Leadership & Sign Language

My Lead (Leadership) class does not have a set curriculum. We have a lot of wiggle room to do things that will prepare the students for the future and peak their interest. During the first semester, we have learning typing (I'm surprised how many students don't know how to truly type!), Genius Hour, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, video announcements, and now sign language!

Studying American Sign Language was requested by about 80% of the students, so we are learning it as a class. I have found video lessons online (ten lessons total), and we are going through those lessons and using Life Print to learn ASL! The students have truly taken to it and are doing a wonderful job.

Our county provides Rosetta Stone accounts for each student and employee, so students have access to learn many other languages. Unfortunately, there is no Rosetta Stone program for ASL. We are taking advantage of our class time to learn ASL. I do not know ASL, but I am learning with my students. I am enjoying it more than the students! I definitely have a goal of becoming multilingual. The world can be a better place through good communication!

For the holidays, the students learning "Jingle Bell Rock" in ASL. We created a video to share with the county and even went caroling at the elementary school! Check out the video below!

Dolphin Tank

We are the Dolphins (Fear the Fin!), so we decided to hold Dolphin Tank projects this year. Similar to the hit show Shark Tank, our students create a product, project, or service and present their idea to the community during Fine Arts Night. The winning group continues on to have their project funded using a crowd funding site.

This year the theme of Dolphin Tank was service learning. Students worked in groups of 3-4 to create something beneficial for our community. Project ideas ranged from products, like sunscreen machines (we are a beach community), to services, like a giving tree (year-round go to the fire department and submit a need then community members can pick your item to buy and leave at the giving tree for you to pick up), to projects, like hygiene bags for the homeless. They were extremely creative, and we were all very proud. (All 8th grade students completed a Dolphin Tank service learning project.)

I created an interactive center to help students prepare for and work through the Dolphin Tank unit:

Students presented their Dolphin Tank project through their ELA class. The top 3 groups from the entire eighth grade were selected to present at Fine Arts Night. Fine Arts Night includes a performance by the band and theatre students as well as an Art Show. It is always a wonderful night to show off the great things happening at our school! Especially since parents aren't as involved at the middle school level as they are at the elementary level. 

Our winning presentation group can be watched by clicking here.

This group has already spoken to many community members and started a Kick Starter. They are well on their way to making their project a reality.

I plan to post a Dolphin Tank bundle to my TPT store within the next few weeks! Keep your eyes open for this wonderful project! It can be used for realistic projects (like we did) or imaginary invention type projects.

Video Announcements

While my newspaper staff publishes a monthly e-newsletter, my Lead students produce biweekly video announcements. These video announcements are put together using iMovie and shared on our school website homepage and school Facebook page. The students write the script, collect the photos, and record. I use a rubric to grade their recordings and scripts (I hope to put this in my TPT store soon!).

Check out their last video for the first semester:

We look forward to more video announcements next semester!

Lucid Press & School Newspaper

This is my third year as the Newspaper Sponsor. We have definitely grown a great deal over the years! When the staff has handed to me, they only posted short (1-3 sentence) stories with a photo to a Facebook page separate from the school's main Facebook page. Now they write 250+ word stories weekly with at least five photos and two quotes and publish an e-newsletter monthly. This is in addition to keeping the main school Facebook page, Instagram page, and website up to date. We are busy bees!

e-Newsletter VS Paper

I am constantly asked about our decision to produce an e-newsetter instead of a paper newsletter. While all schools have different needs, the e-newsletter is the perfect fit for our school! We use Lucid Press to publish our newsletter. This program allows students to hold different account, share documents, and work collaboratively. It also has a chat room and comment area. As the teacher, I can login to review work and leave comment or make changes as needed.  

Once the e-newsletter is complete, it can be published then shared via link or embedded into another site. We embed it onto the school homepage and send a link to parents and students.

Since we are a 1:1 school, students can access the e-newsletter from the MacBook Air. We are cutting down on the use of paper and trash in our school - while also reaching a larger audience. (In the middle school setting, very few flyers make it all the way home.) The use of the e-newsletter also keeps us from having any cost in newsletter production!

Check out our first e-newsletter from the 2015-2016 school year!

Do you run the newspaper staff at your school? I would love to collaborate! 

Back at It!

Time flies is definitely an understatement for the last semester. We have been constantly busy! I look forward to getting back to blogging. I've continued blog on our school website for my newspaper staff, yearbook staff, and classroom (English Language Arts and Leadership). Check those out for great things we've had going on!

Over the next few days, I will be making several blog posts about the awesome things happening in my classroom. Then - beginning January 1st - I look forward to a normal blogging routine! Thankfully, the school year is in full swing and I hope to have a handle on life!

I have had numerous emails requesting my Genius Hour Rubric and Inspiration Station activity, so I took the plunge and started a TPT store. If you are interested in these items, please check it out! Thank you for your support.