Elizabethan Era Project

Last week, my class worked on a pre-reading project for Romeo & Juliet.  First, we talked about what they already knew (or thought they knew) about Romeo & Juliet.  Next, we focused on the setting and author.  We discussed the time period of Shakespeare's drama and life during that era.  From there, I gave them information about different social classes, occupations, and education.  Each student chose an occupation that interested them and was asked to write a classified ad that advertised the type of work they did.  Within the ad, they were required to discuss their education, experience, and request a wage.  Something the kids really got a kick out of was choosing their Elizabethan name.  I had them choose from a list of common names from the Elizabethan Era.  I found some great resources at kidsloveshakespeare.com.  After the students finished their rough drafts of their ads, we aged paper with coffee and tore the edges to make it look old.  Here are some of the finished products!

Illinois State Standards:

CC.7.R.L.3 Key Ideas and Details: Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).

Objectives:
Students will:
-describe an occupation of the Elizabethan era
-compare and contrast education of today with education of the Elizabethan era
-identify social classes of the Elizabethan era
-relate the information of their classified ad to the characters in Romeo & Juliet

Assessment: 
Students were assessed on the accuracy of their final product.  They were to include their Elizabethan name, education, experience, requested wage, and contact information as well as a picture.

Plant Cells

Seventh grade science begins with the study of ecosystems.  So right now were focusing on plant cells. Of course, I want students to know the parts of the plant cell and their functions.  Our book is pretty old and does not go into as much detail as I would like.  So another teacher showed me the iCell iPad app which was great for what I wanted my students to accomplish.  It provides 3D exploration of the plant cell and describes each structure and function.  The app is available for iPhone, iPad, and even your computer.  It also has three different levels of information.  Basic was just enough for us.  After exploring the app and taking notes, they created their own labeled plant cell.  However, to spice up the old colored pencil drawing of the cell, they used the AutoShapes in MicrosoftWord.  Here are some of the finish products.


Illinois State Standards: 
12.A.3a  Explain how cells function as “building blocks” of organisms and describe the require­ments for cells to live.
12.A.3c  Compare and contrast how different forms and structures reflect different functions (e.g., similarities and differences among animals that fly, walk or swim; structures of plant cells and animal cells).

Objectives:
-Students will:
-draw a plant cell using MicrosoftWord.
-label the structure of the cell
-recognize the difference between a plant and animal cell

Assessment:

Students were assessed on the inclusion of all cell structures, appropriateness of chosen shapes, and chosen location of shapes.  Along with this illustration, students also turned in notes after exploring iCell and took a quiz on plant cell structures and functions.

Puzzle Piece Bulletin Board

Yay!  I am so excited to blog about student work and things we've been doing in the classroom!  This week got better with each day and my class is beginning to show more and more personality...thank goodness!  We have back to school night next Wednesday which is basically a chance to meet parents, explain expectations, and attempt to have student projects displayed.  Two weeks of school is barely any time to have projects finished and displayed, but I think I managed pretty well this year.  I had my students write "I am..." poems.  They are poems that allow students to share their feelings, likes, interests, fears, and hopes by simply plugging them into a simple template.  It surprises me how much I learn about each student by simply reading these poems.  Anyways, they emailed me their poem and I sized them so that they would fit on a puzzle piece that will soon be on a bulletin board.  The next day, they glued their poems to the puzzle piece and worked together to put the jumbo puzzle together which turned out to be a good team building activity.  Some of the puzzle pieces are pictured below.  I wanted to laminate them, but it was just too hot at school today and it was Friday :) so it's now on my Monday morning to-do list.  I can't wait to put them on the bulletin board once they are laminated!

First Week Down

I made it through the first week (half week actually) of school!!  Thankfully everything went smoothly. My class is great and so well behaved.  In fact, I wish they talked more.  Yes, I know...crazy!  Seventh graders dove right into a project for the book they read this summer, Tangerine.  They are each designing a yearbook page for one of the characters.  Even more exciting is the fact that we got to use iPads in science!!  Students choose a biome to research producers, consumers, and abiotic factors of their biome.  From there, they will be researching animal and plant adaptations.  I found this really great website that I am having the students use: http://www.mbgnet.net/.  My 6th grade science class went well too.  That class is full of energy and excited to learn, especially when we went into the lab.  That class has four new students which is great for our school.  Each of the students seem to be adapting well.  I also have a new girl in my class who is doing well.  Looking forward to a full week beginning tomorrow!

New Technology

So this year my school received 20 iPads.  On Friday, each teacher got to take home an iPad to explore and download some free apps.  Needless to say, the iPad kept me busy this weekend.  I found some fun apps that I am going to share with the other teachers at my school.  I think my favorite app that I found is call Educreations.  Basically, it allows you to record writing/drawing while speaking and save it.  Then someone else can go listen/watch your recording.  I thought this would be great for my middle school students.  Immediately, I thought of using it as an assessment tool in math.  I could have a student solve a problem and talk through it and save it.  Then I could go back and have a deeper understanding of how well the student comprehends the concept.  Students could also use this app to teach each other concepts.  Because as we discussed at our workshop last week, students retain the most information when they teach it to someone else :)

Bulletin Board Brainstorm

I've been spending some time in my classroom this past week.  For the most part, everything has been coming together nicely.  However, I've been really stuck on what to do with one bulletin board.  Last year, it was a fun fact board and students contributed their own facts to the board.  They had a lot of fun with it, and I liked it because it was interactive.  The only thing I didn't like about it was I never really knew about the validity of the facts.  As a middle school teacher, I'm constantly reminding students to use good sources when looking for information and with this interactive board I wasn't able to monitor that.  Luckily, tonight I came across 5th Grade Rocks, 5th Grade Rules and came across a great idea for a fun and interactive bulletin board (among many other great ideas).  I am going theme the bulletin board as Wonderopolis.  This website provides tidbits of random information that I think my students would really enjoy.  I haven't gotten it all figured out, but I think I'll post a wonder and have student find a new fact about that wonder and post it on the board.  This way, the bulletin board is still interactive, but there is more guidance for students.

All good things must come to an end - including summer vacation.  However, I am super excited to start a new year.  I have been working on curriculum stuff for the past week and trying to map out my year.  It's so frustrating because all I want to do is put the plan into action, but I need to wait for school to actually start!  In part of my planning, I have of course been searching the web for new and exciting teaching methods.  I can officially say I'm OBSESSED with Pinterest!  I will definitely be trying some of the things I came across over the summer and hopefully I'll be posting them here to share.

Planning and finding new ideas is definitely fun and addicting, but I don't think anything beats putting together a classroom!  I am going to be spending lots of time at school decorating and getting organized.  You can probably expect to see some photos of my classroom in progress!