Cross-Divisional Blogging

As the 4^th grade American history teacher for our school, I was searching for a way to make my students’ learning deeper, more authentic, more meaningful, more engaging… the list continues. It just so happens that the 7^th graders at our school take American history yet again in their 7^th grade year. How do we connect these two groups of children who are both learning about American history but at different times in the year and at different levels?

An idea came to life. Let's blog! We decided that the 7^th graders were at an age where blogging was age appropriate and potentially a cool way to connect them with people around the world. The 4^th graders, however, were not quite there yet. Our plan was to have the 4^th graders journal write using Google docs. They would share their docs with the 7^th graders who would read and comment on their docs with feedback and commentary. (Think: a positive note; a deeper comment; a question; a fact) The 7^th graders would create a public blog using Blogger to share with the world and with the 4^th graders who would also read and provide comments.

What were they blogging about? The goal of each platform (Google docs and Blogger) was to have our students write for real audiences and from the first person point of view to better understand the history they were learning about in class. For example, the 4^th graders “toured” colonial Williamsburg one day in our class and visited different places that were located in colonial Williamsburg. (They made shoes at the Shoemaker’s Shop, wrote with ink and quill pens, visited the church, and so forth. An awesome, engaging moment in room 107, I must say!) After they visited colonial Williamsburg, they then wrote a letter home using Google docs describing their experience at colonial Williamsburg. The 7^th graders read the posts and commented on their adventure. (See example below.) 

The 7^th graders would learn about a certain time period/topic/unit in class and then blog about their experience as if they were a person living during that time period. (See example below.)

Do typos and grammatical errors exist in the blog and journal entries? Absolutely! But, did you see the knowledge pouring out? The creativity? The connection between commentary and concrete details that they learned in class? The fact that the author convinced us in their writing that they were one person and then, out of nowhere, they said they were Pocahontas?! So many different factors occurring in both writing samples that would have never occurred had we not had them blog/journal write as a person from that time period. I have seen their writing drastically improve from the beginning of the school year until now. By creating the blog/journals, we found a way to create a true audience and created a purpose for their journal entries.

Now I challenge you! When creating a writing assignment find a way to create an authentic audience. How? Blogging, cross-curricular, cross-divisional, letter writing to another class, writing letters home… The list continues. (Add ideas to comments below.) How do you connect with a class from another school? Try tweeting a post saying that you are looking to connect with another class.

One More Reason to Love Twitter

Twitter. Hashtags. Tweet. Likes. Re-tweet.

If you are looking for one more reason to love Twitter from a professional standpoint, I have it for you! In my previous blog post I discussed ideas of how to use Edpuzzle in an Elementary Classroom which you can read here. I then tweeted out a message and added the Edpuzzle hashtag to my tweet. Edpuzzle saw my tweet, tweeted me back, and asked if I would be interested in chatting with me and sharing my example with others. I responded and followed up via email. A wonderful lady at Edpuzzle emailed me back and set up a Google Hangout chat that took place yesterday. Turns out, I was speaking with Marta, an Edpuzzle employee, and Quim, the founder and CEO of Edpuzzle! What a cool experience! Marta and Quim were incredibly friendly, professional, and the conversation was extremely easy. We ended up talking for over an hour and discussed how I used Edpuzzle with elementary students, middle school students, how I share ideas with other teachers, and they ran some ideas and updates to Edpuzzle by me and asked for my input. Had I not tweeted about my blog post, the connection with Edpuzzle would never have occured. I challenge you to get out there and tweet! You never know who you will network with and where the tweet could eventually lead you.

MLK Day and Public Speaking Idea

The other day a fellow 4^th grade teacher approached me and said, “When I told the students that Monday was MLK Jr Day and we were out of school, the kids asked me who MLK was. That surprises me!” Well, time to teach those 4^th graders who MLK Jr was and what he did in our nation’s history!

As I was searching the internet for an idea, project, lesson, whatever you want to call it, I decided that I wanted my students to not only learn who Martin Luther King Jr. was and what he did for our nation, but I also wanted them to come up with dreams of their own and share them with the world. So after a lot of research, I think I have managed to compile a few wonderful ideas into one plan that should take about 3 class periods. Enjoy!

Homework: Students will watch the “History: Bet You Didn’t Know- March on Washington” vimeo video and answer questions via Edpuzzle. Find the Vimeo video here.

Here are the questions/answers I inserted into the video:

Minute 1:19: King was honored to present last at the March on Washington gathering. Answer: False

Minute 1:41: King was supposed to speak for 4 minutes. Answer: True

Minute 2:00: King had not planned on giving his “I Have a Dream” speech that day, so why did he end up giving the “I Have a Dream” Speech? Answer: Mahalia Jackson from the audience yelled, “Tell ‘em about your dream!”

