Creative Math

What the boys have been making:  My goal for math this year has been to include more projects and note taking so the boys are not simply on the computer doing the Teaching Textbooks program every day.  Here are the last of the projects we did in math for the year.  Unfortunately, we will not have time to do any special final math project.  I hoped to have them math a math dictionary, but there are other ways I want to spend our last four days together.

Math secret code coordinate graphs - We were learning about coordinate planes.  I found a great website that had a secret drawing.  The boys had to follow the coordinates and connect it together to see the image.  This forced them to learn the true importance of whether x or y comes first.  :)  Then I had them make their own and swap with a classmate.  It was interesting to see what secret drawings they came up with.

Stem and leaf plot projects - We studied different ways to display data.  If there had been more time, I would have loved to have the boys pose a question and ask people to gather data.  However, I gave them a list of data points that they had to creatively express in a stem and leaf plot.  They also had to find the median, mode, range, and mean of the data.  I thought it was so neat they took the assignment and ran with it.  I hadn't even thought of making a tree instead of a flower.

I still cannot believe I am almost done with my second year of teaching.  How are you finishing up? 

Con mucho amor. 

National Poetry Month

What we've been writing:  April is one of my favorite months because it is National Poetry Month!  (Here's how we celebrated last year.)  It was a fun month full of creativity and poetry.  I loved being able to have the girls with us to share and push the boys to be even better poets.

Poetry calendar:  I saw this idea to have a calendar with a different poem a day.  The boys were so curious when I was creating the calendar.  It was fun to practice reading poetry out loud.  We often read a poem and then studied that type that day during writing.  I thought it was the perfect opportunity to expose the students to different types of poems.  Plus, it made a really fun display on the chalkboard wall.

I am - art poems:  We started our first day of poetry with combining writing and art.  The idea came from here on Pinterest.  The kids wrote "I am" poems, and then using oil pastels and watercolors to paint the background.  These turned out incredible!!

Poetry stations:  I had lots of different ideas for short poems.  Since we are always short on time, we made a day of poetry stations.  I came up with some of the ideas from this blog.

• Station 1: Poe-TREE with haiku baggies  The kids wrote haiku poems based on random objects found in baggies.  Then, they hung them on the poe-TREE.  The poems turned out really funky, but it was good to expose them to the poetry form.

• Station 2: Magnetic poetry   Mom gave me some magnetic poetry words last year, and I found a cute magnetic board when I was in the US last summer.  When the boys saw this station, they said, "Wow, so cool."  Christin also had magnetic words.  They took selfies with their magnetic poems. 

• Station 3: Dice poetry  The kids rolled the dice to see how many lines, how many words, and the topic of their poem.  The boys all happened to get one line poems, and then sat there doing nothing for the rest of the ten minutes of the station.  Next time, I would make sure to specify they need to write three or four of these, especially if they are that short. 

• Station 4: Art and senses   I found this amazing art book over the summer, so the kids wrote poems using their senses, focusing on one of the art pieces.  These poems were really cool, and they forced the students to think about art and writing in a different way.  

• Station 5: Magazine poetry  This station could have been a whole day in itself.  The boys created really short poems, and just kind of glued words onto the page.  Next time, I would have this be an activity on another day.  They could focus more, and I could keep an eye on the situation. 

Intravista poems:  I found this awesome book called Friday Poetry Anthology.  It is a great resource for middle school Language Arts teachers.  It has a poem a week for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.  It includes prompts and connections to the Common Core State Standards.  One of their poems was called an intravista poem.  It had a hidden message within the poem.  The boys LOVED writing these.

Sonnets:  We read A Wrinkle in Time during April, and there is a great quote connecting sonnets to life.  Christin led the kids in some structured notes about two different kinds of sonnets.  Then, they wrote sonnets in groups.

from: here

Poetry Party:  Christin and I had the great idea to have a poetry slam and go to a cafe to have the students share the poems they wrote.  We invited their families, also.  We picked a cute cafe downtown and even called to check and see what time they would open.  However, when we arrived at the cafe at 8am, it was not open.  We decided the only other place open that early was McDonalds, which was conveniently down the street.

The kids were so proud of their poems.  They did a great job sharing, and the noise in McDonalds forced them to speak loudly and with confidence.

