Classroom

No Rules!

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Last week was the first day of school for my district. I went through many of the first day rituals: greeting my students, introducing myself, identifying specific areas in the classroom, you know, all the usual. In the past, I have given the students the power to create classroom rules. But not this year! This year I allowed them to create Classroom Norms. I know, not so different. This year, I was completely hands off. I tasked them with working as a table group (I have 5) to list 2-3 norms they wanted for the year. I was happy to see that most were positive: listen to others, help, raise your hand, etc.

After a few minutes, I had the students sharing out what their table came up with. THEN, I asked each table to choose their favorite. They then created an illustration in Google Draw of their Norm. This was a sneaky way of me registering my students into a specific Google Classroom.

I split each table in half so that I would have 2 illustrations of each Classroom Norm. I then only allowed 2 people at each table to use their computers to create the illustrations. The results?

Draw Norm (beginning of year) Through this process, I was able to monitor relations, collaborative skills, leadership skills, attitudes, creativity, computer skills, and so much more. Now we have these great posters hanging in our room. It truly is their classroom!

Breakdown of the Process:

  1. Work in table groups to create 2-3 norms for the classroom for the year.
  2. Share out with class.
  3. Have each table group choose their #1 norm.
  4. Write down all #1 ideas on board.
  5. Split each group into smaller groups (in 1/2).
  6. Using Google Draw, the smaller groups (2-3 students) then create 1 illustration of their norm.

The teacher’s only role is to monitor students and print out the results.

Homework Parents Like

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Tonight we had our Back to School Night. School starts tomorrow and as per tradition, we hold our Back to School Night the night before school starts. It’s smart. It’s a long day for us teachers, but I really like it.

During the Welcome presentation, I talked about homework. As usual, parents politely listened to my spiel. I’m sure that what I said about homework was NOT something they had expected. It’s 5th grade. They’ve heard it all before – expectations, do homework, come to school on time, yadda, yadda, yadda. However, this year my partner teacher and I agreed that we needed to do something different with homework. So, we created this (make a copy of your own):

I began by asking how many of them had signed a homework log/reading log either knowing that their child did NOT do the homework, or weren’t even sure if their child did the homework. At first, most were hesitant to admit it. Fortunately, my translator’s daughter is in my class this year. She eagerly raised her hands. That got the ball rolling. I then went on to say that I don’t always check the homework, and the kids don’t always take their time and will rush by putting anything. I then explained our proposed homework. I read some examples and pointed out that there would be no fighting and no tears for this year’s homework. This led to several parents openly smiling at the idea, commenting on what a great idea it was, and how happy they were with it.

My principal is more nervous with this idea. He fears that we are not preparing students for high school. But, um, they are 10. They are in 5th grade. And high schools need to change their focus too. High schools have clubs where students indulge in their passions. Hm, maybe more elementary schools should have passion focused clubs.

I am optimistic that this will be a success. I explained to parents that we would like each child to read 20 pages daily. I am hopeful that with this user-friendly homework, parents and students will honor the 20 pages. At the very least, parents have this year to relax and have peaceful evenings knowing that there will be no fighting over homework.

 

Writing With Literacy Shed

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I know I’ve written about this site in the past. I thought it deserves to be talked about again, especially with the beginning of the school year upon some of us. So…. If you STILL haven’t checked out The Literacy Shed, do it. Like right now!

Literacy Shed

What is it?

Simply put, it is an amazing – FREE – writing resource. It will work with any writing program you have going on in your classroom or district. The creator and curator, Rob Smith, explains:

“The aim is to provide high-quality resources that can be used in stand-alone literacy lessons, can form the basis for a whole Literacy unit or can support literacy units that you already have in place.”

Rob has most certainly provided those high-quality resources.

AND, many of the video resources are non-verbal making them perfect for the ELL students.

Why use it?

First of all, it has beautiful quality videos. In addition to the videos, the site has several lesson ideas for each video. This isn’t put together by some corporation or publisher. This was created by a teacher who freely shares his knowledge and ideas.

