Tag Archives: videos

Top 10 Posts of 2012

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Expat Educator MovingThe year 2012 marks the end of another chapter in my expat life. I say good-bye to Hong Kong and relocate to Australia. You can look forward to hearing about the wonderful ideas I get from Australian colleagues. You may notice I’ve re-set my spell-check to the Oxford Dictionary as a step in getting accustomed to a slightly new form of English :) .

As 2013 begins, I want to thank you for taking time to read my posts this past year. In case you missed them, my most popular posts of 2012 are listed below. I hope they will help as you plan for the New Year.

As I reflect on the posts I’ve read this year, the very best was written by a professor, Darryl Young, who spent a year teaching High School math. His thoughtful reflections make for a post I wish would go viral.

The most popular Expat Educator posts of 2012:

Expat Educator Electronic PortfoliosStudent Electronic Portfolios: A Model

Electronic portfolios continue to gain in popularity. Portfolios can be done using Evernote and Edublogs. Student Electronic Portfolios: A Model demonstrates how Google sites can be used to display student work.

Expat Educator 1_1Keeping Students Engaged in a 1:1 Project-Based Classroom

Aren’t computers a distraction? is a question many have asked. Distractions can be minimised with a few specific classroom management strategies. Read more…

Expat Educator Flipped ClassroomCan All Classroom Lessons be Flipped?

Yeah, this is a rather unpopular opinion in the online teacher community. I argue that individual lessons can be strategically flipped, but using the flipped model for every lesson is unwise. Read more…

Expat Educator SMART goalsPreparing Parents and Students for Fall Goal-Setting Conferences

My first few years of teaching, I prepared for parent conferences by figuring out what I would say. When I stopped leading the conversation, students began making more personalised, meaningful goals. Read more…

Expat Educator First Year OverseasTop 10 Lessons Learned the First year Overseas

Moving to new countries comes with challenges. Rereading this post reminded me of those challenges as I embark on my new adventure.

Expat Educator Civil War JournalsA Low-Tech Project Students Treasure: Civil War Journals

Even if you don’t teach about the American Civil War, tea-stained bare books can be used to create projects that look rather authentic. Even after High School, former students tell me that they still have their 5th Grade Civil War Journal. How often can you say that about a project? Read more…

Expat Educator Report Card CommentsReport Card Comments: Outlines and Examples

You probably just finished your comments. You might find it more helpful to read how you can pre-plan to make comments more manageable next semester. As for the outline, read on…

Quick Formative Assessments

Google forms and Google docs are tools that allow for quick, ongoing formative assessments. Both you and students’ peers can give powerful feedback during the entire writing process. Videos on this post show you how. Read more…

Student News Videos: An Alternative to Newsletters

If you really want parents to pay attention to your communication, have students write and present the news. This post takes you through the process of creating the videos. Read more…

Expat Educator Problem Solving 1Math Problem Solving Series: Classroom Procedures

Problem Solving skills are tricky to teach. This post began a five-part series on everything from procedures to assessments. Read more…

Are there any topics you’d like to discuss in the New Year? Please tell me in the comment box.

If you find these posts helpful, please consider subscribing to Expat Educator by adding your email address to the box below. You will be the first to get all the posts from 2013.

photo credit: angloitalian followus via photopin cc

Classroom Christmas Crafts

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If students have not yet made presents for their parents, now is the time. In addition to holiday activities that teach to curriculum standards, there is room for an hour or two of crafts – especially when done as a way of giving to others.

Below are videos demonstrating four Christmas craft ideas.

When choosing crafts, consider three things:

  1. If possible, crafts should provide an opportunity for learning beyond the practice of fine motor skills.
  2. Given your time constraints this time of year, you want to choose crafts that require as little prep as possible.
  3. Given school budgets, you want to plan crafts that don’t dig into your purse or cause you to have to fill out multiple reimbursement forms.

Danish Christmas Ornaments

In the Danish tradition, Heart-shaped ornaments are hung from Christmas trees and filled with cookies.

The ornaments require paper, scissors, and a heap of spacial reasoning skills. Challenge your students to tackle weave designs of increasing complexity.

3-D Christmas Cards

Pop-up cards are fun to receive. For younger students, the process of creating the card requires spacial reasoning. You can create the cards from paper, stencils, and other materials you happen to have around your classroom.

