I know that there are mixed feelings regarding creating California Missions. I’m going to focus on the positive. I work with a fourth-grade class in my district. The teacher went “old school’, her words, not mine. She had the students create physical models.
Now before anyone is concerned about equity, I assure you all student creations were created equally. How? Students created them in class with teacher-provided materials. She provided the cardboard, basic dimensions, paint, rulers, and scissors, while she hot-glued the walls together. Some students did bring in some extra decorations and happily shared them with others. Check out some of their work
Clearly, these were all student created. In order to get ready for this project, they did their research. The students began by learning about the colonization of California and the role Missions played in changing it. Then each student researched a mission: its history, founder, indigenous people, and its current use. They then produced a slideshow to present to the class. There was a lot of learning that occurred before this culminating activity.
All in all, I was blown away by their work. They did an amazing job and each student was proud of themself.
That is not to say that the process wasn’t without its pitfalls. First of all, one of my darlings kept selecting the > on the top of the Jamboard which, at one point, created 28 jams. Secondly, all uploaded images upload in the center of the jam. Fortunately, I was demonstrating when a student uploaded hers on the same jam as I was on. This allowed us to stop and see what happens. Great learning opportunity! That happy happenstance helped students to be respectful when uploading.
I use Google Forms to collect adjectives from students. The students don’t know why I’m doing it. I ask for three adjectives to describe their classmates. We brainstorm a list of positive qualities that could be used to describe someone. I do 3 students at a time. Any more than that and the students start to repeat themselves and it’s less personal. I take the adjectives, check spelling, and place them in a word cloud generator. I use 
The question became: How am I going to communicate with my students? At first, I thought about doing videos on YouTube. Easy enough. I could record on my phone and upload. Then, after talking to a friend, I decided that Flipgrid was a better option. I could keep it private AND use the students’ names. I wanted to remind O to clean up, remind A to do work and not surf the web, and give shout outs to those who I was sure were doing the right thing. This worked out well. I was in contact with the sub and could customize my message each day. The kids really enjoyed it and LOVED hearing their names in the morning.
At some point last year at a Google Innovator event I was given one of these. I liked the idea of passing along a note to recognize kindness in others.
