Desktop Learning Adventures

I’ve had some really good teammates over the years.  They’ve mostly been amenable to my *great* ideas.  I had one teammate, when he was still relatively new to the team, ask, “How do you tell Pam, no?”  I’m really not used to hearing that word, but I guess there are times... Hmmm, I can’t really think of a good time to tell me no.  Anyway, Math Fair was one of those times. I was in the middle of my masters program and completely inspired by one of my math classes. I wanted to share my enthusiasm by showing teachers and students that kids could and should like math.  What better way than to have a math fair for the entire school, sponsored by 5/6?  (We were multi-age that year.)  I would be happy to organize it.  They said, (wait for it...) “no”.  I’m sure they had a good reason at the time, but I stopped listening after, NO.  Fine, then I would have a math fair for my teammates’ classes and show them exactly how it coul...

This month's blog hop from your friends at Secondary Smorgasbord is all about getting your students organized and their brains engaged, ready to learn, with morning bell ringers (I call them warmups. :)   Picture first thing in the morning- For me, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.  I loved it because every day was a fresh start.  I hated it because 6th graders are sooooo noisy when they are getting settled in for another day of learning.  A good friend of mine wrote morning warmups on the board and the kids would do them as soon as they arrived.  What a great idea! However, the other part about first thing in the morning is I’m not a morning person, so to write warmups every day was not going to work for me.   My break finally came, when I got my new (now borderline “vintage”, or so I was told recently) laptop.  Finally, a format that worked for me!  I could make my warmups ahead of time and plug them in first...

I love using RAFTs with kids. It's the ultimate in "let's pretend..."  That said, I'd like to introduce you to my newest creation.   Animal  RAFT- Research to Presentation   happened, as so many of my units do, out of a genuine need to have students show understanding and have fun learning.  In this particular instance, animal studies and their environments were part of our sixth grade Outdoor Lab School curriculum preparation.   I wanted them to realize research is for a purpose. It's not the end product, rather, a small step in that direction.  Using a guided research method, we took the  opportunity to work on note taking/ paraphrasing skills.  No more regurgitation of meaningless words copied from a book. They were going to own their information.      The research.  I allowed three days of class time for them to take all the notes they needed.  Day one, take notes.  At the beginning of days two ...

Let’s face it, teaching is hard work.   So if I’m going to work hard, I’m darned sure going to have fun doing it!   Visualize the end of the school year.   Testing is over. Spring Break is over. Kids are done! It’s time to pull out all the stops and keep them engaged.   Yep, it is time for Readers’ Dinner Theatre! The Plan... I’ve long since known, if there’s an opportunity to have parents involved and add food to the mix, that gets everyone’s attention.  That is exactly what we did with Readers’ Dinner Theatre.  We called it dinner, but it was really lunch. The plan was to set up the library as a dinner theatre, and all the food to be served buffet style.  We had a tight schedule- seven school days from start to presentation.  (I believe in giving kids a tight schedule because it keeps them focused.) The library was available; parents signed up to bring food and join us; the kids had to work within a deadline.  It also place...