tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90810437335323648832024-03-14T00:08:50.402-05:00La Vie en violetThings, life, whatnot......anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.comBlogger86125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-20242926579064676632020-07-02T10:56:00.000-05:002020-07-02T11:02:06.281-05:00"You're a little late, I'm already torn."<span style="background-color: black; font-family: , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">It has been nearly two years since I have written anything here. It mostly comes down to time. This past year (before pandemic issues) was especially tough in terms of workload. There are many important issues going on right now. I am working on becoming more educated on racial inequality and how I can support students in my setting. In the meantime, I have been working on my district's Return to Learn team and have been spending a lot of time reading about recommendations for returning to school. So, this work inspired the assignment I talk about in this next paragraph.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">One of the short courses I am taking is "How to Make a Poem." I am really enjoying it thus far. The first week's assignment was to construct a found poem, which is a collection of lines that can come from nearly everywhere, even conversations. The writer takes the lines and arranges them in some fashion. I found my lines from an article about mask wearing and its comment section, Twitter and FB conversations related to the Iowa DOE's guidelines, Rand Paul's recent questioning of Dr. Fauci, and a policy statement from NFHS. This assignment also took me to some reading about the 1918 Flu pandemic related to mask wearing.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Caught</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-f5c8c5fe-7fff-3b6b-c511-2dcc7ab0364d" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Why would anyone try to make mask-wearing a political or freedom issue?</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">You literally can’t mandate somebody to wear a mask knowing that mask is killing them.</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">If masks only have a maybe potential to save lives, why not do it?</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Some people argue against them because they say they create fear in the public, and that we want to keep people calm.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">When all experts tell us to wear them, why would we have our schools ignore it?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">We shouldn’t presume that a group of experts somehow know what’s best for everyone.</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The virus rides the respiratory droplets like a rider on a horse. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The cloth mask protects YOU from ME.</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Skagit County choir and Springfield Great Clips cases </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">excellently demonstrate the goals of mask wearing</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Coronavirus is nature retaliating against the virus of the human race, because all humanity has ever done is screw it up.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">We can do this – TOGETHER and UNITED.</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Wearing a mask is less effective when people don’t follow other health guidelines too.</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">I don’t care about other people. If you get sick and die, that’s not my problem.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Selfish attitudes must end.</span></span></div>
anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-24418724900619198042018-08-11T12:16:00.000-05:002018-08-11T12:19:01.889-05:00"So Fricken Stumped to See, the First Day of School!" Another First Day ActivitySomething else that I generally do the first day and maybe the second day is to have posters with questions for students to put on post-it notes responses about how they want our class to be and responses about their goals for the year. I found these questions from this blog: <span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://7thgrademathteacherextraordinaire.blogspot.com/search/label/Back%20to%20School" target="_blank">Middle School Math Rules</a></span><span style="background-color: #cccccc;"> </span>and adapted them for my science classroom. I have done this the last few years with both 7th & 8th grade and then I have compiled results into a Wordle or similar app to create posters based on the responses. Last year, I wanted to change things up a bit for 8th grade so they weren't doing the same exact questions, so it worked out well when last year these popped up in my Twitter feed: <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DFasbvQXUAElR3P.jpg" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cccccc;"> 5 Questions to Ask Your Students</span></a> . Students did ok with those, though even with prompting, they had issues with "What is one BIG question you have for this year?," or it might be more accurate to say that they acted like the junior high students that they are. 😀 I may adjust these a bit. This was a list that I also saved around the same time last year<span style="color: #cccccc;"> </span><span style="color: #cccccc;"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DHlmVrLUwAEZ-9s.png" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cccccc;">6 Questions to Ask Your Students</span></a> </span>; the lists are very similar but I may swap out questions from the lists.anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-69725143815724907492018-08-10T10:30:00.000-05:002018-08-11T12:17:23.580-05:00"So Fricking Stumped to See, the First Day of School!" A First Day ActivitySomething my methods professor talked about was making observations of students, even on the first day of school. He had some ideas of how to get students to their seats, as do many people if you read all the Tweets and FB posts about the first day of school. A few years ago, I found a method called "Subversive Lab Grouping," from this blog: <span style="color: #cccccc;"> Action Reaction</span>. Th whole idea is to hand them out and then have students figure out what group they fit into. It is important to have some overlap, for example, a car that is also a color. This builds some tension into the activity, there isn't just a quick, easy answer. I have modified groups based on the level of my students, our town, and things they have or will learn about. This summer, I wanted to refresh categories a bit and it just so happened that someone else had a conversation with the blog author, Frank Nochese, and he mentioned that there were some new ideas in the blog comments. My categories for this year are: Disney, Planets, Elements, Cars, Astronomy, and Color for 7th grade. For 8th grade, Shoes, Big Cats, Beans, Colors, Capital Cities, and Presidents. In the past I've used Marvel characters, streets in town, flowers, nuts, scientists, and other categories specifically related to their previous year's content.<br />
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Our first day schedule varies a little bit from year to year. Some times we've had 10 minutes for group and this year we will have 25 minutes for each class. I hand out the card and tell students to find a seat, pointing out directions on the board. The goal with that is to link to the process of working on bellwork each day. I usually have them write their name, birthday, and maybe some facts that we can use in other ice breaker activities throughout the next few days. If we have time, we try to figure out groups and that becomes my first seating arrangement for a while.<br />
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This activity gets students up and moving, gets them thinking, and sometimes gets them talking to students that don't normally talk to. Those seem like worthy goals to start promoting.<br />
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What categories would you use?anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-30633079135741472632018-08-09T09:36:00.000-05:002018-08-10T09:36:36.380-05:00"It's So Easy, Yeah, So Doggone Easy" Thing #3 to Make Teaching Life EasierI use bellwork at the beginning of my class to help get students focused and also to work on skills that students need. The last few years I have been planning out the questions at least a week ahead. 7th and 8th grade have themes for each day (different, except for Friday), but for Wednesday, I review where we are at in content and have a question that directly relates to content. I have a Google spreadsheet with a general plan for video links I use on Friday, links for listening comprehension clips that I use on Thursdays, I have a file of picture puzzles I use on Monday, graph sources, and etc. I have typed up and modified appropriate level readings from "<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><a href="http://datanuggets.org/" target="_blank">Data Nuggets</a></span>" for students to read and then use that information to respond/populate graphing information. So, most of the year is planned out.<br />
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On Fridays, I type up my questions and copy them into three columns in a Word Document (this can be done in a Google Doc, but is more complicated) and have these cut out for students to glue into their notebooks on Monday. I also use Blogger to post the questions for each class. Usually, the questions are the same for a section, but if one section is enough different than the other sections, I will adjust on the blog and students can see that. I think it's been helpful to have a slightly different focus in bellwork and then getting into content. If OpenSciEd works out like I am hoping, in the future, I may make adjustments to what I do for bellwork. Right now, this works to have things mostly planned, while still being able to be responsive to student needs and overall pacing.anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-74450989371918300852018-08-08T12:16:00.000-05:002018-08-09T12:18:32.038-05:00"I Ask Myself, Is it a Sin to be Flexible, When the Boat Comes in" My One WordBeing flexible is probably a top characteristic that teachers need to help make their days, weeks, and months run smoothly. I was supposed to go to Loras College to have a final meeting with a math and science cohort that was part of a lesson study group. Our group has met for six years and the project period has concluded. I was really looking forward to seeing many of the people that I have come to know, hear about lessons they implemented in their classrooms, and learn any new skills/ideas that our group leader has put together for us.<br />
