Leverage the Power of Technology:

There are so many awesome online resources available that can easily be aligned to our curriculum and common core standards.

Find a site that works for you and sign up for some computer lab time! A well-placed webquest, multimedia presentation project, or interactive online experience can solidify concepts in new ways without demanding a ton of prep work or grading.  Some of my favorite online and computer resources are:

• Prezi or PowerPoint: Students can create presentations covering any subject they’re learning!  Creating and delivering presentations is an important language arts skill for students to learn and it can do double duty if they are presenting information related to science, history, literature, or other content areas.  In my experience, upper grade students love to create cool presentations and the accountability of presenting to their peers spurs them on to do their very best work.  Note: Prezi is a little more complicated and requires an email address to sign up, so it is most appropriate to use with older students who are highly computer proficient.  I suggest you make some teacher prezis for lessons before you teach students to make them.  PowerPoint may be the best option for starting out this kind of project.
•  Starfall: This is a great resource for lower grade students. There are a variety of phonics and literacy resources for students to work at their own level.
• Arcademic Skill Builders: This website is dedicated to engaging and exciting K-8 students in math, literacy, geography, and more all in a safe environment!  You can use this site for free, but if you sign up for the subscription, you can customize game content, track student achievement, and help students earn awards for performance.

Looking for more ways to incorporate computer projects into your classroom?  Check out Teacher Created Resources Computer Projects for Grades 2-4 and Computer Projects for Grades 5-6.

Leave us a comment and share your favorite online resources for students.

Tip: Be sure to research the site, understand how it works, and check to make sure it won’t be blocked from your school’s internet filter before you take your class to the lab.

Get Kids Moving with Kinesthetic Learning Activities:

We all know that many kids learn best from active, hands-on activities, but we don’t always have the budget or time to create elaborate, new kinesthetic activities.  Worry not, my fellow tired teacher, I recently attended a Kagan Cooperative Learning seminar where I picked up fun strategies for getting students up and moving that can be used across subjects and grade levels.  These are definitely easy and fun tools to keep in your pedagogical toolbox!

• Quiz-Quiz Trade: Students make flashcards (or are provided with flashcards) for academic vocabulary or facts that you are learning in class.  Each student needs to have a set of flashcards that match everyone else’s set, but shuffled up in different orders. Then, everyone stands up and picks a partner.  It is best if you have a big open space in the classroom or outside.  I love to take my class out to the field next to my classroom on a beautiful spring day. Partner 1 quizzes partner 2 on just one flashcard, and partner 2 is praised or coached by partner 1.   Next, they switch and Partner 2 quizzes partner 1 on one flashcard with praise or coaching.  Once both have had a chance to ask and answer one card, they trade the used cards and find new partners.  The whole class continues to mingle for an allotted amount of time quizzing, quizzing, trading, and finding new partners.  I love this activity because it gets students’ blood flowing while also developing vocabulary and study skills!  It can work in almost any subject.

• 4 Corners: The teacher asks students to stand in the middle of the room and then announces “corners” and a question with four possible answers. For example, the teacher says that the four corners of the room represent 4 characters from Charlotte’s Web: Charlotte, Wilber, Templeton, and Fern.  Then, the teacher asks, “Which character from the book can you relate to most?” After a short “think time”, students go to the corner labeled with the character that they can relate with most.  Once there, they must find a partner and discuss their reasoning. Later, students can write about this topic with a plethora of ideas gleaned from their own thinking and discussions with others.
• Stand up, Hand up, Pair up: When reinforcing concepts and continuing to develop academic vocabulary, it is helpful for students to have a chance to discuss their ideas, but all too often I find the same hands raised and the same students dominating the conversation. To get everyone in the class talking, try asking students to walk around the room shaking hands and greeting their classmates. This helps mix up the usual friend-partners and work on social skills. After a minute or so, tell everyone to stand with their hand in the air and high five one person near them. The high five partners turn into discussion partners. Once the partners are picked, the teacher asks a question and each partner has an allotted amount of time to answer. After both have answered, students sit down and the teacher calls on a few students to re-tell partner’s answers. This gives all students a chance to speak, listen, and participate actively.

Check out more Teacher Created Resources Creative Classroom Ideas!  I especially love the hands-on projects found in each section of the literature guides, like this one about the novel Holes. What are your favorite kinesthetic learning strategies? Leave us a comment and share the love!

