Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Perpetuating the Legacy of 9-11 through the Lessons We Teach

Like most elementary school teachers, I have always been intimidated by the prospect of creating a fitting lesson to present to my students on 9/11. Last year, I finally came up with something that I feel is perfectly suitable. Instead of dwelling on the atrocities that happened on that tragic day, I found materials that focus on the power of the human spirit instead.

If there can even be a silver lining to such a horrific event, the bright side of 9/11 would have to be the renewed sense of patriotism, solidarity, compassion, and philanthropy that surged in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

In my search for appropriate materials to use with my students last year, I stumbled upon a gem of a book. 14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy is the touching story of how a Massai tribe in a remote village in Kenya responds when one of the villagers returns from his medical studies in New York with tales of the tragedy and destruction of September 11th. By the time you get to the afterword which is a biographical note from Kimeli Naiyomah, the traveler in the story, students can totally relate to the outpouring of love that swept across the globe following 9/11.





Cows are revered in the Kenyan village in the story. The author eloquently explains how they are a symbol of life to the Massai. It is a moving scene in the story when the villagers present a gift of 14 cows to a diplomat from the the US Embassy in hopes of healing some of the pain in the hearts of Americans. 

The cow in the story is a perfect jumping off point for a deeper look at symbolism. When we finished discussing the book, we watched a video clip from www.nbclearn.com called Patriotic Patchwork. This video clip from 2010 features the National 9/11 Flag, a 30 foot flag that was found dangling torn and tattered from a construction site across the street from the Twin Towers after they fell. The flag is being stitched back together with fabric from other American flags that have flown in all fifty states. When it is done it will become part of the National 9-11 Memorial. The people in the news segment talk about how the flag is a symbol of American values like freedom, sense of duty, spirit of helping, resolve, and compassion. The National 9-11 Flag is the perfect symbol of the power of the human spirit and the resilience of the American people, and that is exactly what I wanted my students to take away from our 9-11 lesson.

We followed up the read aloud and the video clip with a concrete symbolism activity. The children colored these patriotic hearts while we listed to songs like "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood.


I haven't heard what the children had to say about our activities today. I sent this cloze comprehension sheet home with my students for homework. I am eager to read what they came away with from today's lesson. I also hope the homework activity stimulated some healthy conversation at home about 9-11 and  the American spirit. 
It's not easy to talk about the tragic events of 9-11 with children, but I believe we have an obligation to do it. The best way we can honor those who lost their lives in the September 11th attacks is to ensure that they did not die in vain. As educators, we can perpetuate their legacy of renewed patriotism and a rekindled American spirit by sharing it with our students year after year.



Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Now Trending: Pop Culture in the Classroom


Thanks to one of my totally awesome grade partners and her devotion to Pinterest, I have two new ways to bring pop culture into the classroom this year. My new students were pretty excited to learn that they will be posting Facebook statuses and tweeting in class. You may be wondering how this is possible since we are not a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) school, and we actually have a "no cell phones" policy in our building. The secret is poster board. That's right - poster board. We have a cardboard Facebook page hanging near the carpet where we hold our class meetings. Each child has a sentence strip where they can "update their status". I have one velcro dot attached at the beginning of the strips so that I can put each child's "profile picture" up, and another velcro dot at the other end of each strip for little "Like" icons the kids can add to each other's posts. In the past, we always used to sign in with a response to our Morning Meeting message right on the dry erase board where I wrote the message. Today, I had the children respond on the Facebook wall, and it added a whole new layer of appeal to our meeting. Here's the board:


On another wall over in the area where we line up, we now have a Twitter board. The board has a "Trending" topic that changes daily so the children know what they need to "tweet" about at the end of the day. After homework is copied, each child creates a tweet of 140 characters or less on a Post-it note that addresses that day's trending topic. So far we've done: "Best Part of the First Day" and "Something You Learned from the Brochure Activity". Tomorrow it's "Rate Your Summer Reading Book". The kids really enjoy reading each other's tweets, and I get an up to the minute insight into what everyone is actually thinking. The Twitter board can also be used throughout the day as an exit slip parking lot. I can't wait to ask the kids to tweet the definition of a new literary concept or an example of a math term. (The possibilities are endless.) The Twitter board looks like this:

 BEFORE
AFTER

The rest of this entry is from my Pop Culture post from last year. If you haven't read it yet, take a peek. If you have already seen the old post, go get started on your own Twitter Board and Facebook Wall. I have the logos and graphics I used saved as Word documents. If you are a follower of my blog or an email subscriber and you want the files, leave a comment and let me know.



