February Group Post, Favorite Behavior Management Tool

When kids play games, what do they like to be? Kids love to be "it" and they will jump through hoops for the opportunity! In my classroom the kids sit in groups of five. Each group is given a letter and their letter is placed on the board. Throughout the week kids can earn points for their team. They earn points by following directions, listening, helping peers, keeping our classroom organized and clean, and quality work. Kids can earn individual points (Example..."Wow, Jack thanks for helping Mike pick up his crayons, you've just earned a point for your group" ) or group points ( "the group that has their area the most organized gets a point"). The group with the highest number of tallies per week wins! Together they pick a community building game of their choice, such as four corners, whomp it, zoo keeper, cat and mouse and so on. I then create a way for each member of the team to be "it". They love it! The whole class gets rewarded with a game that has so many benefits for all! The kids are up, moving and building relationships! Everybody Wins!

Tech Tools! Schoology and Brain Pop Jr.

I have used these two tech tools throughout the year, but last week I used them to a different level! Schoology is “facebook” for our classroom. Parents in our district join their child’s classroom page for updates and communication. Parents can view upcoming events, pictures, lessons, spelling lists, special links and websites that teachers recommend. I love it! It is a quick and easy way to communicate at a high quality level. I am very lucky this year! All of my parents have access to the internet, so this is the only way that I communicate with them. It saves on paper and time!

Last week my students studied special Americans. They read books about several special Americans and also used brain pop as a research tool. Brain Pop Jr. is great! It gives the students a 4-5 minute video/tutorial about information at their level. This reminds me of the TV show, The Office! I love when Michael asks fellow employees to explain things to him as if he were a third grader! I want that sometimes too! Anyways, I love knowing that every video on Brain pop will be at their level of understanding. My students watched short videos about Special Americans. They watched the Rosa Parks and Abraham Lincoln videos. They then created a poster about a special American of their choice with a partner. We did not have the IPad cart that day, but if I had the cart, I would have allowed my students to choose a special American from Brain pop to learn more about. This is a great research tool.

When they students were done with their posters, we put them up around the classroom and had “Special American Museum.” Half of the kids walked around to view the posters while the other half stood by their posters to explain and give facts about their special American. As they were doing this, I was walking around taking videos of the presentations. I put them on Schoology, so the parents could view the videos, and so my students could view their peer’s videos to learn more about other Special Americans! Two tech tools in one lesson!

January Group Post - Art and Math TOGETHER

Over the past three years, I have been involved with a Math Grant through the Minnesota Art's Board. It is called Math SmARTs. I have been working with another teacher and several Saint Cloud Artists (Tile and Dance) to create lessons that infuse art into math. This has been a great opportunity for myself and my students. Students are able to see that math is everywhere. The sessions are split into dance and tile lessons. During the dance lessons students use their bodies to create 3-D and 2-D shapes, Equilateral shapes, symmetry and asymmetrical movements. They are counting as they are moving and using "math" vocabulary the entire time. Movement is so important, especially for our kinesthetic learners. The students have a deep understanding of how their bodies are shapes and geometrical figures. The visual art lessons explain that math has been present in architecture for thousands of years. The students create real tiles that show symmetry, intersections and midpoints. They also create a tile that is split into seven pieces making a tangram. They use rulers to measure and create their tiles. Using math in creative ways has been eye opening for my students. I will continue to use the strategies that I have learned from this grant, when the money runs out. It is so beneficial for our students to use their bodies to create shapes and movement. I also believe that exposing them to why/how math is used in the real world is beneficial.