Corinne also shared a poem she wrote, which I loved.  It was great for the kids to see that people write poetry for fun.  Corinne didn't have a teacher forcing her to write.  :)

What's your favorite poem?  How are you encouraging people to read poems?  Have you ever found a poem that impacted your life?

Con mucho amor.

WWI

What the boys have been creating:  We spent the past month studying WWI.  I do not actually remember learning about this war when I was in middle school or high school, so I had to do some research about what happened.  We studied the key players in the war.  We used timelines to show the sequence of events.  We also talked about why the US joined the war.

To finish our WWI unit, the boys created a video about war strategies.  They included trench foot, being tired from fighting, the bathroom issues, and more.  Here's the link to the video that is posted below.

They also did a timeline and a mind map for their final.  Each one was so different and unique.

At the end of the year I want them to create a mega timeline like they did last year with eight or ten important things from the timeline of US history.  I am hoping these tests and evaluations will help them put together all their thoughts and ideas.

Do you have any WWI ideas or resources?

Con mucho amor.

Superhero Writing

What we've been writing:  My mom got me these awesome superhero word magnets.  I wanted to figure out how to incorporate them into a writing assignment.  We also studied homophones this week.  I combined the two into a fun creative writing assignment.

The boys used the magnets as inspiration for their stories.  They loved making crazy sentences with the words.

Then, they wrote their stories and we also spent a day revising them together.  They were so excited to share what they wrote.  Andrew asked me, "We are sharing these, right?"  Here are their stories.

Avengers by Andrew

The most powerful heroes fight day and night, but what do they do in spring break? They go have fun at the beach or that’s what they thought. As Tony and Widow played volleyball the most unexpected thing happened. Angel and Superman came out flying from nowhere. Tony was astonished and worked fast to get his suit, but then he remembered that he forgot it at home. Angel was fighting Superman one-on-one, but that didn’t last long. Next thing Tony knew was that Angel was thrown at him, and he was knocked out. When he gained consciousness Black Widow and Wolverine were at each other’s throats.

All of the X-men which were made up of Marvel characters were fighting the DC’s. The battle was a hard one… for the X-men. “Those X-men people aren’t that strong and would only get in between us,” Superman announced. “The only X-men guys that put up a fight were Magneto and Wolverine. Like come on, one guy is immortal and the other can move metal with his mind. They’re the only ones that we consider the upper class of Marvel characters.” So with the weaker Marvel characters gone, the battle with DC was to finish that spring.

 (Two weeks later) The battle is still going on with the strongest of both sides still fighting. The fighters on Marvel are the Hulk, Wolverine, Venom, Loki, Magneto, DeadPool, HellBoy, and Thor. And the strongest of DC are Superman, Orion, DarkSeid, Wally West, Hal Jordon, and Doomsday. One after another even they started falling like fly’s. Loki and Thor the gods in Marvel were fighting Orion and Superman the gods in DC. For even the immortals from both sides were tired out. The gods battled it out until superman was thrown into a restaurant and landed into their supplies of mussels. Superman looked at the faces of the terrified people and then got up. He flew up to see the others fighting and with a voice so strong the flour on him came off, he got their attention and then pointed down to the city. Then the four gods looked around and saw the destruction they caused and from that day on they would never fight a war this big again.     

Captain America's Spring Break by Isaac 

Spring break starts and I decide to go relax before I have to fight in the Civil War. I drive to the beach with my brand new t-shirt, and Bucky tags a long with me. My head started hurting so I was too tired to go swim. I lie on the sand and see kids playing with mussels then I close my eyes. Suddenly I open them for a split second. I don’t see Bucky at my side, and I get up as fast as I can. I look around and see that no one is near. I don’t know what to do at first so I call out,

 “Bucky??” Of course no one answers. Just before I know it I hear gun shots nearby, and I grab my shield and take cover behind a lounge chair. Then I see that it’s Bucky so I smile and walk towards him with no fear. Bucky uppercuts my chin and I bite my tongue and fall to the ground bleeding.

