Conferencing Strategy: Award Ceremony

This is a fun little conferencing students can do with a journal entry. In groups of three, students listen as each students reads a short piece aloud. What they are listening for is what that writer does the best. The other two listeners give them awards of "Best Voice" or "Most Inventive Dialogue" or "Diction Diva" or whatever it may be. The reader draws a trophy or medal and label what they did the best.

When all three have finished, students are in charge of using their peers as inspiration and improving their writing in one of the two ways the other writer. As experts, students can discuss and offer suggestions.

BreakoutEDU 411

What is BreakoutEDU? 

Simply put, participants solve a series of problems in order to unlock the main Breakout box. Clues are content related and typically involve a mixture of physical and digital tasks. Breakout can be content specific, team building, or even professional development.

What do I need?

Breakout instructions - many made by classroom educators - will take no more than what is in the breakout kit (minus some office supplies). I was able to put together  my own for $60 (which involved me getting 3 extra locks because I did locks that came as pairs. That way it was less per lock and I could add in more puzzles if I wanted) using Walmart roll-back plastic toolboxes and locks and finished up the kit with locks from Amazon. Or you can order a kit from www.breakoutedu.com. Some people are able to get their kits paid for by Donors Choose grants. Just use Amazon and you can get 2-3 kits. Crowd-source it with a team of teachers and there should be enough for the smaller group Breakouts. Kit includes:

• USB drive
• 4-digit lock
• 3-digit lock box (I made mine with a smaller plastic toolbox and a small 3-digit lock)
• large Breakout box (some games require the little box to be in the big one, so I would 
• directional lock
• word lock - 5 letters
  
• key lock
• hasp 
• invisible ink pen
• UV flashlight (I bought the pens with the UV light on the cap. Many breakouts involve separating batteries from flashlight. I just take out the bulb and battery combo)
• some games will ask for little things like paperclips or whatnot, but it shouldn't require additional items that wouldn't be commonly found in a school. In fact, there are a lot of cool ciphers and puzzle ideas on the Facebook group and Pintrest. 

How do I start?

Sign in to breakoutedu.com - MAKE SURE TO CHECK THE PAGE AFTER YOU SUBMIT YOUR INFO! THE PASSWORD IS IN THE INSTRUCTIONS! 

Get a sense of how a breakout works by trying it out with loved ones. I knew I wanted to create a dystopia Breakout so I picked Dr. Johnson's breakout as a trial run. I hid the zombie virus anecdote in my large breakout box - it was for my hubby so I made sure it was a proper payment for giving up his time to do this  ;) - set up the game in the playroom, and watched him go to work. He had to do all the steps to get into the large box while also avoiding the red herrings out into the game (and a sneaky wife who hid things under the blinds). 

Make sure you sign up to the Facebook group! People will show off neat ideas and share tips.

Can I make my own?

That's what I did! I started with what I wanted my students to cover content-wise and then I looked for opportunities for the texts/visuals/concepts to fit one of the types of keys. From there, I created clues. For example, I knew I wanted the students to look at the etymology of utopia and dystopia. When I was on etymonline.com, I noticed it mentions who coined the terms. I decided to play on the homonym of "coin" and created a coin to put in the box that would lead participants to a letter lock clue. 

If making your own sounds daunting - I saved time by adapting parts of a webquest I've used in the past - you can instead add to an existing BreakoutEDU. Add in a couple more puzzles to get to existing clues or add more puzzles with new locks. 

Breakout in lower elementary:

Breakout in upper elementary: 

Breakout in middle school (this is created by 7th graders for 8th graders!):

Breakout in high school:

Creating Templates for Padlet

Padlet is one of my "go to" applications for beginning or end of class activities. Since it is device agnostic, it is perfect for a BYOD classroom. In situations where tech is not 1:1, which is my usual day, I have students use the BYOD as small groups.

To make things easier to incorporate Padlet, I've created templates for Padlets. Now when I want students to work on a KWL, Venn Diagram, or similar graphic organizer I have them already set up and ready to go. I just make a copy of the original for my class and share out with QR code or shortened URL (I prefer Bit.ly solely because I love having a puffer fish up on my task bar!) 

How to create Padlet Templates to Facilitate Do Now. Closure Activities:

Step 1: Create Template

I use PowerPoint because I like the SmartArt Feature, but you can use anything that will save as a JPEG.

Step 2: Save as a JPEG

Step 3: Create a Padlet. Click on the clog in the upper right hand corner to modify. Scroll down to Wallpaper and select "MORE"

Step 4: Select your JPEG by clicking on "ADD YOUR OWN", "UPLOAD", and then either drop your image in or "CHOOSE FILE" and confirm.

Step 5:  After saving changes you should be able to see if you need to adjust your original image to fit the screen how you want. Repeat steps 1-4 until you have the desired look.

Then each time you want to use the chart, Venn Diagram, or similar template, just make a copy and rename with the specifics of the lesson. For example, KWL's copy becomes "KWL - Holocaust".

Using Wordcounter for Self-Selected Nonfiction Possible Sentences

Possible Sentences is a great way of having students predict and check their predictions for informational texts. In Kylene Beers and Robert Probst's Reading Nonfiction, the strategy is described with examples. It isn't just a great strategy in the ELA classroom! It could be used very well in history and science readings as well. I encourage you to read the section of Reading Nonfiction, but in a nutshell:

1. Students are supplied with 10-15 key words for the nonfiction text they will be reading
2. Students create 5 possible sentences that will be in the text
3. Students read, clarifying their understanding and then revise their sentences for accuracy.

