Warm Up Bank

This year, in preparation for the new school year, I am making a Warm Up Bank. That way, when I need to come up with a week's worth of warm up activities, I can just pick different types from my bank.

Here's my compiled list of different warm ups:

• Find the lie - Place information (or math problems) on the board. Students have to find the lie, or the mistakenly answered problem. 
• Create the lie - Students have to create a miscalculated problem, or a wrong bit of information. Then they have to switch with their neighbor and their neighbor has to figure out the right answer. 
• Journal entry - Have the students walk you through their process for figuring out problems, or have them journal about being present during an event.
• 3 little words - Students come up with three words related to a new topic. This taps into their background knowledge, and it gives you a quick formative assessment.
• 4 corners - Get students thinking about a controversial subject, a "what if" question, or you could use this as a modified multiple choice question. Students stand at the four corners of your room depending upon how they answer a question. 
• Read - Students read about a problem, a current event, a newspaper article, a journal article, etc Then you talk about it. You can also integrate some during reading activities like double entry journals. 
• Questions - The teacher puts up a topic, picture, etc and students write down questions they may have about the topic. This is also a quick formative assessment, or a way to tap into student interest. 
• Would you rather - The students or the teacher can come up with "would you rather" questions that relate to the topic. Then students stand in a designated spot that matches up with their choice (kinda like four corners.. but there's only two options). 
• Present - Students can present a very short problem, idea, research, etc for extra credit.
• Mnemonic - Put up a word on the board related to the topic you are studying, and ask students to create a mnemonic for that word. 

Parent Newsletter Template

Templates are crazy important for teachers! Creating templates can be one of your biggest time savers during the school year. If your district requires you to upload lesson plan templates, like mine then you might want to make one.. or a few different ones depending on how your class is laid out. For example, since I am teaching Aleks math I have a lesson plan template for regular direct instruction days, a template for computer lab days, and a basic template for anything in between.

Another great template to have is a parent newsletter template. If like me, you want to keep parents updated on the happenings in your classroom, you should spend some time creating parent newsletters. Whether you want to do them monthly, biweekly, or every week, this is a great tool to have in your back pocket. It opens the lines of communication between parent and teacher, and it gets parents on the same page. It informs them of what they could be doing to help their child succeed, it informs them of what their child should be doing to be successful, and it informs them of what you are doing to help their child be successful as well.

Therefore, I wanted to share with you my parent newsletter template. This is a free download at my TpT store, and I hope that it saves a great amount of time for you during the school year.

Just fill in the particulars, and you are ready to hit send!

... and please! Share with me any ideas you might have regarding parent newsletters. 

I'd love to hear about them!

We're working together to make our classrooms a better place.

Friday Favorites - Warmup Activities

This will be one of my last consistent Friday Favorites posts, as pre-planning starts next week. I will still try my best to do a weekly post about education, sewing, or food though. So stick with me and cross your fingers that I get it done!

This week, I'm listing my three favorite warm up activities. These also go by the name of bell ringers, introductory focus, etc.  Before school starts, I really want to make a bank of possible warm up ideas. That way, during the school year I can pick a type from my list quickly, instead of having to do the research during the school year. (I may post my list later on.) These will be more so math centered, because that is what I'm teaching this year.

1. Find the lie - List 3-5 problems that are solved. One of them will be solved incorrectly. The students have to figure out which one it is, figure out what the person that solved it did wrong, and they have to figure out what the correct answer is. 
2. Math journal entry - Put up a problem, and students have to solve it while writing about what they did. They have to show the teacher how they thought through the problem, by putting each and every step into words. 
3. Present a math scenario - This year, I am using this as extra credit. I will have a designated spot in my room for students to put up their examples of math in the real world. During the warm up, students can present their examples for one more extra credit point. 

What are your favorite warm up activities?

Friday Favorites - Procedures (7/18)

As I am preparing for the upcoming year as a math support teacher, (Yay! I got the job!) I am first and foremost planning out my procedures as part of my classroom management plan. Here are three of my favorite procedures that I WILL be implementing this year.

