 Ms. Adornato is one of Piedmont faculty's early adopters of Google Classroom. You may remember her combined classroom Science Olympiad challenge activities in the gym, and her one-pager ideas from other blog posts. Today Ms. Adornato's eighth grade science students used their sketches and notes, online resources, plus classmates and teacher to answer essential questions about elements. Here are a few takeaways from her lesson that would work in any classroom:
Check out the photos of the lesson as it progressed below:  Students could view the lesson workflow upon arrival to the room.  Students were able to work together on gathering information.  The collaborative atmosphere was happy and cooperative and the noise level was a soft busy hum.  Ms. Adornato used both real-time and projected questions to keep students on the right track and digging deeper toward the goal.  The image sketches in this students' notes are an example of a task that changes somewhat via tech so when paper is best (or wifi is worst) feel free to use it! For more on the role of visual notetaking, click the image.  Ms. Adornato created and posted separate "announcements" for each topic she wanted students to address in her Google Classroom stream. (these announements can easily be added to mulitple class sections)  A roster placed on the Cart showed the students which number chromebook to use as they were ready.  Students can read other comments as they post their own on the essential questions. The comments become a permanent record that can be used again when it is time to create a final product.  Using the best features of the tools available to suit the learning goal: Ms. Adornato's students work whole class, small group, individually, and with teacher guidance using both pen and paper and tech in one lesson. Related:
http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/piedmont-pd/category/gafe http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/piedmont-pd/category/blended http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/lesson-ideas/student-introduction-to-google-classroom http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/piedmont-pd/how-to-use-google-classroom-teacher-instructions  8th Graders on the Cherokee field trip experience culture and history you can't find in a book A new study confirms what we do at Piedmont has significant value to students' "knowledge, future cultural consumption, tolerance, historical empathy, and critical thinking" It's a lot of work for teachers to plan a cultural enrichment even or a field trip: make arrangements, get approval, get permission slips collect or raise funds, make a stay back list, arrange for chaperones and coverage and keep hundreds of teens safe as they enthusiastically enjoy the experience. For many teachers, it is too much bother, but at Piedmont we have continued our field trips and culural arts events throughout the years. According to a new study described at: http://educationnext.org/learning-live-theater/ we are making the right decision so thank you, teachers! From the article: "As schools narrow their focus on improving performance on math and reading standardized tests, they have greater difficulty justifying taking students out of the classroom for experiences that are not related to improving those test scores. Schools are either attending fewer field trips or shifting toward field trips to places they know students already enjoy. When testing is over, schools are often inclined to take students on “reward” field trips to places like amusement parks, bowling alleys, and movie theaters. The nature of culturally enriching field trips is that they are often to places that students don’t yet know they might enjoy. " Related: Besides the Levine Field trips, the Amazing Race activity, Cherokee, Washington, DC our World War II and Civil Rights Living Museums, and more, take a look at some of the great cultural arts and field trip experiences depicted below. If you would like to share more photos please do so by contacting Lisa Gurthie for the code to our "Piedmont Spirit" Google Classroom for photo and video sharing. http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/holocaust-survivor-visits-piedmont-to-speak http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/we-walk-the-walk-run-the-run-play-the-song-paint-the-art http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/childrens-theater-puts-on-a-show-for-8th-grade http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/testing-over-learning-continues Piedmont Students laying the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier last year: Tell me how you can top that sitting in a desk? (video via Mr. Milligan) Here are a few live tweets and photos of the event: <blockquote lang="en"><p>The <a href="https://twitter.com/CLTMayor">@CLTMayor</a> onstage with <a href="https://twitter.com/PiedmontIB">@PiedmontIB</a> taking the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/antibullying?src=hash">#antibullying</a> pledge <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cmsk12?src=hash">#cmsk12</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/antibullyingmonth?src=hash">#antibullyingmonth</a> kickoff <a href="http://t.co/sKNJCL0Up1">pic.twitter.com/sKNJCL0Up1</a></p>— Lisa Gurthie (@LisGurthie) <a href="https://twitter.com/LisGurthie/status/517339383020941312">October 1, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>                8th graders Nishitha Karumari, Julia Packard, Livi Daganhart and Aliya Patel created a wonderful video celebrating Piedmont for the Cam Newton Foundation school spirit contest that captures the spirit of Piedmont. They wrote: Our video shows how school pride is presented in many forms, not just cheering. At Piedmont, since we are a culturally diverse school, we show our pride through events and projects like the Culture Cluster, Love of Learning, and Cultural Recipe Proportions. We embrace how academically gifted our students are by participating in competitions and acclaiming national titles. We at Piedmont do things differently compared to other schools. To show how chemical reactions occur, we don’t complete worksheets, we make and eat s’mores. We don’t give boring history lectures; we go to our nation’s capital and experience the real deal ourselves. At Piedmont, we reward kindness and extreme selflessness through “Positive Impact” shout-outs on our morning announcement TV show each day. At Piedmont, we learn how to apply their knowledge in real world situations, and how to strive for success. That itself is major school spirit. Take a look at their creation below and If your students would like to make a future video for the monthly contest, please see Ms. Gurthie in the media center! |
Celebrating Piedmont : a blog of Happy HappeningsCategories
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Author"Celebrating Piedmont" logs only a small fraction of the learning magic the teachers of CMS' Piedmont Middle School, an IB World School. create daily. In that sense, it is authored by all the staff and students of Piedmont. It is curated by Ms. Gurthie who can be reached at the icons above. She'll be happy to brag about Piedmont's teachers and students any chance she gets! Please note this blog has only just begun and we have so much to show off! Come back again soon! |
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Photos used under Creative Commons from Yellow Sky Photography, Nicholas_T, Wendy Longo photography, Gidzy, Mara ~earth light~, seyed mostafa zamani, Y'amal, slopjop, Kevin Shorter, davecito, Nina Matthews Photography, Rob Stemple
