Raise-a-Grade Certificates = Easy Reward

In my last post I told you about the Science Super Star system that I'm using this year in my classroom to recognize students who are doing well.  One of the rewards they receive when they earn a Super Star award is a Raise-a-Grade certificate.  I promised in that post that I would elaborate in a follow-up post, so here it is! :)

Early in my teaching career I was trying to come up with a way to reward students without having to spend a lot of money.  I remembered receiving Free Homework Passes when I was in school, but I'm not a fan of those because I don't assign much homework, but the homework I do assign has a purpose and so I want it to be completed.  I don't give many extra credit opportunities in my class, either (I know, harsh...right? LOL), but extra credit as a reward seemed like a great idea.  So I came up with the idea of a Raise-a-Grade certificate.  

Basically, a student can use one of these to raise his/her grade on any assignment of his/her choosing by 10%.  Most of my students have gotten smart about it and wait to use them on tests since tests are worth more points than homework or other assignments.  I only make it valid for a nine-week grading period, that way students can't save them and use them all on a test at the end of the year and receive 30-40% extra credit!  (I just know someone would try it!)

So there it is... a great, EASY, **FREE** classroom reward!

Rachel

Science Super Stars

Update 1.21.16 - Thank you SO much for the interest in this idea!  I'm in awe at how many times this post has been pinned on Pinterest. It really reaffirms for me the idea that so many of us teachers really do want to accentuate the positive in our classrooms!

I've recently opened my Teachers Pay Teachers store, and I've decided to include the Science Super Star template as a FREE DOWNLOAD!  Just go to my TPT store and you'll see it featured on the right side of the page.


And now for the original post:  :) ...

I'm at home today with my 8yo daughter who's not feeling well, so I thought I would take the opportunity and write a new post since it's been a couple of weeks! (A couple of crazy weeks, let me tell you!)

This year I've started a new reward system in my classroom.  I found myself over the past couple of years focusing so much on the negatives (the kids who don't do their homework, the ones who don't put forth any effort even though they're very bright, you know... those negatives).  So I decided that I needed a way to help myself - and my students - see and focus on the many GREAT things that go on in my classroom each week!

Our school found ourselves in a similar situation about 9 years ago, and I was part of a small committee that helped start the Student of the Week program that we still use.  I needed to create a similar program for my classroom, and so...Science Super Stars was born!

Each Friday I choose one or two students from each class period to receive the Science Super Star award for the week.  (A couple of times I've actually had three or four students from the same period because I've rewarded an entire lab group, but typically I try to not choose more than two.)  Choosing students is simple. I just look for the student(s) who has/have done something exceptional during the week!  Some of the awards I've given this year have been for improving test or quiz scores, earning a 100% on a test or quiz, doing great left-side work in their ISN (Interactive Science Notebook), asking thoughtful questions during class, cleaning up trash in the room that wasn't theirs, etc.  I look for anything that set a student apart from the others during the week.

The reward? It's a 3-part deal...

1) They earn a star to add to the bulletin board in the room.  The star has their name as well as the reason they earned the award.  I keep the stars up all quarter, then take them down at the end of the quarter and start over.  Here's what my bulletin board looked like at the end of quarter 1:

2) They earn a Raise-a-Grade certificate.  Basically this is a certificate that I made which a student can turn in with an assignment to raise their grade on that assignment by 10%.  

3) Of course, no reward would be a good reward without candy!  So, they are allowed to choose a piece of candy from my candy bucket. :)

This system has been so great, for me and for my students.  We're all focusing on the positives a lot more.  My students can't wait for Super Star Fridays!!  That's the first thing they say when they walk in each Friday..."Hey! It's Super Star Friday!"  (And heaven help us if I'm actually not at school on a Friday!  I missed one Friday about a month ago and they practically bombarded me on Monday wondering where I was and if we would do super stars that day!! LOL)

**Update 8.10.14 - Here is a post that shows the Super Star in more detail in case you're wondering what it says!

Does anyone else have a similar program in their middle school/ high school classroom? What rewards to you use?

