Happy Halloween!

Halloween can be a dreaded holiday for teachers because of behavior, sugar highs, and costumes. BUT it shouldn't be! As teachers, we are often overwhelmed by so much of our jobs that we sometimes forget to stop and enjoy! Holidays are the perfect time to take a break from teaching our curriculum and find ways of connecting with our students! I don't mean letting your class dissolve into chaos and feeding them lots of sugar but simply breaking up their daily routine.

Here's my agenda from this Haloween:

1. Halloween Bell Ringer
- Using Forms I ask them what their favorite Halloween costume is and what they are dressing up as this year.

2. History of Halloween Video
- I'm a history teacher so I had to sneak something in!
- Using History Channel I found a 2 min video clip!

3. Build a Jack-O-Lantern
- This is a fun project where students create their own Jack-O-Lantern and write a story about it
- I'm using the amazing Eric Curts' (Control Alt Achieve) presentation!
- To use this, click file + make a copy
- Be sure to check out Eric's website for more great ideas!

4. Mapping Activity
- After we finished all of our Halloween fun they went back to working on their normal assignments
- I played a kid-friendly Halloween playlist from YouTube to keep the fun going!

Classroom Jetsetters: How to Create Classroom Explorers

Feel like taking a tour around the world? Want to teach your students lessons in fun and meaningful ways? Use Google Tour Builder, My Maps, Expeditions, and Google Earth to create student projects and bring the world into your classroom! Instead of just talking about the world, break down the classroom walls and SHOW it to them!

bit.ly/classroomjetsetters

Drive Organization

Organization can be very helpful but very difficult to achieve! One of my favorite organizational tips with Google Drive is using emojis to name folders. Here is how you can accomplish this:

1. Open up a blank Doc
2. Click Insert
3. Choose Special Characters
4. Change the symbols to emoji
5. Choose the emoji you want
6. The emoji should appear on your doc, copy it
7. Open your Drive
8. Right click on your folder and choose rename
9. Paste the emoji

Stop Motion Video

Hi!

Looking for a fun project for your students to try? Stop motion videos are a fun way to engage your students. You can easily create these videos using Google Slides. Implementing this lesson in your classroom can be used as a formative assessment to measure student comprehension. Below is my sample lesson plan with student step-by-step directions. It also includes an example video that I created!

Stop Motion Video Lesson

Enjoy!

Noise Level Meter

Hi! Looking for a fun, interactive, and efficient classroom management tool to help control the noise level in your room? Try Bouncy Balls! I use a lot of group work, which can sometimes lead to a very noisy room. Instead of having to constantly remind students to be quieter, I let bouncy balls do it for me. The website will let students know when they are being too noisy. This way students can self-monitor themselves and the class. There are 4 different themes and you can adjust the sensitivity levels to fit your needs!

Nearpod

Looking for a fun way to engage your students during presentations? Create a lesson using Nearpod! Nearpod is a website that allows you to create interactive lessons with lots of fun possibilities!

Creating a Nearpod Lesson

Forms: The Magic of Self Grading Quizzes

Check out my presentation on how to use Google Forms to create assessments that automatically grade for you from the EdTechTeam Indiana Summit!

Forms: The Magic of Self Grading Quizzes