Volcanoes Web Quest Project- Using Google Drive

My students have been working very hard on a new project that I am trying this year. So far it is going very well, except that it is taking longer than expected. Although, this always seems to happen with projects. The Project is called: Exploring Volcanoes Web-Quest.

I adapted the project for my students from this web-quest.  Additionally, I decided that this project was the perfect time for students to use Google Drive. They were able to get experience with Google Presentation, Google Docs and Google Spreadsheet. It was a valuable learning experience for ALL of us, especially me! I posted information for the web-quest on my web-site (I am always posting things on my web-site to force students into using it).

In class, we discussed the project and I split students into teams of 4. I let teams decide on each scientist's role (unless groups were arguing and then I chose roles at random). Each group has a reasearcher, volcanologist, historian and photographer. Each scientist was given a hard copy of their responsibilities that I printed for them from the web-site. I also gave each group a hard copy of the rubric that I will use to grade presentations. Groups turned these rubrics in to me at the time they presented their projects to the class.

I want to share links to some of our presentations because I am really proud of my students and how their final products turned out!  I feel like a proud Momma!!!

Mt. Etna

Krakatau

Mt. Vesuvius

Kilauea

DATA COLLECTION

Data collection has been a very important phrase in education for the past several years, and its popularity only seems to be growing. In the past seven years teaching science, I am ashamed to admit that I haven't done much in the way of data collection (in terms of grades, objectives and standards) with my students. This fall, I really wanted to turn over a new leaf, and I began collecting data from each test that I would share with students and then post in my classroom. I created data charts for our Rocks and Plate Tectonics test showing individual student scores for each class as well as a class average. When I passed the tests back, I would share this chart with students so that they could see where their grades were in terms of their classmates and the class averages.

I liked the idea of posting the results from each test in my classroom and being able to compare each test, however, I did not feel like this data collection was making much of an impact on my students. I planned to do the same with our Earthquakes Quiz a few weeks ago, until a better idea hit me while grading quizzes and study guides. I was very disappointed in the fact that my students did not perform well on the Earthquakes Quiz, and I was also very upset that a very large number of them did not complete the review sheet. I began to wonder (even though I already knew) what the correlation was between student grades and whether or not they completed the study guide. My good friend, Susie, who is our math teacher said, "Why don't you create a double bar graph?" Brilliant! I created a double bar graph showing the number of students for each class who completed the study guide versus the number of students who did not complete the study guide, and the letter grade that they earned on the quiz.

When I presented the bar graph to students after passing quizzes back, their mouths dropped! Their reactions were exactly what I was hoping for: one of those great educational moments! Even better, parent-teacher conferences were shortly after I created this graph, so I was able to share this with parents and students in the meeting, as well as whether or not the student completed the study guide and the grade that was earned on the quiz. Moving forward, I am challenging students to have 100% study guide completion for our Volcanoes Quiz in a few weeks, and I am going to create a similar graph for students to compare results. I am just hoping that students come through for me in completing their study guides, and that the quiz grades improve drastically! What do others do for data collection in their classroom? Next year, I would like to expand my data collection methods and involve students in the process so I am looking for some ideas.

Google Drive

My school began using Google Drive (Docs, Spreadsheet, Slides, Forms, etc.) a few years ago. I was really excited about it at first and made some forms for students to complete, but then it kind of fell by the wayside in our school and in my classroom. When our technology coordinator emailed us about using Google Drive a few months ago, it was a wake up call for me! She also informed us that all of the new computers would no longer have Microsoft Office (YIKES!), so we really needed to begin using Google Drive for ourselves and with our students. I had a brief training with our technology coordinator and I am now trying to get up and running with it. I am pleased to say that so far I LOVE IT!!! I love that all of my work automatically saves to Google Drive, and that I can then access those files from anywhere with internet (No more lugging my school lap-top or stupid flash drive around). Additionally, our wonderful technology coordinator has created accounts for ALL of the students. I can now easily share documents with all of my students in one easy step, and they can edit and share documents with each other and with me. Last week, I used Forms to create this form. Forms are my favorite so far, and here's why:
1.  They are EXTREMELY easy to create, yet look very professional.

2.  You can choose from several different answer types.  That makes forms great for surveys, voting, assignments, even quizzes and/ or tests.
3.  Pictures and Videos can be inserted into the Form.  This was amazing for the form assignment that I just created for my students over plate tectonics, earthquakes and volcanoes.

4.  All form answers can be recorded into a spreadsheet.  This makes tallying results or grading assignments easy and organized!

