The Giver End of Book Collaboration Project Completed

A few weeks ago my class completed their end of book collaboration projects based on the Lois Lowry book The Giver. The Giver End of Book Collaboration Project is a class project I came up with to get students working together to produce different products that show their understanding of this fantastic book. You can also download the project specifications in pdf format HERE.

I took some pictures of the things that I decided to hang up on one of our bulletin boards in the classroom:


The first two images show the bulletin board in its entirety:

These next two images show some of the art work close up.

These last two images show the triorama timeline that was made.

Bullying: My Perspective (As A Teacher)

I'm not sure if bullying is worse today than it was when I was a kid, or if it's just the flavor of the month in the media. What I do know is that the technologies that many students have access today (mainly social media) make bullying much easier and in your face. 

I try hard to teach my students respect and empathy. It's not always easy, and I can honestly say that over the last four years, I've seen a troubling trend of students coming into 5th grade increasingly unable to interact with their peers in a socially acceptable manner. I spend a lot of time talking about how they need to stop tattling on one another, stop whining at one another, and learn to work productively and cooperatively, and it's time consuming. It's October 13th as I write this, and yesterday we completed the 38th day of this school year, and I've just recently started to see improvements in how they relate to one another.

Yes, it's tough work, but that's not really what I'm writing about here. I wanted to talk about bullying. Bullying has always been a problem in schools. I remember being both bully (one time for about a month when I was a 4th grader), and bullied (on and off for years). I was one of the lucky ones, because I was always big for my age. I was a nerdier type of kid, so I took a lot of flak for that, but I also could stand up for myself.

These days, I see bullying as being much more personal, vicious, and non-relenting. 

I want to make one thing very clear. In my opinion, no child should have a Facebook account. I think this serves almost no good purpose in 90% of the cases. Yes, there are those rare cases where the child might use the account to send photos and things like that to relatives that are far away, but that's a pretty lame excuse, they can always just use a parents account.

I've personally turned in at least ten children with underage accounts and have seen Facebook promptly delete those accounts. I didn't do this because I'm a mean old man, I did this because, in each of those cases, there was bullying happening online, or cyber bullying.

Next, I believe that a lot of the bullying starts in the home environment. I definitely don't play the blame game, I am disgusted when parents point their fingers at teachers and schools when their children are the perpetrators. Don't get me wrong, I believe that it's the schools job to keep its students safe, but in almost all the cases I've seen of bullying, the bully usually has a home life where the proper boundaries aren't set, punishments aren't being utilized effectively (or at all), and discussions about proper behavior aren't happening. Sadly, these are the same parents who, all too often, point their fingers at society, and it makes me sick.

This doesn't allow schools to wipe their hands of the issue and just say "oh well, bad parenting." No, we're stuck with the problem. When parents don't do their jobs, it makes the job of a teacher much MUCH more difficult, but it doesn't absolve them of their responsibility to children, all children, even the bully. 

Bullying is a societal problem, and it's gotten worse over the years. Not a week goes by anymore where you don't read about a teenager who was bullied to the point of suicide. No matter what your personal thoughts and beliefs are about this, you can't argue that this isn't tragic. Teens being bullied for looking different, being different, or even just "because." It's one of the major problems that plagues society today. People don't know how to treat people anymore.

Even when I go out into public, I see these behaviors. People at Wal Mart pushing through one another, yelling at one another, fighting with one another. People in their cars acting aggressively towards one another. I don't want to blame society or the media, although they do play their part. It all comes down to parenting, or the lack thereof. 

I can tell you with 100% certainty that any time I've had a student come into my classroom unprepared to learn or interact with their peers, I can eventually trace these behaviors back to parenting. I do feel that the schools can do more, but if parents are not stepping up, it's a losing battle. 

I could sit here and continue to type for awhile, but you surely understand my views on this by now. Yes, it takes a village to raise a child. Yes, we all have a responsibility to the future, especially those of us in education, it's the essence of our jobs. BUT, parents are the front lines, they spend the majority of time with these children. Behaviors are a by product of environment. If school really played a big part in this, then most students would sit at home everyday studying their spelling, doing math, lining up for the restroom, and saying the pledge each morning after breakfast. But instead, they come to school tired (for lack of sleep), without their homework (because nobody offered to even so much as help), hungry (because they didn't eat the night before), and starved for attention (because nobody gave it to them at home). Yes, we have a problem, and yes it's getting worse.

