First, we studied fairytales and fractured fairytales. We learned about the elements of each story and compared them. During the learning process students were practicing a variety of reading comprehension strategies: predicting, inferring, compare and contrast, main idea, theme etc. After learning about all the elements of fractured fairytales my students took their shot at writing them. They were split into partners based on the fairytale that they wanted to fracture. Then they had to work through the five stages of the writing process. First, the partners had to plan their fractured fairytale. They were given the choice of what kind of graphic organizer to use to begin their planning and brainstorming. They had to plan their plot, setting, problem and solution. Then the students worked through the rough draft, editing and revising stages of the writing process. Throughout those phases they were completing self-assessment checklists to keep on track with their work. Lastly, they wrote a good copy of their fractured fairytale and illustrated it. This also included a cover page and a back page. The back page included a teaser to hook the reader.

I have been doing expert writing with the older students for a few years now as an independent English Language Arts project while I am working with the younger students. However, I have been disappointed with the variety and creativity in presentations. I give them a list of possible formats and they choose the topic they are interested in researching and how they want to present what they have learned. Only 1 or 2 have been brave enough to deviate from the traditional written report, or poster. My plan was to do a variety of creativity projects from the Destination Imagination series to foster creativity and get them in the right frame of mind before doing their projects. I insisted that they had to choose a format other than a written report, or poster.

CP6.8 Investigate and manipulate elements of music and principles of composition including repetition and variety.

Choose an idea, a storyline, or an object that you want to represent. Create a presentation that shows repetition and variety in at least three different elements of music, and explain how it represents your idea/story/object. The explanation can be verbal, visual, or written. This can be worked on individually or collaboratively as a group.

The Global Digital Citizen Foundation is a fountain of resources for teachers that are trying to stay current. There are videos available and you can download the guides. Included are full lessons/handbooks for the following fluencies:
Solution
Information
Creativity
Media
Collaboration
Global Digital Citizenship

This checklist outlines how and why it is important to develop essential questions.

MAKE CURRICULUM COME ALIVE
DESIGN IN AUGMENTED REALITY AND SHARE YOUR CREATIONS.

You are able to sign up for a free teacher account (with limited use) but there are also full accounts available for a cost (9.99 a month or 2-3 dollars a student depending on how you sign up).

Allow students to express their own style with the classics.
You can find the originals and view/discuss them and learn about the artist. Then students can create their own interpretation of the famous piece of art.

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.