On days when seatwork or lecture might get intense, taking a  Go Noodle break helps students stay fresh and actually accomplish more. 

Go Noodle is a site I learned about from the early elementary teachers in my #edufam online PLC.  (Check out this link for more of what elementary teachers say about Go Noodle, but don't be put off by the younger kids, it works for teenagers too!)

Go Noodle has categories so you can choose calming, stretching, educational, or other kinds of movement.

They even have an INDOOR RECESS channel where I found this gem! 

 I wasn't sure it would be to juvenile, but I tested it out last year in the media center and the kids were into it! I think it's great for middle schoolers, too. They think the videos are hilarious and you can gamify it by creating a class and earning points for each dance you do.  The all time best earworm is probably PopSiKo

And really, how can you call yourself a true middle school teacher if you aren't letting your students get up and dance to KidzBop?!   Go Noodle is here with KIdzBop Dances to rectify that problem, stat.

Are you still not convinced? Need help getting started? I will show you my MakerSpace Go Noodle Channel, I will come to your classroom to run a brain break with your class, or you can follow this script:

1. Talk with your students about the research between movement and learning
2. Share some behavior ground rules. (Mine might be stay within a certain square of your desk, don't hit others, no yelling, when song is over, high five a frind and be back sitting in your assigned  seat at count of five)
3. Warn them that Go Noodle is ridiculous and silly and that is part of why it works (In addition to movement, brains also respond to laughter and novelty. It opens your mind so you can learn more easily)
4. If you want to give them a choice, tell them you'll try three songs at three different times today or over the course of two days and if they don't like it by third song, you will regroup.
5. Play PopSeeKo   (or let the class choose from any go noodle channel)
6. That's it. If they do say they hate it you can always use Just Dance videos to songs the class likes- they are posted on YouTube.

If dancing is just too out there for you, why not start with SECRET HANDSHAKES? If that is too ridiculous for you, you can have the students make up their own. 

If you definintely want to avoid dance, try a stretching video like:

• Be Kind To Yourself 
• Stay Focused Stretch

If you are all-in and have no limit, let them freestyle with these crowd pleasing videos:

• Happy
• Let It Go
• Everything is Awesome

Go Noodle is just one of the many ways to find a quick way to stretch, move, circulate, regroup, and reenergize.

Related Posts:
VocabBall http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/lesson-ideas/incorporating-vocabulary _
Dance Your Lessons http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/piedmont-pd/1
Many More Active Learning Strategies and Active Test Prep Strategies ​http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/lesson-ideas/category/active-learning_

Do you know that IQ is a myth? That the test was never meant to be given to neurologically healthy individuals and especially for it not to be used for ranking. Yes, there is such a thing as talent, but IQ is not fixed and everyone is gifted at something. Do your students know this? It's time to tell them because students who believe there is such a thing as "smart" or "dumb" do not try as hard as those who believe that smart can be achieved with effort. 

For more on growth mindset google Carol Dweck

Following is a Youtube Playlist of videos that explain growth mindset. I am in a training right now that says we should explicitly teach students growth mindset. The video they used (in the playlist) is called Austin's Butterfly and it shows the butterfly images in the photo below. It illustrates how students can all get better over time with focused effort and constructive feedback.  If you take time to show how this first grader improved his butterfly drawings from drawing one to drawing six,  students will be more likely to trust that they will improve equally stunningly in your class. 

Another growth mindset example students might understand is the video game example. When a student starts out on level one and they die, they are not sad about it, they just keep going knowing full well that they will improve with practice. Help them transfer that surety and confidence to the effort they put into your classroom. 

See me if you want to connect this to your actual content lesson in a more direct way or if you want me to come speak as a former psych teacher to your students about neuroplasticity (I can even tell them about the student I taught who LITERALLY had half a brain- and her entire brain rewired so you would never even notice!)

Some people use the term "classroom management" as code for "controlling students." I try to run my class without coercion; to control the environment not the people. Because I have refined my rules over the 20+ years I've been a teacher I DO NOT let my students make the rules. I am an expert in how I want the class to run. They do not know yet how well things can go with my method, so I don't invite them making the rules until we've lived by my rules for a while.

For teachers who are looking for a system, my advice would be to pick and choose from methods of teachers you observe. Here are mine. 

If you wish to add your own ideas please share them in the comments section because I know my method won't work for everyone.  Creating climate is highly personal and there are many ways to create a positive one for learning. Teachers should use others ideas to cobble together a method that will work for them, their students, and their climate goals.

