Lesson Idea: Vision Board/Image Transfers

The development of SMART goals is a constant theme in my classroom, to get students thinking about goal setting I begin with a vision board project. This assignment facilitates discussion about how past and present decision making can positively and negatively effect future outcomes in regard to our goals. This activity is also a good beginning of the semester/year getting-to-know you activity. Below are the slides from the PowerPoint that I use to introduce the lesson. For those students who prefer not to draw I suggest creating an image transfer. This process takes collage making to a whole new level. See below for instructions.

 

 

More Student Examples:

 

 

Image Transfers:

Supplies: Packing tape, magazines, scissors, metal spoons, water trays, and modpodge. All supplies can be shared, however make sure you have enough packing tape. 

Steps:

1. Apply packing tape to magazine image, being sure to overlap tape, and burnish. (Burnish= press hard using metal spoon so that the ink sticks to the tape, if not burnished the image will not appear.) *Be sure the students tape over the image that they want, in other words, apply the tape to the front of the image.
2. Next, soak the taped image in water for 3-5 minutes depending on the thickness of the paper.
3. Finally, after soaking use fingers or a sponge to remove the paper backing from the tape. If the paper is too difficult to remove then the image was not soaked long enough and should be placed back in the water. Be sure not to use sharp objects, such as fingernails to remove paper as this will also remove the ink. If done correctly the ink will stick to the tape creating a negative-like image that can be overlapped to create a layered effect (similar to a Photoshop layer).
4. Use modpodge to secure the tape to composition.Image transfers can be adhered to almost any surface, so be creative!

Friday Fun-Day, Teambuilding Activities

When establishing your classroom rules and routines I suggest adding “Friday Fun-day” to your weekly or bi-weekly unit plans. In my class Friday Fun-day is an earned privilege.  Every day have the student self-assess their behavior, work ethic, and productivity based on the expectations that you have established. There are many ways to measure and record the student’s self-assessment, the easiest being on a scale from 1-5, 4-5 for meeting all expectations, 2-3 for meeting half of the expectations, and 1-2 for not meeting expectations. The student’s collectively earn a Friday Fun-day after having reached a minimum number of points determined by how often you plan to incorporate Friday Fun-day into your class. I do not suggest doing a monthly Friday Fun-day as their earned reward can feel very far away and students tend to do poorly at the beginning of the month. I suggest a minimum of 15 points/weekly or 30 points/bi-weekly in order to earn a Friday Fun-day. Record the student’s self-assessment on a calendar posted in the room, it may also help to record a few notes as to why they earned the number of points that they earned for the day in order to reference in the even that a Friday Fun-day is not earned. I have included a more creative way to record the class’s points below. (There are also other examples available on the web.) Besides teaching accountability and offering a positive reward Friday Fun-days provide the class with team building opportunities. I have found this cuts down on the middle school drama that can come up and be disruptive to class.

*Every Friday I will post a new Friday Fun-day activity: The first is a minute to win it party. This is a lot of fun though somewhat expensive the first time you purchase the supplies. The supplies are less expensive once you make the initial investment, because you will only need to replace/restock some of the items at a time. Here is a link to access free printables: http://thecraftingchicks.com/2010/05/minute-to-win-it.html 

There are many other minute to win it activities available on the web.

Tween Theme- Tech Savy Room

If you want to get the attention of tweens you have to capitalize on their interests, below are some ideas for an iPhone, facebook, and redbox themed bulletin board. (Also see previous post for twitter-board)

Personalizing Your Space

It is important to personalize your space and cozy-up your room so that it becomes a space where the students want to be. Below are some Internet examples that I think do a great job of adding personal flare, while providing some creative and inexpensive DIY ideas for maintaining an organized classroom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Example of my room. The first image is a before and after.

Who's in the Room?

Keep track of who's out:

 

 

Piles and Piles of PAPERS

Keep your desk clean using the following DIY organizational tools.

Keep papers sorted by what to grade, copy, and file.

