Mrs. McAlister's Blog

The Goals Project

10/5/2019

My sixth graders and I are so excited to start our year long Global Goals inquiry. As our unit launch, we participated in The Goals Project lead by Dr. Jennifer Williams and youth ambassador Ayush Chopra. Without their leadership and passion for world and environmental change, the project would not have been possible.

Background
The purpose of the project was to bring awareness to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The project ran through the month of September, 2019. The project brought awareness to the 17 global goals, included 70 countries, and reached over 1,500 classrooms. Classes were grouped into cohorts of 17 classes and each had a team leader. Our team, #GameChangerGroup24, was lead by Elizabeth Ogunsola. Each class in the group was assigned a goal to research and create a unique project to share with the other classes. (Official website here.)

Research
We began our inquiry watching videos about the global goals, followed by a close read of our goal, goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth. We finished our research analyzing a sketchnote and a comic. (Official Global Goals website here.)

During our research phase, we jotted down notes while watching the videos, annotated our close reading text using the GATE icons, and created posters of our learning as well as various discussion sessions.

Video resources here, here, and here.
Written resources here, here, and here.

Create
For our unique project, we had a design challenge. Students were presented with a pizza box that held their goal, the prompt, a flying disk, and markers. The challenge was to design a flying disk that teaches our partner classes about goal 8. Students worked in teams of two. Their engagement, excitement, creativity, and critical thinking was phenomenal. They were beyond proud of their original creations.

Share
Once we had our flying disks created, we wrote personal notes, shared a few special momentos, and mailed them out. Along with the disks, we included our group sticker designed by @nineviaene, a Goals Project coaster, and our class hashtag sticker, #JustBeYou. Our class was so excited to send out the mail. Just as exciting was receiving messages from Jen and other classes that received their special packages.

Reflection
As part of our year long inquiry, students are asked to reflect on their experiences. We created a digi journal where we will add posts to throughout the year. Here is a sample template. Take a peek at some of their reflections.

MF: "At first, I didn’t quite understand what Goal 8 meant, but as time went on and Mrs. McAlister gave me and my peers more resources and articles, I finally understood why Goal 8 was important and what it meant. I learned that Goal 8’s goal was for everyone to have a safe and beneficial job, well paid wages, and end forced labor. I learned these facts thanks to a worksheet Mrs. McAlister gave my class called ‘Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth’ by Margreet De Heer. I also learned that by 2030 we need everyone in the world including men, women, and people with disabilities to get beneficial employment. Another fact that I learned is that 731 million people are below the U.S poverty line, which is partly because some jobs don’t pay their employees fairly. My experience with the Global Goals project was really fun! I learned many things thanks to the experience. My partner and I worked really hard on our frisbee, but it ended up looking like a smirking face with a giant nose. Even though I faced some minor difficulties, I still very much enjoyed the activity."

CJA: "While we were discovering Global Goal 8 I learned a lot. One thing that I learned is that in other countries they force child labor. Forced child labor is when you make children work at a very young age. This is a problem because children are working instead of getting their education. We also did a design challenge where we had to design a frisbee based off of Global Goal 8. My partner and I both got a sketch paper to practice on and then we combined the ideas to make the final product. Another problem that I discovered was that there is a lot of poverty around the world. In America it has dropped to a 5% Poverty rate but in other countries it is still very high. The problem here is that people are not getting paid the right amount of money to be able to provide for themselves. Through our journey learning about Global Goal 8 I learned a huge amount about things that are beneficial to the society now and in the future."

This is only the beginning of our journey. I can’t wait to see what the year has in store for us. We’re living in a time where our youth are ready to take action. It’s time for us, as educators, to lead the way and give students opportunities to be global citizens, empower them with agency, and open the doors for leadership opportunities. Join us as we take the challenge to make our world a better place.

#JustBeYou . . . Marilyn McAlister

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AVID . . . Sweet 16

8/9/2019

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This summer I was fortunate to attend one of the AVID national conferences in San Diego, California. This was my third time attending and I wasn’t disappointed. Highlights of the conference were the student speakers, keynote by the humble and amazing Rick Ramirez, and attending the Digital Learner strand.