Check out this pinspiration for your classroom procedures! you've got mail

Instead of passing back papers after they've been graded, students can collect their own papers at the beginning or end of class. To take this idea a step further, students can store unfinished worksheets or projects in these hanging folders. I also want to combine this with the traditional way of turning in student work. The trays that students turn their work into can say "(insert your name) has mail." That keeps the theme going.

I vaguely remember this procedure being mentioned in one of my education classes about two years go, and I thought I'd try it. I'm going to call it,"Grab and go!"

When students enter the room, there should be a designated spot where they can collect materials for the day's lesson before they sit down at their desks to complete the intro activity. This year, I want to put a table near the door of the room. On this table, I will have some laminated construction paper or place mats that indicate which class is which (as I will be teaching two 6th grade class, two 7th grade classes, and two 8th grade classes). The place mat or laminated construction paper will be held in place by sticky putty, so that I may move it if I need to. Then I will have a sticky note that tells students how much of each material they will need for the day. They will grab it upon entering the room, and then complete the introduction activity.

Here's another pinspiration that I would love to try in my classroom. I'm done!

I do want to make a laminated version of this with Velcro cards, so that I may use it over and over. At the bottom I will have spots for sticky notes for activities that are specific to certain materials or units. When students are finished with the required activities, they get to choose an activity from the board. This keeps them from being disruptive while the other students are working.

What are your favorite procedures? 

Best Breakfast Idea Ever!

So this grocery trip, I was craving smoothies.. At the grocery store I got some frozen raspberries and some frozen peaches (Ya'll know I'm a Georgia girl). I already had some yogurt at home, and of course milk. After getting home and putting everything in its place, I decided to reward myself with a smoothie. I made one portion, and then I though, "I should freeze one portion of fruit so that I can make a smoothie for myself anytime I please."

The idea expanded from there... 

My one cup portions of peaches and raspberries, that I had frozen in little baggies, could be used for so much so more than just a smoothie for one. 

My Breakfast Ideas - using that 1 cup of fruit or berries

1. Breakfast smoothie - one cup of fruit or berries, a couple tbs of yogurt, and some milk
2. Breakfast parfait - one cup of fruit or berries slightly blended, yogurt, and granola on top
3. Breakfast oatmeal with fruit - one cup of fruit or berries slightly blended, quick cooking oatmeal, and milk

Friday Favorites - TpT Freebies (7/11)

Teachers Pay Teachers is definitely the best resource out there for teachers. It doesn't matter if you're just starting out, or if you've been teaching for a long time and need some new ideas. It's a huge time saver, and you can get wonderful ideas that work.

Sometimes you don't want to pay for a few smaller ideas though.. so here are my 3 favorite TpT Freebies by other sellers.

1) Fact Swap - This is a wonderful way to assess student knowledge. You can have students fill this out at the conclusion of a lesson, so that you may assess what students have learned. Or you can have students fill this out as a quick review for a test or quiz. (They could make their own on a sheet of paper, with this displayed on the board. - saves paper)

2) Classroom Management Plan - This is just a cool format for a classroom management plan. If your students and community are interested in football, this is a great resource.

3) National Geographic Magazine Project Menu - Do you teach using National Geographic articles for your lessons, or do you require that students read after they are finished with their assigned work? This is a great freebie for you! This takes those articles to a new level. Students work on comprehension, rather than just reading to pass the time.

Remember to look around for more freebies that suit your classroom and teaching style.

Here are three freebies from my own store.

New Product Alert - Responsibility and Project Based Learning

I usually don't like to post about my new TpT products, but I'm really excited about this one! It has taken me quite a while to create and perfect it. I think it is also something that any middle school or high school teacher can use in their room.

Responsibility and Project Based Learning

What is it? 

This product is a bundle of three things. The first part is a Project Planning Sheet. The Project Planning Sheet should be filled out before any work on the project begins. With this sheet, students figure out what type of project they want to do, what materials they need to do the project, and what they want to accomplish. (The teacher sets and objective, and the students go from there.)

The second part of this bundle is a set of General Project Guidelines. This can be used during the planning phase and the work time. The General Project Guidelines give students an idea of what types of projects they can do, and what they entail. There is also a list of basic materials needed, and a "this type of project is for me, if..." section. That way, students can easily pick the project that best interests them, suits the time that they have to complete it, and in which they have the materials for. 