CHAMPS

CHAMPS (Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement, Participation, Success)  is a classroom management program designed by Randy Sprick that focuses on being positive and proactive in the classroom in order to eliminate discipline issues before they begin.  Our school began adopting CHAMPS after Christmas break this year, and I have been working throughout the year to bring more aspects of CHAMPS into my daily routine each month.  Over Christmas Break, I created this bulletin board in the back of my room (I've mentioned before that bulletin board space in my room is very limited, but I felt that I needed to devote some of it to our CHAMPS program):

When students returned from break, we took some time to discuss CHAMPS.  I explained to them that the idea of the program is to be sure that everyone knows exactly what they need to be doing at all times.  I was very glad that I had this conversation with my students because I learned that I was actually taking a few things for granted in my class.  There were times before, that I would assume (we all know what that makes = ( ) that students knew what they were supposed to be doing at a given time, when in fact they didn't.  For example, I assumed that students knew during a lab investigation that they could ask others for help.  In actuality, many of them didn't know that they were allowed to do this.  hmmm.... I wonder why I got so many questions during labs???? DUH!  Now that we have been using the CHAMPS program for a few months, I am seeing great improvement in our daily routines in the science class.  Students are much more aware of what they need to be doing at a given time and I am finding that I have fewer minor discipline issues. 

After referring to the board in the back of the room each day for a few weeks, and then writing the different CHAMPS activity levels on the board for a few more weeks, I was beginning to get frustrated.  I felt that the program was beginning to bog down my lessons (In my science class, we change activities many times per period some days) with always having to change the different CHAMPS levels.  About a week ago, I created this Smart Board Slide that I am loving.  It has been a life and time saver for me so far.  The slide includes all of the different CHAMPS levels and a highlight box that allows me to highlight each level that we are using for a particular activity.  I can quickly move these boxes around with each activity change.  I am going to have this slide as a freebie in my TpT store this week to anyone that is already using CHAMPS, or would like to get started with the program.  Feel free to comment/ email me for more info if you are interested in hearing more about CHAMPS, or if you are using CHAMPS in your classroom now and have some ideas. 

Parent Teacher Conferences- What to Wear???

Tonight and tomorrow are Parent-Teacher conferences at our school.  This morning while I was agonizing over what to wear, it got me thinking about appropriate attire for Parent-Teacher conferences.  I know that every school does conferences differently, but a lot are in the evenings and it makes for an extremely long day for teachers.  However, we all want to look our absolute best for conferences, in order to make a good impression on parents.  I like to look professional, while also looking modern and age appropriate.  That said, it is HARD to find a very professional and polished but modern, yet comfortable, outfit that will withstand a 14 hour day.  I have tried different things in the past, such as bringing an outfit to change into or going home to change.  However, both make more work, and laundry, for me.  Now that I am a working mommy, I try to make things as simple as possible.
 A few things that I have learned along the way are:
1) wearing flats, but stashing a pair of heels in my bag to change into for conferences
2) staying at school instead of trying to race home- I can get a lot of work done this way, but I do stash some essentials in my bag to freshen up before conferences start (i.e.- face wash, deodorant, perfume, toothbrush, etc)
3) dressing in layers (in case the school is cold, or in case of a dreaded stain!)
4)  picking out my conference outfit and ironing it ahead of time so I am not throwing together an outfit at the last minute.  Confession:  I didn't do this for today, and I was very stressed this morning!

I found some great outfit ideas for Parent-Teacher conferences that I thought I would share-

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 I am curious what others do for Parent-Teacher conferences in order to look professional, while also being comfortable?  I would love some suggestions!!!!!

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STUDY ISLAND UPDATE

We now in full swing with Study Island.  It's hard to believe that it is that time of year again, but considering the winter we have been having in OH, I am glad!!!  I talked about Study Island in this post, a few weeks ago and wanted to give an update now that we are moving along with it.

We finished our hallway display this week.  My very talented co-worker and friend, Kari, came up with a great Treasure Hunt theme!  It is great to have an island feel in our hallway, to get us through the next few weeks of this LOOOONG winter!

Our 6th grade hallway is now transformed into a Treasure Map.

Each student has a boat that travels down the hall for each Reading blue ribbon that they earn, beginning at the palm tree in the first picture (you can see that some of them are already moving their boats along) and ending at the Treasure Chest in the last picture (this didn't turn out so well in the picture, but it is the black box on the right side of the picture).  Additionally, students can earn stickers to decorate their boats for each blue ribbon earned in Math, and they will earn gold coins for the treasure chest for each Science blue ribbon.

Along the way, students make stops at different ocean themed spots, such as:

Students are excited about this, and are asking daily to move their boats, add coins to the treasure chest, and/ or add stickers to decorate their boats.  I will share another update as students begin to move along.
We are also kicking around the idea of doing a Study Island Party/ Assembly after our state testing.  We have given a pizza party as a reward in the past, but we are trying to do something different this year, and would really like to go all out!  I would love some ideas!!!!