Thrifting in the Mitten

Any teacher loves a good bargain, right?  With school budgets crunching numbers for next year, extra monies for classroom staples such as paper and pencils are dwindling as I type this blog post.  Not to mention extra little luxuries such as composition books, grade level text books, glue, staples, markers, etc.  So forget the fun stuff that will force students to problem solve and get creative, right?

NO!

We must model creative problem solving.  WE are teachers...this is part of what we do...so model!  Go thrifting!  Wait...we already do.  :)  Most teachers (including myself) spend the summers scanning store shelves and garage sales for items we could use or repurpose in our classrooms.  We nag for store discounts...our pennies are precious (with pay cuts and rising insurance premiums).  I justify my out-of-pocket spending by asking this one question, "Will it truly enable my students to learn (insert unit/concept/learning goal)?"  If the answer is yes, then I figure out how much I can scrape by with and take a deep breath.

In comes my latest assignment from my current graduate class (CEP 811 through the MSU MAET Program, if your are curious...): Repurposing & Thrifting.  We were suppose to go thrift shopping (in person or virtually) and find some objects to incorporate/interact with our Maker Kit (I chose the littleBits Starter Kit) that could be used in our classrooms.

I love the littleBits kit!  It is fun (bright colors!) and easy to use...every little bit fits together with magnets.  This is fool proof for even the most electrically challenged.  (==> me!)  My five year old

son was able to create a few simple circuits as well.  The different types of bits are color coded by purpose: blue - power; pink - input; green - output; orange - wire.  All the pieces came in a nice little box with a nine volt battery and cable as well as an instruction sheet...but who needs instructions when there is discovery to be had?  I spent approximately three hours experimenting with the little bits and how they work together. 

For me, finding a way to incorporate this assignment into my lessons was kinda easy...electrical circuits are a national standard taught at my grade level, but I wanted to take this a step further and incorporate another science standard that I will be teaching next year: forces that shape the Earth.  There is a cool output bit called a bargraph (part 09) that has five lights that respond to the input.  It reminded me of a Richter Scale...earthquakes!  There is another bit that is a vibration motor (part 04) that I thought would work well for demonstrating the shaking felt from earthquakes.  A force that shapes the Earth!  Bingo!

Now for thrifting...I went to my local Goodwill but the only things I found that I thought would work well with my earthquake machine were Legos...and my son has tons of them at home and at school.  I knew I would need somethings that were small and lightweight. So I thrifted from my house too...some matches and smaller Legos.

Earthquake Machine directions:

1. You need the following bits: Battery and connector, Wall power bit (p1), Potentiometer bit (i6), Vibration motor bit (o4), Bar graph bit (o9), Wire bit (w1)
2. Connect the battery to the wall power, the wall power to the wire, the wire to the potentiometer, the potentiometer to the bar graph, and the bar graph to the motor (as in the picture below)

3. Cut a piece of cardstock approximately the size of a postcard or a little bigger out of a used box.
4. Place the circuit on the cardboard. Using it as a guide for positioning, mark where holes should be cut for the potentiometer, bar graph lights and the motor to pop through.
5. Cut the holes out of the cardstock face and make sure that everything fits well.
6. Take the cardstock off the circuit and decorate it as you like. Then, place the decorated cardstock back on your circuit.
7. Carefully flip the circuit and the cardstock over, and attach the circuit to your cardboard with electrical tape.  Masking tape also works well.
8. Cut a small square out of the card -board, about one inch on each side.  Loop a piece of regular tape to the back of the square piece of card-board.  Stick one side of the motor to the tape. .
9.  Make another loop of tape, and attach it to the cardboard front of your quake machine.
Stick the other side of the motor to your quake machine. You should now have a little platform that will quake when you turn on your circuit.

10. Test out your circuit. When you turn the potentiometer, you should see the bar graph light up. The more lights you see on the graph, the more your quake machine should shake
11. Once your machine has been tested and is working, put it in a safe place until you are ready to use it to simulate an earthquake.

