Your Vote Counts!

I love making my classroom as "hands-on" and "real-world" as possible. Learning should never be limited to the classroom, and students must be taught early in their lives that every aspect of life is a learning opportunity.

With the 2016 Presidential Election season in high gear, it is a key real-world event to bring into the classroom. While many current students cannot vote in this elections, they will be eligible to vote in the next election (2020). I teach eighth graders, so all of my students will be able to vote in the 2020 election. Now is the time to teach their generation the importance of voting and how to understand the issues America is facing. 

With the end of the year approaching, I created a unit centered around the 2016 presidential election where students can hone their debate and communication skills and continue practicing researching and writing. My students sunk their teeth in on day one, and they haven't let go! I have been pleasantly surprised at the number of students who have gone home to continue class discussions with their families and brought back more information and influences. It has sparked heated discussions between thirteen to fourteen year olds! 

We are gearing up for fishbowl debates on Education, Energy & Oil, Foreign Policy, Gun Control, Health Care, Immigration, Social Security, War & Peace, and Welfare & Poverty this week. The unit is for sale on Teachers Pay Teachers (check it out!). 

& We're Back!

This has been the first week back for teachers! We have an entire week before students return, but most of this week has been full of PD and team building - not much prep time. Thankfully, I worked on my classroom last week! 

How do you spend your teacher workdays before students return?

Back to School

The time is here my friends. I've fought it as long as I can! Next week I will be working in my classroom and at the school helping with schedule pick-up.

Summer - has officially ended.

When is your first day? What is one thing you are excited about for this school year?

I have many things to be excited about this year!

• New principal and assistant principal (both amazing!)
• New elective - Leading & Succeeding
• Disney Field Trip (second year)
• Applying strategies from my MA in Gifted/Talented education in my classroom

Please share your positive outlooks on your upcoming year in the comments below!

Walk & Talk with Flipped Classrooms (from GRITC)

Engaging, collaborative, and interactive Professional Development is my absolute favorite! PD taught by teachers who really have a passion for bringing their students into the center of learning and creating meaningful experiences warm my heart and kick me into gear for the school year. I love the motivation!

This type of PD is exactly what I get at GRITC (Gulf Regional Innovative Teaching Conference) each year. GRITC is held in Robertsdale, AL by the Baldwin County Board of Education Technology Department (my county!). It is open to anyone and everyone. The conference opens with an incredible keynote speaker (this year Dr. Lodge McCammon), offers 100+ different sessions, food trucks and live music onsite, and sessions taught my teachers who are passion driven educators. They love their job! I feel blessed to present at GRITC and to call presenters and attenders my colleagues!

If you haven't had the change to attend GRITC yet, check it out for 2016! The conference is free, and they give out amazing prizes! Today I won a tripod from tweeting! They've also been handing out goodie bags and free t-shirts. At the end of tomorrow's sessions, they have drawings for iPads, bluetooth speakers, a drone, and a ticket to ISTE! GRITC 2016 will be July 27th and 28th!

Our keynote speaker, Dr. Lodge McCammon, has incredible ideas about flipped classrooms, student engagement, transparency in the classroom, active classrooms, and so much more! He is inspiring. Check out his website, twitter, and youtube account!

One session I was able to attend with Dr. McCammon was Walk & Talk. This activity gets students literally - walking and talking. Studies have shown that during exercise our brains are more active and engaged. Walking helps stimulate the brain and get the blood pumping. Through the use of a flipped classroom and videoed lectures, teachers can have students simply walk around the school or outside while discussing the topic.

How much do you hate sitting through PD sessions? How do you think your students feel stuck in a desk all day?

During our PD session, Dr. McCammon had us walk and talk about the walk and talk strategy. We discussed challenges and solutions with using this strategy in our classroom. I felt energized as we walk while having our discussion. It also took away the distractions of computers, phones, and doodling when I should have been talking.

This is an easy to implement strategy I plan to use in my classroom at the start of the school year along with videoed lectures (blog to come later). Check out this video from Dr. McCammon about walk & talk:

Can you use walk & talk in your classroom? What would you have students discuss? What challenges and solutions can you see with this strategy? 