How do we fix the problem? It's not an easy one, because our society is breaking. I read articles everyday about parents who spend more time on their phones than with their kids, or playing video games than with their kids, or out partying than with their kids. These are the same parents who ask the schools and society to do more and more for them. Well this teacher is standing up and saying ENOUGH, GROW UP!

My 100th Post

This is my 100th post on this blog, a minor milestone. Aside from those 100 posts, I also have created 32 static pages, which now span two different blogs (I had to creatively work around the 25 static page limit per blog and create a second, nearly identical blog to continue these pages).

Over the first 100 posts, I am proud to say that I've had many teachers who have taken the materials posted and used them in their classrooms. My goal as a teacher is to reach my students and give them opportunities to love learning and take control of their own education. By sharing my ideas, and the great ideas of others, on these pages, it is my hope that other teachers can reach their students and see them learn independently, and challenge themselves.

My philosophy behind this blog is to offer free items to teachers in the upper elementary grades. All too often, these grades get ignored. Much of what comes into elementary schools is meant for the primary grades, and the intermediate (3-5 grades) teachers are asked to adapt  resources to their students. I don't accept that, it's a cop out and a reason not to go the extra mile. I work to hunt down (or make) resources that are intended for this age group.

And finally, it's all about free. Teachers Pay Teachers is a great site because it allows teachers to make a little extra money for their ideas, but I'm not about that. I believe that my ideas should be freely shared, education isn't about profit, it's about learning, and I'm glad to see that there are so many out there who agree with this. So, thanks for coming, thanks for reading, and here's to another 100 posts!

5th Grade Social Studies Unit 2: Discovery and Founding of North America (Colonists)

5th grade Social Studies unit 2 is about the early American colonists and pilgrims. This unit focuses on the journey, hardships, and early society that was developed when founding the initial colonies in America. This unit is listed in my Social Studies 9 Week Plans page, and has its own Unit Page. For convenience purposes, I will post the entire text of that unit here as well:

Unit 2 of 5th grade social studies covers the discovery and founding of America, focusing heavily on the colonists and pilgrims.

For me, time is usually a focus on this unit, because I like to spend more time on the American Revolution, and the 19th and 20th centuries.

With that in mind, I provide three days of instruction on the front end, familiarizing students with the topics and major events of this time period, then I hand over the learning to my students for some project based research.

The project students work on for this unit is a whole class collaboration that is presented in book form and titled "Colonial Life." The project is done in pairs, with each group preparing two pages "textbook style" on their topic.

What I mean by textbook style is a stylized presentation like that of most textbooks, in which the content, photos, illustrations, graphs, etc. all exist in the pages together.

I do not write up any student information handout for this, and they are graded on the simple research rubric that we utilize throughout the year (access the simple research rubric in either .pdf and .doc format).

The topics that students cover in their research include:

• Colonial Towns: Buildings, layout, variety of towns, defenses.
• Journey by Sea: How the colonists / pilgrims reached the America's, including challenges, living conditions, etc.
• The 13 Colonies: A quick research on the original colonies, including founding dates, and a map of the original 13.
• Crime & Punishment: The crimes that were most common, and their punishments.
• Native Tribes: A quick research on the native tribes of the area, and their interactions with the colonists.
• Religion in the Colonies: How religion influenced life and politics in the colonies. Also, what religion meant on a day-by-day basis to the colonists.
• Colonial Food: How they grew food, and what the typical colonial meal looked like.
• The Lost Colony of Roanoke: This topic fascinates many students, so I have a group take a look at its history and present some pages on it.

I'm going to present a few links to assist teachers and students alike in research or teaching of the colonial era of American history:

• America 1607: Jamestown Interactive: This fantastic interactive map on the National Geographic site, which is a companion piece to a feature the magazine did on Jamestown in 2007 titled America, Lost and Found, is the best place to start if you want students to learn about how the first colonies were built, and the challenges they faced early on.
• Colonial Williamsburg: The site is full of resource and catchy visuals, including a tour of the town, period specific recipes, and a kids zone.
• Interactive Map of the 13 Colonies: Each colony is clickable and provides more information.
• Tour the Mayflower: This site, hosted by Scholastic, is another great visual with easy to grasp information.
• The Lost Colony of Roanoke: Start with Discovering the Lost Colony, and show the Lost Colony of Roanoke. 

Finally, watch these videos in succession. These are taken from the America: The Story of Us documentary series.