Felt Christmas Ornaments

Students love to see how simple cuts and folds can be used to create art. Consider combining this craft with activities related to the Mobius strip.

Beaded Santa Ornaments

If you have time to pick up beads, the Santa ornaments are a hit with the students. Under the video is the roadmap for each row of beads.

After the initial jingle bell and white bead…

Red, Red
Red, Red, Red
Red, Red, Red, Red
White, White, White, White, White
White, Pink, Black, Pink, Black, Pink, White
White, Pink, White, White, Pink, White
White, White, Pink, White, White
White, White, White, White
White, White, White

Many thanks to my teaching assistant, Nancy, and to the many parents who helped show me these craft ideas.

What are your favorite holiday craft gifts to parents? Please share!

If you find this post valuable, please consider doing one or more of the things in the storyboard below…

Create a Copy

Classroom and Student Blogs: Advice from the Masters

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I’m a big fan of learning from the masters. We look to the masters when learning art, music, literature, sports – even prayer and meditation.

This post is dedicated to the blog masters – those who post advice for teachers with classroom and student blogs. Wisdom of the masters + personal experience has led me to embrace the following pieces of wisdom:

Bookmark Great Examples of Kid Blogs

Before diving into blogging, you should check out some examples of classroom blogs and kid blogs. Bookmark your favorites – you can use the great ones as examples for your students.

Many know Adora Svitak from TED talks. She keeps a blog.
A Second Grader’s blog: Nick’s Picks
A Third Grader’s blog: Jarrod’s Awesome Blog
My Fifth Graders: 5a3dragonslair.edublogs.org
Blogs by High School students in Norway are linked to Ann S. Michaelson’s site

Need more? Check out the Edublog Award Winners.

Start with a Classroom Blog

By “classroom blog”, I mean the one that you control.

No need to fear first steps. Online real estate is free. If you want to start slowly and deliberately, consider signing up for the Edublog Teacher Challenge. The challenge takes you through blog setup in a step-by-step fashion.

You can play around with a couple different formats. I’ve tried Blogger. Blogger is easy because it links to your Gmail account. The cautions with Blogger are twofold: Google may “suggest” to students that they check out blogs that are inappropriate. Google, by nature, will also have advertising.

Consider going through Edublogs. When students write on Edublogs, they are only exposed to other education blogs – blogs with safe content. My only complaint with Edublogger is that you cannot keep track of the users who sign up for your blog. I hope they will add that feature – I want to know the email addresses that receive direct email feeds.

Other teachers have successfully used Kidblog.

Generally, professional bloggers use WordPress. You can start with a WordPress.com site. Like blogspot, WordPress is open to everyone in the world (not just kids). But, my experience is that wordpress.com users are more committed to good content.

Video tutorials are available to help you get started on Blogger and WordPress.

Unsure about what to put on your class blog? Here are 65 ideas.

The two most Twitter-mentioned classroom blogs are Mrs. Yollis’ Classroom and Leopold Primary School (Australia). Use their posts as examples.

Begin the year by teaching Good Commenting

I don’t recommend giving students personal blogs too early in the year. Students should demonstrate responsibility first. I like the steps that teacher Kathleen Morris takes with her students.

Prior to writing full blog posts, students need to learn how to write quality comments.

Video tutorials exist to help students make comments on WordPress and Edublog sites.

Video tutorials also exist to help students make comments on Blogger sites.

A colleague of mine started student comments with a discussion about responsible use.

One of the biggest reasons to have a classroom blog is for students to practice commenting in a controlled environment. I don’t find that students post inappropriate things, but I DO find they type their last names. I both delete the last names and conference with children who sign with full names.

Helping Student Get Started

One of the easiest ways to help students get started is to have them sign up for the Edublogs Student Blog Challenge. Students receive emails with links to instructions on how to make their blog look great. And, students link up with other student bloggers.

Getting Parents Involved

Next year, I want to make a more concerted effort to get parents involved. A few of my students’ parents have made nice comments on student posts. Kathleen Morris has been far more intentional and has experienced the subsequent success.

Let parents know that students LOVE to receive comments. Comments are one of the biggest motivators for students to continue writing.