About the Sheds

There are ‘Sheds’ that are essentially themes. There are so many sheds, and more being added, there is no shortage of resources. I love looking around the site and getting ideas. Word of warning; once you jump into this rabbit hole, it may be a while before you emerge. But it will be well worth it! Currently, I’m looking at the Rio Olympics Shed and getting REALLY excited about the possibilities for my classroom.

One Last Thought

I wish I were in the UK so that I might attend a training. Maybe someday there will be a training here….

 

Drone On

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This week I received a set of 4 Mini Parrot Drones, courtesy of CUE – Steampunk Mobile Labs  What a GREAT week it’s been. Well, not all great. We finally finished state testing on Tuesday, with 15 days left in the school year.

So it’s a bit of a crazy week with finishing state testing, completing our movie (A Tale Unfolds), and the valley fair begins on Thursday. This week has been the perfect week to have the students code and complete tasks using the drones.

On Monday, we started with me attempting to give them a challenge to complete. Yeah, that was a flop. They were more interested in exploring the drones and programming them to do various tasks. I quickly let go of my idea that they could focus on a given challenge.

TueIMG_0006.JPGsday, they were ready for a challenge. We took them outside to see if we could land them in a target. We had a few obstacles in our way: the biggest one being the wind. This proved to be perfect for their collaboration and problem-solving skills. Using the Tickle App on the iPads, the students programmed their Mini Parrots to lift off, go forward for a specific amount of time, and land. It was pretty cool to see!

Today the students were tasked with programming the drones to take selfies. THIS was a huge hit. At first, there were several random pictures taken. Then once they got the hang of it, they took some great selfies, which they downloaded onto their Google Drives.

{ “product_id”: “0909”, “uuid”: “D2A9239C9AE19A2DEFE8B5D130C04F6D”, “run_date”: “2016-05-11T140254+0000”, “filename”: “Airborne_Cargo_2016-05-11T140301+0000_.jpg”, “media_date”: “2016-05-11T140301+0000” }

(Selfie Photo credit: the students – they gave me permission to post)

It’s nice to have students finish the sentence, “Can we…” with something other than “…play a game”, “…have recess”, or “take a break.” They beg to code and explore every day. They are sad that they will be leaving at the end of the week and truthfully, so will I.

Thank you, CUE and Jon Corippo!

So. Over. Testing.

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portrayal-89189_1280Without a doubt! I have 16 days left in the school year and I need to finish 1 state test and START and complete 2 district ‘Benchmarks’. THEN if one of the district benchmarks is below a certain level I have to administer an additional assessment. Can we say, “Overkill”? If I’m feeling this way, I can’t image how over these assessments my students are.

Now add on to that the end of the year hubbub. And being 5th grade we have a few more hubbubby things to do than some other grades – tour the middle school and my personal favorite (seriously, no sarcasm here) the puberty video (boys and girls are separated). AND we are trying to finish the last 5 scenes of our movie.

I will hand it to my students, they tried super hard on all the tests thus far. Today we began the 5th-grade science test. It’s so outdated that it doesn’t align to the NGSS. And it’s on paper (we have been taking all tests online). AND, as one student so cleaverly put it, “Why did they give us all the answers?” Yeah, he was referring to the A, B, C, D choice he had.

I waited until today, only because someone asked, to break it to them that this was NOT the end of tests. It was at that point that they were officially So. Over. Testing. I felt for them. I mean 16 days. We should be wrapping things up, finding the joy in our year, ending it with fun, but instead our education system gives students a final ‘Hurrah’ with testing, testing, and more testing.

When the Common Core State Standards arrived, I was hopeful. It was to be the beginning of deep and meaningful learning and the end of high-stakes testing. I think the message got lost along the way. Fortunately, San Diego Unified SD has rethought the current testing trend. Hopefully, more school districts will follow suit.

Classroom Success

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Today I experienced a moment that made me proud to be a teacher. It was one of those moments that makes you look around and say to yourself, This is what a classroom SHOULD look like. 

This afternoon, after an hour of morning State Testing and an hour of afternoon testing, my students were focusing on finishing their Boston Tea Party Tasks (part of a larger hyperdoc). They needed to discover the events, people, and reasons for the Boston Tea Party.

