Daily Math Challenge: Upping the Rigor in Mathematics Instruction

All teachers (should) follow lessons plans and unit plans in order to make their instruction cohesive and make sense. I'm not going to get into all the aspects of following scaffolded, developmentally appropriate lesson plans, but if you're "winging it" everyday in the classroom without a clear focus, don't expect a lot of learning to take place.

The point of this post is taking a little timeout in math everyday to let students think and work through challenging, rigorous problems without an immediately evident solution. I call this activity "daily brain work," and it takes 10 minutes. The intent here is to pose a problem to the class, and to step away and let them work through the problem on their own. Students should be able to elaborate and articulate how they reached their solution. Finally, go over the problem, have some students share their answers, and hopefully at least a few have the correct solution to share.

In order to get started, I needed some multi step story problems. Don't start too difficult, and make sure that everything you give students is developmentally appropriate for the majority of the class.

Here are some resources to find multi step word problems and other math puzzles / brain workouts:

Math Multi-Step Word Problems

• 25 Word Problems at IQ Study Activities: A good starting point to find some straight forward story problems appropriate for 5th graders.
• A Few Pages of Story Problems at about.com: Nothing fancy, just some more story problems.
• Helping With Math Word Problems Guide: A page with some information on how to help students approach open ended questions, and a bank of questions as well.
• Challenging Word Problems at Math Top 10: Good stuff here, there's a lot of them too.

Brain Teasers / Math Puzzles

• Houghton Mifflin Grade 5 Brain Teasers: A nice little collection of word problems and brain teasers already set into CCSS categories.
• Math Salamanders Printable Math Puzzles: The whole salamander theme is a little bizarre, but there's a lot of good puzzles here. 

Primary Sources: The Perfect Fit for Informational Texts in the Common Core

I've been focusing a lot lately on informational texts as we move towards the Common Core adoption that is pretty much going into full swing next month, and with good reason. The informational text / literature split is very important moving forward, and failure to give it its proper due and focus heavily on it might actually cost you your job a few years down the road, it IS essential.

At the beginning, I focused a lot on resources. Where can I find informational texts? Are there resources out there for how I can use them properly in my classroom? I've already done some posts about this (see: Informational Text Free Digital Resources and The Informational Text Revolution).

Now, I'm starting to think about the connection to other subject areas (another major key in the CCSS). I've always considered myself a social studies teacher. Yes, I'm an elementary school teacher who teaches, and does a pretty darn good job of teaching, all subject areas. BUT, social studies, especially history, has always been my primary passion, and as my instruction in social studies has evolved to the point of students doing multiple research based projects, presentations, and doing some deep, relevant, technology and personally driven learning about history, geography, sociology, and economics, I've thought about how this all fits the CCSS.

I'm going as far as to say that implementing the CCSS in social studies might be the most exciting part of the CCSS adoption for me personally... well, it's actually pretty close between that and the changes it demands of math instruction from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade.

Social studies instruction is already built for informational text. Honestly, I think most of us in the elementary grades might not go deep enough with our instruction, or with student expectations when doing research, but that's not really the point here.

The point here is simple: Primary sources. The more I've been thinking on this subject and studying it, the more I am convinced that 5th grade students can read and analyze primary sources, and it's exciting. Some of the primary examples I've seen of implementing the CCSS in 5th grade involve reading and analyzing the Gettysburg Address, Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech, and other great primary sources.

So with that in mind, I'm going to just throw some information and resources out there that I think can benefit all of us. I'll be listing a quick description of each of these multiple links:

These first links are to research articles, and other descriptions of the importance of primary sources within the CCSS:

• Common Core and ELLS: Key Shifts in Language Arts and Literacy : A quick article that lays out the shifts in moving to the Common Core. It very clearly shows how informational texts and primary sources fit within it all.
• Engaging Students With Primary Sources : A quick blog post from a social studies teacher that quotes the CCSS and clearly explains how primary sources fit in the standards and the classroom.
• Guidelines for Using Primary Sources in the Classroom : A pdf document from The National World War II Museum
• Primary Sources: At the Heart of the Common Core Standards : A great quick article on the Library of Congress website that makes it pretty clear how important primary sources are.
• Five Strategies to Infuse Common Core State Standards With Social Studies Instruction : A great little article that really got me thinking about how I'm going to use primary sources in my own classroom.
• Teaching With Primary Sources Journal : That's right, there's a whole journal on this topic. Check out this pdf, it's powerful stuff. 

Finally, I'm going to end with some resources that can be used with students, or can get you thinking more about using primary sources in your classroom:

• Teaching With Documents, Lesson Plans : From the National Archives website, there's some decent lessons here that really help when developing your own lessons. A good place to start.
• Using Primary Sources in the Classroom : A great pdf document from the Library of Congress that lists some great lesson ideas and some examples.
• Primary Sources for the Classroom : A pdf document from the state of Tennessee that might be my favorite of everything I've listed here. There's some stuff I want my students to read and take to heart as they start researching.
• Library of Congress Common Core Teacher Resource Center : If you don't know about this, wake up! This huge listing of resources can't be ignored. I've been referring to it often. It's growing daily, and there are tons upon tons of great things there, not just for primary sources, for ALL the Common Core.
• Evaluating Sources : Another pdf document, this one is helpful and I think your smarter 5th graders could handle without too many problems.

Two Great YouTube Video Based Tools That Will Add Student Engagement To Your Lessons

Today I wanted to share a few neat video tools that I can see students and teachers really enjoying in the classroom. I found both of these tools on Free Technology For Teachers, and after playing around with them, decided that they were definitely both worth sharing.

First off, there's wireWAX. wireWAX is a cool YouTube annotation service that allows you to place interactive tags inside of YouTube videos. The best part is, whatever you tag to opens up within the video that's already playing, it doesn't take you to an outside website. I'm already working on one to share with my students during a history lesson, and I've found that it's really interactive and engaging, I think students will really enjoy this.

Here is a wireWAX annotated video to check out:




Next up is blubbr. blubbr allows you to create YouTube video clip quizzes. After playing around with this one, I was very impressed, and see great applications on both computers and tablets alike. If the concept sounds interesting, I recommend you head there and try a few quizzes, and try to make your own. It's really easy, and like wireWAX, totally free.

