What a Novel Idea!

I thank those of you who are using the blog as a resource for best practices. That is, of course, the purpose for what I write here.  Here's a great example of blog-inspired instruction:  Stations, and a bonus of inferencing too!

In these stations, students worked on inferencing skills to apply to their current novels. Each station had a different medium for students to practice inferring meaning: reading short stories, watching commercials, analyzing objects, and interpreting photographs.

Who Knew It Was a Short Week?

 

I love how we are maintaining a learning focus during a short week that could easily be blown off as educational fluff.  As we move into the holiday season and kids (ok, let's be honest - adults too) get a little "off balance," it's important to maintain high engagement and focus.  By implementing authentic learning and highly engaging instruction, everyone maintains the focus for learning. 

 

 

 What?  The Fitness Room is booked?  No big deal!  Check out Health/Fitness getting creative with space and keeping all kids focused on healthy habits.  I've been impressed by how this team works together to share equipment, space and students in order to have all students engaged in healthy activities!

 

 

Station Teaching is still one of my favorite instructional methods for student engagement (in case you missed the last blog about this, I thought I should be clear).  In this room, collaborative teaching with a student teacher adds to the focused instruction.  While one teacher is a station discussing the principle of Confucianism with students, the other is monitoring the learning activities at other station, activities which include computerized quiz games, videos, and primary source analysis. 

Give me a K-I-N-E-S-T-H-E-T-I-C....

 

Getting kids to use their bodies to represent learning is a great way in increase student engagement and increase memory.  Check out 7th grade science  and how they use a variety of models to help students understand atomic structure (drawings, technology, 3D, etc).

In the classroom, students were assigned a particle to represent and practiced building different elements (1 proton, 1 electron, 1 neutron = hydrogen). After building the largest possible element in each class, the two classes met outside to combine forces. In this model, students took on the characteristics of the model - protons and neutrons clumbed together and swayed, while electrons whizzed around the entire field. This was a great way to engage kinesthetic learners!

Hooray for the Techies!

What a great idea to make it easy for parents to access the website for homework!  On conference nights, 7 Green handed out labels for parents to direct them to the website.  Just scan the QR code and it takes you right to the homework section of the website.