The third part is a basic rubric. The General rubric is also to be used during the planning process and the work periods. They help students make important decisions on what they should include in their project. This gives students an idea of how they will be graded as well.

Why is it so useful?

This bundle allows the teacher to give more and more responsibility in creating projects to the students. 

You can start small and pick 2-4 project types, that way you are grading similar type projects. This is a great idea that allows students to get the hang of this project format too. Later on, you can give students full reign of the different types of projects, and they can be as creative as possible. 

Learning is greatly customized with this product. Students learn responsibility at their own pace, and they get to tap into their own interests with this project format as well. You could combine this with learning contracts for students that have IEPs, or for students that are at a different level than most of your class. 

Most importantly, it takes a ton of the work off of a teacher's shoulders. With this project format, the teacher can truly be a facilitator. 

Friday Favorites - Lunchbox Goodies (6/27)

I try to take my lunch all but 1-2 days a week, as a teacher. It's difficult though when you're super busy grading papers and planning for tomorrow's lesson. Here are a few of my favorite lunchbox goodies that take very little time and effort to prepare. They're healthy too!

Sweet potato oven baked fries - Great with anything, especially your favorite sandwich that takes minutes to prepare.
I usually take 2 sweet potatoes, peel them, and chop them into small fries. The smaller, the faster they cook. Once I get them all cut up, I toss in a pinch of salt and black pepper. I also add in some curry powder or garlic powder depending on what kind of mood I'm in. Then I spread them out on a sheet pan that is lined with aluminum foil, parchment paper, etc (whatever I have on hand). Then you just toss them in the oven for about 20 minutes, and enjoy with your lunch the next day. I really usually have enough for a couple of days of lunch that week.

Sweet potato and bean burritos - I saw this recipe when looking for more ways to use up the sweet potatoes I had gotten on sale that week. I also had a can of re-fried beans on hand.  So I said, "why not try it out?" It was pretty darn awesome! Try it! You can even try it using your leftover fries hehe.

Chicken salad - Chicken salad is probably my hands-down favorite dish ever. You can cook a bunch of chicken in the crock pot, and then use part of it for chicken salad, and the other part for another meal throughout the week. That tip makes it super quick to put together. If the chicken is cooked, then all you have to do is shred it up and add your favorite chicken salad recipes. I for one would recommend this recipe for chicken salad.

Friday Favorites - Teaching Strategies (6/20)

Teaching strategies! This is one of my favorite topics, ever! If you took a minute to read my "about me," you will know how much I love research. Now this is my time to tell you some more about its usefulness, and about some of my favorite teaching strategies that are supported by research.

Picking a strategy for you lesson depends on many things, but two of the most important things are your content and what the research says about the strategy. A great many strategies work particularly just in one subject, or maybe only in one or two subjects. You wouldn't want to use a strategy made for math in a writing classroom, obviously.
Next, if it doesn't work then don't use it! We want our students to be successful, so go to your school's Galileo account and look up some of these strategies. Look for peer reviewed, empirical articles. I assure you, it will not be a waste of your time. Then you can put the strategies that are backed up with the numbers in your strategy toolbox (which I think I'll talk about in a blog post for next week).

One of my favorite math strategies is interleaving. Interleaving is a strategy in which students must differentiate between different types of problems. Instead of solving 10 problems in which they must only multiply fractions, students would be asked to solve 10 problems in which they might have to add, subtract, or multiply fractions. Interleaved practice not only gets students to differentiate between different types of problems, it can also be considered a review technique. Going back to the same example, if students learned how to subtract fractions 2 weeks previously, this would be a review. Students have to commit this to their long term memories.

One of my favorite science teaching strategies is Conceptual Change. All students come to class with a different set of background knowledge, and this strategy takes that background knowledge into consideration. For example, a student may come to class thinking that the Earth is the center of the Universe. This kind of make sense, based on the child's own observations. The Sun seems to revolve around the Earth, although that is not the case.
During a conceptual change lesson, the teacher would present observations or data that contradict students' knowledge and observations. For students to accept this information, it must be plausible and it must make more sense than the students' previous conceptions of the topic. I also suggest journaling with this strategy, because it gives students time to hash out their thoughts and to really think about the contradiction between their background knowledge and observations and the new data and observations.
(Keep in mind, this is the short version. There's a lot more that goes into creating a conceptual change lesson. It is also very difficult to do, considering many adults still have scientific misconceptions based on real observations.)