Well, that's my quick little post for now. Go check out these two great services, you won't be disappointed!

Class Dojo: An Interactive and Fun Way to Monitor and Reinforce Behavior

Ask almost any teacher what their primary growth area is, and in what area they primarily have issues in, and if they're being honest, they'll most likely say behavior. How do you handle 21-35 kids all at the same time? It's not easy. It's not easy to deal with negative behaviors in a constructive way,

and it's really not easy to notice those students who are doing the right thing, and reinforce the positives. I'll admit, I've struggled with it over the years, and have tried multiple approaches to behavior management.

I feel as if I've been successful, but there's always room for growth. For the last few years, my school has been using the clip chart system of behavior monitoring and reinforcement. It's a simple concept, students start everyday at the green "ready to learn" spot, and can be moved up for positive behavior, and down for negatives.

There are consequences plainly spelled out for moving down, and the teacher can have different rewards for moving up (the graphic shows what this looks like).

I am fully on board for using the clip chart, and have found success with it, even in the 5th grade. BUT, there's always room for growth. I've also noticed from observation that many teachers don't properly utilize (or utilize at all) the clip chart, and this lack of follow through can create issues in a school, where everyone should be using the same method.

OK, anyways, that's not really what I wanted to get in to today. I wanted to show you a great behavior management system that's online, is easy to use, and is just all around fun. And yes, you can use it on a computer or a tablet.

Class Dojo is a neat behavior management software that you can project in your classroom, using a computer, an iPad/iPod/iPod Touch, an Android smartphone, and any other tablet you can imagine (more or less).

Each student has their own avatar, and by clicking on it, you can assign points or remove points. All of this is tracked, and you can view data at the end of each day showing how students are doing. This is easily readable and can be shared with parents either by printing it, or by having parents sign up for their own parent account to view their child's behavior.

I find Class Dojo to be interesting in that it's so transparent. You simply project it, assign points, and students get immediate feedback. It's also a great way of staying accountable (I know that's hard sometimes).

I've used a behavior notebook in the past, logging times I've had to discipline children, just for administrative purposes. Class Dojo takes care of that by keeping all the data together for each child.

Now, I know what you're asking. Yes, it's completely free, at least for right now. So go ahead and sign up, and get to using it. It's very user friendly, and there are tutorials if you're ever confused.

Finally, I'm embedding a few videos to get you started if you're interested in seeing more before you sign up:

Class Dojo Tutorial Video (11 minutes)

Using Class Dojo (4 minutes)

The Zone of Proximal Development and the Common Core: Teaching the Child, Not the Standard (Sort of)

This morning I wanted to talk about the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and the Common Core (CCSS). If you're not aware of the ZPD, go read up at simplepsychology.org or this definition with visual. To paraphrase, the ZPD talks about scaffolding learning, and that at any given point, we have present knowledge, the next level of knowledge, and beyond. Knowledge that cannot yet be obtained because it lies to far outside that scaffolding is called the distal zone. For example, you can't teach a 1st grader trigonometry because there's so much knowledge to obtain between now and then, so trigonometric functions will stay in the distal zone for some time (longer for some than others).

The great thing about the CCSS is that the tools are right there for teachers to ensure that every child is learning in their ZPD.

In the excerpt from RL.1, taken directly from the Common Core Standards ELA document, a 5th grade student is expected to "Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text." Well, guess what? Not every kid in your class will be able to do that, ESPECIALLY in the first years of the Common Core. So what do you do if that child isn't in their ZPD? Go back to 4th grade. It says ""refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text." If that doesn't fit the bill, keep moving backwards. This work will be integral in the initial years of the CCSS. Of course, we want each student mastering the 5th grade standard by the end of the year, but it's much clearer in the CCSS how everything scaffolds, and how the level of complexity picks up from one year to the next.

Now, when doing a read aloud (which, honestly, is a part of EVERY classroom, a major part, as it should be), it's important to know how this fits the CCSS. Let's not get into the mindset that the CCSS kills reading literature for pleasure, it seeks to balance the reading of literature and informational texts, and reading for pleasure, as most any teacher knows, is very important to student success and is an indicator of future success in the literacy classroom. 

First off, you have to know the standards. You have to know when you're touching on those standards, and giving students practice, because after all, writing is equally important as reading in the CCSS (and it really is, you can't argue that). By knowing the standards by heart, you'll know what areas to focus on, where to stop and have book discussions, and when to assign deep writing assignments based on the read aloud.

William and Pérsida Himmele, in their article Why Read Alouds Matter More in the Age of the Common Core Standards, say:

In light of this radical shift away from our current lopsided emphasis on narrative texts, protecting the read-aloud time may seem counterintuitive. After all, why would we want to use up valuable instructional time reading stories to our students? Our answer is simple. In addition to getting kids hooked on books, narrative read-alouds are an effortless way to help students acquire the academic language they will need to comprehend informational texts.

When we give up the read-aloud, we may slow students' vocabulary learning; research has shown a strong positive correlation between read-aloud experiences and vocabulary development (Meehan, 1999; Roberts, 2008; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002; Sharif, Ozuah, Dinkevich, & Mulvihill, 2003). A 20-minute read-aloud can repeatedly expose children to academic words that will likely show up in content textbooks. For example, such words as somber, bespoke, probed, tolerance, substance, boring, searing, eliciting, surges, and anguish are considered academic vocabulary. And they all appear in this paragraph from Brandon Mull's book, Beyonders: Seeds of Rebellion, marketed for 3rd to 6th graders. In this excerpt, a character named Nedwin describes his torture at the hands of the captors who placed him under the influence of a pain-enhancing substance.

Exposure to academic words, and exposure to advanced ideas are important components of the read aloud. As you push more and more through the CCSS, you'll learn that exposure is key, you need to constantly expose students to these ideas and to shift their thinking to a deeper level. It will be a challenge in the initial years as we see the glaring gaps between the CCSS and our old state standards, but that's ok, this is about college readiness and future success, and we have to start somewhere.

