http://www.ted.com/
The TED talks and conferences are useful resources to know what are the latest development in any fields. Many ideas can be adapted for the classroom in all subject ideas. Most of the talks are in English but there are translations in many languages including French.
For example, the following TED talk on algae can be quite useful to address issues of plants, habitats, pollution, energy and helping the environment in general.
http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/ontario/2013/08/29/017-algues-erie-lac.shtml
Here’s a Wordle created with the above website about pollution with algae.
Just by looking at the big words, we can guess that the problem with algae in a lake seems to be caused by the amount of phosphorus in the water.
The Environment Canada Ministry provides a different angle on the topic.
http://www.ec.gc.ca/grandslacs-greatlakes/default.asp?lang=Fr&n=6201FD24-1
The sources of phosphorus agriculture, fertilizer, industries, human waste, decomposing “stuff”.
There is a solution to this problem as described in the following Radio-Canada link:
http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/science/2011/06/30/001-algues-carburant-recherche.shtml
The algae can be transformed into something useful: bio-fuel. The following TED talk discusses how. Although the video is in English, there is a French translation to the video.
Many of the articles are too difficult for grade 3 and grade 4 students studying plants and habitats; however, doing a Wordle project allow the students to search the Internet and still see or guess what are the important ideas of the articles they found. After going to class, analyzing the words and making connections and inferences as a group can allow students to understand what is happening, with a class discussion followed by games and experiments.
http://r4r.ca/fr/home
With the learning goal of sustainable development, the “Resources for Rethinking” or “Ressources pour Repenser” website provides many high quality lesson plans and ideas for any classroom, in any subject. The site is both in English and French. It is sponsored among others by the Ontario and Canadian government.
For example, February 2, 2014, is World wetland day.
http://r4r.ca/fr/theme/wetlands-day-2014
The site provides many activities and ideas showing the importance of wetlands.
http://prezi.com/-py0em4ogyn4/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
If you have Prezi, you will find here the presentation I gave at York University to teachers registered in FSL additional qualifications part 1, 2 and 3.
http://prezi.com/_ck0kqdbupk1/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
If you have Prezi, you can view the presentation I gave at the 2013 STAO Science Teacher’s conference.
If one is to present at conferences, give speech with visual aids, or sell an idea, Prezi is one of the best presentation software I have seen.
http://prezi.com/
It comes as an app or it can be used on the web. I have used it with a computer and with an iPad. Since it web-based, it can be accessed anywhere with Internet content and it can also be downloaded on the iPad or computer in case there is no Internet access.
I could not find online videos in French around coding but here are 3 interesting videos to introduce the topic.
Girls who code:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVwrO1AxhJo
What most schools don’t teach:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wRsEPcR60I
An example of successful role model who immigrated to Canada and started her own business and developed a picture search engine.
http://www.frequency.com/video/interview-with-leila-boujnane-at/137972417/-/5-3539
The first step program has many good ideas on how to write text forms. You can find it online here.
http://det.wa.edu.au/stepsresources/detcms/education/stepsresources/first-steps-literacy/writing-resource-book.en?oid=com.arsdigita.cms.contenttypes.FileStorageItem-id-13760408
Teachers can develop their own examples for the students. There is also a set of books that give samples of many text forms:
Comment écrire des histoires:
http://www.renaud-bray.com/Livres_Produit.aspx?id=1030479&def=Comment+%c3%a9crire+des+histoires%2cWARREN%2c+CELIA%2c9782923708102
Lettres et courriels:
http://www.renaud-bray.com/Livres_Produit.aspx?id=1030482&def=Comment+%c3%a9crire+des+lettres+%2fcourriels%2cWARREN%2c+CELIA%2c9782923708089
http://www.renaud-bray.com/Livres_Produit.aspx?id=1038964&def=Comment+%c3%a9crire+des+reportages%2cFAUNDEZ%2c+ANNE%2c9782923708096
Chenelière also provides books that help writing text forms like stories and opinions:
http://www.cheneliere.ca/resultats-de-recherche.html
The following site from Allo Prof provides also several examples of text forms and how to write them,
http://bv.alloprof.qc.ca/francais/la-grammaire-du-texte/les-types-de-textes-et-leur-structure.aspx
The Wordle website or app creates wonderful word clouds using any text as a basis. Here’s the link.
In the example above, I used part of a text from the article “Des plantes qui décontaminent” in the Agence Science Presse blog. I inserted the digital text in wordl and it created this image.
http://www.sciencepresse.qc.ca/actualite/2014/01/10/plantes-decontaminent
It is an interesting way of introducing important vocabulary or concepts for a lesson or unit. In wordl, the words that appear more frequently are bigger in the text. From looking at the words above, it can be seen that the article is research to use willow trees to decontaminate soil in Montreal.
http://www.sciencepresse.qc.ca/articles?s=plantes
The Agence Science Presse is a site that has been providing 35 years of scientific news. The articles covers all aspects of science. They are easy access and written in a blog format. Students from grade 6 can use this site for research. French Immersion teachers can easily find interesting articles to discuss with their students for their science teaching.
This resource can be researched on the website or can be viewed one article at a time on facebook or twitter.