Again, we normally pace this unit fairly quickly. Each group of students is responsible for a two page contribution to our "Colonial Life" book. Finally, if you like how your books turn out, head over to Student Treasures, and order a few free publishing kits. This company will make a free classroom hardbound copy of the book, and your only obligation is to send home a letter to your parents asking them to buy a copy of the classroom book. There are no buying requirements, and the classroom hardbound copy is free regardless of how many parents order. It's a great opportunity that we'll be taking advantage of.

5th Grade Teacher Simple Research Project Resources

I expect my 5th grade students to be able to produce on topic, appropriate, properly cited research early on in the school year.

Yes, I know that there are many college students who can't do this, but that's not really my problem, or yours. When you get right down to it, research really isn't that difficult, it's just another process to teach and practice until it gets done correctly.

The type of research I'm talking about here is non-scientific, I'm talking about basic research on a topic in social studies, literature, etc. It's all about gathering information, deciding what's important, and presenting that information in an efficient manner.

The following documents are for any teacher who is ready to get their students researching: 

• SIMPLE RESEARCH RUBRIC (pdf or doc): This rubric is good for pretty much any type of topic research. 
• BIBLIOGRAPHY CARDS (pdf or doc): These cards are great for teaching students how to track their sources and how to cite them in a proper APA style bibliography. I've seen graduate students not know how to do this, but it's ok, 5th graders can, you just have to demand that they do it.
• BIOGRAPHY HELP PAGES (pdf or doc): I've previously shared this packet in my Famous Individual Project post. This can come in handy to anyone doing any type of biographical research.
• STUDY SKILLS ACTIVITY BOOK: NOTE TAKING (pdf): I also shared this source in my Famous Individual Project post. It's a great packet of activities that help students learn how to find and pull sources, what is important and not important, and how to cite different sources. This is seriously a gold mine!

You are free to take these documents and change them for your own needs (with the exception of the study skills book, that one isn't mine). Just remember, it's all free, and should remain as such.

An Open Letter From A Teacher To All Parents of Students

**Note: This blog is no secret, and I openly sign my name to it. Many of my students and parents know about it and follow it, to keep up with classroom happenings. This letter is not personal in nature, and simply discusses what I see and believe in general towards parents of school children all over the nation. I love my job, I care deeply about my students, and I work hard to earn and keep the respect of their parents. For a child to be successful in school, it involves a partnership between the school system (mostly teachers and administrators) and parents. I've been wanting to write this letter for a long time, and these are thoughts and ideals I've held for my entire career, they're not related to a single student or parent, but an overall reaction to what I see in the media, what I hear on the national stage, and what I believe**


Dear Parents,

On the first day of school, I did some math with my new students. We took the amount of hours in a year (8760) and subtracted the amount of hours an average child sleeps during a year (we came up with 8 hours per night, for a total of 2920 hours). What we discovered is that the average child is awake for 5840 hours in a year. Of these 5840 hours, children at my school spend 1125 hours in school. I took these two numbers and did a mini-math lesson with the class. What we discovered is that children at my school spend 19% of their waking lives in school during a year.

19%, that's the time that a teacher has with children. Of course, we had to calculate in lunch and recess (40 minutes per day, which adds up to 115 hours per school year), the time that they spend at special classes like PE, Art, and Music (135 hours per school year), and time we spend doing non-classroom related things, like restroom breaks and cleaning up at the end of the day (we came up with 15 minutes per day, which is 43 hours). Take all of this together, and the time I actually have to instruct my students in a given school year is 832 hours.

832 hours. That's exactly 14% of their given waking hours.

Let's think a little more about this. If they're at school for 19% of their waking hours, that means they're with you for the majority of that remaining 81%.

Let's be honest with ourselves here. Your impact on your child far outweighs mine. If your child is a success in life, it's going to be because of you. If they fall short, and things don't go as planned, it's (trust me on this), also going to be on you.

My job as a teacher is to help you out. I want to do this job. I signed up for it knowing that it would be difficult. I went through years of preparation, knowing that this job is a thankless one, full of hard days and a stressful existence. And yes, I am smart enough that I could have majored in something else. I chose this job for a reason, just like the engineer and the doctor chose theirs.

We live in a day and age where more and more children are coming to school unprepared, unmotivated to learn, or have no idea how to act in a public place. These things make my job much more difficult, but I still come to work every day, to teach your child.

