Some old, some new!

So, this year I have tried some old activities that were successful last year, and some new activities that I haven't tried before.

Some of the old activities include note-taking around the classroom, "Avalanche" for review, the Canada Map Place Mat project, and reflections using window writers/chalkboards/whiteboards/smelly felts.

One of the new activities I have tried is "Sandpile Island" (courtesy of Kevin Epp) in Social Studies.  It is an activity that teaches the students to work out how to display height on topographic maps.  Basically, you get a large box full of sand, they design their island, and you let them explore and try to come up with a useful method to represent height on a topographic map.  They get really frustrated trying to figure it out but after a class of frustration they get really into it as the lightbulbs go on!

Another new activity I have tried is called "Who Am I?" that I got from a teacher during my summer studies at UBCO.  It starts as a vocabulary activity, where the students have to practice using dictionaries and thesauruses.  They have to come up with the five best possible words they can to describe themselves.  Then, they turn it into a Powerpoint presentation which, eventually, is presented to the class.  Because it was the first oral presentation, I had them choose their own groups of 3-5 and they presented only to their groups, and me, during lunch hour.  Every single student completed a Powerpoint presentation and every student but one presented to a small group.  If they wanted to improve their mark, they had the opportunity to present to the class.  I actually had twelve students volunteer to present to the class and they did a great job!

Unfortunately, the student I have chosen to work with this year (let's call him John) completed a Powerpoint but refused to present to his small group and also rejected the opportunity to present to the class.  So far, I haven't been able to get him motivated at all.  He seems to be interested when we use smelly felts or do note-taking around the classroom, but he is not very productive.  I have tried everything I can think of, but nothing has worked.  He is often reading his book instead of listening in class, he is not engaged in the lessons and he is not motivated to work...

Just for fun...

I forgot all about these videos!  Back in November we tried that activity Jeff had us try with the tape on the floor...here is my class attempting to squeeze into different sections of the box...pretty funny!

Up and Down

First of all, the Amazing Race geography worksheet was a success!  Everyone was completely engaged as it was a competition!  In pairs, they had to do some searching on the maps to find locations and they had to talk to each other to figure out some of the answers.  Even JT was working hard!  Unfortunately, when they received their prizes for first, second, and third place, I was angry as all I got was "Is that it?" and no one said thank you.  That always makes me wonder why we even bother sometimes?!?!  I will post videos/pictures of this assignment very soon.

Second, the English project I was referring to in my last post has me stumped.  I am now working on the same project with my other three Immersion classes and I still have about eight options (I removed the journal and the letter or e-mail).  I'm finding that the students are STILL way more concerned with the drawing part or the constructing part, and they are forgetting about the only part that I will be marking...THE CONTENT!  I don't know how to get through to them! 

Third, JT is not loving our map placemat project.  I had to move him today because he was talking too much and wasting time and he just sat there and did next to nothing.  I think it's time to get some new ideas to try out.  He did, however, study hard to re-write a poetry quiz on which he originally got 4/20 (so unfortunately, the poetic devices flyswatter game we played didn't help)...BUT it was almost all because his mother wanted him to re-write, not because he cared about improving his mark.  He studied hard, with flashcards this time, but still only managed a 10/20.

Small Update

I can't believe I haven't blogged in such a long time!  I don't have all that much to report at this point since we have been back from our holiday.  Before the break, we were working on the Religion unit in Social Studies.  The unit Jeff helped us plan went pretty well...most of my students were quite engaged in the videos and activities we prepared for them.  Unfortunately, when it came time to do the actual project, they wasted a lot of time, some of them plagiarized, and a lot of them payed no attention to the criteria.  I did get most of them handed in though, including JT's. 

I was also working on an English project for The Outsiders and decided to give my students about 10 different options.  They had a lot of fun with it and many of them did an excellent job!  Some did get too caught up in the aesthetics and forgot about the content...that is still a problem that I continue to work on.  JT also handed this project in on time.  It is progress, but he continues to rush through the work and disregard the criteria. 

I just introduced the same project in my immersion classes so we will see how it turns out!

Back on track

After JT got over the whole idea that his partner 'ditched' him, he chose to work on a poster.  It was a process of elimination rather than a desire to create a poster, but that's ok.  I'm happy to report that he did a way better job on his body system poster than he did on his cell poster earlier in the year.  The cell poster was 36/46 (78%) and it was a struggle.  His body system poster was 91%!!!  He achieved this mark with a little bit of ab. ed. support and a bit of help from me organizing which components were important, but other than that, he did it on his own without repeated prompting!  To add to that, the students were expected to very briefly present their projects to the class.  Earlier in the week he told me there was no way he was going to present because it made him too nervous, but when it came time to present, he did it right away when I called his name! 

Back to square one?

So JT has been away all week until today.  He has come back to the middle of our final Science project on body systems.  Before he left he had partnered up with a peer who has now chosen a new partner because of the absences.  He was pretty upset about this.  He was completely back to his old self claiming he couldn't do it, couldn't find the answers, didn't know what method he wanted to use, etc.  He had a very negative attitude.  I sat with him and went over the information with him and we chose a poster.  I will have to update you on how the poster goes!

The rest of the class is working quite hard on their projects.  This year, I added the test to the list of options just like Pam did.  So far, only two of my students have chosen the test.  It could be out of laziness because they wasted the block today, so I told them they have to come in at lunch tomorrow.  Pam and I went through our outline to make the PLOs more evident so that they don't miss important information like they did last year.  We will have see how it all turns out!

On another note, I tried the window writers, graffiti, and chalkboard writing with my other classes and it was a hit! 

Results!

So, after doing the reflection activity to talk about the poem, I had them complete a worksheet about the metaphors found in the poem.  Based on what I remember from previous years, the results are way better than they usually are!  Not a single student failed!  The lowest mark was 4/8, which was JT's (although, I think that he would have done worse without the reflection activity), but most marks were 7 or 8 out of 8! Yay!