Emily Guthrie has taught English Language Arts in grades 6-12 for the last 7 years. She lives with her husband, Chris and toddler Miles in sunny Southern California. Emily loves creating curriculum, cooking, running, and blogging. 

With a theme of CUE to the Core, this very timely conference had all types of speakers, exhibitors, and attendees.  Teachers, coordinators, coaches, and principals were just a few of the folks I spoke with.  Technology is ever-changing and as so it is ever-fascinating.

Blended Learning made more than one appearance on the program.  This is something that we will see more of in the future.  This combines many types of learning on a computer and the Internet.

Interestingly, CSU Sacramento has a Digital Media minor.  The object is to teach college students skills and knowledge for use in the digital community.  What they are also trying to do with this is get those who want to teach to take this as a minor so they can infuse their teaching with technology.

Another huge topic was the Flipped Classroom. Should you or shouldn’t you?  The Flipped Classroom seems to have as many different takes as it has teachers.  For the most part, it makes the teacher serve as a coach since kids really do the follow up at home and come back with questions.  Very often they are watching a video at home.  Yes, there are also connectivity problems, but there seem to be ways around some of them.  What this allows for in the classroom is collaboration and critical thinking.  This is such a huge part of the CCSS that teachers–especially in upper grades–are really trying to use this.  I also learned that a Flipped Classroom is asynchronous.  This is because it does not need to happen in face-to-face time.  There doesn’t need to be any human contact for this.  As a side note, synchronous and asynchronous are two words that I heard over and over again.

Attending a Google Slam, which was a really lively session with lots of good information, was a new but quite fun and enlightening experience for me.  Several Google certified teachers each got eight minutes to demonstrate some type of Google “goodie.”  The most fascinating one was the Google News Archive.  I really didn’t know it existed, but you can find all types of historical documents in just moments if you know how to search for them.  Another very cool thing that was shared was Google Art Projects.  This takes you on tours of over 180 art museums worldwide.  It’s still not a real field trip, but it does help kids who are never going to see some of this art.

CUE is an amazingly rich, technology-infused conference.  I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to amass a lot of knowledge in a short amount of time.

I teach Kindergarten and I do lots of centers in my classroom.  I do reading centers in the morning that focus mostly on our sight words and spelling words for the week.  I have literacy centers that focus on certain literature (both fiction and non-fiction) and phonics skills.  I also do learning centers in the afternoon.  These centers are a hodge-podge of skills that still need to be taught and/or reinforced in any subject area.  These learning centers include math, computers, puzzles, writing, sensory, art, listening, and surprise.  Surprise center is one of my favorites because I can make it anything to meet the curriculum needs.

Today, I’m here to talk about how I organize my centers- more specifically my afternoon learning centers.  I have 8 centers, so I rotate the material every 8 school days- which could be intimidating, but is really very easy once you get started.  Here’s how I do it:

Cereal boxes.  Cereal boxes?!?!  You got it!  I put the materials for all 8 centers into a cereal box- then when it’s time for a certain theme, I grab the designated cereal box and it’s all right there!

Here’s how it works:

I have an index card listing all the centers- and the skill/activity the students will be doing at that center.

In the above picture, you will notice that it’s “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” theme.  So, here’s what the kids are doing:

Listening:  Listen to a book on tape/CD.  Be sure to leave the CD and books in the cereal box.

Writing:  Students always get a writing prompt.  At the beginning of the year, it’s simply copying the sentence I have written.  As they become more independent, I omit words for them to fill in such as “A tree is ______ and ______.”  Towards the end of the year, all they get is an open ended writing prompt that allows them to be as creative as they want in their writing such as “In the spring, I like to ________________.”  The writing prompt/example is the only thing that goes into the cereal box.

Art:  Students do an arts/crafts project related to the theme.  Here they are making a mouse puppet.  Be sure to include all patterns, master copies, and a finished sample so the kids know what their end goal is to look like.  I do not include supplies, those are stored permanently at the art center itself, plus the cereal box isn’t big enough to hold all everything.

Puzzles:  Students put together a puzzle or do a higher level thinking activity.  I do not include the puzzle in the cereal box.  I only list what puzzle it is, and I grab it from my puzzle bin when it comes time for that theme.