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However, mother nature had different plans for me. I left the house about 7 am and I knew that it was going to be foggy, as there was a dense fog advisory across most of the northern half of the state. I thought it was maybe lifting a bit because it was quite a bit less foggy around my house. I got out onto the highway and it was fairly light, but by the time I got just past a town 10 miles the fog was thicker, and then when I was just about two or three miles out from there, only just a bit away from my next turn, it was just completely a white out. It was some of the worst fog I have been in a for a long time. There was a car that had been in front of me that turned off some where and then I couldn't really see anything. So, I was deciding that I should pull over and was actually startled when I started to see all of these hazard lights flashing off of the road. I had to keep going for a bit until I could find space to pull off. I kept watch of others who were going along the highway, looking for space to pull off because the visibility was so bad, I wanted to be alert for any potential problems. Everyone was traveling quite safely, though I was worried for a moment when a car that looked like it was full of teenagers or young adults tried to pull in front of me when there really wasn't space. They were partially pulled off and partially on the road, so I was worried about people coming up behind them. However, the vehicle directly in front of me pulled away and went back on the road and the car with teenagers followed that vehicle.<br />
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At one point, I saw a Sheriff's vehicle and deputies were walking along the highway to check to see if everyone was ok. I heard one talking to a car in front of me that fog was clearing behind us. All told, I was pulled off the road for 40 minutes until it was clear enough to move. I could still see that it was foggy ahead and I would be turning toward an area that is much more hilly, so I just didn't think it was worth it to keep going. Plus, I would have been a hour late for the meeting. So, I turned around and went home.<br />
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I used my time to work on some more items for school and some filing that I didn't get down last spring. Then, because I was available, I went in to help with practices, as we had a few groups scheduled at the same time. To end the day, my husband and I ended up digging through a dumpster to find tin that could be put on the roof of the cabin for our set in <u><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost,_Maine" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Almost, Maine</span></a>.</u><br />
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So, flexibility is what I needed to make the most of my day yesterday! 😀anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-3520259013899697562018-08-07T05:15:00.000-05:002018-08-08T05:15:24.538-05:00"Taking Care of Business" What I Did TodayYesterday, I helped more with our production than with getting ready for school, and tomorrow, I will be traveling to a college to meet up one last time (at least for the foreseeable future) with a math and science teacher cohort that I have been part of for six years. So yesterday, I brought home some things to focus on and made some progress on a few of those AND also went off onto some tangents but important components for the beginning of the school year. <br />
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Last year, I wanted to change how students sign out of the classroom (honestly, it's the afternoon classes that throw kinks into the process), so I used a conglomeration of ideas about housing the sign-out sheet in their interactive notebooks. It worked ok. I thought about whether I wanted to use this method again, and I decided that I want to give it one more year. So, I tweaked it so that I will have two pages total instead of four (one for each quarter), I added reminders of when they can or cannot use a pass, and I kept the bottom open for for stickers. Then, I have been hemming and hawing about whether to reintroduce classroom jobs, but I have joined the 40 Hour Teacher Work Club to help trim some hours off each day and that is a suggestion for streamlining classroom flow. So, I revisited my jobs and took off a few and revised others. What I have settled on is: Classroom Manager, Lab Assistant, Class Ninja, Office Assistant, Absentee Ambassador, Clean-Up Captain, Paper Assistant, Energy Control, Class Greeter, and Computer Tech Support. I also updated the application form to be a Google Form.<br />
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I brought home my dismissal checklist and when you arrive checklist and started to think about how to update/clarify some of the expectations, but I didn't get much further than that. I also have been thinking about bringing back student blogging. I attempted it six years ago where all the students had their own blog. They were also using a parent blog to respond to daily questions and prompts. The latter lasted the rest of the year, and it worked ok. However, it was a bigger monster for all of the students to have their own blogs and that process died quickly. If I do resume blogging, I think I will make the parent blog for each class and add the students as blog authors. I will possibly add parents and others as readers. The other need I contemplated was which returning students do I need strengthen relationship with. My plan is to write them a short note this next week to their home address. The rest of my afternoon was spent reading the rest of the chapters assigned for the <u>Ambitious Science Thinking</u> book chat, which was at 7:00 pm tonight. <br />
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Looking back at my list, I see that it is shorter than I thought, but I know that I put quality time into thinking through the components.anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-85491413322186599232018-08-06T23:05:00.002-05:002018-08-06T23:06:27.978-05:00"It's Not About Love, Cause I Am Not In Love" A Day in the Life of a Drama CoachI've mentioned several times before that I have volunteered to help my husband with various drama related events at our school. It has only be recently that I have had more official designation with this. I never was involved with any drama or speech events in school, though I was involved in band. I have always enjoyed going to see plays and musicals, so I have some background on shows that are out there. I just lacked in practical experience, as I don't think being "forced" to be in classroom plays in elementary school quite cut it.<br />
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Anyway, I have increased how I have helped the junior high play, speech program, and now the thespian group. I mainly run tech for the junior high play, running sound, spotlight, and the light board. However, there are times when my husband has had another meeting or situation that has come up and I have subbed into cover the practice. At first, I was more reluctant to give direction, because what do I know? I only was in a "real" play because seven years ago, we had someone drop out and couldn't get a replacement. I had to quickly learn lines and be a bride in the JH play......kind of AWKWARD!<br />
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But, I am starting to accept that I have had quite a lot of experience observing and attending different workshops to become more knowledgeable in drama practices to be more confident that I can help coach students. I coached one JH speech group mainly by myself this year and that was a great learning experience to have to figure out blocking, actions, and speaking components. Right now, we are in the mix of a thespian show. Our group isn't currently a school sponsored group, so this is in addition to speech and drama activities. The current group of students have really wanted to put on a show that's significantly different than what the regular HS play has ended up being the last several years. This group has seen <u><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost,_Maine" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Almost, Maine</span></a></u> at a few different contests and thespian festival and really fell in LOVE with the show. So, students have been coming in for practices, helping to build the set, find/organize costumes, and promote the show. My husband works as a para, so he needs to find summer employment, so he has been working with our technology director in the summer to help tend to our 1:1 needs. Because our school is very small, the small kids that are out for the play are out for sports too. At times, this means students can only practice during certain hours, which means he might not be available or we might have more than one practice going on. I have stepped in a few times to run their scenes; this play is a series of vignettes. I mostly feel like I can give meaningful feedback for the students to make their scenes better. I don't feel like so much of an imposter anymore. It's really great to hear them request specific feedback, and even better when you can hear and see them incorporate their notes into subsequent performances.<br />
