Today I participated in day one of a workshop titled Writing to Think & Learn: Writing in the Social Studies 7-12.  I very much enjoyed today and many people have asked me to share what I have learned.  So here is a list of some of the things that we discussed and did:

After introductions we watched the popular “Did You Know” video created by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod.  I don’t know which version it was, but we were asked to do a double entry journal entry.  Basically, you have a notebook and on the left hand side we were asked to take notes as we watched the video.  On the right hand side we were to write down our thoughts and reflections on the video.  Time was given for us to summarize our thoughts after the video was over.  The discussion that ensued afterward was really interesting for me.  Many of the participants have never seen the video before and they interpreted the message of the video that technology will solve all our problems and they disagreed with that message citing examples of students using the internet to plagiarize work and students not being able to communicate face to face because they are texting all the time.  These were younger teachers making these statements.

Carousel DBQ
Another strategy that we experienced was a Carousel DBQ (Document Based Question) . We were put into teams of three and assigned a document to analyze that was hanging on the wall.  Each team had a different color marker and wrote statements on the poster paper based on the document.  We then rotated to the next document and either commented on the statements of other teams or added our own thoughts.  This process was repeated until we made it around the room visiting all documents until we were back at our own.  At this point each group summarized to the whole class the main ideas and thoughts on the document.  I liked the fact that each team had a different color marker because this promotes accountability.  I also noticed that groups had small discussions about the document before writing down thoughts and ideas on paper.  I think this will be an awesome activity form my students because it engages their thinking in a deep and focused way.

Drum Roll:
In  this activity you watch a movie clip twice.  The first time the movie is played without sound while students record their observations.  The second time you watch the movie you add to your previous notes or make corrections.   We watched one movie clip from Teachertube and just took notes on our own paper any way we wanted.  With another video clip from PBS.org we took notes on post it notes.  Every time we recorded a new fact we put it on a different post it note.  We then worked as a class to organize our sticky notes into topics.  This was an awesome activity to teach students essay organization in a real hands on kinda way.  I wonder what Web 2.0 tools could also be utilized to accomplish the same goal?  Wallwisher maybe?

We also went through the five step writing process:
1.  Prewriting:  This is anything that is done to generate ideas.  examples include brainstorming, talking, interviewing, reading etc.

2.  Drafting:  This is the initial rough draft

3.  Revising:  Adding, deleting or reorganizing content

4.  Editing:  The focus is on fixing the mechanics of the piece

5.  Publishing:  Sharing what you have created with an audience

Write Around:
In this activity we were asked to put an X on every other line.  Next to the x’s we were to write down our thoughts and knowledge gained from the workshop.  After some time we traded papers with others in the group.  We underlined comments that we agreed with and commented on what other group members had written.  I liked this activity because all students would be working and thinking simultaneously – there would be very little down time and it would not just be 1 student doing all the work.  It seems to me that this would be an awesome activity to do at the end of a unit where students reflect on the question “what did you learn from our study of the Progressive Era?”  It would even be useful to use this activity to recall information from a previous lesson

Personal Time-line:
In this exercise students create a time-line of important events in their life, listing them under the line.  Then above the line they record important historical events as well.  The purpose is to get kids to understand why turning points are important and create relevance and understanding by comparing world turing points to personal milestones.

Role Play a Photograph:
A historical photograph of an immigrant family sitting around the dinner table sewing was projected up on the board.  Four volunteers were then asked to role play what they thought was happening in the photograph. It was also suggested that some students could also stand behind the people doing the role playing and be “the voice inside the head”  These students would verbalize what the people in the photo might be thinking but not say out loud.  I thought this was a great activity and could be done in small groups with different photos of the same time period.  Each group could develop a short skit and record it with flip video cameras to be shared with their classmates.

Idea:  Give students 10-15 different facts on a particular topic/subject in random order.  Have the students try to guess the main idea from studying the topics or organize the details into topical groups that make sense to them.  A great way to get kids engaged with the content and think critically.

There was also some discussion about why kids don’t write anything when they are asked to do so.  I experience this quite often with my 8th graders.  It was suggested that you put the students through an experience (like any of the activities we did today) first to give those students something to write about.

I picked up on the phrase “writing is a conversation” and it seemed to me that oscillating between activities that require talking/discussion and activities that require writing  go hand in hand.

At the end of the day we were all given the book, Content-Area Writing by Daniels, Zemelman and Steineke.  I only glanced through it but I can’t wait to spend time reading it.