My most effective classroom management strategy is a paper"Activity Wheel" hung where every student can see it. The activity wheel is an oval bright yellow handmade poster with the name of each main type of instructional strategies we use. In the center is a red arrow that spins around the wedges. I actually move a paper arrow around the wheel to point to the activity title as we begin it. I might also read aloud the rules again as a reminder. I may do this several times a class because I always had a lot going on. 

When I did have problems, I usually could nip it with a discussion and by showing true caring. Sometimes when things went south for the whole class, I had a lot of luck going in the next day and saying to the child, to the group, "I am still thinking about last class and I am coming in today ready to do what I can to fix what went wrong." Then I could either say "here's what I will do and what I needed to see from you" or invite a discussion " What did you see that was out of line? What can we do to fix it? What if that doesn't work."
OK today's a fresh start.
The best thing to work was showing that I really cared about them and about making sure everyone could learn and be respected. One thing that always worked is never letting a putdown slide, but that was because it was like nails on a chalkboard to me so easy for me to care about and stop right away.

Below are embedded google docs my presentation slides when I teach the concept of respect and the activity wheel to my students. You can download  to your google docs and personalize it according to the procedures you want to see. 

• Teach what respect means (it means valuing)
• Teach the platinum rule (Treat others as THEY wish to be treated, not as you wish to be treated)
• Admit when things go awry
• take time to know each other-develop relationships
• start fresh - teach that success is not a straight path
• have rubrics for procedures and social behaivors of a lesson so it is clear to students the soft skills you are looking to see and how to make those manifest.
• say what you want to see
• demo what you want to see
• practice
• talk about growth versus fixed mindset
• talk about understanding how we are all different and have different needs via the animal school story

http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgebradt/2011/12/07/lessons-from-the-animal-school-fable-in-leveraging-strengths/

Relate the animal school story to Multiple Intelligences (helps you and the students understand each other and minimize your differences while working to your strengths)  


Sample Rubric - for Class Discussions without Raising Hands
Sample First Day Setting the Climate and Explaining Procedures lesson- A Visual Scavenger Hunt:

In my crystal ball I see the future of education will be makerspaces. Maybe that prediction my own wishful thinking, but I sure hope it's true. A move from content-driven fact regurgitation to studio, and lab-driven workshops can only be a good thing for our students' futures.  At the rate of change in todays world, a skills-based, passion-driven, and failure-tolerant exploratory environment is the way to go!

Makerspace FAQ

What is a makerspace?
Jake Standish defines a makerspace as any place or process that provides students the opportunity for creative expression and the pride of feeling "I made something cool!" I see it as a way in school to experience what visionary STEAM educator Seymour Pappert terms "hard fun." Makerspaces are a place to both instill and nurture students' interests organically. If you are ONLY looking for quickest test score increases, maker ed will not be for you (and I feel sad for your students.) However, done well the maker method results are INCOMPARABLY more long lasting and far reaching than traditional instruction.

How did the maker movement in education start?
Makerspaces in school grew out of the hackerspace movement as a way of integrating STEM or STEAM back into schools and a response to the oversanitization of education. If you are curious how they look outside of a school stetting, there is a hackerspace near our school.  google "Charlotte Hackerspace" to find where and maybe do a field trip. There are also maker faires in many areas.

Do I need to be an engineer, a tech expert or a scientist to run a makerspace with my students?
Not at all. Students can teach each other, learn from videos or instructions, or get help from adult or high school volunteers. Just provide the supplies and let students decide what to do with them.

Makerspaces do not have to include electronics but there are many creative electronic kits out there that are affordable even for a beginning school. Check the resources question below for a few.

" if you know the right end of a soldering iron , adafruot will get you the rest of the way." - Jake Standish of CMS

I can't abide chaos, should I even try this?
Yes, frustration and false starts will be common, valuable, and instructive, but you can minimize the chaos with rubrics and directed projects and minimize the mess with 3D printed and computer based projects. Ideas are on the Pirate STEAMShip page. I also recommend partnering with a chaos-tolerant co-teacher! Put your classes together!

How can I get started?
Rather than worry about who would use it or how, we got started by gathering anything that could be used into one spot and cataloging it:

• gathered my children's old science toys, manipulatives, recycled items, crafts and building materials then wrote possible multidisciplinary lesson ideas to go along with them
• hung a green screenI created a website that listed the supplies.
• rescued a sewing machine from our now-defunct home-ec cabinet.
• got a  MakerBot Replicator 2 as soon as the CEO announced a grant
• loaded up the ipads with free STEM and STEAM apps including video and music-making apps.

