Category Archives: engaging

It’s The Most Troublesome Time Of The Year…Engaging Kids At The End.

Adam Topliff, best practice, Contest, engaging, museum, resources

adam-topliff

This week’s blogger is Adam Topliff: I teach 8th Grade Social Studies & Civics at Wamego Middle School in Wamego, KS.  I love all things Hamilton!

 

Summer Vacation Meme

So, it’s May… track meets, warm weather, field trips, crazy schedules, finals, and we’re supposed to keep kids engaged?  Maybe one of the greatest challenges in education is the end of the year. How do we find creative ways to keep kids interested in learning.

One popular survival mechanism is plugging in a movie that is connected to your curriculum.  Do you really think the kids will find it much fun to watch Gettysburg and complete a worksheet connected to the movie?  Sometimes we are required to give a semester final, but to ask the kids to take a long drawn out test that you may not be interested in grading when the school year is done lacks a lot of appeal. Frankly, the last month of a school year can be a real struggle and make you feel like our friend pictured above, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You just need to inject a little creativity into your year-end routine.

Next May, try one of these game changers: Continue reading It’s The Most Troublesome Time Of The Year…Engaging Kids At The End. →

And Rotate! Blended Learning in the Social Studies Classroom

best practice, Cassie Medley, engaging, lesson plans, strategies, technology
gonzalez-inclassflip-stations
Image from Jennifer Gonzalez of Cult of Pedagogy

When I mention stations in the classroom, does your mind automatically jump to the organized chaos of a Kindergarten classroom? Could I convince you to jump to a social studies classroom instead?  Station Rotation is another Blended Learning model that promotes technology integration and differentiation, while enhancing learning in the classroom.

 

Stations are a great way to provide students with content through a variety of learning activities. Students can be working individually, with partners or small groups, with the teacher, and with or without technology all in the same class at the same time. Sound like organized chaos that could work in your classroom? Continue reading And Rotate! Blended Learning in the Social Studies Classroom →

Blackout Poetry: Worth Waiting For

engaging, graphic organizer, Jill Weber, literacy, poetry, strategies, , ,

Jill Weber teaches US History at Cheney Middle School and high schoolers in the Teaching Career Pathway. Today she shares how she incorporates the Blackout Poetry literacy and writing activity into her instruction.

Sometimes great ideas come to us, and we’re so excited to try them, BUT the pace of the year come crashing in on us and we have to put those ideas on hold. I’ve had this idea on hold the the last three years, and we are FINALLY getting to it. Blackout Poetry.

Blackout Poetry is using text that has been printed (books, newspapers, magazines, etc…) and manipulating the text to convey a new poetic meaning. By selecting words from the text and then blacking out the remaining words.

Take a minute to Google it and check out the images. So cool!

I first ran across using this in the social studies classroom when Continue reading Blackout Poetry: Worth Waiting For →

Teaching Economics through the Lens of Sports

Angela Howdeshell, economics, engaging, lesson plans, sports,

 

Angela head

Angela Howdeshell is the Vice President for Programs and Administration for the Kansas Council for Economic Education, a non-profit organization housed at Wichita State University with a mission of helping Kansas K-12 schools integrate financial literacy and economic education.

 

bobsled-team-run-olympics-38631.jpegAs a parent, I worked hard to find many different and creative ways to encourage my child to eat nutritious foods.  I would sneak it in whenever possible and sometimes in very creative ways.  There were times he noticed and then times he did not.  I hoped for more times where he did NOT notice.  Then I would struggle with the decision of whether or not I would tell him what he had just eaten.  Mostly, I chose to wait to tell him until much later down the road after he had eaten it several times.

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I know that I learned this game from my mother and father.  They were always trying to convince me that I could not survive on ravioli, burritos and pizza for every meal.  I refused to accept that terrible story that sounded like a big lie to me.  These foods seemed to have everything I thought I needed. Mom definitely tried in every way possible to force me to eat those red, green and orange things coming out of our massive garden, which she dedicated many hours tending to.  Outside of the strawberry patch, there were very few things I would consider trying.  Okay, maybe it had a little to do with a stubborn streak too.  My parents always hoped that I would have my own child that was as picky as I was.  They definitely got their wish!  My son could possibly be worse than I was.

One successful way that I remember my mother succeeding to change my eating plan was with her chocolate zucchini cake.  NEVER would I have touched a zucchini baked, fried, or any other way where it showed any skin, texture or taste of that very beneficial vegetable.  It would just be unacceptable in my books.  She succeeded this rare time and before I even knew it, I was chowing down that amazing cream cheese frosting and grabbing my second piece when she told me what was in the cake.  I had already admitted that I loved it so I had to embrace the fact that I lost the “hide the food” game that day.     Continue reading Teaching Economics through the Lens of Sports →

Dressing it up. Cause we’re always advertising

best practice, engaging, Jill Weber, strategies, ,

I have been known to walk down the hallways of my school in scrubs, surgical hat, and gloves.

I have also paraded myself around in full-chef-gear – thanks to our culinary arts department.

I have a replica Indiana Jones hat. I wear it. Strutting through the hallway.

But WHY?

Continue reading Dressing it up. Cause we’re always advertising →