EAL/ESL Review

English is known as the hardest language if you are not of English-speaking origin with many complex grammar rules and spellings. So prepare to learn the 3rd most widely spoken language in the world with a selection of useful and helpful websites: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/-Definitive and essential guide from BBC World Service.
http://www.rong-chang.com/  - Created by a Chinese doctorate Ron-Chang Lee with a PHD in English Language, very useful.
http://a4esl.org - has bilingual translations of languages from across the globe, useful for any ESL student for any country.
Enjoy! Apprécier! Tanoshimu! Disfrutar! Xiǎngshòu! Jeulgyeo! سے لطف اندوز! 

SEN Review: What Type Of Learner Are You?

These questionnaires are used to discover the way you learn: visually, auditory (listening) or kinaesthetically (movement). They ask a variety of questions from whether you like reading textbooks to gather information or watching/drawing videos and diagrams or even the way you tackle the building of Lego models by explanation (auditory), simply feeling the structure and shape of the bricks to make it fit together (kinaesthetic) and following the packets' images and diagrams (visual). The websites may also feature a guide on how to effectively use your preferred learning style as with my favourite Brainboxx, they are also differing versions from Edutopia and the Discovery Channel.
Sites-: http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/a3_aspects/pages/vak_quest.htm
http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-learning-styles-quiz
http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/what-type-of-learner-are-you-quiz.htm

Revision

I do not have any affiliation with the brands mentioned in this post :D


I, like many other Year 11's, have been revising over the last few months, so I thought I would share some of my revision tips. This is a list, in no particular order, of any techniques or websites I have found useful while revising. this is just what i have found helpful there are hundreds of ways to revise, so find what works for you and stick at it.

• Mind maps
• Mind maps are a great way to split up larger topics into bitesize chunks, they're also useful for finding the most important parts of a topic and visualise how topics link together. I've found them useful because I like visualising how everything links together.
• A useful website for creating mind maps, flash cards, notes and more, you can look at others revision material or show your own to the world; if you and a few friends start to use it you can collaborate on material or easily look at their revision and help keep each other on track.
  https://www.examtime.com/
• Condensing notes
• Turning a term of work into two or three pages can be useful for deciding which parts of a topic are important, it also provides a great refresher of things you may have forgotten and will provide concise useful revsion nearer your exams.
• Try to cover one topic in a session, if it takes you more than 30 mins for 1 topic  you're doing something wrong. It is helpful to write up all these notes into a different lined notepad/excercise book, for easy reference.
• Past Papers
• Just DO past papers, get a feel for what the examiner wants, find topics you don't know so well and practice your exam technique. They are a great way of revising but don't waste them, there are only so many with the correct specification(what you've been learning), so save some for nearer the exam, but do ones you've already done twice just a month apart, this will help you focus in on what content you need to revise further, and will help your exam technique.
• To find past papers search for " past papers"
• If you can't find any for your tier or that you haven't done do the foundation papers, the questions are asked in the same style and are different from the higher paper from the same year, so will help your exam technique and will also help you find topics you need more revsion on.
• Music
• Any revision needs some good music to prevent you becoming bored so find some music you like, turn it up and get down to business.
• Spotify is a great free way to listen to music, works well and saves time compared to youtube downloader, it's also legal!
• Food
• If you're revising you need some snacks to keep you on the go, save some of those easter eggs for your revsion or sign up for something like Graze, they provide nutritious snacks straight to your door for you to dive into.

I hope these tips help you with your revision so,

Good Luck!