Click here to see a YouTube video of the authors discussing the book.  All in all it was a great day.  Tomorrow we will work on planning out a unit that implements some of these writing strategies.  My partner and I have already agreed to work on the Progressive Era.

I would love to hear from people who have tried any of the above activities.  Also,  if anyone has any great strategies and activities for teaching the Progressive Era – I’m all ears!

It has been great to get back into the routine of school this week.  All through August I have been thinking about how to best start off the school year.  I wanted t do something amazing – something that would give my new students that “wow” factor.

I am not sure if my students got the “wow” effect but overall I think that I was able to develop a positive rapport with my students this week.  I tried to mix in icebreakers each day to help students get to know each other and break up the monotony of going over the traditional beginning of the year administrative information.  Here is a breakdown of each day:

Tuesday (Day 1):

This was the first day of school and for the first time in my teaching career students had full 40 minute classes.  I chose not to cover very many rules and procedures on this day because I did not want to overwhelm my students. I had my students create “tabels labels” to help me to quickly learn their names.  In addition I used 2 strategies from Rick Wormelli’s book  Day One and Beyond : Practical Matters for New Middle-Level Teachers (Thanks to my PLN for the book suggestion!).  First I had students give me advice on how to best teach them.  They really came up with some reasonable suggestions.  I did notice that many of them like learning through hands on projects.  The second idea that I used from Rick Wormelli’s book was the phrase “Respect Above All” which on my Promethean Interactive Whiteboard looks like this:

RESPECT

_______

ALL

Students seemed to connect with and relate to this phrase.  I think it is better than giving them a laundry list of what they can and cannot do in my class.  Overall it was not an earth shattering lesson for my students but I was happy to have success with two new strategies.

Wednesday (Day 2):

After taking care of some more administrative items I had my students play a game that I learned in a workshop hosted by two awesome teachers in my district.  The game which is called “Group Juggle”  goes like this:

1.  The class makes a circle in the middle of the room

2.  The teacher gives a ball to one of the students

3.  Students are to toss the ball to the person on their right after making eye contact and saying their name.

4.  The goal is to get the ball around the circle and back to the first student as quickly as possible.

5.  Record the time it takes for each try.

6. After a few tries give the group a few minutes to discuss how to move the ball around the circle faster.  I gave my students 1-2 minutes to discuss.

7.  Let the students try a few more times and then debrief.

This was an awesome activity on many levels.  First it got my students up and out of their chairs – they were excited and energized.  Second it provided me with an opportunity to observe and learn how my students interact in a group setting and third it got them thinking about practice, effort, not giving up and what it means to be part of a team.  We talked about what we can learn from some of their failed attempts.  These kind of activities I think are very powerful for students.  Even though there was not any content covered they were energized and having a positive experience in my classroom.  Hopefully this will lead to greater buy in when we start to cover content.

Thursday (Day 3)

Today was a day heavy on direct instruction from me.  My original intent was to spend half the period discussing classroom procedures and then the second half would be spent playing 1-2 more rounds of yesterdays “Group Juggle” activity and debriefing some more.  I ended up taking pictures of students holding their “table labels” to help me learn their names faster (learning students names is something I have to work hard at).  This was actually a lot of fun as we were joking around trying to get the kids to relax and smile for the camera.  I am going to use these pictures for seating charts for substitutes as well.  Many of the ideas about procedures I got from the book:   The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher.  All in all it was a good day – I did my best to try to crack jokes and mix in humor while going over the basics.

Friday (Day 4)

I began classes today by having my students write three things about themselves on a 3×5 card.   They then paired up and shared their information with each other.  After sharing they traded cards and paired up with a different student. From that point on they introduce themselves and share what they learned about the person on the card they are holding.  This process is repeated until all or nearly all students have met.  I let my students go a little longer with this activity because they seemed to really want to know more about each other.

All in all it was a really good week.  I could feel myself fighting the urge to dive right into content.  I am somewhat torn between spending time building community and jumping right into the curriculum.  I know that building community with my students helps to promote positive attitudes in my class and create “buy in” for the content.  I also know that the sooner I get started on content the more depth I can have for each unit withhout having to superficially “cover” the unit.

I still feel like I could have done things better or differently and maybe someday I will reach my goal of “wowing” the kids and getting them psyched right from day one.  I wonder if anyone else experiences that internal struggle of content vs. building community in the classroom.  Maybe they should not be thought of as separate but two vital and important pieces of education that are woven together and taught simultaneously.

