By George! It’s a Presidents Day Lesson –

- Spatially, what is the most common generic name for soft drinks? (think land mass)

- Using a population density map, which generic name for a soft drink is most popular? (you’ll need to compare two theme maps)

- What reasons might explain why some pockets like Arizona and Florida don’t fit necessarily in a regional trend?  (think about the theme of “movement”)

- What is the economic impact on Pepsi or other brands (besides Coke) in states such as Texas?

Isn’t the list of questions compelling?  It makes me both thirsty for drink and for knowledge! lol   What other questions would you ask of students studying this map?  Share as a comment below!

What generic name do YOU use for soft drinks? Click to enlarge if needed.

Everyone’s talking about Apple’s recent announcement that they want to play in the textbook sandbox. Apple released three free pieces of software and launched iBooks 2 all with the end goal of having kids read content on an iPad or Apple device instead of from a print textbook.
When I say everyone’s talking about it, I really do mean everyone. We’ve had lots of teachers ask us what TCI’s response will be. Newspapers, blogs, magazines, and most online outlets have speculated on Apple’s next move.

Exciting, isn’t it?

When was the last time the people in line behind you at Starbucks were talking about education? When was the last time education got so much press that wasn’t negative or about budget cuts?

Thanks Apple for getting the buzz going and making millions of people think more about education, books, and what’s best for kids. We care deeply about all of those subjects at TCI and love having more people in the pool with us.

We’ll be talking a lot more about how TCI fits into this picture throughout 2012. The short answer is that we’re working hard (even at this very moment) to make our Teacher and Student Subscriptions play nicer with iPads and other tablets and all of the other devices out there. Our software wizards have a goal of making our content platform neutral so that all teachers and kids can use it easily and take advantage of all of its features.

]]> http://blog.teachtci.com/text-to-audio-3-years-running/feed 0 http://blog.teachtci.com/visual-discovery-how-it-works-and-where-to-find-free-images http://blog.teachtci.com/visual-discovery-how-it-works-and-where-to-find-free-images#comments Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:25:06 +0000 Traci Cook http://blog.teachtci.com/?p=2075 The Visual Discovery strategy is my favorite for a number of reasons. One is that I love the images in all TCI programs. Of course, we have staff members whose job it is to find those wonderful images, so I also love that there are many, many places teachers can go to find their own images and create wonderful presentations. We’ve assembled a list of fabulous website on the attached document:

Updated-Great Places to Find Images

The other reason I like Visual Discovery is that it’s an easy way to begin using the TCI Approach. A Visual Discovery lesson isn’t as risky as an Experiential Exercise yet allows students to discover content under a teacher’s watchful eye. Teachers can step in and complete the story or even impart content knowledge. I think of this strategy as wading in to the TCI pool without diving in to the deep end.

Here are the five steps to keep in mind when doing a Visual Discovery lesson in your classroom:

1) Arrange your classroom- Make sure students can interact and that the image is projected as large as possible.

2) Use a few powerful images-Don’t bombard your students. Instead select a few rich images and focus on them for as long as 20 minutes.

3) Ask questions carefully-Use TCI’s Detective Analogy to guide students through the discovery of information beginning with the most basic (What do you see?).

4) Challenge students to read about the image-You’ll be amazed at how eager they are to read after you’ve piqued their curiosity with an image.

5) Have students interact with the image-Act-it-outs get students out of their seats interacting with the image.

We have a super video of a Visual Discovery lesson in a classroom on our Theories and Strategies page.

How do you use images in your classroom? Where do you find them?

To what extent do the media influence your political views? In this free lesson by @TeachTCI (www.teachtci.com), students work in groups to analyze persuasive techniques and then create and evaluate campaign commercials for presidential candidates. Take advantage of this free lesson, especially during this election year. You can learn more about Government Alive! Power, Politics, and You and try a 30-day trial HERE.Government Alive! Public Opinion and the Media Lesson

In this free lesson from TCI, students watch/listen to Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and answer questions. In a Social Studies Skill Builder, students are assigned an excerpt from the speech. Pairs work together to find an image to showcase that depicts progress (or lack of) towards that dream. Pairs then travel to see all the excerpts and images created. In a whole class debrief using a human spectrum, students evaluate the total level of progress. Individually, students then create a photo collage which brings to life one of the excerpts.