See you all next week! Until then, you can follow the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour on my spaced out blog at http:www.greatdaytolearn.com/learningendeavour . Hope to see you and your class there! 🙂
Do you ever find a REALLY good blog post and think, gee, how long have I been missing out on reading this blog? The other night, as I read a post on Crazy Teaching blog, written by @mrsebiology ss and by the time I got to the part about using teaching collaboration and problem solving, I was already thinking what a great post it was. Did you ever notice that when you read a great blog one of the following happens….
A) You think “Wow, that’s right…” and then you build on the thoughts in your own mind.
B) You think “Hmmmm, I’m not sure if I agree with that because…”
C) You begin thinking of your next lesson or schoolday and create a plan. 🙂
Either A,B, or C all have one thing in common…. a great blog makes you THINK and LEARN. Isn’t that what good teaching is all about, after all?
So, I posted question the following tweet asking for everyone to share their favorite blogs… almost instantly… the following tweets came in. Proof once again, that even at like 9:00 on a Sunday evening, you can collaborate and learn from others. Thanks to those who responded for the great new material I have to keep me thinking!
@jofrei sent:
@TeacherMelissa sent:
@JustinTarte sent:
@ByrdseedGifted sent: @ddmeyer‘s site at http://blog.mrmeyer.com
@tperran sent:
Got a favorite blog… or your own… please leave a comment and share!
My Very First Classroom
When I think back to my first year of teaching, about ten years ago, I remember setting up a website using Geocities. I think it was really just a glorified business card. I used WayBackMachine to take a look at my very first site. It was www.beeyourbest.com back then! It was a place for parents to get my contact information, had some clipart, and a page or two with some photos of our classroom. I’ve been working on an overhaul of my own classroom website and have been thinking a great deal about what I want to include on my new-improved version. One thing I know for sure, a classroom webpage no longer is a product of the teachers work, it should be a product of student work, too. It should become a place for students to collaborate, share, and publish their work to show the world what they are learning.
Here are a few of thoughts I have rolling around in my head while I enjoy Spring Break….
1.) Make a blog a big part of your site. Don’t have time to publish posts? Put a couple of students in charge! Use a free blog like Blogger or WordPress.
2.) Take photos. Lots of photos. Have a student in charge of photography for the day and letting them evaluate from the batch of photos which one best represents what was learned is not only a job they will love, but again, it shares a piece of learning with the world.
3.) Make it interactive. Incorporate wiki’s for students to share links. Use a service like Diigo and link for students to collaborate. Add a wallwisher.com for students to ask and answer each other’s questions. Add a Moodle so students can discuss, share, and work on classwork from home. These simple tools make a page come alive.
4.) Embed a Google Calendar! Google Calendars are EASY to update and can help keep everyone informed of upcoming events. Even more fun, make a calendar and post a “Question of the Day” to inspire learning something new every single day.
5.) Add videos! Let students interview each other and post short clips on a SchoolTube channel set up for your class!
So, got a classroom website (or a favorite you like to visit) that you want to share? Please link it below! I could use some inspiration to get started…
You know what I notice when I take a walk with my class? Everything. Not because I’m overly observant, but because my kids are. There’s a bug on the sidewalk. It begins…. “What kind is it? What does it eat? It looks like a ladybug, but it’s not because it has…” So then, a kid sees a bird flying overhead and tells me about how pigeons are a real issue in big cities, but he wonders if we have any problematic birds here. As we walk, two kids talk about sore muscles and lactic acid. The questions? They. Never. Stop. Somedays I am sure I could throw anything on the table and they’d want to learn about it. A rock? A sundial? A leaf from a tree? A photo of someone famous? A problem in our community? Curiosity drives them. They want to learn the same way a baby bird in a nest is starving for worms. They don’t want someone to tell them the answers. They need to investigate. Explore. Discover. So, the next time a student asks you a great question, resist that powerful urge to just tell them the answer. I know it’s hard. As teachers, we feel like we should answer all of their questions. But, answering their questions is just like putting the fire of curiosity out. Instead, take a moment, and respond with something that will ignite their thinking. You’ll see their minds burning even brighter.
A few weeks ago, I blogged about the NASA Tweetup. Well, it’s finally almost here! I’ve set up a blog called Learning Endeavour to share the experience with my students (and yours!) I have been thinking of all the ways that space science can be integrated into the curriculum. Why not plan a few special activities and watch the launch LIVE with your class next week? (April 29, 3:47 EDT)
1. Elapsed Time: The countdown clock stops and starts often during holds. What better way to learn about elapsed time than to calculate the minutes and seconds that pass between holds. For more information, visit NASA’s Countdown 101
2. Sequencing: Ask students to research the flight path of the Space Shuttle. They could explore writing with words like next, then, and after. Or, let them sequence the events on a timeline.
3. Experiment: The shuttle will be docking with the International Space Station. Tons of experiments occur on the ISS. Host a “Space Station” day in your classroom. Set up some fun experiments, give everyone an astronaut badge, and let them rotate through the station. Serve snacks of applesauce in baggies or pudding to drink through a straw like space food!
4. Make Rockets: Soda Straw Rockets are not only easy to make, if you leave the fin design up to students, they can experiment and learn as they try to improve their rocket. Measure the distances travel and for more advanced math, determine the mean, median, mode, maximum, and minimum of the data.
5. YouTube: Watch some authentic moments from history on YouTube like Apollo Astronauts singing on the moon, the return of Apollo 13, or more!
6. Roll Out: For the ultimate math problem, learn about how long it takes to roll the shuttle out to the launch pad, the speed of the crawler, how much fuel it uses, and how much it costs. Lots of math involved and it’s pretty interesting! Here is a video to get kids interested! This handout from NASA has all the facts and figures and some you didn’t even know you wanted to know.
7. Mission Patch: Explore the LIFE Mission Patch Gallery. Older students could choose a patch, research the mission, and determine what symbols are on the patch. Students could also choose a historical event of any type and create a Mission Patch. Imagine a Mission Patch design of the Oregon Trail or Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream Speech.”
8. Analyze A Launch: Ask students to watch a launch video and think like a scientist. Have them record their observations. Then, ask them research the steps to a launch. Many details occur that they might not see until after they explore what happens during a launch!
There are a million different directions you could take learning in, you never know where students’ questions are going to end up! But, that’s what learning is all about!