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That's what a good portion of my day ended up being today. I had a professional meeting this morning and then went in to run practices and fill "bags of love." Time is ticking, school starts on Aug. 23 for students and the play is the 25th and 26th. It is a lot to be thinking about, but I am quite confident that the students are going to put on a great show.anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-63343023693886422018-08-05T15:09:00.001-05:002018-08-05T15:24:00.575-05:00"It's So Easy, Yeah, So Doggone Easy" Thing #2 to Make Teaching Life EasierUsing every minute possible in the class period has always been important to me, but it will be even more important this year, as the JH is going down from 46 minutes to 40 minutes. As a science teacher, I do many hands on activities with students, but I think more time needs to be spent on the learning activity so that students can make sense of the phenomenon. Most times before we do an activity, more likely the night before, I pull out the common supplies that each group will need and put them into baskets and then place them in an area that will work for higher traffic flow. Students can quickly grab the supplies and get to work. I number the baskets and label supplies, so this also makes it easier to keep of things that are missing or damaged. Clean-up is simplified as well because students put the supplies back in the basket and then return it to the starting point.anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-31800899485835832642018-08-04T14:50:00.000-05:002018-08-05T15:02:33.697-05:00"It's So Easy, Yeah, So Doggone Easy" Thing #1 to Make Teaching Life EasierMy school can have a lot of movement into and out of the district, so we really need to be on our toes to be ready for a new student. However, I like to try to put things away when we are done using them. So, the last two years, I have made folders for each grade and put several copies of papers we especially use at the beginning of the year. I put the syllabus, safety contract, and other resource items that we use in our notebooks. I keep copies of English, Spanish, and Somali versions. It has been a time-saver to have these ready to go for students.anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-11401032876438058212018-08-03T12:57:00.000-05:002018-08-05T13:28:34.376-05:00"Signed, Sealed, Delivered" Parent CommunicationI am a proponent of parent and guardian communication. My goal each year is to try to communicate with each student's home, not just for concerns but for positive and general classroom operations. Our school has a BTS night and I work to have many things ready for parents to discuss with and sign at that time. Our JH/HS has one conference around mid-term of each quarter. Unfortunately, attendance has been declining, which can be partially explained by having more and more information available online. I still think they are valuable, so I try to call and email parents to encourage them to attend. My numbers are still not terribly high, but I generally have higher numbers than peers that may not personally contact parents. Our school has many students whose parents do not speak English, so we need to work with our school translators. That makes parent communication more complicated but not possible. It just takes more planning.<br />
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To keep track of parent communication, I keep a binder with each student's contact information. I have a form that I use, I found it somewhere quite a few years ago. It's pretty basic. I have thought about moving to an electronic system, but at this time, I still prefer keeping the binder.<br />
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Certain times during the year, depending on the need, I use our gradebook's program to mass email mass email parents. You can select the students you want and even easily copy and paste information to use more than once. I often use this method if students have a large assignment due or a test coming up to maybe add another nudge to the student.<br />
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At the beginning of the school last year, I wanted to start off with a positive communication experience with students and their parents. I read an article in ASCD and I used the same questions from that to create a sheet for students to take home and have their parents complete. If a student's parent couldn't write in English, I encouraged students to talk with their parents and help them complete the sheet. Here is what I used: <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/19XEj5sZuJwHb2bERRuBueU_9ToqlWBIZItMvn8rC-W8/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Parent Homework</a> . The last question helped me plan how to contact parents. They selected what ways were best to reach them, and I tried to honor that as much as was possible. I really enjoyed reading these, and there was a second part, I had students complete a similar sheet and many students were really happy to know what their parents had said about them. I didn't quite get 100% completetion, but it was pretty close. I am planning to do this again this year, for sure with my incoming 7th grade students. I haven't fully decided if I will do it again with my 8th graders or if I will modify it in some way.<br />
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How do you communicate with parents? What have you had success with?anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-31126917698492276222018-08-02T23:57:00.004-05:002018-08-03T11:37:25.561-05:00"A-B-C, Easy as 1-2-3!" All About Me!<div style="text-align: center;">
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A: My husband and I are working on a summer production for our high school thespian troupe. We will be putting on "Almost, Maine." The show will be the first weekend after school starts, Aug. 25th and 26th, so it will be a busy time. The students really love this show, so it should be a</div>
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B: I've read 19 books since January. My goal this year is to read 30 books. I am optimistic that I will surpass that because I don't have pages and pages of reading for graduate school to wade through. My favorites for this year so far are <u>The Hate U Give</u> and <u>Strange Behavior: Tales of</u><br />
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<u>Evolutionary Neurology.</u></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">C: </span><span style="text-align: justify;">My husband and I have seen one concert this summer, </span><u style="text-align: justify;">The Sword</u><span style="text-align: justify;">. They're not 100% my jam,</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> but it was a pretty good show.</span><br />
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D: My husband Derek and I will be married 8 years in October. The years have been going by so quickly!</div>
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E: This will be my eleventh year of teaching, as well as being at the same school!</div>
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F: Falafel is a lovely food to eat. I have been fortunate with my traveling this summer to have eaten it three times this summer. I'm in a really small town and any restaurants in the near vicinity don't generally have it. I also really enjoy fennel, though I haven't found any this summer and I didn't get a garden in this year.<br />
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G: Geocaching is fun a thing to do, especially in the summer. My husband a I don't go a lot, but we were able to go a few weekends ago. We found two on our list, one in a park and one in a conservation area, but one geocache that is located at a favorite restaurant in the area, eluded us one more time. I really think we have been so close finding it, and I think it is more obvious than we think it is, but we've missed it twice now. <br />
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H: I love to drink hot tea with my breakfast in the morning. I have way too many flavors in my cupboard right now, but I like to have variety. My favorite flavor right now is Vanilla Caramel, but I also really like Sugar Cookie (only available during Christmas/Holiday season), Peppermint, and Mixed Berry. One season, an area grocery store had Girl Scout flavors and those were pretty good too.<br />
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I: I have lived in Iowa all of my life. I have lived in four towns, the largest was about 50,000 (technically half of those were college students, but they get counted) and the smallest is my current town of about 2200.<br />
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J: I like to make jewelry. A lot of times I just buy chains and charms I like, but I have found patterns or pictures online and made a few necklaces. Lima Beads, Fusion Beads, Amazon, Michael's and Hobby Lobby are my favorite places to by the supplies that I need.</div>
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K: I like to collect things that might be considered kitschy. We have a few shelves in the house that are home to glass paperweights, funny mugs, and quite a few animal figurines.<br />
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L: I love lemons. I like to incorporate them into different recipes and it is my top flavor for candy, especially Skittles and Starburst.</div>
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M: I finished my M.A. in STEM education in May! I started in the summer of 2016, and it was a completely online program. It is a fairly new major at Loras College, which is fairly new to housing advanced degrees. I believe my cohort, just four students, was the second group to make it through the program. Loras included their advanced degrees in graduation for the first time this year. I actually was the second person to graduate, which is quite a change from high school and undergrad when I was one of the last with a surname starting with 'Y.'<br />
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N: The last two summers, professional development experiences have taken me to Nebraska. Last year, I went to the Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska City. We were able to walk trails, take a wagon ride, visit the mansion, and learn about the farm in general. We were able to stay in the Lied Lodge, which is beautiful. If you ever have a chance to go, you need to try their caramel apple slushie or ice cream, that was a real treat! This year, the International Thespian Festival took us to the capital, Lincoln. We stayed on the University of Nebraska campus. The campus was beautiful and definitely encourages getting steps in, as many buildings are quite spread out. I do have to say though, the dorm food is not on the top of my list of dorm food. However, the food workers were wonderful.<br />
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O: I will be piloting units for OpenSciEd this year. I am excited to implement the units into my classroom. There is a big emphasis on modeling, discourse, and sense-making.<br />
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P: This summer especially because of my extended painting project, I have really gotten into podcasts. My favorites are Radio Lab, Nancy, Ear Hustle, and Code Switch. I am waiting in anticipation the next season of Serial. This past school year, I used Shabam!, which just has one season as part of bellwork for listening comprehension exercises.<br />
