Get Your Students Outside of the Classroom - No Excuses!!

Why its so important to get your students out of the classroom

Do you want to spend your whole day sitting, reading, writing, etc.  A lot of what we ask of our students, we wouldn't want to do ourselves.  I think this is particularly true for middle school students.  They are wiggly, social, active creatures.  They need to be moving around.  It's nice weather. They want to go outside. So do we. We are teaching about the outdoor world. Its OK once in a while to take them outside and conduct a class or activity outside.

Lessons outside the classroom

One of my favorite lessons when we learn about weathering is to take the students outside for about 10 minutes, with dry erase boards, to look for examples of weathering, draw it, and decide if its chemical or physical weathering.  Then, of course, they have to share they findings.

Students find it very exciting. It takes some management, but can easily be done in a short class period and on school grounds, even in an urban setting.  They love it! Its a big change.

I have also taken Biology classes outside to look for quick examples of living and non-living things, or to look for examples of different types of ecological relationships.

Where can I get more ideas to take my students outside? 

Here is a link to other ideas: 

Five Minute Field Trips: Teaching about Nature in Your School Yard (full-text)

AND 10 Minute Field Trips: A Teacher's Guide to Using the Schoolgrounds for Environmental Studies. (full-text) which is available in full text or for purchase as a bound book (affiliate link)

Enjoy, and let me know what you do in your classes to get them out of class!  

Giveaways and Free Resources

Several other bloggers have hit landmarks recently, or are hosting events such as giveaways, linky parties with free resources, and more over the break.  I want to share a few with you:

I am very excited to be part of the giveaway at Second Grade Nest.  This giveaway has 5 different prize packages, with over 65 products total being given away.



My circulatory system lab (one of my newer products) is part of package 5.  This is a favorite of my students, and could easily be adapted to lower grades as well.

Secondly, in honor of his blogs 1-year anniversary, Hopkins Hoppin' Happenings is doing a series of exclusive freebies (1 per day)....a different one each day. They are a variety of products of different grades and subjects.  Mine is scheduled for 12/31!  New Year's Eve!  Check it out (and check out the other exclusive freebies!

Also, another education blogger does a weekly themed linky.  This week includes paid and free resources.  There are frequently linkys for free resources as well.  This is going on at Educator's Life

And don't forget to keep an eye on the Success in Secondary Linky party. Although not going on right  now, it is recurring and a great place for secondary resources.

An Innovative and Memorable Look At the Skeletal and Muscular Systems

Get Your Students Excited About the Skeletal and Muscular Systems

Students were yelling and screaming they were so excited about what was going on in class. They left the room talking about the lab we did that day, and other classes later in the day came in very excited to see the skeletal and muscular systems in action.  I knew this was a lab I needed to share with you.  Students were totally engaged and focused on the lesson.  They had different roles that fit their different needs, but everyone was busy and involved.

Do you want your students thinking differently about something they probably encounter every day?

Human body systems are taught at so many different grade levels. Students are often interested and excited as it relates to their own body, but they quickly can lose interest if the information is dry and repetitive.  Here is one of my favorite labs.

Be ready for some yelling and middle school excitement :).  A great introduction to dissection, in a pretty tame way.

Here is a video clip from YouTube: (not mine)

Some pictures from my class this week:

How did we learn about skeletal and muscular systems?

We did a little bit of notes and background about the skeletal and muscular systems, using a graphic organizer (click here to get the free graphic organizer) to see how they relate to and to get the main idea, but the 'meat' of this lesson (pun intended!) is a chicken wing dissection! Chicken wings are cheap, easy to obtain and pretty safe as long as you take basic precautions such as wearing gloves and googles, washing hands, and washing equipment. I make it easier by using paper plates (that get thrown out) for dissecting trays, and using scissors instead of scalpels. Students get a change to see all the parts that they are learning about: tendons, ligaments, cartilage, bone, joints, muscle, as well as skin and fat. They also get an understanding of how those parts work together. By carefully following the lab instructions they are able to actually move the chicken wing and see the parts working together to make it move. They love it!! And I have to admit, its pretty cool to see!

And if you want to see more, or use this resource yourself, check it out. They will gain a much better understanding of the skeletal and muscular systems, and have an experience they remember!!

Skeletal and Muscular System Mini-Unit 

Top 4 Excellent Middle School Christmas Gifts From Students

Middle School kids are such an interesting mix of child and growing up.....and the ways that they try to express themselves are very touching and entertaining.  Where I work there is a very high poverty rate and I don't usually get (or expect) much in the way of Christmas gifts or end of the year gifts from students like suburban teachers get.  Here is my list this year.  I'll let you guess what my favorite is:

• a traditional Christmas card from a student who has been homeschooled until this year.
• A box of candy that had two 'layers' or 2 wrapped sections.  One was given to me, and one to another teacher.
• A thank you note that said "thank you for calling my mom. I was mad at you but that was just what I needed to get back on track and turn things around.  I'm doing so much better now"  I actually teared up a little!  
• A candy cane

Soaring Through Secondary Blog Hop

Soaring Through Secondary Middle and High School Blog Hop

I am excited to be participating in my first blog hop.  Thank you to the other bloggers who made the logo (liveteachcreate.com), and organized the blog hop (teachinghighschoolmath.blogspot.com).  Next in the hop, after me, is http://www.alessonplanforteachers.blogspot.com/.  To visit the next blog in this blog hop, click on the link at the bottom . 

I am trying a new strategy I am using this year in my classroom with a lot of success.  Many of my students (and perhaps yours too), struggle with 'academic' words that show up often in textbooks and test questions.  These may not be content words, specific to science, math, English, or Social Studies.  They are, however, academic language.  They are  not words that students use in everyday conversation, or probably hear at home, particularly if they are not from well-educated homes.  

These are called "Tier 2" vocabulary words.  They can also have different meanings in different contexts.  These are discussed well here http://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/182_VocabularyTiers.pdf and I also learned more about them in my ELL Professional Development, discussed here   

I am trying to spend more time explicitly teaching these words.  I am setting expectations for students to use these words in their writing and verbal responses.  One strategy I'm using is to make these words bellwork.  I am then using more traditional bellwork questions as a 'ticket out.'  Each day's bellwork includes a new word, context clues, pictures, or choices to figure out what it means, and use it in a sentence.  Then at the end of a week we have a matching quiz on the words.  Ideally my ticket out has the bellwork question in it!  Most of the time at the end of the week kids say something like "Oh!  These are the words we have been doing!!"  They are doing really well on the short mini-quizzes on these words, and their test scores and confidence reading test questions has gone way up.  I wrote about that when I started this strategy here 

As part of this blog hop, I am offering the following prize: 

                             

Inferring Vocabulary Set 1 or Inferring Vocabulary Set 2 

Leave a comment stating 

• your email address 

• how you would use this product in your classroom, or what strategies you use to teach your students these type of words.  

I will randomly choose a comment to receive either set of your choice free. 

Check out the next blog in our blog hop!!

                      

                                            http://www.alessonplanforteachers.blogspot.com/