When I attend a conference, I’m always on the lookout for something to implement right away. This time, it was the Sweet 16 gamified challenge to learn about 16 different digital tools (Think March Madness). The tools included:

The Challenge
In groups of two, participants were randomly assigned a digital tool to research and create 3 different tasks.
   1.   Create a 60 second presentation focusing on the features of the tool.
   2.   Complete a sentence frame making connections between the tool and AVID college and career readiness and WICOR strategies.
   3.   Create a meme that included a tagline about the tool.

All presentation links were collected in a Google Sheet.

Teams were given about 45 minutes to create and submit their links. When the first round of presentations began, two teams were paired off then timed for 60 seconds. The match ups were tools of similar purpose like Code.org vs Scratch, Canva vs Adobe Spark, Flipgrid vs Seesaw, etc. After both teams presented, the audience voted using Kahoot. There was so much engagement from the presenters and the audience. After the first elimination round, teams in the Elite Eight presented their sentence frames. Then the Final Four shared their memes. The championship round was a vote off of the final two.

This was such a fun way for us to learn about new tools, engage in the 4 Cs, build culture with the group, and have some good ole’ fun.

Classroom Application
As soon as we got started with Sweet 16, I knew I had to bring this back to class. But what topic would I use? After a few days of pondering, I decided to use the topic of “brands”. Some of the match ups include Coke vs Pepsi, Google vs Microsoft, and Skittles vs M and Ms. My purpose for Sweet 16 is to introduce my students to Google tools they’ll be using in the classroom, start developing a mindset of the 4 Cs, and have the added bonus of creating classroom culture at the same time.

Here is a copy of my Sweet 16 Brands Edition. Feel free to use it as it or modify to meet your needs. If you use it, I’d love to hear how it goes.

Shout outs
I’d like to give two huge shout outs. One, to my AVID mentor, Martay Monroe, that has been my AVID trainer for two years. Her passion, love for AVID, and gift of empowering teachers to be the best they can be for students makes her a fabulous role-model. Second, to the amazingly inspirational and humble educator and national speaker, Rick Ramirez. His energy is off the charts! But even more impressive, is his love for students and making a difference in their lives. Thank you both for making my AVID experience memorable.

#MuchLove to all . . . Marilyn ❤

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Just Be You

7/17/2019

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This post is a departure from my normal lesson design posts, but it is something that is dear to my heart.

For several years now, I’ve been noticing many more social/emotional concerns with my students, particularly with anxiety. Additionally, last year my students took on heavy topics for our social awareness inquiry: depression, self-harm, making wrong choices, anxiety, and more. To be honest, I was initially uncomfortable with the topics, but I trusted them as young scholars. They taught me, and our school community, so much about the topics and, more importantly, solutions.

As simple as the phrase sounds, I teach my students to #JustBeYou. As a Christian woman, I know that each of us is wonderfully made. Although I don’t speak of Christ, I do express to my students that each one of us is special and unique. Maybe you’re shy and quiet, maybe quirky and creative, maybe athletic and active, or even nerdy and nice. Whoever you are, just be you. Be true to who you are at your core.

The phrase didn’t come to me overnight. You see, many years ago, when I was a young teacher, a comment was made to me that was paralyzing. In the copy room one day a fellow teacher told me: “Not everyone can be happy like you all the time.” Whoa! I don’t remember my response but I do know that I changed. For the next six months I was “professional Marilyn”. I controlled my laughter, my smiling, and my encouraging nature. Then one day, a different teacher asked me what was wrong with me. I shared the story. She scolded me on the spot. She basically told me to “Just Be You”. I am so glad she had that conversation with me. From that day on, I knew that to be happy, I had to be my authentic self.

I’m so excited to share that I found a graphic designer, through Fiverr, that designed a sticker for me. He literally made my concept come to life. Thank you, Milanga!!!

As we start the 2019-2020 school, I would love for this message to get out to our students. If you would like a sticker or magnet, please DM me your address. The simple message of “Just Be You” is a powerful talking point that students really do latch on to.

With a tender heart,
Marilyn ❤️

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Social Awareness Inquiry Cycle

4/23/2019

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My sixth graders and I had a rewarding year delving into social awareness topics of their choosing. As a GATE class, we participate in Passionate Kids Project. This year, along with discovering our passions, we tackled social concerns. To be honest, the topics were out of my comfort zone but I trusted my student’s maturity. The inquiry was broken up into experiences throughout the year. The focus was on solutions.

