geoteach's Space http://geoteach.posterous.com Most recent posts at geoteach's Space posterous.com Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:25:56 -0800 Say Something prompts and sample http://geoteach.posterous.com/say-something-prompts-and-sample http://geoteach.posterous.com/say-something-prompts-and-sample

Here are the pictures mentioned in the related post.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1622407/image.jpg http://posterous.com/users/cQyJfhRRM4v6q A. Pitcher geoteach A. Pitcher
Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:22:00 -0800 Say Something! http://geoteach.posterous.com/say-something http://geoteach.posterous.com/say-something Feb. 21, 2012: With the support of one of my Learning Classroom colleagues, I have attempted yet another new teaching strategy. I tried using the "Say Something" reading comprehension prompts with my grade 9 applied class last week. I was hesitant to try this strategy because it seemed difficult to grasp and as I have only seen it in action and never tried it myself it seemed even more daunting. I figured that this is the year to try everything and anything new. This seemed to fall in line with their learning styles (bodily Kinesthetic - manipulating the reading with underlining and interpersonal - with the discussion). The way that this process works (as far as I have grasped it to date) is that the students are given a piece of text to read and as they are reading they are commenting, questioning, predicting, clarifying and making connections to the text. As they read the piece, they have coloured pencils to underline with that correspond to the various "Say Something" prompts. The students then, write their comment, question, etc. in the margins of the paper to use in discussion and understanding later on. After reading, the students then get into small groups to discuss their questions, comments, etc. and try to come to an understanding of the material read together by supporting one another through the process. This particular group of students, bought into the whole underlining and the prompts, but the discussions were less than I had expected. I think that I will try this strategy again with a "lighter" piece of text to help them feel more confident in their discussion portion of the process as the content of this text was perhaps too challenging to start with. Overall, I was impressed with their understanding and I have attached some pictures here of the prompts and a sample of the work. I appreciated the support from my colleague on this and would love for those of you who have tried this strategy to share your successes or failures here so that all of us can support each other.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1622407/image.jpg http://posterous.com/users/cQyJfhRRM4v6q A. Pitcher geoteach A. Pitcher
Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:13:00 -0800 Off and running with student created rubrics http://geoteach.posterous.com/off-and-running-with-student-created-rubrics http://geoteach.posterous.com/off-and-running-with-student-created-rubrics Semester 2 is now underway and I am excited to see what new challenges and successes this semester brings my way. I have a grade 9 applied Learning Classroom and a grade 12 university course this semester. With the grade 12 class I have decided that blogging is the way to go to deepen the conversations about world issues; while also providing a safe way for my shy students to process and express their thoughts. I have almost everyone logged in to the blog site and already the students are embracing this venue for great conversation about the issue or topic presented to them. I have posted a picture for the students to comment on as a warm up to the rich student-led discussions that I will look for as the semester progresses. I have to say that I am impressed by the quality of the writing and the personal reflection that I am getting from the students and it is only day 1! Before I get side tracked with praise for the students, I must also tell you that I tried having the students create (with guidance) the rubric for this blogging communication assignment. I was very nervous to turn over that kind of control to the students, but now that we have been through the process, I'm a big believer in it. The students were amazing at coming up with rubric quantifiers that matched the curriculum expectations presented to them. They had wonderful discussions about blogging and what should be expected. The students even came up with a great solution to the one issue that I was having with the blogging....we all can't post new topic threads every day when there are 30 in the class. Together the students devised a plan where each person was in charge of starting a new topic only once per month. They also wanted the freedom to start a new topic thread if something exciting was going on in the world that, just had to be mentioned. After the rubric creation process was done, I felt the energy in the room spike. I can only hope that they were as excited about our new class blog as I am.

