Category: Creating

Spring is love #edBlogaDay

Posted on By Mrs. Wilson No Comments on Spring is love #edBlogaDay
Creating

I grew up in Florida. People will often joke that Florida doesn’t have seasons. Of course Florida has seasons; they just aren’t traditional: hurricane season, tourist season, strawberry season, and citrus season are just a few. Growing up in Florida, I always wondered what the big deal is about spring.

When I moved to Georgia almost ten years ago, I finally discovered spring.

Spring

Spring is bliss.

Spring is incandescent.

Spring is buds and flowers and pollen.

Spring is green, verdant and lush.

Spring is hope bursting forth.

Spring is petals floating on the wind.

Spring is bird song greeting the morning.

Spring is bees buzzing.

Spring is world made new.

Spring is the bluest of skies.

Spring is life blossoming.

Spring is love.


Sketchnotes experiment: Day 1 #edBlogaDay

Posted on By Mrs. Wilson No Comments on Sketchnotes experiment: Day 1 #edBlogaDay
Creating, Teaching

IMG_6696If you have been following the blog the past month, you know that I have been brainstorming a way to bring sketchnotes/doodling/art journaling to my chemistry classroom. This is a concept I would really like to incorporate next year, so I am piloting it with one of my classes for our last unit of the year.

A week ago, I passed out simple bound books to my students (our “sketchbooks”) and asked them to decorate the covers by Thursday (yesterday). When students got to class yesterday, I asked them to start by walking around the room and looking at each others decorated covers.

I spent the next part of class explaining my big idea for sketchnotes. There is actually a lot of great research supporting the use of doodling in the classroom (like this article from LiveScience that explains Doodling May Draw Students into Science). Next, we watched a short video from Mike Rohde explaining the Sketchnote process. After that, I had a short discussion with students to hear their initial thoughts. The biggest concern students had was making sure they had all of the details of the notes. Since Sketchnoting focuses on the big ideas, they were worried they would miss a detail that would be important for an assessment. Except for that, students seemed pretty open to the idea. I had already anticipated that this would be a concern, so I was happy to tell them that they would receive a packet of completed notes for the unit. (We usually do cloze style notes.)

After watching a longer video of the Sketchnoting process in action, students were ready to try it themselves. They were starting to realize that the visual elements did not require a lot of drawing skill. It is more about doodles and lettering. For our first challenge, I displayed the two standards we will be covering this unit.

  • 13b. calculate temperature, pressure and volume of gases using Charles’ Law, Boyle’s Law, and Gay-Lussac’s Law
  • 13e – use concepts of the mole and Avogadro’s number to calculate the molar volume of gases (GPS)

I then asked students to interpret the standards using sketchnotes based on their prior knowledge and what they thought the standard meant. It was a great way to preview the content of the unit and for students to uncover things they already know.

In the slideshow, you can see some of the decorated covers and initial sketchnotes from students. I think they look amazing for just beginning. I am looking forward to seeing how this plays out. Many students were really excited to have the chance to draw and doodle and were asking if the process could be applied to other classes. Students even suggested I should do this with my students next year!

I am also participating with my students. I think it’s a good idea to model something new (or even well known). I’ve found that students are much more likely to buy in to your crazy ideas if you do it along with them. It shows students that you think it is important enough to do, too. I am so excited to see where this journey takes us, and I hope you’ll continue to follow along!

 

 

Sketchnotes and doodling: Art journaling follow up #AprilBlogADay

Posted on By Mrs. Wilson No Comments on Sketchnotes and doodling: Art journaling follow up #AprilBlogADay
Creating, Teaching

A little over a week ago, I shared a post about art journaling in the classroom. Since then, I have made some progress in coming up with a plan to incorporate art journals into my classroom. Social media is a magical place. A few days ago, I was perusing my Twitter feed when I happened on this tweet:

 

Which led me to the linked website, which has a fun course on visual note taking based on the four C’s of creativity, comprehension, communication, and connections. The course is written by Jill Gough (from the tweet above) who just happens to be an educator in Atlanta. Through some Twitter discussion and looking at the course site, I have found some additional resources that will be helpful in developing a sketching/art journal/visual note activities for my students.