Sports Review: Sumo Wrestling

Sumo Wrestling is uncommon sport in most countries, but is the national and hugely popular sport in The Land of The Rising Sun aka Japan!. It is most watched programme on Japanese TV according to viewing figures apart from anime. Here's a few websites which detail the basics of Sumo Wrestling: http://www.sumotalk.com/rules.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumo
http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/virtual/sumo/sumo01.html
http://www.sumo.or.jp/pdf/en/sumo_introduction.pdf
http://www.sumo.or.jp
http://japanese.lingualift.com/blog/what-sumo-eat-wrestlers-diet/
For those more reluctant encyclopaedia/websites learners here's a few videos, both entertaining and humorous:
http://tinyurl.com/SumoNatGeo
http://tinyurl.com/SumoNatGeo2
http://tinyurl.com/SumoTakeshi'sCastle
http://tinyurl.com/SumoSmartBeepAd
http://tinyurl.com/SumoPepsiAd

Plus a hilarious sumo GIF: http://tinyurl.com/FunnySumoGIF !!!!!!!!!!!

History Review: Japanese history

Here are a frenzy of recommended websites which showcase information on Japanese history of samurai, ninjas and video games and much more!:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~malokofs/SCA/Persona/History/samurai.html
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2127.html
http://www.history.com/topics/samurai-and-bushido
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2295.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario
http://www.themushroomkingdom.net/mario_history.shtml
http://www.mariowiki.com/mario#History
http://mario.ign.com
http://classicgames.about.com/od/consoleandhandheldgames/p/Super-Mario-Bros-The-Game-That-Saved-Video-Games.htm
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/History_of_Pokémon
http://mashable.com/2013/10/08/pokemon-history/
http://www.gamesradar.com/history-pokemon-box-art/
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Corporate/Nintendo-History/Nintendo-History-625945.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_manga
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anime
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Ghibli#History
http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/
http://doraemon.wikia.com/wiki/Doraemon
http://harumelati.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/doraemon-cartoon-history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doraemon

A collection of weird and wonderful websites and obscurity to do online now-March 2014

Here's a awesome abundance of obscurity I recommend some of which may be both for entertainment or education or even entertaining education.

1. Typing Games. First up is Sesame Street Fighter, which is a fighting/typing game crossover of Sesame Street and Street Fighter, created from a inspiring image on devianART which improves your typing while playing a fighting game with modified loveable Sesame Street characters copying the appearance of Street Fighter fighters. It has simple topics such as animals to insane topics such as Russian cities. While being educational in typing and spelling is great for gamers of all ages, although is partially incompatible on iOS devices. Next up is Flappy Bird Typing Tutor in which the short-lived Vietnamese phenomenon is converted to assist your typing and spelling skills by typing as quickly as possible to travel the flappy, little bird through the pipes, which is alas also not compatible on iOS devices.

2. Brick Brilliance. With the recent release of The Lego Movie, everything Lego in March/February 2014 is awesome! First up is videos, firstly here's the lyric video of infuriatingly catchy Everything is Awesome by Tegan and Saga feat. The Lonely Island which is a humorously great song, which you'll have heard many times already if you seen the movie. Next up is a fantastic Simpsons Lego Movie crossover Couch Gag by French-Canadian stop-motion animator MonsieurCaron. Finally is Build With Chrome, in which on a collaboration with Google Chrome and Lego in which people build Lego online, which once submitted can viewed all across the world, there was been insanely huge models created ranging the USA to Malaysia.

3. 2048. 2048 is a Italian number game in which you slide tiles of numbers and the same numbers add and merge into one another and you try to create the number 2048. It is highly addictive but mathematically fun.

Happy π (Pi) Day!

Happy π Day everybody! It is the 14th of March (3.14 = Pi to 2 decimal places, 3rd month, 14th day!)  . So I'll recommend some awesome delicious as π websites. First up is http://digitsofpi.com in which on its home page explains the basics of Pi and then you type and ask to calculate π to up to 100,000 decimal places. Second is http://www.joyofpi.com which celebrates everything joyous π which has humorous and interesting facts about π. Finally here's http://www.piday.org/ which celebrates Pi Day and has a interesting sections on Pi's history and how people around the world celebrate Pi Day. Now here's π to 12.1 trillion digits condensed in a computation since it was discovered by Japanese mathematician Shigeru Kondo on 28th of December 2013!!: 

3.