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Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:44:00 -0800 Semester 1 is almost over. http://geoteach.posterous.com/semester-1-is-almost-over http://geoteach.posterous.com/semester-1-is-almost-over Here we are on the cusp of the last week of semester 1. I have had a great semester with my 2 classes and the Learning Classrom visitors. I have a bittersweet feeling coming to the end of this semester as this means that I am halfway through my 1 year stint as a Learning Classroom teacher. I am loving this PD and most of all the opportunity to have great discussions with people regarding DI. I have to admit that I am selfishly soaking up other people's ideas and thoughts on how to meet the needs of all of my students. I hope I am sharing numerous ideas that I have learned from the other LC teachers, leaders, coworkers, visitors, etc. I am, however, looking forward to the promises of a new beginning with the second semester classes that I have. I intend on extending my blogging in a more integrated form with my grade 12 students by having a blog site set up for discussions regarding global issues. I am hoping to have the students check in daily and post comments and ideas in order to help them grow socially in this world issues course. I am hoping that by having these academic conversations in a social media format that they will be better prepared for online university courses they may take in the coming years, as well, I am hoping to enrich our discussions in our classroom. If you have blogged with students and want to share any tips or ideas, Please feel free to post your thoughts here. Good luck with exams, report cards and the start of semester 2.

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Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:02:00 -0800 Learning Classroom Breakout Sessions http://geoteach.posterous.com/learning-classroom-breakout-sessions http://geoteach.posterous.com/learning-classroom-breakout-sessions I have been debating what to present at the Learning Classroom breakout sessions. Currently, I am demonstrating the Cubing strategy, but I have been thinking about other things I'd like to present. What would you like to know more about?

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Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:26:50 -0800 Say Something Nice Template http://geoteach.posterous.com/say-something-nice-template http://geoteach.posterous.com/say-something-nice-template
Say something nice.ppt Download this file

Sent from my iPad

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1622407/image.jpg http://posterous.com/users/cQyJfhRRM4v6q A. Pitcher geoteach A. Pitcher
Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:49:00 -0800 A follow-up to our community building http://geoteach.posterous.com/a-follow-up-to-our-community-building http://geoteach.posterous.com/a-follow-up-to-our-community-building So, I decided to do a few things differently than I had expected for today's Teambuilding class. I ended up creating these cute little "Say Something Nice" cards and started the class by giving each student one of these cards filled out by me saying nice things about each of them. These, of course, we're well received. We then sat in a community circle and discussed the things we disliked about the class. Answers ranged from the chairs in the room to bullying, which sparked a great round table discussion. We then went on to discuss the things we liked in the class with answers ranging from nothing (I hate school), to them liking the new teaching strategies they have seen in this class (their words). Again this sparked a great discussion about what great things we want to continue to do in this class. After all of this information was out in the open and the students had been very open to sharing, we moved on to the "Say something nice" portion of the day. Here, each of us in the circle said something nice about the person to our right, then about the person to our left and then about the person across from us. I wasn't sure what to expect during this portion, but the compliments amazed me! The students were then asked to take one or more of the cards (see the template) and write something nice about one of the adults, of their choice, in the school. There were a number of amazing cards created and the smiles on the teachers' faces was nice to see. At the end of class, I asked the students on their exit cards if they liked sharing and saying nice things to each other and every student responded with a "yes"! It was a good feel-good kind of day and so needed by all of us in these dark days of November. Now, on to December!

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1622407/image.jpg http://posterous.com/users/cQyJfhRRM4v6q A. Pitcher geoteach A. Pitcher
Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:15:00 -0800 Back to community building. Suggestions appreciated! http://geoteach.posterous.com/back-to-community-building-suggestions-apprec http://geoteach.posterous.com/back-to-community-building-suggestions-apprec I am working on creating a new lesson plan for tomorrow, as I need to revisit the whole community building thing in my classroom. I find that doing specific community building activities seems contrived or awkward, but I need to do these things in order to have the success in the classroom that I desire. It seems, that in these dark days of November, that everyone (including me) is exhausted, tired of the rain and cranky. I have the Kagan Teambuilding Cube ready to go for tomorrow and hope that we can heal some of these hard feelings and conflicts that have arisen. Along with these Teambuilding questions, I am thinking of looking at our classroom etiquette and appreciation of others. Any thoughts on how to rebuild community that was tenuous at best, but had glimmers of hope a few weeks ago?

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Sat, 26 Nov 2011 14:50:47 -0800 teachingthatsticks.pdf http://geoteach.posterous.com/teachingthatstickspdf http://geoteach.posterous.com/teachingthatstickspdf
teachingthatsticks.pdf.pdf Download this file

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1622407/image.jpg http://posterous.com/users/cQyJfhRRM4v6q A. Pitcher geoteach A. Pitcher
Sat, 26 Nov 2011 14:27:00 -0800 Sticky Teaching http://geoteach.posterous.com/sticky-teaching http://geoteach.posterous.com/sticky-teaching Nov. 26, 2011 I love the article "Teaching That Sticks" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. The first time I read this article, it "stuck" with me (as cheesy as that sounds). The idea that to make something stick in our minds it has to fall into one or more of the following 6 categories makes perfect sense to me. Ideas must be 1. Simple, 2. Unexpected, 3. Concrete, 4. Credible, 5. Emotional and/or 6. Linked to a Story. Think back to your own life as a student and what you remember about any particular class or teacher or learning experience and you should find that there was some event or connection that made the topic, idea, skill or experience stick in your mind. I especially feel connected to the story that Heath and Heath describe about the history teacher having the students experience the emotional impacts that war has on people when they cut the cow bones in a simulation representing the life of a wartime medic. Those students would have had a full sensory connection that brought on the emotional connection to the topic being studied. In some subject areas this would be a challenge for sure, but storytelling, along with numerous other strategies discussed in this article would certainly help us share our knowledge with the students in our own classes along with helping the students make personal connections between the curriculum and their own lives. This would help them in seeing the relevance in studying these subjects as well. Have you had a student ask you "Why do we need to know this?" or "How is this going to help me in the 'real' world?". Perhaps creating this bond of relevance into our lessons from the beginning would help engage and attract those students who feel this way. Thinking further along these lines, what about the three different types of engagement?? At my most recent PD session for Learning Classroom Teachers, we took the time to look at the different ways to be engaged or why a person might be disengaged. I think I will save that discussion for a future blog post, but think about Intellectual Engagement, Social Engagement and Institutional Engagement. Please feel free to post some of your "sticky" teaching moments or moments where the teaching "stuck" for you as a student.

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Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:58:56 -0800 Abc organizer http://geoteach.posterous.com/abc-organizer http://geoteach.posterous.com/abc-organizer
Abc organizer.ppt Download this file

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Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:46:00 -0800 Abc graphic organizer not just for elementary http://geoteach.posterous.com/abc-graphic-organizer-not-just-for-elementary http://geoteach.posterous.com/abc-graphic-organizer-not-just-for-elementary Nov. 23, 2011 I found this cool graphic organizer on the Internet, altered it and I am excited about trying it out tomorrow. For this organizer the idea is that the students fill out each box using the letter to stretch their thinking, as what they put in the box must start with the same letter. I think it would be great for brainstorming and would really encourage the student to think about the topic in a very deep way in order to complete this sheet. I am using it to guide the student's viewing of a movie, where the students will be looking for ways that humans are impacting the Earth in either a positive or negative way. Not only will this organizer engage the students in paying full attention to the documentary movie, but it will guide our post discussions on Friday. I will try to post the file here. I would love to here how you might use this organizer in your classroom.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1622407/image.jpg http://posterous.com/users/cQyJfhRRM4v6q A. Pitcher geoteach A. Pitcher
Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:46:00 -0800 prezi http://geoteach.posterous.com/prezi http://geoteach.posterous.com/prezi
Very excited about trying out Prezi! I went to www.prezi.com and within an hour I had this amazing Prezi. I love the online tutorials and felt fairly confident trying it out after seeing a bunch of the tutorials. I look forward to trying this out this week in my 1L class. I love the fact that I can embed YouTube videos and images easily and the text and pathways are very simple to set up. I also like that I can hide text right on the screen by making it tiny. I also downloaded the Prezi app for my iPad, it is only a viewer which was disappointing, but useful anyway. When our school has wifi across the school, this app will eliminate my need to go to the standalone computer to show my Prezis.

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Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:29:00 -0800 Some images representing a differentiated classroom http://geoteach.posterous.com/some-images-and-graphics-representing-a-diffe http://geoteach.posterous.com/some-images-and-graphics-representing-a-diffe