WORKS CITED

Himmele, William and Himmele, Pérsida, (December 6, 2012). Why Read-Alouds Matter More in the Age of the Common Core Standards. ASCD Express. 8 (5).

Meehan, M. L. (1999). Evaluation of the Monomgalia County schools' Even Start program child vocabulary outcomes. Charleston, WV: AEL.

Roberts, T. (2008). Home storybook reading in primary or second language preschool children: Evidence of equal effectiveness for second language vocabulary acquisition. Reading Research Quarterly, 43(2), 103–130.

Sénéchal, M., & LeFevre, J. A. (2002). Parental involvement in the development of children's reading skill: A five year longitudinal study. Child Development, 73(2), 445–460.

Sharif, I., Ozuah, P. O., Dinkevich, E. I., & Mulvihill, M. (2003). Impact of a brief literacy intervention on urban preschoolers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 30(3), 177–180.

The Informational Text Revolution: CCSS and the Changes We All Face

This blog is already structured around subjects (the easiest way to reach those subjects is by clicking the name of the subject in the logo at the top of the page). These subjects are laid out by the way I teach them in my classroom... correction the way I taught them in my classroom. The incoming Common Core State Standards (CCSS) will surely have an impact on that.

Now, the CCSS doesn't change the fact that in 5th grade I teach American history and geography. CCSS doesn't change the fact that, here in New Mexico, Social Studies is still covered by the New Mexico Standards and Benchmarks (those standards for Social Studies are available HERE).

The CCSS, after all, cover English Language Arts and Mathematics. An article put out by the New York Times on December 13, 2012 titled Fiction of Non-Fiction? Considering the Common Core's Emphasis on Informational Text asked if the focus on informational texts within the CCSS is detrimental to student learning and love of reading. The article also has a great resource, a quick little questionnaire that can be given to students to see how much they read outside of fictional literature (the answer: probably not much). I know that I'm guilty of having certain books I like to read every year (The Castle in the Attic, The Giver, Holes, and The Lightning Thief to name a few). Well, "the CCSS deemphasizes reading as a personal act and emphasizes textual analysis" (Calkins 2012). And before I dig too deep here, I'm going to just say that the CCSS for literature and informational text are the same, so I'm going to leave it at that.

When it comes to all these informational texts, as I said previously in the post titled Informational Text Free Digital Resources: Gearing up for the Common Core, it's not a matter of many of us going in a direction with literacy that we've never gone before, it's just a more mindful approach to the usage of some strategically chosen texts, and for students to not only be exposed to various texts, but to know their interests and steer them towards informational texts that pique their interests. Also, we have to be mindful of the fact that there is a different between reading for a fact hunt and reading to gain understanding and comprehension of an idea.

BUT, this doesn't mean that informational text reading just becomes about student interest and leave it at that. The research shows that students need to be reading for 90 minutes per day optimally, and that is actual holding a book in their hands reading time (Allington 2005). That's a lot. I usually give my students 25-35 minutes per day of individual reading, and the vast VAST majority of that reading is fiction based literature.

In the coming weeks, I will be laying out how to get started in the reading and writing classrooms (or at least how I will start), including how to assess student readiness and reading levels quickly and efficiently, and how to teach thematically (using The Lightning Thief and teaching Greek Mythology simultaneously for example). I will also be revisiting my units for Social Studies and Science, and focusing them on informational text and writing based approaches. It should be a fun time, but in the end, I feel that it will better prepare me (and anyone who finds these resources and uses them) for what lies ahead.

So stick around, bookmark my page, and come back soon. I'm already getting everything lined up, I just don't like to post things until they're finished. Look for more tomorrow!


WORKS CITED:

Allington, Richard, 2005. What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research Based Programs, 2d ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Calkins, Lucy, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman, 2012. Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Informational Text Free Digitial Resources: Gearing up for the Common Core

It's time for Common Core (CCSS) all over the United States, and I for one couldn't be happier. I believe these standards will demand more of students and teachers. The standards will demand a thorough, rigorous, culturally relevant, and college preparatory based education from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. If the standards are taken to heart, if teachers buy in and work to the maximum of their abilities, I have little doubt that education in the United States will not only be the strongest in the world in about 10 years, but will be the strongest educational system the world has seen. No, I'm not just a CCSS fanboy, I was skeptical just like many others, but the more I read, the more I experience, and the more I train both myself and others, the more excited I am to see what my students are capable of, and how hard and how far I can push them.

In the area of literacy, the CCSS moves classrooms into the world of informational reading and writing. In fact, by the 4th grade, students should be reading 50/50, 50% literature and 50% informational. It also demands that informational text goes deeper than just reading for fact finding. I'm guilty of this, I have too often used informational texts as nothing more than a fact hunt to use in research posters or projects, etc. But that's changing, we have to start going deeper.

This post specifically targets informational text resources that are freely available out there. For me personally, I'm able to call upon a teacher resource room with hundreds of informational texts at my school, and an online resource file of informational texts through the Pearson SuccessNet website (something that came with my districts reading adoption a few weeks back). Those two things are definitely not free and if you don't have them, you're probably not getting them anytime soon. So what to do?

Here is a list of some resources out there to get you some informational texts to your students. All you really need here is a computer, BUT, if you'd like to view these on a tablet, or have them in pdf format, that's pretty easy to accomplish (I prefer using pdfs on iPads because students can annotate them within a note taking app, and pdf documents have more of a traditional text "feel" to them.

I will be focusing on the ins and outs of the CCSS and how informational texts fit in the classroom here in the near future, but for today, let's stick to resources, because it's so much easier to jump on board when you know you have something to back you up. So here we go:

• This first link is to a free, browser based web page to pdf converter. It takes the center frame of a web page and saves it in a high quality pdf. I use this when I want students to read something from, for example, the Scholastic for Kids page, and don't want them sifting through text in the midst of side bars and links. Web 2 Pdf. Bookmark it!
• A listing of some good places to start gathering resources, in a post titled Online Sources for Informational Text at a blog called "Hello Literacy." Ignore the link to the web to pdf converter on their page called joliprint, as it is no longer in service.
• While I'm linking to some online listings (of which there are literally thousands upon thousands), there's also this page from the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards website on Informational Text Resources. There's also this post at Eye on Education. Both should give more than a few resources that you'll want to bookmark.
• At the beginning of the second page of this pdf document is multiple links to small readers on the Scholastic website, and they're really pretty good (and already in the correct format). 
• If you're not aware of The Reading and Writing Project, familiarize yourself. They are the group that did Pathways to the Common Core, a great book that's been like a CCSS literacy bible for me personally. On their site, they keep a listing of information texts called Digital Nonfiction Text Sets.

