Dice Game: Sixes

This math game is great for students finished early or for practice counting to one hundred.

I adapted a game I read online (see below) to play this game.

Students are placed into small groups of three to five students.

Each group is given one die and a piece of grid paper with at least 100 squares.

Each student in the group rolls the die one time.

The other player shades in the number of squares on the grid chart that the player rolls.

For example: Player 1 rolls a 3, Player 2 shades in 3 squares then takes their turn rolling die while next player shades in their roll and so on.

You can adapt as you see fit.

Here is the Original Game:
The person who rolls the lowest number starts. The players continue rolling until one player rolls a six. The player who rolls the six then starts writing numbers 1-100 on the grid. The other players begin to roll one at a time. The writer continues to write until another person rolls a six or until she reaches 100. If another player rolls a six, the writer stops and passes the paper. This continues until a player writes 100 and is declared the winner


Source: Quiet Classroom Games | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_6072197_quiet-classroom-games.html#ixzz1uUbthPhJ

Social Media in Education: The Pros and Cons

This is a very interesting flow chart that shows the Pros and Cons of social media in education.

It shows types of social media used, time line, ways to use it, successes, challenges, and more.



Via: Online Universities Blog

http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/02/pros-and-cons-of-social-media-in-education/

PE Game: Survivor

When I was a student teacher I participated in the teacher Survivor. Once or twice a week during lunch hour the teacher's would partake in crazy activities. I ate dried sardines, through hockey sticks through goals, did a junk food relay, stood on a tin can as eggs flew at me, and numerous other crazy activities the school leadership team developed. I placed 3rd, which I was quite proud of considering I was a student teacher, but it was fun and I love Survivor themes activities.

I found this activity and thought it sounded like an AWESOME PE game/activity for team building, co-operative learning, problem solving, team work, and just plain fun! A lot of prep and supplies required, so not likely something a TTOC would just "do" but worth reading through and using in the future (or even parts)

Name of Activity: Survivor Houghton (or school/class name)

Purpose of Activity: The purpose of the activity is to have students work together to solve challenges while also incorporating fitness activities.
Suggested Grade Level: 9-12

Materials Needed:
Survivor Houghton Handout

The following equipment is needed for this activity:

- 4 tribal flags (wood stick with bandana attached—each team has a different color)
- 16 resource challenge cards (4 water, 4 food, 4 fire, and 4 shelter)
- gym floor tape
- 4 laminated turkey targets
- 4 playground balls (4 inches in diameter)
- 4 large Gatorade jugs (or other large container)
- 4 folding mats
- 20 noodle pieces (about 1½ inches in length)
- 4 laminated fire cards
- 4 unassembled camping tents
- bandanas/blindfolds for all students (each tribe has its own color)
- 4 agility ladders taped on gym floor
- 12 jump ropes (varied lengths)
- 4 sets of 2 small cones with rope spread from one cone to the other

Description of Idea

Divide the students into four teams called tribes. Each team is given a tribal flag with their tribal name on it and each player is given a bandana. The tribes are “stranded” at different locations throughout the “western New York wilderness” (gym) and are given a few essential supplies including: 4 resource challenge cards, 1 raft (folding mat), 1 arrow (playground ball), 5 logs (noodle pieces), 1 unassembled shelter (tent). The tribes have 30 minutes to obtain the resources of water, food, fire, and shelter. These resources are obtained by successfully completing the challenge listed on the resource challenge cards. (Each tribe has a resource challenge card for water, food, fire, and shelter). The resources can be obtained in any order.

At the end of 30 minutes, tribes that have successfully obtained all the resources have earned the right to participate in the final Survivor Houghton team challenge. For the final challenge, tribes must work together to get all tribal members through the obstacle course as quickly as possible. The first tribe to have all of their tribal members successfully through the obstacle course wins and earns the title “Sole Survivor”.
Survivor Houghton HandoutVariations:
NOTE: This idea was created for the high school I teach at in western New York and uses equipment that is available within our PE program. The resource challenge cards can be creatively adapted to fit the location and available equipment of a different school.

Assessment Ideas:
After the activity has been completed, discuss the questions below with the students. Be sure to get responses from members representing all the tribes.

