Two (or five) heads are better than one...

Two (or five) heads are better than one…..
A picture paints a thousand words….

Both of these phrases support today’s post.

I’ve been blessed to work with some wonderful teachers at my school. My fellow World History teachers (Jamie Carlson, Deb Kenton, Tammy Morley, &  Matt Lewis) and I share lesson activities with each other as well as work together creating many of our assignments.
In my last post, I shared research supporting non-linguistic representations (pictures) in the high school classroom. In addition to formative assessment, pictures can be used to help students process new information.

In our World History World War I Unit, we modified the Etch-A-Sketch concept from Tools for Promoting Active In-Depth Learning to create a graphic organizer to accompany a PowerPoint we created. However, we went from pictures to words this time instead of taking written notes and then drawing pictures.

Our Lesson: Teacher presents their own material to cover the big ideas and details of how WWI was a “new kind” of war. Students will sketch as they view the material, and then will discuss the big ideas and details. Afterwards they will put the class interpretation into words and phrases.

Here’s the note organizer.

We got some great drawings of soldiers in the trenches with flamethrowers and of tanks and other new technology in the war.


Your turn:
How have you used pictures or visuals in your classroom?
Leave a comment to start our discussion.

Got 5 minutes?

Got 5 minutes?

Need a quick easy way to have students summarize what they have learned at the end of class?

Have students show you their understanding through pictures or drawings.

It is a win-win activity. Students love to draw and it will give you a quick assessment of who got the lesson and who may need some review. (I’d rather walk around the room and have fun looking at student drawings than take home 140+ written assignments, what about you?) Put it in your lesson plan as formative assessment or assessment for learning and your supervisor will be impressed too.

Additionally, brain research supports that we store drawings in a different part of our brains than text so this activity stores the content in two places in the brain increasing the likelihood of retention!

Research from Classroom Instruction that Works (Robert Marzano, Debra Pickering, & Jane Pollock)
Dual coding theory—knowledge is stored in two forms linguistic and imagery. The more we use both—the better we can remember and think about information.
They cite seven research studies showing gains between 19-38% using non-linguistic representations.

That’s a huge gain—I’d like to gain 19-38% more interest on my savings account! :)

While I usually just use plain paper and give students a topic to illustrate there are many specific drawing strategies and pre-made handouts available.

Check out Episodic Notes from John Burke’s Tools for Thought (also available in ST’s school library) and Etch-A-Sketch or Sketch to Stretch from Harvey Silver, Richard Strong, & Matthew Perini’s Tools for Promoting Active In-Depth Learning (many ST teachers may have a copy of this book from Silver’s visit to Sussex Tech some years ago…)

Check out some of the products from my students:

We were studying the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) in World History. The first drawing illustrates how the Black Death spread throughout Europe while the second drawing explains how the Delta 32 gene in some people’s DNA protects against the Black Death and AIDS.

All it took was five minutes and some extra paper.

Great return of student assessment for the time invested!

Free Resource!

Free Resource!!!
(The couponer in me loves free.)

Easy note organizer that works in any class in any grade!

Having students take notes from a PowerPoint, textbook, presentation, etc????

Create a stapleless book for students to record their notes. The premade note sheet takes you just minutes to create and really helps students organize their notes.

This resource can be found for FREE at
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/stapleless-book-30010.html

Online generator guides you in creating and even folding (that’s where I really needed help!) the booklet.

Examples of how I have used it in my class:

* As a test review activity
*As a note organizer as new material is presented

You could even have students create their own books as an assignment.

Check out the pictures of my students using them!

Took a whole 10 minutes to create!

The ReadWriteThink website is one of many free teacher sites that I discovered through the Thinkfinity website. More on that great resource in later posts. Stay tuned!

Cheap classroom supplies this week at Staples

I bet most of you spend some of your own money on your classroom (thank you to the Fed for the teacher tax credit.)

In addition to being a teacher, I am also an avid deal seeker and couponer. Therefore I must share the deals this week at Staples.

Look what $1 will buy you

• scissors
• 12 pack of pens
• 6 pack of highlighters
• 100 sheet composition book
• 200 sheet spirial notebook
• 500 sheet ream of copy paper--regularly 6.29 - 1.29 off = 5 cost - 4 rebate = final cost of $1 (I bet you math teachers could put that savings in an equation for me LOL)
• 100 pack of photo paper--9.99-8.99 rebate = $1

Staples rebates can easily be done online and mailed to you in less than a month!

Check out these deals and others at http://www.staples.com/


Staples--that was easy!

No, I am not a paid advertiser of Staples--just a teacher seeking bargains!

Welcome!

Welcome! I’m Sandy and I’m a high school social studies teacher. In addition to teaching students, I am also involved in professional development for new and experienced teachers at my school. One resource that all teachers lack is TIME.

My vision for this blog is one stop shopping for busy teachers. I’m thinking a place for teachers of all grades and subjects to quickly catch up on the latest research in learning, get cool ideas for their classrooms, and collaborate and connect with fellow teachers.

A former student of mine (with a strong interest and desire to be a successful businessman) told me once “Mrs. Furbush, it’s all about working smarter, not harder.”
(Thanks Terrell!) So my hope is to help us all do just that.

Some planned features include:

Got 5 minutes? –quick activities to incorporate in your classrooms
Latest Research---brief updates on the latest research on learning
Classroom Tips---strategies to make your classroom run smoother
Interactive Discussions---teachers sharing their thoughts and ideas
Guest Blogs---info from other folks in the field

Research indicates that collaboration is a powerful resource for teachers. Unfortunately, our schedules often lead to isolation in our classrooms. Let’s open up those classroom doors and work together to become better teachers.

“A cord of three strands is not easily broken.”

Please introduce yourself in the comments section:
What do you teach? How long?
What would you like to see in this blog? What would you like to share with others?