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Q: The last few years I have had quotes hanging on my classroom door, close to eye level so that as students are leaving the room or even as they are sitting they might read it. I also have them their for me too. I have enough to change them out for each week of the school year. I'm actually getting close to having enough to change them out everyday. One of my new favorites for this year is "<span style="font-family: "shadows into light"; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Being Negative Only Makes a Difficult Journey More Difficult. You May Be Given a </span><span style="font-family: "shadows into light"; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cactus, But You Don’t Have to Sit On It." ~Joyce Meyer</span><br />
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R: To help the speech team and thespian group be able to take part in different competitions or go to festivals, we have to do quite a bit of fundraising. The last three years, we have been able to partner with a local grocery chain to put on a Ribfest. The store provides pre-cooked ribs and we grill them and we get a portion of the sales. We actually were able to hold two Ribfests this summer and at the first one, we sold almost 320 racks of ribs! That was a new record! They end but the students really enjoy taking part in it.<br />
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S: I have been helping my husband in an unofficial capacity with the JH play since 2010 and started helping with speech when he was hired four years ago. The program has been growing and we are responsible for large-group and individual speech, so a pitch was made to add an assistant coach. I applied and this year, I completed my first year as an official assistant speech coach. I assisted with the high school students, but I was also able to coach one JH group in Reader's Theatre. They were a fun group of students to work with, and I hope that they will continue to go out for speech.<br />
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T: On Thursdays when we are free, my husband and I like to go to a trivia night. Right now, our team is just the two of us, while several other teams have an average of 10 people. However, we seem to do pretty good with just two brains, as we have come in second and third place.<br />
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U: I will be in the possession of two ukuleles. See information in 'X' about one of them. That one is a soprano ukulele. I just bought a concert ukulele, but that hasn't come in yet. I hope to learn how to play them, although, I have had a hard time with the guitar. My mom had wanted one for a while too, so I got her one for Mother's Day.</div>
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V: I have long been waiting to get <u>They Might Be Giants</u> album "Flood" on vinyl. It's one of my favorite albums of all time. I was finally able to get it this spring. I haven't listened to it yet.<br />
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W: I used to work in a water-quality lab, limnology, on campus. I worked in the biological lab and used regular microscopes and dissecting microscopes to examine phytoplankton and zooplankton. We would get counts of the various organisms and also make measurements. Certain plankton signaled higher or lower health of the water. There was also a chemistry lab that studied other qualities of the water such as, phosphorus, nitrogen, dissolved oxygen, or caffeine. If a high level of caffeine was found for example, that indicated that human sewage might be getting into the water.<br />
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X: I bought an X-acto knife this summer to trim wood on a DIY ukulele. I have part of it put together, but I have found a paint color or stain that I want to use on it. So, I haven't finished it yet because you need to have that part done before you string it. I think that this still is the hardest letter to complete.<br />
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Y: Yellow, more specifically mustard, is one of my favorite wardrobe colors.<br />
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Z: While I was out of town for one of my professional learning workshops, I was able to coordinate a meet-up with two of my very good friends from way back in elementary school. On Wednesdays during the summer, Blank Park Zoo has "Zoo Brew," in which you can have a drink or get some food and walk around the zoo. It had been about three years since I have seen my friends, so I am thankful that timing worked out.<br />
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anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-56582671210701175602018-08-01T23:31:00.000-05:002018-08-01T23:31:24.769-05:00"Summer Days Drifting Away To Oh Oh The Summer Nights" What I Did This SummerLong time, no blogging! What have I been up to?! During the summer of 2016, I started my master's degree in STEM education and I graduated in May of this year. I am very glad that I was able to go through the program and learn new ideas and skills for my classroom, but I am also very glad that I am finished! Blogging completely fell off the map, reading for fun took a nosedive, and weekends were for projects, papers, and of course, regular school work! <br />
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This summer I made a conscious decision not to take any classes because I definitely need a break. However, I didn't completely say no to professional learning. In mid-June, I traveled with colleagues to Minneapolis for three days of PLC workshop. I will probably expand upon that at another point in time, so I will just say that if you really want to get something out of a learning experience, you can generally find something to apply to your professional situation. <br />
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Later that week, my husband and I drove two suburbans full of high students to the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska. What a great trip! We were one of three schools that received a "Send a Troupe" grant to attend the festival for the first time. We were able to see a lot of amazing shows that are being put on by high schools across the country and also attend many quality workshops to help make our speech and drama program stronger and encourage continued growth. I was really happy to be back home though, as our days were busy from early morning (I got up at 5:30 am) to 12:30 am (room check time).<br />
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Last week I had the opportunity to take part in a four-day workshop for OpenSciEd. I will be a pilot teacher for two units for my 7th grade. I think that this curriculum is well thought out and will be very interesting for students. I am so hopeful that the process will continue to go well with the possibility of a complete middle school curriculum aligned (or mostly aligned) to Iowa's NGSS model. I have been reading <u>Ambitious Science Teaching</u> and taking part in a twitter chat to discuss the book's ideas and implications, and the pedagogy encouraged through OpenSciEd dovetails with the book. I am so excited to start this process, as this really reflects best practices in science teaching, should be quite engaging for students, and promote learning for all levels of students.<br />
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In between all of that, I have been taking time to read for fun, and in June I started "The Great Painting Project of Summer 2018." I painted our kitchen, hallway, and both of our bathrooms. I was actually hoping that today would be the last day of touch up for a while (until we get a few new fixtures and furniture items), but I found a few places that still need some attention. If I ever have a lot of money, I will have someone retexture (AND PAINT!!) our walls. The wall texture is such that even with rough texture rollers, paint brush, and other paint accessories, tiny little pockets of wall get missed and the old wall color shows through. That part of the painting has been a bit infuriating, but it is a nice makeover for the house. Also, it's pretty mindless work and that's exactly what I needed this summer! It's been a great way to catch up on podcasts too!<br />
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Teachers report on Aug. 17th, so I'm working on enjoying my last days of leisure. What have you been up to?anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-7763337313242239592016-08-17T20:59:00.000-05:002016-08-17T20:59:19.162-05:00 "It's Amazing All That You Can Do" Staff Teambuilding: MTBoSBlaugust Day 17The last couple of years as part of our back-to-school days, we participated in something called "The Amazing Race." Of course many, of you are probably familiar with this concept as it was based on the show by the same name. Great show, by the way! <br />
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I like to be competitive, but I'm not overly obsessed with it. Our version involved a lot of running around the town, and as I've said, I do run, but I don't really consider myself a sprinter. A lot of staff members had difficulty with that aspect; just like many staffs, we have different general fitness levels and conditions that make us more or less able to accomplish all the tasks. Anyway, I was looking forward to maybe not doing the Amazing Race this year with some changes have had in our school staffing, but when I got my school letter, sure enough it was on there.<br />
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However, I was pleased to learn yesterday that the intent was to make it more accessible to all fitness levels. How the competition worked was that we were split into small teams and each team needed at least one smart phone and a Twitter account. We were given a sheet of different challenges to be completed and then we needed to return by a particular time. It was pretty fun, and I am glad that we had a new challenge placed before us this year. It was so successful that our scorekeepers couldn't keep up with all of the Tweets and lost count, so there was no official winner! If you want to see some of my team's pictures (a few are missing due to technology issues ), go to #amazingpirates #teamllama and I think you should be able to find us.<br />
