Getting to Know You

I am gearing up for the first day of school with students on Tuesday.  As usual, I'll be laboring on Labor Day, putting the finishing touches on the room and preparing everything I didn't get to last week.  My better half is a good sport and takes the kids to the local Labor Day parade, where they march with their preschool.

I brought some work home, and spent time today working on one of my favorite getting to know you activities.  As we lead up to the first day, I speak to teacher who had my students last year and/or read my students' files.  I'm not looking for academic experience, test scores, or behavioral track record.  I'm looking for hobbies and interests.

Once I have a sense of one or more interests for each of my students (and hopefully many of them are overlaps), I select one per student and then search for an image that represents that hobby or interest.*  I print and laminate the image and post them on the doors to the cabinet just inside the classroom.  One of our first activities on the first day, is that I explain to the students that there are 16 of them and 16 images.  Each image needs a partner and then need to figure out who should get which image.  My only other instruction is that no one can be forced to take an image to which they don't relate.  Each year there are a few images that end up with someone different than the student I initially had in mind.  Two years ago I had a student very upset with the image that was clearly selected for her and so we selected a different one together.

It is so much fun to overhear the conversations and to watch them learn about each other, even those who have been in school together for years.  While first day jitters clearly play a factor, I learn so much about them from the get-go - negotiating skills, who is assertive, who sits back and lets others take over (in addition to the obvious discussions of who has shared interests).

A week or two later we do a fairly generic Homeroom Scavenger Hunt, where they have to get each person in the homeroom to sign a different box on their page.  Options include things like, "It takes me over 30 minutes to get to school," "I sometimes speak a language other than English at home," "I am a night own," and other similar statements.  I am careful to avoid statements that might imply valuing one situation over another, and almost everything has an equally positively phrased counter point.

Last year I discovered a wonderful new activity, called the GoBo Window.  It was created by Rodney Glasgow (Director of Diversity at Worcester Academy) and a second educator, whose name I did not catch.  Students fold a paper in half (hot dog style) and, while still folded,  fold it in half again to make a square.  Unfold the second fold (so now it is hot dog style with a crease down the middle) so you have two external squares and two internal squares (when you lift the flap).  On the left external square students write the prompt, "You may know that I ..." and on the right external square they write, "You may think that I ...".  Lift the flap and, on the left internal square facing you, students write the prompt, "You probably don't know that I ..." and on the right internal square the write, "You probably couldn't guess that I ...".  The statements they use to complete each prompt must be true and can be as revealing as they want.  I provide them with a sample window with examples about me and I then give them 3-4 minutes to complete the sentences.  I then have them circulate the room until they have interacted with everyone else in the room, including me (I make a new one for the group activity).  When they face a partner they hold up their own external window and silently read that of their partner.  Once they have finished reading, each asks the partner, "Will you open your window?"  They respond in the affirmative and then lift the flap to share the more revealing/interesting information on the inside.  They are not allowed to comment on what they read, just say, "Thank you for sharing" to each other at the end and then find a new partner.  Last year I did this in late-February, after attending the Friends Council on Education's Diversity Peer Network meeting, at which I participated in the GoBo Window activity.  The students LOVED it!  They were fascinated to see how much they didn't know about each other, even by February, and it gave them some new things to talk about.

I am apprehensive and excited to learn about my group of students this year, and hope they enjoy getting to know each other as much as I enjoy helping facilitate the process!



What are some of your favorite getting to know you activities?  Please share them in the comments section!


*I now note the website sources of all images I use in my classroom.

#THWT12 complete.  Whew, so much information to process and so many new tricks and tools to play with.  This is what I found most thought provoking from the first day ... more to follow.

1. Online Primary Source Collections
2. Online Polling & Feedback
3. iTunesU
4. Google Advanced Search
5. Free Google eBooks
6. Thinglink.com

1) Online Primary Source Collections

The Library of Congress "Primary Source Sets" for teachers looks so valuable.  As was pointed out, most teachers have spent hours of their free time trying to pull together sets of sources for students.  While the number of topics seems somewhat limited, most US history classes will find something relevant.

The National Archives "Digital Vaults" website allows you to compile images and share them as a poster or movie.  The amount of content seems overwhelming and it's hard to tell at first glance how easily you can find information.

  

2) Online Polling & Feedback

At the Connections Conference last week, Elizabeth Helfant shared the Flubaroo widget for grading Google Docs (specifically what students submit through Google forms).  It seems really useful, but you have to do a lot of the set-up yourself.

The website Socrative allows for a variety of response methods and you can reuse the same quiz multiple times in different circumstances.  There is also an available game mode.  Much easier interface and it will email you results as a spreadsheet.

Understoodit is another website that collects and tracks student responses.  I haven't explored this one as much.


3) iTunesU

Wow. Find it by going to the iTunes Store, and then selecting iTunesU from the top navigation bar.  You can access lectures and resources from professors at colleges and universities around the country.  Wow.


4) Google Advanced Search

By using Google's Advance Search features, you can narrow your results by a number of aspects.  To access the feature, type in a search term and then click on the settings/options cog-wheel icon to the right of your search bar.  Select "Advanced Search."  In this view you can limit results by language, region, type of site (.k12.* returns any website with .k12 in its address, which includes most public school districts), the type of file (perhaps you are looking for a PowerPoint to show your class), or by reading level (if you teach 4th grade you probably want to avoid the "advanced results").


5) Free Google eBooks

When you search books, you can limit your results to "Free Google eBooks," as well as selecting a specific century and books vs. magazines.  The free books are fully available online and you can embed all or portions of the book on your blog.  This would be great for drawing students' attention to specific excerpts of a text or providing specific resources from which to conduct research.


