Engaging middle school students

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jodie Doble on March 2, 2010 at 5:26pm

Hi Deborah,
I guess we're all really busy. I'm not sure whats going on in your end of the world but here in Melbourne we're in forst term so its 'all hand on deck' and very exciting at the moment.
I've just re-structured the year 5 program and its working beautifully :)
apart from that we have an inclusive camps program running, by that I mean our camps are now linked to our curriculum teaching and learning taking the classroom out into the real world.
All very busy in a good way

Jodie

Permalink Reply by Merle Hall on March 2, 2010 at 5:34pm

Good evening:
Here in Missouri we have extended our quarters due to snow days. In my technology classes we are working on getting some podcast over the Constitution finished and at the same time preparing for a Constitution test. We have just finished making our roughs and are in the process of editing, retaping, and adding music to the podcast. We have 3 weeks to finish and take the test.
In my 7th grade classes we are learning about economics. We were going to be making vidcast but behaviors have led me to keep it simple and straight forward. Nothing exciting here, the kids are plenty excitable without help.
In 6th grade we played monopoly for 6 days using checks instead of cash. Each student had to keep a check ledger and one of them was the banker. After that we took the information we created in Monopoly and created some ledgers in spreadsheets. Now we are going to work on writing different formulas, and making some payroll sheets. Eventually we will use the rest of the Monopoly information to do some assets sheets and figure some net worth.

Love Middle School!

Permalink Reply by Deborah Hansen on March 2, 2010 at 5:57pm

What great ideas! I love that more kids are creating podcasts, vidcasts, etc....we MUST keep up with their technologic saavy in order to engage them.

Permalink Reply by betty carle on March 3, 2010 at 9:17am

In Irvington, NY my 6th grade tech classes are working on a digital web portfolio. They create web pages about themselves and about their other classes. They post things in their portfolio that they have done during this school year. THe idea is that they put things in their portfolio that they are proud of. Each subject area page that is created they must tell me the date the project was done; purpsoe of the project; and their personal reflection about how they did etc.
One of their pages has to be done in powerpoint (which is then saved as a web page); another page has to be done in the form of a video. These pages are hyperlinked off of their main page. They also do a photostory about themselves and this is hyperlinked off of their main page too.

Permalink Reply by Leon Avrech on April 20, 2010 at 3:30pm

Hi Deborah, my name is Leon Avrech, San Jose, CA. I recently had a book published, "THINK YOU CAN TEACH? A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS". I am retired after 37 yrs. in middle school as teacher, principal, and mentor teacher. I taught 8th grade U.S. History. My book is a tremendous help to new teachers or those planning to teach, as well as those in the classroom for a few years. I have a passion for middle school and want new teachers to be successful and not quit. My book covers topics from the first day of orientation to the end of year evaluation. Topics include: lesson plans, classroom management, yard duty, parent conferences, open house and more.
The book is available from Amazon.com barnesandnoble.com and borders.com I hope that new teachers will buy this book which is very inexpensive and contains 37 years experience. An enormous help. Thank You.

Permalink Reply by Marty Smith on July 8, 2010 at 8:40am

I want to work on online portfolio for my students. Any suggestions on how to get started?

Permalink Reply by Channing Tan on September 6, 2010 at 5:54pm

Yes , very busy