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Does your staff do team building to start the year? What kind of activities do you do?anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-55644623057718561212016-08-15T22:00:00.000-05:002016-08-18T06:01:24.127-05:00"Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto" Learning with Technology Conference MTBoSBlaugust Day 15**Update: I had this post started back in December, but I never finished. Blaugust is a good time to do so!<br />
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It has been a while since I have written anything. The school is in full motion and that has kept me very busy! On Thursday and Friday of this week there was a conference called Learning with Technology. I have been fortunate to win registration for this conference for the last two years, though the conference is only $10 so it is very manageable. Anyway, this is the first year that the conference was two days. I was only able to attend Friday because we had conferences on Thursday.<br />
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In some respects this conference is similar to an EdCamp situation because it is acceptable to leave a session and go attend another one that better fits your needs. They also had some "Unconference" sessions in which people suggest topics and can actual lead them. So overall, this is a very laid back conference, but there is a lot of information that one can go away with.<br />
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I was able to attend five sessions, which I will tell you a little bit about. I will also link to the page that has <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17yQ3LEn1Mr14jHD-QhTe_Ooxnc_bbyfvVn8pVF2-rmQ/pubhtml?gid=1309340346&single=true" target="_blank">extra links</a> for some of the sessions. I don't know how long that page stays active for, so if you find something helpful, I would definitely take what you need and/or bookmark the link you want to save.<br />
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The first session I attended was a Makerspcace Panel. I am aware of the general premise of makerspace, but I really didn't know what to expect when I sat in the session. This probably wasn't the most informative session for me personally, but there were some ideas I can keep in my back pocket. I am certain there are colleagues of mine that may have more a means to run with this information more so than I hope that I might be able to share information in that event. There were a few different makerspaces represented. There were two high schools, a PAC group, one through a library, and one was in an industrial setting.<br />
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The makerspaces had things like 3-D printing, cricut, knitting, MakiMaki, etc. as activities. Schools are making use of spaces like computer labs, which become obsolete because of 1:1 programs. All the programs said to make it work it needs a systems person and a creative person. One of the programs said they give the users a starting point and then lets the users become experts. The programs involve a lot of prototypes and constraints of the problem. There are resources on #makerspace and #makered that the programs recommended. Regarding the 3-D printers, they really recommended doing homework on the devices, especially the filament. One space had a Spheros Challenge to help keep the attention of the users: "When presented with an easier way out, they will take it." Add constraints to programming problems or other designs to keep the ideas flowing.<br />
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The last bit of advice I have about Makerspaces is that if you wait until everything is set, you will never get started.<br />
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Another session that I went to was called <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1m7Ff0VM1CDZHcRMlzRjT2FBed0q4cLc3x3vvZyGRJxA/pub?start%3Dfalse%26loop%3Dfalse%26delayms%3D60000%26slide%3Did.p&sa=D&ust=1471491661237000&usg=AFQjCNHB0-zj0WIpH4flRRZwaKLcEFdtxw" target="_blank">Google Snipits</a>. I really wish that I wrote about this when it was fresh in my mind because I really found this session interesting. The teacher that presented about this (actually, I think he was a principal) <br />
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Most of my notes don't mean a whole lot because they were very technical and unfortunately, I had my iPad that day and this doesn't work on tablets at this point. Anyway, a couple things I found interesting were his Choose Your Adventure stories. I included the link to is presentation, so I think you can find more information about how that worked there. I wrote a note about using it for a getting to know you exercise, but I definitely don't think that will be something I get to this year. There were some scripts that could write out messages for your students or your students could do so. He mentioned something about writing projects that include code too. <br />
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I attended a STEM panel for my next session, but I didn't really take any notes about it. I am in a STEM program and think it is beneficial, but I think STEM is getting a bit overused of late. It is definitely a buzzword right now.<br />
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Moving on: I attended a session about Finch Migration of Robots and Coding. I haven't had really any experience with robotics, so I thought this would be interesting. The teacher who presented this was actually a former HS teacher of mine and he was able to show different connections that could be made to the technology standards and especially math. These robots have left/right motors, sensors for light, temperature, and obstacles. There are sounds and a pen to draw shapes and other things. These robots are $90 and there is some sort of loaner program that schools can look into. I believe he recommended this for the 3-8th grade level.<br />
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My last session was about assistive technology for readers and writers. The presenter shared a lot, but a few stuck out to me. I didn't really take notes on the apps because I was mostly familiar with them, but like all the other technology we get, we often forget about things and revisit them when we have a need for them. Google Read and Write is one that I think a lot of students at my school take advantage of. Because we have a lot of language learners, many of them are still working on reading and writing skills. Having text read aloud often allows these students to be more independent as they work. I made a note about Google Dictionary too. I think that this helps students add different words that they commonly use into a dictionary. Another one I noted was Kaizena, which is a verbal commenting tool. I believe you can add into Google Docs and give students feedback verbally rather than written. For concept maps, there are Lucid Chart and MindMup. I have used those minimally, but I think they could be pretty useful for those tasks.<br />
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I have really gotten a lot out of this conference. I hope that I can continue to go, AND that the cost stays as reasonable as it is.anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-74695701170072395302016-08-14T22:53:00.002-05:002016-08-14T22:53:59.026-05:00"But He's Still Striving And Driving And Making The Turns" The When You're Finished Board: MTBoSBlaugust Day 14Earlier today I finished up a few posts that I had been working, so I was putting off this post for a bit. Tonight, I got to thinking about my Extension/While You Were Finished Board. I implemented this last year to help with some of the idle time that students may have. On a daily basis, I try to run my class from bell to bell-we only have 46 minutes. However, especially because of how diverse our school is, students finish certain things at different paces. We have been a 1:1 school for several years now, and so the tendency for students when there is any sort of down time to play games, chat, watch YouTube videos, partake in social media, etc. With moderation, I don't think most of these things are terrible for students, but I don't think that these particular activities generally serve a positive purpose during class time.<br />
<br />
So, put up a bulletin board with pockets and had index cards with various activities in them. I intended to also put a Symbaloo on my website with some of the internet-based activities, but I didn't quite get that worked out. Unfortunately, my board is at school, and I don't have it up yet because of the unfinished state of my room, but I'm going to list/talk about some of the items. As many of you are aware, coloring books have been all the rage in the last couple of years, so I purchased several and make copies and put them in file folders. Free reading is an option that I have. I am pleased that I have quite a few bookworms that take advantage of this option. I also have pages that I have copied from various puzzle books. These are mostly logic-type puzzles. I have purchased several sets up task cards for different topics that I have available for students to choose from as well.<br />
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My classroom is able to participate in a pilot program called <a href="https://myscilife.org/welcome" target="_blank">MySciLife </a>and there are some options that are really great learning activities, but we can't necessarily get to all of them. I also let students work on other homework as an option. I have included Genius Hour as an option, but I haven't had many students seriously take that on this year. I had wanted to have students to be able to use <a href="https://fold.it/portal/" target="_blank">Foldit</a>, which is a game about protein folding. Basically, it allows many people to work on solutions for how the protein folds. This can help with drug research and learning more about how diseases work. There is a related projected called Nanocrafter, which focuses on DNA. Anyway, I couldn't get the particulars worked out with Foldit, so I temporarily abandoned it. I just recently emailed someone related to the game, so I hope they can help me get that worked out. Nanocrafter was just starting, and I wanted more experience with that, but it looks like it is mostly up and going now. These games are types of citizen science projects, and another site for citizen science I used was Zooinverse. This has a lot of different project types that students could help with. Not all of them are strictly science projects but many of them are. Another site I included is <a href="http://www.spongelab.com/index.cfm" target="_blank">SpongeLab</a>. I haven't used this site a lot, but it does have some educational game and other types of extensions for students.<br />