Earthquake Machine Activity:

 Prior to creating the circuit, we will have activated prior knowledge and either read about earthquakes or watched a Discovery Education video, just to get students familiar with the Richter Scale and the basics of earthquakes.  Then students would be asked to thrift themselves by finding and bringing in small, light-weight items to test out on their earthquake machines.

In small groups or pairs, students would conduct active research with their earthquake machines with their found materials and collect data in their science notebooks such as the intensity of the 'earthquake,' the time it took to shake off the items, etc.  At the end, the entire class would share the results of their research.

Here is a brief video of my attempt at using my Earthquake machine:

 I can't wait to play around with my littleBits Stater kit some more so I can find more ways to incorporate it into my classroom!

(This project is very similar to one found on the littleBits Project Page...I found this after I came up with my concept.  My activity and extensions are entirely original work.)

littleBits. (n.d.). Quake Machine - Projects. Retrieved from http://littlebits.com/projects/quake-machine

Gamification Remix

As part of my graduate class in the MAET program through Michigan State University  I will be posting a few of my assignments via Teaching in the Mitten as a sharing platform.

This is the first assignment I will share.  I was required to create a short (one minute) video that explains one of the latest 'buzz words' in educational technology.  I chose gamification...it seems like a fun concept to encourage and promote student engagement in lessons.  What do you think?

http://popcorn.webmadecontent.org/1198

Please be kind!  This was my first attempt using Mozilla Popcorn Maker and Sound Cloud.  I'm sure that I will explore more with these programs as I begin to flip my classroom curriculum bit by bit!

National Poem in Your Pocket Day

Many know that April is Poetry Month.  Classrooms  across the country are in the middle of poetry units (except for mine...we save that for May).  But did you know that today is National Poem in Your Pocket Day? 

My students and I are loving this.  We have selected poems to carry in our pockets today to share with five people....any five random people when the opportunity presents itself:  the lunch line; recess; dinner; soccer practice. 

Here is a great resource with some PDF files you can quickly print and share with your students.

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/409 (look for Pocket PDFs for Kids)

As for me, my pocket is quite full today...Revenge of the Lunch Ladies: The Hilarious Book of School Poetry is my selection.  I plan on pulling this out multiple times today to regale any hapless bystander with some humorous lines.

Tech Savvy: Gaget Rules

As I enter my second week of my first graduate class, I am realizing that I am not as socially aware of using technology as an education professional as I thought I was. 

Here is a link to a blog post about using gadgets and technology 'carefully, with intention, for good.'  Exactly my goal when incorporating such things with my classroom curriculum. 

http://iamfutureproof.com/gadget-rules/

How do you use technology in your classroom?  Are you on Twitter?  Have a wiki?

Teaching Spelling and Writing in a Texting World...Good Luck With That

Photo: Teachers With a Sense of Humor Facebook Page

Do you have a cellphone?  Do you text?  Chances are the answers to both questions are 'yes.'  Personally, I've been on the texting bandwagon for about five years...maybe not even that long.  I have always preferred to have a conversation over the phone or email, both of which facilitate deeper communication.   When I do text, I spell out 99.9% of my words.  (This has lead to multiple confrontations with my iPhone's auto-correct feature...) My texts are also longer than just a few words.  Hey, I usually have a lot to communicate with people!  I am a social creature...like many of our students who have their cell phones permanently clutched in their palms!

In general, I think texting is a legitimate form of efficient communication.  But I am concerned that the 'lingo' used by many of my students is undermining the spelling and writing conventions/mechanics that I am mandated to teach.  What concerns me the most, is that despite many conversations with my students about audience and voice, they aren't differentiating between texting, journal entries, essays, and letter.  Generally, when someone writes an essay, the language used to express the thesis, evidence, and details is more formal English than what would be used to communicate a thought in a daily journal entry.  The grammar conventions are also more stringent: commas; paragraphing; apostrophes; correct spelling. This can even be witnessed in oral conversations.  For example, when I speak with my grandmother, my language is more formal and less slang, but when I'm having a conversation with a friend, some of those language conventions slide off to the wayside.    BUT...what I have repeatedly seen in my classroom through multiple years of reading and grading papers is that my students are unwittingly incorporating 'texting' into their writing.