Lastly, one of my favorite strategies to use for any subject is Learning Contracts. With learning contracts, you can really create an individual learning experience for a student or multiple students. You can also tap into student interests, and get a student more interested in school as a result. This works great for students who are not motivated to learn, students with an IEP, or students that are at different ability levels.
First, as always, you have to start with your standard and your learning goals. In your learning contract, make this the most important thing by placing it at the top. Then conference with the student, and find out what their interests are and how they would like to reach the goal that you have determined based on the standards. Create a rubric for the learning contract, and have the student sign it. After that, you can do check ins to see if the student is working towards the goal, or if they need more assistance.

Friday Favorites - Enrichment (6/13)

I took a tiny break from blogging this past week. It was almost like a working vacation, but a fun working vacation. I did two interviews and my sister got married. The wedding was beautiful and we DIYed a lot of the decorations. It was a lot of work, but I've never seen anything more spectacular. I can't wait to see the pictures from the wedding, just as I am excited to hear back from my interviews. Cross your fingers!

Now back to it! 

For this week's Friday Favorites, I wanted to talk about my inspirations for enrichment activities. The science teachers at the school where I was placed for student teaching were the queens of enrichment. They have really inspired me to think outside of the box when it comes to enrichment.

1. Reteach/Relearn/Enrich - After a test at the end of a unit, you can separate the students by mastery levels. Set a grade as a level for mastery. All of the students that make above that grade get to complete enrichment/extension activities. The students that make below the set mastery level will complete a reteach/relearn activity that goes back to the basics. 

2. Leveling your classes - This option takes a lot more coordination if you want it to have a greater impact. For this to happen, you have to coordinate with other teacher that teach the same grade and subject at your school. You can take benchmark data or unit test data and create as many leveled groups as there are teachers. Each group will be put into a different classroom, depending upon their mastery level or their background knowledge. This allows for more individualized instruction. This shouldn't be used for every unit though. We tried this on a more difficult unit, and it worked wonders. 

3. Create an enrichment box - This is also a pretty cool idea floating around Pinterest. Create activities that extend information learned, or that goes back to the basics on learned concepts. Then create an enrichment plan for each student that coordinates with the activities in your enrichment box. You can create an enrichment plan based on students' test scores or interests. When students have free time, they work on their enrichment plan.

Final thoughts... Use Mastery Connect for quick grading. It will also organize your data for you. Just be sure to scan the students' responses twice because sometimes it doesn't grade correctly the first time. 

Friday Favorites (5/30) - Books for Differentiation

One of the biggest things that they stressed in my teacher education preparation program was differentiation. In fact, while filling out job applications this summer I've been putting things like "I can differentiate with the best of them." Differentiation is something that I feel very confident at, and it's one of my strong points as an educator. It's pretty fun too. It allows not only your students to be creative, it allows the teacher to be creative as well.

I was thinking about the books that I have read in my teacher education preparation program and in my spare time. These books have definitely made me a great differentiator: 

How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms : The first edition of this book was required by my teacher education program. It is a great primer for differentiation, and it has many great ideas on how to differentiate content, process, and product.

Differentiating Instruction With Menus for the Inclusive Classroom : This book is one of my absolute favorites. I saw this randomly on Amazon and decided to buy it. It's a whole series, so although the link is to the middle school science one, chances are there's one specific to your classroom. This is just the one that I own and that I have read. In this book you will find multiple types of menus, ideas for activities to put in your menus, and ideas on grading menus. My favorite happens to be the baseball themed menu. I actually tried that one in my classroom, and it worked wonderfully! 

Layered Curriculum : I am currently reading this one, and I absolutely love it! This is a lesser known gem that takes the idea of menus and amplifies it. Students get to choose the activities that they do (including whether or not they participate in lectures, or even recorded lectures). They also get to choose their grade basically, because the activities are tiered into an A, B, and C level. It's pretty awesome! I can't wait try a layered mini unit. 

