I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the NSTA (National Science Teacher's Association) conference held in Reno two weeks ago. I learned sooo much and I am so excited to bring back some of the ideas to my students.
One of the lessons demonstrated during the seminar was a great way to introduce scientific thinking and questioning to your students and could be used with a variety of grade levels. I had my students try it out last week. The project is essentially a physics experiment that asks how many times can you fold a piece of paper in half. I had my students make predictions before they began folding, and they wrote their predictions on post-it notes. We talked about how we could organize our data, and they suggested putting the estimations that were the same together.
Don't judge our dirty white board easel - it is well loved :) Most students predicted around 7 folds. Then, I had the students each fold a piece of paper counting how many times they folded it in half. They then told me how many folds they had, and we collected that data.
We found that most students could fold their paper in half 6 to 7 times. Then I asked them if they had any questions about what we had done. One of them asked, "Would bigger paper make more folds?" We voted to see what we thought.
"How could we test it?" I asked.
"Could we use one of the anchor chart papers?" One of my students asked.
We tried it out.
With the big paper we were able to fold it 6 times. "Any other questions?"
"Would it work with a smaller paper?" Someone asked as they were already folding a post-it. 6 times again.
"Does that always work?"
"Interesting that you ask... MythBusters checked this out." I told them and then showed this video.
"Does the thickness of the paper matter?" Another student asked after watching the video.
"Again another great question! Did you know a STUDENT actually asked this question and came up with a mathematical equation to figure that out?" We then read this article about the high school student who did just that.
It was a great lesson that really got my students thinking like scientists, and was so inspiring for them to see that they could make mathematical discoveries.
I will be sharing some other lessons soon, so stay tuned!
If you do this lesson with your students, I would love to hear how it goes!
It has been awhile since I've joined in with DoodleBugsTeaching for Five for Friday, but since I have the day off today in honor of Nevada Day, I really have no excuse not to!
In Nevada, we celebrate Nevada Day the Friday before the official Nevada Day (October 31st). So, since today is a day off of school, we had our Halloween celebrations yesterday. The kids had a blast! I am not going to lie and say that Halloween is NOT my favorite day of the year as a teacher, but I do enjoy seeing them have a good time.
Because today is a holiday, we took our weekly math tests yesterday morning. You could imagine my students' surprise when our principal (dressed as Sandra D), vice principal (dressed as a T-bird) , school secretaries (Pink Ladies), and school counselor (T-bird) burst into our room singing and dancing.
They had a little speaker with them that was playing You're The
One I Wantfrom Grease as they came in. My students just sat there in shock. As they walked out one of them said, "I think that song was from a movie." LOL!
I was able to attend the NSTA (National Science Teachers Association) conference last week and learned so much! I can't wait to share the ideas with my students and also with you here on the blog. Stay tuned to Sunday's blog post for the science lesson I used with my students this week.
We have had a crazy few weeks as a family as well with Tyler's first Homecoming and Cody's first band concert.
In honor of Nevada Day, some of my fellow Nevada sellers have gotten together to throw a sale at our TPT stores. My sale is running today and tomorrow. You can visit my TpT store here.
Hope you have a great weekend and a Happy Halloween!
We are using the Lucy Calkins Units of Study for our writing program, and she really encourages lots of free time for students to just write. While I love this idea, some of my reluctant writers absolutely do not! They spend the entire time hemming and hawing over not knowing what to write about, and end up with a sentence if I am lucky after 30 minutes of writing!
I know that students become better writers by ACTUALLY WRITING, so I am constantly trying to think of ways to spur my reluctant writers on.
One thing that I have been working on is giving my students mini-lessons with strategies for developing ideas to write about. One strategy that we use often is the use of a mentor text. I found this book, I Didn't Do My Homework Because... and I knew my students would LOVE it!
It looked like it might be a fun read, so, I purchased it, but when I read it, I knew I hit a writing mentor text gold mine.
When you open the text it begins with a teacher asking her student why he didn't do his homework.
He begins to list a variety of outrageous excuses.
My students roared with laughter as we read each of his reasons. When we finished the book, I asked them to think of additional ideas they could add to the book if they were writing a sequel. My students actually jumped at the chance.
Their ideas were hilarious! Here a just a few examples...
And one of my favorite pics... look how proud of himself he is! A full page of writing! Woo Hoo!
This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog. All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.
One of the best things about going to Vegas was getting to meet some of my blogging/TpT friends in real life! We often collaborate and email each other and along the way become great friends. One of the people that I got to meet this year in Vegas was Nichole who blogs at The Craft of Teaching. You can find her store, The Craft of Teaching on TpT here.
For this swap, I am blogging about her product, she is blogging about mine, AND you have the opportunity to win them both along with a $10 TpT card!
Do you ever find yourself struggling to ask students just the right math questions to get them thinking WITHOUT giving them the answer or telling them how to solve it? Nichole has solved that problem with her questions to encourage mathematical thinking product.
I absolutely love that she has included both the posters for the wall and the small task card size ones!
I have the posters hanging on the wall that I can point to while teaching lessons, and I keep a set with me as I conference with students and work in small groups. I have also given them to my students to help them coach each other.
After using them for a few weeks, I have been amazed at how my students have started automatically using these questions not only with each other, but also in their written and verbal responses. They are now saying things like "I know my answer makes sense because.." or "I solved this problem a different way by ..."
