#classroom — Page 2

Take it up a notch…just a notch! Easy lesson upgrades…

April 27, 2014 by Amber 1 Comment

How can you easily take an assignment you’ve already got in your lesson plans and kick it up notch? Here are some easy ideas for those who need a spark to kick it up a notch!

Pick three – five students to ask to create a lesson on what you’re learning about, instead of completing your assessment. Let them choose the grading scale, manner of delivery. Allow them then to pick three – five students to share it with, while you’re going over what you had planned to assess with the rest of the class.
Vocabulary Expert: Let students choose vocabulary words from the lesson you’re about to teach that they feel they know so well they could teach them. Match partners and allow them ten minutes to teach what they know. (What better way to start a lesson then with students feeling successful?)
Let Ss create their own assessment. One of our amazing teachers let her students do this as a cumulative activity and she was blown away with how well they did. She then let them exchange their assesments to keep the lesson going. Check out their question formats!
Take the five different activities you were going to do for the week and turn them into centers. Upper grades should be scaffolded this way as well! This is a GREAT way to make sure that differentiation occurs in your classroom. If students are broken up into “centers”, it will be more difficult for each student to know what others are doing. You can work remediation lessons into the students who need it, and allow your higher performing students to work on extension skills/concepts.
Turn whatever activity you’re working on into a classroom jigsaw activity. Give groups of students the different questions to answer separately and then come back together as a group to debrief.
Think flexible learning spaces and environments. How can you mix it up, even just for a class period? Let Ss move around, go into the hall, computer lab, library…an opportunity for your “rock stars” to get a change of (s)pace!
Recognize that lower level types of questions only have one answer, but higher level questions can have several “right” answers. Watch this video and evaluate the power of the “correct” answer.

Lesson upgradeN,

Amber

Let’s talk data, shall we? (wait, come back!)

March 28, 2014 by Amber 1 Comment

Data meetings are always fun and exciting. Teachers love when that lil’data appointment pops up in their email box. It’s a hard conversation to have because amazing teachers are already well aware of their students strengths and weaknesses. It’s still a reality in our classes. A necessary evil, if you will. My principal had a great analogy. We want to apply the data effectively because if you go to the doctor when your stomach hurts, you don’t want him giving you headache medicine.

While it may seem like “busy work”, ultimately, it benefits you most of all.

If you’re already aware of the in’s and out’s of student performance, how can looking at data help you? Think of it this way, you may have a general awareness that you need to lose weight. But that favorite dress/suit? when it’s tight you know its time to trim the carbs. Looking at specific data can heighten your awareness of certain topics/concepts.

What if the results are overwhelming? Break it down, bit by bit. Take one question a week. Focus on the vocabulary within the question. Anyone can eat the elephant, just one bite at a time. Need help with question stems? Try this site.

How do I spiral this into my already action packed plans based on existing curriculum? Make cards that you can use during bathroom breaks or at lunch. Have your students answer and talk it through with a student partner. Use it as a bell ringer that first 10 minutes of class while students are filing in and getting situated. Cut a couple of assignments a week down by half. Use that time to focus on lower scored skills.

How can I teach it differently, when I’ve already taught it the best I could? Within your textbooks, there are scaffolding lessons available. Think of iStation, Study Island, Think Through Math, Ten Marks…there are a variety of sites that offer teacher lesson support. If you’re on twitter, find educators who teach similar subjects and ask to share. Check Pinterest. Check for Facebook groups. Look at Teacher Pay Teachers for ideas…get creative!

Stay FOCUSED. Don’t let yourself get lost on the tangents of “poor questions”, “bad data”, “these students”, and “overall passing percentages”. Even if 88% of your students passed, what if it was just 1 TEK or strand that could bump the rest of your kids up?

One teacher mentioned that she has her students go back over their most recent assessments and decide which areas/TEKS they struggled with the most. Students are completing different assignments, prescriptive tasks, based on where they were struggling. When you can transfer the ownership to the students, how much more powerful is that?

Be intentional with your material…there’s just not enough time in your day to miss a minute. Especially when we’re doing so many great things. I’m a big believer in a whole child focus, but there’s a time and place for data as well!

Data dug,

Amber

5 ways to stay connected to the Olympics, in class!

January 30, 2014 by Amber 2 Comments

The winter games are upon us! These are such golden opportunities to teach your students using an event that is exciting, competitive, and GLOBAL. While it probably isn’t in your curriculum, I encourage you to have a conversation (at the least!) with your students about this current event.

Here are FIVE fun resources that I’ve come across to help keep you and your students engaged!

An Olympic “Opening Games” bingo game! What a way to “play” along at home!
Follow the official website of the Olympic movement to stay up to date on the latest news! Read news articles, watch videos, or view photos of latest events. Short articles offer information about Sochi such as information on the city and the sports venues, which is fascinating! You can also choose links at the bottom of the page to explore similar information for other Olympic host cities both past and future.
From working with teachers around the world, the Australian Olympic Committee has developed the Sochi 2014 Olympic Resource that features primary cross-curriculum lesson plans and student handouts themed around the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Now, while these may be the dreaded “W” word, I think you could easily turn them into an interactive bulletin board or a game. Cut’em up!
Printable Olymic medals! Have the spelling games, or math fact games…or any kinda games where you can win your own Olympic medal!