 I’m confused. Why would he do such a thing? My tongue hurts so badly, but I manage to look up seeing Bucky with a gun pointing directly at me. Right when he’s about to shoot I lift my shield up and block it. I get up really fast and kick the gun out of his hand. Bucky took out his knife and threw it at my leg. It hit my leg, and it started to sting majorly. I took it out and threw it back, he blocked it with his metal arm and took out another gun and started shooting me. With great speed I lifted my shield up blocking all his shots. I summersaulted into the sand behind a boat on the shore.

Why was Bucky acting so queer? What happened to him? Slowly peeking over the boat I don’t see anyone. I slowly walk towards the exit of the beach, but when I reach the exit, Bucky is standing right there in front of me glaring at me. He punched my face and kicked my chest, and I fell to the ground. Grabbing my aching chest I groaned and managed to say,

“What are you doing?” He got on top of me and started to choke me like a bear. With one his other hand he was stabbing me with his knife on my leg. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t and before I knew it I was…

 “Steve, you okay there?” I opened my eyes, and I looked at Bucky who was looking at me in a strange way. Everything was perfectly fine I looked at my leg, and it was in perfect condition. Looks like I just had some messed up nightmare.

“I’m fine, “I said slowly with a small grin.

A Super Vacation by Joseph

Boom! Hulk crushed an alienbot. Hulk turned his head to the right and was already on his target before a penny could fall out of a pocket. Hulk crushed. Smashed. Crushed. Smashed.  They wouldn’t stop coming. Hulk didn’t want to admit it, but he needed help. He gave a very loud roar, and Thor was smashing bots with Thor. This still wasn’t enough power so Thor called Tony who was in his mansion in his Jacuzzi. Tony quickly put on his armor and flew to help. After a long time all the others superheroes arrived to fight.

A couple hours later the Avengers finally defeated all the bots. Hulk was still ready for some action. Everyone else including Thor was very tired. The Avengers all sat at Stark Industries resting. Hulk was outside at the work out gym. He was carrying 10 tons of metal. Meanwhile the others were relaxing. Tony finally got up and said,

“You know we fight crime too much. We could use a break.”

 Thor got up and said, “What about Hulk? I think we all know Hulk can’t stop smashing.”

Tony replied, “Well, we could always ask if he would want to relax on a big boat. That ought to get him quiet.”

Thor then said, “Well who is going to keep the city protected?”

Tony replied simply and said, “Well I guess I’ll just have to turn on all of my iron man suits and put them on auto pilot.”

Everyone stopped and stared at Tony who was sipping coffee. All of the Avengers said together, “You can do that.”

Tony simply said, “yes” and started telling them about how he has accomplished getting so much power for his suits. Slowly the Avengers left their seats so they wouldn’t have to hear him speak.

A day later the Avengers were on a private cruise. Hulk had his anti-smash room. Thor’s room was near the generator were he kept it powered up. Everyone else was doing their own thing. After a week of vacation Black Widow received a call from Nick Fury. It said that the city was under attack, and the iron men suits have failed. The Avengers rushed to the city of New York, but there was nothing there but ruins.  This is why superheroes can’t waste their time having vacation when on the job. Sadly they’re always on the job.   

How are you incorporating student passions into the classroom?  What are you doing to inspire student writing?

Con mucho amor.

Pirating up the Week

What I've been teaching:  This was a "ruff" week.  The boys were more restless than normal, talking and not paying attention.  I had shorter patience because I have been busier.  I have been fighting off sickness and this stupid kidney stone.  Part of the way through the week, I realized I needed to "pirate" some of my lessons.  I hoped this would engage the boys more and improve my attitude about work.  

Teach like a Pirate (prior blog post about it can be found here) is all about being a purple cow in a sea of black and white ones.  The book encourages teachers to be creative and think outside of the box through different "hooks."  

from: here 

The Safari Hook:  Wednesday we moved to the roof for reading time.  There was a beautiful breeze, and we sat in the shade while reading Long Way from Chicago.  There are so many different places in our apartment complex that I should take advantage of and use.  Getting outside of the four walls of the classroom helps keep them engaged.

The Mystery Bag Hook:  Thursday I placed these three mystery bags on my desk.  I purchased some freeze-dried "astronaut" food over the summer.  We are currently studying outer space and the solar system.  I wanted the boys to be intrigued.  They could feel the bags.  Rice cakes, cookies, and paper were some of the guesses.