I will never forget the first round of 8th grade English papers I ever corrected.  Over two pages, one student repeated wrote 'gr8'...this was 'gr8' because...isn't it 'gr8' that...  My jaw dropped.  When I conferred with that 8th grader, I asked why she chose to use that spelling of the word 'great' instead of the correct version.  She said that that was how 'great' was spelled.  We continued to have a lovely conference that included pulling out a dictionary and a Google search into the word origin of both 'great' and 'gr8.'  I patiently explained that when writing English, the traditional/formal/correct spellings of words such as great was the expectation, unless for the sake of writer's craft, a short hand or phonological spelling was necessary for dialogue, etc.  I thought my teaching point had been made and the error was on its way to being corrected.  WRONG.  That student and several others continued to incorporate text lingo into their writing at an alarming fluency.  It made editing/revising sessions even more tedious than normal.  We went through a lot more red pencils.

Even my current students are demonstrating signs that texting is infiltrating their young lives.  While the average 4th grader may have a cell phone, a vast majority have them for emergencies and limited features set by their parents.  So the likelihood that many of my students are currently texting is fairly low.  But the process is beginning.  Occasionally, I confer with a student about using the correct form of the word or using the right 'voice' in their writing.  We are currently drafting persuasive letters.  I asked my class, "Do you think Mom and Dad are really going to buy you that iPod if you write, 'im a gr8 student so i deserve a xbox 4 my bdroom.' ?"  You can hear the giggles that erupted in our writers' circle, can't you?  While I think they got my point, the issue is still at large.

Students learn by example and through hands-on, 'doing'...so it only makes sense that once they become fluent texters (and let's face it, that is going to happen...), the spelling and grammar conventions/mechanics they use the most will be what is engrained in them.  Unless they are able to fluently flip back and forth between formal and informal voices.  Spelling and writing are just two of many issues that are arising in elementary schools...keyboarding skills are almost non-existent.  Texting doesn't require knowledge of keyboard, only dexterous thumbs.  Handwriting isn't really even taught anymore except for printing.  Cursive writing is a relic of the 20th century. 

Check out this infographic released by Onlineschools.com. 

The beautiful thing about language is its ability to morph and model to express our thoughts, feelings, needs, desires, concerns, opinions, etc.  My concern is that unless I can effectively support my students and teach them the formal language conventions, including spelling and grammar, they won't be able to successfully communicate through more informal avenues.  My battle plan?  Using media formats such as blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting, etc but using examples and non-examples of these communications and having guided discussions about which is more effective at communicating the author's purpose or main idea.  Stay tuned...

Data, data, and still more data

Wow...where has the school year gone?  It is already the second week in November - report cards and conferences are just around the corner!

In my building, we are transitioning to our first year of being self-contained classrooms.  For everyone, this means learning new curriculums -  some more than others.  For instance, I am 'trained' in Reader's Workshop and taught our social studies units and Writer's Workshop last year in my team.  My team teacher taught the science and math units.  Well this year, I am responsible for all of it and have these two new curriculums.  Other teachers (last year's math/science teachers) are saddled with implementing Reading & Writing Workshops (no easy task!) and the social studies component.

HOWEVER, we have a brand new math curriculum - Bridges in Mathematics/Number Corner.  Everyone is in the same boat here...but I love this program!  It is very constructive and scaffolds student learning to allow them to build their mathematical knowledge with manipulative and concrete models.  But it is VERY, VERY time consuming.  Prepping for the lessons and the materials is extensive....a metric ton of copying.  And then there is the math calendar called Number Corner.  I was very excited about this!  It only takes 10-15 minutes each day but Number Corner builds computational fluency and exposes my students to concepts like measurements (metric & standard), fractions, observations, number sense, and problem solving every day! 