Thoughts from a Substitute

After completing my student teaching, we were allowed to sub for the school that we interned at. This is definitely a great way to get experience, while applying for teaching jobs.
As a substitute teacher, you see so many strange things haha! I have a ton of stories to tell! First though, I want to share with you some tips for that rainy day when you need to call in a substitute for your classroom.

Thoughts from a substitute:

1. "The early bird gets the worm." - If you have a particular substitute teacher in mind that you know does a great job, call them as soon as you know you need someone. Chances are, this person will get many calls from other teachers for the same reason. If you call them asap, chances are you can get them! If you wait, then someone else might snap them up for the same day. I cannot tell you how many times I got multiple calls for the same day. It was always hard to tell a teacher that I'm already taken too. 
2. Leave your materials in an easy to find spot. - One time, I subbed for a science teacher, and it took me forever to find the plans and materials. In that time, the 8th grade class got a little crazy. If you make the materials easy to find, then your substitute will be able to start class promptly without distractions. 
3. Leave a schedule for the day. - At the end of the year, when things are crazy and you use different schedules.. it is difficult for the sub to know what is going on. This leaves them to rely on other teachers that may be on different schedules, or on the students (if they are older). 
4. Make your plans extremely clear! - If the sub has no idea what you want for them to do, then don't expect for it to be done right. There were a couple of times that I had to wing it because the teacher didn't leave anything for the students to do or the plans were unclear. Provide step-by-step plans with specific details. There's no such thing as too much information! Not to mention, the students can sense when the sub is unsure, and they will take advantage of that. 

Friday Favorites - Summer Fun (5/23)

Summer is nigh!

My school gets out this Friday, and I am super excited! I'm thinking about all of the fun things I've seen on Pinterest for the summertime. Here are my 3 favorite summer activities and ideas from Pinterest. 

As a kid, I always found myself running out of bubble soap. I was always sad when the bubble blowing ended. It doesn't have to end though with this awesome pinspiration! 

Summer is also a great time to get involved in nature. This is also a great time to teach small children about nature. Here is a simple pinspiration for a bird feeder. 

Lastly, why not do some science during summer?! This is a cool experiment for younger children. Watch what happens!

Sewing in the Works

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Yeah, I'm kind of a fabric hoarder... and this image doesn't even skim the surface...

I've been thinking about what to do with all of it lately, and I have so many ideas for this fabric. I'd love to share them with you.

Idea #1 - This is a skirt I'm working on presently. I've got it all cut out and figured out. I just have to sew it together. I want to make a voluminous skirt with a wide belt that I can tie into a bow. I just love the umbrellas! I keep telling people that one day I'll be like Ms. Frizzle, cause she's the hypest! I guess this is a step in that direction.



Idea #2 - I found this fabric on Etsy a while back, and I decided that I wanted to make a skirt with it as well. However, it desperately needs to be lined. I chose some navy broadcloth to line it, and I plan on making a skirt that has a scalloped hem. I found my inspiration for this on Pinterest, of course!




Idea #3 - I also recently purchased this apple fabric from Etsy. (I know, I have a problem hehe). I think I want to make an apron with it, but I'm still trying to decide. I thought an apple apron would be nice to wear in the kitchen, or in the classroom on messy lab days.

I will still have a ton of fabric left, even when I complete my three above ideas. So I'm asking: What are your favorite projects to use up fabric? 

Check back with me later to see how my ideas turn out!

Friday Favorites - Classroom Management (5/16)

As the end of the year is winding down, it becomes more and more apparent how classroom management can either make or break your school year. It's the work you put in at the beginning so you may reap the benefits all year long.

Here are three of my favorite classroom management inspirations:

The First Days of School

This is an amazing book that almost all educators know about, but if you don't know about it.. then you should! This has helped me so much. It has not only classroom management tips and tricks, it has curriculum and development information as well. I was so surprised that my college professors did not have us get this book. It literally covers everything. The authors are most famous for their classroom management though.

Rights and Responsibilities 

This is a wonderful pinspiration that balances rights with responsibilities. I love this idea! I definitely think I'm going to use a format like this for my rules. This reminds students that with rights comes responsibilities. This is something that they can definitely live their lives by. 

must do, may do

This is something that I tend to do in my classroom already, and it works wonderfully! This sets the boundaries for students, but gives them some choice. They can see the light at the end of the tunnel, because they know what they are allowed to do after their work is done. When you try this out, come up with some wonderful enrichment activities to put on the "may do" side. Your students will love this!