6) Thinglink

A fun website that actually has really interesting potential is Thinglink.  At the site you upload or select an image, and then you can create hotspots/tags on the image.  The end result is an interactive, online poster (a more limited, straight-forward version of sites like Glogster).  The tags can display text or link to other images, text, video or audio on the web.  Students could be provided with an image, and then have to create tags on it that provide context or clarification for the image.  Ideas that came to mind quickly were identifying the aspects of a particular culture evident in an image, or identifying how the 5 themes of geography are represented in an image.


In the back of my mind throughout all of this is how we can work with online privacy restrictions and protections, given that most of the students with whom I work are under 13.

Teaching History with Technology Workshop

I am sitting in a building on Harvard's beautiful campus in Cambridge, MA.  As if that weren't enough, I am being exposed to some amazing tech in learning resources and tools thanks to Greg Kulowiec, Richard Byrne and Tom Daccord (and maybe John Oldham, later).  The THWT Workshop sponsored by EdTechTeacher is outstanding.  I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in effectively incorporating technology into a history or social studies course.  There is time to explore and create, making the time not only informative, but also productive for time-strapped teachers.  Oh, and did I mention that I'm here with two colleagues?  Powerful use of three days of my "summer break!"

Leap of Faith (in my PLN)

A couple of weeks ago I was inspired by tweets by educators in my PLN.  That’s not a clear enough statement.  I am always inspired by educators in my PLN.  A couple of weeks ago, I was inspired to make some significant (for me) changes in my classroom based on ideas shared by my PLN.  One video in particular, shared by Ira Socol (@irasocol) and Shawntel Allen (@globalgypsygirl), pushed me over the edge.  Here it is:

 It was a serendipitous series of events that week. 

Tuesday: During the school day, another adult tripped over my classroom rug and it became clear the furniture needed to be rearranged.  I went home and, as usual, spent way too much time on Twitter. During that time I watch video posted above.

Wednesday:  Instead of thinking the furniture arrangement over alone and implementing what I thought would work, I asked my class.  They brainstormed and came up with a great idea.  We moved stuff around it was a nice cozy reconfiguration.

Thursday: Another teacher’s class came into our room for Meeting for Worship (I work at a Quaker school – here’s some info on that from the Friends Council on Education http://bit.ly/ykXpPa).  We needed more space to be in a circle together so the furniture got pushed back into a more inclusive arrangement.

After the other class left I realized that I was a part of the circle.  It felt so good!  I wasn’t off to the side or in the front or back alone.  I was inspired and in the heat of the moment (it was my Carpe Diem moment) decided to change things.  I let the kids know that from that point forward they could sit wherever they wanted to, within eyesight for now, as long as they were engaged in what was going on and on task.  They could sit on the floor, a table, a counter, the couch, or wherever, as long as they met the normal expectation that they’d be participating in the expected activity, lesson, project, discussion, or whatever.  The kids were amazed.  They looked at me like I was growing a second nose.  We have some bean bags and we pulled them out of the closet where they hide and now push them under the counter at the end of each day.

I have been coveting tables or walls painted with Idea Paint (http://www.ideapaint.com/).  So much could be done!  After watching the above video I wondered, could dry erase markers really just come right off my regular tables?  So I tested it out.

Friday: During a group brainstorming activity, I made a show out of it.  I picked up a dry erase marker and walked around the room marking lines on tables, chairs, counters and the floor.  This time the looks were more along the lines of, “Where’s the straight jacket?”  I then grabbed a dry erase wipe and just as quickly erased it all.  I let them doodle and play around – it was all so new and I wanted it to be fun but also for them to come to their own realization that doodling on the table was no better than doodling on paper.  They were so dynamic mapping their ideas and each reaching in to draw extensions and connections.  It was amazing to see.

I spent the weekend pondering ways to make my upcoming Social Studies unit more creative and inquiry based.  I kept asking myself, “I know I think this sounds really cool, but will the kids like it?” 

Monday:  I wrote up the three main categories of content for our upcoming unit, described each one briefly, and explained to the class in very broad terms the main content goals I had under each category.  Then I asked them how we should explore and learn about the topics.  They came up with great ideas that were substantial and would require them to demonstrate understanding of the content.  The class loved the idea that they had some input in what we would do.

In all honesty, I did not use their ideas as much as I had hoped I would.  I bit off more than I could chew with all of these changes at once.  That being said, their very specific ideas guided what I selected and planned, and gave me a broader framework for most of what we have done and will do in this unit.

Observations on this adventure in spontaneous departure from my comfort zone (I have tended to be a bit of a controlling personality as far as decision making goes).

·         Red marker doesn’t come off of non-dry-erase surfaces as well as other colors.

·         People who are left-handed encounter some difficulty/smudging when writing on flat surfaces with dry erase markers.

·         These freedoms work well when it is an environment with which the students are comfortable and not an occasional break from a more strict routine.  This shift has worked really well with my homeroom.  A separate group of students who come to me for math for 40 minutes each day are taking longer to adjust and have more trouble regulating themselves.

·         It was uncomfortable for about 4 days but then it just became the new normal!

·         My classroom is the tidiest it has been all year at the end of the day these past two weeks.

My one big wonder is whether it worked well because the students saw it as a leap of faith and me sharing responsibility with them for the productivity of our time together.  They had something with which to contrast the experience – the first ½ of the school year.  Would it work as well if we had started like this from day 1?  Would it have needed more structure inherent in the freedom?

How do you let students manage their classroom spaces?  Anything else I should try?  Advice on ways to do things differently?  I would love to hear from you!

Pink Eye - Great Excuse to Blog

So I've been saddled with Pink Eye. I feel fine but am highly contagious.  Now relegated to the seclusion of my workspace at home, it seems like as good a time as any to try to compose my first real blog post.