As students work in groups, designate one or more students to silently observe the workers. Call them the Super Spies. The Super Spies silently take notes on positive behaviors and then report what they saw to the class. The teacher should be the first Super Spy to model the types of behaviors that should be reported. It’s quick, it’s simple, and it works wonders.
Hannah as a Super Spy
Super Spy Melody
Cameron takes notes as a Super Spy
Watch as Super Spies report positive behaviors to class.
For the latest edition of the Bedley Bros. Scott shares a fantastic idea for bringing the community into your classroom for free and with little effort. He calls it the “Artist to Classroom Network.” He also shares a QuickTip about getting free prizes for your classroom. Check it out and leave us a comment!
For the last few years, I’ve been using musicals by Bad Wolf Press. They produce a wide variety of standards-based musical plays for grades K-8. Putting on the shows is a lot of work, but the kids never forget the lyrics nor the experience. A couple of 20 year old siblings were singing along as my students performed California Missions and More. Two years ago we performed a musical on the US Constitution. In May, the kids will perform US Geography for the student body and a night performance for parents and friends. Producing a show like this has several benefits including building class community, connecting the students with the community, and integrating the arts into our busy days.
Scott and I went to the CUE (Computer-Using Educators) Conference this past week and interviewed some of the movers and shakers in the world of #EdTech. Watch our latest Bedley Bros. #ElemChat featuring Sir Ken Robinson, Kevin Honeycutt, Randy Kolset, Catlin Tucker, and Brent Coley. We also show you some of the latest COOLEST new gadgets from vendors.
Would 4th and 5th graders be able to hold their own student-driven, student-centered EdCamp? We gave it a shot this last Friday in room 32 at Wildomar Elementary School. Students signed up all week long to run the sessions. The “poster” was a shared Google Spreadsheet. We held four 15-minute sessions with a 20-minute break in the middle and at the end for reflection. The kids LOVED it as I’m sure you will be able to tell in this 4-minute highlight video of the event. Presentation topics included horses, One Direction band, Scratch game programming, dance, gymnastics, iPad settings, baseball, and Minecraft.
Assessment of the Day
It was a bit messy at times, but overall, the kids were thoroughly engaged and will never forget it. Areas to improve: greater guidance on “voting with your feet,” brainstorm topics before giving the kids access to the sign-up board, encourage deeper topics, and having more time for follow-up discussion and/or reflection journaling at the end. Victories: the presenters took it very seriously, one girl had a ton of research ready to go, one very shy girl totally blossomed and showed amazing communication and leadership skills, 29 of my 30 students present were engaged and learning, no one seemed to be too hurt by participants leaving their session, very little wasted time, took students to a new level of maturity and love of learning.
What about teaching the standards? None of the sessions were standards-based. I’m not sure if this is important, and if I did try to steer the event in that direction, if it would still be this engaging and successful in the eyes of the students. Students were definitely learning habits of mind, 21st century skills, and were totally engaged. Is there a way to run such an event that is standards-based without losing the magic? That remains to be seen. I plan to try it again in a month and include one or two other 4th/5th grade classes.
In this first episode of The Bedley Bros., Tim and Scott Bedley chat about the research communities in Scott’s 5th grade classroom in Irvine, California. Scott and Tim will be presenting on the topic at the 2013 CUE Conference in Palm Springs. Take a listen!
In this 2-minute video, I show how I am currently using Google Drive with my 4th/5th grade class to enhance my writing instruction. My learning environment is BYOD with iPads. I set up an account through Google Apps for Education. I gave each student an account (and one for me.) The students work in groups with a shared document. They also share the document with me. This allows me to monitor each group’s progress right from my iPad. We use the Google Drive App on our iPads.
By Tim Bedley Tweet Many teachers have a D.E.A.R. Day on occasion. Drop Everything And Read. Here are 11 keys to D.E.A.R. Day success in the elementary school classroom. Schedule the day. Break the day up into 15-20 minute segments. … Continue reading →
By Tim Bedley Tweet I have been assigning slide presentations to my elementary students for many years. I found myself repeating the same critiques to group after group. Now, I don’t leave “PowerPoint” style to chance. Here are a … Continue reading →
If you’re like me, you love creating QR codes but find it very frustrating to keep track of them because all your QR codes look basically the same. One solution is to use the iPad app PhotoString. The app is designed for making photo montages with text, but I’m using it to label my QR codes. Of course, sometimes you want your QR codes to remain a mystery before they are scanned, but when you don’t, here’s how to label them.
