Successful in Sixth Grade

  The idea of using social media, let alone cell phones, in my middle school classroom, is a very scary idea. It's just so hard anymore to monitor what they are doing at all times. 6th graders are so easily distracted by technology that if I allowed them to be on their phones for a lesson, using an app etc; I can almost guarantee that half of them would be switching back and forth to other personal things on their phone. This year we have a new monitoring system called Netref. We have used Lightspeed in the past. This allows me to watch my students' screens at any point. If I have students on a program, or doing an assignment, I can watch and make sure they are not switching tabs. I almost always catch students with a game tab open in the background, switching back and forth when they think I'm not looking. If they are tempted to do this with their computer from school, I can almost guarantee they would be doing this with their phones. If they use their computers, at least ...

Screencasting brings back some terrible memories of the Covid years. I did use screencasting to record a grammar lesson for example, and then posted it for my students. I took a sabbatical during the Hybrid year to stay home with my kids and help them through Hybrid schooling. I didn't need to use this super often, however I did use it one other time when I came back to school. We held a virtual back to school night and I needed to do a screencast. Instead of videoing just myself and reinvent the wheel, I was able to take my normal presentation and just present it as if parents were in front of me. The added benefit was that I could also navigate away from my presentation and show them apps and log ins. This helped me for last year when we were back in person because I remembered everything I had shown them on the screencast and added it in to my presentation. I'm just now thinking about some benefits that screencasting could have for ELLs but also all students really. Let'...

When I hear "podcasting," I think about people casually listening to something in their cars. I think about audio books, or how my favorite radio station talks about their 3 minute podcast. Some of my favorite TV shows also have characters that have created their own podcast. It seems very casual, and really just a way for people to express their opinions, communicate with each other, and simply shoot the breeze. Yes, I know, there are many educational podcasts out there, but these are the first things that come to my mind. I hadn't thought about using podcasting in my classroom. However, when reading over articles and researching how podcasting could be used for ELLs, I can definitely see a very different use for them.  I hadn't thought about the fact that "listening" might be something that is often overlooked when it comes to teaching ELLs. Listening to academic language is a very important part to their development, but sometimes we are focusing so much ...

In learning more about Professional Learning Environments (PLE), I'm trying to think what we use in school that would be considered a PLE. Our district uses Clever which houses all of the apps that teachers and students use. It's a one click sign on and all of their programs are located easily on one screen. This has really streamlined the process for students and teachers to easily find all of the programs that the district has to offer. There is a section specifically for English Learners.  I also think Moby Max would be considered a PLE since the students can work through their own path and at their own pace. There are multiple topics in multiple subjects. I can assign them topics that I think they need to work on also. Once they take a pre-test, they will then start working through a path to help them with that specific skill. This is a great resource for English learners, especially if you want to hone in on specific skills. A teacher can check the progress, however it doe...

 Thanks for checking out my blog! This site will be a resource for you to use in 6th Grade!