AnnMaria De Mars

Have you ever read an article where you think the author was reading your mind because it said all of the things you have been thinking? This happened to me lately in, of all places, the Harvard Business Review blog. The title of the article was “We are all Enron […]

The Golden Rule of Business

11 Jul, 2019 in AnnMaria / blogposts by AnnMaria De Mars

3 men and a buffalo — 10-minute lesson on primary sources Have your students watch the following two videos back to back. Not the galloping buffalo, the video below that. These two videos together are great resources for a lesson on the value of primary sources. Becoming a Buffalo Hunter How did you learn to hunt […]

Are primary sources important in learning history?

8 Jul, 2019 in 10 Minute Lesson / Cultural content / Educational Resources / History / Teachers by AnnMaria De Mars

Mayan god-king from AzTech Games — Social Studies key terms and concepts videos and slides – free! I know these are concerns for Social Studies teachers because our video on TeacherTube on history terms had been viewed 50,000 times before we inadvertently copied over it a month ago with the exact same video to include our […]

Social Studies Key Terms and Concepts

4 Jul, 2019 in Educational Resources / Sixth Grade / Teachers tagged social studies / timelines by AnnMaria De Mars

Meg and Joe teach problem-solving strategies with apples — Don’t I Know It’s Summer? Why am I bothering you? Okay, I know, I know. It’s summer and you don’t want to think about lesson planning. Don’t I know that you only get a few weeks off each year and, for God’s sake, you’d like to take a break! Yes, […]

Resources for Teaching Problem-Solving Strategies

2 Jul, 2019 in Educational Resources / Fifth Grade / Fourth Grade / Math / Mathematics / problem-solving / Sixth Grade / Teachers by AnnMaria De Mars

Beaded ear ring — Is there such a thing as Native American math? Of course! Math is in every culture and adding Native American content to your math class is easy.

Native American Culture in Math

30 Jun, 2019 in AnnMaria / Cultural content / Education: Innovation and STEM tagged Native American culture by AnnMaria De Mars

Cluttered shed that inspired middle school game design ideas — We’re wrapping up the game design class at Spirit Lake this week. Two weeks was the most time I could spare away from the office but we have accomplished a lot. Applications used in game design by middle school students Because all of the students had just completed grades 4 […]

Game Design by Middle School Students

18 Jun, 2019 in Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games / rural education tagged Warwick by AnnMaria De Mars

Creepy house selected in photo curation by Warwick students — ked students to select their favorite photo they took yesterday, crop it as they saw fit and share with me on One Drive and/ or email to me. The point of this lesson was to learn about file-sharing, photo editing and emailing attachments.

Warwick Game Design Class Photo Curation

12 Jun, 2019 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

dirt road in Warwick, North Dakota — It’s been a great start to the summer session teaching game design at Warwick Middle School. Students started off playing two math games, an adventure game and a collector game. We discussed the idea of game genre and what is needed to make a video game – assets, code, story […]

Teaching Game Design at Spirit Lake

11 Jun, 2019 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games / rural education / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Graph explaining Buffalo herd statistics — Dates on the calendar are closer than they appear! I know you just got out of school a week ago, or maybe you still have a few days to go. Lesson plans to teach statistics are the last thing you want to think about. Trust me, you’ll thank me later. […]

Resources to Teach Statistics in Elementary and Middle School

9 Jun, 2019 in AnnMaria / Educational Resources / Sixth Grade tagged lesson plans by AnnMaria De Mars

Trail in the grass in Wyoming plains — We're testing educational software in the most remote areas of the country. It's beautiful but it's also important work, remembering schools most companies forget about.

Testing educational software where the antelope play

8 Jun, 2019 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Lizard we spotted during hike on our road trip — You can do a surprising amount of development on the road, but it tends to be an all-or-nothing situation. There are still large parts of the country where wi-fi is non-existent.

Development on the Road Trip

7 Jun, 2019 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries tagged digital nomad / road trip by AnnMaria De Mars

AnnMaria at the edge of a cliff — It's impossible to get the attention of teachers and administrators for the next few weeks, so we are going on a road trip testing our educational software under remote conditions. If you are in Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota or North Dakota and want to meet up, let us know.

Dennis and AnnMaria’s Excellent Adventure Road Trip

5 Jun, 2019 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars