Awards – We’re Doing It Wrong

May 31, 2015May 31, 2015AdminLeave a comment

Awards

Awards should be given out to those who earn them. If I have a student who Perseveres, is Enthusiastic, and Cooperative, then they should receive all three awards. Likewise if there is a person who does their job well several months, they should be given “Employee of the Month” for all the months they have earned it.

Why Am I Talking About This?

Recently, we had another Citizen of the Month Award Ceremony. Yeah, it’s become a ‘Let me make you feel good for the few minutes while you get to stand up in front of everyone’ sort of thing. I know this is not just happening in my district. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that it is more common place than I’d care to think about.

This got me thinking, why am I giving out this award? I don’t always necessarily think that student A deserves the Patience award, but they sort of fit that category. And since EVERYONE gets a COM Award, student A gets Patience.

The same goes for teacher awards. Years ago, my district participated in an award that celebrated teachers who brought literacy to their classrooms. It could have been through innovative ways, starting clubs, or getting hundreds of book donations. Those individuals deserved the award. But because my district wanted to be involved in it every year – which I applaud – they would often scramble to find someone to get it. It often times became meaningless.

It’s Okay NOT To Give Someone An Award

Yes, it’s fine NOT to give every child in your class an award. We really want students to work, persevere, be enthusiastic, etc. By the time students hit 3rd grade, they’re on to the game. They know they don’t really have to work at any of the character traits. They know at some point in the year, they will get an award. Then their parents will come with a minimum of 3 mylar balloons, candy and/or a stuffed animal, but that rant is for another time.

Back to the literacy award. I mentioned several reasons why employees received the award, but didn’t talk about the MANY years that we scrambled to have a person. And why did we scramble? Well, there were many times when the discussion was, “Who hasn’t gotten it yet?” That is NOT how we should be celebrating our accomplishments. What if person A created an after-school literacy group year 1; then year 2 provided training for others to have their own literacy group? Well, person A was then out of the running because they had already received the award year 1. What a shame.

What Should We Be Doing Instead?

With my students, each month they should start with a clean slate. If some students don’t get an award that year, that’s okay. If a student gets an award twice, that’s okay too. Looking at the literacy award, if person A did amazing things to improve literacy, they should have received the award more than once, because yes, that’s okay too.

We need to stop making these awards meaningless. My job is not to make a child feel good in the moment, but to teach them to be a better person. Study after study has shown the negative affects of giving everyone an award.

We need to celebrate those that are deserving – even if they’ve been acknowledged before.

Google Maps & Adding Piskel From URL

May 27, 2015AdminLeave a comment

This year a student found a free pixel art creator, Piskel. This has become all the rage in my classroom. The students can create original art or create gifs based on their work. So when we started on our state reports, I had a few students ask if they could create their state flag using Piskel. Of course I said yes! Mind you, I have no idea how this Piskel thing actually works – downloading, saving, file types, etc.

Then came the time to insert the image on their map via the URL. Yeah, this took a bit to figure out. BUT Jason, a student, and I figured out a work-around. LOVE figuring this stuff out with the students. So this is what we did:

On the right side we chose the ‘Export’ icon.

Then downloaded it as a png file (it wasn’t a gif)

Next we opened up Google Draw – yup handy work-around – and inserted the png. We then published the Drawing, and grabbed the link (URL)

Publish to Web: Go to file > scroll down to Publish to Web. Then:

Choose Link > Blue publish button > Copy link (URL) to the clipboard (PC – Control C; Mac – Command C)

Now in your map, locate the location you’d like to insert the image and choose ‘Image URL’. Next, paste (PC – Control V; Mac – Command V). Finally, choose the blue ‘Select’ button.

And that’s it! Collaborating with students can be VERY satisfying! Here’s the final product:

Thank you Jason & Andrew for allowing me to collaborate with you, and use your work.

Language Monsters

May 26, 2015AdminLeave a comment

This is what my students are! Several of my students (and myself), have started using Duolingo to learn a new language. Currently I have 5 languages being acquired in my classroom: Spanish (most popular), French, Portuguese, Italian, and English.

It all started several months ago with an ELL student. She was still having trouble acquiring English after being here for a few years. One suggestion I received was to have her get on Duolingo. So, we set her up in her native language (Spanish). She took the placement test and began learning English. She loves doing it, and feels that it’s been helping her. In order to have her not feel different during our Silent Reading time, I agreed to brush up on my Spanish. As time has progressed, more and more students have asked to learn a language. Yes, I realize some were asking so they could ‘get out’ of reading during Silent Reading time (SSR). I said, “Yes!” Yup, I’m that teacher that is okay when a student says they hate reading. I know they just haven’t found the right books yet, or it’s hard for them and SSR is no fun. So, learning a new language can be fun – and yes they are reading too!

What really excites me, is that some of the students asking to learn Spanish come from Spanish speaking homes. Some of these students have ‘forgotten’ their first language, in varying degrees, want to speak with their grandparents, or just want to learn the language their family knows. I think it’s all very exciting!

Now my SSR has students reading books – inside or outside; real or digital – learning a new language, listening to a book on CD, or reading a story (and taking a quiz) on Raz-Kids. Will all of them stick with learning a new language? No, and that’s okay. I love their willingness to try and learn new things.

