Our fish project is an inquiry based project done over a 4 month period. It incorporates curricular connections in ELA, Math, Arts Ed. and Science. Creativity and collaboration are the highlighted dispositions.
This resource looks at the five stages for the creative process including:
1. Preparation
2. Incubation
3. Illumination
4. Implementation
5. Evaluation
"Humor, goofiness, joy, fun — these were actually vital to developing a creative classroom culture. When I taught middle school, we had a wordplay wall at the back with ridiculously bad dad jokes (things like “fire drill” and “slow jams” and “graduated cylinder”). We had Easter Eggs hidden throughout the classroom. We had our own version of a Rick Roll. If someone asked you to “share a link,” you had to “Cher a link” instead, sending them to a music video from Cher. "
This excellent resource includes videos, and some reading. It's very engaging - and fun! It's all about bringing joy to your classroom - which happens to spark community, creativity and foster risk taking! Win win win!
Flippity easily turns any Google spreadsheet into flash cards, a badge creator, a spelling quiz, a memory game, a word search, random name generator, scavenger hunt, board game, manipulatives, matching game, timeline, BINGO, leader board, crossword puzzle, word scramble, word cloud, MadLibs, self assessment and more. Teachers can use Flippity for a variety of purposes: to present to the class, to assess individual students, or to have students make their own creations.
My creative artifact is about Ukrainian Easter Eggs also known as Pysanka. Students made authentic Pysanka using the traditional methods for a cultural Ukrainian expression of the Easter celebrations
Ditch That Textbook has tons of great ideas to support teachers in their busy classrooms. One of the many resources offered are FREE templates that will save time and engage students in their learning.To access these free templates (Google Slides and PowerPoint) head on over to https://ditchthattextbook.com/resources/templates or check out the individual sections included in this lesson.
What is Genius Hour? Genius Hour is a set amount of time for students to create projects based on their passions and interests, research a deeper level of their passion, and finally present on their own learning.
How We Introduced Genius Hour:
1. Show Pep talk video and introduce Genius Hour (see link)
2. Start with what is your passion? – that is all (Students think first then add a post-it telling me their passion)
3. How can we turn your passion into a project? Students write ideas and conference with me.
4. Once they all have projects, the time is their own. One hour every 6 day cycle to work on project. (Can be more than one project; if they finish the first, they come up with another)
5. The less rules the better (mine have to present at a Genius Fair (like a science fair) and have visuals for their table when done their project
My goal this year was to include more opportunities for students to work collaboratively and develop their critical thinking skills at the same time. The example I have chosen for my artifact is an invitation I created for our final Science unit, Rocks and Minerals. I included this invitation in my centers and this allowed students a great deal of time to explore and examine the station independently. The students loved it and it was a very popular place in our classroom! I created the invitation by gathering the rocks and minerals books and materials that we had in our school. Students were then given opportunity just to explore the rocks and minerals station before we even began the unit. Once we began the unit students began to add materials to the exploration station in the classroom.
Student collaborated together and discussed the idea of flashmobs – what they were, where they occur, why they occur, how they relate to pop culture. We utilized You Tube so that students could see these in action and garner ideas for their own which was the end goal.
Part One: Students are tasked with using factual information learned about an animal species of their choice (Life Science – Diversity of Living Things). Students read and conduct research using a variety of resources, including online, textbook, and non-fiction materials.
Part Two: Students are tasked with using the writing process to prepare and present a scientific report (ELA – Compose and Create).
Part Three: Students are tasked with designing, constructing and displaying a mask of their animal species (Arts Ed – Creative/ Productive) along with a written title and caption for their display piece.
This assessment was developed and used for a larger assignment that we had planned for in this unit. I interned in GSSD, and they go by 4 point scale (Beginning, Developing, Meeting and Exceeding), so this is what the rubric my class and I created it to be centered around. I wanted the students input on the way they were being assessed, so they understood what I was looking for and they fully understood how they were being marked. Most of the time students either gloss over their assessment and forget about it or don't even look at it at all. I wanted to change that, and thought this would be a great way to do that. We created this rubric on the smart board before I typed it up, and had students put their input into it and talk about what was fair, too easy or too hard to accomplish. I included the outcomes in the rubric as well because the students are familiar that they will be marked in levels rather than percentages now. I rewrote the outcome into an I Can (Partners Can) statement so it was easier for them to understand. This took almost a whole class to complete but by the end of it the students were more confident with what they needed to do to receive a good grade. We talked about what a good video would look like it and they could hardly wait to get started!
I find this to fit right into 21st century teaching as it opens up the communication and collaboration between myself and the students. I had the opportunity to listen to their needs and wants and incorporate some of them into the rubric. I also found that the students felt responsible for this and wanted to 'live up' to the expectations they created. This assignment allowed students to get creative and collaborate with each other for ideas as well! This was a big success for me because students knew their expectations all the time, they had tons of fun, learnt a lot about the technology and programs behind making a video and truly enjoyed being part of the assessment process. I Hope you enjoy it and maybe even use it someday in the future!
Grasshopper is designed for individual learning rather than classroom implementation, so there's no dashboard or central place to monitor student progress. This makes it better suited for students to learn and practice at their own pace with teacher support. Teachers with some coding experience can advise and coach students as they encounter complex problems, while teachers without much coding experience can encourage students to work collaboratively and/or use the available help in the app. For classes using unplugged activities to teach coding concepts, Grasshopper is a great way to let students start putting that knowledge to use on an individualized basis.
Download from the App Store or Google Play.
In these YouTube lessons for young children, you start by writing a letter of the alphabet and turn the letter into an animal starting with the letter.
Check out the lessons to see the animals kids can draw from the entire alphabet!
This balloon LEGO car activity is easy and simple, and it’s a fun time for the entire family! Be sure to check out the LEGO zip line for the minifigures too!
The importance of creativity, the quality of screen time, perfectionism, creativity in the classroom, finding your "tribe", problem solving, and the art of copying are explored. Other resources and contacts are also linked in.
I have decided to use the Inquiry process in my unit on rocks and
minerals. Since my students are familiar with the inquiry process and I
have already had some success with this style of teaching and learning, I
have decided to use a blended inquiry. It was be a blend of open and
guided inquiry where I was able to assist students as needed although
they had the freedom of posing their own questions and also had the
freedom to choose their own form of formal assessment such as a
written paper, a poster with an oral presentation, or a Power Point
presentation. I allowed the students to pose their own question in the
hope of sparking their curiosity and sense of wonder.
Instructables is a website specializing in user-created and uploaded do-it-yourself projects, currently owned by Autodesk. It was created by Eric Wilhelm and Saul Griffith and launched in August 2005.
Instructables is dedicated to step-by-step collaboration among members to build a variety of projects.
What Is It?
This checklist from Respectful Ways contains 14 activities for families to foster creativity, prompt discussion, expand children's imaginations, and cultivate social-emotional growth. Respectful Ways created these fun, interactive activities to guide family members through the process of recognizing and navigating negative feelings, understanding the origins of emotions, and help everyone cope with stress.
This is a collection of resources that could be used for a study of famous Japanese Artist, Yayoi Kusama.
"I’ve listed 100+ PBL ideas below to help get you started on the project-based learning journey. The ideas below that are hyperlinked will send you to the project that is already developed. Those that are not yet hyperlinked are some of our ideas for future projects. I can’t wait to share them out when they are finished. In the meantime, use them to get inspired and give you some ideas to start PBL with your students."
Project ideas are organized by Education Level, and the High School ideas are further organized by subject.