Rachel

If Wegener Could Tweet

My 8th graders have been working their way through a chapter on plate tectonics.  Over the summer I saw an idea on Pinterest that has students write tweets about the subject they're studying - just another way of getting students to summarize what they've learned.  I decided last week to take a slightly different approach.. :) ...

So the day after we talked about Alfred Wegener's continental drift hypothesis, my students' bellwork as they entered the classroom was:

If Wegener had had access to Twitter, what do you think he might have tweeted?  Pick up a Post-It note from one of the tables around the room and write down your idea.  (For example, The continents are moving! #imnotcrazy)

I have a few 8th graders who it turns out are unfamiliar with Twitter, but most of them were pretty excited about this challenge!  Here are a few of their responses:

The land used to all be one piece. #true#don'tjudgeme

Nobody believes my hypothesis. #yolo

The continents all fit together. #nojoke

The land is like a puzzle.  You try to connect them! #puzzle#trythechallenge

I didn't have all of the students share with the whole class.  Rather, I broke them up into small groups of 3-4 students, and asked them to pick their favorite tweet out of the group to share with the class.  This is a great way to not take up the whole period, yet still be able to hear several students' ideas.

I can see myself working this in one or two more times during the year, but it's also something that I don't want to overuse at the risk of losing the excitement. (But I guess that's really true of any activity, right?!)

Rachel

Safety First! (And now my kids believe me!)

Something I won't budge on in my science classroom is the issue of safety.  My kids wear goggles more often than not, and we regularly discuss applicable safety rules before almost every lab that we do.  My middle school students don't like to follow the "Always wear safety goggles" rule.  (They'll mess up my hair! Are these leaving lines on my face? Do I look weird in these? yada, yada, yada...)  After what happened today during 8th period, though, I don't think they'll question me on it anymore! ...

I set up a convection demonstration on one of the front lab tables.  It was simple, and one that I've used twice a year for probably 6 years or so.  I brought in a large 10x13 Pyrex baking dish from home, filled it with water, and then set it up so that one half of the dish was on a hot plate, and the other half was just resting on some books that I had stacked up.  Once the water gets heated up enough, I can add red food coloring to the hot side, and blue coloring to the cooler side, and we can watch convection in action!  However, as the water was heating up (the students were still in their seats working on making a foldable) suddenly the entire Pyrex baking dish EXPLODED!  Literally... exploded.... !!!!  We all jumped a mile, and I'm pretty sure a couple of the students screamed, simply because it took us all off guard!  There was glass everywhere.  I found glass in about a 7 foot radius around the hot plate!  And I'm not talking big chunks of glass; I mean the itsy-bitsy tiny shards of glass that are nearly impossible to see.

I took the opportunity to explain to my students who witnessed the event why it is always so important to wear safety goggles when working with hot plates, even if it's just water in the beaker.  I make them wear goggles because I want them to stay safe for the 40 minutes that they're with me every day!

I cannot tell you how thankful I am that no one was injured as we were not observing the demonstration at the time of the explosion.  Aside from a good amount of time spent cleaning the tables and floor, and now needing to buy a new baking dish for home :), all is well. 

Rachel

Foldables in Science

I absolutely LOVE teaching with foldables.  I was introduced to them about 5 years ago when I was classroom neighbors with a former elementary teacher.  Once she showed me a foldable and I saw how great it was, I took the idea and ran with it.  Now I use them in almost every chapter!

If you've never used foldables, or don't use them very often, here are some reasons why I frequently use this teaching strategy with my students:

1 - Foldables are great for both my visual and my kinesthetic learners.  Visual because I usually require some sort of drawing/picture/diagram to be on the foldable, and kinesthetic because the students must manipulate the paper as they're writing notes and studying.

2 - Foldables are notes and study tools, all in one!  My students write their class notes right in their foldable, and when it's finished they have a great way to quiz themselves when studying for the chapter test!

