H T A D T N A S I T
Volume 6 Issue 19 May 2018
Idea & activities to finish out the school year Engaging Students after GSA When the General Summative Assessment is finished and you still have days, maybe weeks, left in the school calendar, a teacher may become frazzled with how to keep the students engaged in the classroom. We often think, “I’ve already taught the necessary content,” or “What’s the point, my students won’t remember this information in the Fall.” However, this is the perfect time to be able to remember why we became teachers in the first place. We have the time to implement creative, engaging, and fun-filled lessons that we dreamed of doing when we first earned our teaching degrees. Now is the time to try those lessons and implement technology to keep students engaged, prevent them from swinging from the light fixtures and keep our sanity until Summer Break.
They’re Too Young for Technology With elementary students, we can sometimes sell them short on their abilities to interact and use technology. Often times we find that if students, even kindergarteners, are given the opportunity, they will surprise many of us with their ability to adapt to the learning environment. One fun way to keep students engaged during the last few weeks of school is to implement STE(A)M projects. STE(A)M projects when used in conjunction with Project-Based Learning are a great way to keep students engaged in the classroom. Students can be presented with problems and basic materials in which they must work together to construct a solution to the problem. Students can construct mazes out of paper plates, colored paper, pipe cleaners, glue, and tape for a marble to pass through. When reading passages on inventions or flight, students could create some vehicle that must fly and have a competition for the furthest flight. This could easily be turned into a writing assignment to discuss the process in creating the vehicle,
the results, andimprovements for future trials. Allowing students’ interests and inquisitions to spark ideas provides a limitless source of ideas for projects. Coding is another great way to keep students engaged until the end of the school year. Several companies have introduced basic coding robots. These robots can be used to move the robot to review sight words, order a set of words in alphabetical order, order a set of fractions and/or decimals from least to greatest. Many people have made an apparatus to allow these robots to hold a writing utensil. Wonder Workshop has recently released an add-on that is compatible with their DASH and Cue robots. By having the robot hold a writing device and placing it on an appropriate surface, students can code the robot to draw images. This could be used in art for drawings, in math for geometric shape instruction, and in science to draw the parts of a plant. The uses for this technology in the classroom are endless. Misty McNeeley New River Elementary School Fayette County
While preparing for the end of the year can be stressful for some, it got me thinking about how I can incorporate a little fun and quirkiness into my students’ day here at school. While listening to the radio one morning on the way to work, they were talking about a holiday I had never heard of so it got me thinking – what other unique holidays are there? With a quick search online, I found there are a TON! So many in fact you can celebrate something whacky, fun, and quirky every day of the year. On page four of this newsletter, you will find a calendar full of some of the fun holidays I found to celebrate until the end of June. Using the links above the calendars will also allow you to gain further information concerning those holidays and much more. Kara McDaniel Eagle School Intermediate Berkeley County
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Year-End Lesson Ideas for the Middle School Testing is over, summer is near -and you’re wondering how to teach students who genuinely believe the remaining days of the school year will be nothing but movies, games and parties. Here are just a few ideas to keep those brains engaged at the end of the year – and to perhaps familiarize yourself with new technology tools at the same time. 1.Podcasts – Podcasts are a valuable, easily-accessed resource about which many middle school students have given little thought. Students can start by providing reviews or summaries of the ones you choose for them (a quick Google search will yield numerous ideas if you’re not sure which to choose). From there, students can independently find Podcasts to share with the class, or they can even create their own. 2. Skype -- Skyping is another option that students may have never used – or at least, not in the classroom. Mystery Skype is a unique way to meet students from another part of the country. Your class will be paired with another class from an unknown location, and students will try to guess that location by asking simple yes or no questions. For a contentrelated activity, students can Skype with an expert on a topic you’ve covered in your class. 3. Read aloud – Reading aloud is not just for reading class! Middle school students love listening to a good story – some of them also love being the reader. If ELA is not your
content area, you can adapt this by choosing books, stories or articles that connect to something learned that year. You may want to model reading aloud using Audible or any other similar resource. 4. Review activities – Instead of introducing new content, try review activities. Students can create their own review quizzes on Kahoot or use a tool like FlipGrid to create videos about something they’ve learned. For a more traditional approach, assign groups of students a topic to re-teach to their peers. A variation is to let students choose any topic that interests them and to teach their peers something about that topic. 5. Online discussions – For many middle school students, academic online discussions are a foreign concept. Teach students how to participate in online discussions using Google Classroom (or the equivalent used in your classroom) and a thought-provoking topic. Students can practice composing thoughtful responses and appropriate replies to other students’ responses. 6. Icebreakers – Most teachers do icebreakers at the beginning of the year – try them at the end of the year to see how students’ tastes have changed. Use NearPod surveys to easily gather information and then share the results with the class. With school technology becoming more and more advanced, teachers have access to so many interactive options to keep students engaged all year long. There is no need to rely on movies to keep students’ minds occupied!