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That's all I can remember off-hand. I was part of another pilot program, YouthAstronet, in which students had access to remote telescopes that could take pictures of various space objects. I ran a small group for students that taught them how to use the telescopes. At the end of our group, they had time to do some projects. I had a student create a moon journal and several students enjoyed making true color images of different space objects. I would like to use this tool more extensively with students this year, but also include it for that extension time.<br />
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What sorts of things do you have for students to work on during unstructured time?anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-887712444232683572016-08-13T13:24:00.000-05:002016-08-14T13:38:11.773-05:00 "My Heart is Filled, Rebuilt" Quotes for the Classroom: MTBoSBlaugust Day 13My JH math colleague and the tech teacher had some changeable quotes on their doors this past school year. They had them in a sheet protector. I like the idea, so I went through my Pinterest boards for quotes and classroom hangings. I wanted to make the font size large, so I through out some quotes that weren't going to fit on one page. I'm not sure if I will put this on my door or maybe outside my classroom at this point. I am thinking about maybe making a connection into the classroom through my extension board. I am also thinking about purchasing a ready made set of quotes from TPT for science quotes. Anyway, here are the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hJK9gF87_FYD9SLfRUec_BSeQV8XM8-QrgbW9OY5EBM/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">quotes</a> I selected. I tried to be careful and do some homework about who said the quote, though I wasn't always successful. If you find an incorrect attribution, please let me know. A lot focus on kindess, and I think Dr. Seuss is attributed the most in my set!anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-18956102598667506612016-08-12T13:19:00.000-05:002016-08-14T13:20:00.596-05:00 "Unlike Me, Unlike Me, Do You Think I'm Strange?" The ABC's of Me MTBoSBlaugust Day 12Here are the ABC's of me in 2016 (and maybe a little from 2015)!<br />
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<b>A: </b>I bring my lunch to school everyday, and for the most part, I pack a Granny Smith<br />
apple. I love the sour taste.<br />
<b>B: </b>I love to read books! Since I started teaching, the number that I read in a year generally<br />
has gone down, but in the last couple of years, I've made an effort to read something<br />
that I want to read. The two books that I am actively reading right now are<br />
<u>Negotiating Science</u> and <u>Confessions of a Wall Street Shoeshine Boy</u>. The first is about<br />
the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) and argumentation in science. The second is just<br />
a fiction book that I book a few years ago and I want to read it and pass it along. <br />
<b>C: </b>My husband and I both love cats! I will admit that we have more than I think is the<br />
ideal number right now-5! But, I couldn't say no to the ones we have. Elektra is one<br />
of my husband's cats that he had when we first met. Ferguson is a kitten we found<br />
through an ad and she was really my sunshine during a tough year of school. Benson<br />
is a three-legged cat that we found near our house; he is very sweet. Crispin is a cat<br />
that was declawed and neutered and started coming around our house around the<br />
time that Elektra's sister (Shadowcat) was dying of an acute illness. We are pretty sure<br />
someone dumped him. Lastly, we have Simpson. He is just over a one year old and he<br />
showed up to our house one evening. He is an interesting cat, and is a big fan of the<br />
Olympics right now!<br />
<b>D: </b>We went to Dubuque on Thursday with the hopes of seeing Blessid Union of Souls,<br />
Smashmouth, and Eve 6. We did get to see a short set of Blessid Union of Souls, but<br />
because of lightening and then heavy rain, the rest of the concert was cancelled. We<br />
found out that you could get your money back after returning home, so we ventured out<br />
yesterday to get our refund. While I didn't really want to go that far yesterday, it was<br />
a nice day and we had fun looking around at things. I think we found a couple birthday<br />
or Christmas gifts, so that was a success.<br />
<b>E: </b>I added my Earth Science endorsement during this school year. I now only have<br />
physics left. I don't know if I will get to that this year with all the other coursework<br />
I will have. <br />
<b>F: </b>This is a random fun-fact from many, many years ago: I used to collect the small<br />
french fry wrappers from McDonald's. I would keep them in a drawer. I don't<br />
know why.<br />
<b>G:</b> We have a nice-sized garden in our yard, but the early summer was kind of busy, so<br />
we didn't get our half of the garden planted. My in-laws planted their half and<br />
they've had cucumbers and tomatoes so far. The have onions, potatoes, and beans<br />
too. I miss our crops. I liked to plant spaghetti squash and have planted fennel,<br />
beans, and a few other things with pretty good success.<br />
<b>H: </b>My husband has been the JH play director for six years, HS speech director for two<br />
years, and the fine arts tech director for a year. Out of dedication to my husband and<br /> also want of my own, I generally help out with his endeavors. I have been serving as<br />
tech director for the JH play the last two years. Life gets to be quite busy, but that<br />
makes it fun too and keeps you on your toes. We go through streaks where supper<br />
gets to be pretty late.<br />
<b>I: </b>The last cd I bought just came in the mail yesterday. It is by I Monster, which is kind<br />
of a trip-hop group.. I heard a song on a show, Mr. Robot, (which I don't think was<br />
the same version) and I really liked it. This led me to this cd. I am going to try to get<br />
their other ones, but they are pretty scarce pricey. I was able to get this one mostly<br />
through some reward points.<br />
<b>J: </b>June is sometimes a difficult month for me. My father died in June and on some<br />
years, such as this one, the anniversary of his death falls on Father's Day. I usually<br />
try to visit my mom or call her on that day.<br />
<b>K: </b>I like to cook, so the kitchen is a favorite spot of mine. We try to have a few<br />
friend gatherings each year, and I like to come up with menu. Someday, when<br />
we save up more money, we would love to get new cupboards and maybe move<br />
the island in a different direction to open up some more space. Though, those<br />
kinds of plans make me think we'd need to wait on redoing the floors, which I<br />
really would like to get rid of that. Hmmmmm......priorities.<br />
<b>L: </b>I have just started my STEM Master's through Loras College. The program has 10<br />
courses and can lead to some STEM endorsements. I could get a 5-8 STEM<br />
endorsement, and I think I could also get a K-12 STEM Specialist. I don't know if<br />
these will impact my possibilities at my school, but I think it is good to have options. <br />
<b>M: </b>This October, my husband and I will have been married for six years! We are<br />
planning to throw my in-laws a surprise (shhhhhh!) 40th wedding anniversary<br />
party in October.<br />
<b>N: </b>The past two years I have served on the Negotiations Committee for my local union.<br />
I don't think I'm an expert in it yet, but it helps me keep current with contract language<br />
other important issues. <br />
<b>O: </b>October is probably one of my favorite months. I really like the fall weather, and<br />
especially around the area I live in, the changing of the leaves can be quite beautiful.<br />
My mom was married in October, as were my in-laws and my husband and I. My<br />
grandma will be 94 and many times we had family gatherings for her birthday.<br />
I love the color orange, and Halloween is usually pretty fun too.<br />
<b>P: </b>My husband an I are pretty fortunate with where our house is in town. We are in a<br />
sub-development on the outskirts of town. Our house is surrounded by field on two<br />
sides and across the highway is more field. This year is corn. We are on an end lot, so<br />
I think we have a bit more yard available to us than some of the other lots. Last year,<br />
we purchased a lot across from us, in hopes of preventing of any houses being built<br />
directly across from us. Anyway, our property had some trees when we moved here,<br />
but we like to plant more each year. We have planted lilac bushes, burning bushes,<br />
a crab-apple tree, and a Star Magnolia. This summer, we planted a Weeping Willow<br />
in the backyard, a green dwarf apple tree in the new lot, and a Sweetbay Magnolia.<br />
We have quite a few things planted in flower beds and various pots too.<br />
<b>Q: </b>I and many others would describe me as an introvert. I am generally very quiet, but<br />
in certain situations and with certain people, I am less so. However, I really love the<br />
quiet. I like interaction, but I am perfectly content with chilling around home. <br />
<b>R: </b>I took up running late last summer. I had it as a goal for awhile, not because I<br />
particularly love it, but I needed a change in my fitness routine and running is something<br />
I really hadn't done for a long time. One of my best friends suggested signing up for a<br />
5k, so I had three or four weeks of training and ran it. I was pretty pleased with my<br />
results. My goals were to keep running and beat a certain time and I did both of those.<br />
I ran fairly regularly through November and then winter made it difficult to do that. I<br />
started back up March, but my schedule has been bit spotty. I will get back into the<br />
swing of things pretty quick because it really helps with my health and fitness goals. <br />
<b>S: </b> This school year will mark the second year that I will serve in my local union as<br />
