Break the Ice…Ice…Baby

February represents the Dog Days in education. All the freshness of the school year are gone. Spring break is still a long way off and the weather…at least in the great state of Ohio…is nothing to write home about! Sometimes, as you watch your kids march in at the beginning of the period, you feel like you’re observing a church congregation full of middle-aged parishioners. Everyone sits in the same pew, shakes hands with the same people, and says pretty much the same things. It’s time to shake things up!

In today’s program, I’m going to give you 3 totally original icebreakers with which you can randomly sort your students. Perhaps, a new seating chart is needed. Or, it’s time get kids working with different peers on the next project. These icebreakers will help you rearrange your students socially…BUT THE REAL DRAW…is your students and you will have a blast working through these easy prompts:

Oscar Night Best Picture Award

Your 30th Birthday Surprise Party

1970s Speed Dating

My Zodiac Description Google Doc  

A Compatibility Table

Episode Template

The Problem:

Teachers assume students know one another well.

The Solution:

A student icebreaker.

What You Can Do Tomorrow:

1. Decide on a pretext for randomly sorting students
2. Try either the Oscar Night or Birthday Party icebreaker
3. Debrief students to find out what they learned about their peers

Teachers and students sometimes get in a rut. Randomly sort your students with a fun icebreaker and shake things up in the process.

Listen to “43-3 Totally Original, Easy, Powerful, and Joyful Icebreakers to Randomly Sort Students…Tomorrow” on Spreaker.

Ali Iannucci…Hanah Fox…Tracy Enos…Eduardo Lopez

Teachers need to go where the kids are. When in Rome…do like the Romans. When it comes to reaching contemporary youth, please understand that they love video. Whenever there’s downtime, kids immediately start watching video on their devices. Educators need to embrace this tendency.

Unfortunately, in many classrooms, video is handled in much the same way as it was in the 1950s. The entire class watches on a big screen at the same time. I loved “Movie Day” in high school. It was a great opportunity to zone out for 50 minutes!

In this episode, Tracy Enos and her adolescent posse will clue you in on an amazing free tool which will revolutionize the way you present video. EDpuzzle allows you to embed questions inside a video.

Kids watch and then interact with you while they answer your questions. It’s an awesome way to introduce collaboration and participation, engaging kids in the process! It’s also an amazing accountability factor. You can see just how much a student has watched and their responses to your prompts. Also…kids cannot fast-forward. They can pause and rewind, but not skip ahead. It’s similar to on-demand programming. Another huge selling point to EDpuzzle is how it works in concert with Google Classroom.

Tracy also advocates that teachers create their own content. I agree! Here are two examples of homemade flipped presentations that are EDpuzzle ready! The first is from Tracy Enos. The second is from your humble narrator.

Video 1

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8ugzwm6fnRLV3dXeHZmZjNpdFU/view

Here’s a screen shot of responses submitted via EDpuzzle to Tracy’s prompt, “What did you learn from the story?”

Video 2: 

Episode Template

The Problem:

Teachers need to update the way they show video.

The Solution:

Utilize EDpuzzle.

What You Can Do Tomorrow:

1. Select a short video to assign through EDpuzzle
2. Embed a few questions into the video
3. Collaborate with students as they respond
4. Plan to create your own video

It’s time to revamp the way students watch video. EDpuzzle will make “Movie Day” collaborative and engaging!

Listen to “42-Revolutionize the way your Students Watch Videos…Starring Hannah Fox, Ali Iannucci, Eduardo Lopez, and Tracy Enos” on Spreaker.

Last month…I was chilling in my room 2 days prior to Christmas break. As I surveyed my digs, I became disgusted with myself! My room was a mess. I had just been enlightening my students about the awesome Asian concept of Chi…an invisible source of energy that permeates the universe. Chi flows through the environment, animals and people, as well as man-made structures. Acupuncture and Tai Chi stimulate the life-giving flow of Chi through a person. The ancient interior decoration practice of Feng Shui can do the same for your home or work-space. I felt like a hypocrite.

Before: My room was a mess…I couldn’t get out of my own way…Chi was blocked

I decided my room was in desperate need of a Feng Shui makeover! This exercise had great informational power for many parties:

• I could apply a complex topic from class in a demonstrable way
• I could become more approachable to my students as they cheered me on in my noble quest
• I could inspire kids to apply Feng Shui to some aspect of their lives
• My room would become more livable

This is EXACTLY what happened! When they returned in January, my students were impressed with my orderly flowing room.

