Caption Contest

Would you like to win a t-shirt? Make Use Of, the online technology magazine,  is giving away one to the writer of the best caption for this cartoon; here is what you have to do:

Got a caption? Give us what you’ve got! Submit your captions in the comments section — we’ll pick the best one and award a free t-shirt! How hard can it be?

Click here to be linked to the comment section so that you can write your caption.

You will let me know if you win, won´t you?

Student Contest: Write a Rap About the News of 2013

Every year Flocabulary :The Week in Rap partners with the New York Times Learning Network for the "Year in Rap" contest: students have a chance to write their own raps about major events in 2013. The deadline is January 7, 2014

The Contest Rules: Write Your Own ‘Year in Rap’:

1. The rap should be 12 to 16 lines long.

2. Students should choose at least four important New York Times stories from one of the news categories listed below.

It’s fine to focus on a smaller topic found within a section in The Times. For example, you can write a rap based on just the government shutdown rather than the whole range of national or political news this year. Or, you might focus on 2013 movies rather than covering other news from the Arts section. But you should also feel free to include as many, and as wide a range, of news stories from a particular section as you like. (More about narrowing your choices can be found in this section of the lesson plan.)

Here are the sections from which you can choose:

• World
• U.S.
• Business
• Technology
• Science
• Health
• Sports
• Arts
• Fashion
• Obituaries (from 2013 only)

3. The rap should be original and must follow Learning Network commenting standards, which means no profanity or vulgar language.

4. Submissions must be from students from 13 to 19 years old. (Update:Students can come from anywhere in the world.) No last names please, but an initial is fine, as is a school or class code of some type. (For example, “Ethan G. CHS112.”)

5. Submissions are allowed from partners and teams as well as from individuals — just remember to submit all of your names when you post your rhyme. (This year we’ll judge all entries the same.)

6. One submission per student, please. If you’re submitting as part of a team, you should not also submit as an individual.

7. Raps must be submitted as comments on this post by 5 p.m. Eastern time on Jan. 7. If you have questions about the contest, please feel free to post them in the comments section as well, and we’ll answer you there.

8. The top five raps, as judged by The Times and Flocabulary staff using this rubric, will be featured on both The Learning Network and Flocabulary.com.

Because of privacy rules that apply to students under 18, we are asking foronly your lyrics. While we love YouTube videos of young rappers as much as anyone, please don’t post links to them here.

9. Want inspiration? Here are the winners from 2012 and from 2011. Can you top them?

The Best Job in the World

How much do you know about Australia? Click here to find out 

In Australia, they consider the following jobs the best in the world; do you agree?

• an island caretaker on the great barrier reef
• chief funster
• taste master
• wildlife caretaker
• outback adventurer
• lifestyle photographer
• park ranger

Which one would you choose and why? Watch the video below to know what you each job consists of:

People from all over the world have applied and three entries were chosen for each job; Click here to see the finalists - the winners will be announced on June 21st.

A Spanish girl, Julia Matos, nearly made it: she was one of the 25 finalists. Here is the video she made for her application: 

If Julia could get that far, you could get one of those jobs in the future... who knows?

Google Science Fair 2013

Google has announced its third Science Fair; this is the video that promotes it: 

And this second video tells you how to participate - but click here to go to the webpage:

The following information is taken from Google´s official blog: 

For the past two years, thousands of students from more than 90 countries have submitted research projects that address some of the most challenging problems we face today. Previous winners tackled issues such as the early diagnosis of breast cancer, improving the experience of listening to music for people with hearing lossand cataloguing the ecosystem found in water. This year we hope to once again inspire scientific exploration among young people and receive even more entries for our third competition. 

Here’s some key information for this year’s Science Fair:

• Students can enter the Science Fair in 13 languages.
• The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2013 at 11:59 pm PDT.
• In June, we’ll recognize 90 regional finalists (30 from the Americas, 30 from Asia Pacific and 30 from Europe/Middle East/Africa).
• Judges will then select the top 15 finalists, who will be flown to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. for our live, final event on September 23, 2013.
• At the finals, a panel of distinguished international judges consisting of renowned scientists and tech innovators will select top winners in each age category (13-14, 15-16, 17-18). One will be selected as the Grand Prize winner.

