Happy Halloween from (mini) Nadia Comaneci

Post-Its in mind

Happy October and welcome back, Guest Upcyclist, Dr. G.  Who's ready for a review activity?  Take it away, the uber-engaging, Dr. G.....

Steps for the student:

1. Get three, blank small Post-it notes.
2. Choose any three terms you remember from the lesson and write one term on each of the three Post-it notes.  Do not let other classmates see which terms you have chosen.  Make sure you know what the terms you chose mean.
3. Find three people in your surrounding area, introduce yourself by name, and put one Post-it note on each of their foreheads without letting them see the term (so each person will eventually have three notes on their forehead).
4. Next, find three new people, introduce yourself by name, and without using the terms on their forehead, explain each term until they guess each Post-it note’s term.
5. Have fun and review those terms!

I think Dr. G could have a new sponsor - Post-it Brand!  Click here to see Post-it's teacher resource page.  It is pretty fabulous.  Who knew?

Thanks, Dr. G....

Jen

Duck pond activity

I am fortunate.  I am surrounded by talented colleagues at my college.  Case in point, Professor KP.  I've been begging her - literally - to guest post on Upcycled Education as she has been an avid reader of our sweet blog since the inception.  Finally, eight months later, my begging has paid off.

Please welcome, a lovely, bright and creative colleague/educator, Prof. KP....

Hi Jen, loving Upcycled Education, as always. I wanted to share a spin off on one of your ideas.

Don’t we as teachers love to borrow ideas and make them our own? Anyway, having my own little helper at home, we tried your Mod Podge activity. We made the wooden cutouts with the reflection questions on back and I brought them to class one day. When they were spread out on the desk and students were looking them over and picking one, it suddenly reminded me of the duck pond game at carnivals. You remember that game where the kids pick a duck floating in the water and get a prize according to what is marked on the bottom? So I went home and Goggled images of the “Duck Pond Game," printed those out, put the questions on the back, laminated and cut them out. They turned out like the ones pictured above.

I took them to class and they were a big hit. One of my students suggested that wouldn’t it be fun to use the actual plastic ducks and float them in the water (we happen to have a sink in that classroom which would make this easy).  A quick search on Amazon shows them available for $0.59 apiece.

I do think having the plastic ducks would be fun, though I haven’t quite figured how to get waterproof questions on the bottom (probably a Sharpie marker).  While it is not quite my style, that just may float someone else’s boat (like the pun?). Would love to hear how that goes if a fellow teacher out there wants to give it a try. Happy educating ~KP

PS. Just like in the game, one of the ducks is a “winner”.  It is a “free pass” that says you do not need to answer a question today, just sit back and enjoy the responses of your classmates. 

Thanks so much, Prof. KP.  This does float my boat.  Ha!

Jen

Wallwisher for Tech Tuesday

I have three grad school friends who are my faaaavorite.  Ms. Cheston (if I can be so formal) is one of the awesome three.  She is also a tech-savvy educator and for years, has been the laptop coordinator at a school. 

Look how edugaged her students were in this lesson about culture.  Ms. C used a free web-tool called Wallwisher to have students share their findings about cultural customs. Wallwisher reminds me of multimedia sticky notes.

(My apologies about the blurry screenshot.  If you click on the image, it will hyperlink to the actual wall.)

Here's is another example from Ms. Cheston and her class.  This time the topic is word origins.

If you haven't played with Wallwisher, consider doing so - it's free, edugaging and requires no log-in.  You can even make a "private" wall if you wanted just you and your students (or colleagues) to see your thoughts.

Thanks, Ms. Cheston, for sharing (and for being part of my awesome three favs).

Besides sharing research, in what other ways could you use Wallwisher?

Jen

Spooky {& cool} calendars - Free Printable

You know how I feel about food in the classroom.  So, why not make cool stuff for Halloween instead?

These free, printable calendars are both useful and fun.  Added bonus: your kinesthetic learners will love putting them together.

Spooky!

Jen