The Final Count Down!

Ha ha. This has to be one of my favorite blog titles. It just reminds me of that song from the 80's.

 

Either way, this is the time of the year where most teachers are looking up ideas where the students can have fun, get messy, and not turn anything in to grade.

It is called

The End Of The Year! (If only I could pull off some sound effects right now...)

 

This year is a little different for me compared to my other years. This is my last year at my current school.

(Down sizing, financial changes, enrollment, etc...) Either way, I won't be back here next year.

 

That gives me a lot of wiggle room when working with my students these final days. Here are my ideas so far. (Mostly for 8th grade, granted.)

 

1. Career scavenger hunt

2. Class Predictions/Awards

3. Info graphics

4. Memory Board

5. Cedar Point Trip

6. Graduation video

7. Free Labor...

 

Sorry the last one isn't really a fun activity for students. It's more of a mind numbing job to help pass the time during the final days.

 

Either way the first few a pretty good.

 

Career scavenger hunt:

 

1. Have the students write in large bold letters what they want to be when they grow up on a sheet of paper.

 

2. Take a picture of the student holding the paper.

 

3. Have the student go around the school looking for props or things they can make props out of to demonstrate their choice career.

 

4. Take a picture of their great imitation.

 

Example: I have a student who wanted to be a vet. He will write the word veterinarian on a legal sized piece of paper and we will take his picture. After that, I will send him around the school looking for something(s) to help him imitate a veterinarian. Like a Styrofoam cup, ear buds, and a stuffed animal. (The cup and ear buds can be put together to make a stethoscope and he could be examining the stuffed animal.)

 

That is just one example. I can't wait to see what else my students come up with.

 

Class Predictions/Awards

 

These are the things that you always see in high school year books. Think "Most likely to succeed." Either way, I still need more pictures of my students for their graduation video. Here's my plan:

 

1. Have class vote on pre-set awards

• Most likely to succeed
• Most likely to become a farmer
• Most likely to take over the world
• Best athlete
• Most likely to have a town named after him/her
• Most likely to invent something
• Best smile
• Friendliest Person
• Most likely to become a star

2. Announce the winners to the class and take their picture while they demonstrate why they won that award.

 

To be clear, there are nine awards because I only have nine students. If there were 20 students I would have 20 different awards.

Also, if you are looking for ideas, be careful. There are suggestions of awards like "Most likely to be incarcerated."

 

Info Graphics

 

There is a new form of non-fiction taking the internet by storm.

THE INFO GRAPHIC! (Again, sound effects would rock here.)

 

Either way, our students should be exposed to these things. I love this idea that I came up with in the shower this morning. (That's where the best ideas come from, isn't it?)

 

Yesterday, two of my three classes discussed and looked over several info graphics. Now they can pick any topic their hear desires and create an info graphic. They can do this on the computer, by hand, however they please.

 

Memory Board

 

This is something that I keep seeing different versions of on Pinterest. I figured, we have extra poster board, why not do something like it.

 

I'll have all of my classes write their favorite memory for the year on one poster board. (It'll look like  a large collage.) We can hang it up in the hallway so the students can see what each other wrote.

 

Cedar Point

 

When I started at my current school two years ago there really was no major thing for our graduating 8th grade class. I figured, let's do something extra special so they can just spend a day being kids.

 

Since we live in northern Ohio, Cedar Point became our main idea.

 

From that point on (this is our third year) we take our 8th graders to Cedar Point for one last fun day together.

 

I have to admit, some of my favorite memories come from these Cedar Point trips.

 

Free Labor

 

The end of the school year comes with all sorts of mandatory duties. Normally we put a movie on and take care of these duties while our students are talking over the movie. (I'm not gullible enough to think they actually pay attention to it.)

 

This year, I'm enlisting help with my inventories and cleaning duties. Since I'm leaving this year too, I will be using their help to pack up my stuff and my car. (What fun, right?)

 

Those are my great ideas for this school year's closing. I hope that they get us through this last week that is coming.

 

After all, there's only 6 more days left.

Try It Out: Roman Art

I love having my students read about the different art forms and then give them a try in my class. I think that art history tell us as much about world history as a primary resource. I also believe that it is an opportunity for our students to become more hands-on and involved in the civilizations that we're reading about.

My latest one is something that I have been doing for a few years now. I have my sixth graders create mosaics with construction paper and poster board. 

Here's how we do it: I show them my PowerPoint presentation on Ancient Roman Art and Architecture. Then we discuss the different things that they have seen that show Roman art today. Finally, I give them a full pack (per class, not each child) of construction paper, glue sticks, scissors, an envelope, and a blank paper/poster board and show them how to make a mosaic.

The best way to do it is to have the students create an image on the poster board. (Remind them that the large the image the easier it is to fill-in.) Then have the students take the construction paper they need and cut up the squares on their own. This allows them to cut round corners and odd shapes that cannot be easily filled-in with squares. 

Here is just one of the mosaics from this year's group of sixth graders:

I know that it's kind of yellow. That's just the lighting in my room. Her monkey was too cute for words. I'm excited to see the others when they finish this year.

Reciprocal Teaching

I'm going to start by saying that, as a middle school teacher, I am not a fan of Reciprocal Teaching (RT). 

However, I have been included in a training for this since January this year. When we first went I gave it a good go and I was really positive. And, granted, there are some really good parts to it. It should train a student to think while they are reading. That is a great thing. 

I do find it limiting, though. For example, when I taught my students to summarize I taught them according to Lori Oczkus' method of limiting it to 20 words. This is what was taught at the professional developments and what is taught in the book: Reciprocal Teaching by Lori Oczkus. This limited my students to how many words they would write for any summaries. Come their state exam time their summaries were only 20 words. They ended up missing some of the major parts of the readings. 20 words is not enough to give a cohesive summary that the state is looking for. 

Despite all of this, there are still some good points to it. Getting the students to think while they are reading a long work is a good idea. It stops students from "zoning out" and forces them to pay attention while they are reading. 

One thing I came up with while driving to work at 5:00 in the morning was a new way of doing Oczkus' "Fab Four." My students are so used to doing the same thing, they needed a new way of seeing something old.

Here's what we came up with:

It's a Reciprocal Wheel. I have the students create two circles: one 10" diameter and one 9" diameter. I then have them fold both circles into quarters and pit them together in the center with a "brad." 

After the circle is assembled, I have the students label the larger circle with the four parts of the RT method: Predict, Summarize, Clarify, and Question. On the smaller circle I have them cut out a piece of one quarter. 

When they turn the smaller wheel they are able to see their predictions, clarifications, questions, summaries. It also limits them in their writing so they cannot be as wordy as normal. It is also extremely visual for my IEP students. They tend to remember what they wrote more because they can associate it with a specific movement. 

RT does require a portion of buy-in. I didn't fully buy-in, but at least I was able to take something from it.

End of Year Jitters

The end of the school year is coming closer! (Some say not fast enough, but hey, to each their own...) This is an exciting time for us because it also means graduation for our 8th grade students. This year is really special because we will not have the fifth graders graduating with the kindergartners and the 8th graders.

That was always a confusing thing for our older kids. There used to be a reason for the fifth grade graduation: our one school was once two! That is not the case anymore. Now the fifth graders are not moving up to a new school, they are just moving across the hall.

I can say that I am very proud of my 8th graders. They worked so hard for me all three years. It's like a proud Mama watching her babies grow-up. (Granted, some grow-up faster than others.) 

Either way, congratulations to my 8th graders and good luck in high school.