Smart Devices and the Past...

I decided I wanted to do something fun and new with my 6th graders this year when teaching about President Nixon. I found myself wondering what life would have been like for historical figures if they were to have cell phones and smart devices during his or her life time. Would their impact have been greater? Would they have been able to accomplish more? I searched the internet for a cell phone template that I wanted to use but could not find one that included everything I wanted to do. I decided to make the template for my students to use next week.

This week, I am beginning my unit on Nixon's foreign policy and geopolitics. I know, this doesn't sound interesting but trust me, it will be. Life is too short to not enjoy what I teach so it will be fun for the students and informative. Students already have some background knowledge of Nixon due to learning about the Vietnam War. However, this week, we will dig deeper into his foreign policy and his unfortunate scandal.

The plan is to teach the background knowledge and when students are finished learning about Nixon, they will design Nixon's smart phone. I plan to use the smart device template as a form of assessment in order to see what the students learned about Nixon. The template I created includes space for 9 apps, contacts, text messages, and a call log featuring missed, received, and sent phone calls. I am hoping this goes over well and can be used for other historical figures. The other template assignment I created last year, the Instagram template, worked very well and the students thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you'd like to check out the Smart Device template, you can do it by clicking here!

I have not yet taught this but I think it is going to go well and I am excited! I will report back after next week to see how it goes.

If you haven't checked out my Teachers Pay Teachers website, be sure to check it out. I am having a 10% off sale between now and Friday!

Web Questing through Iran!

With only 9 school days left, I am beginning to spazz about getting all my material covered. I know I have taught the essential skills my students need to take with them to be successful in the 7th grade BUT I love my content so much I just want to teach it all. I am fortunate enough to cover WWI through present day issues and I enjoy it. I use to believe WWII was my favorite unit to teach but I have really grown to love the Cold War Era. It is all very fascinating to me and the kids love it because of the espionage aspect. Gotta love a good spy story!


We have made our way through Vietnam and have made it into the Nixon, Ford, and Carter years. The goal is to keep my students engaged because at times, history can become a bit monotonous. To actively engage my students, I have created a WebQuest on the Iran Hostage Crisis. I created a website for the students to navigate. I have done WebQuests in the past where I have just given the students various links to sort through. However, I did not find this as effective because since I was not maintaining those websites, I would often not be aware the websites were down or of broken links until a student would raise their hand which then prompts the other 10-15 students to raise his or her hand and tell you the exact same thing, "Mrs. Johnson, it's broken!" So, to eliminate these issues, I decided to use Google Sites and create a website designed specifically for my students and this WebQuest.


If you have never used a WebQuest in the classroom, I strongly urge you to do so. It is a great way to teach students to use resources to look for an answer. A WebQuest is similar to a scavenger hunt. Students have certain pieces of information they are looking for and you give them specific sites in which they can find the information. When I created my WebQuest, I incorporated primary sources: maps, photos, interviews, and video footage. Students are expected to analyze and study the documents to answer text dependent questions. I think added a RAFT activity (role, audience, format, and type) to the assignment as a final project.


My students are currently working on this activity and they seem to enjoy it. I'll post some pictures of completed RAFTs next week!

QR Codes and Word Walls 2.0

I have been sharing this strategy and learning tool at various workshops and I have been asked to provide people with step by step instructions of how I created the QR codes for my Word Wall. I decided to write a blog post. While this may seem familiar to my previous blog post (see here), I added a step by step tutorial of how I constructed my words for my word wall.


Step One:
Construct a list of your vocabulary words & definitions needed for your lesson or unit. I prefer to do mine by unit but it is your preference.

Step Two:
Find a free QR code generator on the internet.
I prefer to use: QR Code Generator because the QR code pops up right on the screen and I can then copy & paste the image without having to download it and/or save it. You can type a definition or you can have the QR code lead students directly to a website.

Step Three:
I open a Word document and type up my words. Then I go to the QR code generator and do one word at a time. For the example below, I am defining the key term "iron curtain." I will then copy the QR code image and paste it into my Word Document. The reason I do this is to stay organized. All the QR codes begin to look a like and if you print them without labeling them, it will take extra time to sort them later!

Here is a screen shot of what I do with the QR codes once I make them. I copy and paste each image and type the word beside it. Like I said above, this helps with the organization factor and it helps me to save paper because I shrink down the size of the QR code to make them small enough to fit on my sentence strips.

Step Four:
Print all of your QR codes off. Depending on the number of the words and the size of your QR code images, this should only take 1-2 sheets of paper.

Step Five:

Write your words on sentence strips, construction paper, cardstock, etc.

Step Six:

Cut out your QR code images (be careful to not cut into the actual encrypted part or else it won't scan) and glue them beside your words on the sentence strip.

 Step Seven:

 Cut your sentence strips. I am OCD and I plan to use these for a while so I try to make them as nice and neat as possible. I prefer to laminate mine when finished as well so they can be used again next year. I just hot glue them to my concrete wall at school and voila! Word Wall is complete!

Feel free to comment with any questions or suggestions. In the next few days, I hope to have some vocab activities I do with my students using QR codes so stay tuned!

Edmodo

The past two years I have toyed around with using an online classroom element in my regular classroom. I chose Edmodo.com. It offers a lot of usual features. For the past two years, I worked in school where students had very limited internet access at their homes. However, we had an abundance of technology in our school, thanks to Title I funding. It was very easy to implement this in my classroom thanks to the use of iPads, iPod touches, and mobile laptop carts. Of course, this stuff only worked half of the time thanks to the wifi constantly going out...but I digress.

Edmodo.com for those of you who may not have seen it, is set up similar to Facebook layout. The great thing about this website, is it is only for students and teachers and it's FREE! It a closed and secure site. Teachers must give the students' a group code in order to join. Parents may also have access to this website. I had a few parents who utilized it to stay in touch when students were absent for prolonged periods of times. This website offers you the ability to create classrooms online. Students are then able to participate in online discussions, polls, and turn in assignments electronically (goodbye flash drives!).

I am not going to write a step by step tutorial for how to set up your own Edmodo, as their website does a great job. I am just going to discuss how I use Edmodo in my classroom.

I have 5 periods of 6th Grade Social Studies a day. Emodo allows me to create 5 separate groups, that I label 1st through 5th periods. I can then create assignments for the students by uploading a template or files I want the students to use. If I have a different assignment for specific class periods, I can put that assign the work to any of the 5 groups.


Edmodo gives students a space to upload their assignments. I do not have to worry about passing out endless amounts of flash drives and downloading their projects onto my computer anymore. It is essentially a  "dropbox" account for every student. After the students turn in their electronic files, I can grade them from the Edmodo platform and students will be able to log in to see their grades. I can also edit their papers, write comments, and provide feedback.


This website is a great area for students to discuss something they have read or to participate in polls. Edmodo allows you to create quizzes with either constructed responses and/or multiple choice options. You will receive a notification (you can customize these) every time a student completes the quiz or turns in an assignment.


If you are looking for an easy technology component for your classroom, please check out Edmodo.com.