Melissa Hissem Mountain Ridge Middle School Berkeley County
Have you caught FlipGrid Fever yet?
Flipgrid is a learning platform dedicated for students students go to share ideas and learn together. FlipGrid allows you to create short discussions in “grids”. The students respond to the discussions through recorded videos. FlipGrid has been a game changer in my classroom. It has allowed those students who would rarely speak up in class to have a voice and to better participate. FlipGrid offers two ways teachers can use it. FlipGrid One, which is the free version, gives teachers access to a single-grid version. This allows the teacher to have as many topics as they wish. The FlipGrid Classroom, which cost $65 for an individual subscription, allows teachers to create unlimited grids, topics, responses, and offers the students the chance to reply to other videos.
Here is a link for the FlipGrid review from Common Sense Media. I also love that Sean Fahey and Karly Moura have put together a 2nd edition of The Educator’s Guide to FlipGrid which you can find directly in the resources section of FlipGrid. If you haven’t checked out FlipGrid I would highly recommend it and see how you can connect to other teachers across the globe. Happy FlipGridding!
Kara McDaniel Eagle School Intermediate Berkeley County
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Droning on in the High School Drones in the past few years have become widely used in the U.S. to capture aerial footage, collect data, help in search and rescue missions and create 3D maps for architects. In other parts of the world, companies are toying with the notion to deliver products to consumers and replacing aircraft for broadcasting and other tasks. Needless to say, drones are an up and coming technology that have various practical applications that will save companies time and money. In the high school setting, classes are done by subject and to some may seem like using drones or coding in the class room are math and science only activities. However, with modifications and the right mindset, any teacher at any level can use the activities. With warm weather finally arriving now is the time to take advantage of this technology for your class rooms. Ryze Tello
Parrot Mambo The biggest barrier to this activity is cost. Drones can range from about fifty dollars into the thousands. A good classroom style drone for these activities such as the Parrot Mambo or the Ryze Tello will range from $100 to $150 each depending on how you equip them. On the upper end there are still many options to choose from. DJI is the clear leader when it comes to consumer drones. Their store offers a 10% discounts for education, which comes in handy. They are not the only brand, Autel Robotics, Yuneec, and GoPro all produce very good drones as well. The cost per unit for one of these devices range from approximately $500 upwards to $1200 and beyond.
If cost is an issue or you want to try-before you buy, a great resource to use is the WVDE’s Robo-to-Go lending program. They have Parrot drones that teachers can borrow as well as an assortment of other robotic devices to check out. All you need to do is check with you TIS and your administrators to check out and in return create a lesson plan. You can go to https://tinyurl.com/y9lj8m5f for more information.