Job Hunt

Applying for jobs is a scary business. It's a huge change, and there are so many unknowns. That, and when you're not getting any call backs... you begin to think "What am I doing wrong?" I know I have great strengths as a teacher, but it is hard to make someone see that just with a piece of paper that shows your lack of experience. There's also that same old... you need experience before we can hire you, but you can't get experience unless someone hires you.

It's enough to make your head spin. 

So when I get scared and start losing hope that I will find a job, I look at a quote that I have taped all over the place. I have it on the inside of my portfolio that I made for interviews, on my calendar, and written on a checklist that I keep for job applications.

"Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it." - Bill Cosby

Friday Favorites - Building Character (5/9)

This week, I was thinking a lot about how to build character in the classroom. I looked around for strategies, etc to help build character in the classroom and here's what I came up with:


This pinspiration reminds students that what they put on social media has its consequences.



I am an Etsy addict as well as a Pinterest addict. Here's one of my absolute favorite things on Etsy. This shop has the cutest posters, magnets, etc with character building quotes. They even do custom products.

Those are a few helpful reminders that we can post so that students remember what good character is and does. However, I started thinking about what I could do in my classroom to reward good character. So I went searching for some ideas on character education...

I came across this blog post. Then I started thinking more and more about this post. 

I love this idea, but it needs to work for my classroom and for my school. 

I think this would be a great idea, especially for middle-level students, if the students nominated each other for a spot on a board like this. As a team, a grade level, or a school the teachers could determine the character traits that would go across the top of the board. Then forms could be developed, just like in the blog post. They could be turned in to the teachers for a "screening," and then posted every week or so. 

What a great way to get students to take responsibility for their actions, and to take ownership of good deeds!

Friday Favorites - Bulletin Boards (5/2)

I've been thinking about this upcoming year lately, and how I want my room to look. I definitely want to have bulletin boards that are interactive and that can be easily changed depending upon the unit we are working on.

Here are my three favorite pinspirations for bulletin boards:

Check out this bright and sunny bulletin board!
This works well for a unit on plants, ecosystems, etc. However, when you aren't working on a unit related to the sunflower, you can just use the pretty blue space for word maps, word walls, student work, etc. This adds a wonderful pop of color to a white room.

Did I mention that I love the movie Up!? Check out this versatile board inspired by the movie Up. You could definitely use the study skills idea, or you could do something else like communication skills or social skills. Social skills would be wonderful for middle schoolers for sure. When I saw the balloons, I automatically thought "word wall!" You could create this board, and then create the vocabulary words separately and interchange them throughout the year. This would take a lot of work up front, but very little during the year.

This is all pinspiration for sure! I love this idea! Finding examples of the content in real life gives the content meaning. This will help students take ownership of their learning. That.. and we all love some Pinterest!

Friday Favorites - Comprehension (4/25)

Reading comprehension is huge in the middle grades. This is a time in which students go from learning to read in elementary school, to reading to learn. At this point, students are expected to read, understand what they read, and remember what they read. This is a primary mode for gaining information. Therefore, if a student does not have comprehension skills in the middle grades, they fall behind in all of their classes.

This is why I chose comprehension for this week's Friday Favorites.

Here are a couple of ways to practice comprehension or to enhance comprehension and retention of knowledge in any subject area:

Double Entry Journals

This is a simple way to help students make connections to what they are reading. It also helps to build background knowledge or to bring forth background knowledge that may be in the back of a student's mind. To do this, students first draw a line down the middle of their paper. On the left side of their paper they put important quotes from the assigned reading. You may assign quotes depending upon the amount of scaffolding your students need. On the right side students write their thoughts, questions, add missing information, facts, etc. It is important for students to share their double entry journals as well. I like to have my students share their journals in small groups before calling on individual students to share with the whole class. While discussing, students may want to add in anything that they did not think of before.

