Pirate Week! Try It...

The coolest classroom around

 AHOY MATIES....

So, September 19th is International Speak Like a Pirate Day! And true to tradition, the room was decorated and busy schedules adjusted to squish in some pirate fun. Our ship sails for a full week rather than one day. With all the work to get it ready, it should be savored like a good (ginger) ale.

Arrrr... ye scruvy dogs...

"Come to the Pirate-Side he will"

There, I had to let out my inner pirate.

It has been really fun so far. The kids loved walking into our room and looking around at all at decorations and changes both big and small. A big hit was the pirate make over on Darth Vader. My wife sure did a great job with the decorations! Se even gave our spinning book rack a pirate flair.

One of my favorite parts of the week is the "booty board". Inexpensive prizes are purchased and displayed for the young sprogs to covet over. During the week I hand out "dabloons" for good behavior, being on-task, homework turned in, etc. Then, at the end of the week, the students can trade in their gold for treasure. Sometimes I do an auction, sometimes I let the student with the most gold choose a 2 prizes, and then go down the list. I am not sure how it will work out this year.

'Tis the Booty Board, ye Scurvy Dogs!

I also do three pirate contests. I challenge the kids to build a mini-pirate ship, make a jolly roger (pirate flag), and come dressed like a pirate (on Friday only). The scallywags are never required to participate in the festivities, but are encouraged to participate. Usually there isn't any worries about entries. I have three judges come in and judge winners. Those deemed the most fearsome, most creative, and most daring receive a small prize which includes extra dabloons to be spendin' on booty.

Notice the bounteous reading treasure

During the course of the week, we also read a short book from ReadingA-Z.com about priate boats and flags. The students read an assigned short chapter (2-3 pages) in small groups, highlight important information, and then make a poster. These groups then do presentations for the rest of the class while the class takes notes, make a positive comment, and writes one question they still would like to know. I love this part of the reading workshop. The kids are almost always engaged in this unit of study.

Our Piratey Book Rack

 Thursday we will be having a Pirate Insult contest to see who can come up with the longest, coherent pirate insult (they were given a list of pirate terms to use). I love this activity as well, as it encourages my students to become fluent. They write out their "insult" in advance and then they read it in front of the class. The class votes on who they felt had the best phrase and read it the most fluently and "piratey". Winner gets a boost to their dabloon stash.

Enter if ye dare...

Another fun contest I do is I copy some pirate coloring pictures and I do a contest to see who can color the best pirate picture. Winner gets a dabloon boost as well. And, depending on the formation of my room, I may also a group coloring contest. I have purchased several of the jumbo coloring pirate books from the Dollar Tree. I give each group ONE picture to color together. That activity has a lot of value in that the group must work together to create the finished product. I give the winning a group a prize that they must also share, like a big candy bar or bag or small prizes. That way they must still cooperate and agree on who gets what. What a valuable experience for my class.

This be the back of our ship

Well, now that I have given ye' scruvy dogs all me priate secrets, I best be shovin' off and looking for other ships to plunder...

Later....

Oh What Do You Do In The Summer Time???

Okay all you amazing educators out there...

How do you spend your summertime?

Do you work in your room?

Plan curriculum?

Attend workshops and classes?

Worry about the first day back?

OR...

Do you relax?

Take vacations?

Forget you are a teacher?

OR

Do you do a little of both?

I know that summer is the time that most teachers use to rejuvenate themselves. They relax and try to escape the education realm. Me? I do take time off, and I am not at the school every day, but I truly enjoy being in my classroom working, organizing, and planning.

This year, I decided to do a "Clean Sweep" of my classroom. It was a show that was on TLC (or maybe still is). Anyways, the idea is that you take everything in a room and separate it into three piles, "Keep", "Donate", or "Discard". So I did that. I took everything out of every cupboard, cabinet, corner, drawer, etc. It was so liberating to throw away at least a dumpster full (and if you don't think you have a dumpster full of "stuff" in your classroom room- think again!), to create a donate pile AT LEAST that size, and then look at my room and, though nothing really looks different on the outside, things are much more organized, clean, and ready to use on the inside. I donated over 50 professional books to the school professional development library...books that everyone can use and enjoy and that I rarely use.

So, here is my Dare...or challenge...or call to clean.

Attack your classroom and de-junk, de-file, de-clutter your lives. My guide was if I hadn't opened it or used it in the last two years I didn't need it. Yes it was hard and painful to let go things that I had been storing for years because "someday" I may need it. Well guess what???? "Someday" never came. AND if it does, then I will just go and buy what I need again, because letting a store STORE it for me is a lot better than me trying to find room to stuff it.

So, my fellow educators...

GO FOR THE CLEAN...

Just Teach It...

Product Review: Fraboom.com

Greetings All You Tech Savvy Teachers Out There!
Today I will be reviewing a website for you.