After: Sweet relief!

I issued the Feng Shui Challenge in my maiden January student blog prompt. They could Feng Shui their rooms, or lockers, or cars, or phones. Here’s the link.

This activity inspired me to sponsor other self-improvement challenges to my students like incorporating To-Do lists:

Time to get organized kid!

Please be aware…this doesn’t have to just be a social studies thing. Listen to the episode and get some ideas on how you might include such a demonstration in your curriculum.

Episode Template

The Problem:

Our curriculums seem irrelevant!

The Solution:

Apply a complex class concept in a demonstrable way…right in front of your student’s eyes! Then, challenge them to do the same.

What you can do Tomorrow:

• Search your curriculum for a concept you could apply
• Brainstorm a way to demonstrate your application
• Concoct a way to challenge students to do the same
• Have them share their experience in a demonstrable way

If you want to engage students, find ways to make your curriculum relevant. A great way to do this is to have kids apply class concepts to their lives.

Listen to “41-Feng Shui your Students” on Spreaker.

The Lorax speaks for the trees and wants you to go paperless.    Source:  Dr Seuss / Brevard Zoo, Viera FL Author Rusty Clark from merritt usland FLA

Just yesterday…I was making copies in the Teacher’s Lounge when I realized I’d made a mistake and forgot to double-side and staple the set! The practical upshot of this wasteful frenzy was the destruction of innocent paper.

Teachers go through reams of paper daily. I must plead guilty to laying waste to forests in my efforts to educate modern youth. Sadly, many of these sheets of decimated vegetation awre used by students only temporarily, then discarded often bypassing the recycling bin in route to the landfill. But the tide of history is urging educators to alter their standard operating procedure. It’s time to do a “Paperless Week”.

But importantly…this paperless approach has the potential to engage your students. Sound interesting? I thought so! Give a listen to Kristen Kovak…a paperless guru…the contemporary Lorax!

@kristinKS73

Kristin mentioned these two tools:

Diigo

Grammarly

Episode Template

The Problem:

Teachers waste MASSIVE amounts of paper!

The Solution:

Institute a Paperless Week in your classroom.

What you can do tomorrow:

• Engage kids with the Paperless Week.
• Require students to turn in assignments electronically.
• Provide feedback to students electronically.
• Prompt students to evaluate the experience on Friday. Of course…have them submit it electronically!
• For the long-term…consider using Google Classroom.

Do something wonderful for the planet. Be a good role model. Future teachers will engage students without paper. Get ahead of the curve!

Listen to “39-Kristen Kovak Unleashes the Lorax Challenge of Shame” on Spreaker.

Educators have an unquenchable thirst to explain. I have this urge. If some students don’t get it, it’s my job to clarify. Unfortunately, this tendency can disengage students who got it the first time.

It’s been my observation, both from the standpoint of being a student…and then working with colleagues as an adult, that teachers aren’t the best at weighing the trade-offs of their marathon explanations, presentations, and lectures. Let’s be less windy. Let’s become more attuned to nonverbal cues from our students. When we’ve lost the eyes, when their heads start to droop, when they get fidgety, when they’re unresponsive to prompts, they’re disengaged and we need to adjust.

A great template for teacher presentations is the ubiquitous TED Talk. I must confess, I love TED Talks. Some, like one I watched recently on posture, have profoundly impacted my life. TED Talks do not exceed 18 minutes.  Professional coach Carmine Gallo explains the TED Talk model in his article “The Science Behind TED’s 18-Minute Rule.”

When you reduce your airtime, it paves the way for student collaboration!

Episode Template

The Problem:

Teachers talk too much!

The Solution:

Morph your presentations into daily TED Talks by limiting the amount of time you speak.

What you can do tomorrow:

• Invoke the 10-minute Rule.
• Let students in on the challenge.
• Practice the Clear the Deck Manoeuvre.
• Practice the Listen to me with your Face Manoeuvre.
• Clear the center of the room to create the Agora.

To engage kids, limit how much you talk and increase how much students collaborate.

Listen to “38-Transform your Class into a Daily TED Talk” on Spreaker.

Okay…here’s the situation. The semester is winding down and you need to include one more Socratic Seminar on an important topic. But…you look at the calendar and there’s no time! Sound familiar? It’s a classic necessity is the mother of invention situation.