Making Manipulatives

May 20, 2015May 20, 2015Admin2 Comments

Last week I spoke with one of the first grade teachers. They are learning about 3D shapes. I asked if she had any, cuz ya know I had a plan. And she didn’t! Oddly this gave me a bit of a thrill. She was the same teacher that I would go to throughout the year and throw out tech ideas for her to try. And she would happily try them. So my plan…

Was to make her some with my 3D Printer! Is it wrong that I was thrilled I could do this (If it’s wrong, then I don’t want to be right). So that’s exactly what I did; I made her 3D shapes for her class.

It took a while, but the final ones were handed over today. She expressed her gratitude, and told me how much more meaningful the lessons have been for her students. She was telling me about a center she has where they have to classify the objects. And apparently, the blue ones are a big hit! Silly first graders.

Yeah, I’m lovin’ the printer and what it’s been able to do; in my classroom and for others.

Hashtags In 5th Grade

May 16, 2015AdminLeave a comment

Last week I had a great discussion with my class about the use of hashtags (#). What is appropriate, how many to put in a post, what they really mean. Talking about hashtags in the classroom always reminds me of Diane Main. When I attended the Google Teacher Academy in 2012, she was the one that had the revelation on their meaning and how to use them in the classroom. Diane’s ‘ah-ha’ moment included the idea that hashtags were much like the main idea.

So keeping this in the back of my head, I brought it up to my class last week. We were doing a lesson on dialog. I asked them how they would hashtag the lesson (after explaining that it was the main idea). At this point, I realize that they had missed the point of the entire lesson. Yup, a fail.

So after going back and re-explaining the lesson, they came up with #quotations and #dialog. This has lead me to the conclusion, that I need to ask students, “How would you hashtag this lesson?” Using Diane’s idea – Main Idea – I can quickly get a pulse on the class if they ‘got the point’ of the lesson.

My point? Hashtag your lessons! It’s relevant. It’s fun. It’s informative. And Diane is/was brilliant!

Google Maps – Draw a Line

May 13, 2015AdminLeave a comment

Google Maps allows you to draw a line, or polygon, when creating custom maps. This can be achieved by choosing the Draw a Line tool, choosing the type of line you’d like, and clicking along the places you would like to mark off.

I especially like the feature that allows users to change the color of the line and polygon, and change the line width.

Google Maps – Pins

May 13, 2015AdminLeave a comment

Pinning a location on a custom Google Map is easy. You can either find the location by typing it in the search box at the top, or by placing a pin at your desired location.

Click on the Green pin > Add to Map > Pin will turn Red.

To pin location without looking it up: Select the Pin icon at the top of the screen, and click the desired location, then ‘Save’.

To change the icon symbol, go to the menu at the left, choose the point you would like to change, and click on the paint bucket.

You can then choose a different color pin, icon shape, or even look for additional icons.

Want to know how to create a custom map? Check this out!

Happy Map making!

State Reports – 21st Century Style

May 11, 2015May 18, 2015AdminLeave a comment

Today – more accurately starting last week – I feel like a genius. I know that will all change by Wednesday. Actually, that feeling started to change this afternoon when someone thought Canada was a state.

State Reports in 5th Grade

We all do them, students for decades have done them. Little has changed. Students get an outline of what is expected, they write, roughly, a 10 page paper on a state, and the teacher must read all reports. I HATE it! I don’t want to read 47 state reports – I teach 2 classes of Social Studies this year. They are painful to read. They are formulaic – partly the fault of the teacher (yes, I know that would be me). And they are BORING!

Time for a change!

So this year, I’m challenging my students. Their reports will be on a Google Map that they create. They will still have to research all the same information, but the presentation will be different. For example, the directions state that they are to find the state capital (of their state) and mark it with a yellow star. Then they are to find other major cities and mark them with an orange star. The students are then free to insert photos of those cities to further enhance their map. Their maps will look something like this:

Below are the complete directions. Like I said, I feel like a genius today, but by Wednesday, it’ll be a different story. And in the end, I will compile all their maps into 1 map using Thinklink. In addition, I even allowed students to work with a partner. Yup, different from the norm!

How did the students react?

They LOVED it. They couldn’t wait to get started. I have a few email me questions already. When was the last time that happened with a written report? They were so excited. I just need make sure they stay focused and write the necessary paragraphs.

Minor issue

It has been a while since we’ve used Maps, and many of the students had questions about some of the specifics. Fortunately for us, the Techie Chicks are in our classroom. And they have a tutorial on how to create a custom map!

The future

I’m sure there will be tweaking along the way. The students will feel free to give me input, and even come up with better ideas. I’ll keep everyone posted. I’m really excited about this.

1 Week Later

Here’s an update.

Search Your Google Drive

May 8, 2015AdminLeave a comment

I have heard several comment that it is hard for them to find items in their Drive. What many are forgetting is that Drive has powerful search options.

In Google Drive there is a ‘Search Drive’ option at the top. You can type in key words such as the title or known keywords in the item you are looking for. I did a search for ‘puppy’. I know I don’t have anything named that, but I wanted to see which items had ‘puppy’ mentioned. This is what I got:

None of the items are named ‘puppy’. So I wondered what ‘Rabbit’ had to do with puppy. So I went into the Spreadsheet, did a quick search (control + f on PC, or command + f on Mac) and this is what I found. Puppy is mentioned throughout the Spreadsheet.

I can also narrow my search by file type, opens with, or ownership. Choose the small arrow to the right on the Search Drive bar. So if I know the item I am looking for is in a Spreadsheet, I’d choose ‘opens with’ and select spreadsheet.

This should make searching for your items a bit easier. Happy Searching!

Nowa Techie

Lisa M. Nowakowski

Month: May 2015