A lot of people who never entered a classroom that I used to teach in, began to chastise me about inserting art into my curriculum. When I stopped laughing, because my side hurt, I started to tell them that the insertion of art, and STEM is how I start to teach.

This student is searching for home, which for her is South Africa

The Winds of Politics changes education. Sadly it can keep creativity out. NCLB, etc.

Initially .for a long time I was privileged to be a teacher of the gifted. Because I am of color, I always added a few more students to my class who were minority, immigrant or special ed. Why? Think about it. Never did I want to walk through a class of 75 kids in a team when I only had 15 students. Never did I want to exclude minority kids.

Some of my best students were the children who were given to me who were not considered to be G and T. So what you need to know is that innovation, creativity and problem solving can be taught to all. Technology allows us to do many things, but the powers in education do not let most teachers develop their skills in personalizing education.The way in which I teach cannot be done in many cases because it is complicated. It depends on a belief in a teacher and staff development.

What was funny was that teachers always gave me the children they thought were a problem, in fact most people considered gifted and talented students to be a problem because they were innovative, curious, asking questions and wanting to fly through the work.

Thinking about Ancient Egypt

I have turned my room into Ancient Egypt.. with mummies and inscribed walls.This was a beautiful room, with books , movies , digital information on Egypt. There was at one time a web site entitled Little Horus.. and I had learned to make papyrus, 

Once in a while we were a space station with the wonderful posters and artifacts from space and science fiction, We used visualization and modeling and wonderful information from supercomputing in the humanities.

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Engineering, Geography, World Cultures

Egypt
I read about Egypt as a child.There was a man with a red Fez who told me stories of Ancient Egypt who lived on my block.He was a black man from Egypt who told us about the country.

I read the accounts of the finds of Sir Howard Carter. I read these books and more.I saw the exhibit in Washington of King Tuts treasures and kept the catalogue for a very long time.There was a book of the Dead, This book told people dead people , who were buried with it, how to get to the kingdom of Osiris.
THere was a store called Ancient Discoveries in Alexandria , Virginia I learned a lot there, and then later in life I visited Egypt.I found things there to teach with.

Reading

I used ESS Structures for the engineering and a book given to me during Engineering week for the lessons.
We built a lot of things, using different materials, and tested structure.

THere are many books that we, the students and I read, some of which are copied here.
Pyramids
by David Macaulay ( ISBN 0-590-99518-9, Trumpet)
This is one of my favorite books for teaching about Egypt.

This book takes an impressive look at what many consider to be among the most awesome of man’s creations-the pyramids of Egypt. Macaulay, through word and blackline drawings, shows Egyptian life and how the pyramids were built. He also talks about the way that Egyptians were readied for the next life. This is a wonderful book about the architecture of the pyramids. THe illustrations are great and simply tell the story.ˆ

The Great Pyramid by Elizabeth Mann
This picture book contains a story within a story as it tells about the building of the great pyramid. While reading about King Khufu and his life, one, also learns why he wanted to build a pyramid, and how the pyramid was constructed. Great detail is given as to the Egyptian life style, including the life of the farmers, who became slaves while building the great pyramid. Beautiful illustrations help capture the essence of this time in history. This is a great book to read to the class, as well as have available for students to enjoy on their own. ˆ

Pyramids by Anne Millard ISBN #0-590-63247-7 (Scholastic)
Ever since ancient times the pyramid as a structural shape has captured out imaginations and played a meaningful and fascinating part in civilized societies. From the ziggurats of Babylon and the Valley of the Kings in ancient Egypt to the towering monuments built by the Aztecs and Maya in Central America, Pyramids examines the mythology and the history of these massive and intriguing creations. ˆ

The Egyptian News by Scott Steedman
This is an over-sized book that is written like a newspaper, telling about the life in Ancient Egypt. The articles are fun and informative, and written as though the events were just happening. Events such as “HYSOS HAMMERED”, “BOY-KING DIES”, “THE LONGEST BOAT IN OUR COUNTRY”, which tells of Pharaoh Khufu’s famous funerary boat. There are clever advertisements, a fitness quiz, a Who’s Who list of the famous men, The Top Gods, and how to mummify your body. There is a great gossip section telling about the latest banquet, what was eaten, and who was there. A great book to share while studying this fun time in history. It is fun to see a book that teaches facts in such a fun way. One forgets they are learning while enjoying the articles. ˆ
Hieroglyphs from A to Z by Peter Der Manuelian (ISBN 0-590-40008-8, Scholastic)

Hieroglyphs are drawings of ancient symbols found on Egyptian tombs and temple walls. On each page of this book there are hieroglyphs and information about Egyptian culture. The narrative is written in rhyme. Using a stencil of the hieroglyphs, you can learn how to write secret messages with Egyptian symbols.
*This book comes with a stencil of hieroglyphs. ˆ