- While completing the Survivor Challenge, what is one way your tribe worked well together?
- While completing the Survivor Challenge, what is one way your tribe could have improved in working together?
- If you could go back as a tribe and re-do one part of the Survivor Challenge, what would it be? How would you do things differently?
Here is the link to the handouts/instructions in PDF format:
http://www.pecentral.org/lessonideas/Survivor_Houghton.pdf

When I was a stude

Anti-Bullying Game 'Face Value'

I always have a deck of cards. I do so much with a deck of cards, games, groups, classroom management strategies. A deck of cards, like a bean bag ball and some dice, can be miracle workers in any level classroom.

Here is a fun game/activity that can address bullying with intermediate and middle school students, but also for a lesson on class systems for up to High School level. I found it at PE Central

A good activity to use if you have time as a TTOC or if you have your own class, at the beginning of the school year, or when you observe bullying taking place in your school.
Begin with every student receiving a playing card, face down.

Explain to the students the following:

• You are to not look at your card or tell anyone else what their card is.
• Everyone should place the card on their forehead (or walk showing the card, but not looking at their own card!) with the face of the card facing away from their heads
• Begin to mingle with each other but treat everyone based on the "face value" of their card. For example, low cards (2-5) don't get much attention or are avoided, mid-range cards (6-10) are treated with respect but not overly lauded, royal cards (J, Q, K, A) are the best of the deck--those cards are the ones you try to hang out with, treat well and are "super cool"
• Allow students to mingle for several minutes treating others based on face value. Call for their attention and then have students divide into groups based on how they have been treated, low cards, mid-range and royalty. Discuss how it doesn't take very long to figure out what "group" you belong to based on how people treat you.
• Ask members from each group why they felt like they belonged in that group and how people made them feel. Lead into a disucssion about the "Golden Rule" and how everyone should expect to be treated like royalty, but in return should treat everyone else like royalty as well, not as "low cards."
• Have students take the cards off their foreheads and check to see if they are correct in guessing which level card they have. After this activity you can easily lead into a bullying discussion where you identify and define what bullying is, types of bullying, why people bully, what to do if you see bullying or are bullied and how to avoid becoming a bully themselves.

At the end, always remind students that bullying stops with them. It has to be a personal and individual choice to make it stop and to treat all those around them as if they were all royalty cards.

Anti-Bullying Websites & Teaching Suggestions:
http://www.stopabully.ca/
http://www.pinkshirtday.ca/
http://www.stopbullying.gov/
http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=24700&tid=108
http://www.bullying.org/
http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/res/cp/res/bully-eng.aspx

And so it continues.... Voluntary vs Mandatory

It seems BCPSEA (employer) feels teacher's withdrawing their voluntary activities is illegal. They have filed their conplaint with the LRB who will likely rule Friday.

I don't understand how teacher's volunteer choices outside of school hours can be viewed as "illegal" but I am interested to see how this plays out.

I have a lot of opinions on extra-curricular and this whole situation, but first, let me share with you the information in the media:


Teacher withdrawal from after-hours work is illegal, employers say

A protest that has resulted in teachers withdrawing from all after-hours activities in B.C. public schools amounts to an illegal strike, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association (BCPSEA) alleges.

On Wednesday, it filed an application to the B.C. Labour Relations Board (LRB) seeking an order that would end the B.C. Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) protest and require teachers to resume all such activities.

The crux of the issue appears to be the definition of extracurricular. The BCPSEA says it is not trying to force individual teachers to coach sports teams, for example, but does not accept the union’s broad definition of what constitutes voluntary activities.

“The BCTF has directed its members to withdraw a very broad range of duties that teachers typically perform as part of their teaching job, based upon the fact that those duties are typically performed either before or after the school bell rings,” the association says in a statement. Those activities include parent-teacher interviews, student tutorials, writing reports and talking to principals.

“The BCTF’s call for service withdrawal captures both duties that are clearly and expressly required of all teachers and duties that are performed by some teachers at those teachers’ option.

“In our view, the BCTF’s direction to its members to engage in a concerted refusal to perform these duties constitutes an illegal strike in violation of the Labour Relations Code and the Act,” the association states.

Read More

My fear is that voluntary activities become mandatory. Thus, forcing teacher's to take on some form of the 'obligated' volunteer time. This seems to defeat the purpose of any volunteer activities. Teacher's often take on areas they are passionate about, be it sports, drama, clubs, or other events. If there is a need in the school, teacher's interested or connected to that area may volunteer, but by making voluntary activities "part of the work day" it takes away the passion and the point... "I am doing this extra because it is important to my students, important to me, important to our school community"

The Globe & Mail writes:

The British Columbia Teachers’ Federation maintains teachers are withdrawing from what they consider voluntary activities – such as coaching sports teams – and that the withdrawal was the only tactic teachers had left to protest against what the union characterizes as punitive legislation.