Math:  If it’s an activity meant specifically for the center, it’s kept in the cereal box (like this math activity where they match the number on the cookie to the chocolate chips on another cookie).  If it’s a math activity I use a lot, it’s kept with my other math curriculum materials.

Sensory:  This center is the easiest to plan and probably the students’ favorite.  I have a supply of sensory materials that I rotate through this center: sand, water, rice, tire shreds, plastic Easter eggs, jingle bells, Legos, water beads, etc.  I also have two dust pans to encourage responsibility and it allows the students to help in the clean-up!

Computers:  I have two classroom computers as well as three iPads.  The students are given a computer program or an iPad app to do during their time at this center.

Surprise:  This center is very flexible in that you can put anything you need your students to work on.  Sometimes it’s a holiday craft, other times it’s a skill that wasn’t mastered or just needs a little extra practice.

“I’m finished with my center, what can I do?”
I used to get this question a lot from my students.  Now, I have jobs that they can do when their center task is complete.
Writing:  Students can draw/write with stencils.
Art:  Students can color in a coloring book.
Listening:  Students can use magnet letters to spell words found in the book.
The rest of the centers are un-ending, meaning- they can rebuild the puzzle, keep playing in the sensory tub, or keep playing the computer game/app until center time is over.

Centers are very beneficial for students because they teach the students the skill presented at that center as well as teaching the students how to work together.  If they come across a question or are unsure of something, they are first to ask their center partner before asking me.  It also gives me an opportunity to catch up on any work a student might be missing, do assessments with students, or reteach a concept that was not mastered in a small group.
So, there you have it- my management and organizational tips for the centers in my classroom.  If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment.

And don’t forget to visit my blog for other tips, tricks, and tidbits I use in my classroom.  Don’t forget to look for all the freebies I post!

See you soon and thanks to Teacher Created Resources for having me!
-Staci
www.letsteachsomething.blogspot.com

Staci Schutte, is a Kindergarten teacher and the author of a popular blog called Let’s Teach Something, where she shares tips, tricks, and tidbits that she uses in the classroom. She currently lives in Indiana with her husband, two sons and daughter and enjoys running, scrapbooking, and most recently shopping for pink things after having a baby girl a week ago.

I had a friend who was observed in a classroom recently.  One of the comments he received was “use more academic vocabulary when explaining math lessons.”

I can’t pick up a paper or read a blog without seeing something about academic vocabulary.  It’s become ubiquitous.  It’s just everywhere.

I’m finding the emphasis on academic vocabulary fascinating.  Kids need to learn so much that it sometimes seems that this is being tacked on.  Yet, when you start to see the lists of words, they make real sense to me that they are being taught to children when they are young.

I’ve looked at various lists from around the country.  While they all vary a bit, they all include words that will give kids common knowledge.  These lists include words that are subject specific and words that are specific to things like following directions.  If we start with young children by teaching the words that are essential to making learning easier, we will be doing them a real service.

Are you using specific academic vocabulary with your students?  How are you making it interesting for kids?  Are you seeing any difference in your students understanding based on the use of academic vocabulary?

I love to read nonfiction.  There are so many fascinating books that fit that category.  Seabiscuit:  An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand was one of my favorites a few years ago.  It was a great read about an amazing horse.  Recently I read The American Plague:  The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic That Shaped Our History by Molly Caldwell Crosby.  The story about this horrible disease drew me in.  I found it a real page-turner. In my book group I’m the one known for choosing nonfiction books.  But–and there is always a “but” isn’t there–here’s my concern.  Are we already letting that perpetual pendulum swing too far from fiction when it comes to the classroom?

Will kids take any joy out of reading if all they read is nonfiction?  You won’t get any argument from me that the skills that one uses in nonfiction reading carry over to everyday life.  Recipes, directions, street signs, nutrition labels, and the list of what we read daily goes on.  But how much joy is there in that?  Yes, the books I mentioned were wonderful, but they were narrative nonfiction and told a story.  They read like novels.  That’s not the case for much of the nonfiction reading that kids do.

I think we need to be careful with kids and allow them to read lots and lots of fiction.  Otherwise what happens to their imaginations and their capacity for dreaming?  Where will inspiration from fictional characters such as spunky girls and adventurous boys be found?  What about those who like, or even need, to escape into a book find their routes into them?  As good as nonfiction can be, it’s rather difficult to use it as escapism.

