25 Years of Pixar in the school

http://www.pixar.com/

Ratatouille/ Pixar

"It takes three things to make an animated film: world, character and story."

John Lassater

Pixar Animation is celebrating 25 years, 12 feature films, and 20 short films.

In honor of Pixar’s 25th anniversary, YouTube member NkMcDonalds put together a video montage of twelve feature films and 20 short subjects we  know and love! See the list here

If you like Pixar as much as I do, it will definitely make you smile and it might even make you tear up a little tiny bit. Watch the video below 

Author: NkMcdonalds | March 18, 2011

"At Pixar, we realize we are associated, in many people’s experience, with computers. We do use computers in the making of our films. However, at the center of everything we do is the love of story and the wonderful pictures that help tell the story. The computer lets us create worlds and characters that otherwise we could only dream of enjoying. The computer lets us invite you into the dream to dream along with us. The computer is where we finish our stories."


John Lassater, 

Pixar Animation makes the best films, there's no doubt. Each film is unique and special.

Andrew Stanton

http://pixarplanet.com/

Congratulations Pixar! I will be back soon on Pixar and Oscar winner animator Andrew Stanton... 


Education:


Movies can offer teachers and students a nice motivating push to have a different lesson! Let's the students profite the increadible adventure of 3D for teaching and learning the Narrative text.

Displaying movies in a face-to-face teaching is an important digital resource for the students to learn about the Narrative text in the classroom.  
Students will create better stories, including good plots, characters and narrative points of view, the crucial elements of the Narrative text.

A Narrative lets us know something. It tells us what happened. It tells us a story. Our students love to hear, tell and write stories or narratives.  

"Movies present language in a way that is often more natural than that found in course-books, the fantastic visual context aids understanding and boosts listening, and students just simply love them."

Steve Louw

G-Souto

14.04.2011

Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Credits: video NkMcdonalds (YouTube member)

References:

Pixar

http://www.pixar.com

YouTube/NkMcdonalds

http://www.youtube.com/user/NkMcdonalds

MEDEA Awards 2010

MEDEA Awards 2010

Recognising, encouraging and rewarding 
excellence and creativity in media in education

www.medea-awards.com

The MEDEA Secretariat announced the 9 finalists for the annual MEDEA awards on 4th October.

The finalists are (in alphabetical order): BBC News School Report by BBC (UK), Bla Bla Bla edemocracy e minori by Civil Life Lab (Italy), Et si c'était toi by Lycée Technique du Centre (Luxembourg), Evolution of life by CNDP (France), Level 7 by Careersbox (UK), Monkey Labs by Die Keure/Larian Studios (Belgium), Pocket Anatomy by eMedia Interactive (Ireland), Theorem of Fire by Nafta Films (Estonia) and The Classroom by Cornerhouse (UK).

MEDEA 2010 finalists

www.medea-awards.com

Once again, I have been invited by Ms. Nikki Cortoos to being a judge at MEDEA Awards 2010, as I have been in 2009. I am honoured.

As Teacher Assessor specialized by the University of Evora  and Catholic University of Portugal - UCP/Biotechnology, I commited myself thorough a careful work of analysis in all the areas of the projects evaluation. 

Long hours, testing, verifying the several entries and checking all the items of the evaluation  process.

It is an expertise work that we give unambiguous, with consistency, independence and extreme relief. 

www.medea-awards.com/

This year the competition attracted 140 entries from 31 countries, a very high number of entries. For the first time, those entering could chose between submitting their entry as a production made by a professional company or semi-professional production unit or as one made by teachers, students, learners, parents, professors, individual or organisational representatives in primary education, secondary education, higher education, adult education, vocational education and/or training.

www.medea-awards.com

The 9 finalists of "MEDEA Awards 2010" had been announced by MEDEA Secretariat, on 4th October 2010. You can see the list in show case here 

Entries this year included terrific examples of how students and their teachers are using media to enhance their own media literacy skills while creating learning resources that can have significant social impact. Animations and cartoons made by younger children demonstrated that children are never too young to begin creating their own media-based learning materials.

www.medea-awards.com

The finalists were chosen by a jury made up of 74 education and media experts from 26 countries who evaluated the MEDEA entries during August and September. 

The overall winner will be announced during the "MEDEA Awards Ceremony" which takes place on Thursday 25 November during the Media & Learning Conference in Brussels.

