Status Updates from the Past

Originally posted on Weebly 12/28/2012

When I had finally finished my Constitutional Convention unit I wanted a really great culminating activity to top it all off! I had been trolling the net for ideas on how to use Facebook pages and had found some really great things. Most of the templates I found were wonderful and PowerPoint Presentations but they just weren't for me. The PowerPoint format meant my kiddos were going to spend a lot of time searching for pictures and inserting text boxes. I felt like this would distract them from what they were really trying to do. I decided to give Fakebook a try. My friend had sent it to me a couple of years ago and I had avoided it because of a couple of things:

1. It has ads embedded into the work sheet. The ads don't show up when you print it but I was worried my students with attentional difficulties would find the ads distracting.
2. It's free but sometimes free means difficulties. Although they give an option for saving I was worried it wouldn't be good enough.

I decided to give it a whirl. I loved how it automatically added pictures for you and you didn't have to worry about formatting. The kiddos were going to make a Fakebook page for the Founding Father they had represented during th simulation. They needed to include the following information:

After explaining the project I had the kids complete a rough draft graphic organizer.



Once we got in the computer lab I was absolutely honest with the kiddos and let them know that I had never used this before and this might blow up in my face. I looooove to use technology and I think the first thing you need to embrace is that things might fail... So you might as well let the kids come along for the ride.
The first day was slightly horrible. Something must have been wrong with the website or our server because we had a lot of glitches... So many that I almost gave up. I'm really glad I pushed through it though because the next day was smooth sailing and the kids produced really amazing artificacts!







When the kids printed it out they had to go through and highlight the fifteen words and phrases they had to use. My three days in the lab turned into five but at least it was the week before Christmas.
On a totally separate but connected note, when we were in the lab we got to try out PollEverywhere.
I used it the first day in the lab and they loved it. Of course I got some stupid comments but I told the kids I wanted them to only post questions that didn't need an immediate response and the answer would probably benefit other students as well. I would work with kids around the lab and in between helping I would answer new questions that had surfaced.

Of course some of the comments were brown nosing but I will take brown nosing everyday!!!
Overall the project was a major success... Now I just need to grade them:(

100th Day... My Boy's Wicked Smart

Originally posted on 12/27/2012 on Weebly

So although I have gone to school almost every year of my life I have never celebrated the 100th day! I went to Catholic school for my elementary grades and I'm pretty sure it's a sin to celebrate, have fun, smile, etc. Other than that I've always attended or taught upper grades. My fabulous and amazing son is in kindergarten this year and I just don't like to engage my students.... My kiddos are the first midgets I like to engage. In my many post holiday hours on Pinterest I found this:

Which led me to this website:

This tee was totally up my little bubba's mathematical alley. My little man is apnot only a math genius, but he's really passionate about the subject. Not any old 100 tshirt would do. The tally marks just gave him something mathematically to play in his mind. I read her directions and decided I could do it but since I'm a working mom, I was going to rely more on technology and less on crafty. I created this on Google Drive Drawing:

Feel free to download it yourselves!(Just let me know in the comments because I'm not sure if anyone even listens to me;) )
Click here to access

After I played with it way toooo much because I am a perfectionist (and my math teacher husband felt I put the diagonal tallies in the wrong direction), I found a fabulous 50% off coupon at Vista Print.

I uploaded my .png to Vista Print and was able to use their design tools to add text that complimented the design.



This is the finished product!!! All together it cost me just over $14. A tshirt, iron on transfer, color ink(because we never have any) and my time would probably have cost a bit more. The tshirt is ordered and my kiddo was so jazzed by it he skip counted by 5s to 100. I told you my boy's like wicked smart, right?

Skitch and Simulations

Originally posted on Weebly 12/23/2012
I have never been content with my pre Constitution unit so this year I used all the resources for the History Alive series and implemented their Constitutional Convention simulation. I've already marked down the things we will change for next year but the kids enjoyed the immersion into the topic.









I love me some simulations! On a dorky tech note, although a lot of people love the Skitch app, I've never found any need for it until now. It has a "blurrer". You know... That tool the blurrs kids' faces so they don't get kidnapped! Awesome and now I will use it all the time!!!

#tweetingfromsocialstudies

Originally posted on 12/23/2012 on Weebly
As I've stated in another post, I'm really trying to spread my wings this year with small processing opportunities like Entrance and Exit Tickets. I've had my kiddos make these small little booklets they keep in their binders explicitly for their Exit Tickets. Upon researching on Pinterest (oh Pinterest.... How I love thee:) ) I found some great processing ideas using Twitter as their focus. I have a lot of free space on my rarely used whiteboard so I thought I would turn it into my Twitter board. I loved the idea of thinking like a tech project but completing it in class with nothing but a writing utensil and sticky notes. For my first activity I had them actually tweet out on two separate topics. The kiddos had just finished a Common Core graphic organizer where they read a debate on whether Google was making us stupid. In this activity they had to compose a thesis statement and cite textual evidence to support their claims. On the Twitter board the kiddos had to write down one piece of evidence and then place it in the"Yes" or "No" category. On the second board they had to give their answer to a homework questions, "Do you agree with the Constitutional Convention's rule of secrecy? Why or why not?" The funny thing is that even though only three or four of my kids actually have a Twitter account, they all knew how to hashtag! Some of them were downright masters at it!















The kids absolutely looooved this and it has become a mainstay over the last couple of weeks. They have been begging to use it all the time but I know that as soon as we use it consistently it will turn into a chore. We have retired the hashtag "YOLO" because Mrs. Wilkins just finds it downright stupid:). On the day before Christmas we watched the end of year wrap up on CNN Student News and the Year in Rap for Flocabulary and the kids were given this Tweet prompt: Time Magazine has contacted you about writing the cover story on the Story of the Year. In your opinion, what is the Story of the Year and why?

















When given the chance, my kids are kinda insightful huh?

No exit, no return

Originally posted on 12/17/2012 on Weebly

One of the things I pride myself on is after a decade of teaching the same subject I am constantly changing the way I teach. It would be easier to just pull last year's assignment out of a binder and implement it but my ADD kicks in or I hear about some new way to engage and I change it all over again.

I have been considering implementing an Exit Ticket system in my class for years but I find it is so hard to give up the time when I only have forty five minutes. I was feeling really disjointed this year so I decided to try the exit ticket system when it made sense. I wanted to challenge the kiddos a bit more than, "What did you learn?" and I certainly was not going to ask them, "What questions do you still have?" Because my kids' questions tend to range around' "Can I eat pretzels in class?" to "Can I tell you about my new puppies?. 
So far I ha've asked my kiddos to write acrostics...



And letters home to England



But my favorite were haikus on the Articles of Confederation.









The kids definitely did way beyond where I had gauged their performance. I used to do this assignment as a large project (write 10 haikus on the French and Indian War). I really think I will put this in my rotation or processing assignments.