When In Doubt, Sing 5th-12th

So, the concept of civilization is a little tough to get.  So, I made up this parody for Social Studies. We will never forget civilization and agriculture.

THEN, I found another teacher online who does a superb job at Science parody songs!  Check him out! He's from NJ too! You are awesome, Mr. Parr! http://www.youtube.com/user/ParrMr

Density Experiments

Density!  Instead of putting just some oil on lots of water, put some water into lots of oil!  Or, better, do both!  Make sure the water is colored for a strong visual contrast.

Warning! Oil can damage your plastic cylinders.  One was left uncleaned for too long, in the name of science and to see what would happen if we left it sit for a longer amount of time, and it ruined one of the tubes.

Fraction Dancing Review

So, last year I tried this as a review of what a fraction is.  Students who can go above and beyond, I challenge to write fractions and equivalent fractions for each video, imagine we double this group, etc.  I'll use it again this year, or reshoot it with new students!

Cooperative Groups & Native American Powwow

This change to my Native American lessons was directly impacted by the Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites list of teaching strategies, written by Dr. Marcia Tate.  Buy it now!

In order to teach about Native American tribes this year, we held a powwow where different "tribes" came together to share a song, dance, costume, poem, or list of facts about their tribe.  First, I read The Legend of the Blue Bonnets by Tomie DePaola.  We discussed what a ceremony was and I divvied up groups. At the end of the week, I arranged the desks in a circle and played Native American music (from Youtube) to create a ceremonial atmosphere.  Each group presented their various creative pieces and the rest of the class listened to write down three facts about each tribe.  As groups performed, I taped a sign with that tribe's name over their location on the United States map.  Students were interested in their own tribe very much, had a BLAST performing, and actually enacted a real powwow to honor Native American culture.

 (We will never soon forget the breech cloth.  Note we did not Google that or search online.  We just used sets of books I had available.  If you search these terms, it's not classroom friendly.)

To just brag a little, the retention on this activity was awesome.  Months later, in correlation with football and the Super Bowl, I answered some questions on the controversy with calling a team the Redskins.  In the classroom discussion, we could name all of these tribes and more: Pueblo, Iriquois, Cheyenne, Crow, Creek, Souix, Navajo, Lenni Lenape, and Nez Perce.  It was nice to see the facts stick and I attribute that to the fun we had holding a "real" powwow.

Hero: Dr. Marcia Tate

Next, good news!  There was an awesome keynote at the NJEA convention given by Dr. Marcia Tate.  A fellow teacher from Texas, and former college roommate, recommends her highly, as well!  She puts together a teacher coaching series entitled "Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites."  Buy it!  There's twenty scientific strategies to improve retention, or in other words, actually learn something.  This changed my teaching by affirming my search for teaching memes and giving me concrete ways to improve my use of brain building techniques in EVERY lesson!  Examples to come (because they're memey!)  Her teaching style makes her one of my personal heroes!

Back to Meme-ing and PEMDAS Song

Hey!  I'm back with more memes! And good news!  There are other teachers out there doing the same thing: finding the easiest ways to make a lasting impact on student retention.

First, let me share a math video.  It's a song for PEMDAS or order of operations to the tune of Gangnam Style.  Song starts at 0:50.  When students question what operation to do first, someone pipes up and sings this:

Brain Bubble

Kids not "showing their work" on for math?  

Can't get them to write explanations of their thinking?  

I draw a thought bubble next to the problem and say, "Please write what happened in your brain bubble!"  We discuss what things we used to bring us to the answer, write it in the brain bubble for the teacher to see or for students to look back at later, and move on!  PAINLESS and gets a smile or two, too!  

Afterwards, if students don't show their work I say, "I see the right answer, but what happened in your brain bubble?"  Or I say, "The answer is not right and I can't see where you went wrong in your brain bubble."  Usually, just drawing the bubble first reminds students to show what they are thinking.