Stuck in Congress: A Legislative Branch Digital Escape Room and Genially

 

After all these years, my favorite thing to teach has always been U.S. Government! I adore working my way through the three branches of government and am constantly looking for new ways to engage middle schoolers with content that doesn't make an automatic connection with their lives.

I recently found the Genially website and knew that I could use this to create a super engaging activity! Genially is a website that allows users to create super interactive presentations, quizzes, games, and escape rooms. 

It is free to use in your classroom and includes all the tools I could want! I can record audio right in the website, insert icons, link to other website, make game boards, and more!

I used the tool to make this engaging digital escape room where students got locked into the Capitol Building overnight (I know... we should really talk to the proper authorities!) and they need to learn about Congress and solve puzzles to escape!

I also love Genially because the tools offer me many avenues to differentiate and accommodate for my emerging learners:

• I have added audio reading to pages that contain text.
• Genially works with accessibility extensions like Read and Write for Google and Read Aloud. The hover speech function of Read and write works wonderfully on this game.
• Genially works wonderfully with the Google Translate extensions. It will translate each page separately.
• In order to move through the escape room, students need to answer questions correctly. They are redirected when they are incorrect. This supports executive learning.

If you head on over to my store or Teachers Pay Teachers you can get this resource for 50% off for the first two days!

Click here to purchase on Teachers Pay Teachers!!!

Makers Gotta Make! - Free Digital Maker Space for Elementary School

Soooooo... what is everyone up to? Ha! Just kidding! We are all biting our nails wondering what next year is going to look like. No matter how we go back in August, it won't be the same as any other of my 20 years!

As a tech coach in my district we have been talking a lot about how we can use tech to take over some of the basic things we do with our kiddos. Just this week I had a conversation where we realized we won't be able to use legos, blocks, playdoh, or even come sit on the rug.... ugh.

I decided to try to do something and was looking for some online building tools to integrate into our Stem read alouds. I put the call out to one of my favorite edtech facebook pages Teach with Tech, and someone suggested I check out a great digital maker space made by Shannon McClintock Miller: https://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/2020/07/our-virtual-makerspace-is-open.html

I fell in love and decided to make one for my district! I borrowed heavily from her but am adding

a ton of content as I find it! https://sites.google.com/view/digital-makerspace/home 

Everything here is elementary focused, able to be used on a computer or Chromebook (not all the items will run on an iPad) and require no logins!!!!

Feel free to share this with your students and feel free to reach out to me and suggest more items or categories! Enjoy!

GreenScreen, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Summer Challenge.... Oh My!!!

Hey all! As usual, I'm apologizing for not blogging enough.  I always have the best intentions and then life takes over!  Life is pretty great in Engaging Them All Land.  Standardized testing is over so I'm finally back to helping teachers engage students and create life long learners.  I have been conducting a ton of virtual field trips, specifically the ones with Wild Earth TV and Safari Live. If you haven't heard of this, you must! Click here to see my original blog post of the experience!

I have also been doing a ton of green screen projects with teachers and students and they are loving it.  Teachers are starting to paint their walls green so they can easily integrate this into their students's learning next year! 

We have been fracturing fairy tales, making end of the year reading videos, traveling around the world, and hanging with penguins!

We also had a couple of fabulous visits from Google Expeditions and got to beta test the new Google Expeditions Augmented Reality content.  It was amazing!!!!

We saw volcanos explode, dinosaurs up close, and tornadoes twist!!!!!

I also got to use the Google Expeditions Virtual Reality software to teach some amazing sixth graders about World War II and the Holocaust.  I have worked with two amazing teachers over the years to create a technology rich end historical fiction station activity on World War II and the Holocaust.  One of the stations is using VR and Google Expeditions to travel to Pearl Harbor, Normandy, Iwo Jima, and the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

Click on the picture below if you would like all the resources for this station activity... for FREE!

Also, I had a really cool surprise... ish.  In May, I was named a 2018 PBS Digital Innovator All Star!

I am honored and way excited because I get to get back to work with PBS and my amazing local affiliate WGBH. Seriously..... have I told you how amazing WGBH is?

This month, the 30 PBS All Stars get to go to CHICAGO for the PBS Digital Innovator Summit and then I get to spend a day at.....

Can you tell I'm super excited?!?!?

So.... I actually came here to announce a challenge I am giving myself for the summer. I have been working with teachers all over my district and have been showing them how to use social media to up their ed game. To help them out, I am going to do a weekly post about...

Who should I follow on Instagram?

Who should I follow on Twitter?

What podcasts should I listen to?

What blogs should I read?

What YouTube channels should i be watching?

