My loss, their gain

Here it is almost a month into 2014.  Like most people, the new year brings new opportunities and naturally the traditional new years resolutions.  Hopefully you have stuck to yours!

One of the most common resolutions is of course to lose weight and be more healthy in general.  I started off the year with the most positive of intentions, but a case of the flu and strep raging through the house has prevented much in the way of exercising and sticking to a great diet.  We have more or less been hanging on through survival mode.

I turned the dreaded 40 last year and have vowed that my 40's are going to be my healthiest and most fit ever.  Problem is that I have incredibly low willpower.  What bad can one pizza do?  Eh, I'll skip the workout because that hilarious repeat of Friends is on.  Never mind, the existence of DVR and the fact that I have probably seen it 50 times already.  See what I'm getting at?

This year I have decided to get my students involved in my weight loss resolution.  They are ALWAYS begging for extra credit but I am somewhat of a grinch regarding it.  What I told them is that however much weight I lose in the next semester becomes their extra credit gift at the end of the year.  Basically my loss is their gain. 

I did this little project with some hesitation because I did not know how they would react.  At first they were pressuring me into an eating disorder but over the last week it has sparked some good conversation about healthy eating and portion control.  I can even see students questioning some of the choices available to them in the vending machines at school.  Rather than blindly eating the junk that is available, they are even beginning to make better choices and be proud about it.

Have I been perfect so far?  Uh, no, but since the plague seems to have left the house with a healthy scrubdown and more Lysol than I would like to admit, I am ready to tackle it full force.  Now that I have put it out there and on here, I have no choice but to succeed.  There's no way I'm gonna stand up in from of my students and tell them I only lost 5 pounds.  Sometimes pressure can be a good thing. 

Scavenging with Remind 101

Every year I am very lucky to be able to take my 8th grade students to Boston.  Not only do they see and learn at the sites we have already covered in American history, they also get a preview of what is coming ahead throughout the year.

I gotta say that Remind 101 played a very important role in the success of this years trip.  Remind 101 is a free text messaging service made for teachers, admin and anyone else who would like a safe form of texting reminders out to students and families.

One of our annual stops is the JFK Library in which the students do a scavenger hunt through the exhibit area.  After teaching kids for almost 17 years, I know that once you set them loose in a museum most of them will simply zoom through.  The scavenger hunt gives them a fun purpose and slows them down to actually check out the exhibits.

Once we were driving to the library this year, I realized that I totally and completely screwed up and forgot the scavenger hunt.  At first I thought, I would just let it go but then the lightbulb went off and had the idea of texting them all the clues and having them jot the answers or pics down in their Notability app on their Ipads.

Journaling in the Atrium

Luckily my wonderful chaperones took the students to the opening film and I set off to reconstruct the scavenger using Remind 101 as a tool.  Once they got out of the film, it was as easy as pressing send and off they went in search of the items.  I continued to send out texts as they searched thorough the exhibit and then in the final text they were given a quote by JFK to reflect upon.  With the quote in hand, we had a reflective journal moment in the beautiful glass atrium.

After they were all finished, I was actually quite happy that I had made the mistake of forgetting the original hunt.  By using Remind 101, the students were even more engaged and excited about the hunt.  In fact, we ended up actually ushering them out the door because we were running late to our dinner appointment!

Not only did Remind 101 get me out of an embarrassing fix, it also made me stop and realize just how much teaching has changed since I began in the 1990's.  I remember jumping up and down for joy when my school bought me a new overhead projector.  I wish I could hop in a time machine and go share with that young teacher just how much it would all change.  Then again, I'm sure that app is coming soon.

The Reinvention of the Hand Turkey

Recently, my classes hit the road(or air) to turn the Boston area into our classroom.  Throughout the trip they filled out our traditional packet of materials now upgraded and revised to suit our 1:1 ipad needs.

Throughout the 4 days they gathered information for our upcoming memorial project by photographing and analyzing a variety of memorials including the Salem Witch Memorial and The New England Holocaust memorial.  In short, the trip is designed to let them actually see and experience what we have already learned about and prepare them for future lessons.

On our last day, we visited Plimoth Plantation and my students took on the role of a roving news reporter out to capture the life of a pilgrim and Wamponaug in 1627.  They interviewed and helped out the living historians by doing chores among other activities.

Problem was that I just simply did not truly know how we were going to present their findings.  Late at night it finally came to me.  Don't you just love those sleepy moments of sudden inspiration?  I decided to have them tackle Aurasma once again with it.

