I've been putting together notes on Olympics and what is happening with them as well as how to teach them and have compiled a set of resources for you. This will be one of the first "conversational" olympic games, steeped in social media. There will be many great opportunities to talk about Social media in the context of the games. Enjoy and prepare now!
As you talk about the Olympics beware of putting too much emphasis on gifts. Many people are gifted but few are willing to pay the price of persistence and seeking of wise counsel to get where they are. It is a great time to look at habits and examine our own. Are we Olympic in our pursuits of our own dreams or are we happy to sit in our chair eating popcorn complaining about how we never get a lucky break.
tags: education persistence teaching olympicsThis is a very popular handout to use with children to talk about the Olympics using history, art, and health areas. Returning to school, this will be a great resource.
Common Sense media rates all of the Olympic Video games that you can purchase for children. Their top rating right now is for mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympics which you can get on Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS. Great ratings. Also note that they are now beta testing learning ratings which I think should be on learning but also should rate the analytics that come out of games for parents and educators.
The official hub to follow and find Olympic athletes.
Socialympics is what people are calling this summer's olympic games. There is a new Olympic Athlete's hub to help fans find and follow Twitter feeds and facebook pages. the Head of the IOC social media says that "London 2012 will ignite the first conversational Olympic Games." Let me make a point that most US schools will be left out of this conversation and bound to traditional media but that those who can connect at home will have access. Social media is part of how we communicate and does have a place.
Over 150 lessons about the Olympics. This is a great way to welcome the school year in the northern hemisphere as so many will be engrossed in the Olympics. Peruse these lesson plans from venn diagrams comparing the modern olympics to the ancient olympics to conversation questions or history lessons.
Lessons teaching about the values of the Olympics and Paralympic games. These are coming up in July/ August. You can use this powerpoint as a starting point.
The official London Olympics education site. You can register and join their blogging network. This is definitely something you may want to do with your students. The London games has a "get set" website which is their official educational platform for the Olympic games. I've just spent a little time looking at what you can do there, but you can register, blog about the games, and connect with others. This is the sort of global event where you can meet other classrooms and interact with others.
If you want to teach about the Olympics, the TES forum out of the UK is where the great content is being uploaded daily. There are two activities of note, one is Olympic Games: Now and then and another is about Greek Ideas and what has been passed down. Many interesting lessons by grade level.
Here is a plan of how this teacher is going to incorporate the Olympics into the lesson plans for this 8 weeks.
More ideas for teaching about the Olympics from the Guardian.
This website starts with a KWL student chart about the Olympics and has other resources. Although it is a 2006 website, there are a lot of great ideas that you can use for this year.
London 2012 Twitter account.
The London 2012 games are around the corner. They will be July 27- August 12, 2012. Here is the official website. The Paralympic Games will be August 29-Sept 9. They have a Twitter account as well for the games, you could follow it as a class and keep up with it. Since many schools will be returning during the Olympics, there could be a tie in with the start of school.
The London 2012 games are upon us! Here is a great set of resources about the Olympics and about the 2012 games to be held in London. These resources out of the UK are going to be some of the best. There are also some posters you can download, print, and use if you want to teach about the ancient games in relation to this year's field day.
