It's official, I got my back to school letter from my principal yesterday. And wouldn't you know, I had my mind prepped for reporting on Wednesday, only to find that the first day of pre-planning is actually Tuesday! Doh!
Last year I started off with students personalizing a Fakebook page I found for FREE on Teachers pay Teachers. I found, though, that my high school students were much LESS into Facebook than my middle schoolers had been. This was kind of a flop for me. (I *am* still thinking about using it as a product choice as we learn about different scientists. I'm thinking I will have a bulletin board of profiles that students create. What would be REALLY cool, would be to have a "News Feed" along side of it, using emoji post-it notes and hashtags.)
This year, I want to start off the year with a Growth Mindset theme. I was contemplating all these cool bulletin boards and posters that I could buy or make. But what better way to get buy-in than to have my classes make them?
The project I'm most excited for this year is my Wonder Wall/ Innovation Space. I want to have stations where groups can collaborate and brainstorm - whiteboards, rolls of brown kraft paper, chalkboards - and present. I'm floating an idea past my principal to paint my tables in the lab with chalkboard and/or dry erase paint. (If that doesn't work, I'll just cover with paper like at Maggiano's).
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| http://smittenwithfirst.blogspot.com/2015/08/classroom-tour-with-lots-of-freebies.html |
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| http://design-milk.com/wall-mounted-kraft-paper-roll-dispenser/ |
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| https://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/markerboard-surfaces-collaborative-conversations-academic-literacies-and-libraries/
All of these will be used as I try my hand at Genius Hour with my Physical Science kids. These 80/20 projects will give students the opportunity to research, plan, experiment, create, revise, and present solutions to a problem or topic of their choice. (I am going to write a grant for some easy to program robots, to entice them to choose technology and engineering topics, but we'll see how it goes.)
I guess in the next 10 days I'm going to have to sit down and plan how this is really going to work. I'm excited to go back to school and tackle these projects! What projects or strategies are you excited to try out this year?
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I would love that Kraft paper dispenser roll! I've seen them at trendy restaurants and think 3 or 4 of them around my classroom would be fantastic. (And then you could save the good ones, laminate them, and have anchor charts for next year....)
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