 

 

Organize weekly lessons:

 

 

Use a similar filing system for students who were absent, teach accountability by making it an expectation that students will gather their own missing assignments. 

 

 

 



Do-Overs and Dead Word Wall

Do-Over: I suggest creating an area of the room where students can go when they are finished with an assignment before everyone else. In this area hang a do-over bulletin so that students can use the extra time to improve an earlier assignment.

 

 

 

Dead Word Wall: Many teachers have a word wall (a place to display new vocabulary) I like the idea of also having a dead word wall, or a place to display over-used words that students are discouraged from including in their writing.

Bulletin Board & Room Set Up Continued

4. Expectations for Group Work- Keeping up with middle school lingo is important to a- foster relationships and b- not feel awkward or respond incorrectly when you have no idea what a student is talking about. (I suggest checking out urbandictionary.com in order to stay up to date on the lingo.) I like how this teacher used "swag" to help set standards for the class when listening to a peer presentation. This appropriation is displayed in the classroom as a constant reminder of the expectations, and provides a great reference when students are not meeting expectations- or in other words not showing their swag. S= sit up straight, W= watch the speaker, A= ask questions, and G= give snaps or claps.

 

5. How Are We Learning? A great visual to outline the expectations for independent verses partnered, and group assignments or projects.

 

 

6. How Did We Do? This will be the second time that I reference the social contract without explaining what it is- without assessing your prior knowledge I will assume most teachers are aware of the social contract, and I promise to devote a future post to variations on the behavior management tool. Below are a few ways that either the teacher, or the students (with guidance), can assess how the class behaved at the end of the day/class period. To use, simply label clothes pins with the period number and clip to the appropriate color. Each color represents a different level of success in meeting the class standards for behavior. Students may discuss and decide as a class how they behaved or one student may be selected each day to perform the assessment, having this responsibility is a reward in itself. Student self-assessment of behavior is the most important tool for teaching self-discipline rather than simply demanding obedience and reacting with punishment when the rules are broken. 

 

 

 

7. A "Be" Board- At the beginning of a new year/semester/quarter have students brainstorm a list of adjectives to describe how productive learners should be. Keep works updated to prevent the board from being underutilized.









Organization + Routine x Expectations = Happiness

In order to survive teaching middle school you must, above all else, maintain classroom organization and routine at all times. If your room is unorganized then it will not be conducive to routine, expectations will be more difficult to establish and enforce, and chaos will ensue. The first area of the room I want to focus on is bulletin boards. It took me longer then it should have to realize that bulletin board space should be used for more then just displaying motivational posters (though motivational posters are not completely useless- more on that later). Depending on your space I suggest the following:

1. Voice-O-Meter: Post a voice-o-meter, there are many versions/variations of this online. Having this visual will prevent you from sounding like a broken record, constantly telling the students that they are being "too loud". Furthermore "too loud" is very subjective, therefore having this meter give specific feedback instantly. I suggest having two arrows, one to represent the expectation and one to represent the current volume. Use a chime or singing bowl to get students attention rather then shouting over them and then point to the voice-o-meter, no discussion needed.



 

 

As an alternative to the noise-o-meter create large magnet letters spelling "noise", display on the board and remove a letter each time the volume gets to loud. If all of the letters are removed then the students lose a privilege.

 

 

 



2. Twitter-Board: I think it is safe to say that all teachers have had a the phone debate- an uncomfortable power struggle with students regarding their use of technology. I suggest making a social contract with the students that specifically addresses technology use, in addition to posting a twitter-board. This is a space where the students can "tweet" at the appropriate time and within an appropriate context. Getting to "tweet" could be an earned privilege, or a unique way to share out. The twitter-board could also be used for exit tickets.

3.Exit Slips & End of Class Routine: If you do not use your twitter-board for exit tickets here are a few additional ideas...

Fancy



Somewhat Fancy


Simple

 

*Be sure to post your beginning and end of class routines, and clearly label journal bins, turn in baskets etc.