edukaition: Feeling pretty good about the Civil War lesson looking at these exit slips. Teaching it to fourth graders involves a lot of simplifying while trying not to lose meaning or make it sound too trivial. I wasn’t sure if they were fully getting it, but checking in with these made me feel a lot better!

Original exit slip document is from here.

Pretty good exit slip idea, even for middle school! Suggestion- instead of asking how their effort was at the bottom, ask about how students feel about level of mastery. How much do they understood of what you taught today?

What I struggle with is how to effectively use exit tickets (actually reading them all) when you have 320 students and you see them every 3rd day. Thoughts? Ideas?

(via from-student-to-teacher)

Source: edukaition

One of my 8th grader’s self-portraits! Not complete yet, but so incredibly good! SO MANY of these are coming out incredibly well!!!! I am so so proud. Will post more as they start to finish up before the break! We spent 2-3 classes practicing drawing each other before starting the final. On day one I had them draw a partner without showing them how. Then I gave instruction and they drew again. Each day they got better and it increased their confidence! The students are allowed to shade in pencil or use oil pastel or colored pencil to complete their work. They are all coming out so incredibly well and I am so proud!
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One of my 8th grader’s self-portraits! Not complete yet, but so incredibly good! SO MANY of these are coming out incredibly well!!!! I am so so proud. Will post more as they start to finish up before the break!

We spent 2-3 classes practicing drawing each other before starting the final. On day one I had them draw a partner without showing them how. Then I gave instruction and they drew again. Each day they got better and it increased their confidence!

The students are allowed to shade in pencil or use oil pastel or colored pencil to complete their work. They are all coming out so incredibly well and I am so proud!

I am my school’s first employee of the month this school year! Out of about 100 teachers it’s me!

And I had my first post-observation meeting. My principal was really impressed and said that I’m going to be a star— that I already am! She said that she is so glad I’m at this school. I asked her if she was aware that when I interviewed, I already had already been offered another position. She did know. I’m glad I’m there too. I had a choice between an incredible charter school and a rough middle school and I wanted middle. I’m already making an impact on some of these kids and it’s incredible.

What an amazing way to start a teaching career!!

As an MYP school, I have to come up with pretty intense rubrics… (Middle Years Programme— the middle school version of International Baccalaureate).

This is my rubric for the 6th grade henna project. Two full pages. Just for comparison, when I taught this during student teaching, the rubric was one half of a sheet. Yes, that is a rubric… a rubric for answering the questions…on the rubric…for the rubric… for the project. Confused yet?

For the 7th graders this is where we’re going. Started with a 9x12 sheet filled with patterns. Then I make 3 copies of the sheet which are then cut into 2” x 4” rectangles (there will be extra which is discarded). Those rectangles are rolled into tubes along a pencil and the tubes are used to create a sculpture! This shows the first three stages. I’m going to have the kids watercolor a “base” to give the sculpture some color. The color should also reflect on the tubes a little which will be neat to see. How I began this unit: we discussed pattern and I made a handout with 12 squares on it and had students place a different pattern in each square. I googled “zentangle” and printed out some different patterns for students to use for inspiration. I told them they could copy some of the patterns if they liked (I do!) I made sure they weren’t using letters, and just repetitive shapes (circle, triangle, square), and tried to encourage them to make more interesting designs. We talked about line variety and using straight/curved lines, coloring some places in and leaving some designs simpler. For the actual pattern part on the paper I had students first divide up their paper into different sections using compasses and rulers. Dividing the paper first allows the patterns to spread out more! I rushed through the importance of this at first and students who didn’t divide up their paper were not getting successful patterned sheets. When this happened, I had the students start over. Their second attempts were SO MUCH BETTER! They’re still in the pencil stages, but they will be moving to sharpie next. From there, I will make the copies of their drawings, they will cut up the copies into the rectangles and roll into tubes! Somewhere in there will be watercoloring their base sheets, and then comes the sculpture construction! This is a fairly long unit, but we are really stressing the importance of craftsmanship and how you can change an artwork to make it into something new, which are both really important concepts for the beginning of the year!
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For the 7th graders this is where we’re going. Started with a 9x12 sheet filled with patterns. Then I make 3 copies of the sheet which are then cut into 2” x 4” rectangles (there will be extra which is discarded). Those rectangles are rolled into tubes along a pencil and the tubes are used to create a sculpture! This shows the first three stages. I’m going to have the kids watercolor a “base” to give the sculpture some color. The color should also reflect on the tubes a little which will be neat to see.

How I began this unit: we discussed pattern and I made a handout with 12 squares on it and had students place a different pattern in each square. I googled “zentangle” and printed out some different patterns for students to use for inspiration. I told them they could copy some of the patterns if they liked (I do!) I made sure they weren’t using letters, and just repetitive shapes (circle, triangle, square), and tried to encourage them to make more interesting designs. We talked about line variety and using straight/curved lines, coloring some places in and leaving some designs simpler.

For the actual pattern part on the paper I had students first divide up their paper into different sections using compasses and rulers. Dividing the paper first allows the patterns to spread out more! I rushed through the importance of this at first and students who didn’t divide up their paper were not getting successful patterned sheets. When this happened, I had the students start over. Their second attempts were SO MUCH BETTER! They’re still in the pencil stages, but they will be moving to sharpie next. From there, I will make the copies of their drawings, they will cut up the copies into the rectangles and roll into tubes! Somewhere in there will be watercoloring their base sheets, and then comes the sculpture construction!

This is a fairly long unit, but we are really stressing the importance of craftsmanship and how you can change an artwork to make it into something new, which are both really important concepts for the beginning of the year!

Current projects—

6th grade is working on henna tattoo designs, which they LOVE. Should be done in 2 more classes, then I can post pictures!

7th grade is doing zentangle patters. These will then be turned into sculptures! I’m working on my sculpture this weekend, so I’ll post that. These will take a majority of the marking period, so no finished works for a while!

8th grade is working on awareness posters for concussions for a contest. We are talking about graphic design and portraying ideas visually. Those should be done in a few classes, and I can post those pictures!

The next project for 6th grade will be a combination of a weaving and clay medallions. Think of a dream catcher, but a weaving in the middle instead of the dream catcher part. Not sure if I want to focus on Mexico, Aztec culture, Native Americans, or possibly Day of the Dead? Something like that…

The next project for 7th grade will be plaster masks, though they won’t get there for a while. The next project for 8th grade will focus on Georgia O’Keefe and oil pastel drawings of flowers.