Classroom Improvements 2015-2016

Each summer I work to improve and update my classroom. I've never felt that my classroom was "wrong," but there are always ways to increase student engagement and develop organization in your classroom. You can checkout my 2014-2015 classroom under the classroom tab above. I will update my classroom after my classroom is set up again!

There are a few question I ask myself (and my students) when I am planning my classroom redo:

1. What did my students enjoy?
2. What did my students not interact with?
3. What problems arose in my classroom this year?
4. What fun ideas have I found on Pinterest?
5. Is there a goal I'd like my students to reach during the next school year?

Here are my answers for the 2015-2016 Classroom Plan:

1. My students enjoyed the reading corner with beanbags, the timeline and they enjoyed the graffiti wall we used while reading Uglies.

At the start of last year, I had a reading corner with bean bags and a tree created in the corner. My 8th graders loved the beanbags, but the tore up the tree by the end of first quarter. I will be keeping the corner, but using inspirational quotes to decorate the area instead of a tree. Each year I've taught, I have kept a running timeline around the top of my room. We always cover at least two walls! I update it at the end of each month with photos and comments about what we have covered, field trips taken, and ideas we've shared. 

The graffiti wall was something I saw on Pinterest from Katie's blog. It was such an engaging activity! Each time a student found something in Uglies that brought something to mind - they wrote it on the wall (black sheet of butcher paper hung on the wall). It could be something they felt foreshadowed something that might happen, something with positive or negative connotation, something they connected with in their real life - anything the student felt was important! It added to conversations and discussions on the novel and had a strong impact on how they remembered and connected with the story. 

2. My students did not interact with my Info Board.

I have one small bulletin board in my classroom. I have been using this board for school/class information: schedule, uniform policy, lunch menu, upcoming events, ETC. The only thing the students actually look at is the lunch menu. This year, I am going to post this general information on the wall behind my door and using the bulletin board for exit slips.

3. Problems: Students randomly grabbing (and taking) books from the bookshelf, trash inside the tables, and missing exit slips.

I am building my classroom library, and I love to see my students reading! Unfortunately, students have been taking a book from my library when they are finished with work and randomly flipping through it instead of reading. When class ends, they put the book in the book bag, inside my tables, or on the floor - rarely back on the shelf. Since my students are required to have a book to read at all times, this year I am going to put a sign in/out log at the book shelf. Students will only be allowed to go to the shelf if they would like a book to completely read or have finished the book they had. I will ban picking one up because they forgot to bring their book to school or did not check one out on library day. 

I love, love, love my tables! They bring students closer together and work wonders for grouping. Unfortunately, my tables also come with a hole in the top middle for cords to go down and a tray underneath to run the cords out the side of the table. My students have a bad habit of putting trash, crumpled paper, and their belongings inside the table. Talk about aggravating! This year I am attaching boxes over the holes to hold classroom supplies and cover the holes! I'm so excited about this new addition. 

Sadly, I have numerous students who refuse to complete exit slips and will just leave the classroom. I'm busy collecting those being turned in, and I often miss those who slip out the door. This year I am going to turn my small bulletin board into an exit slip board. Each student will have a specific thumb tack to put their exit slip under. I will be able to glance and see who should and who should not leave my room.

4. Pinterest ideas: Cute red/white/blue nautical theme, meme rules, early finishers poster, and boggle.

Pinterest ideas are always fun! I have heavy red curtains that I love and blue cabinets I can not change. I've been searching for a theme that would tie these two colors together and not be too 'childish.' I'm excited to have found a fun nautical theme! 

5. As a staff, we have decided we would like to see our students take more accountability for missing/unattempted school work.

Our elementary school has a no zero policy that allows students a great deal of time to turn in late work. Our high school has a no late work policy that requires students to turn in their work the day it is due. As the middle school, we have to take the students from what they are used to and prepare them for what is to come. This year I am going to implement a missing work binder. Students will sign if they did not complete an assignment, and I will assign the time which the student will show up to complete the work. This will be a structured system moving through break detention, working lunch, and before/after school detention.

