Student-Centered Learning - Sample Lesson Idea!

 When students read a novel in my classroom, I love to present students with several project ideas as a culminating assessment rather than give a novel test or have the students write an essay. Yes, writing essays is very important and we do that throughout the entire year. However, for middle schoolers, I want to teach them to own the material in the book, to show deep and thoughtful understanding of the themes, and also to take control of their knowledge of the text we read. 

I give my students at least 3, but no more than 5, choices for a project to complete at the end of a novel. One of my favorites is to create a movie trailer for the novel. Students must show a deep understanding of both themes and plot to be able to create this project. I have used this movie trailer idea several times, and even though the kids are super excited to try it, very few have completed it. So, I asked the kids why that was. The answer - they didn't know how to edit the videos to make them look good. They only knew how to shoot a video, but not how to finish it. 

So, I had to solve the problem with something easy to use, free, and readily available to my students. Then I found it - OpenShot! OpenShot is all of those things and can used on Mac, Windows, and Linux. My students could easily pull it up on their Chromebooks in school and use it with their classmates, which eliminates students having to get together outside of class to work on a project. It is wonderfully free, which we all know is a teacher's dream come true, and it is easy to use. Students are able to quickly and easily navigate OpenShot to make some seriously fantastic videos. 

I love this student centered activity because students are able to show how they visualize a novel while reading.  Their creativity shines forth when creating a movie trailer. OpenShot makes it so much easier, too.

https://www.openshot.org/

Using Google Classroom

 Even if you are face to face with your students, using Google classroom can be helpful with keeping your classroom assignments organized. Another great benefit for using Google classroom is to help parents stay in the loop with what is going on in the classroom in the event a student is absent, especially if for an extended period of time. 

Many of my students come into my room only having limited knowledge of how to use their Chromebook. In the beginning of the school year, it is crucial that students know how to submit assignments in order to be successful. After we join the classroom together, the next step is teach students how to submit an assignment. Here is a great infographic teachers can share with their students to remind them how to submit their assignments. This chart could easily be put into the stream on Google Classroom or class website to be readily available to students at all times. 

I love using Piktochart to create graphics like this. It is engaging for students, looks highly professional, and is also easy to use. Piktochart has many templates already available for users to pick from, many of which as generic enough that the user can manipulate it easily for his or her needs. 

Reflection

 I think having a blog to share educational ideas could be very useful. I have ideas brimming all of the time, but they can fizzle out when I find I do not have the medium to express those thoughts and ideas.  There is so much information out there for teachers and also new tools that are coming out all of the time. It is truly going to take teachers from around the globe to come together to help each other, and a blog could certainly be the format that could be helpful. Many teacher already use this method and have found great success. 

At home, I want my students to spend time being children and not spend their time behind a screen. The only homework I assign is to either go outside or read/listen to a book for at least thirty minutes. Even thirty minutes is not truly enough time, but it is a minimum. Where I can see a blog being a good tool to collaborate with students, I didn't want to take this blog in that direction for that particular reason - I don't want my students to be on screens at home as often as they usually are. So, for my assignment, I made my audience other teachers and focused my collaboration efforts on my professional peers rather than my students. Even though that is the direction I wanted to take on this assignment, I did include ways for students to use collaboration in the classroom via ThingLink. I am excited to have found this tool and will play with it more in order to incorporate it in my classroom now. 

Overall, this certainly was a learning experience for me. Even though I use technology in my classroom quite a bit, I usually learn best by watching others use a device or tool. I admit to getting flustered with new technology or tools at times. I had to leave my comfort zone and find web based tools that I was unfamiliar with in order to complete the assignment. Even though I am very familiar with ABCya!, I didn't think it would fulfill all the requirements for the assignment and I therefore wanted a second web based tool to post about in the blog. 

The Beauty of Thinglink!

I recently came across this amazing web based tool called ThingLink and I am very excited to get started using it in my classroom. I am still new to the tool, but the sky is the limit with it!

Students can work together or independently to create or interact with already existing photos, videos, music, texts, and more. 

The one thing tat stands out the most for me is to use this as a way for students to post their own work, especially as a portfolio (Kuhn). On their ThingLink, students can keep track of their work throughout the year and have everything easily at their fingertips in order to document growth. This is especially helpful when a student might be struggling with a particular skill. 

How this can be used to collaborate:

- Students can view each other's work and comment on it

- Students can interact with materials the teacher has created for hands on, collaborative learning

- Students can use this as a way to "get to know you" in the beginning of the year. This is such a valuable tool to have for teachers for their classroom management. 

- Students can map data collaboratively for various assignments, such as setting in a novel or non-fiction text, and see how the setting affects the plot. 

Kuhn, Cyndi. (no date) 87+Interesting Ways to Use ThingLink in the Classroom. Think           Different. Retrieved 21 March 2021 from https://www.cyndikuhn.info/uploads/2/1/8/2/2182770/_ways_to_use_thinglink_in_the_classroom.pdf 

Stop! Grammar Time!

Grammar.

The word can instill fear and panic in teacher, student, and parent alike. But, the world of sitting and diagraming sentences has changed - for the better. Now, it is easy to engage students with several different online resources and tools to help them navigate the rocky roads of grammar. 

The first step in becoming a grammar guru is to master the eight parts of speech. When a student is able to take a sentence and identify what part of speech each word is, most of the work is already complete. 

One of my favorite activities to have students do is play the Parts of Speech Quest games on ABCya.com. 

There are nine Parts of Speech Quest games available on ABCya!

You can find a list of all 9 games here!  The nine games include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, interjections, conjunctions, prepositions, and also a game that includes all eight parts of speech at the same time.

This is a fabulous resource for helping struggling learners to reinforce some skills while still allowing more advanced students to play a fun game while strengthen their skills. 

ABCya! has 

Welcome!

 Welcome to my blog! My name is Kari Calhoun and I am middle school ELA teacher in a tiny private school. Even though I only have 30 students in that span from grades 5th to 8th, we have a wonderfully diverse group of kiddos in our bunch. Our group has both gifted and special needs students all together, which makes teaching a challenge at times. I believe strongly in hands on learning and allowing students to take the lead in their education. This means we have a loud classroom that is always popping full of academic (and sometimes not so academic) conversations. When students are able to collaborate and also work hands-on, they are able to retain more, use higher order thinking, improve student-teacher rapport, and many other bonuses (Center for Teaching Innovation, n.d.). The best part of it, though, is the excitement both my students and I have in the classroom. 

I hope that everyday is a day full of excitement for my students!

Center for Teaching Innovation. (no date). Collaborative Learning. Retrieved 20 March 2021 from https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/engaging-students/collaborative-learning#:~:text=Why%20Use%20Collaborative%20Learning%3F,%2Dmanagement%2C%20and%20leadership%20skills.