Common Core Changes

My early summer lay off isn't exactly over (it's been four weeks since my last post), but I do feel that I'm ready to start posting my Common Core (CCSS) units fairly soon. To provide a little background, here in New Mexico, at least here in Las Cruces, grades K-3 adopted the CCSS this past school year. Grades 4-12 will be adopting this upcoming school year. I know many states have already been there for a few years, but this is my first big experience with it all.

Before I jumped right in and started putting up lessons, ideas, units, assessments, etc. that are CCSS aligned, I wanted to make sure I sufficiently understood what the CCSS is all about. I've attended (and facilitated) a number of workshops and trainings this summer, and have also been reading Pathways to the Common Core, a great book that makes it easier to digest these changes in the literacy and writing classrooms.

Now that I've got a good idea of the direction I'll be going to one last math training today. I attended a few earlier this week about math pacing guides, and this one today is about CCSS and our new math series, Pearson enVision. There will be some changes to my page here. What I'll be doing is re-aligning my units for the CCSS. I will not take down my old units and lessons, but will be attempting to include CCSS resources in them, even the science and social studies one. I will be attempting to re-do those units to reflect both the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) standards that haven't been mandated in New Mexico, but are definitely coming, and the National Science Education Standards (NSES), which are also not mandated but help tie together my lessons to a broader focus.

I will begin posting these units this weekend, as well as some ideas on how to setup instruction in the various subjects according to the CCSS while addressing rigor, relevance, and a much greater depth of learning.

I'm excited about this shift to the CCSS, I think it will really force teachers to demand more of themselves and their students, and will pay off in the long run. Like anything else that is mandated in education, there are pitfalls and things to make you shake your head. But I've decided that, as it relates to the CCSS, there's not much value in complaining, we're all in this together (quite literally, all states with the exception of Texas, Virginia, and Alaska... and Minnesota in math, have adopted the CCSS, you can see that for yourself on this In the States graphic).

I hope you'll come back and be able to utilize some of what I put up here. Thanks!

End of the School Year: A Time To Regain Teacher Sanity

The last day of school is now 9 school days away (May 24th). That's right, summer is almost here! This time of year is very relieving, and a little sad, for many in the teaching profession. If you've had a great year, it's melancholy  If you've had a terrible year, it's joyous, but either way, you're tired, and you're ready for a break.

But, whether you teach kindergarten or 5th grade or senior English, the end of the year can be a whirlwind. You'll undoubtedly have a checkout list to go through, depending upon your school site and district. If they're going to work on the floors or carpets in your room over the summer, you'll be moving out, or at least getting things ready. If you're like me, and you've been in the same room for awhile (I'm finishing up my third consecutive year in the same room, I've been in three different rooms total in my career, all of which I've taught at one school), you might be lucky and only have to put things away for safe keeping, and possibly just put everything up against the walls so that the floor can be cleaned.

Yes, I'm one of the lucky ones. But, I still have a lot to do, you will too. Take it from me new teachers, use your students, they love helping anyways. Have them help put away books, clean bulletin boards and walls, and help you box up things like your desk and closet. If you're changing assignments, you'll have a lot of work to do. Anytime I've been asked to change rooms, it's a TON of work. I can't imagine the work in changing buildings, but I don't plan on going anywhere else anytime soon, so I'm not too worried.

The end of the year is exciting, but there really is so much to accomplish in those final days. Just keep your head up, because a chance to regain your sanity is closing in quickly!

Depth of Knowledge in the Elementary Classroom

A new buzz phrase is out there, and it's called Depth of Knowledge. It's not exactly new, but it's Common Core ready, and I for one welcome this shift in thinking.

The days of the lazy teacher are rapidly coming to a close. Being able to sit back, have your students sift through worksheets or textbooks, and grimly move from year to failing year are no longer going to cut it. The Common Core seeks to deal with that by upping the level of accountability and rigor.

Now, over to the conversation of rigor in the classroom. I'm a firm believer that an education should be hard. Students are not there for self esteem, to feel good about themselves with little to no effort. Students are at school to learn, and learning should be hard. Rigor is one of the keys to a high growth classroom (which I can confidently say I had this year). As many teachers know, one of the most important aspects to a successful education is a strong, above average, demanding teacher. It goes without saying that the opposite of that, a weak, non caring, apathetic, BAD teacher, would have the opposite effect.

Of course, you're not here because you're one of the bad ones. You're here, seeking to learn more, seeking out resources, trying to stretch your own knowledge, because you want to grow as a teacher and demand more of your students.

Just remember, students are capable. If you believe they can do it, they WILL step up to meet that challenge.

With that being said, let's take a look at Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK), and how it fits with what many of us are already aware of (Bloom Taxonomy, see my post on it HERE). DOK does not seek to remove or replace Blooms, but instead seeks to simplify it, to give it a new flavor (this is my opinion).

Depth of Knowledge is built around rigor. Now, the purpose of today's post isn't to define DOK (you could do much better somewhere else), but simply to give a few visuals that help you make sense of it all. My district, like many around the country, is demanding more, more rigor, and more from teachers, and rightly so. DOK and Blooms Taxonomy are great guides, and it's important to have an open mind when approaching new methodologies.

Without further delay, here are a few resources to help you wrap your mind around all of this. None of these works are my own:

• Webb's Depth of Knowledge Guide: A great pdf book that lays it all out there in somewhat academic language. It's a good starting place if you're new to it.
• Depth of Knowledge Resources Pinterest Results Page: If you're not on Pinterest, as a teacher, you're missing out big time. There's great stuff here, and for anything you are doing in your classroom.
• Depth of Knowledge Levels: A one page pdf document that really simplifies the whole thing with some verbs and suggested activities at the four levels. 
• Blooms to DOK: A great pdf that draws the link from old Blooms to new Blooms to DOK. Must see.