We ended week 22 of the Reyes Academy with worship, prayer, and a fun little selfie photo shoot.

How are you mixing things up in the classroom?  What are you doing to keep students engaged?

Lego Movie

What we've been doing: A month ago my mom found these awesome Lego character sets.  I had been wanting a bunch of Lego people because I thought they would be perfect for acting out war battles, or scenes from books.  She sent one superhero and villain set, and one set that had normal people.

The boys finished a novel called Dragon's Gate by Laurence Yep.  It is about a young boy, Otter, who is from China.  He makes a journey to the US to help build the transcontinental railroad with his dad and uncle.  This is their Lego movie based off the book.

I gave them two options.  They could either recreate a chapter, or they could recreate a shorter summary of the whole book.  They chose do to the whole book.  It was taking really long, though, so we had to cut out some scenes they had planned.

If I were to reteach this assignment I would have them focus on a theme and pick out scenes that represent the theme.  Or I could have them focus on a character and pick out events that changed that character to give the project more depth than just a summary.

We used a free app called My Stop Motion to create the movie.  It was easy for the boys to figure out how to use it.  I liked it much better than Flipagram because we could save directly to the camera roll.  The boys added sounds and voices in iMovie.

The boys loved creating the movie.  There was some bickering between brothers throughout the process, but overall they had a great time.  I snapped this picture of them adding the voices to the movie.  They were smiling and giggling.  

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Here's the link to the Youtube video.

THANK YOU MOM for always sending me exactly what I need.  Even from many miles away you help and serve me so very much.  I am forever grateful (and so are the boys, even if they do not express it). :) 

God is working

What I've been thinking about:  Life is certainly a roller coaster here in the Dominican Republic.  Week #10 was a challenging week.  The boys hadn't studied, they kept making strange noises that were driving me crazy, and we had a whole conversation about responsibility.  Unfortunately they did not let my words about their habits and futures soak in.  I hit Friday, October 23rd feeling defeated and exhausted.

Last Monday rolled around.  I was anxious for the week.  Thursday we had planned to go to the Haitian school, and end the week with a Halloween scavenger hunt around Santiago.  I was stressed.  Tired.  Ready for the weekend.  And it was only Monday...

I noticed someone's Facebook status as I was scrolling on Monday afternoon.  She is a teacher at a Dominican school here in Santiago.  She was asking for help judging a debate in her English class.  I liked her status and thought to myself, "Wow, what a neat opportunity.  Too bad I teach all day."  A few minutes later, she sent me a Facebook messaging asking if my older students and I would like to come judge.  I hadn't even thought of bringing the kids along!

Monday night at Bible study I asked for prayer for the week.  That God would be working in the lives of the kids, and that He would help bring me peace and comfort amidst the chaos.  Boy did He pull through last week.  

"Look to the LORD and His strength; seek His face always." 

1 Chronicles 16:11

Tuesday afternoon we set out in the big van for Colegio Bautista de las Gracias.  Everyone was dressed up and ready.  The boys were going to just observe the debate, while Christin, the girls, and I were going to be official judges.  The whole car ride there the boys were making silly faces and goofing off.  I was worried about their behavior during the debate.  We had talked about listening quietly and not drawing attention to themselves.  

The girls did a really nice job judging.  The debate was about whether cars are good or bad.  The students were very passionate, and it was fun watching their arguments evolve and develop.  The boys sat quietly and respectfully for the whole debate.  I was so impressed.  

Before we left for Yves school on Thursday, we got together as a group to pray.  Two of the mother's of our students were with us.  Corinne, a missionary at New Hope and a friend from my hometown, also joined us.  We were all standing in a circle, holding hands.  Christin opened the prayer, and I said I would close the prayer.  Lately the boys haven't been praying when we are in a large group.  I wasn't sure what was going to happen.

I stood there in silence waiting for people to pray.  Pleading to God for them to open up.  And they did.  Every single person in the circle prayed.  I was brought to tears.  I had never felt God's presence more with my students than in that moment right there.  God is working.  He is touching their hearts.  Bringing them closer to Him. 

