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...

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...

Day 1 of the CUE BOLD Symposium - May 6, 2017   This was the first ever, CUE BOLD (Blended and Online Lesson Design) Symposium. I was excited to attend this conference to meet some of the instructors from the CUE Innovative Educator Certificate Program. The format of the symposium was very fast paced. Sessions were only 30 minutes long, and all of the lead teachers were presenting full lesson plans following Madeline Hunter's Lesson Design Model while incorporating technology and blended learning opportunities. I wouldn't recommend this conference for someone that is new to technology. Many tools were presented in the lesson ideas, but not explicitly taught, which would have been frustrating for individuals new to education technology. I was fortunate to attend with a great group of teachers from my district. Proud to see so many @MtDiabloUSD Ts at #CUEBOLD today. Amazing learning and community building here. pic.twitter.com/3PtmTUodHn — Shauna Hawes (@ShaunaH...

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...

KEYNOTE - George Couros  -  http://georgecouros.ca/blog/          George Couros is the author of "The Innovator's Mindset"   His passion for student learning is infectious. He talks a lot about the opportunities that technology allows as opposed to the risks.  Some of my favorite quotes shared during the presentation: "The world only cares about - and pays off on - what you can do with what you know (and it doesn't matter where you learned it.)" Thomas Friedman "Transformational leaders don't start by denying the world around them. Instead, they describe a feature they'd like to create." Seth Godin The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it. - Chinese Proverb Social Media is like water. You can either let us drown, or teach us to swim." He shared the three things he thinks every high school student should graduate with: 1. A professional social network 2. A dig...