Buffalo High School at sunset
This past school year we have used a DJI Phantom for yearbook and broadcasting. We’ve been able to add a new component to our productions by adding this technology. For our yearbook we’ve added several photos of crowded football games, taken photos of the school that were considered impossible before. With our purchasing of the HDMI output module for the Phantom, my students were able to add an NFL style element of circling the stadium and even give a bird’s eye view of the game. Both our Band and Football coaches love it to see thier formations at work. Beyond sports we have used it as a discussion piece in my civics class about freedom of speech and privacy issues. Our art class has used it to draw the local horizon in an activity learning to shade. In my upcoming multimedia course, next year students will be able to use this drone to obtain an FAA Part 107 Unmanned Arial Vehicle license. Students will be able to use in industry and business in order to fly for profit and possibly turn a likely hobby into a career.
My school recently purchased Five Ryze Tello drones, mostly for our coding class and also to be shared. We chose the Tello because it is easily able to be coded through MIT’s Scratch block based coding system for the beginners or the SDK program allows advanced coders to unlock the devices potential capabilities. Parts were relatively inexpensive and it also had a ton of parts that could be 3D printed. At the time of writing this article we are planning on the students in the coding class to put their skills to the test and make their Tellos race each other and do stunts by coding in those long few days we have in June. Other drone ideas: Build a drone: Kits can be found online to build a drone from parts. watch the kids marvel at their creations! Shoot Video for a School Project. Take video from above or get footage from otherwise impossible angles. Geography: putting maps and charts to scale. Make a topographic map overlay with a drone photo. Language Arts: Illustrate different points of view. Science: Look at the repeating patterns in the micro and macro world. To make sure you follow the law and fly save, go to the FAA website for more information. https://faadronezone.faa.gov/#/ Jeremy Litton Buffalo High School Putnam County
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UPCOMING SCHOOL HOLIDAY FUN! On this page, you will find a calendar full of some of fun holidays to celebrate until the end of June. Go and create some lessons around these days and have some fun!
More May holiday ideas
More June holiday ideas
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Resources Ideas for Low Tech Maker Spaces MiddleWeb Tons of resources for middle school teachers (grades https://www.pinterest.com/listerh286/low-tech-notech-makerspaces/?lp=true 4-8). https://www.middleweb.com Wonder Workshop Activity Cards with games and challenges. https://www.makewonder.com/
Scratch Coding Create stories, games, and animations eith coding! https://scratch.mit.edu/
Khan Academy Drawing with Code https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/programming/drawing-basics/p/ making-drawings-with-code
Big History Project A site sponsered by the Gates foundation thats a wealth of history resources and a curriculm wrapped into one! https://school.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive
Meet the Authors Melissa Hissem teaches 7th grade reading at Mountain Ridge Middle School in Berkeley County. She received her B.A. in English from Denison University in Ohio (her home state) and her M.A. in Educational Psychology from West Virginia University. She has been living and teaching in Berkeley County since 2008. In her limited spare time she enjoys reading, visiting family and spending time with her husband Jameson and cat Dmitri. Jeremy Litton is currently a social studies teacher at Buffalo High School in Putnam County. Being the Jack-of-all-trades in a small school he is the Athletic Director, SYSOP, Webmaster and Yearbook & Media Club Sponsor. He’s been teaching for 7 years and holds a bachelor’s from Marshall University and is working on a Master’s in Leadership Studies. Kara McDaniel is currently the computer teacher/SYSOP at Eagle School Intermediate in Berkeley County. She’s been teaching for 19 years and holds a Masters +59 hours as well as an Educational Leadership license. She is also an Apple Teacher, a Level 2 FlipGrid Certified Educator, Certified Microsoft Innovated Educator, and a PioNear through Nearpod. Misty McNeeley is a special education teacher at New River Elementary in Fayette County, WV. She graduated from Concord College with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and earned a Master of Arts degree in Special Education from the University of Phoenix. She has been in the field of education for 14 years, 3 years as a paraeducator and 11 as a special education teacher. Two of those years have been here in Wild, Wonderful West Virginia. She enjoys spending time with her active daughters, ages 3 and 7 and husband. Special Thanks to Emily Fuller at Putnam County Career and Technical Center for assiting with artwork.
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