Category Archives: Cassie Medley

The end is near! Letters to next year’s students

Cassie Medley, graphic organizer, strategies, writing,

Can you tell it is May?  Are your students acting as crazy as mine?  Don’t worry, the end is near. We just need to get them to hang on for a couple more weeks!

Throughout the year I have students keep all of their work in binders within my classroom and at the end of each unit we empty most of the material out.  What remains in the binder for the entire school year are the maps from each unit and a vocab log that my students have kept through the year as a resource when common vocabulary words are addressed in multiple units.  As I was working to wrap-up my content and start emptying student supplies out of my classroom, I wanted to come up with a way to check  student vocab logs without having to go through and grade each individual binder (80 students x 50+ words, no thanks!).

So, I had my students write a letter to the 6th graders that I will have next year as 7th graders, using the words from their vocab log to explain what the 6th graders would be learning in my class. Continue reading The end is near! Letters to next year’s students →

“Was Kansas Actually Bleeding?”

best practice, Cassie Medley, graphic organizer, historical thinking, Kansas, ,

Bleeding Kansas

One thing I have learned as a teacher, kids really do say the darndest things!  Recently my Kansas History class started in on Bleeding Kansas, and I realized that very few of my students had retained any prior knowledge on the subject.  To get the students interested in the topic, and to provide them with some basic knowledge before we really got started on the topic, I planned a pre-reading strategy using key words from the Bleeding Kansas chapter in our Kansas Journey textbook.  Continue reading “Was Kansas Actually Bleeding?” →

Tools 4 Students

Cassie Medley, graphic organizer, ipad, lesson plans, strategies, technology, writing

I promise I’m not going to spend the whole blog using text language!  Tools 4 Students and Tools 4 Students 2 are actually the names of a great app that I use in my classroom to get students working with technology and cutting down on the amount of time that I have to spend in front of a copy machine.

Between the two versions of this app there are 50 different graphic organizers that are both premade and editable for teachers and students to create their own.  Continue reading Tools 4 Students →

Augmented Reality

Cassie Medley, common core, technology, Uncategorized

This week our Instructional Technology Coach is in my classroom testing out a new iPad app on my students called Aurasma.  This app allows you to augment reality, similar to the way a first down line is added when you are watching a football game.  Students create a video and link it with an image, which can then be scanned like a QR code by anyone to play the video. Continue reading Augmented Reality →

The Dreaded Textbook

Cassie Medley, graphic organizer, lesson plans, literacy, reading, strategies

I would almost be willing to bet money on the fact that my student’s least favorite part of my class is when I say “grab your textbooks.”  The groans that echo around the room are enough to keep me from repeating that phrase very often, but I know my kids still need to learn how to use their textbooks, so I brave the sound effects every now and then.  What my students dread most is opening the book and silently reading hundreds of pages (or at least it feels like that many to them), so I try to find fun reading strategies to alleviate the amount of reading while still ensuring my kids are getting the information they need. Continue reading The Dreaded Textbook →