Summer Inspirations: Week 3

Hello!  I know I'm putting this out early but I'm getting ready to go to Chicago for my PBS Summit and ISTE and I am super nervous!!!!  I can't remember the last time I traveled alone. My 12 year old told me not to worry.... I have an Uber app, I have Google Maps, and when in doubt I should ask a police officer for help.  I think that is solid advice.  Here are my #summerinspiration tips for Week 3!

If you are reading this on a mobile device click on each picture to enlarge it!

@Doinktweets

History with Tiffany

Teacher Tech with Alice Keeler

Wow in the World

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the selves of Adolescent Girls

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

Enjoy Your Week!

Summer Inspirations: Week 1

Hey all!  I promised and my challenge to myself is to keep this up all summer long!  These books, accounts, and blogs can inspire you to kick it up a notch in your classroom next year... by the way, did I mention I'm not done till June 29th?!?! 9 snow days don't seem so fun now!!! 

If you have any suggestions for this Summer Inspiration list, enter it in the Form at the bottom of the post (You do not need to fill out the whole thing... just the stuff you want to suggest!)

Ron Clark Academy

@mrmatera #XPlap

Google Teacher Tribe Podcast

Ditch That Textbook

Hope and Wade King

Teach Like a Pirate

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

It's the most wonderful time every four years!!! ~ Election Resources Video 1

It is Christmas for social studies teachers..... the presidential election!  This is my absolute favorite topic to teach and my favorite time to teach it!  This year's election is interesting, to say the least but I have found a ton of great resources to use in my classroom.  I'm going to be making a couple of videos to find some of the resources I will be using and I'll also provide some free products to use in conjunction.
My first video is on the website fivethirtyeight.com.  I help you navigate the website and see how it would be useful in a classroom.

If you are interested in some paid resources, head on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store and check out these two resources:

  

Stay tuned for some free resources to use with the 538 website!!!

Hands on Industrial Museum: Part 1

The Industrial Revolution is one of my favorite units and I think I have probably taught it 15 different ways in 15 different years! I'm teaching in a former industrial town now, so I really feel like I have to give the mills a lot of cred and with testing coming up, I wanted the kids moving and grooving while learning to make up for those days spent in silence:(

I decided that they were going to create a museum and we were going to have the 5th and 6th grade visit after testing was all done. Watch this launch video!



Each group was given different inventors and inventions and a series of questions they needed to answer.

They had to create A Thinglink page

We used an awesome website called HSTRY.

And they had to create a trifold board. I got an amazing deal at the Dollar Tree. 30 boards for 30 bucks!

They also used Google Maps to identify which region of the country most benefitted from each invention and used Google Classroom to create a collaborative scavenger hunt for the 5th and 6th graders when they come into the museum.

If you would like the resources for this activity, click here.
We have one more day of prep, two more days of testing, and then we get to show off all our hard work. I'll let you know how it goes!!!

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Let them use their devices!!!

I absolutely looooove making videos with my students, but many times over the years I've given up because it was just too hard.  I've used flip cameras and flash drives that fill up too quickly.  I've gotten in trouble with IT because my videos took up way too much space on the server.  I've tried to transfer videos from one iPad to another... ugh!
Right before Christmas, on a whim, I decided to do a quick video project to  finish up my vocabulary list before Christmas.  I was ready for a headache but was absolutely amazed instead!  What made this a fabulous experience for the kids and me?  Their own devices and Google Drive!
If you read my last post, you will know I've been really helping my kids immerse themselves into our content vocabulary.  One of the successes of the daily vocabulary I do, is that I go and find videos on YouTube that are either an example of the word or the actual definition.  Sometimes its hard!!!  I tasked the children with making videos for the words that I could include in my lessons next year.

I offered the kids my devices and a couple of groups took me up on it.  The ones that used my iPad used iMovie to edit and I had kids who used my Mac desktops and had a great time using WeVideo for editing.  Most of the groups used their own devices.  They made sure they had Google Drive on their phones and verified that they were hooked to their student accounts.  Many of my kids have iPhones so they used iMovie.  My Android users definitely taught me tons.  Many of them used Vont to add text and tons of different video editors.  It was an absolute breeze for them to upload to Google Drive and share it to me.  The best thing is that when they share with me, it doesn't take up any real space in my storage and it is all organized.
So many times we make our kids hide away their devices. Look what happens when you tell them to take them out!

