Electrical Circuits & Jitterbugs

Eighth graders have been studying electricity and for the first time, I have the material (very few) to have student create their own series and parallel circuits.  First the class watched a video about how they are set up and the differences between the two.  Then, after being assigned a reading, students worked in a small group to build their own series and parallel circuits.  This made it so much more meaningful for the students.

Now, we are working on Jitterbugs.  I will post the link to the lesson plan and of course post pictures of our final products!

The Jitterbugs went well this year; this class was very creative.  The only thing was this year we used motors with wires and leads already connected.  At first I thought this would be a good thing because students wouldn't have to strip the wires of the alligator clips.  However, it was not a good thing when it came to our Jitterbug competition.  After all the Jitterbugs were completed, we had a contest to see which bug jittered the longest, farthest, etc.  Since these Jitterbugs didn't have the clips to simply clip on  and off the motor, students had to tape the leads onto the batteries.  This was not ideal, but the competition went well and the kids enjoyed it!  Here is the link I used to help with this project: Jitterbugs

Scale Drawing

I am currently teaching one of my favorite chapters in pre-algebra.  It is all about proportions and part of that is scale drawings.  Each year I teach this, I truly feel like I teach it better and more clearly.  It really is amazing to step back and watch yourself grow as a teacher.  Anyways, this year I wanted to have students make their own scale drawing.  At first I considered having students create a scale drawing of a buildings in this Chicago skyline which would then be displayed outside my classroom.  However, after more thought I concluded it would be hard to make the buildings look as realistic as I would have wanted.   So instead, I thought I would incorporate a piece of art.  I went with this idea because I do have an interest in art and because I try to expose my students to it as much as possible since we no longer have an art teacher.  Anyways, I chose Composition A by Piet Mondrian.  As a class, we assessed the amount of space we had for our artwork and determined a starting ratio for our proportion.  From there,  I had students work in groups to draw a set of rectangles according to our first ratio.  I would definitely do this project again!  Here is the final product :)

Common Core Math Standards:

Analyze proportional relationships and use them to solve real-world and mathematical problems.

2.  Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities.

Objectives:

Students will:

-identify Piet Mondrian's artwork 

-determine the new size of part of the artwork using proportions

Assessment:

Students were assessed based on the accuracy of their calculations.

Christmas Festivities!!

Christmas is such a hectic time, but luckily I was able to have some fun with it and be thankful for all the opportunities I've been given!  Here are some pictures of our holiday celebrations!

 Finger-paint Light Strands....so much fun and super easy!!

Gift Bags for my students in math club!

Pop-up cards and angel ornaments for our 2nd grade buddies.  Ideas taken from Pinterest :)

Angel Ornaments Link

Gift Bags for my homeroom filled with candy, pencils, and glow sticks for the new year!

Letters to Santa

With teaching middle school, the magic of Santa is somewhat lost.  However, this year I came across a post (unfortunately, I do not remember where) that shared a lesson plan about writing letters to Santa from the perspective of a villain.  I thought it would be a perfect creative/persuasive writing assignment and I could also use it to teach students how to write a business letter.  So first of all, I had student select a villain of their choice.  Next, they had to brainstorm ideas why their villain would be worthy of a Christmas present this year.  From there, I told students they would be writing a letter to Santa asking for a Christmas present through the point of view of their villain.  The kids loved this and had so much fun thinking of reasons why their character was worthy.  I loved that my students had the chance to be creative and at the same time were learning how to write a business letter with a clear purpose.  The results were great and very amusing the read.  Here are some examples:

Common Core Writing Standards:

1.  Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
      a.  Introduce claim(s), acknowledge alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.

4.  Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.  (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.)

Objectives:

Students will:

-write a business letter 

-create arguments that support the worthiness of their villain

-organize ideas to fit the format of a business letter

Assessment:

Students were assessed based on the final draft of their business letter.  They were evaluated on the format of the business letter, ability to maintain a formal tone, and the quality of their persuasive reasons provided in the letter.

Sign Language Art Project

   In high school, we spent a lot of time drawing hands in my art class and as my homeroom's "art teacher," I thought we could incorporate that into one of our art projects.  I found this lesson to help me out: Sign Language Art.  I first introduced the sign language alphabet to my class.  My students were much more interested than I expected them to be.  They immediately began spelling their names or sending messages to their friends across the room.  From there, I told them to think of a word (not too long) that describes our school.  Once everyone chose a word (no repeats) they practiced drawing the letters of their word.  After some practice, students chose a color of construction paper to draw their final signs.  Once I approved their final signs, they traced them with a Sharpie and cut them out.  The next art class, they used water color to paint a white sheet of paper the same color as their construction paper.  The first layer of paint was very light, but for the next layer, they darkened up the paint to make designs on their paper.  Finally, after everything dried, students glued their hands to their water colored paper and used stencils to label each letter.  The students loved this art project and many of them asked to laminate it so they could take it home!

Skin Brochure

  To wrap up our unit about the skin, students created a skin brochure that could be used in a dermatologist's office.  The brochure would provide information about the layers of the skin, functions, of skin, and of course, the risk of skin cancer.
  Thanks to the computer teacher, students were able to use Publisher to make their brochures fancy and professional!

Illinois State Standards:

12.A.3a  Explain how cells function as “building blocks” of organisms and describe the require­ments for cells to live.

Objectives:

Students will:

-create a visually appealing brochure 

-identify the layers of skin

-list the functions of the skin

-explain the risk of skin cancer

Assessment:

Students were assessed based on the completeness and accuracy of their brochure using the following rubric:

Apples to Apples

  Of course I want to help expand my students' vocabularies, but I struggle to find a successful method.  Our middle school students have a vocab book which basically introduces 20 new words each week.  In my opinion, this is a lot of words.  These 20 words do not include the vocabulary words from the short stories or novels in reading.  With all of these words, I find that students simply memorize the definition and forget most of them the next week.  I try to encourage my students to use the vocabulary words in their writing for extra credit, but students tend to use the "easy" words or words that are already familiar to them.  I also try to play vocabulary Bingo to make vocabulary more fun.  I recently tried having my students create and play Apples to Apples using vocabulary words.
  First I had students play the real Apples to Apples game so that they could become familiar with the rules.  Next, I copied red and green blank Apples to Apples cards.  On the green cards, students put a vocabulary word from The Outsiders along with three synonyms.  On the red cards, students had fun putting random (and appropriate) words, people, events, or places with a simple explanation or quote.  After the cards were completed, students were able to play Apples to Apples and practice their vocab words.  This worked very well and kept students' attention.  They even played this with a substitute while I was at a workshop!

Common Core Standards:

Language Standards

4c. Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.

5b. Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., synonym/antonym, analogy) to better understand each of the words.

Objectives:

Students will:

-identify synonyms for vocabulary words

-make connections to vocabulary words to encourage retention

Assessment:

Students were assessed based on the completion of their Apples to Apples cards.  They were formally assessed based on the final vocabulary test for The Outsiders.