Inquiry Cycle

Our inquiry cycle started out with many guided experiences then culminated in a completely student-led seminar. Let’s take a look at our cycle.

#SmashboardEdu: We started out with the essential question, “What are some issues young people face today?” and used this #SmashboardEdu guide. After coming up with concerns, students teamed up to do some initial research. (Collaborative slide deck here and blog post here)

Question Formulation Technique: After brainstorming social concerns with #SmashboardEdu, students were placed into teams based on the topic they were most interested in. We used this QFT guide to generate open and closed questions. (Blog post here)

Collaborative Research and Presentations: As a team, each inquiry group answered questions from their QFT then presented their findings in oral presentations. (Student samples here, here, and here)

Student Created Logos: As a side quest, some groups created logos using Google Drawings. (Slide deck here)

Thesis Statements: Individually, students created thesis statements that would guide their independent research. (Student samples here)

Articles Reviews: Students used two self-selected sources (with my approval) to answer their essential questions. Through a process of writing, peer editing, and teacher feedback, students wrote their article reviews that provided background information of the social concern and a variety of solutions to help solve the problem. (Samples here, here, here, and here)

Demo Slams: Each group created a digital and oral presentation. The digital piece was to have very few words and the oral presentation was to focus on solutions and include an interactive experience for the audience. Groups created, practiced, and refined their presentations. The goal time was 10 minutes. Peer evaluations were completed during the demo slams. (Sample here)

Social Awareness Seminar: For our celebration of learning, we held a Social Awareness Seminar for our fifth grade classes and parents. The fifth graders were able to choose topics they were interested in and attend those sessions. Our sixth graders dressed up, were knowledgeable, confident, and had fun. It was a perfect culmination to our social awareness inquiry. (Sample slide decks here, here, here and here)

We had a busy and productive year. We started the year in the shallow end of the inquiry pool and ended in the deep end. With lots of support and encouragement along the way, I’m proud to say that my sixth graders are leaving me as confident, independent scholars that were allowed to share their voice.

Educators, after 25 years of teaching, I’m still stretching, learning, and more importantly, trusting my students. We are in a new era in education. It’s time for us to make learning relevant, bring in student interests, and loosen up the reigns. It’s a journey. It’s taken me three years to get here. But the rewards of seeing my students share their voice, learn through experiencing successes and even failures, is worth any discomfort we may have. I encourage you to take on an endeavor next year that may make you uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure if we could handle these deep topics, but we did. I cried more this year than any other year (out of pride). I stepped out of my comfort zone, and I’m so glad we did.

On another note, if you’re interested in starting or refining your inquiry journey, I highly recommend Dive into Inquiry and Inquiry Mindset by Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt and Trevor MacKenzie. If you’re interested in problem based learning and want to try #Smashboardedu, give Dee Lanier a follow or check out SmashboardEdu.com.

#MuchLove . . . Marilyn ❤️

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Social Awareness Seminar - Faux Twitter Chat

4/16/2019

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I read an inspiring blog post recently (this morning) from my Twitter friend and professional colleague, @Carlameyrink. She was sharing, in this blog post, how her instructional coach created a buzz of engagement with their staff. After reflecting, I decided that I needed to create a buzz with my students and bring back our faux Twitter chat.

Earlier in the year, we created faux Twitter handles. Many of the students are gamers, have youtube channels, or have other social media. Their Twitter handles are variations of names they already use.

In class, we’ve been deeply immersed in a social awareness inquiry. We’ve developed questions, researched, wrote, created logos, and will be presenting group presentations tomorrow. This was the perfect time for a Twitter chat. Twitter chats generally get the participants to reflect on their practices, set future goals, and will often have an opportunity for shout outs. I use this same model for our faux chats.

Here’s the slide deck of questions we used.

Just like a real chat, we use the Q1 and A1 format, talk to each other using handles, and even incorporate hashtags. I post each question one at a time onto our Google classroom. Students first answer the question then they respond to classmates. I generally use three questions and post them about 5 minutes apart.

Take a look at some of the responses for our Social Awareness Chat.

Question 1: Our Social Awareness Seminar is tomorrow. How are you feeling about it?

