Students Use 21st Century Tools to Communicate Ideas

Tonight was Freedom Middle School's Honors Night/Open House.  I had the pleasure of seeing the 7th graders I have been working with show off their projects this evening.  Even more exciting was seeing how proud their teacher was of their work.

You can see their projects here: 7B Tell Their Story Edcanvas

The 7th grade social studies teacher and I worked together to create a creative and meaningful way for students to share their understanding of slavery in America.  Students were challenged to portray what it was like to be a slave using a 21st century tool.  After building their background knowledge through readings, videos, and webquests, students took on the role of a slave and created either a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram page that communicated what it was like to be a slave.

Students were extremely creative and worked to provide details and personal touches to their projects.  They worked together and helped one another very well.  At honors night students dressed up as their slave and came to show off of their projects.  A parent approached me and shared how much her student enjoyed this project and how engaged he was.  She thought it was "really cool" that his teachers  were so creative and willing to help them find ways they like to learn.  SUCCESS!

Student explaining her project to her family

*New idea!  Students use QR codes to cite their sources.  It was quite simple - they created a Google Doc of their sources, made the document viewable to anyone with the link, created a QR code from that link, and added the QR code to their project.  This was a great way to cite their sources without it taking over their entire project.

*Going Green!  For a week long project, only 1 piece of paper was needed for each students (this was the directions and the rubric).  Student work was published online and never printed. In retrospect, the teacher and I would have given the directions to the students digitally instead, which would have made this an entirely paperless project!

My Replacement

Today after school I met with Scott, the teacher who replaced me as 8th grade science teacher at Freedom.  I went over some basics of the class with him, and how I ran things.  I gave him some resources for the safety and metric system units as well....suggesting some new and fun ideas to make the lessons more engaging and to integrate more technology.  Sometimes I still surprise myself with how natural many of these ideas are for me.

Scott is going to do great!  He has so much energy and is excited to be a Freedom Patriot!

A little bittersweet to be in my old classroom and to see it so different....but I am still excited about my new role.