This is a repost of a blog entry I wrote back in November. I've been eagerly awaiting the return of everybody's video releases so I could update the post with a 30 second video that we made in class on Wacky Wednesday during Read Across America Week.

This post is all about bringing pop culture into the classroom and right now, you can't get more mainstream pop culture than the Harlem Shake sensation that has swept across YouTube. The short video clips have made their way onto Good Morning America AND the Today Show. Even the Miami Heat has gotten in on the action.

The Harlem Shake is a dance that starts out with one masked dancer busting a move while the people around him are seemingly oblivious to the commotion, until the video cuts away and returns with a wild rumpus of costumed dancers joining in. Our Room 202 version of the Harlem Shake may not be as impressive as the underwater version by the University of Georgia swimming and diving teams, but we did have a lot of fun making the video using the free Harlem Shake app I downloaded on my iPhone.

The kids could not wait to show our clip to their family and friends. Taking five minutes at the end of the day when we were already suited up in goofy garb for Wacky Wednesday was the perfect opportunity to once again bridge the gap between what happens in the kids' lives outside of school and what is going on in the classroom. As you'll read in the rest of this post, I think it's really important that the kids know that what matters to them, matters to me.

People who come in my classroom often comment on the "good feeling" in Room 202. I don't take this compliment lightly. I put a lot of thought and effort into creating a positive climate in my classroom. I want it to be a place where kids "want to be". I know how vital it is that they feel safe and welcome, if they are going to take the risks necessary to be successful learners. I'm not going to bore you today with all the instructional strategies and psychological principles I rely on to achieve the right balance of expectation and support that underlies the positive climate in Room 202.

Today, I am going to tell you about a few fun ways I have brought pop culture into my classroom so my fifth graders understand that I care about them as more than just students. By taking the time to find out what songs they are listening to and what video games they like to play, I try to let my students know that what matters to them, matters to me.

That's why I borrowed this awesome idea for a book talk bulletin board from Scholastic when I saw it posted in my newsfeed on FaceBook. I made my own version of the catchy phrasing and had it blown up to poster-size at Staples. It was so much fun watching the kids eventually figure out that the saying was a spin-off of the "Call Me Maybe" pop song by Carly Rae Jepsen that they had been listening to all summer.

More recently, I generated a similar buzz when the children noticed their math study guide on my desk. If you teach, you must be asking yourself, "How do you get kids excited about a study guide?" Here's the secret. Turn it into a video game. That's right, a video game! In deference to MineCraft, a popular video game my students play that's focused on creativity and building, I changed the heading of a math review sheet to read "MATHCRAFT". Then I added phrasing and graphics at the end of each section of the study guide to indicate that students had "defeated that level" once they got all the problems in the section correct. The difference in my students' focus and concentration was amazing. Children who typically threw in the towel without even trying, were actually asking clarifying questions and applying problem-solving strategies. It was a big payout for a small amount of effort on my part. This is what our math study guides look like now.

These previous successes, combined with the need for a place to "park" the unanswerable questions my students come up with during lessons, led to this latest pop culture addition to my classroom. I'm actually working on this one right now, so the kids haven't even seen it yet. If you've been browsing online lately or window shopping at the mall, you may have noticed a lot of "mustaches". Thanks to hipsters and their ironic 'staches, the mustache has become one of the latest pop culture fads. I know the trend annoys some people, but I crack up every time I hear, "Excuse me, I mustache you a question. Do you want me to shave it for later?" Knowing that, you'll understand why I can't wait to blow this image up and have it laminated so I can use it to park the kids questions in class until we find the answers.


Hopefully, there's something here that will inspire you to bring some pop culture into your own classroom. Your students will definitely appreciate it and you'll reap the benefits of their increased motivation and enthusiasm.