Let's Talk Planners!

If you're anything like me you've eyeballed the beautiful Erin Condren Lesson Plan books from afar, unwilling to pay the price of luxury for something that should be so simple. I even thought I wouldn't need a planner anymore and tried to keep a digital planner last year but there's something therapeutic about writing my plans by hand. When I write them I feel like I remember them better or at least I am able to think more clearly. I grew up in a time (not too long ago I swear) where we had to write everything in school so this is an old habit that has served me well. I decided to indulge myself and get the Erin Condren planner this year.

I loved that there were SO many covers to choose from and I love anything floral so that was a natural choice for me. It took a few weeks to arrive and came beautifully wrapped in a pink box. Upon opening there were some goodies they had thrown inside as well as the extra stickers and page clip I had ordered.

The inside of the planner is what I am most excited about!! I love the clear zipper pouch in the front (completely moveable). I also love the pockets in the back to hold loose things. I currently am keeping receipts in there for reimbursements from my PTC.

I love that I can map out major monthly events separate from my actual daily lesson plans. The best part to me though is that there are student checklists in the back I can use for my gradebook! THIS is my favorite part. Now I can keep 1 book rather than 2-3 and that is everything to me!!

I also love love love that there is graph paper pages in the front which I think I will use for my seating charts! 

The stickers are so fun!!!

So far I am in love with this planner and I think it it going to be worth the price I paid for it. The school year hasn't started yet and only time will tell but organization makes me happy and this planner makes it SOOOOOOO easy for me to stay organized!! 

Happy Teaching

Ashley

Open House 2017

(With so many students I had to get creative and hang their Silfra Fissure Watercolor paintings from their ceiling using these)

This year was my very first Open House and I had SO MUCH FUN! It was really important to me to make the Open House something my students and their families wanted to come to as well as something that displayed their best work from the year. I made sure to leave up our best work from throughout the school year and I tried to balance Math and Science work. I also had to rearrange desks so all our families would have enough space to move around. I usually keep my desks in groups but this was easier for classroom flow. 

(I love this Mindset Moments bulletin board from The SuperHERO Teacher)

The Hype
In the weeks and especially days preceding Open House I really began to hype up the event. I knew that the majority of my students were proud of their work and wanted to show it off but I had to hook those remaining stragglers and the ones who would need to convince their families to come. One way I did that was I offered the chance at winning a "super secret surprise prize" if students came and completed a checklist. As cheesy as it sounds my 6th graders ate this up and had fun guessing what the surprise prize could possibly be. As they made several guesses my answer was always "It could be!" The running joke was that the prize could be a pencil or a PS4, you never know. The checklist was one I created that listed everything students should be showing their families and had a spot for their parents to sign. When they completed the sheet they turned it in at Open House and I used these names to draw a winner for the "Super Secret Surprise Prize" the following morning. I did this for two reasons. The first reason I already mentioned which was just to get the students there and excited to come. The second reason was because I wanted to make sure my students took the time to show off each piece of their hard work. I had 63 sixth graders this last year so there was a lot of work up in our room and wanted to help them have some clarity and guidance on what they should be doing during the Open House time. 

I mentioned that I tried my best to have a good representation of math and science projects but let's face it there is just so much more to display in science than math. About a week before Open House we did a series of math lessons that taught students how to write a statistical question, carry out their own study, analyze the data, and display it using appropriate graphical representations. This was hard work and my students really blew me away with their ability to conduct and analyze statistical data. We decided, at the last minute, to display their work but I had no space left so we put them on the whiteboards. 

(These were photos of Genius Hour partnerships)

(Cupcake Shop-Trimester 2 Math Project)

(We kept those beautiful 3D Topographic Maps up all year!)

I put the Chromebooks out on each desk because a lot of their work was digital. This included their blogs, science notebooks, Genius Hour projects, Haiku Decks, and digital brochures from our Weather and Climate unit. 

I found this photo booth idea on Pinterest. The original blog post about it is here. I also bought a cheap set of photo booth props and my students and their families LOVED it! I had to give it a try with my teacher partner in crime Mrs. C! 

Well that's about it! How was your Open House? Did you try anything new? 

Happy Teaching

Ashley 

Oh! If you were waiting anxiously in suspense...the Super Secret Surprise Prize was an iridescent metal Fidget Spinner. 