When Ms. Newburger came back as our media specialist, she created a permanent makerspace home and improved the vision and -while waiting for the funding for her larger vision, immediately re-created the media center. She

• upcycled two whiteboards and mounted them one on top of the other to create a giant collaborative design area.
• put a table in the lobby for crafting supplies and to use as a workbench.
• moved the green screen for better lighting and to expand usable space
  

Where can my students and I find ideas?

• If you want some cool project ideas start at: Make.com Projects http://makezine.com/projects/
• If you want to develop 21st century maker friendly skills try DIY.org/skills - great way to do independent learning and badging

What equipment?

• K'Nex,Snap circuits, Legos, Lego Mindstorms
• apps green screen whiteboards
• Makey makey, rasperry pi and other ardruino based products like  "Drawduino"_Line circuit sound Adafruit
• • middle school sample website of supplies -PirateSTEAMship (sorry it's not fancy)
  Also recommended:
  
  
  • 700 science experiments for everyone -  book on amazon 
  • Tinnovations - have instructions and YouTube videos
  
  What can we use the makerspace to do?
  
  
  • see photos below and at the blog Celebrating Piedmont
    
  • example of middle school PBL maker driven fair http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/6/post/2014/04/love-of-learning-at-piedmont.html  and Resources to start your own http://piratesteamship.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/Operation+STEAMship+Pilot
  
  Can you guarantee me higher test scores if I try this?
  No.
  
  Then why should I bother?
  
  
  • because right now some of your students hate coming to school
  • because some of your students will drop out
  • because some of your students making "A's" now are ill-prepared for life
  • because some of your students don't know how to fail
  • because some of your students are gifted and you have yet to recognize that
  • because some of your students have never felt the pride of creation
  • because if you want "grit" (shudder) this uncovers grit in children heretofore thought of as lazy in school. (that's a blog post for another day)
  
  This kind of learning may not be  the most efficient for producing a clear linear and incremental gain by the end of one school year on paper, but it provides lasting learning that is transferrable, motivating, respectful of multiple intelligences and values to society and is not artificially separate the way traditional education has been. I'll let astronaut Mae Jemison make the case better than I ever could:
  
  

PBL - project based learning, also called Passion based learning can be student-driven and creation driven. 

This kind of PBL - known as Love of learning, 20% time and Genius hour is creating some great results is based on the idea of flipping blooms (see image) while also giving students a voice in what is created.

It rewards intelligences often ignored in traditonal education and is more motivating that a teacher-driven class. It can also be the bait that drives students to grow their skills as they see the need.

At Piedmont we are one of the first CMS schools to create a makerspace. 

Our MakerSpace supplies are the perfect compliment to make-ify your lessons and/or nurture the variety of genius in your classroom!  In addition to our extensive collection of multiple intelligences apps, Green Screen, Collaboration Board area, MakerSpace workbench and Makerbot Replicator 2 3Dprinter housed in the media center, we have mobile carts of supplies available for checkout to your room.

Check this link for the full list of offerings http://piratesteamship.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/STEAMshipCarts

See Lisa Gurthie or Lisa Newburger for ideas of how to use these in projects or curriculum.

The full information about STEAM integration at Piedmont via the PirateSTEAMship is here
http://piratesteamship.cmswiki.wikispaces.net

Ok, I don't really get it myself, but I think some of you will take this and run with it, so I am sharing:

Have you heard of design thinking? there is this whole movement in education to teach by using design thinking to solve real problems.  the dschool at Stanford is way out in front of how to use design thinking in education.

So you can Google to find out more, but if you think you might want to try teaching by issuing your students a challenge, you can click the image to choose one of dschool's 3 "mixtapes" lesson strategies to:

• Discover insights via human engagement

• Advance your solution via prototyping
•  Generating unexpected ideas via reframing your challenge

In a lesson slump? Sometimes it's hard to recall all the clever pedagogical strategies at your disposal when you are in the thick of wrestling with content.

When I first started teaching 25 years ago, I kept a little file box of index cards on my desk that I started penciling in strategies into, one per card. I lost that box and I never did keep it up anyway as I was ovewhelmed with teaching, but thanks to Kelly Jo Rowan, (and Mr. Tornfelt for sharing) I now have all those strategies in one handly location!

Just scroll through the strategies here at the Glossary of Insructional Strategies.  With a list this exhaustive, you're sure to find something that will fit with your objective. Not all strategies suit all objectives, but sometimes it is fun to choose a strategy and see how you can make it fit.