6 Election Day Activities and Resources for your Classroom

Election time is the perfect time to put critical thinking skills to work.  What a great way to demonstrate how to organize your thinking around a complex issue.  There are lots of resources out there to help you get students thinking and writing around Election Day.

Why not start with helping kids identify the key issues?  This first step in the SCAN critical thinking strategy is a great way to start chunking the huge amount of information surrounding our elections.  Check out this election day lesson plan “What are the Important Issues?” from Educationworld.com.  The lesson help students identify the issues and vote on which ones they think are most important. 

Follow up that lesson with the free “Election Issues” lesson at www.tregoed.org.  This lesson has students representing special interest groups (tax reform, healthcare, environment, and jobs) in a discussion about what the most important issues are in the upcoming elections.  Just register and set up the free lesson from your dashboard.

Why Vote?  This page from http://www.pbs.org/elections/kids/educators.html has all sorts of lessons to teach about why voting is important, political cartoons, political parties, etc.   

Looking for some writing ideas?  How about this unit built around elections using readwritethink.org?

How about a lesson on how technology has affected our elections for the campaign to the voting booth? This lesson explores the effect of technology on political campaigns.  “Covering the Campaign Trail:  Technological Progress or Temporary Chaos?"

Technology will also affect our experience at the voting booth.  In the not-to-distant future, our students may soon be voting from their phones. Students can read this article from Science Daily and write a response including benefits and drawbacks of mobile voting.  Have them practice using short constructed responses to SCAN questions (What are the issues?  Clarify the issues.  Assess what is most important.  Name next steps-what should be done?).

Our students are inundated with political debates,issues, and advertisements; get them in on the action!

Online Discussions: Trick or Treat?

I love Halloween!  There is something about wearing a costume that is fun and liberating!  Who does not love to pretend to be someone or something else for a night?  I guess that is the appeal for many when they choose to represent themselves as someone else online. 

We often hear of the negative aspects of children using online discussion formats.  Hiding behind screen names is often the impetus behind cyber-bullying, etc.  However, using screen names and avatars in online discussions may also be the impetus for our students to get engaged in class discussions.  Guiding conversations, monitoring input and documenting transcripts of discussions can provide the supervision you need to eliminate the risks of using this format with your students.

Classroom discussions are usually dominated by a few “alpha” students who are eager to participate.  We can all envision those students, hands stretched high, waving fingers, literally or figuratively saying “ooo, ooo, pick me, pick me.”  How do you get that student who is desperately trying to NOT make eye contact with you or anyone else in the classroom involved in the conversation?  Social media may be the answer. 

I have seen web 2.0 tools such as collaborizeclassroom.com, wallwisher.com and the SCAN tool at TregoED  transform students from reluctant participants to vigorous commentators.  Online tools offer students a platform that they are familiar and comfortable with and give students a voice that is heard with equal merit to the rest.

Properly supervised, social media can help us get all kids in on the conversation and allow them to practice the skills they need to carry over to those times when their conversations are not monitored.  My experience has been that the benefits of online classroom discussion outweigh the risks.  What has your experience been?

What's stopping you? Top 5 obstacles in our classrooms.

I was lucky, I got to go to a lot of conferences, had a flexible curriculum, had my own computer lab with my own network that I was the administrator of and had less pressure than the top four content areas.  I tried and integrated lots of technology and online tools in my classroom and shared with anyone that would listen.  However, not everyone was so lucky, even in the same building.  I set out to find out what the obstacles were to integrating some great technology tools.  Here are the top 5 in my neighborhood:

1.       Content.  You might have a great tool to share with lots of great opportunities but if teachers do not see how the tool fits in with the content that they teaching at the moment, they hesitate to spend time on it or forget about it when it does fit in. They do not want to use technology just for technologies’ sake.  It should not be a stretch.

2.       Signal.  Wifi is not always dependable in schools.  Certain classrooms get no signal, within classrooms there are dead spots.  We have had to have students all sit on one side of the room or go to the board to connect and then go back to their seat.  There are very few spots in our 10 year old state of the art middle school where you can even get a cell phone signal. 

3.       Getting started.  By the time the students get the computers off the cart, start them up (slow in some places) and log in (where are their passwords?), you may have lost valuable instruction time and their interest.  AND you need to have time to debrief and have students log out and put them back on the cart!  Sometimes sites require logging in and registration just to add to the fun.

4.       Access.  We have multiple carts of wireless (see number one) computers, a media center lab, 2 computer labs (open at various class periods) and a small CAD lab.  You have to sign up early and often to get the computers.  There are whole blocks of time when whole labs are out of circulation because they are reserved for various and sundry class “diagnostic tests” – ex. Learnia, etc.  Classes may be too big to have one-on-one even in the labs. 

5.       Risky.  You get the computers, get the kids logged in, have them sitting on the side of the room with the signal and when the kids get to the website that you tried at home it does not work the same as in school.  Or you are worried that the students are going to go off on their own and get into some kind of trouble. Or you just are not as confident using the new tool as using your old tools.  It can be scary to be in front of a class risking total failure.

What's stopping you? What obstacles do teachers have in your place?  What do you do to work around these?

Celebrate the Freedom to Read: Use Banned Books Week to Get Them Thinking!

Are your students’ favorite books on the list?  Celebrate the freedom to read by celebrating Banned Books Week!  Have students take a look at the top 10 challenged or banned book list for 2010 list to see if they have read any of the books.  Students will see some of their favorite series – Twilight, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter- on the list of banned and challenged books.  How do they feel about banning these books from the school library? Have them go to this great google map  (found through Richard Byrne’s Free Technology for Teachers blog) that pinpoints banned or challenged books in their state!  Tie it all together with a guided online discussion with your class using the TregoED SCAN tool and the free lesson “Book Banning and the First Amendment.”  (Free until Oct 1, 2011) Students will use the built in problem solving strategy to increase understanding, recognize point of view and develop reasoned solutions to book banning. TregoED is offering a free webinar on September 27^th to get you started. 

