Friday, December 2, 2016

Hour of Code

Hello!

By 2020 it is estimated there will be 1.4 million computing jobs, but only 400,000 students studying computer science.

How can we help get kids interested in computer science and coding at a younger age?  Let’s get them coding!  The first week of December is dedicated to teaching students across the world to code.  Like learning a new language, the younger we start, the better!

Join the Hour of Code movement and plan a computer science lesson for December 5th-9th. Don’t worry, your kids will enjoy it so much, you can code the rest of the school year too!  You can even do a lesson on coding without computers.  (These lessons and tutorials can be incorporated into the curriculum any time of year.)

Here’s are some of the lesson ideas with tutorials for the students to follow:

Want to find out more?  Where do you start? Check out this easy step-by-step guide.  I can help you plan a coding lesson integrated into a variety of content areas.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Dec 1st! #D59Chat on Student Choice

Join us Dec 1st for an insightful chat with CCSD59 educators!


Wednesday, November 9, 2016

75th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor- Virtual Field Trip



  • LIVE Webcast from Pearl Harbor ceremonies and activities
  • Hear from locals and military who witnessed the attacks (or just listen to other students ask) 
  • Visit the museum
  • See artifacts and attack sites
  • Participate in live polls
  • 5th-8th grade curriculum materials to support the event
Sign up now to learn more!

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Cubs win the World Series!

Wow, what a game!

If the students have nothing but baseball on the mind, and your classes or study halls need a little brain break, these resources might be fun to share!

Curse of the Billy Goat (11 min)  Very informative, and fun video about the history of the curse and Chicago baseball.  Could spark a great conversation on what this win means to so many generations (something I think many of our students don't quite understand yet!)

Can the curse be proved with math?  Make a graph in Google Sheets

1900's World Series Trivia- Partner students to search for the answers

Top Ranking Cubs players of all time Students choose one player to research and write a persuasive article on why the player they choose deserves to be on a list of top ten Cub's players.  Display the stop ten in the room with a "Hall of Fame" board.  

Here's an article with many more great ideas and resources on how to incorporate World Series themed lessons into different content areas. World Series Classroom Activities

GO CUBS!

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

The innovative learning team is excited to invite you to this month’s Twitter chat on Partnerships. Join us this Thursday, November 3rd at 8:00pm at #D59Chat to connect with colleagues around these Partnership questions. One lucky participant will win a new professional learning book, too! Check out the #D59Chat Schedule Flyer for topics and dates that might interest you.

The innovative learning team is excited to invite you to this month’s Twitter chat on Partnerships. Join us this Thursday, November 3rd at 8:00pm at #D59Chat to connect with colleagues around these Partnership questions. One lucky participant will win a new professional learning book, too! Check out the #D59Chat Schedule Flyer for topics and dates that might interest you.

Friday, October 14, 2016

Newsela and the Election

Teaching the election this year? 

Newsela is offering teacher support with lessons and text sets, and with webinars for teachers.  The webinars explain how to use the resources and give lesson ideas for your classroom.

If you would like resources for the election, Newsela is worth looking at!  Students can also cast thier vote on the Newsela website and see how other students across America are voting

If you want to watch an upcoming webinar, with resources focusing on the election, CLICK HERE.  Look for the events titled:

WEBINAR:

Teaching Election 2016: Their Voice, Their Choice


If those days and times don't work for you, you can watch yesterday's webinar I was signed up for by clicking HERE.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

PLN on Facebook for Science Teachers

Hello Science Teachers!

If you are looking to connect with other middle school science teachers, I recently joined a new Facebook Group just for science.  (Who would have thought Facebook could actually be so usefull?!) 

So far, the teachers who have joined have been sharing great ideas!

Here's a sample post:




If you are on Facebook, click here to check it out.  Click on "join" to follow the group: 


Thursday, September 22, 2016

Mission 8848 to Mt. Everest

This opportunity looks AMAZING!

Quick snapshot-

-2017 Expedition to Mt. Everest
-Live stream broadcast from the Summit
-Joining 1 million students worldwide
-Lots of lessons ideas and resources for science and geography
-Collaboration, critical thinking, problem-solving
-Climate change and global warming

*Free* Lesson support and coaching every step of the way! (No pun intended!)
If this sounds like something you might be interested in, I'd love to come to a team meeting and explore further!


Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Columns in Docs

I read on Twitter last night that Google added a great feature to Docs.  Now you can easily create columns in the text!

Go to Format > Columns and choose the number of columns you need.  You can do this on a blank document, or by highlighting a paragraph and changing it to columns.  

BEFORE:

AFTER:

You can even add a PICTURE:


Want to keep up on the latest updates?

Get emails of all the updates by subscribing to the Google Apps Updates Blog.  Click on the link, and then on the right, you can click on "Subscribe by Email."

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Global Read Aloud

Hello ELA teachers!

Looking for good novels to read aloud to your students?  Want free ideas to help them enjoy the story and connect with others?

Think about joining the Global Read Aloud!  The teachers who tried it out last year loved it!

What is it?

1) Each year a handful of books are selected by teachers to read aloud to their classes.