I feel confident, like we'll do good, but I also feel anxious. What if a major problem begins? Even minor problems can be hard to solve. I just hope we don't have any major problems on the day of presentations. #FeelingConfident @RobloxDragon

I feel nervous, yet excited, about the presentation. I hope I don't forget what I'm going to say out of nervousness. @lookatallthosechickens

I am feeling a little nervous, but at the same time I feel really confident about tomorrow. The part that I am most scared about is the parents. I know that they aren't going to say anything, but I am still a little scared. The kids I feel fine about because I’ll just have fun and do my part. #OhNoParents @Dominguez0323

Question 2: You’ve worked really hard. What are you the most proud of?

I'm happy that although this is my first year with Passionate Kids Project, I've been doing great. I thought I wasn't going to do good on my demo slams, but got good scores. I'm very proud of myself. #Noob @Alfredokm57

I am proud of my whole group and everything we have been through. We have accomplished and overcame a lot. I am also proud of how our presentation is turning out. We have everything planned out and we are prepared. #Overcomers @cassidy3041

I'm proud of a few things. I'll just number them here.
1. Memorization of lines:
My group has a lot to say, and we really memorized it quickly. I can't believe I was able to do a classmates slide on demo-slams the day he was gone. Success!
2. Design of presentation:
I haven't really seen myself use my designing skills on something actually educational, but I guess I did now.
3. No overuse of words:
Words! Words! Words! Digitally are not good on our presentations in this case!
I'm proud of a few more minor things, but I don't want this to turn into an essay so there we go. @RobloxDragon

Question 3: We’re a community of learners. Give a shout out to a classmate.

I know were supposed to shout out to a classmate but I'm going to be shouting out my whole group. Shout out to DV about how he was kind of in control but not bossy to the point where he stepped up and became a leader. Shout out to GCC on how she was a cooperative and engaging person when helping mostly the whole group get the information, pictures, and ideas. And finally shout out to MV. He did an excellent job even though he came to our group really late but he still pulled it together. He was able to gather information from his resources and remember his lines, finish his article review, and have a good time doing the project even when it was late! So pretty much just shout out to my whole group for working their hardest and successfully accomplishing a good team and a bond between how we can feel empathy for this dreadful topic. @BonelessFriesOrder4 (Their social awareness topic is “depression”.)

I'm going to give a shout out to CS because she is literally the one who always brought the group back together and always made us have a good time WHILE being on task. #Havefunandlearn @diaz7127

I'm giving a shout out to two groups. The Children with Disabilities group for working so hard on the video and hands on and giving a lot of thought i to their work And another shout out to the Drugs and Alcohol group. They are a great example of teamwork and being hard workers. #Teamwork @SparklestheUnicorn

After we’ve cycled through the questions, we do a dramatic reading of the chat. I read the initial question, then students read what they wrote in chronological order. It’s actually a lot of fun! Everyone gets to participate and share with the group in a fast paced manner.

I love watching the students during a chat. They are very serious yet enjoy themselves at the same time. As their teacher, I know that this is really a reflection piece. Part of my lesson design is always reflection. The faux Twitter chat is a fun and engaging way to get students reflecting while having fun with their friends. As @Markbarnes19 would say, that’s one way to #HackLearning.

Give the faux Twitter chat a try. Your students will love it!

#MuchLove . . . Marilyn 🖤

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Goals Inquiry

2/9/2019

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One of my goals this year has been to focus on inquiry and bring meaning to our essential questions. Coming back from Christmas break, our new language arts theme was a perfect fit . . . goals. Our overarching essential question was:

What does it take to accomplish a goal?

With the question in mind, I put my lesson design hat on and implemented a three part inquiry.

Let’s see what we did.

QFT
We started the inquiry off using the Question Formulation Technique modeled after The Right Question Institute (here). My sixth graders used this slide deck to guide the process.

This is our fourth time implementing QFT this year. The level of familiarity and confidence with the process was evident. Students dove right into the provocation.

Their questions were deep and personally relevant. Some of their questions included:

What are goals?
How do goals lead to action?
How do goals prepare us for the future?
Are goals and accomplishments the same?
Is a goal always accomplished?

As you can see, their questions are a combination of opened and closed. We’ve come to realize that both types of questions are important.

At the end of each session, students write a reflection on index cards. The following questions are used to spark their reflections:

What did you learn?
How will you use the questions?
How did you improve as a learner?

This particular session was special because, as an AVID elementary school, we’re working on collaboration and supporting teacher leaders. Part of our plan this year is for teachers to share best practices and learn from each other. My dear colleague and I shared our passions with each other, along with our principal and instructional coach.