Wild Card! This will be something amazing that doesn't fit into the above categories!!!

I have a ton of ideas but I would also love to hear and share the things you love!  If you have any suggestions, fill in this form. You do not have to fill out the whole form.  If you have a super great podcast I should be listening to, just fill out that piece!  

I'm doing this to force myself to get back to my passion.... sharing with teachers.  I hope you will join me!

Summer Inspirations Round Up - Click here to see all the current Summer Inspiration Weeks

We saved Egypt! A Quest into Gamification

Hey, all!  I am so sorry it has been so long since I wrote.  This semester I got an amazing opportunity to start teaching a graduate class.  I am teaching this fabulous class called, “Creating a Technology-Rich Classroom. It is such a blast to teach but it has definitely taken over my blogging time!

Things have been fabulous in my class lately.  Around the holidays, I delved deeper into my fascination with all things PIRATE (read Dave Burgesses’ Teach Like a Pirate and you will understand!) and read Explore Like a PIRATE: Gamification and Game-Inspired Course Design to Engage, Enrich and Elevate Your Learners.  Michael Matera is an amazing middle school teacher who has entirely gamified his classroom.  In his class students go on quests to learn new topics and solve problems.  I tried to do a Rome Quest last year and was minimally successful.  After reading this I decided to go all in and create a quest for Egypt.

Step 1: I came up with my backstory.  To get the kids hooked you need a reason to “quest”.  I created this video using PowerPoint and iMovie to launch the story.

I set up a locker for each of my classes like this:

Inside each locker was this:

I set all this up before the launch of the activity to build excitement.

Step 2: I organized all the assignments I wanted them to complete for the unit and assigned XP (experience points) to them based on how much effort they each took.

I created placards that explained the assignments so the kids could complete them independently and at their own pace.

If you look at the assignment sheet you will see a whole area of assignments called sidequests.  Michael Matera does an amazing job outlining them in his book so definitely GO BUY IT!  It is a perfect summer read.

In a nutshell, though a sidequest is an "extra" activity.  These activities do not have to be completed but they do make the quest progress quickly.  For me, these assignments are awesome guided and independent activities that allow your students to delve deeper into topics.  This is a perfect way to differentiate for your high flyers!

Step 3:  I placed the kids onto four teams.  Each team was named after a major Egyptian god.  Each team was assigned one of the locked locks on the locker.  This lock had a three-digit number as a combination.  The object of the game was to solve puzzles to find the numbers to unlock the lock.   This is where things get tricky but this year I got a handle on it with a little help from my internet buddies.

The goal of the game is to earn XP.  As each person earned XP, they moved up the ranks of Egyptian society from slave to pharaoh.  When a team earned an average of 425 XP they got to go on a clue quest and solve a puzzle to learn the first number.  We considered this "clearing gate 1".  This repeated for two more  gates until they had all three numbers and could open their lock.

Last year when I tried this, the amount of scorekeeping and data that was needed to be managed was way too overwhelming.  I spent my year investigating easier ways and I finally stumbled upon a genius that created a spreadsheet for tracking in Google Spreadsheets and Forms.  

With this sheet, I was able to wrangle all the information, project on the board, and let the kids see where they stood!

Students listed by XP earned

Alphabetical list of students, Total XP, Level, and Guild

Full Chart

Total XP earned by each guild

This is what I used to progress guilds to gates.  When their average was 425, they were able to go on their first clue quest to open Gate 1 and receive their first number.

Seriously, this entire spreadsheet saved my life and made this an enjoyable experience!

Step 4: I created the Clue Quests to clear each gate.  These were fun!  If you really love solving puzzles look on over to BreakoutEDU.  It is an amazing resource and community for educators creating fabulous puzzles to challenge their students.  I have large classes, so I decided to incorporate some of the themes into this activity.

Once each group (guild in the spreadsheet) earned an average of 425 XP they received this:

The QR code led to a question, the answer to the question was the password to unlock a website that brought them to their first number.

On the next gate they received this:

Once they solved the puzzle it brought them to an activity in the hallway where their number was hidden.

The last gate involved invisible ink and a UV pen!

The kids absolutely loooooooooved this activity.  I got about 95% completion of all the activities and total buy-in from the kids.  When they opened their locks and earned their day out both classes cheered!  I was able to accommodate for my struggling learners as they approached each activity and I was able to push my high flyers who started to compete with each other to see how many side quests they could do.  I can't wait to do it again and I'm already working on one for my American Revolution unit that focuses on the Culper Spy Ring!

Vocabulary, Quizlet, and Cell Phones

I'm blogging.... at 12:39.... on a Thursday..... why?

