New Moodle Theme

If your school has moodle why not think about using it to reach the student population. The above video explains (very briefly) some of the ways that I connect with students using moodle. I have found that students will be on the site all hours of the dayand night  listening to the [...]

21st Century Bible Maps

Remember those old maps in the backs of the Bible?  The ones that always fell out after a few years of use?  The ones that traced the path of the Israelites or Paul’s journeys?  OpenBible.info has developed a very cool online tool aligning GoogleEarth with the Bible.  Thanks to the intricacies of Google and geocoding, [...]

What does ‘The Fear’ tell us?

Does the media send us messages without many realising? Does the media inform the ‘norms’ of our society? I believe they do.
Alot of my students watch MTV and Video Hits. They are being bombarded with messages about what to value and what is important without even knowing it. The other day I was bopping along [...]

Stay in and experience the world!

If you have a class, a computer and the web then ‘google earth‘ http://earth.google.com/ is a fantastic tool. This site has 22 ways to use google earth in order to take your class beyond the walls of the classroom.
http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dhn2vcv5_175fp5qg9d3

Looking for a Spiritual Quiz?

Looking for a quiz? I used one from beliefnet about Paul with my Yr 12 Studies of religion students. I had a quick look at their other quizes and was surpised at the variety. Obviously some are a bit silly (think ‘how spiritual is your diet’ or  ‘what Harry Potter Character are you’?) but there [...]

Feedback – Teen Second Life First Lesson

I had a great lesson today with my yr 11 Studies of religion class in Teen Second life.  Once we had gone over the ‘code of conduct’ I let everyone loose to explore the island. We then looked at how to change out appearence which the students enjoyed. We then all met at the ‘gazebo’ [...]

Teen Second Life Discussion Ideas

This afternoon I will be taking my yr 11 Studies of Religion students into our Teen Second Life Island for the first time. My objectives for the lesson are
1) familiarise the students with our ‘code of conduct’ for the island
2) allow them some time to get used to navigating around the island using their avatars
3) [...]

Are you wasting class time?

Found this blog post at http://www.teach42.com/2006/01/24/podcast-versus-lecture-shootout/
Some professors posting their lectures online as podcasts claim they are seeing a rise in absenteeism. Professors are responding by having more pop quizzes or giving extra credit for attending class.
Am I missing something? What’s the problem here? If students can get all of the necessary information and pass the [...]

Cartoon Maker

I came across this cartoon maker http://www.toondoo.com 
I made a quick picture:

I think that this would probably not work to create cartoons unless your class were disciplined enough to not get distracted mucking around with creating characters etc
One helpful use for this app could be to create  posters of your class rules. If you are a primary [...]

Online Stopwatch

As a PE teacher (as well as a religion teacher) I have found this online stopwatch handy for circuit training in the gym (http://www.online-stopwatch.com/large-stopwatch/). 
I have it on countdown mode and the students change equipment every 1:30 during a circuit training class. This can also be used in the class for timed activities or exams. Just [...]