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Yes, that would be 2 green screens, several groups collaborating, and a whole lot of learning going on! They are posting final videos this week on our website.

Today Was A Good Day

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Yes, today was a good day. You know you’ve done something right when you tell the students that we are heading to the high school theater for a production and their reaction is, “What, we’re going to miss Math? I like math.” Yeah, that’s what they had to say. A few actually looked devastated to NOT have math.

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Yes, they even said that Math is fun and that they love Math. What 5th graders says that?

Then later in the afternoon, during our regular break time, my students were so engrossed in their work, they missed their regular 2 pm break. What were they doing? Collecting information, doing research, writing notes, and creating videos about the Boston Tea Party. Yup, they were focused and engaged in HISTORY!

Now, this doesn’t happen often. Thus, me writing a blog post about my good day. We should celebrate the little things in life. Here’s to more days like today!

You Know It’s Working

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I had a few ‘it’s really working’ moments this week. Two of them centered around ‘8*pARTS of Speech‘ by Jon Corippo. In this activity, students are shown a rather silly picture (my favorite was the elephant on a giant toilet). The sillier the better! Each day my students practice writing and using the 8 parts of speech. We also address subject, predicate, and similes. Oh, and write 1 paragraph EACH DAY. They are also getting pretty proficient at using quotation marks.

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Writing the parts of speech and a paragraph based on a photo (from pixabay) is more engaging than a boring prompt!

It’s Working Moment #1

We were working on writing. A student commented that the word ‘on’ was an interjection. Immediately, another student corrected the first by stating, “No, ‘on’ is a preposition.”

The first student looked at the second and said, “Oh yeah, that’s right.”

Seriously, how awesome is that? AND we’ve only been doing this activity for 3 weeks!

It’s Working Moment #2

Earlier in the week, a student asked if she could find pictures we could use for the daily activity. Um, yes! Now I don’t have to look for photos for a few weeks. This has caught on and I have a few students sending me pictures. Looks like I’ll have to make a GForm in order to help organize it all.

Here’s My Advice

Try it! The first few times, my 5th graders and I did it together. They quickly caught on and can now complete the entire page in 15 minutes or less. I still have a few that need extra help (in the form of previously completed papers). That’s okay, they’re making improvements and that’s what I want to see!

And finally, a big thank you and shout out to Jon Corippo for sharing this nugget of awesomeness!

Gamification: Here’s the Deal

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And what a deal it is! I have written about my use of Mangahigh in my classroom in the past (Gamify My Homework, Math In the Summer, Engage Student With Mangahigh, and Online Homework). I really do like the tool!

Here’s an opportunity to check it out…for FREE (for a limited time). Not only do you get to check out all the features, your class/school can participate in an online challenge! Adding to the gamification fun. Go ahead, sign up for the challenge. What do you have to lose? It’s FREE.

10% Discount

And if you like it and decide to purchase…You can receive a 10% discount and a 30-day FREE trial. See, it just keeps getting better! Email Amber (amber@mangahigh.com) with the code: NOWATECHIE10.

Mangahigh

Challenge Details

The challenge will run from February 1st – 15th 2016 for all K-10 students at schools in the US and Canada. It’s completely free to participate and we encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to explore Mangahigh and see the impact digital games-based solutions can have on students’ learning.

 

During the challenge, you will have full access to all of Mangahigh’s premium features, including 600+ activities aligned to Common Core and other state standards. You can assign specific challenges to support the topic you are currently teaching, or simply allow students to complete challenges independently.

What do we win?

The school that scores the most points during the competition will be crowned the Math Bowl Champion, winning a $500 Amazon voucher, $500 Mangahigh voucher, a trophy plus medals and certificates for their top 10 students.

The 9 runners up with all receive a $100 Amazon voucher, $200 Mangahigh voucher, medals, and certificates for their top 10 students.

Students with 200 points or more will receive a Mangahigh medal!

Who can enter?

The competition is open to all schools in the US and Canada for grades K-10 regardless of school size, location and previous experience with Mangahigh.com. You are welcome to enrol as many teachers and students as you like.

Who will join me?

I’ve already signed up. Who will join in the challenge?