Another exciting week!
A few weeks ago, I was approached by one of our history teachers to discuss ideas for her unit on the Renaissance period. In the past, she has had students dress up and deliver a speech. This year, she wanted something different. While we explored several possibilities, the final decision was to create memes. Research was still a large component of this unit. However, instead of students reciting the facts they learned, they were tasked with processing the information and identifying the essence of their assigned person in order to create their meme. The class got off to a slow start. Meme sayings were literal and lacked the humor found in most memes. And then, it happened. The proverbial light bulb went off for one student and the creativity spread like a wildfire. Students went from saying “My person is boring” to “Oh, I have a great idea”. The air was full of excitement and not one student was off task. Furthermore, this independent activity quickly became a collaborative effort with students sharing their ideas and receiving feedback from their neighbors. This activity was a huge success!
This week also marked my third Twitter chat in two weeks. I’m increasing my comfort level and expanding my PLN. In addition, my district’s technology department has decided it is time for us to join our neighboring districts and host our own Twitter chat. Several of us met this week to begin ironing out the details for #WCSTechChat. So, keep your eyes open for more details. We hope to host our first chat on May 2nd at 7:30pm EST.
The week ended with our annual Battle of the Books (BOB) for our elementary schools. My role this year was moderator. I read many questions and repeated the rules many times. We had 16 rounds of questions and 6 different rooms. Some schools had more participants than the 6 person BOB team design while others had to make due with only 5 team members. Through it all, I witnessed teamwork at its best from these 4th/5th grade students. However, there was one team that was truly inspirational. This team was comprised of 6 students all of which were first time BOB participants. Their coach went out early in the year due to a medical condition so essentially these 6 students prepared for this competition on their own. They made their own practice questions, held each other accountable for reading the books and met after school to practice. I was fortunate enough to have this team assigned to my room for multiple rounds of competition. Not only did they demonstrate a team effort, they encouraged each other through prayer before and after every round. As their confidence grew, so did the volume of their prayers to the point that all of us in the room bowed our heads. So, even before I saw the scoreboard, I considered these students winners but what a sweet surprise it was when they announced them as first place winners! This amazing group of students will now represent our district at the regional competition. And in my humble opinion, we couldn’t ask for anyone better! Best of luck Elm City Elementary!!!
A few weeks ago, I was approached by one of our history teachers to discuss ideas for her unit on the Renaissance period. In the past, she has had students dress up and deliver a speech. This year, she wanted something different. While we explored several possibilities, the final decision was to create memes. Research was still a large component of this unit. However, instead of students reciting the facts they learned, they were tasked with processing the information and identifying the essence of their assigned person in order to create their meme. The class got off to a slow start. Meme sayings were literal and lacked the humor found in most memes. And then, it happened. The proverbial light bulb went off for one student and the creativity spread like a wildfire. Students went from saying “My person is boring” to “Oh, I have a great idea”. The air was full of excitement and not one student was off task. Furthermore, this independent activity quickly became a collaborative effort with students sharing their ideas and receiving feedback from their neighbors. This activity was a huge success!
This week also marked my third Twitter chat in two weeks. I’m increasing my comfort level and expanding my PLN. In addition, my district’s technology department has decided it is time for us to join our neighboring districts and host our own Twitter chat. Several of us met this week to begin ironing out the details for #WCSTechChat. So, keep your eyes open for more details. We hope to host our first chat on May 2nd at 7:30pm EST.
The week ended with our annual Battle of the Books (BOB) for our elementary schools. My role this year was moderator. I read many questions and repeated the rules many times. We had 16 rounds of questions and 6 different rooms. Some schools had more participants than the 6 person BOB team design while others had to make due with only 5 team members. Through it all, I witnessed teamwork at its best from these 4th/5th grade students. However, there was one team that was truly inspirational. This team was comprised of 6 students all of which were first time BOB participants. Their coach went out early in the year due to a medical condition so essentially these 6 students prepared for this competition on their own. They made their own practice questions, held each other accountable for reading the books and met after school to practice. I was fortunate enough to have this team assigned to my room for multiple rounds of competition. Not only did they demonstrate a team effort, they encouraged each other through prayer before and after every round. As their confidence grew, so did the volume of their prayers to the point that all of us in the room bowed our heads. So, even before I saw the scoreboard, I considered these students winners but what a sweet surprise it was when they announced them as first place winners! This amazing group of students will now represent our district at the regional competition. And in my humble opinion, we couldn’t ask for anyone better! Best of luck Elm City Elementary!!!