I will admit that I have had a love/hate relationship with Aurasma.  On one hand it is just plain cool and when it works, it's pretty mindblowing. On the other, my classes have gotten frustrated with it because it is kind of tricky.  Following the proper channels, not capturing the target and the dreaded app crash have left my students and myself a little annoyed.

That being said, I figured we would give it one more go and have them create a small film using the footage they shot at Plimoth Plantation using Pinnacle Studio on their iPads.  Each group of 3 put together a 3 minute film and then saved it to their iPad camera roll.  We found through trial and error that they needed to save it as the smallest sized video as possible since Aurasma kept saying their video overlay was too large.  Sorry, no HD for this.

Each group also created a unique hand turkey for our bulletin board that then became a trigger image.  My 8th graders love to do these "throwback" art lessons from elementary school.  We found that using markers for the hand turkey worked best.  Those that used colored pencils were simply not picked up by the app. When the aura is created, the turkey comes to life and reveals what they learned during our visit.

There are still two classes that need to complete the project but it has been wildly successful so far and it is the perfect way for them to share their findings with the school.  Who knew that a hand turkey could be so knowledgeable?

UPDATED:  Since the original post a year ago, another set of 8th graders have done this assignment. Aurasma has improved vastly over last year and the trigger images are much easier to capture and present.

A Question of Participation: Time to Fish!

Were you one of those kids that sat in school dreading the moment you would be called on to answer a question?  I most definitely was one of those kids and of course I grew out of it for the most part, but participation in school was literally torture for me growing up.

With that in mind, I face a dilemma as a teacher.  I teach in a school in which my department expects students to participate in class discussions on a frequent basis.  I tend to agree with the philosophy in principle, but I cannot help but feel major empathy for those kids that are literally terrified of the prospect of speaking in front of everyone. 

I believe that participation can take many forms other than simply contributing to the class discussion.  Opening up the opportunity to blog back a response after class has been very effective the past few years.  Heck, I would even consider tweeting back a response would be considered a form of participation.  Even if if is not technically done in class, does it not show that the student is clearly thinking through the question at hand?

One method that I have found to benefit all students most is the fishbowl discussion method.  Honestly, I cannot remember where I first heard about it, but basically the class is put into 4 different groups.  A discussion question is posed and the small groups each discuss it for a few minutes.  At the end of the time a representative is selected to participate in the fishbowl.

The fishbowl has five chairs around the table.  Each group sends member to the fishbowl where they discuss the topic based upon their small group discussion.  The rest of the students observe as silent participants.  If for some reason, someone that is not in the fishbowl wants to contribute, they may sit in the fifth chair and throw out their idea and then vacate the spot for another contributor. 

With this method, every student is participating is some capacity.  For those that are very introverted, the small group is ideal and I have found that even the most quiet of students find comfort in the small group setting.

I would welcome any feedback from anyone on how you engage those students who would rather take the "C" than speak up in class.  This former "C" kid would love your comments!

The Bloody Massacre Revisited

People have always accused me of having a flair for the dramatic, so if there is any way to plan a lesson involving costumes, then I'm totally up for it!  My storage closet in my classroom is packed to the gills with props and an unusually high number of wigs.

One of the most complex and interesting lessons we do is the annual recreation of the Boston Massacre.  Rather than just reading through a bunch of first hand accounts(which I think is also great by the way), we take those accounts and bring them to life.  I used to do a mock trial based upon the event where we put Captain Thomas Preston on trial. It worked out very well, but in the end I craved blood.

After a lot of thought, I approached our theater department to see if we could bring the event to life using a simple set, props and trained actors.  Annually, our Black Box theater in transformed into March 5, 1770 complete with snow and copious amounts of fake blood. 

The stage is set. 

The day begins like any other day but then a panicked colonist pounds upon our classroom door shouting that there is a fire and to bring our buckets to help extinguish the flames.  We follow the distressed colonist to the darkened theater.  Once we enter, it is pitch black with an audio track booming the sounds of an angry mob taunting the British soldiers along with the soldiers yelling back at them to disperse.  One thing leads to another and the theater is filled with the sounds of musket fire

Students listening to the mob.

whereupon the lights come up and the aftermath is laying in front of the students.

I then hand out an investigative journal to each student that they fill out to piece together the story.  First, they must survey the scene and make notes of any evidence left behind.  This year I placed various QR clues around to give them some hints. 

After about 10 minutes of them investigating, the colonists come out in dramatic fashion to tell their side of the story.  Students cycle around to each of them asking questions and making note of their testimony.  The British soldiers then make an appearance as well to counter what the colonists said.  It often turns into a very confrontational experience which blows the kids minds!

A colonist tells his story

I have been very lucky the past few years to have some wonderful former students give up their time to portray the witnesses.  Since they experienced it as my students in 8th grade, they are really excited to return to be the actors and each year it gets better.