This is the only action teacher's can legally take to voice their concern with the current government's attack on public education! It is to raise awareness and take action against the threats being imposed against public education!

The activities are extra's and voluntary. This is not stopping MATH class or skipping lessons - this is stopping out of school hour activities, such as overnight camping!
Since when did teacher's taking students camping become the norm? When I was in school, my teacher's didn't give up their evenings to take me camping - that is what Girl Guides or my parents were for!

Our "wrap-up" activities were within the school day, a school picnic in the park, a field trip to the waterslides, and so on.

When did the expectation change? Why now do we expect so much more from our teacher's spare time? I would encourage anyone to come into a classroom for a day, observe, or help run the class for the day and then after school there is the marking, preparation for the next day, photocopying, and possibly some coaching or meetings afterschool. Planning and taking a class camping seems like a far stretch from the "regular teacher duties"

I have heard of some schools where teacher's who run lunch time intramurals get a different block for their lunch (which they still often spend planning or marking). I have seen schools where teacher's who plan Sports Day or awards ceremonies and assemblies are given additional preperation time to do so, instead of using their own time at home to plan. PACs stepping in to plan activities with teachers is another strategy I have seen to ensure programs still run at schools, despite teacher's decision to stop voluntary activities.

It can be done! It is not the end of these extra's, it is a shift in how they are approached!

I don't disagree with teacher's doing extra-curriculars, I am a teacher who enjoys doing extra's with my students and like most teacher's who do extra curriculars, we don't want to stop forever, but right now, given the threats from this government and the corner we have been backed into, this is the only thing we have control over - our own voluntary time! And if this is the only way to deliver the message - it is what we must do.

Adult Education Program Changes

BC's adult education program victim of "choice"

The BC government has announced that it will no longer fund many of the adult education courses that were previously available at no cost, unless they are taken online. Among those courses on the chopping block are Grade 12 courses in physics, calculus, financial accounting, law, social justice, comparative civilizations, marketing, tourism and geography. (See the Vancouver Sun article here: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/adult+education+with+funding+cuts/6589057/story.html)

Under the guise of "choice" and "flexibility", this government is in fact reducing choice for the purposes of cost cutting. They do not want to fund classrooms and teachers to provide adult education, but they are willing to pay the much smaller cost of an online course, despite the evidence that for many learners, this is not effective.

Adult education programs provide excellent opportunities for adult learners to complete or improve their secondary level coursework. Often this enables further post-secondary educational opportunities. It is one of the pathways to improved education, employment and a higher standard of living. Creating a cost for these programs creates a barrier for those needing the upgrade and will result in fewer adults making this decision. This decision is short sighted and irrational.

Read More Here from Staffroom Confidential - Education Blog

Activity: Rock or Feather?

This is a fun activity that can be done with little to no resources as a teacher in any level classroom, although the older the students, the more depth of the discussion/explanation for decisions.
A simple activity can reveal much about how students view themselves. Students make and defend their choices in this activity, called Rock or Feather?

Are you more like a rock or a feather? summer or winter? the city or the country? Which word in each of those word pairs best describes you, your personality, your dreams?
Students make choices. For example, are they rocks or feathers? They have to choose one -- the one that describes them the best -- and they have to be able to explain why they made the choice.
Students might consider the following pairs:

• drama or comedy
• rock band or string quartet
• clothesline or kite string
• Big Mac or sirloin steak
• river or pond
• bat or ball

This can be done on a work sheet or for even more fun, have students stand and go to one side of the room or another, this way it is clear where they stand and it is a little tougher for them because their actions are right out there and they can't hide it. It is important that everyone chooses one or the other, no "in between"

This opens up discussion... WHY?

They can discuss with students who chose the same reason and see if there are similar ideas etc.

Adaptations:

• give more than 2 options (4 corners)
• give a statement and have students go to corner "strongly agree, agree somewhat, disagree somewhat, strongly disagree" (I have done this with "moral dilemma's") Then they discuss and present and sometimes students chagne their opinions and join a different corner

More Here