Socratic Seminar
The next part to our inquiry was using the student generated questions from the QFT in a socratic seminar. During the peer lesson study, I observed my colleague implement a socratic seminar with her fourth graders. They did great! Since many of my students were her former students, I wanted to be consistent with the process.

For our goals socratic seminar, I split the class into four groups. We had two seminars running at the same time. Each seminar had an inside circle and an outside circle. The inside circle held the discussion and the outside circle were the observers. The students discussing were given questions generated from the QFT on index cards. The discussions were 5 minutes long. Each observer was assigned one student. Observations were recorded on index cards. After the discussions, the observers orally shared their observations. Once one round was complete, the inside circle and the outside circle swapped positions and the process was repeated.

The students did great with the socratic seminar. Because we run a student-led classroom and they were previously exposed to socratic seminar, the discussions were on point and observers took their role seriously. In this case, pictures speak louder than words. Take a peek.

Vision Bottles
The culmination to our inquiry was creating vision bottles. One of the essential questions for the unit was “What can people accomplish when working together?”. I decided to use this as an opportunity to have our instructional coach come in and co-teach a lesson.

The vision bottle lesson included several parts: strips with self-reflective questions, friendship, SMART goals, and tactile items to inspire. Click here for the lesson.

A real quick to be honest. I thought the activity would take one class period. It actually took two. But I recommend three in order to honor each part.

The component that tied into our inquiry was the SMART goals. For this part, we shared and discussed this image. Using the structure, I modeled several personal goals for myself. We discussed and shared math, language arts, and personal goals orally. Then, students wrote their own goals. For this lesson, I didn’t insist that all the components of SMART goals was in their sentence. Another to be honest. It is REALLY hard for students to write SMART goals. Take a look at some of their goals.

Shout out to our instructional coach, Lagina Young, for the inspirational handout and fun items to put in the bottle. The students loved them all! Thank you sharing your creativity with us.

Our goals inquiry was relevant, scholarly, and fun. I’m proud of my sixth graders for digging deep into QFT, having a scholarly discussion on goals, and would love to hear how they react years from now when they rediscover their vision bottle.

Are you using inquiry or QFT in your classroom or school? I’d love to see what you’re doing.

I hope all of your goals and dreams come true in 2019!

#MuchLove . . . Marilyn ❤️

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Social Awareness QFT

12/2/2018

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We’re moving right along with our social awareness inquiry. So far, we’ve generated a lengthy list of social concerns, engaged in a #SmashboardEdu session, and regrouped based on student interest.

Our next step is to generate our essential questions. In order to facilitate students asking their own questions, we utilized the Question Formulation Technique. The work of The Right Question Institute website along with the book, Make Just One Change by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana, has greatly influenced my practice.

Join me as I share our QFT session.

We started off watching this video of a fourth grade class navigating through the stages of QFT. The teacher’s thinking process and her student’s collaboration was motivating to both my students and me.

Our QFT session had 10 different groups varying from 2 to 5 students. The purpose of the inquiry is to learn about solutions to problems young people are facing today. In order to do that, students need to narrow down their focus. The QFT questioning process with help students determine essential questions to research and answer. The social concerns of my sixth graders are: immigration, face to face bullying, cyberbullying, making wrong choices, depression, self-harm, anxiety, drugs and alcohol, disabilities, and homelessness.

During the session, we used this slide deck to guide us. We engaged in all components of the QFT process which include:

   1.   A Question Focus (Q-Focus)
   2.   The Rules for Producing Questions
   3.   Producing Questions
   4.    Categorizing Questions
   5.   Prioritizing Questions
   6.   Next Steps
   7.   Reflection

This is the second time my class worked through the process. Our school has a very tight team. In fifth grade, students used the QFT process so it isn’t a new procedure. Honoring each step of the process is very important. It seems deceptively simple but the thinking and student empowerment is huge. Because students are doing the heavy lifting, they take ownership of their questions and learning. The timers embedded in the slide deck keep students on task and focused.

Take a look at some of the questions below. And this video of students collaborating.

The final component of the QFT process is a reflection. Students reflected in their digital journal. Their digi journal is an integral part of the inquiry. They’ll be returning to it throughout the next couple of months.

Take a look at some student reflections.

