, and Learning

Here is a good read for those of us interested in using Web 2.0 to enhance student learning.

Check it out at www.weteachwelearn.org. 

Creative Commons licensed photo from Flickr by tobiaseigen.

Three Free Tools for Screen Capture Videos

If you instruct online or in a computer lab, screen capture/screencast videos can be a powerful tool in your teaching toolbox. Instead of making long, detailed step-by-step instructions for computer tasks (which it seems like no one reads past step 3 anyway), you can show and tell with videos of on-screen actions. Here are three free tools to try:

Jing
Jing is a free software download available from www.jingproject.com. This simple piece of software allows you to create both images of your screen and screencast videos. You can select the entire screen, the active window, or just a portion of the screen. Screen images can be edited before being saved or pasted into a document. For example you can add arrows, text boxes, and highlighting directly on the image. The video capture tool allows narration if you have a headset with a microphone. Videos are limited to 5 minutes. You can easily save images and videos to your computer’s hard drive, or copy images to paste into a Word document. Videos and images can also be uploaded to www.screeencast.com, after which you can share them in different ways (email, instant messaging, etc.), get the links, or embed them in another website.

Screenr
http://screenr.com This is a free online tool for creating screencast videos. It is similar to Jing, but can be used without downloading and installing anything. It is integrated with Twitter, and you sign in with a Twitter account. So if you use Twitter, it makes it easy to share your videos through that channel. Once you have recorded a video and posted it to Twitter or the Screenr website, you can share the link or embed it in another web page.

Screen Toaster
www.screentoaster.com is another free online tool for creating screencast videos. Like Screenr, there is nothing to download or install. You capture and edit your video all within your Internet browser. One nice feature of Screen Toaster is that in addition to online video storage and easy uploading to YouTube, it allows you to save your video to your computer’s hard drive as either a .mov file (for editing with video editing software) or a .swf file (flash video, for playing offline). Another nice feature is that you can add audio or subtitles after recording the screen activity. So you can record just the action first and then record audio later.

Birds of a Feather...

Blog together?

Thanks to the brilliant technology of Google Alerts (which automatically sifts the web for any new content that matches your search terms and sends you a compilation of that material), I've now discovered two more adult literacy technology bloggers to read and share! They are Duren Thompson and Bill McNutt of the Center for Literacy Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Yay! I knew there had to be more birds in this flock out there somewhere.

Check out their blog "Skills for the 21st Century" for interesting insights into teaching adults technology literacy skills, technology and education trends, and - oooohhhh - data!

Creative Commons Photo "Elegant Tern Flock" by Mike Baird shared on Flickr.

New(ish) Online Reading Program for Adult Literacy Learners

If you teach adults to read, and those learners have access to computers, you'll definitely want to check this out!

One of my favorite online learning sites for adults, GCF Learn Free, has added a new resource called the Adult Reading Program. It's an interactive site that includes a variety of engaging types of content, including word study and readings. It's not precisely instructive (in that it doesn't teach people how to read), but is good practice for adults learning to read, and appropriate for self-directed, exploration-focused learning.

You can find it online at www.gcflearnfree.org/reading.