Sunday, June 10, 2012

I Still Want To Do More!

Plenty of time left in the school year, including more testing, but what do I want to try and get to before the summer job search break begins?

  • The American Revolution. Still working through Colonial America -- houses to build! newspapers to write! maps to illustrate? Colonial Games Olympics! -- but definitely want to give 1776 some attention.
  • Recycled Rollercoasters: they've started collecting "shape-able" recycled items (no cans or glass) and I'll have teams design/plans/build a track for a marble to roll down, extra credit for loops and jumps.
  • "I'm an Expert" presentations. What do they know? One of my phrases is "29 Teachers in this room" and now they get to teach us something.With visual aids, demonstrations, and hands on activities?
  • Book Reports. I've been showing class examples of, and encouraging them to think about/attempt, other ways to demonstrate their knowledge. We've watched videos on School Tube, explored right/left brain concept, did a little blogging, brainstormed alternates to daily (probably very boring by now) Reading Logs. Now let's see what they can put into action! I've heard there's already one rap in the works...
  • Create Your Own Scientific Inquiry.  We've listed "I wonder..." questions and topics all year, I wonder how much of their curiosity they can turn into an experiment? No explosives, please.
  • How to read/understand/appreciate/create graphic novels -- looking for good websites for my students to make their own comic on?