Bringing Learning to Life : Making Connections. Building Relationships.

Hands down one of my favorite learning activities to join in on last year were our connections with experts. We happened to connect via Skype, but you're not limited to Skype.  Google Hangouts or even FaceTime are other options.  If you aren't looking for "face-to-face", you can even connect with experts via a class Twitter account too. You can connect with hundreds of experts and get answers at any given time.

All are great ways to bring learning experiences to life and make meaningful connections for your students. One thing I love about the connections made with our experts last year was that many students were so inspired by the experience. ~That one event sparked something within them that's going to stick with them from that day forward.  I had one student say that he discovered what he wants to do when he grows up. Whether or not that turns out to be true, perhaps the experience just kickstarted a passion for learning about dinosaurs, penguins, journalism, or weather... Don't we want to students to be inspired, interested, and involved in their learning?! Here's a bit of what some of our kiddos experienced last year:

We started off the school year with 5th Grade learning about weather. The teachers and I discussed the idea of connecting with a meteorologist. Rather than getting a digital connection, Phil Schwarz from ABC7 News came in to PG one day. Can't beat that! Mr. Schwarz reinforced concepts that the students were learning in class and students gained new knowledge as they asked him many awesome questions.  He was enthusiastic and entertaining too. 5th Grade has asked if we can have him back this year! Whether the connection is digital or in-person, it's going to be great bringing their weather journeys to life!

Second Graders connected with Penguin expert, Ron Naveen from Oceanites. He had recently returned from an Antarctic exploration and had much to share with students. The students had generated questions ahead of time on a Google Doc that was shared with him. Students took turns coming up to the computer and asking Mr. Naveen the questions. He was Skyping in from his office, so we didn't see any penguins live this time around. However, the students were so engaged and learned so much!

After such a successful connection with our penguin expert, a student requested that we Skype with a Paleontologist.  How awesome! A quick search and the Big Horn Basin Foundation was discovered. Students connected with expert, Jessica Lippincott. She took students on a virtual tour of their museum. It was incredible! She also took us on a tour through the room wear the scientists were working to clean off fossils (above pic). Jessica answered all of the students' questions and much more! The buzz in the air afterwards as the students were leaving and chatting about their learning adventure was priceless!

Finally, Fourth Graders connected with Investigative Reporter, Chris Fusco of the Chicago SunTimes. Chris was incredible ~ he was enthusiastic and informative. Unfortunately, this was our first connection that was a little shaky ~we kept losing our Internet connection. We made it through though and the students learned a lot from him. This was an engaging and meaningful way to enhance their journalism learning. One student walked out saying he knows what he wants to be when he grows up ~ an Investigative Reporter!

One of the Fourth Grade Teachers has a brother who works in Washington D.C. She was able to FaceTime him and take her students on a Virtual Tour. They loved it. Very cool!!

These are just a few examples, but the possibilities are endless. You don't have to connect with an expert. Connect with another class, whether in our state, our country or across the globe! It doesn't matter what is used to make the connection. ~Just make them! Your students will never forget the experience and who knows, it may be the learning adventure that ignites that passion within them.

We would love to work with you and your students to make the connections if you'd like. However, feel free to break down the walls of your classroom on your own as well! Anytime. Anywhere. Here are a few resources to get you started:


1. SkypeClassroom : Sign up. Browse requests for connections or start one of your own. I'd be happy to tweet out your lesson if you create one ~ to help spread the word.

2. Twitter in the Classroom: Share the learning taking place in your classroom, or better yet, have your students share on your class account!  Also, an incredible world with hundreds of experts at your fingertips. Your students can pose questions to experts as they come up in your classroom learning journeys or chat with other classrooms too. Here is an incredible list of over 360 classrooms that have twitter accounts and are looking to connect! 50 ways to use Twitter in the Classroom.  Interested in signing up for Twitter yourself? Check out this guide here created by principal, George Couros.

3. Just "Google" it : Most of the connections that our PG students had last year started with an online search. After discovering a website, all it took was an email, tweet, or FB message requesting a connection from there.

4. Get hooked on Mystery Skype! Your students will LOVE it. What a fun way to bring geography (and more) to life ~ beats a lesson from a textbook any day! Here's an introduction with a great video, "Find Us Maybe". :) There are also Mystery Hangouts too!! Check out The Teacher's Guide to Creating a Connected Classroom.