This year, I could accept the invitation to participate in the cerimony! It will be a joy to share these moments and at the same time to attend the Media & Learning Conference.

Entries this year included terrific examples of how students and their teachers are using media to enhance their own media literacy skills while creating learning resources that can have significant social impact. Animations and cartoons made by younger children demonstrated that children are never too young to begin creating their own media-based learning materials.

www.medea-awards.com

Congratulations to all the winners! Students, teachers and producers proove that creativity has no barriers!

G-Souto (member of the jury)

05.10.10

Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Celebrating Agatha Christie's 120th Anniversary at school

Google doodle Agatha Christie

Did you had noticed already? Google are featuring a special Agatha Christie Google Doodle, the "Queen of Crime", on their home page to celebrate Agatha Christie's 120th anniversary. 

It is appearing on the Google homepage in all these countries: UK, Ireland, Slovenia, Romania, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Slovakia, Hungary, Israel, all Arabic speaking countries, Korea, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Spain, Norway, New Zealand, Australia, Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, UAE, Uzbekistan, Finland, Suriname, Macedonia, Japan, & Lithuania.

 Agatha Christie

www.agathachristie.com

Agatha Christie is the best-selling author of all time.  She has sold over two billion books worldwide and has been translated into over 45 languages.  

In a writing career that spanned more than half a century, Agatha Christie wrote eighty novels and short story collections.  She also wrote over a dozen plays, including The Mousetrap, which is now the longest running play in theatrical history.

Are you a teacher at middle school? Why not motivate your students to participate at Christie Week 2010?

http://www.agathachristie.com

Students can organise an "Agatha Christie's Week" at your school, share with another students of the school or other schools in another city or country.

They can begin with a pedagogical research on the oficial site:

1. Stories and Detectives

2. The stories of Agatha Christie (using the filter to browse through her stories)

3. Christie's Detectives (M. Poirot, Miss Marple, others) 

4. Reading order (to a bibliography)

5. Sidekicks ( the role of the sidekick in crime fiction) 

But you have more! Let your students have funny moments by gaming learning!

1. Mystery figure game

2. Christie quizzes

3. Christie crosswords (vocabulary in English language)

And for the youngest, why not "Play 4.50 from Paddington" (free trial)?

All these activities are available here 

If you are a teacher in a high junior school, don't miss the BBC archive! 

http://www.bbc.co.uk

To mark the 120th anniversary of Agatha Christie's birth, BBC Archive is realising a small collection of radio and television items in tribute to the world's most famous crime writer. We can hear from the lady herself!

What a fantastic tool to introduce crime fiction at an English Literature classroom?! Don't you agree?

For example, don't miss the audio The Misterious Dame Agatha (1st broadcast 1975) or Agatha Christie Interview (recorded 1955) where the writer talks about her lack of formal education and how boredom during childhood led her to write "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", wich was completed when she was still in her twenties...

So as you see, even now we are talking about a formal learning as a non captivating method!

Well, there are a lot of funny and engaging activities about the "narrative text" that you can create and share with your students, on an informal learning in face-to-face teaching. 

Believe me! You will have a motivated classrooom that will learn literature, crime fiction, vocabulary, grammar... to you, "the attitude" of changing methods, and the creative mind to facilitate different learning activities at your young students!

"Colourless green ideas sleep furiously" 

Chomsky

G-Souto

15.09.2010

Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com® 

References:

Agatha Christie

http://www.agathachristie.com/

BBC Archive Agatha Chrisite

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/agatha_christie/

Lisbon Innovation Forum 2010

The 4th EFQUEL Innovation Forum will take place in Lisbon, Portugal in collaboration with the Catholic University of Portugal (UCP) and the National Institute for Public Administration of Portugal (INA).

The Forum will start next week, on September 8th with a pre-conference day, followed by the main conference September 9-10, 2010.

The conference takes place in the Instituto Nacional de Administração (INA), situated in the gardens of the old Palace de Marqueses de Pombal in Oeiras, close to Lisbon, in Portugal. 

Presentation ENGAGE -Workshop 3

No dia 8 Setembro 2010 pode participar no Workshop 3: “Jogos Educativos e Recursos Educativos Digitais no Ensino: novos conceitos em contexto curricular para uma escola de sucesso…? “

G-Souto

04.09.2010

Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®