Science is...

To start off the school year with my 7th graders, I like to find out what they think about science.  Not necessarily whether they like it or not, but rather what they think science is all about.  Sometime during the first week of school I have them complete this activity, and as you'll see below, I'm never disappointed in their responses!  

Basically, I tell them that they need to finish the sentence "Science is..." but instead of just writing a sentence, their goal is to finish the sentence with a picture!  We get out my stash of old magazines (My mom works at a dentist office so she always gives me the old magazines that they don't want to keep in the waiting room!).  I tell my students to search through the magazines and find a picture that could complete the sentence.  Then I have them glue the picture to some construction paper, and I always ask them to include one additional sentence explaining why they chose the picture that they did.  I like to let them work in groups of 2-3 students for this activity.

I took pictures of a few of my favorites that were turned in this year...

 

             

Here's a couple that I thought were very creative answers...

Yeah, I literally laughed out loud when I saw this one!

And then I laughed even harder when I saw this one!

And finally, my absolute favorite one of the year.  They didn't quite finish the sentence "Science is...," in fact you can see that they scribbled out the "is," but I love it so much that it's hanging on my classroom door for all to see!

So there you have it!  The creativity of 7th graders...how could you NOT love teaching this age?! :)

Rachel

Classroom Rules, part 2

On August 5 I told you about a new idea that I had to introduce the classroom rules at the beginning of the school year. (If you missed that post, you can read it here!)  I'm excited to tell you that I had my students complete the activity and it was awesome!!! 

Here's a quick overview of the activity:

• First, I came up with 3 simple rules: Respect Yourself, Respect Others, and Respect Our Classroom.
• I put my students into groups of 3-4 and asked them to brainstorm the meanings of each of the rules. (What does it mean to Respect Yourself?)  I told them to do their brainstorming as a concept web, and demonstrated this briefly on the Smart Board.
• After 6 minutes (2 minutes per rule!) we came back together as a class and listed several of their ideas on the Smart Board.
• I printed each slide at the end of the period so I had a record of each class' responses.
• After school I went through and picked out the most common answers given by the classes.
• Finally, I printed those answers onto bright paper and used them to form a concept web around the rules.  These will stay up as a reminder to the students!

As I said, it was awesome!  I was really impressed by the quality of their responses.  Here's some pictures of the final result:

This is how they look hanging in the front of my room.  In hindsight I think I would have printed the student responses a bit larger, and if I have a chance I might redo them, but I still like the way it turned out. :)

And here are close-up pictures of each of the rules so you can see the thoughtful responses that my students gave!

Oh, and I know the rules look different than they did in my first post (they were on a chevron print).  I came across this cute zebra print border just before school started, so at the last minute I changed the rules - and also my learning targets board (see top picture) - to match the border. :)

I would HIGHLY recommend this activity, and although I teach middle school, I think it could work well for any age group.

Rachel

Seating Charts With Post-its

It's back to school time, which means we're all working feverishly to get our classrooms ready before the students arrive!  For me, that includes making seating charts.  I don't ever let my students choose where they sit, even on Day 1.  I create seating charts before the first day of school, then I create name tags for each desk that list the seat's occupants for each period of the day.  (I don't get too fancy with these - just a simple notecard.  The name tags will be taken off the desks by the end of week one.  I just want the students to be able to seat themselves on the first day, which saves class time!)

When I create seating charts, I like to use small page marker Post-it Notes.  They're available in a variety of colors, which helps since I color-code my classroom by period.  But more importantly, using Post-Its means I can easily rearrange the seating chart throughout the year!  No erasure marks or scribbling out names, and no reprinting the chart every time we change seats. 

Once I have the students' names written on the Post-its (which I didn't do in the picture above), and stick the Post-Its on the seating charts, I put the seating charts in clear sheet protectors to keep them in good condition all year long.

That's it!  So simple! :)

Rachel

Someone May Want to Hide My Super Glue

Does anyone else have issues getting posters to stay on your classroom walls? This has always been a problem for me.  I don't know if it's the texture of the painted brick walls, or the humidity in the room, or something else. I've tried masking tape, duct tape, scotch tape, gorilla tape, sticky tack, and a couple of years ago during my 3rd pregnancy I reached my maximum frustration level and used SUPER GLUE to keep a poster on the wall! (Yeah, that one is still up. :) )

The other day I was on Pinterest (because I have nothing else to do... I mean, Open House is this Friday night, but whatever!) and I found an idea for hanging posters.  Honestly, most of the crazy ideas that I find on Pinterest (and actually try) end up working, so I'm definitely going to try this!  The idea is to put blue painters tape on the wall, then put double-sided tape on top of the painters tape, and finally stick the poster to that.  The description on the pin (and on the website that it links to) just says that this is a way to hang things without peeling paint off the walls when you take it down, but I'm thinking it sounds like something that could work to keep my posters on the walls.  Here's a link to the pin on my Pinterest site.

And if this doesn't work, I still have a bottle of super glue in my desk drawer. ;)

Rachel

Classroom Rules

Coming up with classroom rules has always been one of the most difficult tasks that I'm faced with at the beginning of a new school year.  I'm just never satisfied with the rules I come up with.  I've tried having just 3 or 4 simple rules, but they always seem too vague.  I mean, I teach middle school.  Middle school students don't want to have to read between the lines! (What?! You want us to think about something?!)  So then I tried posting 10 very specific rules.  (Don't sit on the lab tables.  If it's not yours, don't touch it. etc...)  I was no Ron Clark, but I certainly felt close with so many rules plastered across the front of the room!

About two weeks ago the thought started creeping up in the back of my mind... What am I going to do about classroom rules this year?

I just let the thought sit there.  Pestering me.  For two weeks.

And then last night it hit me.

I really don't know why I didn't think of this before!

I'm going to have the students create concept webs around each of the rules!  Here's the specifics:

I've come up with three rules for this year.  All three are simply written and use positive language (just like the "experts" say rules should be!).

On the first day of school I plan to break my students into small groups and have them brainstorm what they think each of these rules means.  (Does Respect Others mean to use kind words? Leave others' materials alone? and so on...)  We'll then put some of these ideas on the Smart board and save it.  At the end of the day, after all 7 classes have completed the exercise, I'll print out the most common answers and post them around each of the rules in a concept web fashion!  Now my students have had a say (sort of) in what the classroom rules should be, and I feel like I can be more certain of their understanding of these not-so-specific rules.

I'm super excited about this and can't wait to share the results of this activity with you!  Our first day of school is August 20, so stay tuned! :)