Have fun! 

Back to School!

As much as I try to squeeze every bit out of Summer Break, argue with myself over the time frame I will spend in school on a summer day, or come up with reasons why I can't all together, there's something about those summer days spent in school that really get me pumped up for the new year.  Year after year, the summer smell in the hallways (if you didn't think I was weird before, you do now), the glistening, freshly-waxed floors, the sound of staplers echoing through the empty (for now) hallways as teachers work to bring their vision to life in their classrooms, the smiles and conversations with staff and teachers that are busily preparing for students, all bring a smile to my face and get me revved up for the year. My kiddos, Tristan (8) and CJ (6), who accompanied me were actually speechless when we walked in the building and I mentioned to them how I love the smell. I think they were just completely perplexed...they always have some comment to throw back at me! Not this time. Even empty of students, I leave school feeling energized and excited for the upcoming year (even though I am often exhausted and drained from the day's prep). Don't get me wrong, I'm still clinging to what's left of summer and I'm going to enjoy every day.

A few of you have asked about ideas for the start of the school year integrating tech within ice breakers and cooperative activities that first week.  As you know, building relationships and establishing a sense of community are the most important to start off the school year with. If you're welcoming many of the same students back, whether you're looping, in Special Services, and so on, you can tweak many of the "Get to Know you" activities to "How've You Been" ones. Either way, team-building, building trust and establishing a sense of community are a must.

I do have a few ideas that you are welcome to take, tweak, or toss. Please share your own in the comments below for others!  Blogs by grade level and Back-to-School Pinterest boards are linked at the end of this post as well.  Some of the following activities involve tech, others do not. I've used many of these in the classroom myself over the years ~ I've updated most with tech aspects. You'll want to discuss and model cart care/device care before using the carts for the first time. As a reminder, anytime your students are going online, discuss online manners and Digital Citizenship just as you would discuss and role-play appropriate behaviors for face-to-face activities.

Enjoy!

1. Hopes and Dreams for Grade ___:  An awesome collaborative tool to use in the classroom is Padlet, which is a digital wall that your students can collaboratively write on using "post-it notes". A collaborative Doc or Slide can also be used within your student Google accounts to achieve this. This activity can be done during the first week for students to share their hopes and dreams for the school year. The collaborative wall can be kept and displayed all year on your class website. You can also tweak it, to include questions they have. What are you looking forward to learning about this school year? What is one thing you want to know about your teacher, our class, etc? What is one thing you are nervous about? 

2. QR Code Scavenger Hunt - This can be done in groups since many of you share iPads within a grade level OR reserve the iPod Touches or community iPad Cart for the day. You will create a series of cards with a QR Code that take students on a classroom tour when they scan each code.  Students can respond on paper, on the iPad, or at the station that the QR Code takes them to. The "scavenger hunt" can also be used to get to know one another: "Find someone who..." Check this one out as an example.

3. We're All Connected:  Great way to get to know something about one another, share one thing they did over the summer, or tell what they're looking forward to about the school year. Just with a ball of yarn, students sit in a circle and take turns telling about themselves. When they're done, they hold on to a part of the yarn before tossing it to a student across from them. In the end, discuss what the finished product of strings looks like. They will often respond "a web". Discuss how we are all connected. If they give a slight tug, they'll feel one another on the other end. Have one person let go and they'll feel how the connection loosens. This a a perfect time to address how each one of them is important. They all matter and contribute greatly to the classroom team. In the end, the students give a good tug and let go all at once. They have fun with this one.

4. We Fit Together: (I've never done this one digital, but it can be done simply with a photo of each student positioned together side-by-side to appear as a collage) Each student is given a puzzle piece to decorate in ways that best represent them. Just as with the yarn activity again, you'll display the puzzle pieces together and discuss how we are all a team. In the past, I've laminated them and attached them to Velcro. As students enter in the morning they can either put their piece on the back of their chair for the day OR attach their piece under Blue, Gold, or Home lunch choice. ~ You can knock out attendance and lunch count right then and there. If a student is absent, it's a good time to remind the class that our team is incomplete without them. ~Always reminding them that they are valued and that they have contributions to make to the class and to the world!