Student 1: "I learned that when doing a QFT, you can’t really worry about grammar at that point. You have to hurry up and write down your questions in the time you are given. I will use the questions we chose for further research in my anxiety inquiry, and to have more understanding with it. I can improve as a learner by expanding and tweaking my questions to make them better, and by taking my thinking into a deeper level. I also learned that making up questions in a limited time is not really easy, and you have to be a fast thinker. In a QFT, you aren’t really learning about your topic, but about your group and how good it collaborates. In my group, we needed a little bit more collaboration with the new member. We, of course had to help him a little with his understanding. Hopefully he improves with his collaboration and thinking. It was a little awkward considering he was uncomfortable with us since he barely knew us. The QFT really did help us with our thinking, and helped us get a better understanding on the questions we want to research on. All in all, the QFT helped us get a little more comfortable, and also gave us a good start because we thought of many good questions we would like to do further research on."
Student 2: "During our QFT time there was so much learning and engaging going on. I learned a lot about my group and the questions they had. AH (a group member) seemed to be really interested on the effect of making wrong choices. On the other hand ADH (another group member) was mainly interested on the origins and the consequences. We all asked many questions. Many were open. I feel that’s good because we could engage more in the topic. I also learned that we can all work as a well mannered team. We all took turns and gave the questions we felt were important. As a group we all felt we needed a voice. ADH was making sure that everyone got to share their perspective on the questions and what was more important. I feel that I can use the questions in many ways. I feel that it is best for me to use more or less the open questions to help me engage more in the subject. I will use the questions as a way to research and go deeper into the awareness in a scholarly way. The questions will improve my knowledge on the subject and can help throughout the process. There are many ways I can improve as a learner. I feel that maybe asking different questions such as deeper questions can improve the way I research. I like to reach for a scholarly act so the deeper question can engage me more. It will help my thoughts on the awareness. I should start thinking outside of the box. It’ll help my me and my groups ideas. After all this QFT session was really good and will help me learn new things, think of ways to use my questions, and help me try to improve my learning."
Student 3: "My QFT topic was Drug and Alcohol Abuse. My reflection of this topic helped me learn that there are more to drugs and alcohol than them just being bad. Something else that I learned during this session is that drugs and alcohol have many more questions to them then you think. We usually thought that drugs and alcohol were just things that we shouldn’t do, after what seemed about six minutes we realized there was still more questions about drugs and alcohol that us four were still wondering. Another thing that I can reflect on is that our group were not exactly comfortable with our topic, but mostly because we didn’t know how to explain this topic to others and how to put all the things together as a group. Something that I will do with my groups and my own questions are by trying to explain to others and more importantly why drugs and alcohol are things that people shouldn’t even try not even one time in life because after who knows if you’ll end up getting addicted to either of them. Another way that I can use these questions is by researching each different facts about them and how to help me understand these questions on my own and again after explain it to others to help them understand as well. A way I can improve as a learner is by giving more questions in my group and by helping other people find another question to give either me or themselves another thought about theirs or another about mine. I can also improve myself as a learner by thinking a little deeper in my questions. Something else that I think that I really can improve on as a learner is that I think I can be more open to others and yo my own ideas and to be able to share my ideas."

We culminated the session by going on a gallery walk. Students were able to read each groups questions and discuss with their peers along the way.

Our next steps are to focus on the three priority questions from each group. Students will be learning about their self-selected topic with a particular focus on solutions to their social concern.

The QFT process is a powerful questioning technique that can be used at all grade levels. Here is a GFT slide deck guide that you can modify to meet your particular needs. Feel free to insert your Q-focus into the slide deck.

If you’re already using QFT or are just starting your journey, I’d love to see what you’re doing. If you have questions, feel free to DM me.

#MuchLove . . . Marilyn ❤

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#MyRelaxing5

12/1/2018

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The beginning of the school year has come and gone. So why am I still working so much? Honestly, I love what I do. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not bringing work home but I am thinking about it all the time. And I do mean, all the time! Thank goodness for my Twitter friend, Mari, and my teaching partner, Jesus, for reminding me to have balance. Jesus and I made a pact at the beginning of the year to keep our balance in check. We’re doing pretty good going home at a decent hour. And Mari gave a group of us a challenge to write a blog post about called #MyRelaxing5.

So here they are, in no particular order.