This is strategy for 4th grade and up, but I think it could probably go younger, especially for whole class where the teacher is helping compose sentences. (Here is a nice link to a handout your students could use.)

It got me thinking about Newsela (pronounced like news ella). I love how Newsela has leveled

versions of the same article as well as text sets novels, core content areas, and hot topics. In a Pre-AP classroom, I have students who have a reading level putting them around a senior reading level and other students who are actually below reading level. I think it is important for students to have choice and have reading that is at a level that challenges them a bit and Newsela can give me all that! Wouldn't it be neat to let students pick the non-fiction article to pair with their self-selected novel?

So it got me thinking, how to use possible sentences for self-selected nonfiction. Then it occurred to me: http://www.wordcounter.com! Students select their article (level, topic, or both), copy and past the article in the box, and then write their possible. Then students take the top 10-15 words and create the possible sentences.

Vary with Tagxedo or Wordle for visual component. 

STEP 1: Find an awesome essay!

STEP 2: Paste article in wordcounter.com

STEP 3: Get most  common words.
STEP 4: follow possible sentences strategy
as usual!

Clickbait for the Classroom: Using the Tricks Websites Use to Engage Students

This week I presented at Fort Bend ISD's Digital Learning Conference. In an effort to complete with some very interesting sessions (people got to program robots build with Legos, learn about the new Microsoft Office our district just rolled out to the teachers and are about to roll out to students next year, etc.) I decided to send out this tweet:

We ended up having to turn people away! So it got me thinking, could I use the same tactics for my blog - with accompaning Pintrest and Twitter feed - in my classroom. After all, there is a reason why people use these tactics. 

Before blogging, it would not have occurred to me to have made clickbait, but since I can see which posts get me hits on my blog posts, I've become increasingly savvy on how to get hits:

- pleasing visuals (canva.com is my new love for images I'm posting to twitter) 

- titles (clickbait titles as well as listicles) 

- organization of info (lists, infographics, or any other visual that helps people easily get info)

So why not approach how we give assignments in the same way? What if on the board instead of the homework being 

"Read article 'Bridges Made of Spider Silk? You Can Thank the Goats for That' and write response entry." 

VS: 

By tapping into our students' brains and how they are already primed for visuals as well as the reason why clickbait is so effective - a person's curiosity is piqued - students may be more likely to do the work and approach as less of an arduous task and more as a point of inquiry. 

3D Gallery

Easy to use and apply this 3D Art Gallery by Classtools.net!

Art: create a digital portfolio of student work and student can include artist statements
Art: Artist study. Students can put work in chronological order.

History: To review an era, students can take well known works from that era and apply them. Students could also create questions for students to answer.
Science: Potential research project for the evolution of scientific discovery.
Science: diagrams for review with questions.
Science: research project about a particular scientist.
ELA: Visuals to connect for a novel study with text evidence and reasoning.
ELA: For texts in which history plays a large part (either historical fiction or works in which the time period of the author is highly influential), students conduct pre-reading or post-reading activities highlighting primary source visuals of events, people, and places and writing the significance to the text.

Satirical Headlines with Headline Generator

Use classtools.net's headline generator as a warm-up, center station, or enhance a larger satirical project.

5 Skill-Building Time Fillers for Computer

When you are in the computer lab as much as I am, telling students who are done with the assignment to go play an educational game becomes problematic. Students may rush to finish the assignment and not do their best. Students who work slower never get to play the game. Once you open up the computer to Cool Math Games "but only play the ones where you actually practice math! And no games that look like shooting!" as the teacher, you are now trying to monitor game selection, distracting you from helping students with the assignment. I find that classroom management issues can often be mitigated with sound lesson planning, and the filler minutes are no exception.

When looking at students creating a digital work, I think of add-ons: extra things students can do that will enhance their product, develop additional skills, and keep students engaged and on task even when "done." Here are some of my favs:

Blabberize -
What it does: gives an image a mouth that you can then make "talk"
What it is good for: any product. Students can download the video for multimedia products or can do the hyperlink option for interactive products where video where hyperlinking would be a better option such as word processors, Thinglink, or easel.ly. Print products would need a QR code added.

Voki 
What it does: similar to Blabberize, Voki provides avatars instead.
What it is good for: Because it can't be downloaded, Voki is better for an interactive product where the viewer can click on a  hyperlink  (example in my hyperlink!) Print products could us a QR code to connect

QR Stuff:
What it does: creates QR codes to link to text, webpages, etc.
What it is good for: if the finished product will be printed - posters, brochures, images - students can add a QR code that links to all sort of things: as text they could write and artist statement, create link to a webpage that includes more information. If the product can be posted to web, students can spend 5 minutes creating a flyer in a word processor with a QR code for their work and then print out the flyer and attach to their locker or give to their parents.

Thinglink:
What it does: makes images interactive with buttons that can lead to text, webpages, images, etc.
What it is good for: for products that are images - anything that can be saved as a jpeg - like collages, students can import into a Thinglink (there is a way to create a dummy student account. I would suggest creating one that can be used by all students instead of each student) and add links to sources or additional annotations.

Vocaroo:
What it does: records audio on the internet and provides link to the audio (audio is private and can only be accessed by a link)
What it is good for: interactive products or print. Student can embed, link, or hyperlink. If doing a print product, use QR Stuff to add in link.