Web Address:
www.fraboom.com




Targeted Age Group:
6-12 year-olds (This is the websites recommended ages- I love the material, so I wouldn't limit the age)


Purpose: 
A direct quote from the creator: "We’ve spent the last ten years creating a web destination that will compete with any existing entertainment web site. We feature games, interactive books, and classes with real live teachers. It's designed for kids 6 to 12. The catch is that there is an educational twist in every piece of content we provide. FRABOOM is the world’s first online children’s museum featuring classes with real LIVE teachers. Our goal is to nurture creativity while building self-esteem and confidence. If we do our job well we will also provide teachable moments that connect parents with their children." 


Why You Should Check It Out: 
From the moment you land on the homepage, you begin to see that this site is not some poorly thought out, ad laden monstrosity that some many companies are trying to sell to the education realm. Not only does this site focus on academic content in every activity and game, but it does so in an engaging and carefully thought out process. Now, even if you felt that what you have seen is comparable to other sites (but I think you would be hard pressed to find one), I can almost assure you they do NOT offer LIVE CLASSES with a real LIVE teacher! 


Cost: 
In the words of the creators, "80% of the content is FREE!". Honestly, in the hour-plus that I spent playing, looking, and scrutinizing, I didn't encounter any area that I was not allowed to enter. If you choose too, you can become a FRABOOM GOLD member for $5.99 a month. Click HERE to see what extra goodies that gives you.
With live teachers and all the content you could dream of, that is truly a steal of deal!


Cons: 
Hmmmm....I can't really think of any at this time. As an upper grade teacher, I think that a lot of the content is just under what my 6th graders would consider 'childish', but even at that, once they get in to the games, they seem to not mind. I mean as an adult, I was completely engaged in the content. 


Pros: 
1) As a web-based application, students can access this site anywhere they have internet. So many programs that we, as teachers, use at school seem to be site based. This means that unless our students are in our classrooms, they can't access the programs they want/need to experience increased learning. Fraboom.com was wise to make this a web-based program. My own kids have already spent several hours (and we just found the site this week) at home playing- and arguing about who gets to play next- and exploring. 


2) FREE! (as a teacher, I can NOT emphasize this point enough)


3) High quality content- And not just a few games with false hopes of more, but engaging, in-depth activities ready to go.


4) Future updates that promise to keep kids even MORE excited (like customizing the brain avatar, earning "brain cells" that can be saved and used to "buy" items in the Fraboom virtual store, and more.)


Overall recommendation: I would give this site a 9.5 out of 10 
I highly recommend that all educators (and even NON-educators) check it out NOW!


Later...

Plurk Away!

Apparently, unless you belong to the Plurk network, you are totally out of the loop! (see: http://www.plurk.com/MrHughes/invite to scope it out and/or join- It's Free!).

In all reality, this is a fantastic resource for tech savvy teachers! Not only can you connect with oodles of other teachers around the nation and world, you get to work on your Karma (the system the creators have put in place to encourage proper usage of the site and help cut down on all the spam and garbage that is found in other social media sites.

This is totally worth taking a peek at (and honestly quite addictive once you start)!

Just Teach It...

Looking for Fresh On-Line Activities To Use with Students?

If you are like me, you are constantly looking for new and interesting ways to engage your students on-line. I mean, no one wants to dwadle away the precious time you are given in the school computer lab. Well, then you are truly left with a few simple options:

1) Build a wiki (I use wikispaces. I have blogged multiple times about this. Educators can get the upgraded package for free!) and search for new sites. I have/ had a section titled "Explore Your World". In this area I try to find sites that allow the students to think outside the local area and mind set. What ever fits your style and needs. Once you find that beloved, useful site, then add it to the wiki in a way that is logical for you and your students. To see my wiki, click HERE. This is just one example of a way to use this wonderful free resource. As a note, I linked a seperate wiki titled "Teacher Resources" that I set up soley to store links that were wonderful and useful, but not what I want my students to see at that moment.

2) You can subscribe to e-newsletters or sites that will do all the "dirty" work of searching out sites for you. I subscribe to several, but the best one I have found so far is ClickSchooling. This site and mailing list is maintained by Diane Flynn Keith. She is very Pro-Homeschool (but I don't hold that against her- tee hee) but finds the most amazing websites that are perfect for my students. Some are not all that hot, in my opinion, but hey. if she is willing to review sites and give me the low-down, I am willing to hit delete on a few e-mails. Click HERE to see the topics (each day is a different subject area including virtual field trips). It is very easy and painless to sign-up for and you get a daily convient e-mail with some ads (for her products, of course) and then the site of the day with a complete review and age level recommendation.

3) Lastly, I would suggest finding a place (like my wiki) that someone has already created and simply "steal" their sites. It can be time consuming, but if you are a teacher like me, you usually trust other teachers to seek out relavent and trustworthy sites. So, steal away from my site (since that is how I got most of mine!- Totally check out the authors page. My students LOVE that page!).

I hope that these ideas will spark some holiday break exploring and creating.

Just Teach It...