Can we find the right balance?  Can we teach the skills but give children the opportunity to be immersed in the world of fiction?  Can we not do what we so often do in education, throw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater?

How are you tackling this dilemma?

Often these kids had really great attitudes, and most days I was able to keep everyone on task using my limited mental toolbox of classroom management strategies. But there were days, usually days when something different was happening, like rain or a modified bell schedule, when my class was straining at the seams, led by these special, energetic students. I could feel the moment when things started to go downhill, when productive energy got that wild note and I knew it was going to be a long day.

Then one day, a student came into my classroom asking if I had the red toolbox.

“What?” I asked in utter confusion.

“The red toolbox. Mr. V said you might have it,” the kid answered helpfully.

I knew I didn’t have any red toolbox, but since the kid was already there, I looked through any closet or drawer where a toolbox could be hiding. Had there been after-hours repairs on my classroom? Finally, I had to turn him away.

“That’s okay, he said it might be Mrs. L who has it. He couldn’t remember.”

Hmmm.

At lunch, I got the scoop. The red toolbox is the trick that drains that little bit of extra energy while you get the rest of your class back on track. You simply write a hall pass for a student, before anything negative happens but after you see what direction things are heading, and your very energetic student rushes off to do you an important favor. Teachers in the know will look for the box, then suddenly remember that a certain teacher on the other side of the school might have borrowed it. This has to be done carefully, or students can spend forty-five minutes wandering around looking for the red toolbox. It is important to find out where students have already looked, and if you think they’ve been out of class for more than a few minutes, it might be time to say, “Sorry. I just can’t remember who has it. You’d better get back to class.”

In this age of bell-to-bell teaching, I imagine this isn’t a popular strategy for everyone. The idea is that you keep the students exposed to content whether they’re able to participate meaningfully right then or not, right? I say, let them stretch their legs for five minutes and come back feeling good about themselves for helping and ready to learn.

I’m an adult who has been trained in how to use information that I find.  I scan it, and if it’s something that I might need to use at all I save it and reread it in depth.  I also need to be able to find creditable sources and cite them.  In school, this meant reading articles and books, taking notes on note cards and keeping a detailed bibliography.  It raises the question for me, do kids still do this?  Or has the Internet so changed things that they don’t’?

I know that people often say to me “the kids know more than me when it comes to technology.”  As far as using devices, I would tend to agree.  They can choose apps and download photos before I’ve pushed the “on” button.  However, I don’t think that they necessarily have the skills needed to make decisions about the material they’ll find on the Internet.  This is where I think teachers will always be necessary.  They need to guide young minds and help them learn how to think and make informed decisions.

We have a few books that I think really help teachers with this phenomenon.  Our Internet Literacy books address this directly with a section called “Researching Reliably.”  There are several lessons about determining the accuracy of the information found online.  You can help students by reminding them to use common sense and ask questions.  Students need to check evidence and find three sources that will back up what they have found.

Much like you might model how to set up your paper or how to work out a math problem, you need to model some of this researching for students.  While the kids might be able to fire up the computer, if all the information they collect is incorrect, it really won’t be much use to them further down the road in life.

Wasn’t that video great!  The students were so engaged and enthusiastic—and so busy DOING!  There is no doubt that many, many teacher hours went in to setting up the activities and guiding students toward learning, but the teachers too, were enthusiastic.  What teacher wouldn’t want to go to work every day if they could blend all subject areas into exciting student-driven projects?  And think of all the standards being met across the curriculum!

Back to the video example of PBL.  Where is the “learning” you say?   Both the cruise ship to Africa and the trip to Brazil by plane required research in the classroom as well as participation in teacher-directed group discussions.  These lucky students also got to go on a field trip—a rare hands-on, authentic experience.

The projects and reenactments required students to put what they had learned into practice, and to collaborate to build what they had seen and learned about. The creativity was there in every thing they constructed.  Critical thinking was evident in their use of their creations and as play continued, in communicating to revamp the ways they used the materials, and in the “scripts” they developed.

The more students buy into this type of hands-on learning, the more they add.  Those that have traveled bring their experiences and share it, mimicking the various workers they came into contact with.  Did you see them checking passports?  What about the captain at the beginning of the flight discussing turbulence?  You can bet they spent time discussing what that word meant, and perhaps even acting it out.  These experiences and activity-specific vocabulary build knowledge.  I bet every kid in that classroom can explain the how and why of security checks, and the purpose of a passport.  They also spent time counting passengers, writing, reading…the list goes on!

