Mike Falick's Blog

The Rise and Fall of Southern Democrats 1964 - Today

The Economist has created this interesting video that shows how the "old South" has gone from being overwhelmingly Democrat to overwhelmingly Republican since 1964. 

How Has Inflation Affected Prices Since You Were Born: This Handy Website Will Let You Know

I recently came across this website that will show you how much inflation has increased the prices of common items since the year you were born.  Simply enter your birth year in the box (as long as it was after 1950), and see how much prices have changed since.

Click on the image below, which shows inflation since my birth year, to go to the website.

Teaching Students How to Conduct Better Web Research

I found this presentation very informative.

Teaching the Ten Steps to Better Web Research

 

The Periodic Table of Videos - Share this with Your Favorite Chemistry Teacher and Student

The University of Nottingham has created a very useful version of the periodic table.  From the Periodic Table of Videos website:

Tables charting the chemical elements have been around since the 19th century - but this modern version has a short video about each one.

We've done all 118 - but our job's not finished. Now we're updating all the videos with new stories, better samples and bigger experiments.

Plus we're making films about other areas of chemistry, latest news and occasional adventures away from the lab.

Most recently we've started a new series - The Molecular Videos - featuring our favourite molecules and compounds.

Click the image below to go directly to the website.  Once there, click each element in the table to see the element's video.

New Brunswick Department of Education Presents a Great Video on the Future of Education

Here's a really good video that is a fresh take on Karl Fisch's "Did You Know" video.

My First Prezi Explains Google's Wonder Wheel

Yesterday, I posted about a fantastic new presentation tool I saw at ASCD called Prezi.

Below is my first Prezi, which explains another great tool I learned about at ASCD - Google's Wonder Wheel.

Click the arrow, give it moment to load, then click to advance and navigate.

Wonder Wheel on Prezi

Prezi Presentations Crushes PowerPoint (and It's Web-Based and Free to Use)

At ASCD this weekend, I have been introduced to an exciting new technology for creating presentations called Prezi.  Presentations created using Prezi are substantially better than any PowerPoint presentation I have ever seen.  Best of all, Prezi is web-based, and the basic version is free.  There is an enhanced version that includes a desktop edition of Prezi, but almost anything you want to do can be done with the free version.

Below is a sample from the Prezi website.  Click the arrow, allow it to download, and then click the arrow to advance through the presentation.

**Update:  I have created my first Prezi to explain Google's new Wonder Wall feature.  You can access it here.**

Delivering your idea on Prezi

Macbeth Rap - Interesting Student Project Shows a True Understanding of the Material

I came across this video while looking for Shakespeare information on the web.  I think it would be hard to argue that the students in this video did not have a true understanding of the material.

College Insight: A New Website Provides Information About College Affordability, Graduation Rates, and Diversity in an Easy to Use Format

Here's another website that supports our District's goal to be the premiere college focused district in Texas.

College InSight puts higher education data at your fingertips. Browse and compare information about affordability, diversity, and student success.

As described on the website:

College InSight, an initiative of the Institute for College Access & Success, makes data on college affordability, diversity, and student success easy to find, compare, and analyze.  College InSight is the successor to EconomicDiversity.org and provides data for almost 5,000 U.S. colleges and universities. In addition to college-level data, it features totals and averages for states, sectors, and other groupings of colleges. College InSight is both an easy-to-use consumer resource and a sophisticated research tool designed to help shed light on important trends and issues.

There are three interconnected ways to tap into College InSight’s wide range of data:  

 1. Spotlight - Start by selecting a college, state, or type of school to see a snapshot of key data and a relevant comparison.

 2. Topics - Start with a topic, then dig deeper to see how specific colleges, states, or school types compare.  

 3. Explore All Data - Build your own table with any combination of colleges, variables, or years in the College InSight database.

Shakespeare Searched: A Website Dedicated Solely to the Works of Shakespeare

If you like Shakespeare, or if you need to find a particular word within his works, then Shakespeare Searched is for you.  From the Shakespeare Searched website:

About Shakespeare Searched

Shakespeare Searched is a search engine designed to provide quick access to passages from Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. We cluster search results by topic, work, and character to make it easy to find exactly what you're looking for. From something as simple as identifying the speaker of a particular quote to discovering underlying thematic elements across works, Shakespeare Searched has you covered.

This website is not a replacement for a copy of the text. It provides no analysis or footnotes. It is meant to supplement a traditional reading of a work.

Shakespeare Searched for Teachers

Shakespeare Searched is a great resource for you and your students. You can recommend it to your students when writing papers to quickly locate passages that they remember reading but are having trouble finding. It provides citations for each passage so using what they found is a breeze. Shakespeare Searched returns only passages from the works of Shakespeare -- no analysis, opinions, or interpretations. That means potential issues with plagiarism or uncited sources are avoided. We provide the text, the rest is up to the student.

You can plan entire lessons or assignments around Shakespeare Searched. Have your students search for a subject like "love" or "death" and then report back on the results. What sort of topic clusters are generated? Use the tabs to cluster the results by work to see which play or sonnet a theme appears in the most. Or cluster by character to see what kind of patterns emerge.

Shakespeare Searched for Students

So you read the play and you're writing the paper but you can't remember where that one quote you need is. That's where Shakespeare Searched comes in. Just search by character, work, or a keyword or two and we'll find your quote complete with citation. For example, remember all that stuff in Romeo and Juliet about thumb-biting? What was that about? It's all right here. Wasn't that easier than searching through the tiny type in your Shakespeare book?

Shakespeare Searched doesn't give you sample essays, analysis, or anything like that. What it does do is help you generate your own ideas. Maybe you're having trouble coming up with a paper topic? Need some inspiration? Search for a particular play or character and check out the clusters on the left. They give you a quick topical and thematic overview and are a great starting point.

For example, a search of Much Ado About Nothing brings back a "Love" topic cluster with 66 passages in it. Open up that cluster by clicking on the plus symbol next to the cluster title and you'll see a sub-cluster for "Scorn." What does love have to do with scorn? And I thought this was a comedy? Explore the clusters to find out. Shakespeare Searched helps you uncover these kinds of connections and gets you on your way to a great paper.