A day with an astronaut

It was a fabulous time listening to and being inspired by Major Jeremy Hansen, our newest Canadian astronaut.  My students were enthralled with his stories.  He also spoke with them informally and graciously posed for pictures with them after the event.  Such a great learning day!

Structures Scavenger Hunt

As a review activity for their Structures and Forces unit, my grade sevens worked in teams to do a school wide scavenger hunt.  I gave them a list of key word wall words we learned, a mini whiteboard and sent them off to find "real life" examples around our school.  Each team had a phone with a camera as well (not a problem in this digital age!)

The students set out after reviewing how to be respectful with other classes in session.  When they discovered an example from their list, they had to write on the mini white board and take a picture.  They shared their pics on a shared Picassa album that we then went over in class as a whole.  It helped to facilitate discussion on each key term and the concepts surrounding each.  They loved to see their pictures up on the smartboard!

Ion dice

To help my grade nines learn how to create formulas and draw models of ionic compounds, I created ion dice.  A simple way to spice up and add a tactile component to the worksheet.

Assessment Practices

This school year, I am really focusing in on assessment practices and strategies to increase student engagement and self awareness. I want my students to internalize their own learning and achievement. I want them to articulate what essential learnings they know and what still challenges them. I want them to think about the learning outcomes and not a mark.

Some successes I have used this year-

- I continue to use learning passes, Do Now Activities and end of the lesson reflections. Here is the journal sheet my students use at the start and end of each class.

- I continue to use exit slips and learning passes to check their understanding. Here are a few. I cannot take credit for the ideas or sentence starters- I have come across good ideas from books, websites and colleagues.

summary triangle (format seems to be a bit asew when converted from word to google doc)  I borrowed an idea from a talented math colleague I have the pleasure to work with and have put bins at each of my class tables (we do not have desks at our school), with the necessary supplies I expect them to use regularly.  I will stop during class and ask them to draw on their mini white board, write on one of the stickies, calculate on the scrap paper and so on.  I can do quick assessments of their learning without losing time for them to get up and gathering materials or me passing out mateirals.

I like to call the exit slips "learning pass"  instead because it is another avenue to help my students focus on what is important and why they are there.  "Exit slip" has a more of a punative conotation to me.

exit slip cards  Here are a few prompts I have gathered from various sources or thought of to use with my students.  I have a bunch cut out and stored in labelled envelopes to pass out when needed. 

- As the research says, I am using comments only on all of my formative assessments and many of my summative assessments as well.  My students have responded well, even though it is different for them.
- As colour is so key to kids, I use green, yellow and pink highlighters when looking at their products. I have them use the colour codes to self assess their work. I put a traffic light on each assignment or assessment they do and either colour it myself or have them colour it to show where they are at on that learning outcome.  Recently, I have added blue to communicate that they are ready for some challenge work.
- I have created flip cards with these colour codes for them to communicate their learning during team and independent work. I have replaced the red/green cups from previous years with the 4 colour coded flip cards as the cards communicate much more than the cup. The added benefit is there are no more "cup song" renditions before and after class! (Some of my colleagues are using the Marzano work of green, yellow, red and platinum cups)
- I have co-constructed criteria with my students instead of giving out a pre-made rubric on many of my assignments and projects.  It does take time, so I cannot do this for every product. 
- I have been creating checklists and self assessments to focus on 21st century skills (competencies) and essential learnings.

Self assessment rubric

- Aside from the traditional paper copies, I have made checklists on google forms and use my ipad to record observations as students are working. No paper is needed and I can look back on the spreadsheet to see trends and transfer observations to my gradebook to provide feedback to students and parents.

What counts for students?

As I talked with a fellow teacher about using project based learning and technology with my students, he commented that it really didn't matter how I taught because they wouldn't remember it anyway.  His opinion was that it was all about how I treated them that really mattered and they would learn just fine with any teaching style as long as I continued to focus on positive relationships and mutual respect.  He said I really shouldn't do what I do and spend the time I do on my classes as it really didn't make any difference in the long run. 

Now, if these comments came from someone I did not know and respect, I would have most likely brushed them off.  However, this particular teacher is incredibly strong- students, parents and staff love him.  Students and parents request him for a teacher.  Students do well and achieve under his care; 100% success rate with his Science 10 and 30 classes.  His main teaching method is "chalk and talk".  He tells stories, makes the students laugh and cares about them all, but his teaching style is quite traditional.  No computers or cross curricular projects at all.

