Mrs. Slaviero's Blog

Canva is such a valuable tool for educators and it's unbelievable we receive "pro" resources within the site. I've used it in the classroom for students to create graphs and infographics for a few years now, and it's now become a go-to resource for any type of information I need to give students. Here are some examples I've created in the past few weeks:  I've started to use it for changes in daily bell schedules: Spirit Week Information: To-Do Lists (I model these, students will begin to create their own): and Due Dates: I now start to think, "Is this information something I can put into Canva"? Students are creatures of technology, and using tech to find a way to reach them where they're at is definitely working smarter, not harder. If you haven't used it, give it a try!

  I've always wanted to give my students the opportunity to learn about our National Parks and try podcasting with my students. Combining these two options has been proven successful, and the perfect antidote to end of the year motivational struggles. I researched and found a terrific podcasting resource from Spark Creativity . The author is has a Language Arts background, but so many of her resources, from blackout poetry, to one pagers, to hexagonal thinking, are very adaptable to our History curriculum. We began this unit on the last day of school before Winter Break but shelved it to create National History Day projects. A few Fridays ago it became evident we all needed a change. I decided from the next Friday forward we would bring back the National Parks podcast project to end our week. We started (again) by viewing a "See All of the National Parks in One Minute" clip. This built some excitement and curiosity for selecting a park. The next step was to think of a po