3 - Foldables are more interesting and interactive than regular notes.  Just writing notes on a page is prety boring to the majority of students, but when they have to decide which section of a foldable to put the notes in, and when they have to include pictures/diagrams of the concept, suddenly the content is much more engaging!

4 - Foldables help students organize information. Let's face it, many middle school students cannot organize information on a page.  But when they create a foldable to put their information in, it's much easier to organize information by topic.

5 - Foldables can still be used with Interactive Science Notebooks.  This is my first year using ISN's and my students love the fact that we can glue foldables right into the ISN's.  It adds a whole new element to their notebook!

Here's a picture of a foldable that I made with my 7th grade students today.

This one is what we will use to record information about each of the layers of the atmosphere.  As you can see, foldables to me are so much more than just folding a piece of paper!  After we write down information about each of the layers, I give the students a chance to process that information by decorating the front.  The pictures that they use must correlate to what is actually in the atmospheric layer.  So for instance, weather happens in the troposphere (bottom layer) so I drew a cloud in the troposphere.  On the right side of the foldable I have them draw "air particles" to show that air pressure decreases as altitude increases.  So ultimately, even if a student is not much of a reader or studier, just looking at the front of the foldable will give them a lot of the information that they need to know!

Even though my students may sometimes feel like they're in an art or origami class rather than science, and even though I may have convinced my classes last year that I have a degree in paper folding ;), I'd definitely say that this is one of my favorite teaching strategies, and one that I definitely feel yields results!

Rachel

Clip Converter

In my last post I told you about Mr. Parr's great YouTube channel where he posts science songs that he writes for his students.  I thought that for those of you who have to deal with YouTube being blocked by your web filter at school I should fill you in on how to actually use those songs - and other great YouTube videos - in your classroom.

I attended a class in June where I learned about the Clip Converter website, and I must say, it's amazing! It allows you to convert YouTube videos to just about any other format. I convert the videos to Windows Media Player, save them to my flash drive, and then save them from the drive onto my computer in my classroom.  It's totally FREE, which makes it right in my price range. ;)  The file conversion is pretty quick, but then to actually download the file to my computer usually takes about 5-6 minutes.  (Of course, I have a pretty old computer so if you have something newer you may find it takes a lot less time.)

I've used Clip Converter for several files and have not had a single issue with it, so I would definitely recommend that you try it!

Rachel

Sing a Song of Science

I always try to incorporate a variety of learning styles into my lessons.  Walk into my room on any given day and you could see my 7th and 8th grade students creating foldables, drawing pictures, conducting experiments, writing poems and stories, and even singing.  Yes, I said singing.  Well, mostly just listening to songs.  I don't require that they sing, but they do need to listen and follow along with the lyrics.

What do we sing you ask?  Last year I happened across a most fabulous YouTube channel by a teacher named Mr. Parr.  He takes current songs and changes the lyrics to make them science-related.  His songs are amazing!  My students love listening to them, and several students have told me that they really help and have begged me to use more of them!  My 7th graders are currently working their way through their astronomy unit, so this week I used his Moon Phases song (set to the tune of Forget You by Cee Lo Green) and also the Tides song (set to the tune of The Other Side by Jason Derulo).

If you have trouble finding ways to teach to the musical learning style, I would highly recommend checking out Mr. Parr's YouTube channel!

Rachel

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! :)

I could do THAT for a living?!?!

Had I known as a middle school or high school - or even college - student that there were so many fabulous science career opportunities in the world, I may not have become a science teacher.  Not that there's anything wrong with being a teacher.  In fact, I love teaching!  I just never realized that my interest in science could be used for anything more than teaching it.  I had the pleasure of learning under several amazing science teachers and professors in my educational career, but none of them ever told me about careers related to the science we were studying in class.