Prizes for the 2013 Science Fair include a $50,000 scholarship from Google, a trip to the Galapagos with National Geographic Expeditions, experiences at CERN, Google or the LEGO Group and digital access to the Scientific American archives for the winner’s school for a year. Scientific American will also award a $50,000 Science in Action prize to one project that makes a practical difference by addressing a social, environmental or health issue. We’re also introducing two new prizes for 2013:

• In August, the public will have the opportunity to get to know our 15 finalists through a series of Google+ Hangouts on Air and will then vote for the Inspired Idea Award—an award selected by the public for the project with the greatest potential to change the world.
• We also recognize that behind every great student there’s often a great teacher and a supportive school, so this year we’ll award a $10,000 cash grant from Google and an exclusive Google+ Hangout with CERN to the Grand Prize winner’s school.

Lastly, we’ll also be hosting a series of Google+ Hangouts on Air. Taking place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, these Hangouts will feature renowned scientists including inventor Dean Kamen and oceanographic explorer Fabien Cousteau, showcase exclusive behind-the-scenes tours of cutting-edge labs and science facilities, and provide access to judges and the Google Science Fair team. We hope these Google+ Hangouts will help inspire, mentor and support students throughout the competition and beyond.

Visit www.googlesciencefair.com to get started now—your idea might just change the world.

Edublogs Awards 2012

Today I want to recommend some of those blogs I follow and learn from; my way of letting them know how much I like them is nominating them for the Edublogs Awards 2012 (Edublogs is a blogging platform for people involved in education). There are 18 categories but I am afraid I do not have a favourite for all of them - I have more than one favourite for the categories below, though, which has made it really hard to make a choice.

My nominees are: 

• Best ed tech/resource sharing blog: Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero. David Kapuler has a concise but well-defined way of presenting sites, tools, apps...

• Best individual blog: Cristina Sky Box. Ana Cristina Pratas has a nice visual way of presenting her resources and explaining her ideas. She lets you see she is really into education; she obviously loves blogging and sharing things with us.

• Best group blog: Edudemic. Learning, parents, technology, social media, advice... you name it, lots of different issues usually dealt with in a very clear way.

• Best teacher blog: Movie Segments to Asses Grammar Goals. Claudio Azevedo is certainly original in his way of presenting grammar issues; the films he chooses get a new dimension when we see the activities he suggests and when we eventually use them in our classes.

• Free web tool: Dropbox. So convenient!

• Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast: Wonderopolis : activities to make kids wonder and reflect on all sorts of topics related to everyday life.

• Best mobile app: Shazam: an app that can quickly (impressively quickly) identify any song you are listening to.

Spot the Differences

The duo called Rett and Link  (who call themselves "internetainers," guess why) have created this video for their song Sleep Tight : two apparently similar videos are shown side by side but there are a few differences between them. 

Here´s what you can do: 

• watch the video and find the differences
• write them down (writing exercise). Use this part of the exercise to learn and practise some vocabulary
• watch the second video and check your list of differences (listening exercise). Listen out for the vocabulary you have learnt and used in your writing.

What kind of differences should you look for? Here´s what they say about it:

WHAT COUNTS AS A DIFFERENCE?
A purposeful change in the SET (= representation consisting of the scenery and other properties used to identify the location of a dramatic production),  PROPS (= an object used in a play, movie, or performance) or WARDROBE. 

WHAT DOES NOT COUNT?
1. Any changes in CHOREOGRAPHY are NOT differences. 
Specifically, body positioning ("after he's knocked out, his legs/head/mouth etc. are different") or timing of body movements (she grabs the cane slightly later in one performance) do not count as differences. 

There are only TWO exceptions to this guideline, and here are some hints: (1) in one scene, one character is singing on one side but not singing at all on the other, and (2) a box opens during a performance on one side but not the other.

2. Also, A SLIGHT REPOSITIONING of the same item is NOT a difference. 
For example, the exact way a bedspread or curtain is positioned, or the exact orientation of the same toy truck, or the way the same jacket is lying on the floor-- these are not differences. If the same teddy bear slightly changes positions, that is not a difference. But, if the same teddy bear is wearing a shirt only on one side, that is a difference. A difference counts when you can discern a purposeful alteration. If a picture or object is slightly moved, that is not a difference. If a picture or object is discernibly rotated, that IS a difference.

Answer key: