McLeodMoments

Aplaceforgiftedandtalentedthoughts.

[mcleodmoments]

Late Start

As I sit at my desk on this late start morning, I wonder where did this idea of late start come from and is it really useful? Many people don’t know what it does to elementary students particularly those students who struggle each day. Young children thrive on schedule and routines and a late start just throws that off for kids, which trickles down to their peers, their teachers and their families. 

However, this morning as I am sipping my coffee, eating breakfast and reading twitter, I already have learned new things from my PLN and have a dozen new ideas to start using in the classroom. My daughter is at home playing while my husband is going in late to work because of late start but is also having a casual start to his day doing work related items.

The thing about late starts is this, it slows us down. My morning wasn’t rushed, colleagues in this building are having important conversations about students and teaching that otherwise would not happen, students are working out imaginative thoughts before they are rushed, pushed and slammed with information and demands. While, I am typically not a fan of the late start, I wonder, what if we all put a late start to our day?

What if we eased into our morning? What if we allowed time for waking, discussing, thinking, quiet reflection, play and conversation before we started the bustle of our day? What would it do to our learning? What would it do to our emotional well being? How would it change our presence in our daily lives with ourselves and other?

What if every day was a late start? 

A shift in our mindset...

An entire societal movement?

OK, I am off to jam as many things as possible into my 2 hours before students arrive.

[mcleodmoments]

The North Star

In GT this week we started the week off by discussing Digital Citizenship. I knew that the teachers would be having the students sign their iPad and E-Mail contracts this week. I need my students to understand that the GT classroom has the same agreement. Many teachers do not want to monitor the use of email with their students, but as a pull-out teacher, I find using email the best way for me to collaborate with my students and for student to collaborate with their families and projects. Since last week the students completed a survey about their intelligences and I wanted to share the results with parents, I used this idea as the catalyst to teach how and why we should email our parents. 

Last week, I read the book The North Star by Peter Reynolds (who also wrote The Dot) to all the GT classes. This book is a metaphor for life’s journey. It is about a boy that is on a journey and he discovers parts of the journey is difficult, parts are easy, he gets lost, he helps others and others help him. The last page says ‘The Beginning’ instead of The End because as the story ends, the boy learns that each person’s journey is unique and their very own journey. The metaphor was a little over the student’s heads because in true GT kid fashion, they were very literal. 

After reading and discussing the story, we downloaded the The Smart Stars Survey. The app has a survey on it that asks questions based on Howard Garner’s work on Multiple Intelligences. This is a kid friendly survey using kid language on both the questions, answers and instead of intelligences, they use the word ‘smarts’. There are 8 kinds of smarts in this survey: 

Self Smart- Self smart people are very aware of their feelings, thoughts and how to plan based on their feelings.

People Smart- People smart people have great communication skills and are able to entertain other people in the group’s perspectives. They understand other people’s moods and motives and are often considered leaders.

Body Smart- People who are body smart are able to physically manipulate objects with ease. Body smart people have good hand-eye coordination, timing and have mind-body unison.

Word Smart- Those who are word smart are able to use words easily both in communication, speaking, reading and writing. Word smart people see a complex connection in languages.

Picture Smart- If you are picture smart, you have a great sense of spacial relations, can see things in a 3-D sense, you are able to manipulate images, have a vivid imagination and you are artistic.

Number Smart- Number smart people, can understand complex mathematical algorithms, patterns and equations. Number smart people are very logical and can use inductive and deductive thinking with ease.

Music Smart- Music smart people are very aware of sound and can often hear patterns, melodies, rhythms or sounds that others can not. Music smart people are often found singing or drumming. If creating, reproducing and/or reflecting on music and can identify emotions connected to music, you might be music smart.

Nature Smart- People who are nature smart have a strong sense of ethically rights for all living things. Nature smart people enjoy being outdoors, have a sensitivity for the natural world, find patterns in nature and have a sense of how nature words together.

Spirit Smart- Spirit Smart people are not afraid of tackling the Big questions in life, why do we exist? Spirit smart people are sensitive and can help others with big concepts like grief, failure, the whys in life. Spirit smart people often have a sixth sense, follow their instincts with ease, are self-aware and find connections among people. 

Each student took the survey and the app produces a poster that shows their personal constellation map of each of the smarts. Some of their stars shine brighter than others or are bigger and some stars in their constellation map are small. We saved our constellation map in our camera roll. As a class we also thought about our gifts, talents and things we enjoying doing in and outside of school. We compared those things to are stars and which ones were big versus which ones were small. The classes also took a gallery walk around the room to look at their classmates stars to see where our classmates shined in what areas. 

We discussed how in the book, the boy follows his instinct off the path to help someone. When the boy looked up in the sky, he noticed that one of his stars was brighter and bigger than before. The students understood that that star could be his spirit smart or people smart growing for helping someone and following his instinct. Some stars will stay small while others grow over time. 

Last, we emailed our moms and/or dads or even grandparents to share our smarts with our family. Hopefully, your child was able to explain what this email meant and how it reflects who they are at this point in their lives. We found a few surprises in the class but most students were not surprised by which was their biggest star shining. If this was a hard concept to explain (because it is), maybe this post will help you and maybe it will even encourage you to find your smarts!

Here is what my Smart Poster looks like:

[mcleodmoments]

First Week of Classes

This year my goal with all my GT students is to build curiosity. I got this idea from reading Ian Byrdseed’s blog and subscribing to his weekly Puzzlement’s newsletter. I have learned so many things from looking into these curious ideas. The word, curiosity, keeps coming into my life recently so I decided it was a sign to help my students hone their curiosities. I am realizing that being curious is much more than just wondering about random things. Last week, I had the opportunity to hear Brene Brown speak and I keep remember her talking about people do not sit still enough to become curious about why they are feeling a certain way. Maybe if we were curious about where those feelings we have at different points during the day are coming from and what they mean, we would understand ourselves and others better. 

I started each GT class this week with this video of Kina Grannis’ song In Your Arms. After watching the video, I had the students record things they were curious about in this video. My top questions were:

1. What is being used in the background and how are they creating these detailed backgrounds?

2. What other videos has this person made?

3. How long did this take?

Since this video is stop motion, I know it can take hours to shoot a 30 second video, how long does it take to make 3 minutes and 25 seconds? I knew a little bit about this video but I tried to not look into much so I could remain curious myself. One of the unsettling things about curiosity is not having the answers. The hard part for me, was not telling the kids answers to their questions. As parents and adults, we often jump to telling the solution way too fast. It is good for our children to sit with questions, discover on their own and for some things to go unanswered. 

The next day in class, we reviewed and shared our questions about the video.  I showed them a video about the making of the In Your Arms video, which answered a lot of our questions. I also told them about listening to a podcast where Greg Jardin, the director and creator, is interviewed about this video. Here I learned some things about the video that is not in the making of video. I gave the students some of this information, but not all of the things I learned. I want them to know that this information exists and if they are really curious, they could go find out more. 

Each week, I will show the students something curious and see where it takes us. I will share them here so when you hear about it at home, you can share in our curious journey. This video has caused lots of discussion, fascination and thought in the McLeod household. 

We all still have some unanswered questions, and that is a good thing!

[mcleodmoments]

Water Bottle Inventors

My colleague at another school had the most precious creative water bottle figures displayed for her Open House a few months ago, so I decided to steal that clever idea and use it in my classroom.

Last week, my third graders wrote Associative Letter Poems or If I Could Shake Hands With Poems about an inventor they researched. Next they took a water bottle and used felt and foam to create little puppet type models of what their inventor looks like to display with their writing. 

This struck a cord with me because for the writing piece, the students had to step outside a traditional research report and really think about the contributions the inventor has made. I saw this process really stretch their fluency, their flexible thinking and dig a little deeper for what the inventor stood for in their contributions. I made the students continue to tweak their writing if they used the same verb or word too many times- they were really trying to get off easy in some cases. Each time I pushed for me, we were all rewarded by deeper more clever thinking.

Here is an example of the Associative Letter Poem:

The Letter A is for Leonardo DaVinci

He was an Architect, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, animist, painter, sculptor, botanist, and musician all his life.

He invented the Anemometer, which is a machine that measures the speed of wind. 

He thought about All of the world because he was a scientist.

He liked All of his jobs, he had 12.

He was A great inventor and had ideas for many things we use today.

To fly, he tried to use Air and wind to push them forward.

Leonardo made great Art like the Mona Lisa.

That is why A is for DaVinci

An example of the Shake Hands with Poem:

If I could shake hands with Marie Curie,

My day would begin by saying, ‘Come in!’

And I’d say, ‘Thank you for 

Discovering what lead to the radioactive cure of cancer

Being the first person to get two Nobel Prizes in 1903 and 1911

Graduating high school at 15 and having the highest grades in her class

Teaching at the Sorbonne as the first woman

Getting a doctorate as the first woman in France

Helping soldiers live by taking x-rays of them to see things like bullets, broken bones and other problems

Im sure it’s all true and I’d like to be you, but you see, I’m me!

[mcleodmoments]

America Through the Decades

Each year, the big research project my 5th graders do in the middle of the year is called America Through the decades. Each student begins with pre-searching time periods in America’s history that they find interesting and would like to learn more about. The students submit to me their top three choices and I very diligently do my best to match each student with a decade of their choice to research. The students must find out the following information about their decade:

1. Two Top News Stories from the Decade

2. Two Influential People of the Decade 

3. Two Leaders of the Decades

4. Entertainment, Fashion, Music, Sports and other trends of the decade

5. 1 International story from the decade

6. 1 Story about the economy from the decade

This year, the students created a learning board on Discovery Education’s Board Builder. This application allows the students to create text boxes that have some flair to them, add media of both pictures and videos and really learn what looks atheistically pleasing in a presentation. At first, the students and I were very disappointed in the limits of the Discovery Education content, but as the project progressed, I decided I liked the limitations. The students are limited to searching for content only within the Discovery Ed site, which wasn’t really what they were hoping to put on their boards. However, I found that it made the student reach deeper for content, focus less on the just the fun stuff about the decade and really use the board to showcase the news of the decade. Sometimes creativity is being creative within the box you are given. One major disappointment to the Discovery Education Board Builder was I was assured this worked well with the iPad, but that simply wasn’t the case. I ended up having to reserve our computer cart for the student to do their projects on a laptop versus the device the entire school carries with them everywhere. 

For the culminating event, we have a Dinner Through the Decades lunch. The students dress as someone from their decade, bring a popular food item to share from their decade and give a 2 minute memorized speech from their decade to the class. Parents are invited and it is a lovely showcase of their hard work. 

[mcleodmoments]

Robo-Shark

My third graders are transitioning from studying sharks to becoming inventors. Their first assignment of the new year, was to create a futuristic shark that shows adaptations that will be needed if sharks are going to continue to be a part of this planet. The students have learned about the dangers sharks face from man, long line fishing, shark finning and pollution. Here are the parameters for their assignment:

What kind of adaptations might a shark develop in the future?

Use your imagination to artistically CREATE your own futuristic shark model made only out of recyclable materials.

Write a brief description of your sharks adaptation(s), habitat, prey, etc.

Explain how these adaptations help your shark survive in the future.

Your Robo Shark may only be made out of recyclable materials.

[mcleodmoments]

Day One- Design a jazzy pattern on these socks. You can print the page, create your own or get the page from Mrs. McLeod in class. Be sure to upload or turn in your sock doodle.

[mcleodmoments]

Doodle A Day

My students are really interested in the doodling movement. I have been reading Sunni Brown's book The Doodle Revolution and I have shared how doodling can be connected to learning ( see this short TED Talk by Sunni Brown on her webpage). I have noticed that my students are just doodling, which is a good start, but it isn't connected to learning or how they can help process information or even how to better commit new information to their working memory. This is something I am still learning about, but in the mean time, I thought my students and I might take the month of February to do a Doodle-A-Day to try and focus our creativity a little bit. To keep it fun, I picked up this book at Half Priced Books this weekend to help give us our prompts. 

I also am going to link this blog post to help everyone get their supplies ready and to have some tips to think about as we start this adventure. 

