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!