Author: Lensyl Urbano

On the popularity of soccer

A Tired Ball Speaks from THE AMEN PROJECT on Vimeo.

I remember playing the game with a rolled up spheroid of aluminum foil. For kids living in poverty in the developing world something as simple as a soccer ball is an expensive luxury. Jessica Hilltout has a coffee table book out called “Amen: Grassroots Football“, with photographs of the “balls” she’s seen used in Africa. The video above has just a small selection.

The pictures speak to, and help explain, the popularity of soccer around the world. Unfortunately, I’m not quite sure how to order the book, but the website does allow you to look inside.

Poverty on the Brain

This book I should read, “Teaching with Poverty in Mind“, sounds like it’s based on Ruby K. Payne’s framework for understanding poverty. I’ve already written a little about the controversy surrounding her work. Payne’s practical activities seemed useful at the very least, so it should be interesting to find out how Eric Jensen extends the theories to the classroom.

Maps of wealth and population

World population in 2000. (© Copyright SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan).)
Wealth in 2002. Copyright SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan).

In the coming year we’ll be looking at inequalities in wealth around the world. One way of looking at this is via the two maps above from the WORLDMAPPER website. Countries are scaled by the population, in the first image, and wealth in the second.

Worldmapper also has quite the number of very interesting maps, including maps related to health, violence, pollution, food and ecology. The species at risk map ties in well with the study of the Earth’s resources.

They also distribute some animated maps as well as free software, called ScapeToad, that you can use to make your own maps. I like the fact that their maps and software are clearly licensed and allow free educational use.

Using technology for project based learning

Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss have a new book out on using information technology in large-scale projects called, “Reinventing Project-Based Learning“. While you can do great projects without technology, they say,

… what a richer, more authentic landscape it is when students have access to resources, tools, strategies, and concerns found outside the classroom walls.

There are a ridiculous amount of real data available out their on the web, from economic data (FRED) to real-time stream gauging for the entire U.S. (USGS). And many come with online tools to process the data.

In addition, things like wikis make collaboration possible even for home-work projects in a way that was not possible in the past.

For myself, the book provides an interesting guide for for tailoring and improving the structure of the projects I already do, but there is a good bit of information introducing different types of technology to those interested in incorporating it for the first time. I’d be interested to see what teachers new to experimenting with project-based learning with new technology think about the book.

Mindset: Set to grow

Carol Dweck’s book on the importance of your mindset. Fixed mindset – not good; Growth mindset – effort creates ability –> reward effort, perseverance, and character. When you praise you praise growth qualities like effort, and not fixed qualities like intelligence. It sounds like it ties in with all of the research on praise and rewards. It’s a book I should read.

Non-verbal communication: Micheal Grinder

To communicate an important or difficult message, it is important that your non-verbal communications, gestures, body language, align with the words you speak. Micheal Grinder who teaches courses on presentation skills and classroom management has a few good YouTube videos like the one above.

His blog is also a good resource.