Snow day!  I literally think everyone on the eastern seaboard is home today battling snow or ice.  Is it me or is this the worst winter in a while?  I'll take advantage of it, though!  We start our February vacation tomorrow at 2:30 so I can take a break from planning and prepping and spend some time blogging and creating for TPT.  I'm in the middle of make a really awesome new product.... let's just say Bloom's Taxonomy....... hmmmmmmm?

So what have I been doing that's engaging?
Quizlet
For those of you new to Quizlet, it is a simple online flashcard creator that can be used by both teachers and students.  On top of flashcards, it also uses your words and definitions to make tests and games.

As a teacher you can make multiple sets and create classes to organize them.  Students can create an account and join your class so their words are always a click away.

Vocabulary has always been important to me but since I have been teaching a larger number of ELL students, it has taken on a new urgency.  I'm also a huge fan of skill building.  I always hate when I hear a middle school teacher say something along the lines of, "Jeez, these kids don't know how to study.".  Of course they don't.... no one has taught them to.  We just assume that kids will learn to study out of necessity as opposed to being shown and taken part in multiple ways to study.  

I have a very routine way of accomplishing vocab in social studies.  First, we create a page in our notebook where we list the word, define it, write the sentence from the textbook that contains the word, and draw a picture.

I used to just have my kids create a foldable with just the word and a definition but my ELL students really benefit with more time to process the word.  I have them draw the picture because I believe in adding some creativity to the process.  Our literacy specialist gave me an even better reason to continue the drawing of pictures.  The picture allows you to see if the student truly understands what the word means.  We had a whole bunch of Constitution words to work with (i.e. checks and balances, federalism, etc.).  One girl brought me her words and every picture was of a document.  I was able to ask her if she understood the words and she admitted she didn't so then we brainstormed some pictures together.
When the kids walk in the day of their vocabulary quiz I have Quizlet set up on the two classroom computers, my laptop and projector, and my phone. I let them work individually, or in groups, to study for ten to fifteen minutes. The first time I introduced this I also allowed them to download the Quizlet apps to their phones and took the time to hook them up to our class.  That time has paid off immensely.

Look at all those fabulous kids on their cell phones..... studying!!!!  They love Quizlet so much they even started to make flashcards for terms in their other classes.  Their favorite thing is to race each other on the Scatter game (it's like Memory).  I love it because they forget they're studying!  Vocabulary grades have increased 60% and my kids are learning more about themselves as students.

Check out my profile on Quizlet!

ICivics.... Loved by all!

This week was a roller coaster week. Nothing was horrible but I spent a lot of time adjusting my lessons to create more engagement for student success. Some things worked out and others are yet to be seen. Mostly, I felt like a failure and success all in one week. Welcome to the wonderful world of teaching!!!!

Tuesday was Constitution Day and I thought it would be a perfect day to introduce the kids to iCivics and computer use in my classroom. I gave the kids the entire period to just play with all the offerings on iCivics. I instructed them to play at least one game for at least ten minutes and they had to write a review on that game.

Both my seventh and eighth graders looooooooved iCivics! I have never heard so much excitement over the games. Kids were yelling at the people on the screens and verbally getting excited to sell cupcakes at a bake sale.

They begged me to play it for the rest of the week and some kids even come in during lunch to play it now:). The overwhelming favorite was Counties Work. The kids had to manage local government and many kids wrote in their reviews that it was addicting.

For the rest of the week, my seventh graders finished up their Create a Place projects for the five themes of and they are coming out amazing. Wait till I get a picture of the island that has Bieber heads for coconuts.

I had to switch gears in eighth grade this week. We're doing a colonial review and instead of focusing on the individual assignments, I decided that I needed to abandon whole group instruction and activity for now. I took my activities (most of them are geared to the interactive notebooks and pretty hands on) and set up three stations. My team members (there are 6 of us) share a Mac cart, so I was able to grab a handful of computers and add a BrainPop Station. So far, I think it has been successful. I was looking to create more on task behavior and I think it has given me that. I'll let you know more next week.

I am very blessed to be working with an amazing team. Every time I felt like a failure this week, I had a fabulous group of professionals that offered advice and support. I love working on a small team and can't wait to see what we can accomplish this year.

I do need to throw a question out there. The ability groups in my class are many and widespread. I have a lot of kids that finish a task and have to wait quite awhile before we move on, even in a station situation. Does anyone have any ideas for "When You Are Done?" Tasks. I don't want to give them extra work but I do want to keep them engaged and challenge them. Right now I'm going to try giving them some primary source work from Read Like A Historian, but I would love some suggestions of things that have been successful!

Lastly, I put all my geography activities in a covenient and affordable mega bundle....

Click here to check it out!!!

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