Extend this lesson further by discussing banned websites! There are plenty of websites that are blocked from schools.  Is this necessary?  Who should get to decide what is appropriate and what is not for our students?

Linking Literature, Bullying and Critical Thinking

Bullying has been around for a long time.  I just finished reading Lord of the Flies (published in 1954 and my first library iPOD download) and was thinking about Piggy, the poor boy, who was overweight, wore glasses and had asthma- a stereotypical character, ripe for bullying.  Despite the fact that he was the best thinker of the boys, he was ignored and belittled, and (spoiler alert) eventually killed.  As I said, bullying has been around for a long time.   Why do we now need laws to protect kids?  For one thing, bullying can go viral now; it can follow you into the bus, the playground, halls, classroom and then right into your bedroom at home.  Thanks to our communication networks, for some there is no escape.  It is too easy to “share” gossip, pictures, and comments with friends, neighbors, countrymen (and women) and in fact, the world.  We as educators are now being told that we need to develop policies and training, increase supervising and enforcement, intervene and educate.

While most school districts are taking care of the nuts and bolts at the administrative level, teachers are looking for ways to teach this in a meaningful way.   Giving students a strategy to “SCAN” a problem (See the issues, Clarify them, Ask what is important, and Name next steps) such as bullying is a great way to help them deal with complex situations when they arise in their lives. The FREE lesson – School Violence:  Jake-Victim or Threat at http://www.tregoed.org/ allows kids to look at a bullying situation from four different perspectives.  What better way to develop empathy, than to have them step into someone else’s shoes and work together to find a solution to this dilemma? 

You can use the SCAN strategy with or without technology, using the four steps to guide discussion on solving problems from different character perspectives presented in literature.  The engaging SCAN online tool can increase student participation in the lesson as they are guided through the steps in a discussion platform that they love.  This is an authentic and relevant way to teach standards of proper online discussion techniques, empathy and a critical thinking strategy.  You can even enrich lessons with links and resources to deliver increased content - all free. 

Register for a free SCAN subscription which will give you access to a wide array of lessons covering bullying topics – such as teasing, cyber-bullying, Facebook and privacy, etc (as well as current events, social studies, health issues, etc.)  You can even post your own lessons, or have students write them, directly tied to your curriculum.  Imagine the power of students writing bullying perspectives from the points of view of the characters in novels like The Outsiders or Lord of the Flies, posting them in the tool and then using the SCAN strategy to develop solutions to the problems!

New Year's Resolutions-organize those links!

A friend of mine just posted a picture of new sharpies on FB with the comment “I love a fresh supply of Sharpies.”  She was unpacking her supplies for the school year and even after 10 plus years was excited about a new beginning.  Many others have posted that they have set up their classrooms and are ready to go.  Kids and adults alike all face a new school year with anticipation- new  supplies, fall clothes and new resolutions.  I always started out with a bunch of “this year, I am going to….” dreams.  I usually had visions of staying organized or at least making it look like I was organized.  I have a tendency to cover flat surfaces in my own organized fashion, but I digress.  This time around, I am trying to organize my resources.   Check out this list of eighty online tools, references and resources.  Although eighty of anything can be overwhelming, and it is nice to have these links all in one place but how could I organize them?  Or how could I consolidate them with my other resources?   I really like using Livebinders because your links are organized just like a binder with a working page embedded in the binder.   You can start different binders for different topics and give kids a URL to get there (no emails necessary!).  I have also just started my own Delicious bookmarking site and am trying to learn the fine art of tagging to keep them organized.  I would like one of those tv shows to come in and give my virtual closet of resources a makeover!  Any other suggestions?

10 Great Resources for 9/11 Activities

In less than 2 weeks, we will commemorate the 10^th Anniversary of September 11, 2001.  Most of us remember the day, where we were when we heard, etc.  However, many of our students were not even born yet.  What lessons do we want them to learn from that event?  There are a number of angles that you can take to and a number of resources available.  Here are some great links:

1.  September 11^th gives us a wonderful opportunity to talk about religious tolerance. You can find a whole series of useful lessons at Teach Tolerance . 
2.  The  Social Science Docket from the NY/NJ State Councils for the Social Studies has DBQ’s, interdisciplinary lessons on US Response, National Memorial, popular music, terrorism, etc.
3.  Take a look at how events of 9/11 have affected American civil liberties using lessons from the Bill of Rights Institute
4.  Focus on the positive character traits of the rescuers and heroes of 9/11 with this lesson on civic values.
5.  You’ll find a series of graphic organizers that focus on the evolution of terrorism and the response to it from Choices.edu. 
6. A free great activity with kids gathering on oral history first hand can be found at Choices.
7. Look at our response to September 11 using this PowerPoint of Political Cartoons
8.  There are lots of resources at Teacher’s HUB  including video writing prompts, science connections, and a teacher’s discussion guide.
9. Get kids talking this free lesson from the SCAN library at TregoED:  Patriot Act:  Security or Freedom
10. Bring out the arts using this lesson from Teacher Planet focusing on poems and painting.

While our students will not get the same “kick in the gut” feeling that witnesses had that day it is important for them to understand the lessons that we can glean from such a horrific event.  Use this opportunity to teach them empathy, tolerance, and the importance of our rights and freedoms.