Rejuvenating Education One Day At A Time
150 years of content in five weeks? Yeah, no problem. The students were in charge. In a lightning speed brainstorm with the founder of L-EAF, Jeff Burstein, the way unit planning was typically done flipped on its side. Instead of spending weeks meticulously planning every movement and learning path in the classroom I developed one... Continue Reading →
With so much curriculum to cover, all of US History and Government, the question is often posed as to why we spend so much time sketchnoting and working through the Constitution line by line. Other teachers find that using summaries, moving through the document with game-like lessons, or graphic organizers work well for their students.... Continue Reading →
How reflection creates student agency. Game day was an overwhelming success. The students spent one day playing each others games and offering evaluations. Students then had time to review the feedback from their peers and make changes before their work was graded. Throughout the project students prototyped their games and collected data to make sure... Continue Reading →
As we round the circle at the end of our Constitution unit the room is buzzing with energy. Students are out of their seats, holding their laptops like busy waiters during dinner service while chatting away to their peers on zoom, and pulling through the junk drawer of creative supplies. The time to put all... Continue Reading →
Reading the U.S. Constitution is not a priority of my 8th grade students. At this point in the year their genuine interest has built about the Constitution, but the actual want to read a document written in 1787 is not on this "Must Do" list. This year we have the extra challenge of students transitioning... Continue Reading →
When this year started we all knew we were in for a once in a lifetime ride (hopefully). In South Florida our school year began with two weeks of virtual learning where everyone was home. Teachers and students worked from their homes struggling to get to know each other and breaking the expecations of what... Continue Reading →
SET THE STAGE One of the major skills I teach is argumentative writing. One would think that taking naturally argumentative pre-teens and harnessing that energy with be easy, unfortunately it is not. Students that can argue over grades, the pros and cons of wearing leggings at school and which football team will reach the Super... Continue Reading →
The new unit on revolutions is content heavy. We are exploring the American road to revolution and the Revolutionary War. In the past students have created timelines that are a reference that will be used in the next unit when learning the U.S. Constitution. This year changed the project to involve a larger world view. ... Continue Reading →
Flying high off the success of our last project, 8th grade U.S. Government students are excited to start their new adventure. They have been working with the same groups for the entire quarter and are ready to move forward with a dynamic new group. They enjoyed self-selecting their groups based on diverse qualities and skills... Continue Reading →
The learning goal is for students to explore the power distribution and relationship between people and their governments. The hook is a lightning project. To hook students into this lesson time was used to up the level of anticipation. This project could be larger and could take more time, but the same learning goals can... Continue Reading →
