New Year, New School, New Grade

Well I obviously did an AWFUL job of keeping up with this blog last year! I can't believe my last post was January 2013! Here is a SUPER quick update. I took a new position in August of 2013 back in my hometown! I am now teaching 6th grade social studies and our curriculum is all about ancient civilizations. This was quite a change from geography and Kansas history so last year I had to really brush up on my knowledge of the ancient world! I was also completing my last year of my master's which I finally finished. I graduated in May 2014 with a degree in Curriculum and Instruction from my Alma mater, Emporia State University. I am VERY happy that is done with so I can fully focus on my kiddos at school.

Graduation Day!

I cannot believe that I only have a little over 2 weeks until we have to report back to the building. I have been working slowly on getting things ready, but now I am ready to get back in gear. I know I have said it before, but this year I am REALLY going to try to keep this updated more often! I won't be quite as busy now that my master's classes are finished. I will be coaching volleyball and track and I will be the assistant STUCO sponsor, which I am very excited about. I know I can handle all of that though!

Well here is the first, hopefully of many, blog posts I will write this year!

Bulletin Boards

Something I have noticed being in a middle school is that some teachers really try to change up their classrooms and bulletin boards and some don't. When you are in an elementary school you see SO many different and unique bulletin boards that get the studetns excited, so why does that have to change in middle school?? Middle school students are not yet grown up, but they also don't want to be treated like little kids. I think it is important to make your classroom warm and inviting and also switch it up occasionally. I don't think middle school teachers need to go all out like elementary school teachers, but I do know the students notice and appreciate it when they can tell their teachers care about what the room looks like. We are getting ready to start Kansas History so I wanted to change my bulletin board. It isn't a dramatic change, but the kids knew when they noticed it that we were going to make a switch from geography to Kansas History. I have spent time looking online for ideas for bulletin boards and I must admit there are hardly ANY for middle school. Here are a couple pictures of what I did:

 

I made my board so I can switch out the informational posters based on what we are discussing in class. We are getting ready to do Native Americans in a couple of weeks. I also hope to eventually make my board interactive. I kept my "Picture Perfect" side to display student work.

New Year's Resolution

When I first got this blog I was so excited to start writing on it, but now when I look at my blog I realize I have hardly created any posts! One of my New Year's Resolutions this year will be to update my blog more often with actual things I am doing in my classroom. I had planned on creating more items for my TpT store over break, but now my break is almost over and I have hardly done anything! I hope to get some new items in my store and start updating my blog with beneficial posts!

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

Tomorrow's the day....Election Day!

So my 7th graders are VERY excited to vote tomorrow! They all have many different opinions on who to vote for and are excited to find out the results. I just wanted to post a short post on what I am doing tomorrow. When students get to class they are going to vote using the Pearson ballots for the state of Kansas. I created the following "voting booth" for students to go behind when they vote:

 

Students will go behind the board and vote. I also have "I voted" stickers to give them once they are done! I am hoping they will enjoy it. They will also be making various campaign items while they are in class. Some ideas will be t-shirt designs, bumper stickers, pins, and posters.

 

It is SO important to get them interested in voting at an early age so they will be contributing citizens when they are older!

Election Count Down!

Due to a VERY busy October I have neglected this blog. My master's classes, grading assignments, getting sick, getting hooked on "Breaking Bad", conferences, and weekends away from home have really taken me away from trying to get this blog going! With the election coming up I have taken a break from teaching geography to focus on teaching about the election. With this change I was instantly confronted with questions such as, "why should I need to know this, I'm only 13!", "why do we need to learn about the election if we can't vote", "when will I need to know this?". However, I feel I was fortunate that more students were excited about learning the way the election process work, but hearing students ask questions like that can be discouraging. Luckily, there are SO many great resources online to help teach the election in a fun and interesting way to grab their attention spans.

If you are still need election material ICivics has some GREAT resources. Teachers get a FREE login and access to all of their materials. I have currently adapted a couple of their lesson plans for use in my classroom. They also have a wide variety of educational games that I am sure the kids will love!

Another great election site is National Mock Election . On this site you can find great materials to do your own mock election in your classroom. One item I am really excited about are the printable state ballots. Your students can REALLY feel like they are voting by getting to use ballots that not only have the presidential candidates, but also your state candidates running for re-election.

Finally, I have created a couple of election materials in my TpT store . I created an election vocab kit and a get to know the candidates kit. Check them out!

If you know of any good election resources feel free to leave a comment! Good luck!

Sarah

A Change is Coming!

Over the weekend I attended a GREAT social studies conference in Topeka, KS. Not only did I get to attend workshops that gave me new ideas for my classroom, but we also got to look at the proposed new state social studies standards for Kansas. I am SO happy that we are going to be moving away from multiple choice tests and "teaching to the test" to having more freedom in our curriculum. There are so many hands-on activities for social studies to really get students interested in learning, but when we are stuck teaching to a test it is hard to have time to implement them. The future looks much brighter! However, I know it will be a HUGE change to our students who are used to filling in bubbles. They are going to have to think much more critically and actually apply information they are learning and figure out ways to write it correctly. I know my 7th graders really struggle with writing so I know this will be a huge challenge for them. I plan on trying to find more activities to get their minds ready for this new way of testing and I am excited about the challenges ahead!