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Blog Action Day 08: Free Rice October 15, 2008

Posted by Mr W in Campaign, Games, What else..., blogging, charity.
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2 comments

Today is Blog Action Day 2008. The theme this year is poverty, and there have already been some great posts made on the topic, including some stunning photo blogs.

I thought I’d use my post as a chance to let you know about an update to the brilliant Free Rice website that I blogged about last November. For those who don’t already know, this is a site that asks you questions and every time you get an answer right, 20 grains of rice are donated through the UN World Food Program. As well as doing good, the site has also been updated to offer a wider range of topics. You can now do your bit to help fight poverty while answering questions on:

LANGUAGE LEARNING

French

German

Italian

Spanish

MATH

Multiplication Table

In fact… why not go the whole hog and set the site as homework? The questions do ‘learn’ as you progress and do get a bit harder… but they shouldn’t be too taxing… and it might even encourage a bit of ‘cross-curricular’ learning. (Actually, I’m tempted to see if the school could use it as a detention exercise rather than the traditional ‘writing-out-the-rules’… imagine, pupils doing something positive and meaningful in detention — and then multiply that by every school in the world…)

Anyway… today is Blog Action Day, and I encourage each of you to get busy to help raise the profile of this very worthwhile activity!

PS: Before you ask, 1,000 grains in one session!

The Power Of Words… November 11, 2007

Posted by Mr W in Campaign.
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15 comments

Rice TotalsFancy a bit of vocabulary driven fun? Fancy using your knowledge to feed someone who really needs the help? 

Courtesy of Auntie Beeb I’ve just heard of a great site which combines my love of vocabulary with a means of doing good. FreeRice.com does exactly what it says on the tin… it gives away free rice every time you can give the correct definition of a word. Er, that’s it!

I just wish they did a slightly easier version (maybe for 5 grains a word) that I could use with my pupils… but perhaps I’m doing them a disservice. I’ll be telling them about it tomorrow and lets hope they can start making a difference.

For real interest, have a look at the totals page… There can’t be many places where you can see the viral power of the internet… I only wish I had the skills to interpret what it shows and how to apply it to education.

 Stats