And the data!  This program has many assessments and data collection pieces the help me monitor and document student learning and growth.  It is very time consuming (when is data collection and analysis not?) and I often spend hours each week grading and inputting data.  All just for math...

I have separate sheets for whole class data on each pre-assessment and post assessment as well as the Number Corner check ups.  I also have individual student record sheets for data on each unit.  In my Math Data Binder, I have tabs for each student were I keep these record sheets and 'work samples' such as assessments and graded homework samples that I believe will be valuable evidence at our up-coming conferences.

Now, I just need to get my data binders for Reading and Writing Workshop to look just as good....but this is truly a challenge because Reading and Writing have so many components and it is very difficult to measure things like inferring, analyzing character traits, etc since it can be so subjective!  Sure, we have data from our Dibels/Daze benchmarks, Star Reader, and Fontus and Pinnell word lists, but these are only benchmarks and don't show growth (yet...winter benchmark is coming!). 

What do you do to track student learning and growth in Reading & Writing Workshops?

Operation "Classroom Upgrade" Complete!!!

Pinterest is evil.


And by evil, I mean complete genius.  Thank goodness it's free because I've spent quite a few 'professional development' hours researching how I want to redecorate my classroom this year.

Last year, I was called back to my public school at the very last moment.  Long story short, I walked into a classroom that another teacher had (lovingly and beautifully) put together the night of the open house and had little time to make it my own while treading the waters of a brand-new curriculum.  It was sink or swim time and I really didn't have much brain activity to spare to classroom decor.

So when I found out I was fortunate enough to be in the same classroom teaching the same grade again, I began to envision how I wanted my 'ideal'classroom to look and operate.  I am delving into creating a Responsive Classroom (http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/) this year, so how students would move and utilize our space was top priority.  BUT that didn't mean that our space couldn't also look nice and inviting! :)

I began my redecorating journey with a Classroom Couture theme from School Girl Style called Lemon Chiffon.  It is a beautiful yellow and grey theme that I thought was a nice detour from the primary/cutsie animal themes that dominate elementary classrooms.  (Not that there is anything wrong with those themes...they just aren't me.)  Since I had my color palette, the rest of my redecorating fell into place.

I spent my summer scouring Target Dollar sections, dollar stores, educational blogs and websites, and of course PINTEREST.  Most free nights were spent actually doing some of the projects I pinned (and aligning my curriculum to the new CCSS).  Here are a few pictures of the Pinterest-inspired projects in my classroom:

 My father-in-law humored my by cutting the plywood for these milk crate benches.

 Can't wait for this to be used!  One of the hardest things to get a fourth grader to do is to put their name on their papers!!!  And they didn't like it when they went into the recycling pail if the papers went unclaimed...

 This was a download from the 3rd Grade's a Hoot store on TeachersPayTeachers.  Love that website!  And I love the little reading super heros!

 This job chart was also inspired by a pin.  I customized it to fit my needs in my classroom.  The library pockets (cut down to a square shape) are from Dollar Tree.

The curtain over my window is actually a re-purposed table cloth from the Dwell Studio collection at Target (I stalk Target!...Opps!  I meant I <3 Target!).  I added the grey material to blend it into my color theme.

A view of the back of the classroom

Our classroom library and morning meeting area.  A great multi-use space.

Currently slated to be the writing center....and the future home of our listening center...pending the funding of my latest DonorsChoose project!

Another view of the morning meeting area with our Number Corner calendar.

Love, love, love how it all turned out!  I am so proud and the feedback I have been getting is great.  I can't wait to see what great things my students do in our space this year!  Without Pinterest and other teacher blogs, I probably never could have done it.  How on earth did teachers ever tackle such a task before such things existed?

P.S...Pinterest is still way too addicting.  Now that school has begun, I will be curbing my pin-surfing!