I'm thrilled to have plans for the next school year, and I look forward to seeing how they improve my classroom! What are you changing this year? What goal do you want it to accomplish? Share!

Passion Projects, Genius Hour, 20 Time - Whatever You Call It - Part 4

WHEW! The last few weeks of school are always a whirlwind! We finished school on Friday, May 22nd. The last two weeks are full of finals, MacBook collection, and awards ceremonies. We stay busy, busy, busy!

We decided to do Genius Hour presentations after our final because those 3-4 days are always limbo days. Teachers end up babysitting and playing movies, so I was grateful to still be able to work and keep order in my classroom. However, there were some cons to trying to use the last few days ...

PROS: 

• The class was still working.
• This project was a fairly large grade, so they had to make it a priority.
• We could still keep order in the room.
• I don't feel like I wasted any of my class time for the year!
• It gave students a reason to show up. 

CONS:

• Not all students felt it was important enough to come to school for this project.
• It left a few with substantial zeros in the grade book.
• I'm the yearbook teacher, and yearbook issues caused interruptions to our presentations several times.
• Other teachers allowing students to roam the halls interrupted us a few times (before I put a warning on my door!).
• My students were very antsy with the constant hum of noise outside the door. It was hard for them to focus.

All in all - I will still be using Genius Hour presentations as the assignment for the last few days of school. I plan to announce this in August! It was a great relief for me to know I still had something planned and important going on in my classroom.

The Projects

I learned a lot from my first year of Genius Hour, and I look forward to revamping it for my classroom next year. Overall, I had many impressive projects (& my standards were set HIGH), and I was extremely proud of my kiddos! I was also very sad as I realized I had to send my eighth grade babies off to high school! I had numerous mediocre projects, but I did see areas where I could improve in guidance of struggling students. 

With all of the business going on inside my classroom and out, I forgot to take pictures! I took a few on the first day, but I forgot anymore after that. 

I begged to keep this mural, but the student wanted it. Her essential question was "What inspires me?". She used various art techniques to create this mural about life and things you learn along the way (follow the person at the bottom as they grow from a baby to a man). 

This student researched how taste buds work and why different people taste things differently. She taught the class about sub-tasters and super-tasters and put the lesson into action with a few blindfolded taste tests!

Another student wanted to know how food varies from culture to culture. She created a recipe book with meals from around the world, and she also brought in a few recipes for the class to try!

This student investigated what effects yoga has on the human brain. As a part of her presentation, she taught the class a few yoga poses as she explained how that pose affected their brain and body.

There were so many cool projects! I'm kicking myself for not taking more photos. Thankfully, there is always next year!

Passion Projects, Genius Hour, 20 Time - Whatever You Call It - Part 3

Genius Hour is progressing wonderfully! Every student has experienced a hiccup or two (I'll write more about hiccups and detours in my next post), but Daily Reflections on Google Drive have been a God send! We use the last ten minutes of class for silent cleanup and reflection time. Students are required to answer:

What resources did you use today? (Cite in MLA format)

What did you accomplish today?

What questions do you still have? (What's the plan for tomorrow?)

Is there anything you need teacher help/guidance with?

Other Notes:

Our classes are about ninety minutes long, so students have been warned that if they do not have enough information for strong paragraphs on each response, they are NOT working hard enough or fast enough. I can access their Google Doc whenever it is convenient for me and leave comments. I usually go over reflections in the evening, and I make notes about who I need to make sure I touch base with next time in class. 

We're GROWING plants, DRAWING murals, INVENTING self-casting fishing poles to assist the elderly and disabled, BUILDING photography skills, CREATING profitable YouTube channels, STARTING an online business for charity, LEARNING about electricity, and so much more!

The end of the year always seems to be "blah" for everyone. The year is pretty much over. We're wasting time until the end - trying to wrap up little assignments and finish finals. This year has been especially rough for me. Thankfully, Genius Hour has changed all of that! Students are excited to come to class. We all have a renewed energy inside the classroom. They want to research. They want to read and write and create. I want to see them use these skills. I want to see what they are accomplishing! It's incredible!

