What Teachers Are Saying

Sarah Cauldwell @ 4th Grade

From Sarah:

I have used Flippity a number of times with my students. As soon as I tell my students they are working with a partner or in a small group. they exclaim, “Flippity!”

Steph and I used the Icebreaker: “Find three things in common index card” with our students to introduce political and physical maps. The students worked with partners (Yay, Flippity!) to determine the characteristics of political maps and physical maps. The students used Atlases and printed copies of maps to find three common characteristics of political maps. After they shared their ideas, they did the same thing with a number of physical maps. We summarized by talking about how one could tell whether a map was political or physical and the purposes of each of type of map.

After Africa Day, the students make mini posters which show what they learned on this special day. Before they making their individual posters, Steph and I put up a large piece of paper in the hallway. We did a Chalk Talk, which I renamed Conversation Colors (since each child uses a different color marker). They shared their knowledge with each other through their writing and their drawings. They also responded to one another on the paper. “Together we’re smarter!”

Jen Abraham @ 5th Grade

From Jen:

I tried both Flippity and Today’s Meet with my class.

My students loved Flippity and I have used it almost every day to either call on one student or place students in groups of 2 and 4. I plan to use it on a regular basis.

I used Today’s Meet with my students for reflecting on our Ralph Fletcher reading. First, just to practice, I had students respond to what their favorite thing from the weekend was. With very careful prompting and step by step instructions, their responses were appropriate and students had fun reading them. Then, I had students respond to one item that they annotated in their Ralph Fletcher book from Chapter 6. Again, students enjoyed reading everyone’s thoughts and thought it was a fun way to interact with their peers. We went through and read them aloud and discussed how some even had the same annotations. It did get a bit overwhelming with 16 responses, so I think it would be best to set up two different classes. I also didn’t like how I had to delete every comment to do another question. I would prefer if there was a way just to have my own class and change the question, instead of creating a new class for every question. The digital storm may be a better choice in the future.

Overall, my students were engaged and excited by the new use of technology. They gave positive feedback and hope that we use it again

The “Wonder Slam”

Kids love big sticky notes & sharpies! Samantha Gadsden created her own protocol- the Wonder Slam! Samantha asked her students to reflect on a homework reading assignment by jotting down all their wonders on large sticky notes. Students were put into small groups and spent many minutes “wondering” together. They then swapped stickies and reflected on other groups’ wonders. Collaboration, creativity & engagement at its finest.

Everyone Loves an Icebreaker!

IceBreakers are a great way to engage students! Active listening, collaborating, cooperating and discussing are just a few of the skills that ice breakers can tap into. I’ve found much success with these activities, not only for “breaking the ice”, but by using them in my academic classes. All of the activities in THIS document can easily be transformed to meet academic curriculum objectives.

Co-teacher Sam Mason Used the Memorable Moments activity with his kindergartners in writer’s workshop. He assigned each M&M color a different emotion which sparked ideas for writing.

Samantha Gadsden used This or That before reading The Veldt with her sixth grade Language Arts students. She said, “Using the slides had some “wow factor” and my classes loved it. Most importantly, it brought out some really great conversations about the topic. I loved the ease of using this format, and considering the little work involved, it had a huge payoff. Students are still asking me to play This or That? often. It is a low stakes way to have them make definitive decisions.”

A SOLE & Sticky Note Storm In US English

I used TWO of the ideas presented in our group over the last few weeks.

(1) We did the sticky silent storm activity for “Juliet’s Fake Death—Whose fault is it, anyway?” in our Romeo and Juliet unit. The students generated lots of excellent ideas about which characters contributed to Juliet’s fateful decision to take the potion from Friar Laurence. We had a lively discussion afterward, and the students used the ideas to prepare for the unit’s culminating activity, the Trial of the Friar. See photo for the character notes from one of the classes.

(2) I ran a SOLE for grammar with my ninth graders–thanks, Nina, for your SOLE slideshow, which I used! The basic question was, Why is learning grammar important? There were three groups: One did a Prezi, one composed and sang a song (based on the “Friends” theme song), and one presented a skit. A creative and fun way to think about grammar~!

~Julie Kast

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