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, ...

Yesterday was the last day of school!  While I am looking forward to a change of pace over the summer months, I will miss the students that I have spent the past nine months with.  Since my first year of teaching, I have always been a tad emotional on the last day of school. When I began my teaching career, I wanted to create something that I could carry with my throughout my years in education to remember all of my students.  I found the perfect inspiration on Pinterest!  A thumbprint teaching tree. after 6 years of teaching I painted this canvas at the end of my first year, and each year I have my students add their thumbprint to the tree painting.  Each color represents a different class.  On the back of the canvas, I created a guide so I can remember which color goes with each year. I look forward to seeing this tree grow the more years I spend in the classroom. after 4 years of teaching! after 2 years of teaching keeping t...

I got this great idea when I attended the the Google Geo Educator Institute last July. I scratched the surface of the suite of Google Geo tools by using My Maps last year, but I have learned about so many more features and how to enhance student learning using these amazing tools. When my students return from spring break, I plan for my class to maintain a shared map of all the places they visit. This can be accomplished by creating a  Google Form  and then importing the data collected on the form to a "MyMap". Students will complete the form indicating where they went and why they went to a particular location. Once students add entries to the form, the data can be collected in a Google sheet and that sheet can be imported into a Google Map where pins will automatically be dropped on each location. Check out this video to see how to import data from a Google sheet into a Google Map. My mind was blown! All the data that the stu...

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...

As part of the CUE Innovative Educator Certificate Program, we had an assignment called Iron CUE Lesson. Each class member was given a mystery ingredient and had to design a student-centered lesson utilizing it. Click on my presentation to see how I transformed a typical history 3D model building assignment using Minecraft. Here are some examples from my students View more on YouTube:  Mission Reports on YouTube The students LOVED this experience. Some still chose to build 3D models or draw layout posters, but it was great to give them this option.

At the Geo Teachers Institute last July, there was a lot of talk about virtual reality, Google Expeditions, and 360⁰ images (previously referred to as photospheres). These resources are a great way to bring the world i nto the cl assroom. Students can go on virtual field trips to places all over the world.  Google Street View is an app that can be downloaded on smartphones and tablets. Students search for locations, view images that have been uploaded by other Google users, and feel like they are actually there! How cool is that? Students can visit historic sites, monuments, famous landmarks, landforms, and other cities.  To view these 360⁰ images, download Google Street View and search for a location. If an image is available it will pop up on the bottom of the screen. Theses images can be viewed with a 360⁰ viewer such as Google Cardboard or View-Master by Mattel . If you don't have a viewer, simply click on the "compass" ic...

I learned about this tool at the Google Geo Teachers Institute in Mountain View, CA My instructor was Kim Randal,  @ scubagirl812 I just led a PD session on how to use Tour Builder - presentation resources are HERE Tour Builder is a fantastic digital storytelling tool that is easy for students to use. They can add locations to a map. Along with each location, they can add photos, captions, and change the icon. I can imagine so many ways to use this tool with my students.  Tours can be private or shared, and multiple tours can be linked together in one master tour. Great for collaborative work! I explored the tool by creating a quick tour of a  summer weekend getaway trip . Within Tour Builder, you can pin an unlimited number of locations to your map and add a total of 25 images or video per project. When you are done creating your tour, the tour can be shared and the viewer can view the tour by clicking through the locations which ...

I purchased the New Matter MOD-t 3D Printer with money raised from an after school STEM party fundraiser. I saw the MOD-t demonstrated at ISTE 2016 in Denver. I had not con 3D printing in elementary school - the whole concept was very vague to me. I saw this example of a 3D printed model of one of the CA missions at the New Matter Expo booth and I was sold. I teach California state history and I thought it would be amazing for my students to design their missions in tinkerCAD and print them out - so much better than using cardboard and sugar cubes like I did when I was a kid. As I have learned more about 3D printing, I realize that a project like this mission model is very complex. I had to start small with my students.