Now-

As much as I am loving Genius Hour, we all know it isn't for every student. Not all students are good self-motivators, task accomplishers, or 'follow throughers.' Unfortunately, Genius Hour requires a great deal of self-discipline on the student's behalf to be successful. 

When we started Genius Hour, I met with each student individually to discuss their essential question and end product goals. A few students did not seem motivated and from past history we were concerned about the grade they would receive through Genius Hour. These students were offered an alternate project for the Genius Hour time - Nonfiction Book Studies. 

I have inherited bits and pieces of a nonfiction book set complete with guided reading workbooks. They walk students through making predictions, making inferences, reading charts, ETC. The books are pretty interesting too! Pirates, aliens, race cars, inventions, cooking, animals, ETC. In order to help assure all students could be successful, I offered students the option to complete three guided, independent book studies instead of Genius Hour. (Students who do not meet deadlines in Genius Hour are removed from Genius Hour and placed on book studies without an option.)

The book studies still require use of skills we have learned throughout the year: research, reading, writing, analyzation, vocabulary, comprehension, ETC; however, they help students with a more directed way of learning as opposed to the free, open learning taking place in Genius Hour. 

I don't treat either assignment as "beneath" the other. One is "stupid." They are simply different. During Genius Hour presentations, students who completed a book study will present summaries of the books they read. 

Are you doing Genius Hour? Have you done Genius Hour? I'd love to hear what (if any) alternate activities you used! Comment below or shoot me an email. 

Passion Projects, Genius Hour, 20 Time - Whatever You Call It - Part 2

Update: I have had NUMEROUS request for my rubric and information on the inspiration stations. I very nervously took a step outside my comfort zone and placed these items on Teachers Pay Teachers. Thank you all for your support and interest in my work. You have definitely put spring in my step and a bit more confidence in my soul. You can find the items here by clicking here. Thank you!

Genius Hour is in full swing! A fellow 8th grade ELA teacher and I are working through this unit together. It's refreshing to have someone with which to plan, bounce ideas, fail, and SUCCEED! Collaboration makes teaching much more fun. If you are looking to do this unit (or any other unit), please feel free to contact me! I'm always looking for other teachers with which to chat or pair our students for a project. (In fact, we've got some BIG ideas for this Fall involving Coastal Cleanup. If you live in a coastal community, I need you!)

We've got great projects going, and I am beyond excited to see how the progress. I have never been this excited about my classroom at the end of the school year (19 school days left, but who's counting), but this project has renewed by energy and drive to finish out the year STRONG! 

Last week our wonderful ITS* came in and taught my students about Essential Questions. These things are difficult for most teachers! I was really worried about trying to get eighth graders to write their own, but Katie did an ah-mazing job as always. She broke down the difference between essential and non-essential questions with great examples and activities that had the students up and moving. The students left on Friday saying they had a pretty good idea of how to write their own Essential Questions.

*We are a 1:1 county. Each student has a MacBook Air. Part of our Digital Renaissance is having ITSs. They help teachers with collaboration, teaching ideas, tech ideas, and so much more. They will even come in and teach your class (like she did here). It's a wonderful resource!

The truth came out today, and they really did understand! I was so proud. Several needed tweaking, but overall they did better than I do with essential questions. Here are a few I remember off the top of my head (I'll get full list to upload later this week):

• How do dreams define our emotions? 
• How are human brains tricked by optical illusions? 
• How are resources and knowledge used to create music? 
• How do I use my knowledge of art skills to create art? 
• How can a fishing pole be designed to make fishing easier for the elderly and disabled? 
• How do yoga poses affect the human brain? 
• How does what is considered “good art” vary from culture to culture?

For some reason my brain seems to remember the "how" questions, but I'll post a better variety later this week. 

Their final products/presentations vary from tricking the class with optical illusions to creating their own natural make up to painting a mural as long as my classroom wall. These next few weeks are going to be a serious buzz!