1.   Geocaching - My current passion is geocaching. (Shout to Mari for writing a blog post about it.) I caught the geocaching bug in July and I have 182 caches to my name. I’ve found 7 travel bugs and have hid two caches of my own. It is seriously soooo much fun! Think Pokemon Go but with real items and logs to find and sign. Today we took a Boy Scouts group out geocaching in the desert. Talk about fun! Geocaching keeps my mind off work, gets me outside, and satisfies the competitive nature in me. If you’re interested, DM me and I’ll help you get started or check out the site geocaching.com.

2.   Exercise - One of the best ways for me to decompress is to exercise. It’s always been part of my life. Currently, I love weight lifting, rowing, and running. Just this morning I was challenged to run 3 miles or 30 minutes each day for the month of December. The timing is perfect. I immediately said “yes”. The weather here in southern California this time of year is perfect for afternoon runs and walks. But I have to admit, I will often come home from a run with some really good ideas to implement in my classroom. The white space is perfect for ideas to come and go. I used to run with music. Now I track my runs with my Garmin and enjoy the white space.

3.   Binge Watching Netflix and DVR Shows - This is my Friday night. I let my shows accumulate, I get into my comfy clothes and blanket, and snuggle in for the night. This probably sounds really boring to some but I love it!!! It’s probably the only time that I’m truly relaxed. One of our dogs is really old . . . 17 years. Her name is Lady. I call her my Old Lady now. I make sure to give her lots of lovin’ during Friday night binges.

4.   Visit Friends - I have two best friends. One is my best friend from college, Elena. I love visiting her during holidays. When I visit her and her family, it’s just like being home. Her daughters called me Tia Loca. We have so much fun together! The best part of our visit is that their kitchen gets a thorough cleaning. Super weird, but I love cleaning kitchens . . . so relaxing. I will definitely be visiting them soon. My other friend is Joan. We started out as running buddies. Now we’re geocaching buddies. We’ve done dozens of 5Ks together and a couple of Vegas half marathons. We don’t run too fast, but we sure have fun. A geocaching adventure is definitely on our calendar.

5.   Weekends with Family - Both of our children are in college in Orange County. We’ve taken to weekend trips with the kids. Sometimes we meet for the weekend in San Diego or Palm Springs. Other times we go see them. Of course, my daughter’s kitchen gets a good cleaning! We were at our son’s last weekend. This may be gross but I’m dying to clean his bathroom! Getting away to see our children makes me so happy and really is relaxing.

These are my #MyRelaxing5. I’m feeling a little guilty for not putting reading on my list. But, to be honest, I have a really hard time reading for pleasure during the school year. I always have an education related book that I’m working on. My recreational reading will have to wait until summer.

What are your relaxing 5? I challenge you to write them up and share them with us on Twitter. Even if you don’t write them up, the reflective process is well worth it.

#MuchLove . . . Marilyn ❤

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Social Awareness #SmashboardEdu

11/21/2018

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We’ve been busy in sixth grade. Our year long Passionate Kids Project (PKP) journey is moving right along. During the first quarter, students shared a particular passion of theirs and brought in an artifact to pin to our Passion Wall. For our second quarter, we will be working collaboratively to identify and solve issues facing young people today.

Join us on our journey.

Identify the Problem

We started with the essential question, “What are some issues young people face today?”. We gathered around our chart paper and two student leaders lead the brainstorming session. We talked about trust, privacy, and maturity as the topics got deeper and deeper. I have to be honest, I was surprised at the level of knowledge, empathy, and self-awareness the group had.

Narrow Down the Topics

During Station Rotation, we revisited the topics and discussed issues that students were drawn to. At the end of each 20 minute session, students wrote down 3 topics on index cards they were interested in diving into deeper. From there, students were grouped by interest. The topics included immigration, face to face bullying, cyberbullying, racism, gaming and too much internet, making wrong choices, depression, self-harm, and anxiety.

#SmashboardEdu

One of our favorite problem solving structures is #SmashboardEdu. It is a gamified process for solving problems. Over the course of two class periods, students identify the problem, research, solve, share, and reflect. Shout out to Ed Tech Team leader, @DeeLanier, for his fabulous bank of resources here. We used this slide deck to guide our sessions. With the use of cards, a timer, and a student reflection sheet, students were guided through the problem solving process. The culmination was a gallery walk with groups sharing their digital creations and solutions with the class.

