BREAKING NEWS!!! The tides may be changing!!

OK so today was possibly a mild break through to the naked eye but to me today was HUGE! On Monday in anticipation of no school on Tuesday I assigned homework for my animal science class which was simple, silly and easy. They were to draw out with small little pictures the directions to the lab we would carry out when we returned to school. So they came into class and began getting their packets out and waited for me and my magical stamp and then I came upon this awesomeness!!! Yes, I know I made it super large but you have to see this for its true beauty!! This girl used her time away from class to really get into these drawings and I LOVED it! I would be lying if I said this wasn't the highlight of my very very long day. We all have moments of doubt when it comes to our level of sanity and this profession and this my friends is a perfect example of that finally I am making progress with changing the tides of laziness with my students. So please help me find even more ways to help my student prepare for labs while enjoying learning at the same time. How do you prep students for labs? 

Exit Slip JENGA!

So on the SUPER cold day I got a genius idea to create something based upon an idea I saw on Pinterest. The idea I saw was for conversation JENGA with speech topics on each block. Students pull one out and then speak on it for a given amount of time. While I will be using this idea on the other side of my blocks for now I have come up with the idea I call Exit Slip JENGA (my husbands vote was for A+ JENGA and that was a no go) but you can call it whatever you want and like. So here is how this went down! 

I bought this set at the Dollar General store for $4 

Here is my finished product.

So with Sharpie in hand I sat down to come up with my questions. In total I have 10 questions all but one set are used 4 times. I plan to put on the other side in a different color the speech topic ideas and I will post that list as soon as I come up with them too! How will I use this is class? Well I already use Post-its like I endorse the darn company so I made my questions simple enough to be answered on a single Post-it. I plan to use them as exit slips out the door or to review if there is time remaining at the end of a class period. Another thought I have is to use the other side for pre-assessment questions (this just came to me as I was writing this and I actually like it way better than the speech topics!). 

Here is my list of questions: 

- What do you remember most?

- Summarize today's lesson

- How will this help you in another class

- Doodle/Draw today's key point

- How is this used in real life?

- What will we cover tomorrow?

- Create 1 quiz question and answer it

- Define 1 important term

- What is 1 question you still have?

- List 3 important points from today

So please give me your ideas on how you could use this in your classroom and what questions you will put onto your set?

The problem with so many questions

I know the old saying of there is never a dumb question but I think we are all willing to admit sometimes there are some questions that are not so... well intelligent. I struggle with this in my classes because I enjoy sharing personal experiences about the topic of discussion which leads to student sharing which I love don't get me wrong but its not those raised hands that are my problem. I nearly want to scream every time a student asks me to repeat instructions or something I just finished saying due to their lack of concentration and desire to pay attention. So while at the DuPont National Agriscience Teacher Ambassador Academy we were all introduced to the GENIUS idea of question cards. 

 

These are my question cards

 Now these simple little cards are nothing more than a little clip art man printed, glued to a note card and laminated but how ever you chose to make them they are magical!! I have one class in particular that drives me nuts with silly questions about things that can be found by simple reading their directions or listening. So depending upon the difficulty of the lesson I hand out 1-3 question cards. After we go over the activity together and answer any obvious questions I say "question cards now" and the students know that from that point forward if they want to ask a question of me it will cost them one question card. Like a ticket at the movie I simply pick up the card as I answer the question. Some students never use any question cards and some lose them all in 5 minutes. Now you may be thinking don't you want them to question things, don't you want them to be clear about what they are doing, how can you not answer their questions,? Yes, yes, and easy I force them to THINK! I give them the chance to be sure they want to use their card before I answer and I always allow them to discuss with their neighbors to find the correct answer. More times than not the students at a table will work together to determine if they want to use the card or not and if they do use it everyone within ear shot will be listening and listening closely! I love love love these things because as you can imagine students not only work together better but they listen very closely when I speak because it may save them from using one of their own cards. I highly suggest these as an addition to your classroom management toolbox for sure! What ideas or tricks do you have for weeding out the unnecessary questions and encouraging independent work?  

What a nerdy life I live...

So as I sit here on the oh so exciting Monday night I have actually made some pretty interesting things! I spent my Christmas money today at Staples getting random supplies the best and my absolute favorite.... SCENTED MARKERS!!

Now that I have admitted to being the biggest nerd ever on to the other nerdy things I did tonight, poster making. While at the store I purchased a flip chart (which happened to be the ONLY thing I went into Staples for but obviously that didn't go as planned). I have been seeing several ideas online for classroom posters that I have wanted for some time and so I present to you my super awesome and amazing new classroom posters.  

