Wacky Wednesday Edition: October 5, 2022
Conversation starters, collaboration projects, and more
It’s Wacky Wednesday again. If you’re here for the first time, today’s edition brings you some links from around the web that I think are worth sharing or even using in your classroom.
From the Department of Artistic Expression:
Rachel Jones creates unique artwork about your mouth and your lips, among other things. She uses art to explore and talk about what we feel on the inside and encourages students to do the same.
From the Council on Collaboration:
We all know that getting students to work together productively in a group is not that easy. Sometimes, with the right project, that task becomes easier.
From Cult of Pedagogy comes 5 ideas for your next collaborative project, including an idea one of my teachers is working on with her students, creating an app.
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/collaboration-projects/
From the Ice Breakers Aren’t Just Gum Society:
Staying in the flow here, I don’t know which task is more painful: getting students to collaborate effectively or getting them to open up about themselves to a group. Especially at the beginning of a new school year.
Pulling teeth doesn’t come close to describing the agony we feel when we’re getting to know new students. And they are just as uncomfortable as we are about the task.
Catlin Tucker saves the day again with 35 conversation starters to build community in your classroom. Heck, you might use these with those collaborative groups I mentioned earlier.
From the Committee to Make More Free Things Available:
Film distributor Kino Lorber has been making more films, shows, and documentaries available to view online for free. I’ve enjoyed re-watching The Power of Myth for the first time in many, many years, but they’ve recently added a documentary on MC Escher that I’m sure to check out soon.
M.C. Escher: Journey To Infinity is the story of world famous Dutch graphic artist M.C Escher (1898-1972). Equal parts history, psychology, and psychedelia, Robin Lutz’s entertaining, eye-opening portrait gives us the man through his own words and images: diary musings, excerpts from lectures, correspondence and more are voiced by British actor Stephen Fry, while Escher’s woodcuts, lithographs, and other print works appear in both original and playfully altered form.
From the Conclave of Confusion:
I love seeing creative people be creative, even when their creativity doesn’t make for the most sensible creations.
Enter Sprice Machines. They recently launched their newest Rube-Goldberg device: The Picnic Machine. If you’ve ever wanted to make packing up for a picnic more complicated than it already is, this machine is for you.
Perhaps this video will spur your students to devise their own ingenious takes on getting common tasks done. With far less complexity, I hope.