1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 : 50 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 : 100

2597691971 6538537682 7963082950 0909387733 3987211875 : 4,999,999,999,950 6399906735 0873400641 7497120374 4023826421 9484283852 : 5,000,000,000,000 0874753286 1800417105 0417234177 3440660835 6303291247 : 5,000,000,000,050 0494788787 3350953767 0283816394 7603993291 8259328455 : 5,000,000,000,100

9544408882 6291921295 9268257225 1615742394 7483010753 : 9,999,999,999,950 9804871001 5982157822 2070871138 6966940952 1989228675 : 10,000,000,000,000 4392476662 7656619000 2124460557 5531593458 4820611421 : 10,000,000,000,050

7774158802 8607364081 0882791485 3424578359 2017915623 : 10,999,999,999,950 9022892022 4547999448 8759918307 1538211154 9129857424 : 11,000,000,000,000 8850838032 0621312483 8327044318 1257233570 9958940293 : 11,000,000,000,050

0225990312 0715120901 2625933350 2113726804 5410547637 : 11,999,999,999,950 9229203002 7190437071 4461941152 9088219512 2780551965 : 12,000,000,000,000 6281443745 8325315851 4346900240 7029751021 5197388736 : 12,000,000,000,050

2323632519 7260136778 4244176022 7323590892 5620919959 : 12,099,999,999,950 6850993485 4514351158 7381100302 4015062599 1743930275 : 12,100,000,000,000 2840983997 4140672353 4319030217 7521257272 1740258075 : 12,100,000,000,050

Geography Review: CIA World Factbook

The CIA World Factbook is a reference website created by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It features world maps and regional maps in both political and physical format to view for free. It also has detailed information and statistics on every country from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. It includes information and statistics from the country's history to transactional issues (and of course its geography!)

 It includes flag descriptions of every flag, and has downloadable photos of every country with lengthy, intricate captions. There is also a printed book version available updated every year and a iOS app.


Site- https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
2014 Edition book: http://ow.ly/uBeV9
iOS app: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/the-cia-world-factbook/id412637620?mt=8&uo=4

A Great Collection of Science Websites

Despite the absence of Digital Leaders this week I feel obliged to write a blog post to sustain popularity and do what was meant to written today. So without further delays here is multiple scientific websites. For Periodic Table obsessives: I recommend webelements.com which shows the entire Periodic Table (including Actinoids and Lanthanoids) in which you discover extensive and key information about any element. For those of you want to learn and master the lyrics to Tom Lehrer's magnificent 'Elements' song to impress your friends here's a YouTube video (and it's accompanying lyrics). For space fanatics here's NASA's official site:  http://www.nasa.gov, which includes a educational and children's section for learning more about space and The Solar System.

For those who want science featuring famous intellectual masterminds I recommend, the previously recommended TED, which includes talks by Professor Stephen Hawking and Professor Brian Cox. For those who enjoy unconventional and oddly interesting science I recommend the also previously recommended awesome Vsauce (more details in my review here).

Hope you enjoyed this review! Look out for more science website recommendations by my fellow Digital Leaders.

Recommended for education: TED Talks

TED is a variety of educational talks about 'Ideas Worth Spreading" as it's slogan says, from Can Video Games Make Kids Smarter? to a North Korean refugee, now living in the USA who lost his family during the country's famine. The topics range from entertainment to global issues. TED Talks have been hosted by ordinary people to YouTubers. From Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates to world-renowned Professor Stephen Hawking to Michael Stevens (Vsauce). The channel is great since it features a range of interesting topics, allowing you to gain detailed insights into today's world society's interests and issues, in a manner which is attractive to adults and knowledgable students.

Site-http://new.ted.com 

YouTube channel: http://ow.ly/tKTfH

Other good TED talks:

Thomas Suarez: A 12-year-old app developer 

The Hidden Meanings in Kids' Movies

Neuroscientist Daphne Bavelier: Your brain on video games