8th Grade Blogs

Cassie - zombies125.blogspot.com
David - mcwmrhm.blogspot.com
Maegan - maegannich23.blogspot.com
Luis - luis8thblog.blogspot.com
Taylor - taylorlo.blogspot.com
Zach - allthingsminecraftwithzach.blogspot.com
Shyann - knowingthezombies.blogspot.com
Kylee - kyleeisblogging.blogspot.com
Mason - modernwarfare2.blogspot.com
Hayley - 8thgradel.blogspot.com
Devyn - devynvk.blogspot.com
Nick - nickwallen99.blogspot.com
MaKayla - howtoatpinterest.blogspot.com
Kory - massmankory.blogspot.com
Hunter - hunter8thgrade.blogspot.com

EdTech Lessons from a 6-year-old

This is Rylee. Rylee is my 6-year-old. She is in first grade at Northeast Hamilton.

Poor Rylee is the definition of a teacher's kid. I love her dearly for the extra hours she spends sitting at school. Today was one of those days, because even though her friends got to go home at 1:30 for an early dismissal, she was destined to sit in my room for 2 1/2 extra hours while I had PD and worked on grading. Of course I try to leave her things to do, usually a movie on my computer, but today I wanted to take it with me. So I left her my iPad and said "You can play penguin racer...".

Did she play the penguin game? Probably. But her innate 6-year-old curiosity kicked in and she came across an app called ShowMe. The Waverly-Shell Rock middle school kids showed me this app when we visited last year. They use it to show mastery of skills (like work through math problems) and submit it to their teacher. You can add pictures, record your voice, and draw. You can probably do other things, I've never actually used it.

With no instruction or guidance today, Rylee created a ShowMe that she titled "Wind". She started by drawing a picture, was unhappy with it, erased it, and then narrated a wistful sounding story about a windmill by inserting a picture that one of my students had gotten from his brother to use for his own project. She then proceeded to upload it to the internet. When I came back from our meeting I had received an email that my video had been uploaded and was ready to share. Thinking someone had hacked my account, this is what I found:




At what age do we lose that fearlessness? Nobody told her what to do or how to do it, she figured it out  herself. Granted, she has had her own iPad for over a year now, but this is the first time she had seen the app. She was not thrilled that I wanted to show it to people, but I explained to her that I know grown-ups who don't know how to do this and that I was just very proud of the work she had done.

For the 3rd time this month I come back to Miss Frizzle from TV's The Magic School Bus: "Take chances, make mistakes, and GET MESSY!" How do we challenge students AND educators to do what Rylee did? Who cares if it doesn't work out perfectly? She made a mistake, erased it, and moved on. How do we foster this in others? When did we become so hung up on right and wrong (correct and incorrect) that we started missing out on the experience, the experiment, and the learning process? I have a lot more questions than answers, but at least I'm thinking about them. Are you?

#ITEC12 Interview

I love that they put this together to make it look like I knew what I was talking about!

Check out my interview at #itec12 for my thoughts on the role technology plays in my classroom and district.

Geography 2.0: A brand new experience

I decided to do a different take on Geography this year. Instead of going country by country through the list and giving students a very limited view of a few regions and countries, I opted to redesign the course as a whole. This year, after doing a quarter of 5 themes, earth's structure and landforms, water, climate, and vegetation, an increasing population, and resources and trade, next week we're digging into the different regions. 

Students will work at an individual pace on 5 projects for 6 different regions. Students will complete a Wii weather activity where we will get on the Wii each day to chart weather conditions in the region, a scrapbook (on Google sites linked to Google Maps), pack a suitcase, bring back souvenirs, and write blog posts (Blogger).  

I want the kids to be more involved with the material, study the areas they want to study, and address the standards from a unique perspective. As you will see outlined below, the kids will be doing a LOT of research and writing. A lot of writing.  We will also have a daily (usually) activity together based on a short reading, and a weekly mapping activity where kids will practice their map skills. 