Olympic games story paper! I LOVE the create your own olympic story idea! Great for upper grades too. This one is my fave! A foldable story booklet…just imagine the creativity you could unleash here!And finally…what event would be complete without its very own infographic!

Gold medal earner, 😉

Amber

How busy are you? #SAVMP

October 27, 2013 by Amber Leave a Comment

I wrote about managing time over on the School Admin Virtual Mentoring Program blog this week and it really resonated with something a couple of assistant principals’ and I recently discussed.

We’re all working late and we’re all working hard. I think that’s just educators as a whole in this trying time of national pressure and low morale. How much of this pressure do we put on our self? & is it even effective?

I’ll never forget a teacher I worked with a number of years ago. He stayed late every day. He came in early every day. He held his own extra sessions of Saturday school. I remember watching his students take their lunch trays down to his room each day and working through recess and thinking wow, this guy is SERIOUS.

When his test scores came back that year, imagine all of our surprise when only 1/4 of his class had met standard. How was that even possible??

Easy. Activity does not equal achievement.

If you’re constantly working and never seem to get caught up, or stay afloat, or feel like you’re drowning…maybe you should take a step back and re-evaluate what you’re doing. Spinning your wheels isn’t going to get you ahead. It’s actually only going to frustrate you even further.

If you don’t get your priorities in order, someone else will do it for you. If you fall behind in your lessons because of let’s say, an assembly, or some random computer based testing…don’t stress yourself out cramming everything in. Figure out what the TEKS of the lessons are and focus on those! Get the big picture across and don’t stress over whether you were to take grades on every suggested activity. At the end of the day, or er, grading period, that’s what matters. what the students were able to learn.

Think about all that you say you “have” to do…and before you stress out to the point of regretting your chosen path of impacting children each and every day…change those words to what you “choose” to do. You are the owner of your time.

Choose to have achievement, not just activity.

Choosingly,
Amber

How using Dropbox changed my life!

October 14, 2013 by Amber 2 Comments

I know that sounds a lil’extreme, but seriously, it did.

Dropbox is a storing/sharing place in the cloud that allows you to keep up with all of your files,where ever you are, even across platforms. I love this blurb I came across:

“This program acts as a “magic pocket” which is always with you and contains whatever you place in it. Put a file into your Dropbox and it’s on all of your computers and mobile devices.”

Who doesn’t want a magic pocket? The genius of this for me is that I use a number of different devices for a number of different things. I take pictures on my phone, I take notes on my iPad, I do appraisals on my Mac, and then will write a blog post on my home PC that needs ALL of those things. Having a place that I can easily access ALL of my “stuff” is crucial for the efficacy of what I do throughout the day.

How to get started/going?

Step one: Go to Dropbox and set up an account. I just use the free one because with as many times as I downloaded it, I got a couple free GB just for multiple downloads. Next, download and install the Dropbox app. Put files and folders that you need to access from various locations and devices into your new Dropbox folder. Then repeat these steps on your other Mac, PCs, and iOS devices. (Again for me, that was two ipads, a phone, two PC’s, and my macbook.
The account that you create automatically includes a Dropbox folder and it shares files with any other devices that have Dropbox and are connected to your account. (PS: you don’t HAVE to download it, but it does make life easier. Anytime I’m working with a file I know I’m going to need later, I just toggle and save in my “Dropbox” folder so I can get to it later.
Now, anytime, you go to SAVE something, you have the ability to add it to your Dropbox. Easy peasy, I tell ya!
Many of us store the files and folders for active projects on the desktop. Put them in Dropbox instead. On your phone and take a pic? Click the + sign on your app and choose what pics you want to add to your Dropbox. It will then be available from any of your devices. Working online? Fabulous! The “files” tab on the website will bring you to your Dropbox folder. This folder is exactly the same as the folder on your devices; any files that you’ve placed into your folder on your computers are accessible through this part of the web site.
Want to share files? BIG Files that you couldn’t send via email without crashing the world wide web? Presentations for parents? Set up separate folders in Dropbox’s Public folder for different people, and then send the separate URLs to each. Or set up a different shared folder for each project, and then distribute that URL to all project participants.
Want to share amazing classroom pictures, but not make them “public public”? Copy photos to Dropbox, and share the URL with family and friends. (I’m going to use this for our family involvement activity next month!)
Feeling adventuresome? 62 things you can do with Dropbox suggests this: Go to the Send to Dropbox Website (sendtodropbox.com), click on Connect To Dropbox, and provide your Dropbox credentials. You can now email files to Dropbox. That makes all sorts of scenarios possible. For example, create a document in Google Docs and then opt to share it. In the Share drop-down menu, select Email As Attachment and provide your Send to Dropbox email address; the Google Doc will appear in Dropbox’s Attachments folder.” (WHOA BABY!)

It’s a very intuitive tool to use and following through some of the getting started tasks easily explains it as well as earns you more “free” space, 🙂 Nothing to lose there!