In the past three years, I've had two students who were about to graduate high school come back to the wonderful world that is middle school just to let me know that they're choosing science careers... because of me!  They never realized that science could actually be FUN until they took my class! (Seriously, there's no greater moment as a teacher than to have a student come back 6 years later to tell you that!!)  It got me thinking...how many more students might graduate high school and go on to science careers if someone just made them aware of all the incredible science opportunities that are out there?!

So my mission this year is to incorporate science career awareness into the curriculum.  I'm not talking in depth studies or anything.  Just brief overviews of the careers that use the science we're currently studying.  For instance, when my 8th graders study genetics and heredity, I'm thinking we should take a day and talk about Genetic Engineering, Biotechnology, Genomics, and even Genetic Counseling.

Here's some of the other careers I'm thinking of incorporating:

Acoustics Physicist
Aerospace Engineer
Archaeologist
Astronomer
Atmospheric Scientist
Biochemist
Biomedical Engineer
Cancer Researcher
Chemist
Ecologist
Environmental Scientist
Experimental Physicist
Food Scientist
Forensic Scientist
Geologist
Mechanical Engineer
Oceanographer
Pharmacist
Seismologist
Sonographer
Volcanologist

I'm sure I'll come up with more as I get into the curriculum this year, but I think I have a good start here!  As I come up with the career-related activities that I want the students to do (because I don't just want to talk to them for 40 minutes about these careers every chapter! Ugh!), I'll be sure to post them!

Rachel

Celly

I'm always trying to keep up on the latest technology to use in my classroom, so when I heard about Celly last month I was immediately eager to check it out.  Celly is a mobile social network of sorts that allows teachers to send reminders to students, conduct polls, and even exchange group messages.  I'm intrigued by Celly for a few reasons:

1 - The creators of Celly have worked very hard to make it a safe social network.  No phone numbers are ever exchanged (everyone has the opportunity to create a username).  This means that my students can actually send me a message regarding their homework - and I can respond - without them ever knowing my phone number.  Also, if a student wants to message the whole group, as the teacher I can preview the message before it gets sent out to the whole group (which means no cyberbullying!).

2 - I have used a website in previous years that would allow me to send out newsflash reminders to students and parents, but the advantage of Celly is that I can schedule reminders and updates in advance.  In other words, I can schedule Thursday's homework reminder on Monday, and it will go out on Thursday without me having to give it another thought!  I tend to be really forgetful when it comes to sending out reminders, so being able to schedule them in advance is a perfect feature for me! :)

3 - I've wanted to get a "clicker system" for my classroom for a couple of years now, but thanks to Celly I may not need to!  Celly has a polling feature that can be used in real time in the classroom.  Now, not all of my students have devices that they can bring to class, and we have a "no cell phone" policy in our building, but if enough students have an iPod or something similar then they could participate in the poll in small groups within the class.  It's worth considering, anyway!

Today I officially signed up for a Celly account, and I'm looking forward to trying it out in the coming school year!

Rachel

Working Hard!

A friend kindly reminded me yesterday that we only have three more Mondays left until we're back at work. Yep, only three.  The end of the summer is always bittersweet for me.  While I absolutely love having summers to spend at home with my own kids (ages 8, 5, and 1), I'm also one of those blessed people who actually enjoys what I do for a living!  I love teaching!  Which is why I'm NOT one of those teachers who leaves at the end of May and doesn't think one bit about school until teacher work day in August. (We all know one or two of those, right?!) ;)  I do force myself to take a few weeks' mental break, usually in mid-late June and early-July, but then it's right back into the thick of things.  Finding ideas of how to redecorate/reorganize my classroom, researching content for lessons, and looking for new technology to add/try.  I'm always brainstorming ways to improve what I do, browsing Pinterest for ideas, and bouncing new ideas off my husband (who is always so gracious to listen to me ramble on!).

I found this graphic online this morning; I can totally vouch for what it says!

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

So as you start - or continue - thinking about the new school year ahead, remember that the time you spend now will be well worth it!

Rachel