Then we went to Yve's school.  We worked with them last year teaching Spanish.  This was our first time going this year, and it went SO well.  The students at the school behaved perfectly.  They participated, they worked well, and they spoke in Spanish.  Our students worked just as hard.  They helped, they drew, they wrote, they encouraged.  I left Yve's school with a smile on my face and a happy heart.  Not because of anything I did, but all because of Him.

"The LORD's lovingkindness indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23

After Yve's school we took the kids on a whirlwind scavenger hunt around Santiago.  It was full of candy, costumes, and some trick-or-treating.  We ended at Rosa's house with a pizza party.  It was so much work to put together the activity, but everyone had a good time.  What amazed me the most was that the boys said thank you.  THEY SAID THANK YOU.  Without being prompted, and before the girls said it.  I was amazed.  Normally it's like pulling teeth to get them to say those two simple words.  There have been countless times where I have poured my blood, sweat, and tears into projects or activities for them, and no one has said thank you.  The boys made my whole day when they said that.  It felt wonderful to see some fruit after a year and a half of tending the seed.

"But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance." Luke 8:15

Saturday was another big day for me because I shared the message with the girls at the youth group that night.  Sharing with high schoolers can be challenging and scary in English.  Sharing in Spanish pushed me way outside of my comfort zone.  I prepared, I fasted, I prayed.  I left it in God's hands.  I was totally at peace about it until Saturday morning rolled around.  Then I was a bundle of nerves.  There were only 3 girls and 3 leaders (including me) on Saturday night, but it went really well.  We had some great discussions about faith and taking God's path versus our own path.  I never would have thought that I would be doing all that I am here in this country.  Thank You, Jesus for using me.  

La fe es la confianza en que lo que Dios ha prometido o dicho, se cumplirá.

Today we had conferences with our student's moms.  It went really well.  It has been amazing to grow close to these people over the past year.  I can only imagine all that God has in store for the rest of our time together.  I'll have to look back on this post to remind myself when I am feeling discouraged because GOD IS WORKING IN SANTIAGO.  In my life, in the lives of my kids, in the lives of the girls I serve, in the lives of the families I work with, and in the lives of people reading this blog.  Wherever in the world you are.

"For we walk by faith, not by sight." 1 Corinthians 5:7

Con mucho amor.

Why every classroom needs a chalkboard wall

What we've been doing: Last spring I covered a whole wall in my classroom with blackboard paint.  Well, in the DR it is really just plain black paint that you cover in chalk.  It took me forever to cover the whole wall with chalk, but it has been my favorite part of the classroom this year.  Here was me celebrating finishing covering the wall last May.

Inspirational messages above the door: This sign has been up there since the spring, but this week I want to change it to "You are loved."  I could change it weekly or monthly.  I want it to be the last thing they see and remember when the leave the classroom; something positive and encouraging.

Venn diagrams: The boys are working on writing a compare/contrast paper right now.  It is a combination between US History and English.  We just finished reading a book about Sacajawea.  The boys were comparing European and Native American women.

Conjugating verbs in Spanish: I have been teaching two 11-year-old twins Spanish after school twice a week.  It has been so fun to watch them grow and learn Spanish.  We used the chalk wall the other week for

Timelines: We have been studying US History this year.  I had the boys race to see who could put the beginning events in order the fastest.  They loved the action and game-like way of learning.

Photo booth wall: The first day of school we used the wall to draw angel wings, and speech bubbles.  We also used the wall for Dot Day photos.

Brainstorming: Before the first day of school, Christin and I had a giant brainstorming day.  We threw everything up on the wall that we thought we might do the first day/week.  It made it easy to circle things and cross out the ideas we wanted to save for another day.

Labeling science diagrams: When we were learning about the layers of dirt in science, we did a food activity where each layer of dirt was represented by cookies, pudding, or Hershey's kisses.  The next day as a warm up, I had the boys make a huge representation and label the layers.

Other ideas I want to try...

• Giant KWL chart
• Fill in the blanks for verbs, vocabulary
• Matching images to quotes
• Art gallery style wall 
• Holiday decorations (pumpkin patch along the bottom for Halloween, Christmas trees along the sides during December)
• Speech bubbles for famous people - could be presidents, MLK Jr., famous scientists.  The students could either dress up and pose as the person, or draw the famous person. 

What are your ideas for using a chalk wall?  How do you use it in your home or classroom?