This part of the video was total overkill but tons of fun!  We used an app called Action Movie FX and it allows you to add super fun effects to your videos.  You must try it out!!!

HOW WILL I MAKE 2015 THE BEST YEAR FOR MY STUDENTS?

It is that time of year again…. time to make resolutions for becoming a better you, trying really hard for about two and a half weeks, and then letting life take over and those resolutions go by the wayside…. ugh:( Luckily, I find resolutions for the classroom much easier to keep than decreasing carbs (bread…. I love bread!!!! Want to know what I like with my bread? More BREAD!!!) so even though we are less than half way through the year, this is a great time to take stock and make some goals going forward.

So, how will I make 2015 the best year for my students? Simply, I will continue to ENGAGE! I will continue to get my kiddos out of their seats and help them interact with their learning. Im going to accomplish this in two ways:

1) Simulations and Labs: I’m going to add even more activities into my class to help students experience history. We will continue to act as detectives and solve history's mysteries as well as take part in labs that help reinforce key concepts and let the kiddos understand what daily life was like for people of the past! 

2) Extend their Learning: I have so many kiddos that are begging to be challenged! Technology can truly help me do this. For the rest of the year I need to enrich their learning by continuing to implement my Google Classroom extension assignments, have them play more with video using websites like Zaption and EduCanon, and utilize those amazing phones they have in their pockets for response systems and classroom videos (blog post coming soon on these amazing vocabulary videos we made with their own phones and editing apps of their choice!!!) As usual they taught me a thing or two!

So, comment up people! How are you going to make 2015 the best year ever for your students? I’d love to hear your ideas!!!

First Week is in the Books

The first week back is in the books and it was great! It was wonderful meeting my new seventh graders but I forgot how amazing it feels to loop with kids. My eighth graders came in and it just felt like home. They are such an amazing group of kids and I am so fortunate to get another year with them. Today they were getting sad because they don't want to go to high school next year. Woah Nelly!!!! You just got to eighth grade... Don't fast forward time just yet!!!

I went in my class last week and quickly set up my bulletin boards.

I really love my , "What's Been Going on in the World?" Bulletin board. I have presented five national and international stories from the summer with no words. For a bonus activity for my early finishers, they can take a guess at explaining what is going on in the pictures. If you're interested in the template, click here. I'll be changing them out every month, or as my smarty pants eighth graders say, every news cycle.

The first day I launched with my getting to know you video...

 

And then had them tell me about their likes and interests with Play Doh.

 

 

On day two did the Survivor Island activity that Dave Burgess talks about in his book and my teacher buddy, Ben Brazeau (@braz74) made (I modified it a bit for middle school students). Of course I had to add a bit of my own flare too it so I made this super fun launch video.

I also got to us Kahoot! Which I totally adore!

If you haven't used it yet, it allows you to do online quizzes and surveys where kids can use a myriad of devices to answer the question. It's much like Socrative or PollEverywhere but it has more of a game show feel to it. The kids loved it and I was able to use it to collect that beginning of year data, like do you have a computer or tablet, do you have wifi, etc? The kids adored it and I love that I can download all my data to a spreadsheet.

Lastly, I'm super excited because next week we're signing the kids up for Google Classroom and the whole cluster is going to use it. The possibilities are endless!!!!

 

Did you try anything new the first week of school? Let me know!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Rainy Day Fun Part 2

It was pouring here in New England today. I've been having trouble getting motivated for back to school ( t minus 11 days and counting) and then I remembered what I did last year to get jazzed. In a very similar rainy day I made a first day video to show my students. I loop with my kiddos so my eighth graders deserve a fresh new video. I worked on it a bit in the morning but I didn't want the kids to be stuck in the house all day. The big guy was at karate camp for the week so my hubby and I took the midget to Red Robin and the mall to buy a new school back-to-school outfit. Two adults, one 3 year old, and we ended up with no back-to-school outfit and a pink My Little Pony. I'm not quite sure how that happened.....

We hunkered down in PJs early and I got to work on the video. It was much quicker than last year cause I've definitely learned that ins and outs and iMovie Trailers. For those of you that are wondering, I used iMovie, I usedthe trailer option and I used Keynote to make the slides with handwriting.

What do you like to do on your first day of school?

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