This will not be a mandatory adventure, this is a just for fun challenge!

[mcleodmoments]

Shark Art

My third graders were challenged with creating their own shark art to show how they feel about sharks after all that we have learned during the fall semester. I started by reading the story The Shark God and we discussed how many cultures value and fear the shark so the shark turns up in their myths, art work, totem poles and indigenous people's blankets and wall art. We looked examples and discussed how Rob Stewart's film Sharkwater was also a piece of art. Being that this was the first assignment of the  return to school after two weeks off and a short amount of time to work on the project, many students choose the same easy project. Even though, they went with their first thought, they did a great job of thinking about the plots that went with their movie posters.

The most creative and clever of the group did a puppet show using socks that he had made to look like a shark. The shark puppet told shark jokes and gave out little facts that you may not know about the shark. The puppet show reflected all that the student had learned in the unit, but also some great intellectual humor!

One student even wore a shirt to set the theme for the presentation day!

Two students did projects on the Strip Designer App on their iPad. They turned out great too.

[mcleodmoments]

Introducing the Learning Lounge to my Students

Last year, my school did away with the traditional computer lab. The question became, what do we do with that giant space. There are moments where we know it needs to be a classroom, but a committee decided that we would create an unique learning space with the old computer lab. We wanted to incorporate items we learned about reading the book The Third Teacher and hearing Dieter Breithecker, a German expert on ergonomic design in school furniture and the physical development of school children, about the way children's bodies need to move in order to think. 

We consulted with furniture people other schools had used when making similar decision. They dropped off several samples of different kinds of seating, tables, etc. and we let the kids explore and tell us what they liked best. We decided to put a variety of seats and tables in the room so that there is always choice. We have some hokki stools (I think the most popular), chairs with wheels that swivel and tables that adjust in height, roll, fold and can be written on with dry erase markers (my favorite). We house our Mac lab in this room ( a much coveted item). The space is also used for an entire grade level to fit in for speakers, lessons and other events where we need a contained large space. 

This has taken some time to come together and I think we will always wish for more for the space, but it is such a luxury to have in our building. 

I signed up for the Learning Lounge one day for all of my classes. Many of the students had been in there before for various reason, but the younger grades haven't had the opportunity. It was such fun watching what the students gravitate toward, which items require negotiating and to watch the kids settle in and work. Each class made me more excited. 

I had my students in the Learning Lounge to set up their own blog on EduBlogs. My hope is that this will become a online portfolio for their work over the years. My EdTech, helped me get all the students blogs set up and their iPads ready for posts. I am excited to see what we end up posting throughout the year. 

My favorite class of the day was my first graders. I only have 3 of them and they had never been to the Learning Lounge. The EdTech did an excellent job explaining why we needed a space like the Learning Lounge and letting them explore. Their faces lit up seeing all the possibilities. I wish I had snapped a photo when they found out they could write on the tables. 

[mcleodmoments]

Exploring creativity with kindergarten students. Their task? To draw pictures of items that have wheels that no one else will think of. These kind of days, make me love my job.

[mcleodmoments]

Using Infographics in the Classroom

My 3rd graders are studying sharks. This year, I added a new lesson. I wanted students to analyze infographics about sharks. I spent an afternoon finding appropriate shark infographic for my third grade students. I wanted to pay particular attention to focus of busting myths about sharks and giving facts that support that myth busting. I divided the students into groups of two to analyze an infographic, the students had to complete a 3-2-1 form about their infographic and have it ready to present to the class. I used this infographic as an example to the class.

Infographic #1

Infographic #2

Infographic #3

Infographic #4

Here are the students diligently studying their infographics. They were super interested in learning and sharing.

Each group enjoyed standing up in front of the class and teaching the other students what they learned about sharks. A few partner groups had a difficult time working together and others rose to the challenge. Most of the students in this class would prefer to work alone.

[mcleodmoments]

Dot Day @CCE 2014

Thankfully, CCE once again celebrated Dot Day. Mrs. Foley, our wonderful Librarian, read the book The Dot and had a variety of activities for the entire school to do to express their creativity school wide. Here are some photos of those dots making their mark:

It has been so fun to walk the hall and see all the Dots!