My post today is more visual than written. I found these images online and felt that both, in their own way represented the Differentiated classroom.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1622407/image.jpg http://posterous.com/users/cQyJfhRRM4v6q A. Pitcher geoteach A. Pitcher
Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:02:00 -0800 iPad as a document camera. http://geoteach.posterous.com/ipad-as-a-document-camera http://geoteach.posterous.com/ipad-as-a-document-camera Nov. 16, 2011 I am so happy with my iPad and the uses there are for the classroom, but today it became even more of a necessity in my classroom. I placed the iPad on a stack of books and then placed a book on top of it so it wouldn't fall and away we went with the camera activated and plugged into my data projector. Document cameras are a great way to show students a variety of things. Today, I was showing them an exemplar and a rubric for a project that they were starting. The students were able to all see the images at the same time and were able to follow along on the rubric. I have also used document cameras to get close-up views on topographic maps as well as showing fine crystals on certain rock samples. What do you use document cameras for in your classroom? Note taking, showing images, etc.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1622407/image.jpg http://posterous.com/users/cQyJfhRRM4v6q A. Pitcher geoteach A. Pitcher
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:07:00 -0800 The snow is a comin'! Why not have a snowball fight? http://geoteach.posterous.com/the-snows-a-comin-why-not-have-a-snowball-fig http://geoteach.posterous.com/the-snows-a-comin-why-not-have-a-snowball-fig Nov. 15, 2011 That's right, why not have a snowball fight in your classroom. I have them all the time! I have found that the DI strategy "snowballing" is a great way for kids to brainstorm in a safe way. With this strategy, my students write down one idea at a time, related to our topic, crumple up the paper and together we toss the paper balls to others in the room. The students then add another point to the page and repeat. I find this strategy is great for doing group/class brainstorming as it forces everyone to write a point down and yet provides the safety net of participating without the stress of being wrong. After we have tossed the paper around for a bit, I then ask the students to either write what is on their paper on the board or I ask them to read their points to me and I write them out for them. Either way, we end up with a great list and discussion along the way. What you do with the brainstormed list at this point, depends on your lesson. Obviously, rules need to be established prior to the learning, and all paper needs to end up in the recycling bin at the end of the session. (I actually find my room cleaner than before we started). A quote from my grade 9 applied student: " Are we going to snowball today? I love snowballing! ". If tossing paper around a classroom is what it takes to get a student engaged in creating a note with me or for inspiring discussion, then I am all for it! This is a super easy strategy to try! As a tip, I sometimes get involved too in order to spur on deeper thinking of the topic....and it's fun to throw paper balls around. :)

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Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:48:13 -0800 Other samples http://geoteach.posterous.com/other-samples http://geoteach.posterous.com/other-samples

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Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:47:27 -0800 Wheel organizer exemplar http://geoteach.posterous.com/wheel-organizer-exemplar http://geoteach.posterous.com/wheel-organizer-exemplar

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Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:39:00 -0800 Wheel graphic organizer, not quite a foldable! http://geoteach.posterous.com/wheel-graphic-organizer-not-quite-a-foldable http://geoteach.posterous.com/wheel-graphic-organizer-not-quite-a-foldable As many of my close friends have seen, last week I was bopping around the school showing off a cool new graphic organizer that my 1L students did. If you think I was overly excited about this organizer, you should have seen my students! They were keen to do the assigned task and to create a piece of work (or art) to show off what they know about places across Canada. The task was to tell me where you would like to live in Canada and explain why (pull factors for interprovincial migration). My options were to either ask the essential students to write about these places or to give me the details in this funky take on an organizer. I will post pictures of the results here.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1622407/image.jpg http://posterous.com/users/cQyJfhRRM4v6q A. Pitcher geoteach A. Pitcher
Sun, 13 Nov 2011 14:04:00 -0800 Blogging http://geoteach.posterous.com/blogging http://geoteach.posterous.com/blogging Well, I have had this blog for about 24 hours and I keep thinking about all of the DIA strategies I could post about. I plan on posting new things every few days. As I was lesson planning this afternoon, I realized that differentiating in a classroom to meet all of the student's needs takes a lot of work, but it pays off in the end with less classroom management issues, more engaged students and ultimately more successful students. Not only do these three things drive me to do what I can for my students, but it has increased my interest in lesson planning. What once seemed to be never ending, has become enjoyable and challenging. I love trying to think of new ways to teach a certain topic or skill. It is really the students who have driven this passion in me to create lessons that will amaze, entice and encourage students to want to learn more. I think my biggest feeling of success to this point in my career is watching the students in an essential level geography class discussing the topic of the lesson and genuinely excited about what they are learning. This is what DIA could do for you in your class!

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1622407/image.jpg http://posterous.com/users/cQyJfhRRM4v6q A. Pitcher geoteach A. Pitcher