The day after the massacre, I have them get into small groups to discuss their findings and then as a whole group come up with the sequence of events.  Oftentimes, I find that they have done such a good job with their own investigation that I don't really need to add anything. We end the lesson by looking at Paul Revere's engraving of the massacre and have some "aha" moments about his intention and the not so subtle way he was reworking the real story to meet the needs of the patriot cause.

While it might not be easy for everyone to go to this extreme to portray the Boston Massacre, it can be modified.  For example, the mock trial worked really well in the past.  Through the years, I have used numerous resources, but one of the best is The Boston Massacre Historical Society which has the original transcripts plus tons of other information.  For the mock trial, each student was given a role to study and both the defense and prosecution worked to develop their case. 

Another idea would be to split the class down the middle and have one side defend the actions of the colonists while the other side defend the soldiers.  I have done this for a Patriot/Loyalist debate with great results.

Students caught in the middle of an argument between soldiers and colonists

Although recreating the massacre as I have done does take quite a bit of work, the end result is well worth the effort.  Seeing my students decipher the material and get totally immersed is totally worth the rehearsals and the ridiculously early morning to set it all up.  By the way, if you want some pretty darn realistic fake blood that is easy to clean up, use clear Palmolive and red food coloring(watch out it might stain a bit).  I once used Karo syrup which ended in disaster.  Not only was it a nightmare to clean up, by the end of the day, it had attracted any army of ants.  Eh, you live you learn.

QRchaeology: Jamestown

The struggle of every teacher is to make their subjects relevant and real to students.  Throughout my 15 year teaching career, I have sought to engage students in their learning through a variety of highly interactive activities.  Wow, seriously 15?

For our study of Jamestown, I "hired" my students to serve as field and forensic archaeologists to survey both remains and relics found at the site.  With each student having an Ipad this year, it was the perfect opportunity to QR it up!

The site consisted of two grave sites and two trash pits.  Each site had a collection of QR codes and other physical artifacts.  I bought two skeletons at the local Halloween shop to add a bit of macabre to the mix and outlined each grave and trash pit with painters tape.  The QR codes either contained links to images of unearthed items or text clues about the condition of the body.

As they progressed to each site, they were given a series of guiding questions such as;

1.  Based upon the items what can you say about their daily life?  
2.  How did they survive?
3. What evidence do you have that Jamestown began to prosper?
4.  Based upon the examination of the bodies and their burial, what can you say about their status in Jamestown?  Can you determine a cause of death?  (The male was found with a bullet embedded in his leg and died of blood loss.

As with each lesson, you just never know how it will be received.  Sometimes what we think is brilliant can sometimes totally flop with the kids.  When we began the activity this morning I braced myself for blank looks, but they embraced the dig with an incredible amount of curiosity and interest.  Also, they interpreted their findings with a great deal of accuracy which gave them all a nice ego boost.  At the end I designated them all "Student Archaeologists: First Class" which got a hearty round of cheers.

The Jamestown Rediscovery website was primarily used to find the relics and the burials .  If you would like to use the QR Codes that I created, feel free to email me at oneifbylandadventures@gmail.com.  I'm working on getting a more cleaned up version at my website.  Please visit!  I'm always looking for feedback.

The Aura in the Graveyard

Capturing the Aura(ghost) of Vicente Ybor

The sheer amount of technology is wonderful and also a bit overwhelming.  Every day there is something new and exciting so I have to sort of stop myself at times and just concentrate on a few tech treasures and try to master them before stumbling into app overload.

Aurasma has been an exciting one that I will be using with my classes this year.  It is sort of like a QR code on steroids where you can link an object to an Aura.  Basically it can make the inanimate object come to life.

Yup, I love to dress up

This past week, I wanted to start out the year by letting the students learn about local history by using Aurasma at Oaklawn Cemetery in downtown Tampa.  The previous day I had gone out there myself to create the Auras linking the selected gravestones to archival pictures and information about the person buried there. 

After having spent time creating them and also experiencing the nightmare of actually falling into an open grave, the only thing left was to see if it worked with the students.  In my gravedigger outfit, I led them out to the cemetery and gave them written clues about who they needed to find.  Despite the insane heat, the kids loved it and got very excited when the auras would appear.  Admittedly, some of the auras did not work, perhaps due to shading at that time of day, but all in all, it was a successful ghost hunt.

As a class we plan on creating auras to make our class an aura filled interactive classroom linking projects to students explanations and making our bulletin boards alive. 

Aurasma has a lot of possibilities and I look forward to hearing what other teachers are using it for.