Ok get ready to stretch your neck out while checking out these first two (sorry some day I may become super computer savy and figure out how to turn these darn things once there are on the page)

This lovely poster I hope will help me to get my students back on track with their interactive notebooks. After staring at this on a picking it apart with my OCD brain I made a digital one that I have added to my TpT sight and you can find the link to that here What goes where?. 

This one I saw on another bloggers page and added a few things to each definition to better suit what I use with my students to remember these. 

This classroom management strategy is one I found on Pinterest and is very similar to one I am already using but I did not have a super cool poster so as you can guess I had to have a poster duh! 

This poster came to be through the ideas presented on several different posters on Pinterest. Most came from younger grade levels so this modification I hope will help my high school students understand how they can use the left side of their notebooks to showcase their notes in a visual way.

So now that it's nearly midnight I must put away these wonderful markers, wash my stained hands and go to bed. How do you see these being useful in your classroom? What could I have added/changed to make them even more awesome? Have an amazing New Year and thanks for reading!  

Table Tubs

As all teachers do I struggle daily to ensure that my students have the supplies they need to be successful in my class. While at the National Agriscience Teacher Ambassador Academy one of the greatest things I brought home was the idea to create "table tubs". Now I will not sugar coat this because there is no way around it; these things were not cheap to get started! I purchased all the contents when on sale and still search to find coupons and sales to re-stock them but it has proven to be well worth it. 

Here are two pictures of my tubs! 

So as you can see I keep a variety of items in these tubs and almost half way through the year the majority of what I started with is still there. Here is what they contain: Post-its, markers, colored pencils, scissors, highlighters, glue sticks, small pencil sharpener, large eraser, crayons, ruler, and sometime a calculator. At the beginning of the year these also contained a small stapler but when I discovered the students were stapling their arms (go figure) I took all of them out. I have to clean these out probably once every two weeks or often have TA's available that I assign to rework the markers and such to make sure all tubs are even and neat. Other ideas to house these are small clear storage tubs with lids, shoe boxes, or any other small box you may have to hold all these things. My classroom runs much much better with these and I highly recommend the investment.Other ideas I have mainly because I am desperate for supplies is to offer bonus points for things like scissors, post-its, and glue sticks. I know some of you are using things similar that probably work much better what suggestions do you have on improving my tubs? Or share with us how and what you use in your tubs! 

P.S. You have until December 16th to apply for the NATAA experience!! It is one I promise you will not regret. Click the link above to go straight to the application page. 

Just trust me

I know, I know, agriculture teachers have no summer so why would you want to give up another week for another professional development? Trust me when I say this one is different. The National Agriscience Teacher Ambassador Program is unlike any training I have ever been to (I am sure some of you veteran teachers are chuckling at the thought of just how many training's I could have possibly been to). Through the National Association of Agriculture Educators you can find the applications which are due DECEMBER 16th that's nearly a month to talk it over with your spouse, babysitter, mother-in-law, principal or whoever you need to talk to to help reassure yourself that this is a meaningful week that you will not for one minute feel has been a waste of your time. DuPont sponsors you from the time you arrive at the airport until you arrive home and spoil you with some of the best food and views in the Delaware area! From the moment you step foot onto the farm you are surrounded by other agriculture teachers and leaders who want you to get the absolute most out of every minute you are there. 
 So we have all heard this buzz word "inquiry based learning" well if you were like me it was nothing more than just that, a word. I knew that I had experienced several trainings that claimed to explain this foreign concept but I still was totally clueless. Through extensive hands-on training and exploration into what it was like to be an inquiry based learner I have new respect for this infamous word. I have taken the MASSIVE toolkit of skills, tips and tricks I learned while there home and transformed my classroom little by little. From utilizing stamps to cut back on my own grading to changing up lessons that where tried and true I have become a better teacher because of this experience! 
 Not only do you get to go home and change the way your students learn but you are also part of a team that works to present other agriculture teachers with ways they can utilize inquiry based learning as well. Through presentation of  workshops at National FFA Convention and at the NAAE Convention (which just so happens to be in Las Vegas this year) you help to spread the word about inquiry based learning. 
 If you are thinking this is not for you or that you are past the point of changing things in your classroom or program please please please think again! There where teachers like myself there who are still new, to veteran teachers who are mere years from retirement. This program has something tremendous to offer everyone and I am incredibly thankful I was awarded the opportunity. If you have questions about this program I am more than happy to answer any questions you may have or you can always check out the NAAE website. 
This one week will change the rest of your teaching career. TRUST ME.