Using Mail Merge To Automatically Add Names to Documents, Certificates, Etc.

Mail Merge is a great tool... well the only tool, that exists in Microsoft Word that gives you the power to automatically add fields to documents that you will be printing multiple times. In business, this could include form letters, address fields, salutations, etc. In education, 9 times out of 10, we're talking about letters home or certificates.

I do a lot of certificates for the 5th graders at the end of the school year, and it gets really difficult and time consuming when you have to fill out hundreds of these things by hand. Mail merge only asks that you have their names in columns on an Excel document, and that's it. It's great.

I really hate filling out certificate after certificate, so mail merge has been a life saver. What mail merge does is it links up a field from your document (either Word or Publisher in this case) to data from an Excel document. It's fairly easy, especially once you've done it a few times.

What I have here are examples of how to do this in a few different formats.

How To Mail Merge in Microsoft Word / Publisher 97   PDF DOCUMENT

How to Mail Merge in Microsoft Word 2010 PDF DOCUMENT

How to Mail Merge Video:

Bowling With Math: A Great Order of Operations (PEMDAS) Practice Activity

Awhile back I posted a simple document called "Bowling With Math" without a lot of explanation in a post titled Order of Operations Game: Bowling With Math. Well, I am going to revisit that document, and expand on it a little bit today.

The Bowling With Math activity page ( you can download in .doc or .pdf format) has 10 "frames," just like in a regular bowling game. This activity is great because it can be varied in difficulty. The point here is that the teacher either chooses a few numbers (or rolls dice like I do), and students have to manipulate those numbers to equal the 10 different "pins" in the "frame," marking that number out each time they do so.

In my classroom (5th grade), I roll three dice. So let's say I roll a 5, 4, and 1. Students have to manipulate those three numbers using the order of operations (PEMDAS) to equal each pin number.

For example, I can do the following:

5+4+1 = 10
(5-4) x 1 = 1
(5-4) + 1 = 2
5+4-1 = 8
1x4+5 = 9

So let's say that's all I came up with, so I'd mark out the pins for 1, 2, 8, 9, and 10 and I would score 5 points for that frame.

In my class, I would do two frames per day, with students keeping their score on the score card each day. At the end of each week, students add their scores and keep a running total. This is a great activity that, when done consistently, teacher the order of operations in a very meaningful, engaging, and differentiated way. You can do as little as two numbers, or as many as you'd like. You can also change the rolls. Some weeks I'd roll five numbers and tell students to choose any three. Other weeks I'd roll six and tell them they could use no more than 3, etc. You can do whatever you want.

For convenience, I've added all the files, as well as a poster if you want to make a bulletin board for this activity, all in this convenient pdf file: PEMDAS BOWLING WITH MATH PACKET

Enjoy!

It's Your Zoo: Critical Thinking Exercise

One of my colleagues has been holding onto a resource for years called "It's My Zoo." This activity, from Teacher Created Resources, is a great time killer / critical thinking activity that students enjoy doing. The activity asks students to design the layout of a zoo following certain pre-set rules. The students can do these zoos either on a sheet of butcher paper, or in 3D using boxes, scraps, etc. I am sorry to say that I neglected to photograph my students finished zoos, but they did come out great and I was excited with the work they produced.

To sum all this up, I decided that the document we've been copying from was getting pretty rough. It was a copy of a copy of a copy or something like that, and was showing its age. So I updated it.

You can download this activity here:

IT'S YOUR ZOO (pdf)

The activity comes with an instruction sheet, a teacher scoring rubric, and animals cards. Enjoy!

5th Grade Common Core Cumulative Assessment and Practice Packet

My students are currently gearing up for some end of the year assessments, and these assessments are rather important to 5th graders, because their scores influence their placement in middle school classes. Obviously, my students see the value in doing their best, so they asked for a cumulative review to get them ready.

Now, even though we're not technically "on" the Common Core (CCSS) until next year, our districts formative assessment, the Discovery test, is CCSS based. So for that reason, and to fill in any gaps, I searched far and wide for a cumulative review, and boy did I find some good stuff!

But, instead of listing a ton of resources, I wanted to focus on one in particular that my students are using, and are thankful that they have.

Off at the Bridges Math Learning Center website, I found this fantastic pdf file titled:

FIFTH GRADE ASSESSMENTS AND SCORING CHECKLISTS, COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS

This document is 41 pages in length. I was able to narrow it down to 22 pages of things my students are going to review. So I edited down this pdf file. I want to stress that all credit for this document goes to the Bridges Math Learning Center.

My edited version of this pdf (the 22 page version) can be accessed HERE from my Google Drive.

The Lightning Thief End of Book Project and Teacher Resources

The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan, has become a mainstay in my reading class (my book review, located on my now defunct literacy blog, can be found HERE). For five years now, my students have been enjoying this fantastic book, and a thematic unit on Greek Mythology alongside the reading of the book. You can view my post titled Some 5th Grade Greek Mythology Resources for some great websites and information about teaching Greek Myth.

When reading The Lightning Thief, I call upon the following pages for some great resources:

• An overview of Lightning Thief resources at Rick Riordan's website: A table of contents page with tons of great resources.
• A chapter by chapter teachers guide from Rick Riordan's website: It's the first link from the above table of contents. It's an awesome resources, it's huge, comprehensive, and it's HUGE.
• A complete unit by chapters with questions and vocabulary: Again, from Rick Riordan's website (it's a great site).

Now, when you're done and you're ready to do an end of book project, I have everything you'll need right here:

• First, head off again to Rick Riordan's website for some awesome project ideas on the page titled School Project Ideas.
• Finally (this is why most of you came): The Lightning Thief end of book project (.doc format).
• If you need more explanation on the book brochure portion, seek help at my post titled Book Report Project Idea: Book Brochures.

5th Grade Science Fair Projects

Now that we're approaching the end of the school year, it's time to get the 5th graders working on their science fair projects.

I think it's a great end of year project to do, because it gives students a chance to show off the knowledge and skills they've acquired during the school year. We will be presenting these projects to families and community members in about 3 weeks time.

