Category: Connections

Make it fun

What makes one professional development opportunity great, while another may be bland and boring?  Some of the best PD that I’ve had felt that way because the presenter somehow made things fun.  In your classroom, the students are the audience, and while making sure they are having fun is not your primary goal, we all know they are going to pay a lot more attention if the activities that we are doing are more fun.  What are some ways we can incorporate fun into our classrooms?

Kevin Jarret - https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjarrett/7070563247
Kevin Jarret – https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjarrett/7070563247
Scott West
Scott West
  • STICKERS – I am continually amazed by what a fifth or sixth grader will do for a sticker (haven’t you noticed the Ham & Cheese stickers that end up on our students foreheads?). Want some more participation?  Pull our the foil stars, ask a question, and give out a star for good answers, or to integrate tech, give a foil star to the best response or question on Today’s Meet (see the post on Getting ALL our students to participate in the classroom).
  • Make it silly – before students hand in a paper, have them do something silly, make a sound like a pirate, do a little dance, etc. Adding a little silliness will up the fun factor by at least 10% (and even more important – if you are being silly with them, they will be even more engaged!).
  • In a content area, retell a story and make your students the stars of the story (think about last week’s post on titled Put your students into your materials).

When kids walk out of this building, the fun they want is pretty much on demand.  Between social media, streaming video and music, video games, and more, our students have tons of ways to do something fun.  If we want them to be as engaged in our room as they are with their Minecraft world, we have to be willing to bring in some of the fun.

Matt Miller: https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14562457739/in/album-72157645530010989/
Matt Miller: https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14562457739/in/album-72157645530010989/

Think of some lesson you have done in the past that was a bust (even the best of us have had one!).  How could you add some fun and silliness to help the students be more engaged?  What things have you included that were fun and did help students remain engaged?  Share some of your ideas in the comments section below.

Making Connections

In last week’s post we were talking about the HSE Best Practice Model.  There are many ways we can help our students be successful in the 21st century.  Our digital world, while not the only solution, is one of the keys that can help unlock the door to that success.  As an example, I’d like to share something that happened to me last spring.  I was reading a book and the author made reference to a spreadsheet that she used to track data on students.  While in theory I could guess what it probably looked like, I was having a hard time visualizing it.  I flipped to the appendix hoping to find a version, but no luck.  After rereading the passage I still had questions.  I decided to look on Twitter to see if the author had an account.  Sure enough, she did.  I sent a tweet to her, and in a couple minutes she responded.  Through a direct message I sent her my email address, and 10 minutes later I had a screen shot of the exact spreadsheet.

Matt Miller - https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14746748124/in/photostream/
Matt Miller – https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14746748124/in/photostream/

Who are the people you’d like to ask questions?  In a less connected world, you might have been able to track down a mailing address, send a letter, and hope for a response in a couple of weeks.  Today through the use of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other digital services, we can connect immediately.  As teachers, we can leverage those connections into ways to help our students interact with the larger world.  Your class is learning about space science?  Have them compose a tweet to NASA or an astronaut (think about Scott Kelly on who is currently involved in the Year in Space Mission).  Did your students have a question about a book?  Try tweeting the author, or have your students share their reactions via your twitter account.

https://plus.google.com/+SylviaDuckworth/posts/61rTzdcJ1yG?pid=6097161572876797314&oid=114228444007154433856
Sylvia Duckworth: https://plus.google.com/+SylviaDuckworth/posts/61rTzdcJ1yG?pid=6097161572876797314&oid=114228444007154433856

Personally, I look at Twitter as less of a social media site, and more at a Personal Learning Network.  I have connections to resources who share their ideas, and I can communicate back and forth with them.  And the best part of all of it?  I can do this anytime that works for me!  I don’t have to rely on anyone else’s timeframe to guide my learning.

Sylvia Duckworth: https://www.flickr.com/photos/15664662@N02/20735433665/
Sylvia Duckworth: https://www.flickr.com/photos/15664662@N02/20735433665/

How many of you use social media for the purpose of learning?  What sites have you found successful?  If you’re on Twitter, share your username so that we can follow you.