2) Teachers sign up online and start reading the book(s) they choose to their students.  Last year over 1 million students in 60 different countries connected to share a common reading experience!

3) Read the books from October 3rd-November 7th.

4) Depending on how involved you want to get, students can participate in lessons and activities related to the stories.  I can share more in person and help you get connected and make some plans for activities tied to what you are doing in your classes.  

Here is a clip with a better explanation from the founder, Pirnelle Ripp.


Still interested?  Here are the four chapter books to choose from (only pick one).


All American Boys
Jason Reynolds Brendan Kiely
The BFG
Roald Dahl
Orbiting Jupiter
Gary D. Schmidt
Pax
Sara Pennypacker and Jon Klassen

There are also picture books (read one per week):


Twenty Yawns
Lauren Castillo (Author study)
The Troublemaker
Nana City
Yard Sale
The Reader

If you or your team is interested, let me know and we can chat more about it!

Friday, August 26, 2016

If you are a Google Classroom user, you will LOVE the new updates!  If you haven't tried using it yet, this might be the year to start.  It's a dashboard that will save you so much time while managing lessons and student work.  Here's a summary of the new features:

August 2016
  • Guardian summaries: Teachers and administrators can invite guardians to sign up for email summaries to keep up with their students. Guardians can choose how often to get a summary—daily or weekly—and can unsubscribe at any time. Summaries include a student’s missing or upcoming work as well as new announcements and questions posted by teachers in the class stream.
  • Topics for stream organization: Teachers can organize the class stream by adding topics to posts. Teachers and students can filter the stream by topic.
  • Teachers and students can preview materials attached to assignments or posts.
  • Teachers and students can view email notifications by class using Inbox by Gmail. Important updates from recent emails are highlighted in each bundle.
  • Teachers can add a subject when creating a class.
New mobile app features:
  • Mobile annotations: Teachers and students can draw on, highlight, and write notes on documents and PDFs in the Classroom mobile app.
  • Teachers can poll their students using multiple-choice questions and allow students to see a summary of their classmates' answers.
  • On Apple® iOS®, teachers can post to multiple classes. 
There were many other updates made in 2016 to make this one of the most popular and easy to use management systems in schools today.  Click HERE to read about more capabilities of the program.  If you are looking for a one-stop-shop for classroom organization, this tool is amazing! 

Disclaimer: No, I am not getting ANY kickbacks from Google, for promoting Classroom!  But I want to help make your lives easier and this might do the trick!

Monday, August 22, 2016

Start Up Meetings for the New School Year

Hello staff,

Welcome back!  I am excited to start a new school year at Friendship and Holmes, continuing as your innovative learning coach.  This week, I will spend all of Monday at Friendship and all Tuesday at Holmes. I would love to start meeting with staff to think about the new school year.  

This is a great time to plan for communication management both within, and outside the classroom walls.  Think about how you can create a community of learners in your class with the many tools we have at our fingertips.  Here are a few ideas we can talk about and set-up together...

-Google Classroom (Manages assignments, due dates, messages, and more, all in one user-friendly dashboard for teachers.)

-Google Calendar (A place for students to stay organized and see assignments posted in Google Classroom)

-Remind (Parents and students receive updates via text message)
-Hapara (How can it help me?)

-Teacher or class Twitter (Sharing and connecting with others)

-Skyward (How can I email parents?)

-Google Forms (Creating interest inventories, sign-ups, etc.)

These are just a few of the more common tools to help facilitate communication with your students and parents.  If you would like to share your thoughts, I would love to plan with you and/or your team, to help you get rolling!

As always, I'm just an email away, or you can click on the link below to book a time.

I wish everyone a great start to the school year!

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Motivate Students by Writing with a Purpose

"Why do we have to do this?"  Teachers would agree this is a common question by students.  What is the purpose of the activities we do with our kids?  When it comes to writing, one natural motivator is to provide an audience for the published product. Students will put more effort into a piece of writing when they know it will be shared with others.  Think of how hard they work on projects when they know parents are coming to school and will see their work for an open house or conferences.  Besides sharing with classmates and parents, students are especially motivated when their work is shared outside the classroom walls.  This is where we can bring innovation into what we do with the creative work students do.

This week I am sharing a list of ideas for publishing writing to a larger audience.  There are websites students can use to publish work and others places for them to win scholarship money and prizes!  This is a short list of the many opportunities out there.  With a quick internet search, you can find many more ideas.

Writing Contests:


Poetic Power is a site where students get published, win prizes, and teachers earn school supplies.

10 Poetry Scholarships for Creative Students has a list of opportunities for students of all ages to receive recognition and scholarship prizes for their work.

Poetry Nation Contest awards over $35,000 to students each year!

Library of Poetry Contest  is open to all students enrolled in grades 3-12. Submissions are accepted year round, and winners are announced every September 30th. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners are selected in each of four divisions and will receive a cash prize and Certificate of Achievement. Check our the website for more prize information.