Genius Hour in the Upper Grades

When I was still in the credential program I had seen a few Pinterest posts about Genius Hour and after doing my own exhaustive research I knew it was something I HAD to implement in my own classroom. I loved the idea of Genius Hour for so many reasons. For those that may not know about Genius Hour it is a time set aside each week (typically an hour hence the name) where students can work on any project they would like. Students are given a timeline (we usually do 6-7 weeks) to complete their projects and in the end they present their projects. This is by far our most popular time of the week and students always double check each Monday that we are having Genius Hour time on Tuesday. In the first trimester of the year I only did GH with my homeroom but then the other 6th graders became so excited about GH they begged us (my partner and I) to do it across all 6th grade. This trimester we have included all 6th graders in Genius Hour and it still proves to be the students favorite time of the week. I always show this youtube video to my students at the beginning of a new genius hour session.

Here are some of the reasons Genius Hour is so successful for us:

1) It's a Passion Project
Students are allowed to research ANYTHING they want!! This means their passion is driving their learning and experience. I think we all know we are far more invested in something if it is our choice.
2) Student Driven Research
Since this project is driven by the students passion, they are using research skills that they have learned as well as developing new skills on their own. Many of my students have learned how to use a dictionary....yes you read that right a dictionary! They have also learned how to look up scholarly articles and are learning the difference between quality research and just another article on the internet. During Genius Hour I spend a great deal of time helping students navigate different research methods.
3) Meeting the needs of all my students
Probably my favorite part about Genius Hour is that it meets the needs of all of my students. Every student can achieve success in their project as long as they participate. For some students this may be a 6 week project where they researched an endangered animal and raised money to donate to shelters. For other students their project may be making a difficult paper airplane. The goal is that each student is able to challenge themselves at their own level. 

How I Make It Work

Since I have 6th graders they are able to do the majority of their projects on their own. There are a few parameters though that all students have to abide by. The guidelines I give my 6th graders are:

They can work alone or with 1 other person-  This is a hard and fast rule. I do not allow any groups larger than 2 because then I tend to get someone slacking on the work. I have seen greater collaboration when students only have to deal with 1 other person. Of course that has been one instance where I approved a 3 person group but this was a special circumstance.

Students need to get their projects approved- During the first week of GH students work on deciding on their projects and they draft an idea submission sheet. They have to turn this into me and I go through each project idea as part of an approval process. Students know they cannot start their project until it has been approved.

Project must be a Research Question-  Each project needs to be presented as a research question. I discuss with the class beforehand what a research question looks like.

They have to do the majority of the work at school- This means they need to complete most of the project at school during Genius Hour. Many students want to do crazy science experiments that I am not equipped to monitor at school and those students have to change their projects around. This is because the whole point of GH is to do a project at school. They need to be busy and have a purpose during this time given to them. Again, there have been exceptions made.

Check-in along the way- I try to check in with each group every 2 weeks but realistically sometimes I do not get them each group within those 2 weeks. I meet with each group for sure 2-3 times throughout the project time and some groups more often if they need it. During this check in the students and I fill out a quick check in to see where they are on their project, what do they need to finish before presentation day, and what are they going to do from here on out to get there. For many groups this is a very quick check in and they know exactly where they are going and how they will get there. For other groups this is a crucial step in getting them to a their goal or taking the time to readjust their goal if they need to.

Science Fair Style Presentation- I have a lot of students! It would be quite an undertaking to have enough time for each project to present in front of the class. I decided to do our presentations in a science fair style. Students set up their project presentations and we invite family, friends, other classes, and school staff to our Genius Hour Fair and students get a chance to present their project to a whole bunch of people over the course of an hour.

I used a fabulous resource I found on TpT from Applejacks Teacher. For $6.00 I saved so much time in making all my own handouts for Genius Hour and for me it was definitely money well spent.

Have you tried Genius Hour in your classroom? Tell us below!

Happy Teaching!

Ashley

I finally made it into the blogging world!

I know, I know I am totally late to the game but I am so glad I finally finished setting up a blog I can be proud of. Now I just need to go delete the 10 or so other blogs I started at one time or another over the last year. At the beginning of the school year I told my 6th graders that one of my goals for this year was to successfully start a blog so the pressure was on to get this going. My hopes and dreams for this platform are for me to share my adventures in teaching 6th grade math and science while sharing ideas and hopefully connecting with other amazing teachers and bloggers. That is all for now I can't wait to start sharing everything 6th grade with you all!