Above the Line in Elementary

I teach fourth grade in California which means I teach all about California history and geography. Traditionally my students have completed a research report on the four regions of California as a way to practice research, notetaking, and expository writing skills while covering the Social Studies standards. We would finish our unit by sculpting and painting salt-flour dough maps. traditional research report - not too exciting messy and disconnected from the content I wanted my students to understand about each region I realized this project needed a redesign. Enter Google Classroom and Google MyMaps! To begin the research portion of the project, I provided a note-taking guide and a HyperDoc that outlined the whole project. We used a combination of online sources and our textbook.  Rough drafts were typed in a Google Doc that was assigned in Google Classroom. We worked on writing and editing our expository paragraphs in the Google Doc and this beca...

Session 5 - Lesson Builder's Fair: A BOLD Approach to Lesson Design, Jon Corippo & Lindsey Blass BOLD Lesson design is rooted in Madeline Hunter's 7-step Lesson Plan model. Jon talks about how to use the various steps of traditional, good lesson design (anticipatory set, guided practice, check for understanding etc...) and how to adapt them using new technology. This allows students to be the ones doing most of the work, not the teacher. Thanks to technology, we are no longer needed to deliver content or lecture to students. We can design activities that provide students with opportunities for higher level thinking. Jon Corippo regarding assessment: "Closure is not a test, it is another rep of what we already do." Madeline Hunter's Lesson plan steps: Anticipatory Set Objective/Purpose Instructional Input Modeling Check for Understanding Guided Practice Independent Practice Closure These steps can be remixed - change the order and/or amount, ...

I'm back for another conference of connecting, learning, and being inspired! Fall CUE is held every year at American Canyon High School in Napa County. Recently, areas surrounding American Canyon have experienced much devastation due to wildfires. Thie high school was even used as an emergency shelter for evacuees a matter of weeks ago. It feels good to be here supporting the Napa community and being with other teachers that are passionate about moving into the future and bringing our best to our students. Opening Keynote - Brad Montague, creator of Kid President @thebradmontague I did not arrive early enough to get a ticket to sit in the theater, so I was in the cafeteria with the other overflow participants. I'm glad that those in the theater were sharing on Twitter! How might we be more child-like in order to become better grownups? Live like possibilitarians. Find joy in the ordinary. #fallcue #cue pic.twitter.com/MLNj1Whhsh — Jody Green (@peerless...

Teacher: Kerry Phillips, SF Bay Area ( @phillips4kids ) Grade: Fourth Content Area: Reading / Social Studies Traditional Lesson Idea: Provide worksheets with comprehension questions to correspond to a class novel. Web 2.0 tools used in redesigned lesson:   Summarized big events in Patty Reed's Doll📘= #sketchnotes 🎨(teacher created or student drawn) we'll interact w/ on @ThingLink @MtDiabloUSD pic.twitter.com/NK4Yay3xoK — Kerry Phillips (@phillips4kids) March 27, 2017 Kerry is an amazing artist and uses the whiteboard in her classroom to create large scale sketchnotes as her students are reading a class novel. If you are not familiar with the concept of Sketchnotes, visit Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything . She has a whole page dedicated to sketchnotes in education. Sylvia Duckworth is another noted sketchnoter that is a "must-follow" on twitter This is a picture of the class whiteboard after they finished reading Pa...

Are you tired of reading 30+ essays designed to assess your students' understanding of history when the essays are either written by parents or collections of facts copied out of old textbooks? I was!  Do you think worksheets help your students remember what they learned? I don't! I wanted my students to be more engaged in history, and take their understanding of the content deeper, so now I have them work together to create videos. After previewing the "California! Here We Come!" chapter in our textbook, which focuses on the migration of Americans to California during the 1840s, students select a topic they are interested in learning more about. To create my student groups, I had my student reply on a simple Google Form indicating what topic they are most interested. Once I have all the student requests, I create the groups. I like using this private form because students have to reply based on their interest, not based on what their fri...

I previously shared my Round Robbin strategy for working on word problems  HERE My participation in the Leading Edge, Online and Blended Learning Certificate program forced me to consider how to transfer this type of lesson to a solely online classroom environment. The basic strategy that I use in the classroom is to divide the students into small groups and have them rotate through a series of word problem stations to collaborate on problem-solving.  Instead of using paper and pencil, and having students physically move around the room, the word problems could be presented in a Google Slideshow. Each team members would select one slide for which they would be responsible.  Here is an example of a slide deck set up with word problems Word Problem Slide Deck Example By using a Google slide deck, students can work collaboratively even if they are not all in the same room. They can leave comments for their group members.  The slide deck p...

Thanks to the new devices we have at my school, students have more access to technology, and I have been able to transform many of my lessons and enhance the student's learning experience. I am particularly pleased with the outcome of this lesson transformation! In fourth grade, we read   By the Great Horn Spoon !  by Sid Fleischman as one of our core literature selections. This adventure story ties into our CA History / Social Studies unit on westward movement and the Gold Rush. The book tells the tale of a young boy, Jack, and his butler, Praiseworthy, traveling aboard the Lady Wilma around Cape Horn on their way to California with the hope of striking it rich in the gold mines! Because geography plays such a big part in understanding the history of the time, and the events of the story, I had the students complete a paper map on which they marked the route of the ship and the noteworthy places in the story. This is last year's project: I knew I had to...

I love trying out new tools with my students. I am constantly looking for ways to improve my teaching and engage students with the use of technology.  When using a new tech tool, it is important to consider if the tool is enhancing the learning experience for the students or transforming it. While there are times when only enhancing the learning experience with the implementation of technology is great, I am always on the lookout for ways to transform the learning experience and do things that were not possible before. If you are not already familiar with the  SAMR model  for implementing technology, you can learn more  HERE . A very brief explanation is that SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition, and it has to do with how technology is integrated into the classroom and the purpose it serves in learning.  Image the creation of Dr. Ruben Puentedura, Ph.D. http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/ This week t...