The amount of engagement and collaboration was high during the sessions. Because the topics were student driven, their discussions became personal and reflective. With the use of the cards, discussions stayed on topic. The timer kept the pace moving and the reflection sheet provided accountability. The protocol for creating calls for 15 minutes. We did 15 minutes the first day then allow 10 minutes the second day for final touches and inserting their creations onto this collaborative slide deck.

Moving Forward

After our initial exposure to social awareness concerns, students were introduced to our bigger project. Students will continue to research a concern and give a 10 minute seminar to our 5th and 6th grade classes focusing on solutions. Students were given the opportunity to stick with the topic they have or change the topic. The majority of students kept their current topic, with a handful changing topics. New topics include homelessness and students with disabilities.

I’m so excited to see where their projects take them. The Social Awareness Seminar will be EdCamp style and will include a hands-on activity. Groups will be able to write a proposal for supplies for their activity. As part of the research process, groups will be asked to interview a professional in the field or a person that has personal experience with the concern. If you are able to be a resource, or know of a someone that would be willing to be interviewed, please let me know. We are working on learning and collaborating with others outside our four walls.

Thank you so much for joining us on our social awareness journey.

#MuchLove . . . Marilyn ❤

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Biomes Inquiry Project

10/28/2018

3 Comments

We’ve had a great start to sixth grade. I’m excited to share our first inquiry project. In science, we’re studying ecology. As an extension, we dove into a biome inquiry project.

We started by discussing the “Types of Student Inquiry” poster by Trevor MacKenzie and Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt. At the end of the year, we conduct a free inquiry on our personal passions. I really wanted students to see inquiry as a journey, something that is process as well as a product. The student’s perceptions and discussions about the poster were deep and targeted. They left the session feeling confident and supported. I was pleased with their level of engagement and understanding.

I introduced biomes through this video. After watching the video, we developed questions using the Question Formulation Technique. (The Right Question Institute at rightquestion.org is a valuable resource.)

Here is the sequence that we followed.

-Students wrote questions individually.
-In groups, students compiled their questions onto a poster.
-I created a Google doc with all the class questions.
-In groups, students categorized the questions as open or closed. (Document here.)
-In groups, students changed several open ended questions to closed questions and vise versa.
-Students finished the process by choosing three questions they were most interested in answering individually.

It was such a powerful experience watching students interact with their peers and ask questions. Their collaboration skills were excellent.

I created my own tally sheet of questions students were interested in answering. With student interests and content standards in mind, I created a choice board of essential questions for students to use for their inquiry.

When we introduced the inquiry project, students were instructed to choose four questions from the choice board to research. (Document here.) Because this was a controlled inquiry, I provided three templates for students to use. (Templates here, here, and here.) Each template had the same components: title page, four essential questions, captivating image, quote, map, and resource page. The required components were the title page, four questions, and resource page. The image, quote, and map were available for students that wanted to “level up”. Most students completed some or all of the additional options.

Part of my workflow to monitor students and their progress was for students to fill in the cells of the questions they would answer on their choice board and send me their Google slide link using a Google form. We also created a crowd sourced resource page for students to use. Additionally, I had a poster of the choice board where students wrote their names by the questions they would be answering. This became a support when students needed assistance with a particular question.

Students spent about 5 class periods researching, taking notes, writing their responses, and completing their slide deck. Experts in particular areas emerged during the week and became valuable resources to classmates. Some students shared how to insert links and images, other students were eager to share sites they found, while others shared how to use text boxes and word art on the map.

The final products were informative and scholarly. Just as important was the amount of student agency that developed during the unit. Because students were involved in determining the questions being used and choosing their own template, their engagement was high. We have a flexible seating environment and students regularly collaborate with peers. These structures amplified student success.

Take a look at some of our inquiry projects. (Links here, here, and here.)

Next on our agenda is a guided ancient civilizations inquiry. If you’re on an inquiry journey, I’d love to be tagged in your posts. Trevor and Rebecca have an active community using the #InquiryMindset hashtag. Be sure to give it and them a follow.

#MuchLove . . . Marilyn ❤

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The Goals Project

AVID . . . Sweet 16

Just Be You

Social Awareness Inquiry Cycle

Social Awareness Seminar - Faux Twitter Chat

Goals Inquiry

Social Awareness QFT

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Social Awareness #SmashboardEdu

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