I would love to hear what other teachers do for the first few days of school.

For the past few years this is how I have approached vocabulary with my students:  At the beginning of each new unit I would give them a list of 20-25 vocabulary terms and definitions.  I would briefly go over them verbally in the classroom and then give my students the rest of the  period to to copy the term and definition verbatim onto 3X5 cards.  They would then have a manipulative to use to help them study for the upcoming quiz.  I call these days transition days because we are getting ready for the next unit.

Although there are some benefits to doing vocabulary this way I think there must be a better way.  After all just because my students are copying the vocabulary down onto 3×5 cards does not mean they are really thinking about the meaning.  And I also wonder how much my students use the cards as a study tool to help them learn the new material.

Recently I have been  thinking about how to best teach new vocabulary for each of my social studies units as well as to give them opportunities to practice the  new terms.  I have also wanted to eliminate the need for 3×5 cards.  I am really hoping to have a class set of Netbooks to help elliminate this need.

Some Ideas:

Note: I use a program created by the I.D.E.A.S. team of our  local BOCES called Toolbox Pro (TBP).  It is a course management system that allows teachers to deliver learning activities and assessments, create and manage wikis, blogs, websites and podcasts and a plethora of other things.

1.  In TBP:  Give the kids a timed matching quiz based on the vocabulary terms.  Either make this a homework assignment or an in class activity that they must get 80% or better 3 times in a row.  I make it a timed activity because it makes it difficult for the kids to look up the answers and makes it difficult to use process of elimination.

2.  In TBP:  Create an audio response activity.  Have my students read back the term and definition word for word and include an explanation in their own words.

3.  In TBP (or in VoiceThread) Let students listen to an audio recording of the terms and definitions being read. As they listen they type the term and definition.   I usually read each term and definition 3 times to give students enough of an opportunity to type all the information without having to rewind the audio.  In the example above I had a student do the narration.

4.  In TBP create a video response activity.  Again give the kids the term and definition and  let them figure out a creative way to act out or teach the content – possibly have them do this in pairs.  I find middle school students to be very creative and can only imagine what some of them might come up with !

5.  Wordle:  Have students put the definition into a Wordle and then challenge others to guess the term.  Thanks to @jenwagner for this idea.  This is something I hope to try with my students this year – I envision this to be a great activity to do in class with a set of laptops or netbooks.   Assign each student a different term and then give them 10 minutes to create their Wordle.  After the students were done they could then take turns sharing their Wordle with the rest of the class.

6. Word Walls – Have students put up the terms on a bulletin board.  Let students refer to this list and encourage them to use the terms during in class writing activities.  Thanks to my wife @Kelschrage for sharing this one with me.  She took a workshop on this and learned that word walls are not just for elementary kids.

7.  In TBP:  Have students create multiple choice questions and upload them to TBP for other students to take (there is a feature that allows students to upload questions from a Microsoft Excel template).  This idea came from something I tried with my students last year.  I challenged them as a team to develop a 1000 question multiple choice test based on the review for our final exam.  This was an experiment that worked really well.  The students were excited and loved the challenge – I liked it because they were studying without feeling like they were studying.

8.   Have students complete a vocabulary word map box for each term.  I have done this in the past and it takes a lot of time to complete one of these.  I have had good results using this strategy as a remediation technique for the terms they missed on their quiz.  I first learned of vocabulary word maps from ReadingQuest.org – an awesome collection of strategies that can be used in the classroom.

9.  Flyswatter game:  Divide students into 2 teams.  Put the terms up on the wall and have one student from each team go to the wall.  The teacher reads the definition and the first student to slap the term with their flyswatter gets a point for their team. A quick search turned up this link with a more detailed explanation.

10.  Vocabulary Wiki:  Have the class put this together  – possibly one term and definition per page.   Students can embed related videos, pictures, practice quizzes, time-lines and games into the Wiki.  They could even upload their own student created audio, drawings and video.

Overall I want my students to really think about the terms and their meanings and make new connections.  I want my students to take charge of their own learning.  I have thought about allowing my students to choose one of the above activities to help them practice and learn the new terms but wonder if it would be reasonable to manage?