Online Publishing Resources 
(adapted from the National Writing Project)


Figment is a community where teens can share their writing, connect with other readers, and discover new stories and authors. Whatever teens are into, from sonnets to mysteries, from sci-fi stories to cell phone novels, they can find it here.
Candlelight Stories invites story writers (grades 6–12) and illustrators to submit their work to be published on Candlelight. The site also contains an international gallery of illustrated stories including "Thumbelina" and "Slim Hick—The World's Only Singing Cowboy Ant."
Teen Ink accepts art, poems, stories, personal narratives, college admission essays, and reviews of favorite (and least favorite) movies, books, colleges, and websites for their monthly print and online magazine. 
KidLit, for students in grades K–12, welcomes a poem, a book review, or a short story, sent by email. Previous submissions may be read on the site.

Monday, May 9, 2016

“Oh no, devices are being collected! Now what do we do?”

The end of the school year is such a busy time.  Time flies are you are finishing up grades, organizing your classroom, and waiting anxiously to find out what you will be teaching next year.  But through all the hustle and bustle, the kids are still coming to school each day, and it takes just a little more effort to keep them engaged in learning.   This is especially true after devices are collected, now that we have integrated some form of technology into so much of what we do.  Don't worry, with a little bit of advanced planning, there are plenty of great project ideas to keep kids learning up until the last day!  If they are busy actively learning, they will have less time to get anxious about the last day, keeping classroom behavior in check.  Below is a list of ideas compiled from various blogs and teacher websites. Enjoy!

Creative ways to spend the last few weeks of school, technology free!

Google Hangouts/Skype
Participate in Google Hangouts with feeder schools and have kids ask questions about their upcoming year. (Only the teacher needs a computer for this one.)
Themed Party
Let the kids make groups and plan all the activities, decorations, music, food and more.
Book Hall-of-Fame
Have each student write (or draw) a reflection on the best book they read over the year. Then, save their reflections and post them on a bulletin board so that next year's students can glean reading ideas.
Dear Next Year's Class
Have your students write letters of advice to next year's students.  Or, they can create a bulletin board of advice welcoming next year’s students.
Egg Drop! Water Balloon 
Drop!
Many schools save the last days of school for their annual "egg drop" activity. Each student works within guidelines to fashion a container for an egg so that the egg won't break when the student drops it from an established height -- using a tall ladder, or from the school's roof.
Put on a play
Students can write their own script, or you might use a script you find online. If you're looking for a great resource, see the Education World story All the Classroom's a Stage!

Have students write letters to themselves.

Ask your students to write themselves a letter, reviewing the year and making “resolutions” for the next school year. Give them some prompts to write about: one thing they are proud of from this year, one thing they would like to do differently next year, one thing they want to remember, and so on. You can either mail these letters to your students just before the start of the next school year, or make arrangements with their next teachers to distribute the letters at the start of school.
Service Projects
Take this time to get involved with a cause that is meaningful to you or your students? Students can write letters to government leaders, organize fundraisers, or create pamphlets or flyers addressing a particular issue. You can build off world events, tackle an issue you read about during the year, or just ask students what issues matter to them.
STEM/STEAM challenges
Who can build the biggest tower with cups?  A bridge from popsicle sticks?  A bucket that pours water?  Check out all the possibilities from http://www.sciencenc.com/events.php Find other STEM/STEAM activities HERE.
Plant a garden
Have students improve the outside of the school by adding flowers.  Have them call local nurseries to see what can be donated.

“My classmates and I were given an index card for each student in class, along with a brown paper bag. We were asked to decorate the bags with our names and things we remembered from the school year. After we were done decorating our bags, she told us to write one nice thing we remembered about each of our classmates and place them in their bag. We were allowed to do this anonymously. Later, we were allowed to go through our bags and read all of the nice things our fellow classmates had said about us. It was wonderful.
What a great way to spend a few minutes reading what other people thought about you – in a positive way. In my classrooms I’ve added a few caveats when I do this activity. I gather up the cards and double-check them just to ensure that nothing inappropriate gets put in someone’s bag. I express my expectations for positive comments and offer some suggestions for nice, neutral comments for students who don’t know each other well or who don’t like each other. I think this is important too, because it teaches students the valuable lesson of looking for the good in other people – even if they don’t really get along. More often than not, I’m thrilled with the thoughtful responses my students come up with for each other. I’ve also added a brown bag for myself – hey, we need to hear the good things our students think about us too!”
Show What You Know
Give students an opportunity to teach the rest of the class something, like origami, a new app, or a martial arts self-defense move.  Students create a lesson and share with others.
“This fun activity will get your students thinking and writing creatively. For an end of the year writing activity I filled a picnic basket with various summer items - beach towel, pail, sand molds, mask, swimsuit, apple, shells, juice bottle, toy dolphin, etc. - and had the students pick 10 items to write a story using these items in the story. After I put everything back I asked the students to write as many of the items down as they could remember (20 in all), just for fun! They loved it.”
Scrabble Tournaments

What could be more fun than a board game tournament that’s educational as well as exciting? Many families have Scrabble boards in their closets that they can lend to your class, and setting up a tournament is easy. You can find complete Scrabble Tournament directions and printables for the event on my Corkboard Connections blog and you can download the necessary forms from my Odds N Ends page.