5. First Week Photo: Use your own camera, phone, or grab a school iPad or iPod touch to take your pics. Whether you use those adorable Photo Frames for kiddos to hold up, a special background, or a text overlay, you'll be set to use each student's first-week-pic for a variety of purposes: A collaborative slide show, first week goal-setting (toss pics in a shared folder on the Drive. Students grab their pic to write about in a Doc, first blog post, or collaborative presentation). ~Or just create a simple slide show to put up on your class website for the first week. You'll have the pics for a comparison at the end of the year to reflect on growth.

6. Who WE are: Create a collaborative Google presentation. Each student takes a slide to share who they are using pictures and words. Groups can also work together to create a slide. Partners can interview one another and create a slide to share about their partner. Possibilities are endless. Whatever you go with, they'll love working together on a common goal ~ That's one awesome aspect of the Google Apps! Share the final presentation on your classroom website (When posting online, encourage students to use first names and never share any personally identifiable information. Always check to see which students do not have permission to have work shared online).

7. All About Me in a Cloud- Have students share their favorites, their activities, and anything else about the (not personally identifying) into a Word Cloud generator like Tagxedo, Wordle, ABCya, etc. These are not typically iPad-friendly due to Flash. With anything, always test ahead on laptops or computers too in case an update for the website is needed. There's probably an app out there, but not sure off the top of my head.

8. Name Puzzle: An oldie, but a goodie! Use a Hidden-Message Wordsearch from PuzzleMaker.  Students complete this during the first week and it's often a great thing to have out for them that first day. They'll find their name and the names of their classmates. The remaining letters unscramble to reveal a message from you. If you want to get creative, you could make different puzzles for students to complete in small groups. Each group would have a different single word remaining. They would need to work as a class in the end to pull the words together to create the message. Each group can shout their word until the entire message has been delivered.

9. How Am I Smart? ~ A Multiple Intelligence Inventory and Reflection: I think this one needs its own separate blog post! ~One of my passions to incorporate throughout the learning process to help students recognize their strengths. In a nutshell, provide students with background knowledge on the various Intelligences. Be sure to discuss strengths and how everyone has strengths that contribute to the success of our team. Someone may be better at something because it's a strength, but that doesn't make them better than another. Talk about the importance of building on those strengths, while building up other areas too. Students can take a multiple intelligence inventory or can determine from explanations of the Intelligences. There are a ton of different activities I've done with this over the years, from students creating Business Cards (These would stay up all year advertised on a bulletin board for students to go to request assistance from their classroom "experts") to simply reflecting on their Intelligence. Wherever you go with it, the most important part is to differentiate instruction based on the Intelligences and provide students with ongoing opportunities to show-what-they-know in their own way. Instead of a worksheet or paper/pencil test, allow students to choose how they will show their understanding. Provide a rubric and give a variety of options to choose from. I always left one that allowed them to come up with a plan of their own. I have examples if you ever want to talk student choice or Intelligences > This post is getting quite lengthy :)

That was more than a few, so I'm going to stop there on a random number. 

As always, we're here to support you in your teaching and learning adventures!  

Have fun creating that community within your classrooms. 

Below are some Blogs and Boards you may be interested in as well....

Blogs by grade level:

ELEMENTARY:

ECE:

TeachPreschool

PreKinders
Growing in Pre-K

Kindergarten:

Mrs. Price's KinderGators

Love, Laughter, Learning in Prep

Kinder Kreations
Matt Gomez

ChalkTalk

First Grade:

Bits of First Grade

Fabulous in First
Ms. Cranfill's Class
Following My Heart to First

Second Grade:

SunnyDaysInSecondGrade

Mrs. Jones Teaches
Kleinspiration

Third Grade:

OneExtraDegree
Third Grade Galore
3TeacherChicks
Teaching and Learning in an Early Years Classroom

Fourth Grade:

Mrs. Laffins Laughings

Ms. Sanchez Pencils & Magic Wands 

~featuring her "Ten Days of Back to School Frenzy"
Collaboration Cuties

Fifth Grade:
Fifth in the Middle
Caffeine and Lesson Plans
Forever in Fifth Grade

Junior High

Science:

ScienceFix
Teaching Junkie
Tech Savvy Science Teacher

Math:

Fast Times of a Middle School Math Teacher
Flip, Learn, Share!
PPerfect Squares

Language Arts / Literature:

Mrs Beer's Language Arts
Language Arts Bliss
The Nerdy Teacher
Middle School OCD

Social Studies:
Weird is Cool in Middle School
Students of History
Speaking of History

General:

PernillesRipp

Cool Cat Teacher
Life of an Educator
Principal of Change
StumpTheTeacher

Pinterest Boards:

Back to School

First/Last Week of School Ideas

Back to School / Team-building

Communicate with Remind!