When I went to the TpT conference this summer, everyone was raving about Periscope. At the time, I kind of brushed it off wondering if it might be the newest "fad" thing kind of like Tsu and other social media applications. I didn't really give it much thought honestly.
Fast forward to later this summer when I got an email from Kelli Alaina who I have been "friends" with on Facebook and Twitter for some time. She asked me if I might be interested in being interviewed via Periscope about my 5 tips for teaching math. I agreed, but then had to quickly figure out how to download the app and check it out a bit.
I am SOOOOO GLAD that I did! One month later, and I am literally a Periscope addict! I have followed some amazing teacher friends and I LOVE getting a glimpse into their classroom! It is almost like being able to observe a colleague without having to get a sub! I have even broadcast my own scopes with ideas that I use in my classroom. If you haven't joined yet, what are you waiting for?
What Is Periscope?
Periscope is a live streaming app from Twitter that allows you to share and view live video broadcasts right from your phone!
There are two basic things that you can do on Periscope:
1. Broadcast
2. Watch other broadcasts
I love the fact that I can see all of my favorite educator live on the screen! I get a glimpse of their classrooms, learn new strategies and ideas, ask them questions, and even get a peek into their personal lives! I love seeing everyone's fun sides full of kiddos who interrupt them or weird addictions to Batman.
I keep a notebook by my side as I watch and take massive notes full of ideas that I can implement in my classroom the next day!
You can watch scopes live in real-time or as a replay with the one caveat - you only have 24 hours to watch it before it is gone. Some periscopers save their scopes to Katch or YouTube.
While you are watching live, you can comment, ask questions, or just show the broadcaster some love by tapping the screen and making hearts run up the screen... When you watch the replay you can't comment, but you can still heart it up so that the broadcaster knows you like what you see.
Getting Started - Who Should I Follow?
Here are a few accounts that I think you should follow on Periscope based on the scopes I have watched.
1. Kelly Malloy (@kellys3ps)
OK, ok, I may be a little bit biased here, but I have to self-promote right? LOL! If you like following my blog, I am sure you will find my scopes helpful as well. I share math games, teaching strategies, differentiation strategies, classroom management, and more!
Since she is the one who got me started on Periscope, I have to give her the second spot here. She is AMAZING at connecting teachers on Periscope to one another, so she is a great person to follow. She is a former teacher who is currently out on maternity leave with her 3rd son. Any mom of boys is amazing right?! She shares teaching ideas along with a great mix of social media advice, so if you are a teacherpreneur yourself, you will want to follow.
3. Jessica - The Whimsical Teacher (@thewhimsicalteacher)
Jessica is a fellow Nevadan teacher on TpT! She lives in an even smaller town then me, and the wi-fi bars are hard to find, so she broadcasts from her truck wherever she can get reception. Often this is her local Wal-Mart. I think she will be forever tied to Wal-Mart and BatMan in my brain! Not only does she offer teacher tips, but she is HILARIOUS! And yes, I am shouting, but she is just plain funny! If you are ever in need of a pick me up, catch her scopes and be prepared to be instantly perked up. And.... if you spit your soda out of your mouth while you are watching, don't blame me, because I warned you!
4. Brooke Browne (@brookebrownetpt)
Brooke Browne has a wide variety of scopes including everything from
*Search the hashtags #teachertribe and #periscopeteachers on Twitter.
* Look through your favorite teachers' follow lists.
I absolutely love this app and I hope you will join me! Leave your user name in the comments below and I will follow you! Also, be sure to comment with anyone else I should be following!
5. Brynn Westwood (@Brynnsteacherbag)
Brynn teaches first grade and often shares lots of great teaching ideas and games. Her most recent scope was about getting your students to write more in their journals.
6. Amy Harris (@amyadapts)
Amy is a special ed teacher. During her scopes she shares not only lots of ideas for differentiation, but also inspirational things and lettering tutorials. Her lettering tutorials have inspired me to take up a new hobby. Can't wait to see my anchor charts after a few more of her tutorials!
7. Chandra from PowerPoint Gaming (@PPTGaming)
Chandra has been an online friend for awhile now and I was finally able to meet her in real life this summer in Vegas during the TpT conference. I was excited to see her scoping too! She shares lots of techy and PowerPoint tips during her scopes. She is also amazingly organized, so I am hoping that she will share a bit of her tips in that area as well too!
8. Sheila Jane Teaching (@sheilajteaching)
Sheila Jane is just plain awesome! She is all about teacher happiness. What is not to love about that? She shares not only positive messages, but also ideas for keeping stress free - again what is there not to love about that?
9. Hope King (@hopeking)
Hope is a sixth grade teacher at the Ron Clark Academy and she always has AMAZING ideas for engaging your students in their learning. She has so much passion and energy you can't help but finish her scopes ready to take on the world. And speaking of the Ron Clark Academy, you will also want to follow the founders @ronclarkacademy and @kimbearden.
10. Ashley Schroeder (@schroedershenan)
Ashley is a 2nd grade teacher who shares TONS of ideas and PowerPoint tutorials. She is another bundle of energy who gets you pumped to bring exciting things into your classroom.
11. Sarah Meador (@meadorscience)
Sarah is a 6th grade science teacher who also happens to be on the Executive Board for Whole Brain Teaching. She has shared tons of ideas for using Whole Brain Teaching from lesson planning, to gestures to more!
Are you on Periscope yet? Who do you follow? Leave a comment below with your user name so I can follow you as well!