I look forward to showing off some of the exemplary (and even not so exemplary) projects here on the blog, but for now, I'm going to list some resources for anyone out there who is thinking about doing science fair projects. So here you go:

• Elementary School Science Fair Project Ideas
• Science Fair Projects by Scientific Discipline
• 200 Science Fair Projects: A neat little pdf document that I'm using today in class.
• Science Fair Project Ideas: Another pdf full of ideas

HERE ARE THE TWO MAIN RESOURCES I AM UTILIZING:

• Elementary Science Fair Planning Guide: I consider this to be the best resource I came across online. In fact, the document I created for my 5th grade is based on pages from this pdf document.
• My Science Fair Document: I made some changes to the document listed above, and added my own things to it. This is what we're using for our science fair.

Some Great Guides on How To Effectively use iPads in Your Classroom

For those of you who utilize the iPad or iPod Touch in your classroom, you likely know the power that these small tools can have when used effectively. I've always used technology in my classroom instruction, and have always attempted to integrate it seamlessly into what I do. I feel that I've found a great balance over the years of using computers in the classroom.

The problem with computers is they take up space. I have 8 computers in the room, and they are used constantly. Luckily I also now have a handful of iPads (with more coming) to use in the classroom, and boy are we using them!

So before I start posting on my own uses for iPad, I'll start by passing on some great ideas and resources for using iPads in the classroom:

• iPad Apps For School: This blog, by Richard Byrne (author of Free Technology for Teachers) offers some great ideas and focuses on great apps you can use with your iPads.
• Top 7 Guides On How To Use iPads in the Classroom: A resources that takes you to 7 great resources. 
• 62 Ideas for Using the iPad in the Classroom: A presentation with some fantastic ideas.
• 100 Way to Use iPads in Your Classroom: It has a lot of similar ideas to the others, plus a few inventive ones I'd never considered.

Measuring Capacity Resource: Gallon Man and Capacity Visual

First off, I apologize for the long delay in posts. It's been a busy last month or so. We had our state No Child Left Behind testing a few weeks ago, then we had Spring Break, and finally I'm back. It was a whirlwind, but it's done, and now we can get back to business.

Currently my 5th graders are studying measuring, including measuring tools, one step conversions, and the various categories of measurement. I'll be posting unit plans for the Measurement unit soon (in New Mexico Standards and Benchmarks format, Common Core units will be coming over the summer).

For today, I wanted to share a resource that has served me well when my students are learning about capacity, and this little pdf document includes two visuals for working with US unit capacity (volume), including the relationship between gallons, quarts, pints, and cups.

The document includes this little visual:

It also includes this one:

They're both ready for printing and use in the classroom.

This document comes thanks to The Teacher Website, and is hosted there:

MR. GALLON MAN PDF

Our Finished Kobe Bryant 81 Point Game Graphs

The 5th grade recently completed a neat little data activity, one I posted on awhile back titled Kobe Bryant Teaches Data Collection and Analysis. I'm going to restate some of what is said in that post, and provide the links again. First we started out by viewing the video that you will see embedded at the bottom of the post. Students were each given a slip titled Kobe Stat Sheet (you can download the Excel document for this by clicking the link).

From there, students had to graph how many Kobe Bryant scored in his historic 81 point performance back in 2006. We kept data by minutes in each quarter, and used that completed data to make some different graphs. 

It's important for students to know the purpose of each graph type (some students had been led to believe that you can use any type of graph for any purpose, it was just up to personal preference, and that is not true). Here is a simple explanation from nces.ed.gov.

So once the data was collected, students had a line plot that looked like this:

From this data, they completed a line graph showing point growth over the course of the game:

They made a pie chart showing the percentage of Laker points in the game scored by Kobe:

And they made bar graphs showing the top 10 scoring games in NBA history (that one can be seen at the top of the final photo). 

Finally, here is the Youtube video we used:

We Are Small

Today I was thinking about what it is that makes us feel so small. Our students, mostly still egotistical children, don't conceptualize the greater world and universe that exists out there. I like to take a moment each year with my students and discuss the concept of other people, other cultures, and the fact that our lives are quite small in the scheme of things, and that we must make every effort to become productive members of society, and to learn to co-exist with others.

But yeah, it's hard to get this concept across in a simple little lecture, so I like to show these amazing, world-view-defining videos. So, for tonight, enjoy:

Ascent, by Brian Eno: This amazing little piece of music that is accompanied with photos of the earth. Its 4 minutes really put me at ease and show me how small we really are.

Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan: If you want to prove that we're a speck of dust out there in the universe, here you go:

PARCC Assessment: Yes, It's Coming, Yes, You Can Prepare

Soooo, I don't want to freak anybody out, but if you live in:

• Arizona
• New Mexico
• Colorado
• Oklahoma
• North Dakota
• Arkansas
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Alabama
• Georgia
• Florida
• Tennessee
• Kentucky
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• New York
• Massachusetts
• New Jersey
• Delaware
• Maryland
• Washington DC

You are only a year and a half away from a new state mandated test, called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC from here forward) assessment. That's right, your state testing is about to change, and the change will be dramatic.

What makes this test difference is, well, a few things. First of all, it's computer based. That's right, students will be taking the high stakes test online. Plus, now, when we want to compare data across states, we won't be comparing apples to oranges to bananas. We will be comparing states using the identical assessment. So for those 22 states and DC, greater accountability is at hand.

But don't freak out! It's good news (hopefully). When the PARCC Assessment goes live during the 2014-2015 school year, each of those listed states will be fully aligned to the Common Core (CCSS from here forward). 

We're talking about an assessment that will be taken in grades 3-12 by over 25 million students (according to the website).

I highly recommend teachers from any one of those states listed above to go to the PARCC website (which I've linked to twice, you can click the logo or the other link... oh heck, HERE IT IS AGAIN). Start digging through it and see what's waiting for us all right around the bend. 2014 is a lot closer than you think, A LOT CLOSER!!!!

History Webs: A Great Social Studies Project Idea

My 5th graders just finished Civil War History Webs. This little project only takes a few periods of work, and really involves creativity and writing.

