Happy New Decade!

Happy New Decade! (click the picture to view it in full screen)

One Minute on Facebook

Discovery Blog Network & The "Skype In The Classroom" Directory

As a "STAR member of the Discovery Educator Network," Discovery Communications created a blog link for me, http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/mattfarber/.  They added me to the DEN Blog Network, http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/directory-of-stars/, too!  My first, and only, entry (so far) is a link back to this blog.  Skype also listed me in their Skype In The Classroom Directory: http://education.skype.com/users/496.

Track Santa With Google Earth

Thanks to Norad Santa, you can track Santa's route with Google Earth. This year Norad Santa added a Google Maps plug-in for smart phones. Visit m.noradsanta.org on your phone’s browser. You can follow the trip on Twitter at @noradsanta, and keep up with news about his journey on this Facebook page. Santa’s home on YouTube is at http://www.youtube.com/noradtrackssanta. This is a great way to blend geography with a holiday tradition.

The trip begins Christmas Eve: http://www.noradsanta.org/en/track3d.html.

Here are highlights from last year's journey:

Project Based Learning: Explained.

The Farber's 2010 Holiday Card

Confetti Countdown Filmstrip New Year's

Turn your holiday photos into holiday cards with Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Discovery Educator Network

Our school district has a subscription to Discovery Education. Discovery Education provides original online content, such as educational videos (Discovery Streaming), lesson plans in various content areas, online quizzes, virtual tours, professional development webinars, a teacher center, and a puzzlemaker.

During today's weekly 7th grade team meeting, I gave a presentation about the Discovery Educator Network (DEN).  I gave a tour of the DEN website and showed my colleagues how to apply to become STAR Discovery Educators.

• Click here to learn more about hosting a Discovery Educator Network Event at your school.
• Click here to learn what an event should look like.

"Problems In Modern Africa" Podcast

My 6th grade students recently completed a library research project. They studied problems facing Africa today.


Here are their podcasts: http://socialstudiesrocks.podbean.com

Feed The World: 26 Years Later

My 6th graders are nearing completion of their "Problems in Modern Africa" podcast project. This calls to mind Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas (1984) (and USA for Africa's We Are The World, as well as the Live Aid concerts). The original single album art is below. It was designed by Peter Blake, famous for creating the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper cover art.