After I approved their essential questions and final product ideas, they created a 60-second pitch. I got this wonderful activity from Laura Randazzo on one of her 20 Time Updates! I highly recommending checking out all her ideas and posts about 20 Time before attempting this unit. She is pure genius and a ton of amazing. 

This activity gave students a quick opportunity to practice speaking to the class and see how the class perceives their project idea. It also turned into a great brainstorming session where the class gave the speaker more ideas and questions to consider as they go forward. More times for the students to take control of their learning and the teacher to smile at what they've accomplished this year!

"Don't forget your paperwork Wazowski."

There are four key paperwork items I feel were definitely required for this project:

• Parent Letter - Letting students complete a project on make up or fishing can sound a bit ridiculous to parents (especially when students start asking for supplies!). Thankfully, Laura Randazzo is pretty incredible, and her parent letter is spot on! I used her letter as a template for mine. 

• Rubric - I'm a big advocate for giving out the rubric before I even introduce the project. Students should know what is expected of them from the get go, plus it makes life easier when the project is due - there are no excuses for "I didn't know what I was getting graded on." It's all in the rubric!

• Contract - This contract made sure each student laid out exactly what the student intends to do. This contract is actually tomorrow's class activity. I will conference with each student, and we will compete the contract together. We are a 1:1 school, so they will keep a copy of the contract in their Google Drive folder (that I have access to as well), and I will keep a signed copy in my Genius Hour folder. 
• Timeline/Checklist - On the back of each contract, I have a chart set up with deadlines. During the conference, I plan to work with each student to set manageable goals. It's really hard to give class wide deadlines when the projects are so different! The checklist helps break it down by student.

Well! That's a bunch! Check back for my next blog post on what students are doing when they miss deadlines for Genius Hour or aren't staying on task. 

Passion Projects, Genius Hour, 20 Time - Whatever You Call It - Part 1

Whoa - I can't say I have ever had a lesson go as beautifully as it did today. Today was one of those Holy Grail of teaching days. The class is a beautiful hub of learning, excitement, and engagement. My 8th graders, after days and days of state testing, were no longer brain dead maniacs - they were participating and ready to learn! If you haven't tried Genius Hour (or whichever name you want to give it), it's high time you get started!

What is Genius Hour? 20 Time? Passion Projects? This is the video I showed my students to introduce the unit:

This unit, as explained in this video, is giving students 20% (hence the name 20 Time) of their class time to research something they are passionate (hence the name Passion Projects) about and become geniuses (hence the name Genius Hour) on that topic.

For the sake of our classes (I'm working with a fellow 8th grade ELA teacher on this unit) we're calling is Genius Hour. Instead of giving my students 20% of our class time, I'm giving them a little under 20% of the school year at one time. We've learned how to write, read, analyze, paraphrase, summarize, cite, infer, discuss, collaborate, and so on and so forth - but did they really get it? Can they really do all of those things at once without my guidance? We are about to find out! These last few weeks of school my classroom will be completely flipped! The students pick their topics, their research methods, their collaboration techniques, and their end product. It's their turn to teach me! We are oh-so excited about it too!

My goal is to post blogs each week from now through the end of the unit. We're going to fail. We're going to mess up. 

We're going to learn!

We kicked off the unit today by going over the basic requirements and the general rubric. I introduced deadlines and gave very specific consequences for not being activity involved in Genius Hour (independent book studies of the nonfiction books of my choice). Then we got to the fun part!

To help students get their creative juicing flowing, I set up 

s!

I had 11 different stations set up around the room where students could get a small peak of hands on experience in different areas. Examples:

1. Bubbles: What types of soaps make the best bubbles? Use the water and soaps at this station (foaming hand soap, dish soap, laundry soap, and shampoo) to create your own bubble formula. What worked? What didn't work?
2. Cooking: Taste the two types of chocolate at this station (one was unsweetened baker's chocolate and the other was semisweet morsels - this station was so funny!). Use many, varied, unusual words to describe the taste of each chocolate. How do you think each chocolate it used in cooking? What could you cook with each chocolate?
3. Calligraphy: Watch the instructional video on calligraphy and practice writing your name following the instructions using the calligraphy pens at this station. Was it as easy as the video showed it to be? What proved to be most difficult for you?