I know there are tons of other ways to handle vocabulary in the classroom.  I wonder if cell phones can be used some how to get students to quiz and challenge each other?  What about mp3 players?  Please share your ideas and resources below  – I’d love to know what works for other teachers.

One of the great things about being the ISTE 10 Newbie is that I am meeting great people and learning new things almost daily.  Recently Beth Still blogged about a book called Guess the Wordle and introduced me to the one of the authors – Jen Wagner.  As a result I purchased the book and spent some time dwelling on Wordles and how I can apply them to my 8th grade Social Studies Class.

Jen’s awesome book got me thinking of several different ways that I can utilize this free service in my classroom.

Some ideas:

1.  Review for a vocabulary quiz:  Make a Wordle from the definition and have students guess the term.  Students should also explain how they came up with their answer

2.  End of year review:  Create a Wordle from a set of terms related to a particular unit and have students identify the unit.   Again I think that having students explain their answers – even though they might be wrong is where the true learning comes into play.

3.  Class Starter:  I have a Promethean ActivBoard in my room and every day I give the kids something to do upon entering the classroom.  I could put up a Wordle that relates to the theme of the day and have my students write down their guess and an explanation.

What are some of the ways that you use Wordles in your classroom?

Jen has made the generous offer to give 10% of the sales from this book to the ISTE 10 Newbie Project. Thank you, Jen!

After much thought and consideration I decided on naming this blog – CONNECTIONS.  Originally I was going to try and tap the people in my PLN for ideas and suggestions, but the word connections just kept coming to mind for the last week or so.  After all when it is all said and done teaching boils down to making connections, right?

I like it because it’s open for interpretation and can mean many different things to different people. I like CONNECTIONS because we are connecting in so many different ways on different levels.  We are connecting to each other through the internet on social networks like Twitter and Facebook.  We are connecting  face to face at conferences.  We are connecting to our students – we need to get to know them so we can reach them.  We need to connect our students with the content we teach – often times students ask “Why do I need to know this stuff? – how is this going to help me?”  We need to connect our students to what is happening in the world currently so that we can hopefully prepare them for the future.

CONNECTIONS is simple yet all encompassing.  I just hope it is not too generic or cliche. Is this a good name for an educational blog?  Ok – so I am still asking for ideas and suggestions from my PLN  after all 

This week I participated in my third Teach American History (TAH) summer seminar and it was nothing short of amazing!  Every day a new presenter who is at the top of their field came in to talk with teachers in depth about a different topic.  The theme for this year was foreign policy.  I left every day mentally exhausted as the amount of information that was presented seemed to be more than I remember learning in any of my college courses as an undergrad (maybe I have just matured a little).  For more information and links to the professors who presented check out the wiki for the seminar here: http://tahforeignpolicy09.wikispaces.com/

This seminar was different because it was not about how to teach rather it was about the content that we can take back to our students and teach as we know best.  We were challenged to think differently about history and were presented with incredible depth.  What amazed me in addition to the depth of the presentations was that each presenter rarely referred to a set of notes- they seemed to talk from what they remember and could effectively answer most questions that were asked without hesitation.

The week was filled with free food, great conversations, tons of resources to take home and massive amounts of knowledge!  I came home each day exhausted  – but it was a good exhaustion!

I cannot thank enough the individuals that organized this massive undertaking:

Paul Benson @ZenAtticus

Rick Walters

Carol Shick

Rick Bates @MyHammock

The WSTCSS and the TAH grant have truly helped me to make new connections and improve my teaching in ways that I have never imagined!  Thanks!

Since first hearing about my selection as the next Newbie for ISTE10 I have been thinking how best to respond.  Blogging is something that is fairly new to me and I want to be sure to respond appropriately and not break any blogging “code of conduct” that I may be unaware of.

Since @bethstill first made the announcement on her blog -I have received many kind words and new followers -  I can hardly keep up with it all. It is very exciting to see so many educators online sharing their experiences – it is a great feeling to know that at any time I can go online and have a conversation with someone in my PLN regarding technology or teaching in general.  I believe that this has helped me to become a better teacher.

I do want to sincerely thank Beth Still for choosing me as the next “Newbie” as well as everyone else who has supported the project.  I am very honored and excited to be a part of this.

I look forward to learning even more from my PLN as a result of this project and hopefully I will be able to make a positive contribution to my ever growing learning community as well.

Thanks again PLN!  I look forward to learning with you!

It has been a very long time since I have signed up for this service and can see many possibilities for blogging in the class room.