At the end of the video I posed the following challenge: Tomorrow in class we will be writing our very own “I Have a Dream” speeches. Take some time tonight to jot down a few dreams you have that would positively affect our world and bring it with you tomorrow in class.

Next day in class activity: As a class, we will watch the “I Have a Dream” video found on Youtube. (Click here to access video.) After we view the video, we will de-brief and discuss where his dreams came from and why he felt that way. Students will then use this template which I found as a free download on Teacherspayteachers.com. After students fill in their template, we will record them giving their speeches using the camera app on their iPads. We will then add their recordings to our school Youtube page so that parents, friends, and anyone else who is interested can view our dreams. I can’t wait to see their finished products!  

Edpuzzle Social Studies Idea

I have blogged about Edpuzzle before and I am so excited to give it a try in my own classroom! Edpuzzle is awesome if you have not checked it out! It allows you to upload your personally created videos (Educreations, Show Me…) or choose a video from their pool. The videos may be from Khan Academy, You Tube, Ted Talk and so forth. After you upload the video, you can then crop the video, add your own voice and even insert questions for the students as they view the video. (Web-based and an App)  

Here is an idea of how/why you would use Edpuzzle:

Normally, when we assign homework for our 4^th graders in social studies, their homework consists of reading part of the chapter and then responding with 2 concrete details they learned and 2 remaining questions they have after reading. I still enjoy this style of homework as it provides great conversation pieces for the next class period. However, we were ready to give Edpuzzle a try to see if our students’ learning could be taken to the next level. We have noticed that our students have a hard time connecting with what they read out of a textbook because they cannot connect to life in the 1600s, for example. This is where Edpuzzle comes into play!

Assignment: Read 2 sections out of their textbook then view 2 edpuzzle videos that relate to their reading. In this particular circumstance, the students are reading about life in colonial Williamsburg so we found 2 You Tube videos that related to what they read about. As they viewed the videos, we inserted questions along the way. Edpuzzle allows our students to read content and then view the same content to hopefully create visual for what they read and relate better to the information. The fact that you can pause the video and insert questions makes it that much more engaging! Now, I challenge you to go make an Edpuzzle!

5 Picture Story

As the Learn21 Specialist at my school for grades 4-8, (Fancy title… What do I do? My role is to partner with teachers by observing their classes and meeting with them in groups or one-on-one to share ideas on how to incorporate 21^st century lessons that may or may not include technology.) I met with one of our amazing English teachers today to develop an idea that she had. Her students are currently reading Watsons Go to Birmingham, and she wanted to connect the theme of family to her students by creating an “Alphabet Autobiography.” Originally, her idea was for each student to create a book with 26 pages, one for each letter of the alphabet. For page “a”, for example, the student would add images that reflect something in their life that starts with the letter “a.” For example, on my page “a” I may add an image of Avery Kate, my rowdy 20 month old daughter, because her name starts with the letter a and when I present, I could tell stories about our relationship. However, the English teacher quickly realized that having 6^th graders create a 26-page book, may end up taking an eternity. Here is where we came around to the “5 Picture Story” idea thanks to Wesley Fryer and CogDogBlog. (Click on both to look at their awesome ideas to use in your classroom.)

So here is what she will be doing with her class:

Students will be assigned one letter of the alphabet. (Depending on class size, some students may have more than one letter to complete the book.) Each student will find 5 images that relate to that particular letter to tell their story. Students will use the Pages app to create their page. Each student will then send their flyer to teacher and she will create an alphabet book with all of the pages.

Presentation: Students will present by showing their flyer (in our case, students will use their iPads and connect to Apple TV). As their flyer is presented, they will verbally explain their 5 picture story.

Pear Deck

If you still use power points in your classroom to teach, Pear Deck will be a life saver! Have you ever noticed while you are teaching with the power point that students begin to daze off, zone in and out, and sometimes don't seem very engaged in your lesson? Pear Deck is not only integrated with google, but it "puts inquiry at the center of your lesson and create[s] self-motivated learners," according to Peardeck.com. All you have to do to use Pear Deck is create an account and upload your already created power point. You will then give the students the log in code to join your class and you control the speed of the presentation.

Once your students are logged in using your unique class code, you can stop anytime during your presentation to ask quick questions or give polls. 

After the presentation, Pear Deck offers an opportunity for you to save your presentation to complete the next day or review. 

Take a Tour of Greece Using the Pages App

Our 6th grade world history students were beginning to study Greece and at the end of the unit, they will be making a pamphlet. The purpose of the pamphlet is to allow people to know what foods they would eat, what they would see, and places they could visit if they were to visit Greece. Originally, the students were going to create the pamphlets using a blank document on Pages. However, I showed our history teacher the ability to use a template that was already laid out with 3 columns, just like a pamphlet, where the students could input their own information but the layout was already done. He chose to go this route and said the students found the template to be much faster and very user friendly.