  • Brain Doodles: A site with tutorials on doodling to help students learn and think; the information is aimed at high school students and includes information for educators to incorporate lessons into the classroom.
  • The Doodle Revolution: Unlock the Power of the to Think Differently by Sunni Brown: This is a book shows how to unlock our natural doodling abilities to help us learn and create. I have ordered the book and am currently awaiting its delivery. However, I’ve already had some interaction with the author via Twitter. I’m telling you; social media is magical.

 

  • The Sketchnote Handbook: the illustrated guide to visual note taking by Mike Rohde: I actually already have this book. I got it last year and used it with my sixth grade students a few times. Many of my students really enjoyed being able to take notes visually instead of just with words. I haven’t worked through the entire book yet, so that is something I would like to do in the near future.
  • CommNatural: This site hosted by Bethann G. Merkle has a lot of resources of using art in the science classroom. I’ve had a great Twitter conversation with her, and I hope to be able to incorporate some of the resources from her site into my sketching experiment.

So what’s next? I am trying to determine the best way to begin incorporating this into my classroom. I want to do some beta testing and data collecting this year before the school year ends. However, I really need to get some planning done on this ASAP. Our last day of school is one month from today, and there are lots of tests and exams between now and then. However, I did get an inexpensive “sketchbook” for each of my students in one of my classes. I am wrapping up my current unit the middle of next week, and I am hoping to incorporate our doodling experiment as we start our final unit on gas laws. I am also hoping to do some extension activities with this class to introduce them to some organic and biochemistry to preview the AP biology class they will take in the fall.

I will continue to update as I continue on this journey. I am hoping the beta test goes well so that I can work on a full integration of sketchnotes/doodling/sketchbooks into my classroom next year.

 

Art Journaling #AprilBlogADay

Posted on By Mrs. Wilson No Comments on Art Journaling #AprilBlogADay
Creating, Teaching

I wanted to write a post today about one thing I have not yet tried in my classroom this year. Something I want to accomplish before the year is through. That seems like such a simple thing to do

but

it’s not. It’s not right now. This year.

If you’d asked me this question a year ago, I could have produced a long list of things to try and accomplish. This year, I am at a loss of where to start. What’s the difference? Last year I was in my eighth year of teaching the same content (6th grade Earth science), the same standards, the same information. I reinvented and tried new things every year. More inquiry, mystery lessons, concept attainment, collaboration, making, exploring. The list was endless.

What’s changed? This year I am teaching new to me content areas (high school chemistry and engineering), and although I know and love chemistry, I feel like I am learning this year right along with my students. I know the chemistry, but I am learning the standards, the pacing, and the types of learning experiences I can create for my students. (I also often enhance the standards when I think there is an important concept missing.) I want to provide experiences for my students that are engaging and involve inquiry, but I also don’t want to overwhelm them when they are immersed in one of our large projects like our STEM Maker Fest.

So this year, I am learning. Learning what works; learning what doesn’t work. I am brainstorming ideas for next year. Periodically I get flashes of inspiration that are too late to incorporate this year but are on the list for next year. So ask me this question again in a year, and I am sure I will once again have a long list.

And instead, I’ll share with you a post about something I am trying for the first time this year on a personal learning basis.

Art Journaling

I love to draw, doodle, paint. I really want to be a better at hand lettering. I have done a couple of sketchbooks in the past (2012 and 2013), and created a map of my “perfect” classroom. I took a watercolor painting class one summer at the rec center when I was a teenager, and I’ve enrolled in a few online classes here and there. In November, I heard about an art journaling class from Joanne Sharpe. I’d taken one of her lettering classes before, and I was intrigued. I signed up, and started journaling with the goal of a page a week. Each month we have a theme word and a specific “style” for the journal. January the theme was “spark”, and we learned to use watercolor markers. February’s theme was “passion”, and we learned whimsical calligraphy. March was “hope” and art marks. (I haven’t started April yet.)

I got behind at the end of February, and then March ran away from me. The awesome thing about spring break is it gives you a chance to slow down, to reflect, to create, to make. I have spent a lot of time making and drawing and painting in my art journal this week. I love how the March pages turned out.