You need to know that I want your help. I need your help. If you look at school as just a place to send your child while you go to work, then alright, I'll still do my best, but if you aren't following through on your child's education, how is that my fault? I can't move mountains if you don't care. If you do care, and you do follow through, my job with your child is so easy that I don't really have to do much other than provide a challenge. Just for the record, teachers like the latter kind of parents a lot better (but don't tell anyone, it's kind of a secret).

I'm a pretty good teacher. I know what I'm doing. I knew a lot about your child just a few days into the school year. I know about their reading level, math level, I know how they learn, how they don't learn, and how long they can sit still. By October, I know at what time they're going to ask me to go to the restroom, I know if they come to school when they're a little sick, or if they ask to stay home for any reason. I also know if you're the type of parent who asks your child to tough it out and go to school, or if you're the type of parent that allows your child to stay home for any reason (some teachers might call that parent a pushover, but not me, I'm a nice guy).

There's a few things I wish all parents would do, including:

• Be consistent, if you make a promise to your child, keep it. If you promise a punishment for wrong doing, follow through.
• Never let your child have control over you. You're the adult, they need you to be in control and to look out for their best interests.
• Take their education seriously. This is the primary tool for people who are successful in life. Education is the key to a better life, you can't argue this, it's simply the truth.
• Want more for your children than you have. Even if you're Bill Gates. Work hard to make sure they get it, but ultimately, demand that they work hard. 
• Never, EVER, accept anything but their absolute best. Parents who make excuses for their children are the ultimate reason that those children sometimes don't live up to expectations.

Just remember parents, I'm here to help you. I'm not in this job for a power trip, because trust me, there's not a lot of gratification that comes with having control over a classroom full of young people. I know that children make mistakes, they're still learning how to act. It's our job to make sure they grow up the right way. I'll do my best with my 14%, but what will you do with your 81%? 

Finally, don't blame me. If your child is failing, trust me here, it's not my fault. To blame me and my 14% while ignoring yourself and your 81% is ridiculous. So stop making excuses, get up, and let's get this thing right. No child is broken, if they're not living up to what you want for them, fix it now before it really is too late. If your child is a success and is doing great, don't pat me on the back. I didn't do this, you did. I'm just helping your child reach their fullest potential.

Parents, it's time for us to work together. You know where my office is. It's also your child's office. I hope to see you there soon. My door is always open.

Signed,

Mr. B

Famous Individual Project: A Great 5th Grade Research Project With Tons of Activities and Rubrics

Recently, our students in 5th grade completed their first oral project presentation of the year, presenting their individual state posters, the project they did in the 50 states unit,

in front of other students. We asked students to dress for the occasion, and graded them on everything from their posture, the volume of their voice, and the way they dressed. This ended up being a great experience, and we've decided to build on that during the school year.

Next up, we will be doing a Famous Individual project. In this project, students will be completing research on a famous individual of great character. They will be analyzing their individual according to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, a program that my school began following this year. Below you will be shown the requirements for this project, including links to all necessary forms. To download everything in one packet, click here:

DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE FAMOUS INDIVIDUAL PROJECT IN PDF FORMAT HERE

This project will ask students to:

• Choose a famous individual, either living or dead, who is not fictional. Once they have chosen their famous individual, they must complete the Justification Page to explain why they believe their individual showed good character and lived a life that benefited others. 
• Once the students has successfully justified why they have chosen an appropriate person for this project, they will begin research. Students will be taught how to properly cite sources and create a bibliography (this is a big step for 5th graders, but they can do it). First students will learn how to take notes and keep track of sources. I came across a great packet online to help with Note Taking that I will be utilizing. They will use the blank bibliography cards to cite sources, and then will be given the biography outline packet, which will guide their research. Students research papers will be scored based upon the 5th grade research paper rubric.
• Next, students will be creating a computer based presentation that will supplement the speech they will be giving. We will be doing these presentations in the computer lab with the assistance of our schools computer lab instructor. They will be scored on their computer presentation based on the computer presentation scoring rubric.
• Finally, in the final step of this project, students will create a short speech to go with their computer presentation, and they will be presenting these projects before other students, parents, and community members. The speeches will focus on the character of their person, their major accomplishments, and how they fit the 7 Habits. The speech will be scored based on the oral presentation scoring rubric. 

I am very excited to see our students continue to step up. They did a great job on the 50 state projects (as you can see HERE), and I expect great results on this project. 

I have all of these forms available in Microsoft Word format, if you would like any of them, please let me know and I'll get them to you. As always, this is available freely, I believe that teachers should share our resources with one another free of cost if at all possible, and will continue to share everything I make without cost to anyone.