Weeks 15 & 16 - Holiday Festivities

We made it! Winter Break is finally here! Rejoice! 

Let's rewind the week...
Our 7th graders worked on gingerbread house themed activities in preparation for building actual gingerbread houses today. We spent a lot of time using drill and repetition with equations and inequalities. We also incorporated a lot of movement and hands-on activities to reinforce the solving process. Our favorite activity (aside from actually building the houses) involved the kiddos rotating through stations where they solved a problem and were given a part of the gingerbread house to decorate and attach to the house. 






Then we surprised them today with building real gingerbread houses. Take a look at the creativity!!






We've talked a lot about the ease in which we can do stations in our new active learning center. The tables, the chairs, and the verb boards have become vital teaching tools... after having this classroom for only 3 months, we already can't remember how we ever taught without them. Steelcase's grant is currently open. We strongly encourage you to apply. Never, ever did we think we would win and here we are! It has transformed our teaching and the student's learning and engagement. Click the link and apply, you've got nothing to lose! 

Week 14 - We Are Official...

It finally feels official! Our Active Learning Center sign was posted outside of our classroom and it looks awesome! Can you imagine being so excited about a sign? WE ARE!! 

I don't think our students even noticed... nor did they notice the day the maintenance men came to install it. Our kiddos are so used to us hosting visitors in the classroom that they aren't even bothered with the drilling and all that took place to install the sign. It's a good thing 😊

This week the 7th graders continued working on 2 step equations. We decided to take it back to the old school days and play some bingo. I think we both forgot how much kids love bingo! Overall, they are doing a great job with equations. 

The 8th graders are knee deep into our functions unit. We've done 2 rounds of mini-stations with them so far (3 stations per 1-hour class).  We both agreed that this unit was a little easier last year since we looped with our students. But we are making our way through it. 

We want to take a moment to discuss our seating. After having the classroom for a few months now and seeing the impact that flexible seating has on students, we really want to change things up a bit for the second semester. We are currently in the process of trying to get the couch and the campfire seating section front and center. It is proving to be a bit of a challenge to make sure everyone can see the board at all times (even though the board is not used daily for instruction, it is still used for the morning message, to do list, etc.). Luckily everything is easy to move. We will hopefully be able to share some pictures of our newest set up after winter break. 

Weeks 12 & 13

Long time, no see! Week 12 was a short week for us due to fall break. We hope everyone had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving with family and friends!

On to Week 13... Oh my goodness! This week has been so hectic. Not only did we have to plan and prep for stations for our kiddos, record videos for our blended lessons but we also hosted a visiting county in our classroom on Wednesday AND prepped and led three different sets of PD trainings for our staff on Thursday and Friday. Whew!! But, it was all SOOOOOOO worth it. The PD trainings went so well. Melissa and I lead three one-hour sessions on active learning strategies and we made sure to make the content relevant to our audience.  We trained the science, English and history departments (we trained the Math department a few weeks ago). Making three content specific trainings was a lot of work but we got it done and it totally paid off. Teachers were engaged and excited! We left the trainings feeling positive and hopeful that teachers would step out of their comfort zones and implement some of the strategies we shared. 

Next week we will the blog will return to student focused activities. Hopefully (fingers crossed) we will have a surprise to share with you towards the end of December!

Week 11 - Pear Deck

We are so excited to share with you our new best friend from google... PEAR DECK! Some days (few and far between) you really just need to do some direct teaching. Well, pear deck (from google) allows you take a boring old powerpoint and turn it into an engaging and interactive lesson so easily. If you have a google account simply open up google slides and click on the "add on" tab... search for pear deck and install. If you've ever used Kahoot - the format is similar but it isn't set up to be a game. However, it is set up to give you real-time feedback on whether or not your students are understanding the material you are presenting. Let's walk through it...

Once you've assembled your google slides presentation (and added in assessment slides), you'll need to present it in pear deck mode. The students will log in and go to peardeck.com/join and enter the code. 

Upon signing in, students will rate how they are feeling... we've found this really helpful in knowing who is having a bad day and might need a little extra cheer. 

There are many features including a lock screen, which prevents students from moving ahead and draws their attention to your screen. As you move through the presentation, students interact with the slides. You can use multiple choice, drawings responses, drag items, short or long answer questions.

Here is the really cool part. You'll be able to see the responses in real time! You'll get immediate feedback on how well your students are understanding the information being presented. There is also this cool feature called "temperature check" where you can ask the students how they feel about the material (thumbs up/thumbs down style). 

This is an example of how the responses can be displayed. You can also see each individual student's answer. 

Our students loved it! They were active participants in a lesson that normally might have been kind-of drab. It also gave us the ability to spot check and problem solve with students immediately. We were able to clear up any misconceptions, correct any mistakes, and answer individual concerns immediately! If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us! We'd love to help 😊

Week 10 - Active Learning Symposium in Michigan

There's so much to say, we don't even know where to begin! We were greeted with gifts and personalized notes in our hotel rooms. We felt so welcome from the moment we stepped off the plane.


We spent the morning catching up on some much-needed sleep before heading over to Steelcase University for dinner and keynote speaker, Jeff Selingo. Jeff's message was so eye-opening.We spent the evening talking about all the questions that his speech raised within us regarding education. 

Steelcase was also nice enough to provide us all with Jeff's new book, There is Life after High School,  which he personalized to each of us.


We spent Friday touring both of Steelcase's campus buildings, networking, sharing ideas and hearing inspirational stories from grant winners. 

Julie enjoying some private time

The walkway down to the cafeteria. 

Our only regret is that the symposium was only a day and a half. We could have easily spent 3 days! The symposium was unlike any other professional conference we have ever attended. We were given the top treatment! We all felt like mini-celebrities. We are so grateful for the Steelcase team and for all the grant winners we were able to connect with. 

Dr. Julie Marshall, so inspiring!

Graphic note taking

We spent two days feeling so excited and inspired. We can't wait to go back next year!