If you Want to Assess

I don’t formally assess student blogging. I want blogging to become something students want to do. Instead of formally assessing students, I point out to them ways in which I see their writing improve.

That said, sample rubrics are available.

Safety Stuff

The biggest lesson is to keep identities anonymous. When commenting, students should not use full names. When students create blogs of their own, they should be careful with the “About Me” page. I encourage students to put a Wordle on their “About” page – using words they would use to describe themselves.

I highly discourage names attached to pictures.

I don’t tend to advertise the location of my school. Viewers could deduce the location from the school uniforms, but the name of the school shouldn’t show up in Google searches.

Mrs. Ripp has a great post guiding students to think about how the Internet is like the mall. She also includes a letter to parents regarding safety.

Who do you believe are the master blog teachers? What have you learned from them? What links would you recommend?

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For the Love of Writing

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Last Friday I was moody. No, I didn’t take it out on the kiddos. But as I sat at my desk during prep time, I found myself counting the minutes until dismissal and wondering if anyone would notice me leave with the students.

I spent the evening contemplating possible reasons for my mood. The February slump? Nope. The pile of unfinished tasks? Nah. Then it hit me.

I hadn’t written this week. I missed writing.

The odd thing about this feeling is that I only started writing (serious, regular writing) this past June. My blog has become part of my life – almost a living presence.

What does this have to do with the classroom?
In under a year, I have developed what Colleen Cruz refers to as a “writer-ly life”. As I have become a writer, my students have been more inspired to write.

Truthfully, no child groans when we begin writing class. Students are engaged and anxious to share their work with me. But I wonder what will happen this summer, when there are no expectations of publication, no explicit time devoted to daily writing. How can I help students take the step from engagement to self-motivation?

Curriculum Implications
The map of writing curriculum is set for the year. I’m leading out the team in planning the first unit of the 2012-2013 school year. The first unit is about establishing a writer’s journal or notebook, building a collection of pieces, and taking one piece through the entire writing process. The lessons are based on the Lucy Calkin’s writing series – lessons that suggest writers glean ideas from people that are important to them, places they love, important life moments, important objects, etc. These lessons lay a wonderful foundation.

My issue is this: If I were a student going through these lessons, I would comply and I would develop good writing skills. That said, my writing journal would be filled with teacher-directed pieces. I’ve been reading Speaking of Journals: Children’s Book Writers Talk about their Diaries, Notebooks, and Sketchbooks. All the authors organize journals in different ways for various reasons. I’m more or less insisting that student journals take a particular format. By doing so, am I becoming an obstacle to students discovering their own writing styles and habits?

The other thing I wonder is the extent to which I teach a limited number of writing genres. Most of the year is spent teaching personal narratives, essays, poetry, and realistic fiction. What about blogs? Video scripts? Plays? Commentaries? How-to pieces? Letters and emails? Infographics? Would students write more independently if they were exposed to these other forms?

I realize this post is filled with more questions than answers – but that is where my head is right now. I’ve decided on three outcomes:

  1. Students create a journal or writer’s notebook that works for them, and reflect on how the notebook organization reflects them as writers
  2. Students experiment with various writing genres and reflect on which ones are most comfortable or most challenging for them
  3. Students take at least one piece through the full writing process.

The ideas are coming together as “stations”:

If I expose students to all these writing forms and tools, I’m hoping that they will find one or two that “click” with them the way that blogging has “clicked” with me.

What do you do to bridge the gap between “engaged writing” and “inspired writing”?

Student Photographers and Picasa Slideshows

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My most recent post has been featured on The Edublogger. The post is entitled Picasa Slideshows: Giving Parents a Glimpse of School.

Here are the highlights:

For a more detailed explanation of each step, please visit The Edublogger. And, consider subscribing to Edublogger site posts – especially if you want to start class blogs or student blogs.

Here are some great posts to get you started or take you to the next level:
Five steps to starting a class blog
Setting up student blogs
64 Ideas for class blog posts
14 steps to meaningful student blogging
Blogging can help teens who suffer from anxiety
Getting parents involved in blogging

While I’m still in the beginning stages of class and student blogs, the Picasa slideshow inserts have been a big hit. One step at a time…

Happy teaching!

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