I found the idea for History Webs in "Super Social Studies," a Scholastic teacher guide that has served me very well over the years (I HIGHLY recommend this little book, it's amazing).

I don't want to quote directly what they call a history web, to respect their copyright, but as I've changed it up quite a bit from what is discussed in this book, I'll let you know about my version of this great project. BUT, you should go buy this guide, it really is one of the most used resources in my possession.

To make a history web, I recommend the large construction paper (I use the 12" x 18" paper that my school keeps in stock). You want your students to draw a rectangle in the middle of the paper, and from there, divide the paper into however many sections you want them to (I've done 4, 6, and 8). I recommend 6, it's a good number for drawing pictures, they don't come out too small at that size.

However many sections you've divided the paper into is how many different topics you will assign. We just completed these for the Civil War, and their options to choose from included (but were not limited to): Abraham Lincoln, the Battle of Gettysburg, the First Battle of Bull Run, General Lee, General Grant, General Stonewall Jackson, the Emancipation Proclamation, the end of the war, the battle of the Ironclads, Lincoln's Assassination, the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, the fall of Richmod, Sojourner Truth, and Nat Turner. You can obviously choose many other things for this.

The assignment for students is to research each of their six topics (or four, or eight, depending). Students will be asked to draw a color picture depicting the topic, and write a paragraph in their own words about that topic, either on the back of the paper or on index cards.

Here are a few examples of exemplary work. Some have the work on index cards, and some have it written on the back:

How to Make Groups for Texting on an Android Device

In my previous post, I outlined many of the reasons it's a great idea to send daily mass text messages to your parents. If you're tired of looking back one post, it's called Some Rules for Teachers Who Text Parents or Want to Text Parents.

It's a great thing, and when you pair your Android device with a great app called Handcent SMS, you will have the ability to write a single text and send it to as many as 60 people at once.

OK, this sounds great, but there are plenty of people out there who don't know how to make groups.

It's easy, you can do it on your computer (in fact, I recommend you do it on your computer, it's much faster that way). You see, your Gmail contacts are your Androids contacts, so we're going to go into Gmail.

1.

Once you're in Gmail, you'll want to click on the "Gmail" above the compose button. All of what I will show you happens in the left hand column of the Gmail layout.










2.

Now, a drop down menu will come up, click on "Contacts."










3.

On the page that comes up, look near the bottom for "New Group." Click it.










4.

You'll be prompted to name your group. Once you've done that, the page will refresh. Now, at the top of your list, you'll want to click "My Contacts" so it opens up. Your new group will be listed.








5.

Now, for this last step, I'm going to assume that you've already added all the parents to your contact list. If you don't know how to do that, let me know. That's a good idea for another "how to" post.

Now, when you open up the contact you want to add to your group, you'll be taken to the page shown to the left. Click the image of the three circles above the body (GROUPS), and click a check mark next to the group you are adding this contact to. That's it, you're done. Repeat this last step for everyone you want in your group.


Now, finally, on your Android phone, this will automatically sync. Depending upon which Droid operating system you use, you'll have a group listing in your phones address book. If you decide to use Handcent SMS, it automatically syncs the phones data to it, you don't have to do anything else.

I hope that's helpful!

Some Rules for Teachers Who Text Parents or Want to Text Parents

I don't want this post to come across authoritative in any way, that's not the intent. As someone who has used text messaging as the primary communication with parents for the past five school years, I've learned a few lessons, and have some advice to give. So let's get started:

Rule #1: Send home a note at the beginning of the school year: At the onset of the school year, you'll want to send a letter home requesting parents cell phone numbers, and if they would like to communicate with you through text messaging (in my case, through a daily digest message). In that letter, lay out your expectations. I always tell parents that I do not take phone calls at home. If it's an emergency, they can leave a message and a call back number, and I will do my best to return said phone call. BUT, I am good about text messaging. I usually do respond. But I do put a disclaimer that I am not obligated to respond to messages sent, and neither are they. I'm a family man and sometimes I put my phone away, and won't hold it against them if they do the same.

Rule #2: No texts from students, unless it's on a parents phone and is a school related matter: This is one I've honestly had to think about over the years. The first few years, I'd get texts from students, on their own phones. I think we can all see how that can be a slippery slope at any age, but especially starting in these pre-teen years. I do get texts from students on parent phones asking for clarification on an assignment, or a question about something they needed to do or bring, and I will respond. I think it's important that it comes from the parents phone, so there is a record of the conversation.

Rule #3: Back up EVERYTHING: I use a great free app on my Android called SMS Backup +. This great app backs up your SMS and MMS (pictures and videos sent to and from your phone) messages to your Gmail account (because if you have an Android, you have Gmail), and labels them within your saved mail messages, in their own folder. It's a fantastic app that keeps an ongoing record of all conversations. You never can be too careful, and it always helps to have messages backed up, indefinitely, in case something happens to your phone. I have three years worth of backed up messages in my Gmail, and it doesn't take up much storage space.

Rule #4: Have  a way to send mass texts: Back in the day when it was still the dominant product, I had a Blackberry. The single greatest thing about a Blackberry was the ability to send a single text to as many people you wanted at once. When I went to the Android about three years back, I was saddened that I could only send a message to 10 recipients at a time. So, I did what I thought was the best thing, I created four different groups, each with 10 parents, and would have to mass send my mass text four times, once to each group. It was a little cumbersome.

I now use Handcent, a free app in the Google Play Store that allows you to send mass texts to as many people at a time as you'd like. I send daily texts to parents, letting them know about important reminders, homework that is due, etc. I type my message, click the group, and boom, it's sent. It's great, because I can do this with literally a minute of work. I can then deal with any responses as they come across. But since I made it clear in my letter at the beginning of the school year that replies are not necessary unless there's questions or comments, I often don't receive a single response to my daily texts.

Rule #5: Be prepared to have parents praise you as the best communicator they've ever dealt with: I have to almost laugh sometimes when parents praise me as the teacher with the best parent communication ever in the history of their child's education. I don't laugh because it's a lie, it is in fact probably true, I laugh because it takes so little effort, and parents love it so much. The great thing about a text message is that it is not invasive like a phone call can be. The same information can be passed on, and is received. I send out praises for students who are doing great (I can send out five or six each day after school, and it only takes two or three minutes), I can even let a parent know about a small issue. I've scheduled conferences, dealt with issues both minor and major, all through text messages.

