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When I moved to Tennessee last year and began teaching, I was overwhelmed with the amount of social studies standards for 3rd grade! It was a ton!! I was also overwhelmed by the lack of assessments that were simple enough for an 8 year old to complete, independently, especially at the beginning of third grade. One of the standards in social studies is for students to identify the state symbols of Tennessee. To teach this standard, I used a slide show that introduced the symbols, then we created a state symbols book, and finally I administered a short, 10 question assessment to test my students’ learning. The assessment is available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, and it is called the Tennessee State Symbols Quiz.
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My district has adopted the ELA curriculum Benchmark Advance (BA) for the upcoming school year. I’ve been working through the 3rd grade curriculum, focusing on the “Review and Routines” section of the teachers edition to start. As I’ve been working through, I’ve started to create some additional resources that I plan on using with the BA curriculum in my classroom. One of the resources that I’ve created is the “Question Jar Questions,” available for FREE in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. This resource includes a list of questions for both fiction and nonfiction texts, and is meant to be used with students following independent reading time.
Are you planning to incorporate robotics and computer coding in to your classroom, STEM Lab, or makerspace this school year? Before handing the robots over to students, I like to give them the opportunity to explore robots in the real world and to learn a little bit about the history of robotics. I feel like this gives students a little more background into the world of robotics and provides some important real-world connections, showing students how the skills gained in my classroom could be applied to their lives.
I begin my “Robot Research” project with a video that quickly outlines the history of robotics. I like this YouTube video, by SciShow. Yes, the guy in the video speaks quickly, but my students have never had difficulty understanding him, especially the older kids. Following the video, I have students read an article about a specific type of robot, in order to discuss the steps of the engineering design process, and to think about the purpose of that robot and what problem it was invented to solve. I really love using the cockroach robot article, that can be found on NewsELA. If you have a NewsELA account, you can change the reading level of the article for your students. There is also a YouTube video, by UC Berkeley, that shows the cockroach robot in action. So gross and cool at the same time! I then assign students to research a specific type of robot, usually with a partner or a group of 3. Students watch videos about their robot, and read an article or two. They they create a presentation (Popplet or Slides) that gives a brief overview of their robot. They share their presentations with the rest of the class. I like incorporating a Robot Research project as an introduction to robotics for a few reasons:
I have created a resource in my teachers pay teachers store “Love-Fleck EdTech” called Robot Research, which includes all of these steps, outlined for easy implementation in the classroom. The resource includes links to several YouTube videos, so be sure that your students will be able to access those videos - either independently or whole class. As classroom teachers, we often don’t know what kind of technology support we need or want to enhance our teaching. Administrators will ask teachers what kind of PD they want or need, but the truth is that most teachers don’t always have a good response to this. I’ve often said that teachers “don’t know what they don’t know.” When I was an EdTech TOSA, one way that I reached out to the teachers at my three school sites was by creating short 2 minute videos introducing a new app or technology tip. This would give teachers the opportunity to get an idea of something that they might want to learn more about. For example, if a teacher had heard about Seesaw, but didn’t really know anything about it, they could watch a two minute video about it, and then decide if it was something they would like support with. I would send a new “Two MInute EdTech Tip” to teachers each week. I always tried to keep the videos short - two minutes or less. Many teachers liked this weekly video because it gave them new ideas to try in their classroom, or something to ask me more about when I would see them at their school site. Sometimes teachers would even ask me to come in and introduce the new app or tool to their class, which I loved doing! Now that I’m back in the classroom in a new state, new district, and new school, I think something like “Two Minute EdTech Tips” could really be beneficial to the staff at my school site. The school recently transitioned to iPads (from Chromebooks) and I think that the lack of PD on the new device is affecting the usage in classrooms. And, with iPads being such a new (and different) tool to the staff, they “don’t know what they don’t know.” What do you think? Watch a few of the “Two Minute EdTech Tips” and tell me what you think. Should I start creating more of these videos? Would something like this be useful as a classroom teacher?  I will be the first one to tell you that I am not always the best at integrating Art into STEM. Many teachers can do this seamlessly, but I am not one of them. Recently I was invited to participate in "Art Discovery Day" at one of the elementary schools that I support. I jumped at the chance to open the STEM Lab for some "STEAM" and to challenge myself to create Art activities in the STEM Lab.
I decided that I wanted to include robots in the Art Discovery Day, so I grabbed some Ozobots and Spheros and came up with a plan. From my experience, students really love drawing the line codes for Ozobot to follow, and often don't get enough time in the STEM Lab to do so. So, with this in mind, I pulled some giant butcher paper and brought brand new markers. The paper was set up on the ground, with the markers, Ozobots, and a copy of the Ozocodes. The directions given to students were simply to draw line codes for Ozobot to follow, and work together with your group. With the Spheros, I've always wanted to paint with them, but never had the perfect opportunity, until now. I put together a big box to keep the Sphero contained, and pulled more big butcher paper. With dots of paint scattered around the paper, students were told to drive the Sphero and spread the paint. I set a timer for 2 minutes for each student, and that seemed to work really well. In addition to the Ozobots and the Spheros, I opened up a few computers for the "Ozobot Shape Tracer" game which is my favorite way to introduce students to Ozoblockly coding. Not all students want to get down on the floor and draw or paint, so offering a third option of computer coding worked out really well. The Art Day sessions were successful and students moved between activities on their own, when they felt they were ready to change. I didn't hear any complaints from the students that attended my sessions, and it appeared that most of them were having a blast! If you are planning to integrate some "A" in to your STEM, I highly suggest these open-ended activities that really give students the chance to create and play with the robots in a different and unique way.  A tool that I have been using for the past few years to teach students about computer science, coding, and robotics, is the Ozobots. I have used the Ozobots in both a classroom and STEM Lab setting, with students in grade kindergarten through 8th grade. I really like using these tiny robots for a few different reasons.
 I recently made the announcement that my family and I will be moving from California to Tennessee in a few weeks. We have a house and I have a job, back in the classroom, waiting for me out there. This will be a HUGE move for my family, as both my husband and I have only ever lived in California. We are excited, but definitely a nervous excitement. Being out of the classroom for the past four years has given me so many great tools to add to my "teacher toolbelt." Now that I will be back in the classroom (3rd grade), I'm excited to have the opportunity to implement the tools that I've gathered as a TOSA with my own classroom of students. While I'm super excited to head back in to the classroom, I'm also a little bit anxious. Not so much for the kids - I've taught third grade before for 5 years - but for the TN standards and way of doing things. I feel a bit like a first year teacher again, trying to imagine my classroom and the way that I will do things in that classroom. I would love to connect with some other elementary teachers from Tennessee, or maybe even some that have relocated from California to Tennessee. If that's you, leave a comment below, or let's connect through social media!
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DiscLaimer:All thoughts, opinions, reflections, and ideas are that of Heather Love-Fleck, and not the school district that employs her. She reserves the right to change her thoughts, opinions, reflections, and ideas at any time. Categories
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