secretary. I wasn't 100% wanting to do this last year, but it hasn't been too bad. I<br />
think it is important to be active in our organization, so it is a leadership role that<br />
better allows me to keep tabs of issues that affect us at our school.<br />
<b>T: </b>I love tulips! My husband got the area behind the house ready for planting a year or<br />
so ago, but we keep forgetting to get them planted in the fall. Maybe this little post<br />
will help me remember!<br />
<b>U: </b>In April, I lost my Uncle Ed. In many ways, he stepped into the father role in my life,<br />
as my dad died when I was two years old. Uncle Ed went to the Daddy-Daughter<br />
breakfasts at school with me. I think my aunt has a place mat I made for him<br />
somewhere still. He helped teach me how to drive, and he walked me down the aisle<br />
when I got married. I miss him, but his quality of life was not good for quite some<br />
time, so I'm glad he is free from that now.<br />
<b>V: </b>I love to eat vegetarian options because I love fruits and vegetables, but I could<br />
never be a vegan. There are too many things that I love that don't mesh with that<br />
lifestyle. <br />
<b>W: </b>I am really enjoying the weather we have been having since Friday. It just seems so<br />
peaceful and kind of like fall. It looks like this week won't be too warm, and I saw<br />
that next weekend is looking kind of cool, so the first week with students could<br />
possibly be pretty nice temperature-wise. <br />
<b>X: </b>I found some xylophone mallets that I hope I can use as part of a unit on sound. <br />
This was the hardest letter for me!<br />
<b>Y: </b>I've seen Rachael Yamagata twice now. The last time was in Minneapolis at the<br />
Triple Rock Social Club. I really like her music, but she's not really in the mainstream<br />
music scene so most people I tell about her music or when someone is listening to <br />
it don't know who she is. She's actually playing at the same club in Minneapolis this<br />
fall, but I don't know if we'll go. I'm trying to save my extra funds for grad school. <br />
<b>Z: </b>I have been wanting to plan this trip for some time, but this past spring it finally<br />
worked out. We took our 7th graders to Iowa State University campus for a tour, a<br />
visit to the Biotechnology Outreach Center, and the Insect Zoo! The kids gave a lot<br />
of positive feedback about the trip, so I think we will try to continue it. Other than<br />
the travel costs, it was a pretty low cost trip, with the zoo being the only portion that<br />
had a fee.<br />
<br />
This was definitely a challenge!anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-15555711267288438312016-08-11T13:24:00.000-05:002016-08-14T13:25:40.359-05:00"Do You Want Another Try, Rewrite Some Lines?" The Science Writing Heuristic Part 1: MTBoSBlaugust Day 11I just finished a book called <u>Questions, Claims, and Evidence (K-6)</u> and I have started <u>Negotiating Science (5-10)</u>, which is authored by two of the same authors for <u>Questions, Claims, and Evidence.</u> There is definitely overlap and actually some of the passages are the same, which is fine by me. These books are about the Science Writing Heuristic, or SWH. It is basically a framework to guide student learning and it is a student-led process. I used this framework for a couple of years when I taught HS, but since
moving in JH, I have mostly abandoned it for many reasons. I am looking to start
bringing it back into the classroom this school year. SWH has several components and here is a video clip I found from a school district in my state that gives a nice overview: <a href="https://youtu.be/iIlXAS6d-K8" target="_blank">SWH Overview</a> . <br />
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Prior to starting a unit, the teacher examines what the big idea is. Big ideas are things like: a force is a push or pull or the Earth is part of a larger system. From there, students' conceptions of the big idea need to be elicited during the Beginning Ideas stage. This can be done in several ways, using a discrepant event, watching a video clip, a pre-test or probe, a lab activity etc. Another part of this process has students making their own concept maps, sometimes making a group map or working to make a class map. These maps can be a great tracker of student growth, as students are often asked to complete another map at the completion of the unit. Gathering this information is helpful for the teacher, but also gives the students a platform to start asking questions. In small teams, students can suggest these questions, which will get separated out in testable questions and researchable questions. Students can be given certain parameters which may limit some of the testable questions, but different groups can investigate questions of interest that will tie back into the big idea.<br />
Integrating concept mapping is something that I have been wanting to do for some time, so I am excited to try this out at least with some of our units. <br />
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Stay tuned: I plan to write more about this topic soon!<br />
<br />anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-56714966209139817452016-08-10T21:54:00.001-05:002016-08-10T21:54:23.433-05:00"So Eat It, Just Eat It" What to Pack for School Lunch MTBoSBlaugust Day 10I wrote about this last year, but eating is something that we have to keep doing, so I keep looking for different recipes that are easy for school. I take my lunch for a few reasons: saving money-$600 is what I would spend if I ate at school everyday, it's relatively quick-lunch is 25 minutes but we all know that gets whittled down pretty quickly, and lastly, there are only two of us in my household so I have a lot of leftovers to eat.<br />
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Here are some more of my favorites:<br />
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1. <a href="http://carzycook.com/showthread.php?tid=6381" target="_blank">Chickpea Salad</a>-It has a can of chickepeas (I sometimes double the recipe), celery, dill, onion, lemon juice, and a little mayo. I don't generally eat it as a sandwich filling, just a salad.<br />
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2. Asian-Inspired Tuna Salad-I don't usually eat a lot of meat at lunch time, and I really try not to have items that need to be heated up because that just takes too much precious time. This tuna salad has a can of tuna, green onions, carrots, a little mayo, and little sesame oil. A year or so ago, I found that an area Co-Op sells spring roll wrappers. I've always wanted to make my own spring rolls. Anyway, the filling is to go into the spring rolls. Unfortunately the the link I had for the exact recipe is defunct, but it's a pretty simple recipe.<br />
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3. <a href="http://www.allyou.com/food/supercheap-meals/canned-tuna-recipes/view-all?xid=soc_socialflow_facebook" target="_blank">More tuna recipes</a>-I've tried out several of the recipes on this link and have really liked them. They are mostly simple recipes that have ingredients that you may already have in your pantry.<br />
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4. <a href="http://www.shelikesfood.com/1/post/2016/06/salt-and-vinegar-potato-salad.html" target="_blank">Salt and Vinegar Potato Salad</a>-This is a recent recipe I found. I love vinegar so I was intrigued. The recipe says that if you want a more intense vinegar flavor to boil the potatoes in three cups of vinegar instead of two. I haven't tried that out yet because I made it for my husband who is not as much of a vinegar fan as I am. This recipe doesn't have an egg in it, but has radish as a different addition.<br />
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5. <a href="http://cooktoria.com/recipe/perfect-tomato-salad/" target="_blank">Tomato Salad</a>-I haven't tried this one out yet, but I love tomatoes!<br />
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6. <a href="http://www.ilovevegan.com/lentil-chickpea-salad-sandwiches/" target="_blank">Lentil & Chickpea Salad</a>-This is a recent recipe that I've tried out. I haven't added nutritional yeast or black salt, nor can I find red lentils, but I've done the recipe mostly as it has been written.<br />
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7. <a href="http://vanillaandbean.com/smashed-chickpea-salad-sandwich/" target="_blank">Smash Chickpea Sandwich</a>-This is semi-similar to the previous recipe. I like this one pretty well too.<br />
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If you can't tell, I seem to have a great affinity for chickpeas! What are your favorite lunch recipes?anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-47665744775218579392016-08-09T21:40:00.001-05:002016-08-09T21:40:22.774-05:00"Welcome to the Jungle, We Take it Day by Day" My Bajllionth Room Update MTBoSBlaugust Day 9I am super wiped out today too, but it's not because of a semi-health emergency. I went into my classroom with the goal of moving stuff for two hours and hanging stuff for two hours. However, I kind of got into a groove and decided that because it supposed start being really hot and humid again Wednesday and Thursday for sure that I would move stuff for three hours. I think I got all of my plastic shoe boxes moved out and all of the larger containers. I moved most of my books and binders out. I decided to muster up my strength to save my husband from having to help some of my remaining heavy and awkward items. Luckily, the pallet jack was available and for my first load, I took two typing tables and a small bookshelf. I was able to wrangle a heavy table and a large, but fairly light bookshelf, and for my last load I got my behemoth bookshelf onto the jack, probably in an unorthodox manner, but it got the job done. I had no crashes or any other issues, so I consider that mission to be a success. Though, I don't think I could be a truck driver. Sometimes it was a struggle getting the steering just right.<br />
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I did take some pictures, but I had to take them with my laptop so they are a bit clumsy, and I just realized that I didn't take a picture of my window that makes all the other teachers jealous-ha!<br />
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The first picture shows the microscope cart which I had been able to
along the wall you see at the back of the picture. The second picture
shows where I have stacked my shoe boxes for now.