Mummies, Tombs, and Treasure by Lila Perl ( ISBN 0-590-96226-4, Scholastic)
What happens to people after they die? The Egyptians thought if they mummified a dead person, his spirit would live forever. At first nature did the job; the desert sun dried and preserved bodies buried in shallow sandpit graves. Mummifying methods became more elaborate with time, as did after-life dwelling places. Eventually, the Egyptians built the largest known tombs-the pyramids-in which wealthy Egyptians were buried with food, household items, and treasure. The ancient Egyptian way of death has left us a rich legacy of information about a way of life of which there is no other record. Lila Perl’s thoroughly documented account is as fascinating as it is revealing. ˆ

But to have a good read, there are books of the discoveries of Sir Howard Carter, or reports about Howard Carter.
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This is a book I read over and over.
There was also some book that shared how to make a mummy.
I was fascinated. THen there was a laser disc program about the examination of a mummy.I always wanted to know how they extracted the brain of the mummy through the nose.
I think I could have been an archaeologist if I had more knowledge in my early life of how to follow that career
Here is an online sharing about Sir Howard Carter.
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/carter.htm

I learned to make Koshari, and an Egyptian breakfast, but food was not the subject of my teaching .. the art teacher
and I had students making personal names in Egyptian symbols, and we learned a little astronomy, so different than American teaching of the night skies. Online there is a “Windows to the Universe” There are three levels of astronomy and culture on this site.

Technology? Web site

Little Horus was the first Egyptian website especially designed for children. The website consisted of over 700 pages of information and illustrations that address children between the ages 6 to 15 in both Arabic and English. Little Horus provides a comprehensive journey that transcends Egypt’s 7000 years of civilization into an educational and cultural experience for children, adults, educators and professionals. Not only this, but Little Horus also offered children games, fun and entertainment to suit all ages. The site offered a variety of portals that provide a contemporary view of Egypt through Pharonic, Coptic, Greek and Modern civilizations. Teachers and students from several countries use the site as an educational reference material.

Little Horus received both national and international recognition for its excellence and commitment to edutainment within the Arab region. The continued success of Little Horus resulted in prestigious awards and received the 1st place in the Cable & Wireless Childnet International Award, the best Achiever of the Internet Society of Egypt (ISE) 1999 Annual Award, and was published in Bill Gates book as one of the best sites for children but sadly, it is no longer on the Internet.

Most of the time I used museums and places of hands on as well, but this post is not about me, I am sharing ideas from International Art, and some words to the wise from friends of mine who are scientists.

http://www.windows2universe.org/mythology/myths_stories_art.html

Let me give you one other example.

Rainforests, Reefs, and Jungles

When I taught Rainforests, I used resources from the National Geographic ( Started with the journey of a bar of chocolate), Earthwatch, The Jason Project. As a teacher I could Mix and match and use ( laser disks provided by the Lucas Foundation) we could create our own little stories.

Games became a focus. Do you remember Amazon Trail?http://www.myabandonware.com/game/the-amazon-trail-1mf the Voyage of the Mimi had its own games too. Navigation, Map Making.

Oh how we loved their focused programs, and Dr. Robert Ballard’s sharing of field trips into jungle environments. As a teacher of a group of National Geographic teachers I had access to the tapes of programs developed by George Stuart, on the Maya. Those tapes were archaeology, science, culture, history, astronomy and so much more and games.

The collective name for those was the “Voyage of the Mimi“.Here is the video, which then starred Ben Affleck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3re1ROrBZsg

http://www.windows2universe.org/mythology/myths_stories_art.html

Let me give you one other example.

Rainforests, Reefs, and Jungles

When I taught Rainforests, I used resources from the National Geographic ( Started with the journey of a bar of chocolate), Earthwatch, The Jason Project. As a teacher I could Mix and match and use ( laser disks provided by the Lucas Foundation) we could create our own little stories. The Jason Project is powerfully innovative.http://www.jason.org

Games became a focus. Do you remember Amazon Trail?http://www.myabandonware.com/game/the-amazon-trail-1mf the Voyage of the Mimi had its own games too. Navigation, Map Making.

Oh how we loved their focused programs, and Dr. Robert Ballard’s sharing of field trips into jungle environments. As a teacher of a group of National Geographic teachers I had access to the tapes of programs developed by George Stuart, on the Maya. Those tapes were archaeology, science, culture, history, astronomy and so much more and games.

The collective name for those was the “Voyage of the Mimi”.Here is the video, which then starred Ben Affleck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3re1ROrBZsg

Vinton Cerf says in a Magazine, Child Art, January -March 2014,

There are ways of collaborating on the Net Now that would allow multiple people to create works of art together. Those works of art may be in the virtual space. They could also be in the real world-suppose you created something that a three dimensional
printer could print. Collaboration is one thing .”