Grade Six Best Practice

Here is our Grade Six Best practice presentation. We hope that the other grades will follow and post their best practices as well :) 

First DANCE PL3Y for Div. II

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to say thanks to Mr. Christensen and Mr. Ouellette for helping get the sound set up in the gym today. Also, Ms. Tonn for coming and participating in the grade 4-6 DANCE PL3Y session at lunch recess today. Thank you to the Grade 4-6 teachers who sent their students, it was a huge success! All the students were on their BEST behavior, actively participated and left with big smiles.

If you want more information about DANCE PL3Y, check out the link below:

http://www.pl3yinc.com/

I encourage teachers and support staff to come, if they want to participate or even just watch - you're always welcome! If you're looking for ways to incorporate DANCE PL3Y into your classroom as brain breaks come and see me.

Fast Finishers

Well, we are just over a week into the school year and I can already tell I have a few students that are going to need some additional work to keep them challenged and engaged once they are finished their assigned tasks. To manage this, I created a Google Slides presentation that has 25 different tasks that my quick finishers can work on while they wait for their classmates to complete their work. There is a variety of tasks from a variety of subjects, and the tasks are of varying lengths. Some will take multiple periods, some are fast and will only take 10-15 minutes. 

There are a few questions geared specifically towards grade 6, but those slides could quickly be modified or adapted to fit grades 4 or 5. Since many of the tasks are fairly general and can be completed by most div II kids, I just thought I would share in case anyone wanted to modify or use this with their quick finishers. Just click on the link above and make yourself a copy if you are interested! 

Great Google Extensions!

If you use Google Chrome as your browser with students, there are a few Google extensions that I would recommend having them (and yourself!) download that are pretty awesome If you click on the name of the extension, you will be directed to the Chrome Store where you can download them. Remember, you will need to log into your Chrome Browser to be able to access your extensions and apps. 

1. Share to Classroom 

This extension allows you to push online sites and resources to your students' browsers as they are working in a specific class. It syncs through Google Classroom. Again, n order for it to work, they must also have the extension. You can also add resources right to your Google Classroom for that subject. I really like this extension because it keeps a record for students of all the resources you have shared with them in each subject that they can access whenever they need it. My explanation is not doing this amazing extension justice!

2. Google Tone

Similar to the first extension, Google Tone allows you to share URLs (websites) with students. However, this extension works by playing an audible tone that other computers pick up. Students must have this extensions on their chrome browsers in order for this to work. This extensions does not keep track of URLs shared, and does not link to Google Classroom. However, it is really handy for kids who struggle to navigate to the correct page! Would be a good way to quickly send students to a site for an exit pass or activity during class to minimize transition times. 

3. Diigo

This extension is less for the classroom and more for teacher time-saving. Diigo is a bookmarking extension, that allows you to quickly save sites that you might want to use for later. It is easy to do because all you have to do is click on the extension, tag the site and it is saved for you for later. There are way more features that that, but definitely worth checking out. I use it a lot when I am planning a new unit and want to keep track of resources. 

4. Chromevox

This is an accessibility tool. What it does is read all of the text on your Google Chrome, including your Google docs, slides, etc. While the default voice is a tad annoying, this extension is great for students who struggle to be independent in class because of their reading level. It will read their search results etc. 

Authentic use of Social Media in the Classroom

Every year, on the first day of school I always do the same art lesson. As a way to establish the routines of our art periods with a non-threatening project, I always read "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds and then get the kids to create their very own dots.  It's simple, everyone is successful, and it has worked in every grade that I have taught- which has been a lot of grades! This year, after we were finished, we tweeted out some pictures of our artwork and tagged the author, Peter Reynolds, in the Tweet. I believe that it is fundamentally important that we teach our students not only to be digitally literate, but also how to be responsible digital citizens, which is why I try to integrate the authentic use of social media into my classroom. However, my experience today reminded me that I also do this for another reason; to provide students with authentic audiences for their work, and to move their learning beyond the physical space of our classroom. So anyway,  the coolest thing happened after we sent out our tweet. Peter Reynolds tweeted us back! While this might not seem like a big deal, I think it is a great experience for my students to see that their work matters to other people, and that it is significant. Social media and other web tools can open so many doors in the classroom if you find ways to meaningfully use them. 

Updates to Google Classroom

Google Classroom has introduced a few notable updates for the new school year. Some of the feature include the ability to add a question for students to answer right in classroom, as well as reusing an assignment from another class. Apparently it will also integrate with Google Calendar in the coming months as well! 

Storybird

I came across this writing website this summer called storybird.com. It is a digital book creation website that focuses on having students develop a story from really captivating images. On this site you can create an account as an educator and set it up so that the books your students create are shared on a class shelf. Students can make picture books, chapter books, or poems from a single image. Even if you aren't interested in using the site with your whole class, it is worth checking out just for the images. Some of them would make fantastic picture prompts! The best part is, it is very user friendly!