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The picture with the chairs is the area where my room used to have the library counter. I had most of my glassware, teacher materials, and extraneous items that didn't need to be out in the main classroom area.<br />
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These two pictures show some of the large storage boxes, bookshelf, and table. You can sort of see my new round tables as well.<br />
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I hung my women in science posters up and was going to hang some science practices posters under the other whiteboard, but I think I'm missing a couple. I couldn't find the original file, so I can't confirm. I hope I remember where I have that saved. The blank middle area is where my screen for my projector will go.<br />
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These last three pictures show my decorating I did on the outside of my classroom. I don't really have a need for a "Where We Are" sign anymore because I don't have to travel between rooms, so I am thinking of putting a calendar for study hall so students could sign up to work in my room. I'm not certain about this, though.<br />
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I am leaning toward going back tomorrow to possibly move out the rest of my stuff from the dressing room and/or get posters hung. I am just about to the point though, that I can't do much more until the much awaited cabinets are installed.anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-75708456307038924002016-08-08T22:03:00.000-05:002016-08-08T22:03:03.668-05:00"But if it Wasn't for Your Misfortunes, I'd Be a Heavenly Person Today" Sounds Like a Case of the Mondays: MTBoSBlaugust Day 8I don't have much to say today.............I am totally wiped. I had planned to go into school and hang posters and move out more, but my husband woke up with severe back pain. We got him situated for a bit with an ice pack and a pain reliever. We decided he should probably try to get into the doctor and he decided he would try to get some work done too. So, we both got cleaned up and I went in with him to the grocery stores to help pull old signs. He got some prices input into the system and printed off some new labels. Then, it was off to the doctor. At this point, the doctor thinks he's been having some severe back spasms, so he was prescribed a muscle relaxant. Hopefully, that does the trick. I probably should go into school tomorrow, as the heat and humidity are supposed to return from Wednesday through Friday. One good thing for the day is that I got my grade back for my last class of the summer. I am now two classes down toward my STEM Master's and eight to go!anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-84284200163539982302016-08-07T22:50:00.001-05:002016-08-07T22:50:32.984-05:00"She Needs Wide Open Spaces, Room to Make Her Big Mistake" Progess in My Classroom............Kinda Sorta MTBoSBlaugust Day 7I went into school this afternoon with the goals of of getting my chemical cabinet filled back up, moving things out of the dressing room, and putting some posters and other wall hangings up. I go the chemical cabinet filled up. For awhile I was amazed that I had some extra room in the cabinet, but then I realized that I was missing a box. It took a little bit of searching, but I found the box. With the help of my husband I got my three filing cabinets loaded on the pallet jack and moved those in too. I am hoping that once my elusive cabinets get installed that I can put the items that I store in there into those. We shall see. I was able to move maybe a quarter of my plastic shoeboxes that have various self-made kits or lab supplies in. I got several posters hung and I think I found most of the ones I know that I can hang laid out. Because I can't put anything away I dedicated one table to glassware. I may go in tomorrow to hang some more posters and move more stuff into my room. I have a few big items that I will probably need assistance with-my large bookshelf and a long table, but other than that, I can mostly handle everything if I can find a cart somewhere. I sort of intended to take some pictures today, but I didn't. :( anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-45824926766140229522016-08-06T21:18:00.000-05:002016-08-07T22:05:20.443-05:00"Time Has Its Reasons For Letting Go" 10th Song in my Playlist MTBoSBlaugust Day 6I have my Spotify playlist set on shuffle, just like I do in my iTunes library and when I listen to my Pandora Stations. So, my the 10th song in my playlist isn't any song in particular. What came up was "Cinders" by Sarah Blasko. Here's a link to the <a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/cinders-lyrics-sarah-blasko.html" target="_blank">lyrics</a>. Anyway, as I listened to this song, I thought the message of the song is to let the past go and look to the future. What a great message to think about as we enter a new school year! It's important to learn from the things that didn't go so well and look for solutions. But it's important to start the year with a fresh slate for yourself and your students. anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-42008931417615976652016-08-05T15:01:00.002-05:002016-08-05T15:01:35.317-05:00"Got Work to Do, I've Got Work to Do" More NGSS MTBoSBlaugust Day 5Yesterday I attended another webinar through Rubicon, called "Demystifying the Standards, NGSS in the Classroom, and Teacher Resources." I will say that I didn't find this webinar as helpful as I was expecting, as I think it was more structured toward people that have less understanding of NGSS. I do however, think it was a valuable use of time, as I did pick up some new ideas and resources.<br />
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The webinar started off making reference to <a href="http://www.nap.edu/catalog/13165/a-framework-for-k-12-science-education-practices-crosscutting-concepts" target="_blank"><u>A Framework for K-12 Science Education</u></a>, which if you make an account with National Academies Press you can download and read it for free. You can also download<u> Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards,</u> and maybe some other resources. I haven't read it from start to finish yet, but I have skimmed throughout as I have been working on items for my students. I intend to read it, as it is a very beneficial resource. The webinar hosts referenced the goals for K-12 science education, which I think is very important for teachers and other invested in science education to keep in mind. The goal for students by the time they reach the end of 12th grade is to have some appreciation for science, be able to engage in public discussion, be careful consumers of science and technology related to life, learn outside of school, and have skills to enter careers, including STEM careers. Lofty goals we have cut out for ourselves, but these necessary to increase the level of scientific literacy we have among our citizens.<br />
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The hosts pulled out some key points from the framework goals that will further clarify what science educators need to develop and support in their classrooms. These points were: interest in science, equity in science, engineering, and thinking science, not fact-science. The equity piece stuck out to me in particular, as the first class I took this summer was STEM for All. This class addressed the various barriers that different groups experience in the world of STEM. I have some ideas to try out in my classroom, such as gender same groups in engineering tasks and carefully observing how this works to similar tasks carried out in more heterogeneous groups. The other point that stuck out to me was about thinking-science. As I began this journey to get more acquainted with NGSS and align classroom learning activities, I keep coming back to the thought that if NGSS doesn't change your practice, then you are doing it wrong.<br />
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The other piece that I found helpful was the modification of the 5E model to reflect how one can construct a lesson sequence through the lens of NGSS. Through this lens, Engage becomes the phenomenon that you select to anchor the less on or unit. Explore becomes the place in which students create, make and use models, and do investigations. Explain could be the point at which the teacher gives the students more information such as the actual vocabulary, or students could be doing some research or related reading. Elaborate is where students refine their models and apply their learning to a new situation. Lastly, Evaluate is place for authentic assessments, in which you can see more of your students' thinking. This lens isn't terribly different than the traditional 5E model, but it could simplify the lesson process as one works to implement NGSS.<br />
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One last thing that was shared with us was a website: <a href="https://www.rubicon.com/ngss-resource-round/" target="_blank">NGSS Resource Round-Up</a>. I haven't explored it just yet, but it looks like a worthwhile site to check out. The organizers talked about possibly reaching out with attendees to create a network of educators sharing NGSS resources and curriculum. I don't know what that may entail, but I'm game to find out if that comes to fruition.anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9081043733532364883.post-33179403234818912832016-08-04T10:46:00.002-05:002016-08-04T11:00:11.705-05:00"Mahna Mahnama" NGSS Phenomena MTBoSBlaugust Day 4In a about a half and hour, I will be joining in on my second webinar through Rubicon on NGSS. In early June, I caught wind of one, maybe in my Twitter feed and thought that it would be a great use of one of my last professional learning days. This webinar was called NGSS Phenomena and the host or expert was <a href="https://twitter.com/tjscience" target="_blank">TJ McKenna</a>, who I was unfamiliar with until this point.<br />
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He introduced himself and said he was involved with a program called "Science Sunday" and that he was kind of the "Anti-Bill Nye," in that he tries not to just answer questions. I am a fan of Bill Nye and use his resources with my students from time to time, but he is correct in that we often get too much of the "answer" when we watch one of his programs, instead of figuring it out ourselves.<br />
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Mckenna's over-arching goal is to use phenomena in "academically productive" ways. He outlined a couple of examples of what he means. At the high school level he talked about the classic egg drop lab that many teachers do for physics. It is an engaging lab generally for students. But what if you gave it more of a purpose? So he talked about connecting the task with the recent epidemic of Ebola. The task then became dropping in supplies to the people in areas with Ebola and this gives a need for designing such an apparatus that takes into account the concepts students would be learning. An example for middle school was the traditional Bird Beak lab. Similar to the egg drop situation, he found a connection to an emergent health concern: Zika. His thought was "does Zika fit natural selection; is adaptation a thing we can see?" That would serve as a lead into the Bird Beaks activity. The take home message about phenomena is that it shouldn't just have a quick easy answer. "You can Google content, but you can't Google knowledge." He through out a couple things to Google: the shower curtain effect, golf ball dimples, drafting in bicycling. If there's something you are wondering about, Google it, get some background and see how you could connect this to content you make work through with students.<br />
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As he was closing his webinar, he shared some resources that may be helpful in increasing your use of phenomena-based science. One book he shared was <u>The Theory of Island Biogeography</u> by E.O. Wilson and Rober MacArthur. This book presented an interesting case in that everything was killed on the island, I believe, to find out what happened next, specifically what would be the first colonizer. In this case it was spiders, but they died because of a lack of food. This book spurred much investigation on island biogeography and related topics. He also mentioned a couple of other books, <u>NGSS for ALL Students</u> and <u>Becoming a Responsive Teacher</u>. I have purchased this last one, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet. It looks like it will be a worthwhile read, though. Lastly, he shared with us, his website: <a href="http://www.ngssphenomena.com/" target="_blank">Phenomena for NGSS</a>, which is a site with mostly pictures and some information about curious things that might make a good phenomenon for a lesson or unit. <br />
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I found this webinar to be very worthwhile, and it gave me some ideas about trying out some of the phenomena this year. Hopefully, as I tap into my creative mind, I can come up with more such ideas on my own! Well, my next webinar is about to start!anne_mayrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274927860445717569noreply@blogger.com0