Movie Trailers Intros

This year I learned how to make a movie trailer for use in my classroom. It was very easy with iMovie and I plan on doing several more throughout the year for lesson hooks. I started working on them Saturday and had both finished by Tuesday night. It was that easy! I had seen several other teachers make them as a way to introduce themselves on the first day of school, had seen them on #tlap chats, and so I decided to make one too. Here is the one for my AP US History Class:

And here is the one I used to introduce myself and class to my regular US History students. What fun it was to create. I even got several cheers and claps from my students!

Getting Creative With National Monuments & Sites

The worst thing that can happen to a teacher is when they go through the unit too quickly and have days left to fill....or is it? Having to find something to fill three days out of the next 14 forced me to be creative. Thanks to Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess, I started asking questions about how I could make a fun activity related to the unit, but not just give students busy work or a lecture. Our current unit is on the environment and energy, so I started out thinking about national parks. But, I soon realized that my unit was becoming to much of a science lesson (at least according to my students in AP Environmental) so I searched for inspiration. I found it on a list of national parks that also included national monuments and historic sites. That is where I realized that the national park service is US history content and what started as a decision to preserve the environment by Theodore Roosevelt has now become a way to preserve American history too. With that said, my students will be spending tomorrow researching a monument or site and then creating a marketing brochure to present to other students. For my students it will be enrichment to the curriculum and a way to keep them engaged as the school year winds down. Here is the link to my Weebly site with instructions! Pictures will follow once the activity is completed.

My Twitter PLN

I look forward to Monday nights and the opportunity to spend up to two hours collaborating with teachers from across the United States (and sometimes even around the world). I have several people that I collaborate with as part of my PLN, professional learning network. This collaboration happens from the comfort of my own home as I log on to Twitter and participate in chats. There are two chats that I like, #sschat (social studies) and #tlap (teach like a pirate). Sometimes I lurk and just watch as people comment on questions given by the moderator, but most times I participate by sharing my lessons and ideas.

Each week, there is a different topic. We have discussed many topics including close reading, student presentation skills, using documents, lesson hooks, current issues, simulations and much more! It is extremely powerful to share ideas with educators (teachers and administrators) alike. The conversation is fast paced and a program like Tweet Deck helps. I am always inspired and find a few good ideas that I can implement the very next day. In addition, I can share some of my most successful lessons with them!

Last night, I participated in a chat about student engagement in an online environment. Seeing as my students are in the computer lab today, I took those ideas and added an Edmodo discussion component to their assignment. It is perhaps the best part of the lesson as students share their ideas. While I am not able to get online every Monday (thanks to my one year old who would rather play with the keyboard than sit still), I always go back and view the conversations. 

Every 21st century educator needs to get a Twitter account and start joining chats. There are tons of chats for every subject. And what better way to inspire your students to become life long learners, than by showing that you are also one!

Lesson Hook: Simulating a Bus in Alabama, 1955

At Dave Burgess's "Teach Like a Pirate" seminar, I learned the importance of hooking the students into a lesson and have been searching for ideas ever since.

My lesson on the Montgomery Bus Boycott provided the perfect opportunity. I took a deck of cards and made sure to have the appropriate number of cards for my class period, ensuring that there was just a small amount of face cards. As students entered the room, each one was given a card. Once everyone was seated, I had everyone to stand up around the room. As I called a card, starting with Ace, the students who held that card were allowed to choose any seat in the room. This continued through the numbered cards. Once all of them were seated, those with face cards were told they could choose any seat they wanted, as long as it was a seat that was already occupied. Those "displaced" students then took the remaining open seats. Some got up quietly, others protested.

We proceeded to have a discussion as I first asked the "displaced" students how they felt, and then those with face cards responded. It was the perfect introduction to the bus boycott and allowed me to mix up the table groups for the day's activity, a DBQ answering the question, "Why did the Montgomery Bus Boycott Succeed?" I will be actively planning more hooks like this for my lessons.

Hippies for a Day

Thanks to Dave Burgess and #tlap, I have added a new element to my teaching - dress up days! I don't know why I never thought about having Decade Days before now! It is so easy to select a day to focus on the attire, music, art, culture, etc of a decade.

Friday was a minimum day so I made it our Counterculture Day. Students were asked to dress in tie dye or like hippies. We listened to the music of Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Country Joe and the Fish and Credence Clearwater Revival. Students were shown pictures and we also had a class debate on the draft after reading a couple of articles on the topic the previous day.

Next time I do this day, I want to add an activity to get students up and moving around. Because it was only a 40 minute class I felt rushed. Here are some pictures from the day:

Poster DBQs

Today is block schedule at my school which means 2 hour and 2 minute classes. That is a very long time for students to sit and listen to a lecture. We started off with our March Madness Elite 8 round and voting, but that only took 20 minutes. The idea for a visual DBQ came from an AVID conference that I had attended years ago.

I found 17 different documents (speeches, letters, diagrams, photos, etc) and put them together in a Google Doc. Students were put into groups of four and given the instructions to look through each document and decide how they would answer the question: Why did the US lose the Vietnam War? Once they had decided on an answer, they were given a piece of flip chart paper, scissors, markers and glue sticks. On the poster they had to write a thesis statement. Then students selected 6-8 documents that supported their claim as to why we lost the war. Each document was cut out and glued on the paper. Students wrote sentences underneath explaining how that document answered the question. Many students also chose to make colorful borders and pictures to enhance the look of their posters.

Each team was asked to present its thesis and supporting evidence. We then discussed comparisons to other wars, both past and present.

Rather than me telling them in 5 minutes the reasons why the US lost the war, students used document analysis, critical thinking and collaboration skills to answer the question. This took over an hour of group work. All of these skills are essential common core and 21st century skills. It also allows the students to take ownership of their learning rather than be passive listeners to a teacher on stage.

Here are some pictures of completed posters:

1950s Day

Yesterday was Fifties Day in my classroom. I went to Party City where I was able to get some decorations including a wall poster. I also used pictures from the decade around the room. Using Pandora Radio, I had fifties music playing while students entered the classroom. I let several songs play before beginning the lesson. On each table was a graphic organizer with 1950s slang words on the back.

Together we read through an article called Take Me Back to the 1950s, which highlights major cultural events of the decade. I paused along the way to share photographs, short stories, video clips and even my dad's letterman sweater. The video clips I used were three commercials (Coca Cola, Ford and Kool Aid), Elvis Presley (the 1st Ed Sullivan appearance to show his swinging hips and a later Ed Sullivan appearance), the chocolate scene from I Love Lucy and a short clip of Leave it to Beaver. Students were asked to write down things in six boxes (social conformity, women, automobiles/suburbia, teen culture, consumerism and entertainment). I encouraged students to dress fifties style and I did have several students who did. For the last five minutes of our class period, I held a hula hoop contest since the hula hoop was first popular in the fifties.

It was definitely a fun way to make history more alive and my students are very excited about our upcoming hippie day as we study the Vietnam War.