VOVIDS = Stealth Learning

Vocabulary might draw groans from kids world wide, unless your teacher is a total vocabulary geek (that would be me). One of my students' favorite vocabulary activities is making VOVIDS, AKA vocabulary videos. 


Again this is certainly NOT my original idea, but we began doing it after discovering the website Wordia.com. It is a British site where people make and submit short videos discussing the meanings of words. 


We decided to do our own and it's one of the most fun and meaningful vocabulary activities I've ever done with students. Some of them are so silly and they have so much fun making and watching them, that my students have no idea how much they are processing and internalizing word meanings. I have the students leave a pause after they act out the word, so that when we watch them in class, the other students have an opportunity to guess what the word is before they give the definition. 


Another example of stealth learning- love it!


Definition of vanish

wordia definition of twitch

definition of furious

http://wordia.com/

Reality Shift & I LOVE Pinterest

Today is the last day of NCLB testing for my reading classes! Now we have an entire 4th quarter to really dig into the DEEP projects. I do projects all year, but during third quarter there is always testing looming on the horizon. 


As we all begin the reality shift over to Common Core, I'm embracing it fully. There is not a whole lot of difference between CC and how I teach anyway, but it's still going to require some shifting in thinking/planning. So adios pink KS standards flipchart, I'm headed in a better direction!


For those about to test, we salute you! Here's a fantastic goodie I found on Pinterest (which is just the best thing ever). I so appreciate all teachers out there who share their wonderful stuff and those who pass it on. 

I'm going to change the T to take your time for my kiddoes. Again, thanks for sharing this Mrs. Matejka!

Test Ninjas

Three cheers for NCLB! It's test time again! (surely I don't have to tell you to insert sarcasm here) So that means it's time for the ultimate pump up for my wonderful reading students. School wide we are doing a "Rock the Test" theme, but my students came up with their own thing- Test Ninjas. So we're going be test ninjas that rock the test- the best of both worlds!

In addition to our all black ninja wear that we're doing on Monday, I made them a door display to cheer my ninjas on to total test rockage on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  I tried to invent my own Asian-style writing, but I'm thinking I should have googled something to copy. I couldn't exactly remember the characters on my mahjong Kindle game. I'm quite concerned that I have written something completely inappropriate!

Inferences Run Amuck

My classes and I came up with a groove for remembering how to infer. Here they are!

Common Core Conundrum

Common Core... it strikes fear into the hearts of teachers everywhere. We hate NCLB, but CC seems so complicated that it's hard to embrace it right away. What's a teacher to do??? 


We are departmentalized, so our principal is having each department present our anchor standards to the other department. We're not sure if we love her or hate her at the moment. (I wouldn't say that unless I loved her all the time!) Here's our Prezi to show to our comrades in math. 


I'm hoping to add music if/when I figure out how. I'm thinking some Bob Marley "Don't Worry". 


http://prezi.com/z7gfgedfkseo/common-core-reading-reminders-for-mathmatic-masters/

8 Ways Not to Say NO

Love this!! So many times I hear adults, parents, teachers saying "No" to kids. I see the deflated look on their faces. While I'm a FIRM believer that kids need limits and adults need to follow through, I also think that school is the only place where a lot of our kids get any kind of love, respect, structure, and guidance. Dry tears here- my heart breaks for some of my kids.


I saw this on Pinterest and just had to save/share it!  Thanks to Minds in Bloom.com and she who pinned it first!!


8 Ways Not to Say No

I Can Infer that...

One of the most challenging things for my fifth graders in the dreaded inferring/drawing conclusion task that looms on the lovely upcoming assessments. All year I try to do as much of this as I can, but it's always a struggle- for them and for me. 


At last week's KEEN conference several presenters demonstrated and showed pictures of their kids (mostly middle and high schoolers) doing various verbal/kinesthetic dances, chants and songs to make sense of all sort of content. While I do tons of kinesthetic activities in my classes, I haven't done a lot of this sort of stuff. 


Soooo... after lots of web browsing and other investigating (AKA begging, borrowing, stealing) here's what I came up with to help my students grasp & practice this business of inferences. 


Great video I found on youtube:

Power Point I made to do with students:
(I put in one slide at a time, feel free to snip and insert into your own document)

Finally... a poster I put in my room. This is based on some posters that other teachers shared on Pinterest. I guess this is the borrowing and stealing segment of our show.  We also made up a rythmic chant with motions to help us remember the 3 steps of inferring. 

Here's hoping that none of my students will be "left behind" (insert sarcasm here) and that they'll all demonstrate their knowledge of inferring or at least be able to get those questions right on the test.  Hopefully I will draw the conclusion that I'm finally on the right track!