For kids who need extra extension activities I have designed a "passport" program where they can earn stamps as they "travel" to extra countries - students receiving a certain number of stamps by the end of the year will receive a prize. I'm *hoping* to get a trip funded to go down to Veishea for the culture/food fair.

Below is a brief outline of what I've got planned. 

Wii: Ongoing Class activity

Chart weather

-What environmental factors exist that cause the weather to be that way?

-How does the physical environment affect life? Where people live?

-How do people adjust their surroundings to the weather conditions here?

-> Clothes, houses, transportation, water/heat/light?

-> What are the consequences of people changing the physical environment?

	4	3	2	1
Chart	Accurately charted weather 12 of 15 days	Accurately charted weather 10 of 15 days	Accurately charted weather 8 of 15 days	Accurately charted weather 5 of 15 days
Written Weather Response	Thoughtfully answered all three writing prompts, using details and research to provide an accurate description, includes pictures and/or graphs to complete the explanation	Thoughtfully answered all three writing prompts, using details and research to provide an accurate description	Thoughtfully answered two writing prompts, using details and research to provide an accurate pictures	Answers are mostly complete but show no research or depth

Blog: Pretend you are a travel agent/reporter/blogger (Do 4 posts)

-What is similar to or different from our customs? What is most different from how you live at home? What is the  same? Why aren’t things the same? What would happen if we lived like they did?

-What famous site did you visit while in the region? What is its significance? Why is it famous? How does it represent the area or the culture? Give some facts about the site you visited

-A natural disaster occurs while you are visiting. What type is it? How are people impacted? How do their lives change? How will the area handle this new stress?

-What type of religion is prevalent in this region? Is there one? Many? What sort of practices do the people observe as part of the religion(s)? What major holidays (religious or national) do the people celebrate? How do they celebrate them? When?

-What major industries exist in the region? How do the people make money? What are their major imports and exports? Is there a large portion of the population in poverty or are the people generally well off? How will these things impact your visit?

-Describe the historical background of one of the countries in the region. How was the country established? Was there a fight for independence? What happened? What are some of the major historical events in the country? How do the people celebrate their history?

Scrapbook (Google Site?):

-Major physical landforms (3)

-Cultural highlights (3)

-Tourist activities (3)

-Major cities (5)

-Food pics/recipes (2)

GoogleMaps - pin your scrapbook pages to the countries you visit in each region

Suitcase: Beginning of each regional unit

-What will you pack to live in this region?

-What clothes will you pack?

-How will you interact with the people?

Souvenirs: End of each regional unit

-What will you bring back for your friends and family to show them how the people live and what you experienced?

-Create an interesting and/or funny “travel story” behind one of the items you brought back. 

	4	3	2	1
Gifts	3 neat/creative replicas or pictures of items that you bring back for families or friends	3 replicas or pictures of items that you bring back for families or friends	2 creative replicas or pictures of items that you bring back for families or friends	1 replica or picture of item that you bring back for families or friends
Explanation	A detailed explanation of what each gift is, how it represents the region, and where you may have acquired it	An explanation of what each gift is, how it represents the region, or where you may have acquired it	A detailed explanation of two of the gifts, how it represents the region, and where you may have acquired it	A detailed explanation of what one gift is, how it represents the region, and where you may have acquired it
Story	An interesting 2-3 paragraph story about how/why you brought back one of the items that you did. It is realistic and representative of the region.	A 2-3 paragraph story about how/why you brought back one of the items that you did.	An interesting 1 paragraph story about how/why you brought back one of the items that you did. It is realistic and representative of the region.	A 1 paragraph story about how/why you brought back one of the items that you did.

GeoSpy - Map/Location Quizzes

Big History Project - Investigation 1

My students finished their first Big History investigation today. As a group we discussed the ultimate answer of "what advantages are there to studying things on different scales" and then discussed what view points were similar to and different from their own. Students shared their ideas and I recorded them on the board. I had the students create graphic organizers about their thoughts using the Idea Sketch app on their iPads. I have included their thoughts about scale and some examples of their Idea Sketch creations.

(Stars = points students made more than once)