Using their sense to decide what type of plant this was (mint).

Practicing origami.

Analyzing different types of rocks and deciding what natural events could have shaped them.

Practicing drawing.

Working on photography and changes in F-Stop and ISO.

Comparing/Contrasting a fleece blanket with a crochet blanket. Could you crochet?

Make your own bubbles!

They were moving. They were talking. They were working. They were thinking! We debriefed at the end of class, and I was blown away at project ideas these students already have.

Tomorrow we have a wonderful Guest Speaker coming to teach the students how to write their own Essential/Guiding questions as they begin narrowing down their project topic.

In my next post, I will include the rubric, full list of Inspiration Stations (I left that file on my school computer desktop and not dropbox), and the parent letter.

Do you Close Read?

I'm pretty sure I've never been apprehensive about any pedagogy. Being a new(er) teacher, I usually embrace new ideas. I'll try anything once!

This was far from the case with Close Reading. I attended a workshop last summer on NMSI and AP English. A good part of the workshop focused on close reading. It seemed cumbersome and confusing. If I was having a hard time wrapping my mind around it, what was going to happen to my eighth graders? YIKES!

Listen carefully - this does not get said often - I was so very wrong.

My kids loved it! My advanced students and my inclusion students were on a roll. They had so many ideas. Synapses were firing. Communication and collaboration were on happening without prompting! Education on steroids! If you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend it!

That is the best summary of close reading I have found. There are many different 'steps' or 'approaches' to close reading. The key is finding/creating steps that fit your students' understanding and standards. Below are our steps:

1. Read the passage silently.
2. Listen to the passage read aloud.
3. Circle details in the text that make an impact (on your understanding, your views, your imagination). Make a note next to the circle that tells why this stands out to you.
4. Underline words with connotative diction (positive or negative meaning to you). Place a plus (+) or minus (-) sign about the word to illustrate the meaning.
5. Block off imagery (words appealing to senses). Make a note next to the block on what imagery is brought to mind - what image appears in your mind? what emotion does it make you feel?
6. Highlight comparisons (similes, metaphors, personification). Make a note to explain what is being compared and what information is gained from the comparison. 
7. Put an asterisk next to word(s) that illustrate the point of view.

Writing these steps out remind me why I tried to hide from close reading. It can be a lot to take. It can have several large words that may require a bit of reteaching, but it is worth it! 

The typical student response to "read this piece of literature and tell me what you think" is to read it quickly and say it was "nice." Close reading removes the ability to do this. It requires the student to think deeply on several levels. The end result is a deeper understanding from analyzation and creating your own opinions. Many parts of close reading cannot be copied from a friend because your emotions and understanding is not the same as someone else's emotions and understanding. 

Yesterday my students close read "Masks" independently. Today we reviewed as a class. This is what they came up with:

In previous years, my students have read the poem and replied "she doesn't show people the real her, and she wants someone to try to see the real her." Well … this is a general summary, but you are missing SO MUCH when you only read the surface. 

This year my students came up with the theme that is written in black on the sheet. "Every person you meet is facing problems you can't see. Love and encouragement from you will help others feel better and overcome their problems." I'm so proud!

Through close reading they had a good ten minute conversation on the power that "love is stronger than strong walls" brings into the poem. Their ideas brought me to tears! They also noted that you can't say "he" or "she" because the author is unknown and the last stanza blatantly states that the poem is about everyone. 

Earlier I noted that it is hard to copy someone else's close read. This was definitely brought to light with the term "masks" in this poem. Some students thought of Mardi Gras masks (fun, playful, party). Others thought of Halloween masks (scary, hiding things, monsters). Another group thought of masks as covering something. Your history shapes what you bring to the conversation. 

If you close read or you try close reading, please comment below and let me know how it goes!