Perspective

My district is looking into creating formative assessments that will be aligned to our Enduring Understandings.  Because of this, my team created (for a professional development meeting) an eight day unit on "perspective" and how perspective influences conflict.  Having finished this unit, it was interesting to see how each of the students' perspectives on a topic influenced their thoughts of the character's perspective (when you read "Ooka and the Honest Thief", you will see that the kids have differing feelings about whether stealing for your family is fair or not). 

I'm attaching a plan of what we did, as well as some resources.

Unit Plan: Perspective

Link to "Ooka and the Honest Thief"  (we used our Junior Great Books Series, but I found a copy of the same story online)

Ooka and the Honest Thief Questions (used for comprehension check, as well as working on discussion and synthesizing information).

We used "Moodle" for some of the discussion.  If you don't have Moodle, you could always have students respond to each other by hanging up their responses around the classroom. 

**Additionally, we are reading "Wonder" by R.J. Palacio (a great book on bullying, middle school, and perspective!).  Click here to check it out on Amazon.com!

My students are becoming a Tweeter!

Follow my class on Twitter!  @kielclassroom

My purpose in trying Twitter was for a few reasons.  First, I wanted to introduce students to Twitter  and have them practice participating in a controlled social media account.  Additionally, I felt Twitter was a great way to teach main idea and summarizing (they can only have 140 characters) and a good communication tool between our classroom and the world! 

What did I do to set this up?

1. Create a free Twitter account for your class.  I used @kielclassroom for mine.
2. Show your class the YouTube video, "Twitter in Plain English". 
3. Go through the PowerPoint, "What is Twitter?"  During this, we talked a lot about safety (once you post, it's permanently there) and who our audience will be. 
4. Then, we logged into our account.  I showed them how to log-in, how to read other's tweets, and how to compose a professional tweet (they must end each tweet with their first name only). 
5. We went through the directions sheet and the class calendar.  I also put 2 students in charge of posting the names on the board of who will be in charge of tweeting that day. 
6. Then, we did a sample tweet together, as well as found people/organizations we wanted to follow (we made a rule that students needed to ask the class before following someone, since this is our class account).

So, follow us on Twitter (@kielclassroom)!  It's a work in progress!

Price is Right Game

Once the school year sets in and we get into our routines, I like to start rewarding students for doing their job.  I wanted to use a checkbook system, but wanted to make it very manageable for me, as well as engaging for the students.  Additionally, I wanted to practice adding and subtracting of decimals, estimation, and money management.  From there, the Price is Right was created.

At the beginning of the game, I give each student a ziplock baggie (I have used envelopes in the past).  Inside the ziplock bag, I give each student a Bank Account Register.  This register is where they keep track of all their transactions throughout the game (we update at the end of each day, so kids aren't pulling their wallet out during instructional times).

To begin, I give each student an "allowance".  We record the money down together in the Bank Account Register so students get the idea of how it's done.  Then, we go through the PowerPoint of game directions.  We brainstorm together ways to gain money and ways to lose money.   I keep this posted in the room throughout the duration of the game.

During the game, I have money cut and ready to hand out.  When I give students money, I have them write their name on the back of the money and put it away in their wallet (ziplock bag) until the end of the day.  If I need to take money from students, I have them get it out at that moment.  Then, I cross of their name on the back of the money, put my initials on it, and re-use the money.

Now, what do kids do with the money?  This ranges from extra recess, Silent Auctions, Showcase Showdown, to spinning the wheel (see link below).   When we do a Silent Auction, I place items around the room and kids have to manage their money and also place bids on items they would like.  For the Showcase Showdown, I find pictures of items online and put it up on the Smartboard.  I have two kids play each other at a time, they have to guess the price of the item.  The person who guesses the closest amount moves on to the next round.  For the "Wheel", kids pay money to come up and try to spin the wheel.  We play 3 kids at a time, with the person getting closest to a $1.00 receiving a prize.   This year, I'm going to brainstorm some other possible prizes/rewards with the class!

We usually play this game for about 1-2 months.  It's a great way to build motivation, reward students, and have students practice using money and money management.

"The Wheel" Link: http://www.mazeguy.net/bigwheel.html#