His opinion really made me pause.  I teach grades 7 -9 while he teaches high school.  I told myself he can say that because he teaches high school.  But, he was the same with his junior high students as well.  He definately does not put in the hours I do, yet his students do well.  In a time when the demands keep increasing on teachers and our job continues to grow in complexity, maybe he is right.  Maybe we are inflicting many extra work hours and work worries on ourselves with our methodology.  We are not focusing on keeping teaching simple so we have something left in ourselves at the end of the day.  My gut says no; what I and countless other teachers do above and beyond the old stand and deliver does matter to our students.  But a small voice says maybe not... maybe it is just personal ego and professional pressure.  Hm.

Sites I love to use in teaching

Like any teacher, I am overwhelmed by the number of excellent websites out there that can be effectively used with my students and to better my teaching practice.  Beyond the whole Google apps offerings, there are some that have become a regular part of my prep/delivery.  Here is just a short list that is by no means comprehensive or complete.

1.  Schoology  https://www.schoology.com A collegue of mine introduced me to Schoology 3 years ago, and I love it.  My students love the discussion feature (it is an excellent way for my introvered students to contribute to the converstation).  I use it to post resources and quick check reviews for my students.  As my school district has many district-wide programs for homework. communication with parents and grade tracking and so on, I do not use all of the Schoology features.   Although I do not use it to its fully potential, it has become a regular tool for my students.

 2.  Urlist - http://urli.st/ As I came across excellent websites/ videos/ articles to use with my students, I found I had bookmark lists on my home laptop, my school computer, my ipad and my phone.  It was a challenge to keep all of the resources I wanted to access in one place.  A collegue showed me how she used urlist to organize her math resources for her students and I was hooked.

3.  echalk- my students absolutely love to games and interactive whiteboard resources on http://www.echalk.co.uk/  There is a yearly subscription cost to access the resources, but it is well worth it. 

4. Brainpop -  http://www.brainpop.com/ My junior high students also love Tim and Moby on Brainpop.  The short animated videos, the quiz feature and the resources are excellent.  It is also a yearly subscription site, but each school I have taught at has purchased access for teacher and student use.  Well worth every penny.

Ionic Compound Models

Having grade nines understand ionic charges, ionic bonding and the resulting chemical formula can be challenging.  To help my students visualize and understand how ionic binary compounds are formed, I created styrofoam and velcro balls as models.  I used the fuzzy side of the velcro dots for the metals and the hook side for the nonmetals so that the students could only "form" ionic bonds.  They could "see" the amount of electrons to transfer from the metal to the amount taken by the nonmetal.  They could "see" the resulting model in the proper ratio that is formed.  I used to use mini marshmallows and toothpicks or styrofoam balls stuffed in coloured balloons joined with toothpicks, but it did not help students see the ratio needed to bond.  This was more straightforward and far easier for them to understand.  From this process, it was much more clear when we wrote simple ionic charges and simple formation reactions.

Element Family Trading Cards

My grade nines are working on making meaning and learning about the periodic table.  They created trading cards of elements from the four groups/families.  It was their way to show what they know after videos, a graphic organizer and demos on the organization and properties of the 4 groups.  My English language learners and students with learning challenges could demonstrate their learning through pictures instead of struggling with words.  All students had fun being creative and showing off their cards to their peers.  Hopefully the essential learnings stick as we go deeper into chemistry.

Element Trading Card

Element Trading Card Rubric

Building geodesic domes

On Hallowe'en day, most of my grade sevens were involved with helping the kindergartens with their kinder-cooking in the junior high foods lab.  As a result, I only had 10 - 12 students in each of my science classes.  I wanted them to do something connected to our unit of study that would continue their learning, but I did not want to move on to the next concept without the entire class.  I also wanted the remaining students to have a little fun- it was Hallowe'en after all!

I decided to give them gummy candies and toothpicks to create their own geodesic domes.  We first talked about what a geodesic dome was and what made them so strong. We then looked at examples in "real life" and then got to work on building our own.  (After washing hands just in case they wanted to eat the joinery parts at the end of the lesson!) They had to apply their understanding to build the best triangle dome that they could.  We took pictures of our creations and then used the remaining class time to try and build other structures with the supplies.  A good way to spend what could have been a "wasted" or "free" period!