In real-world situations and in business, there is often more than one right answer or solution to a problem or situation.  This is certainly noticeable in the STEM subject professions—science, technology, engineering, and math.  The reality is that these subjects demand a great deal of creativity.  The high achievers in these fields, often thought of as  “geeks” or “nerds,” are actually some of the world’s most creative thinkers.  They are the ones who wonder “what if….” and come up with new approaches and solutions to problems, and new inventions.

So what do we do to help our students be more prepared, creative, and yes, competitive, in the real world?  Where are the new ideas and products going to come from?  How can we help students be globally competitive in STEM subject areas as well as in real-world experiences?  Project-based learning of course!

PBL may look or feel chaotic at first, but with proper planning, these cross-curricular, group-centered activities meet a myriad of standards while allowing students time to hone 21^st century skills including the all important 4Cs—Critical Thinking, Creativity and Innovation, Collaboration, and Communication. What’s more, many teachers find that when students’ increased engagement in meaningful (to them), hands-on PBL tasks there are fewer discipline issues—now who doesn’t want a focused classroom filled with enthusiastic learners!

Project-based Learning—Where to start?

Edutopia

(www.edutopia.org) offers many insights into PBL in the form of articles, discussions, blogs, and shared ideas from educators.  The video you just watched can be found on their site too!

Ted ED-Lessons Worth Sharing

(www.ed.ted.com) offers an array of lessons that be customized to suit individual classroom needs.  Use the videos for ideas or present them directly to students.

You Tube for Schools

(www.youtube/schools)

Buck Institute for Education

(www.bie.org) walks you through PBL and offers examples of PBL lessons and videos to use to get started.

Also, check out the article, Bringing STEM Into Focus by Jean Moon and Susan Rundell Singer at Education Week

These were the questions that seemed foremost in the minds of those I spoke with.  Although no one has absolute answers, they are good food for thought.  Here they are:  How are the CCSS taking shape in your school?  Are you busy seeking new materials?  Are you re-evaluating what you have so you can see where some of what you already do will fit?  What are you doing to get your kids ready for assessments?  Do you have any idea how those will look in your state?

Build Background Knowledge

• Get students talking with simple sentence frames:

I am _____.

I have _____.

I like _____.

Everyone likes to talk about themselves. Have students use pictures to help them describe themselves, their pets, families, favorite foods, places, etc.

• Allow students to use translation resources, such as picture dictionaries, for introductory activities.
• Students need to know how to say the letters in English to help them spell and learn new words – a spelling bee or a game of hangman is a great way to have students practice their pronunciation.
• Teach students simple questions they can use to help in their process of learning English.

How do you say that?

What is that word?

Please speak more slowly.

Will you repeat that, please?

Use Comprehensible Instruction

• Create word charts to help students distinguish between verb tenses.
• Use different colors to add a new concept to something students already know, for example, to add contractions after students have learned a pronoun-verb structure.
• Use gestures in a listening exercise to help students distinguish between sounds in two columns of a word chart.
• Introduce new words or concepts before doing dictation.

Encourage Active Participation

• Have students dramatize feeling words.
• Have students learn the meaning of prepositions by using objects to act out each word.
• Have students practice asking and answering questions: Place a variety of items in a small bag or backpack. Have students take turns selecting an item and hiding it from view. Classmates will ask questions to guess the hidden item. Vary the types of questions and answers required based on students’ English proficiency level (yes/no questions for beginners, questions that provide a word choice for intermediate students, etc.).
• Invite students to teach words in their language – they will have to practice their English to teach others.

These classes were offered during the summer. One characteristic that stands out in my mind is that it didn’t feel like school, even though we were in classrooms from 9 to 3 every day (with a lunch break). We engaged the students in conversation, maintained the pace with games, activities, and movement, and spent most of the time working with students in small groups, a good summary to remember the next time I work with ELL students!

Tracie Heskett has taught multiple grades in public and private elementary schools in southwest Washington. She currently writes teacher resource materials and curriculum. She has authored many books for Teacher Created Resources including Blogging in the Classroom, Going Green, and Traits of Good Writing. Her most recent series Strategies to use with Your English Language Learners and Math Strategies to use with Your English Language Learners were released in May 2012.