The invisibility of teachers

Another article about education reform talking about how teachers are not part of the process. An excerpt:

In effect, then, for a century, teachers have been invisible in their own field, except as both compliant workers implementing political and bureaucratic mandates and asoften-silent scapegoats as that bureaucracy fails. However, even that teachers have primarily been those who implement education policy instead of those creating it is more complicated than it seems.

Mr. Kozak

The 7 Superpowers every teacher should have

Here you go, teachers.

Mr. Kozak

Mashups Part 2

Students,

Here's an article explaining how to find the BPM of a song.

Mr. Kozak

Mashups Part 1

Students of music,

Making mashups is not easy, but the end result can be very, very cool.

Remember the basic rules:
1) The two songs have to be in the same tempo
and
2) The two songs have to be in the same meter

We listened to two examples (Radiohead with Dave Brubeck and James Brown with The Beatles)

If you use your BIG6 research skills, you can probably find a good tutorial to help you.

You can also find song banks listing songs with the same BPM (beats per minute)/tempo.

Good luck mashing up!

Mr. Kozak

Mind Up

Teachers,

Mind Up is a curriculum promoting mindfulness, stress reduction, meditation, empathy, and self-control. I look forward to reading through their materials and getting back to you. A potentially important part of any middle school pastoral program.

Mr. Kozak

Play!

Students and parents,

More and more research shows that play, daydreaming, and downtime is important for learning:

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Nelson Mandela - 1918-2013

A sad day for one of history's most magnificent citizens, Nelson Mandela.

A great opportunity to listen to some music sung in the Xhosa language.

Rest in peace.
Chris Kozak

This is your Brain on Improv

TEDTalks are an amazing collection of videos that really bring concepts to life inside the mind.

Here is one relevant to what the Grade 7 students are doing right now about improv and the brain.

Mr. Kozak

 

African Dance Tutorials

Grade 6 Students,

Now that you have recorded a group dance video with at least three specific dance moves, you are going to record a voice-over and create an iMovie project explaining how to do the dance.

It is a multi-step, multi-class project, but you can work in groups until you need to use the microphones to record your voice-over.

If you can't solve an iMovie issue in your groups after searching online, I can facilitate.

Mr. Kozak