Rule #6: Be consistent: This is important with anything you do in a school setting, you have to follow through and be consistent. If you say you're going to use texting as your primary form of communication with those who have it, do it.

Rule #7: Have a plan for parents who don't text: It's weird I know, but yes, there are people who don't text. I have a few parents this year who either don't have a cell phone, or they don't like texting. One of them prefers email, so I actually have him in my list on Handcent, and his daily text goes to his email address instead of his phone (yes, you can do that).  Another parent doesn't have a cell phone (shocking, I know). In that case, I tell them that my major announcements come home in my bi-weekly newsletter, and that I will send home notes of praise or concern as needed. I tell them to call me during school hours, and call me at home and leave a message if it's an emergency. The first year I used texting in this manner, which would have been 2008-2009, I had 15 parents who signed up and 5 who did not. This year, I have 23 parents who signed up, one who signed up but for email instead, and one who didn't. Last year, all 26 parents signed up for it. The times they are changing, and it's becoming easier to reach a broad audience in just a short message.

Good luck if you decide to text with your parents, and welcome to the 21st century!

5th Grade Civil War Unit

As I always do when finishing a new unit, I will post the content here as a post within the main pages of my blog. Unit 5: The American Civil War, which includes topics on slavery, the war, two nations, Abraham Lincoln, and reconstruction, exists as a page that is called Fifth Grade Civil War Unit. It is also listed in my subject listing under Social Studies. For those of you who like to get what you came for, you can find that entire post in its entirety listed below:

My fifth grade unit on the Civil War attempts to take students through the topics of slavery, including the roots of slavery, horrors of slavery, and the Underground Railroad. From there, we talk about the political beginnings of the Civil War, and spend the majority of the unit in a timeline taking us through the major battles, important people and events, and ending with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

SLAVERY IN THE CIVIL WAR

I like to start the unit with the portion on slavery. I have two posts in my old literacy blog titled Teaching A Unit on Slavery in Intermediate or Middle School (Part 1: Picture Books), and (Part 2: Literature Selections) that you can refer to for some great ideas. I have a few books that I enjoy reading aloud to the students, and that they learn a lot from.

I always start the unit by reading From Slave Ship to Freedom Road, a Julius Lester book that, while it is a picture book, is definitely hard hitting and doesn't hold back. It's a great way to set the tone for teaching about slavery if you intend to show the horrors and injustices of slavery in a way that will get through to elementary students but won't overwhelm them. (there aren't really any "free" versions of this book out there, but it's definitely worth the $6 or so that you'll spend getting it on Amazon or through one of the links on Google shopping).

I also read Under the Quilt of Night by Deborah Hopkinson. This story is a great, appropriate for almost any age telling of a family on the run on the Underground Railroad. This book is available in my schools library, and might be available in yours too, it's a common book (it's in the easy section). Finally, I read Almost to Freedom by Vonda Micheaux Nelson, it's a great story of a runaway girl and her family told from the perspective of the little girls doll. This book actually stuck with many of my students more than the others for some reason.

Now, granted, the topic of slavery is deserving of its own unit, and I will eventually get there. I always expand on this unit when we get to the civil right era. I've found that my students in 5th grade seem to understand the complexity and importance of slavery in the United States when I pair it up with the civil right era. Because honestly, more than half the class always thinks that Martin Luther King Jr. ended slavery before I teach them differently. I'm going to list a few of the more high quality resources about slavery here, that you can use as part of a Civil War unit, it's own unit, or like me, a mixture of Civil War and Civil Rights.

• The Underground Railroad Interactive on Scholastic.com: A high quality interactive that takes students through an escape, full with characters and a telling of events. There are passages to read or have read aloud on the computer. 
• Pathways to Freedom: Maryland and the Underground Railroad: This neat little interactive is highly educational and plays out a little like one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books. It's well done and very educational. 
• The Listing of Slavery and Civil Rights Resources Available on PBS: It is what it says, there's stuff here on the slave trade, Jim Crow, Civil Rights, and more. 
• Timeline of Slavery Throughout World History: This is helpful if you wish to discuss the overall scope of slavery, dating back all the way to 6800 BC.
• Map of American Slavery at NY Times: A great little map with some specific areas to focus research on. 

Now, let's move on to the Civil War itself. In my class, I want students to understand the causes of the Civil War, the difference between the Confederate Army and Union Army, the basic timeline of events, and how the world recovered afterwards. With that being said, let's move on to some great resources:

THE CIVIL WAR

• American Civil War Resources: A listing with online quizzes and games. There's another listing of great resources at surfnetkids. 
• The Civil War for 5th Graders: A great little site done by a teacher. It plays out kind of like a web quest, with some good, kid friendly information presented in an easy to understand format. 
• History Channel Civil War Interactive: You can always count on the History Channel to have great interactives of the highest quality. I'm using this one as students learn more about the differences between the two armies, battles, etc. It's all here, and it's well done. 
• NY Times Civil War Interactives: There's a few great resources here, some about the war, some about life during the Civil War, and some about Lincoln. 
• Battle Casualties Map: Hosted by the Washington Post, it's a great map that shows casualties on a map in a timeline format. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

• Abraham Lincoln's Life Timeline: Hosted by Lincoln's Library and Museum. PBS also has a great Lincoln Timeline. 
• Abraham Lincoln's Crossroads: A challenging game about Lincoln's presidency that would be great for your highly intelligent students desiring a challenge. 
• Lincoln's Major Speeches: If you're going to teach about his inaugural speeches, or the Gettysburg Address. 
• History.com Interactive on Lincoln's Assassination: Good stuff!
• The Lincoln Memorial: The listing for the Lincoln Memorial on the National Park website, there's a few great panoramas and discussions of Lincoln's importance. 

Finally, as we go through the unit, I have students complete a 6 part "history web," a little project that I will post more on as we finish them up this week. It's a great small project.

I will also have my students complete a "gallery walk," an idea I took from Lessons With Laughter. I will also amend this posting with more information on that when it's completed.