Love, love, LOVE the possibilities with Remind (formerly Remind101). This is one I wish I had when I was in the classroom. It's also a perfect option for coaches, club leaders, co-cu's, and more. I thought it was great when I shared it with you last year, but they've added a lot of really cool features since then to make it even better. Remind is a one-way text messaging and emailing service where you can send updates and reminders to your students' families. You can sign up on the website or via their app (iPhone & Android). Once you give a name to your class, the service gives you a code to share with families. Parents activate their phones and/or email with your code ~they can start receiving any messages that you send from the Remind website or your phone. Neither side ever views any phone numbers and it's one-sided communication, so all of the messages come from you alone. You can send out updates/reminders directly from a computer or your own phone.

Schedule messages ahead of time and even attach files such as pictures, documents, and more. You can also view who has opened your attachments so there's no guessing if a family missed your correspondence.

Here's a video to learn more about Remind to see if it's right for you.

Get started on their website. Signing up is quick and easy. They create a pdf for you to share the code with families. It's very user-friendly!!

I would definitely get this up and running before the start of school so that you have the information available to families when they come in for Meet-the-Teacher. As always, we're here to support you!

Standard text messaging rates apply to anyone receiving messages. Parents can choose to subscribe via email. You can also embed a widget on your GoogleSite so your Remind messages automatically update there too.

Have fun sharing and connecting your classroom to families in a fast, effective, convenient and reliable way!

Connect, Collaborate, Communicate & Create!

These are the C's we want our students to have opportunities to get! There are many ways for your students to break down the walls of the classroom and interact with others outside of their four walls. Today, I'm excited to share two really big ways that are coming up:

1.  International DOT Day! I shared it with you last year, but it's baaack! September 15th, 2014 is International DOT Day, so let's start planning incredible teaching and learning adventures! As of this post, there are 327,646 participants signed up across 39 countries for the celebration. All are ready to have their students unleash their creativity and make their mark on the world. Let's join in and have our students do the same! International Dot Day is inspired by Peter Reynold's book, The Dot. You can implement Dot Day across the curriculum and take part in as little or as much as you want. Why not break down the walls and connect your students with other classes around the world?! Create a class Twitter account for your students to communicate with the author and other classes participating in Dot Day. You dream it and we'll help you make it possible!  Here is an Educator's Handbook filled with ideas and resources for participating in the global event. Sign up today!

Tons of educators, administrators, librarians and more are already signing up to connect on this GoogleDoc. Check out this Pinterest board filled with ideas and activities and their FB page as well. Here's our interactive wall to share your own ideas with PG peeps......and the world :) 

DREAM BIG!

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2.  Global Read Aloud-   Runs October 6, 2014 - November 14, 2014! Here's another incredible opportunity for your student to connect, collaborate and communicate with others around the globe. Once again, you choose how much you want to participate. You can connect with one class or several! Once you make your first connection, I guarantee you'll be hooked once you see the powerful impact it has on your students. You have our support, so let's get started!

"Global collaboration is necessary to show students that they are part of something bigger than them. That the world needs to be protected and that we need to care for all people. You can show them pictures of kids in other countries but why not have them speak to each other? Then the caring can begin."

For the Global Read Aloud, you can choose to have your students do an author study or choose from one of the read aloud choices for this year. The author study is on Peter Reynold's, which is an awesome transition from Dot Day! The read aloud choices are:

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm

One For the Murphy's by Lyndy Mullaly Hunt

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

More information on the author study and a breakdown of the chapters for each book during the six weeks can be found here.

Sign up HERE! Check out the GRA wiki for more information.

Have fun creating global relationships through reading!