I was faced with just such a scenario one month ago at the conclusion of the previous semester. So…I IMPROVISED! What materialized was awesome and will become a standard activity every semester, till I hang up my spikes! I decided to take my Socratic Seminar virtual and make it a class Twitter chat. But none of this would have transpired if it weren’t for the guidance of my friend Connie Hamilton and her insistence that I learn how to use Tweetdeck. I’ll explain this amazing platform in the episode.

My class Twitter chat was epic. The hashtag was #heywc1. Feel free to check out the kid’s posts.

as in…”Hey World Civilization 1!”

To help explain Tweetdeck and participating in this Twitter chat from the perspective of a student is my partner in crime Derek Herman.

@DerekHerman99

Episode Template

The Problem:

You long to do something new with your next Socratic Seminar.

The Solution:

Morph you Socratic Seminar into a class Twitter chat.

What you can do tomorrow:

• Create a unique hashtag.
• Learn Tweetdeck and then teach your students this amazing platform.
• Create outstanding questions and responses and schedule them with Tweetdeck.
• Invite your principal to participate.

Twitter is a fact of modern life. Embrace it and all its potential to engage your students.

Listen to “37-Here’s the way you do an Epic Class Twitter Chat…Starring Derek Herman” on Spreaker.

When your students are asked to describe themselves….wouldn’t it be cool if they replied, “I’m a proud member of Mr. Sturtevant’s class!” Two awesome students Caroline Gose and Simon Srisongkham are going to explain why this is important and how you might create such a dynamic.

Caroline Gose and Simon Srisongkahm

Episode Template

The Problem:

Students don’t identify with your class.

The Solution:

Build student allegiance.

What you can do tomorrow:

• Challenge students to come up with a unique name for your course.
• Challenge students to come up with a unique logo design for your course.
• Consider ways to utilize a class name and logo design.
• Investigate the potential of creating class shirts.

Challenge your students to create a class name and a class design. Vigorously promote this identity and bond students to your class.

Listen to “36-Students Caroline Gose and Simon Srisongkham Explain how to Build Student Allegiance” on Spreaker.

There are so many things in education that we do simply because they’ve always been done…and done a certain way. Take the school calendar. We follow an antiquated model that was crafted to serve our agrarian society in the late 19th Century. But most are accustomed to the typical school calendar regardless of whether it makes sense educationally. The same could be said of homework. Teachers, parents, and administrators must reevaluate the entire homework paradigm. Students are also a crucial voice! It’s time to evolve! Connie Hamilton and Starr Sackstein are here to help. On today’s episode, they’ll talk about their new book “Hacking Homework”.

@conniehamilton

@mssackstein

Episode Template

The Problem:

Educators need to rethink homework.

The Solution:

Solicit input from parents, administrators, and students in your quest to make homework impactful and relevant.

What you can do tomorrow:

1. Evaluate tomorrow’s assignment
2. Solicit information from students
3. Solicit information from parents

Out of class assignments can be a powerful learning tool. Let’s evolve them for a new century!

Listen to “35-Connie Hamilton and Starr Sackstein Urge you to Rethink Homework” on Spreaker.

Abigail Myers and Mason Wright

In 2014, my book You’ve Gotta Connect, which gives teachers tools to forge strong relationships with students, was published. I promote that teachers be approachable and then inject some enjoyment into their courses. This hack will succeed on both counts!

On a recent commute to school, I came up with the hairbrained scheme of pulling my students into one of my ridiculous weekend body weight workout challenges. In order that we could all keep tabs on one another, we utilized Voxer…the 21st Century walkie-talkie.

This program will tell the story of this AMAZING classroom adventure through the stories of two remarkable high school seniors…Abigail Myers and Mason Wright. Please give a listen and give a weekend challenge of some sort of activity…it certainly doesn’t have to be physical, a try.

Episode Template

The Problem:

Your class needs a little levity.

The Solution:

Issue a weekend challenge and keep tabs on one another on social media.

What you can do tomorrow:

1. Concoct a weekend challenge that will inspire a majority of your kids
2. Determine which social media you’ll utilize to keep track of progress

This bonding activity will not take one moment away from instruction. Forge bonds, inject fun, and watch joyously as those stronger relationships translate to student growth.

Listen to “34-Abigail Myers and Mason Wright are Two Students Urging You to Include Squats and Pushups in your Curriculum” on Spreaker.