FullSizeRender

FullSizeRender(1)Do you know what I love about this online class? Everyone is sharing and learning. As I look at the artwork from my classmates, I can see that we are all in different places in terms of talent, style, and experiences. But everyone shares with each other and encourages one another. Plus, this class has no grades, no deadlines, and only a suggested timeline. If you get behind, you catch up when you can. There is no stress. It’s all about the joy of learning.

Actually, maybe I do have a couple of ideas I’d like to try before the school year is through. One I hinted towards the other day. Learning for the love of learning. Not because of grades, or tests, or rankings. Learning because we get better at something we love or are interested in.

The other? I had the idea couple years ago to incorporate exploration journals or something like the art journal into the science classroom. I still wonder what that might look like. A sketchbook? A scrapbook? A field journal? A treasured notebook of chemistry (or another science) found in the normality of the everyday? Maybe there is a way to incorporate the non graded joy of learning with an science “art” journal. Hmm. Now I have an idea. Maybe I do have something to try before the year is through!

 

Just Breathe #AprilBlogADay

Posted on By Mrs. Wilson No Comments on Just Breathe #AprilBlogADay
Creating, Teaching

IMG_6598I find that I am always rushing around here, there, everywhere. Grading papers, planning lessons, meeting with students, attending faculty meetings – it’s often a whole lot of go, go, go. I love keeping busy, and I love working with my students. All of these activities are important aspects of my career.

However, sometimes it is nice to just stop. To sit. To breathe. To be.

When the final bell rang at 2:10 today (well, it actually didn’t ring for some reason ), spring break officially began. When I got home, I felt the warmth of the spring sun on my face, and I knew I had to just sit on the porch and stop. Be still. Just breathe.

Sometimes, I feel guilty when I relax on the weekends and don’t get enough papers graded or enough lessons planned. However, taking time to rest ultimately rejuvenates me helping me to become a better teacher. The relentless go, go, going will not help my students. Taking time to enjoy the beauty of the world around me, to breathe, to be still, to stargaze will help me to refocus in order to be the best I can be for my students.

So although getting some work done is on the agenda for this spring break, so is time to rest, to create, to refocus, to sit in the sun and to stand under the stars and just breathe. Will you join me?

STEM Maker Fest Project

Posted on By Mrs. Wilson No Comments on STEM Maker Fest Project
Creating, Teaching

STEM Maker festOn Friday, we launched part one of our final project of the year: the Lanier STEM Maker Fest (project overview). In May, we will be hosting our first ever Maker Fest at our high school. It’s sure to be an exciting event as our students will be sharing maker projects and showing others how to become makers.

Normally, when we launch a project, we get all of our students in the same grade level together and explain the project to them. By we, I mean our team of teachers. We give them a basic breakdown of the project goals, show them the project web site, and discuss major due dates.

This project is different. We launched the project with our juniors a few weeks ago. Why? They are running the show through a series of committees ranging from marketing to legal to logistics. They needed to time to start planning the event, get logos created (see above), think about what types of activities would be allowed, and other big ideas of throwing an event like this. We decided they would also be in charge of launching the project to our other students.

So, on Friday, we sat in one of our huge open classrooms with our freshmen students as four of the junior class members stood in front of them and launched the project. They shared the big idea, the initial planning, and all that we hope for the event.  Over 100 students in audience sat spellbound. We have never had a launch like this. As we broke from the presentation, students started forming groups and brainstorming what they wanted to share, build, make, and teach as part of their maker fest booth. The room was filled with groups of students in tight circles beginning to dream, plan, and brainstorm. It was amazing!

Later in the day, the process was repeated with our sophomores. I wasn’t able to attend, but I heard that launch went even better than the morning’s launch and great ideas were already flowing.

Every day, I cannot believe I blessed I am to work in an environment like this. One that empowers students to find their passions and equips them to do amazing things. It is an incredible environment, and our students love being a part of it.

 

Want to join us? The Lanier STEM Maker Fest will be held on Saturday, May 16th from 10 am to 2 pm at Lanier High School in Sugar Hill, GA.