In my classroom, I once again, spread out the king size sheet and paints and let my students get to work on exhibiting their creativity. This year, I spoke to the students about my exploring doodling this summer. I discussed how I really wanted to hone my doodling skills so I bought a book and some pens and spent my vacation practicing. I noticed how my mind would wonder to other ideas and explorations. I told the students how relaxing this practice was for my brain and how once my brain was relaxed and my creativity was free, I had all sorts of inspiration. I asked the students this time to really reflect on what mark represents who they are so they should plan what their dot should look like. 

This time around, I noticed that students were much more focused on their dot. Usually, they are so excited by the prospect of using paint and overwhelmed by the glitter paint and fun stuff on the table, they lost control of what the meaning of their dot should be. Some still gave way to that mindset, but most of them really thought about what their dot would say about them. 

It was once again, a fun inspiring day!

[mcleodmoments]

My New Found Hobby

Over the summer I found a new hobby. Doodling. Thanks to this book:

Mackenzie and I doodled on our vacation. This made us decide that we needed different kinds of pens, so we ordered some of those. We also learned that we needed to practice. I practice all the time. There are all sorts of books out there to support all different kinds of levels and interests. 

This started for me after hearing Austin Kleon at SXSW interactive last year and seeing the doodlers at the conference.  I have bought both of Kleon's books Steal Like An Artist and Show Your Work. I have read Show Your Work, so now I will make sure I will read Steal Like An Artist. Kleon is a true doodler and I am adding this book to the list:

I have also decided to embark on one of those daily journaling challenges for doodling. I guess I will post my doodle here. 

I talked to my students about my doodling adventure during Dot Day but I wasn't serious about it at that point. Since then, I realized that when I doodle, it relaxes me and it is a form of expression for me. I enjoy trying to get better and it helps me release a bit of perfectionism. Doodling also helps me keep my hands busy while I am listening to things I need to listen to. 

I hope you enjoy my journey.

[mcleodmoments]

The 5th graders have been involved in a study of the Future. We look at many aspects of the future including their transition into middle school. Each year, I try to add something new and this year, I decided to add The 6 Word Memoir. We discussed Hemingway's challenge and his story: 'For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn. We watched a 7th grade classes memoir's, which they found depressing and not very hopeful for their upcoming trip to middle school. I asked them to create a 6 word story based on the end of their elementary career and this is what I got. They even picked the song!

[mcleodmoments]

Super Proud of This DI State Team

[mcleodmoments]

Creating A Creative Culture

During Spring Break, I had the opportunity to attend SXSW Interactive. I did not attend for a celebrating citing or to hear the hottest new band or even for the swag. I went to soak up anything I could learn about the creative process from true creative people. I saw almost every keynote speaker, top google guys (and I even got up there and asked them a question), went to the gaming expo, listened to a panel on parenting in the tech age and lots of sessions on creativity. One stood out. When I heard, Chase Jarvis speak, I was a little afraid I was going to run away with him and start a school that doesn't kill creativity. Chase's session was called Creativity is the New Literacy. Here are his 10 things we can do to help build creativity in our culture: 10. Pursue a creative craft- taking a picture everyday or do something creative everyday; it doesn't have to be great, just start 9. You need some space- take a walk get a little solace, meditate 8. Play- get 30 minutes of play daily, weekly- you will be happier 7. Find a tribe- your other people who are like you, share your interests 6. Show your work- tighten your community, get feedback, your work gets better 5. Imperfection- iteration-go hand in hand  4. Put more of you into your work- tell real stories 3. Doubts=Doing it right- you must be scared, vulnerable, uncomfortable, take risks 2. Make Something Everyday- creative activities, create more creativity  1. You have Nothing To Lose- take risks I have really been thinking about these ten items and that dreaded word, time. I talk to many of you, I know we are not taking time for play, creating, allowing imperfection, finding space,breathing. If we aren't doing this, our own personal children aren't doing this, and our students aren't either. Let's not be victims of our broken system. Let's commit to something on this list and be creative! It could be contagious.