Note Taking, Note Making - From the book Science and Writing Connections by Robin Lee Harris Freedman

This is a note taking strategy that allows for students to make connections and ask questions. The picture shows you how to set up Note Taking, Note Making notes. On the left side, students take notes from reading, a presentation, or a discussion. On the right side, students write their reactions, ask questions, ideas for further exploration, or any other comments that they wish. Lastly, they complete a summary statement at the bottom of their notes.

It is important to teach students how to set up their notes, and have a few practice runs before they are responsible for creating their own notes. Therefore, the first couple of times you use this method, set up your own notes on the board or projector. Then you may want to provide an example and walk through the note taking process with your students a time or two. After that, (as good scaffolding goes) take up the notes and make comments. Then you can start taking up notes less and less until you do not take them up at all. At this point it is all up to the students.

This could also be used as a formative assessment. The right side of the notes provides information about student understanding. You could use this to create heterogeneous or homogeneous groupings based on readiness or interest. You could also definitely tell if students have misconceptions by using this method.

Checking Comprehension -

This is a great activity to check comprehension. It also goes well with the above two activities. Another wonderful pinspiration! For this activity, students toss a ball around with different questions written on it related to comprehension. The teacher designates the protocol for which question the students must answer. I would go with the right thumb, personally.

Example questions for a science classroom:

• What observations did you make while reading?
• What science concepts did you read about?
• What scientific vocabulary did you see?
• What kind of data was collected?
• What conclusion did you draw from the reading?
• How does this relate to your life?
• Can you think of other examples?

Authentic Assessments

"Why do we need to learn this?"

"Will we ever use this?"

Two insanely common questions among middle schoolers

If the students think that they wont use the concepts learned in class at a later date, then they will just brain dump them after the test. In a way, I kind of see their point. Why buy a cute dress when you have no intentions of ever putting it on? Why make a bowl of pasta if you have no intentions of eating it or giving it to someone you care about to eat? Why buy a book if you have no intentions on ever reading it? (You can tell what I do with my spare time. haha!) Our students, believe it or not, are using simple economics. 

When students finally see the benefit of learning the material in question, then they will care. 

But.. how do we get them to see the benefit?

By creating authentic projects and assessments, the teacher implicitly gives the material a purpose. 

Authentic assessments:

An authentic assessment is just that.. it's authentic, real-world, and allows students to problem solve. It's also one way to integrate teaching and learning with assessment, and it transforms the classroom environment into that of a student centered environment. (Grant Wiggins is a huge name that goes along with authentic assessments, just in case you want to do some further research.) 
When students see that they may use their learned content knowledge at a later date, then suddenly they are interested. They are less likely to dump the knowledge after the test, and they are more likely to be engaged in the learning taking place during an authentic assessment. This learning is usually hands-on minds-on anyways.

What are we teaching students during authentic assessments other than content knowledge?

When completing authentic projects or assessments, students get to use interdisciplinary skills and knowledge. When students are completing an authentic science assessment for example (my favorite of the two subjects I'm certified in), they still have to use math to take measurements and represent data, look backwards into history to see what others have tried, and they must present their findings by communicating with others. Students get to use their critical thinking skills to solve a real-world problem, and they get to explore future careers. In particular, this is a great way to integrate science process skills as well. 

How do I create an authentic assessment?

1. First, think about a natural connection between the content being learned and a career or real-world problem. (I tend to think about careers first.) It may even help to unpack your standard by creating a "Know, Understand, Do" chart as shown: 
   
2. Then design a problem that students have to solve that uses the content knowledge that you have in mind. 
3. Next, decide how students can show, explain, or present their findings or solutions to you, the class, parents, or even the community. Keep in mind, you can always invite the community or parents into your classroom to show off what your students have been doing and learning. You may also leave the decision on the mode of presentation up to the students.
4. Create the paperwork: rubrics, direction sheets, recording sheets, journal questions, parent letters, fliers, etc

Simple examples (off the top of my head) of authentic assessments and the learning involved:

• Soil conservationist 
• Uses knowledge of soil characteristics, weathering, erosion, deposition, etc
• Uses science process skills such as observations, hypothesis, and data collection
• Acoustical Engineer 
• Uses knowledge of mechanical waves: properties, energy transformation, etc
• Uses science process skills such as observations, inferences, etc

Feel free to add your own thoughts, examples, and resources in the comments section. 

I would love to hear from you!