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...

  Our first Harkness was a terrific learning experience for all of us. I was upfront and honest with my students that I'd never done this with a class before and we would all simply try our best.  It was recommended that I run three discussion groups during one class so that more students would have the opportunity to speak for a longer period of time. I divided students into groups and students not in Harkness had individual work to accomplish. The groups moved their desks into an oval, I read the essential question, and put 10 minutes on the timer.  Essential Question: Why is it important for people living in America today to live up to citizen responsibilities? Students were asked to consider the Three Branches, the Bill of Rights, and their roles as citizens. I also asked them to connect citizen rights to the history we had already learned this year (for example, what life was like in the colonies before and during the American Revolution). My historians were encourag...

My Language Support Historians have been very busy in class these past few weeks. The start of the school year (especially this year) is all about assimilating to a new country, state, city, and school. We are building community and are now ready to roll! Last week and this week was spent diving into the five themes of geography and focusing on different regions of the United States. Groups selected two states from a particular region to study through the 5 themes lens.  I  introduced students to Noodle Tools, helped them create a project, showed them how to link their project to my teacher inbox, search our Media databases and e-books, select sources, cite those sources in Noodle Tools, and use those sources for research! It is affirming for all of us to see the momentum build as we dive deeply into 21st Century learning! The next step in our project is to practice speaking skills. I am learning how to even better support and scaffold work for these students and I created a c...

  Tuesday is the first day of school. It's always a fresh start and this year will be the biggest shift imaginable. Some of our students haven't been in a school building regularly since March 2020.  I will greet many 8th Graders that haven't been in school since they were in 6th, many 6th Graders since they were in 4th. The typical newness and excitement will be multidimensional. More than likely, so will the possibility for anxiety and stress. A colleague reminded me that many kids stayed in bed during remote learning, so procedures and schedules are going to be completely redefined.  I would be kidding myself if I thought this would be easy for any of us. Instead of looking at this as a monumental challenge I view it as a new beginning--a complete restart. Let's take the best of school in 2019-2020 and make it work for us in 2021 and beyond. Let's also take the best of school in the 2020-2021 school year and make it work for us in 2021 and beyond. The bulletin bo...

  Stretching the thinking in History education sometimes happens spontaneously. A few years ago I found a resource from the incredible iCivics site related to the role presidents play in government, featuring examples from the early years of the nation, and the first four presidents. It became a great review of the big picture events of these presidents, their roles in building a strong nation, as well as a review of the Three Branches of Government. Students read the scenarios and decided if the examples represented Stable Finances, Peaceful Politics, or Self-Defense. I decided to extend the learning on the moment and took a poll as to which of the three students felt was most important. The next task was to calculate the percentages and create a pie chart with the poll data. The result was a strong opportunity to strengthen students' learning in a different way. This year teaching hybrid (teaching students synchronously in-seat and virtually simultaneously) makes planning more ...

 After a few months of virtual classes we are now back to hybrid learning (teaching both in-seat and virtual students simultaneously). It is once again going to be an adjustment. One bright spot is that, even with another schedule change my students know that we are working on our National History Day projects. This consistency amidst change has been helpful.  Projects are due next week. That has the potential to cause stress in students, at least until I clarify how close they are to a completed project, before they feel they've started. We have worked on their final project for weeks now, my students just haven't yet realized it. The assignments at the end of first quarter focused on the context of their project. Students had to research and use the engineering design process to learn and explain the context of their historical event. This piece of the project took a few class days to complete.  The second assignment was this year's National History Day graphic organiz...

  My reflections this week are all about leveraging technology to positively impact students and their learning. My Language Support Historians built community by creating and viewing persuasive newscasts about the geographical regions that make up the United States. Students had the choice of using either the TouchCast app or the new (to me) green screen technology in Apple iMovie.  Writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills were practiced and community building occurred when viewing. Each student wrote two compliments for each video (including their own video) and shared out.  My US History 8 Historians are in the midst of researching their National History Day projects. Classes are combined every hour at this point in the project so I get to interact with close to 300 students! It's so exciting to hear how they are interpreting this year's theme (Breaking Barriers in History) and the subjects they're researching. Last year I kept noticing that I...

One of my greatest professional accomplishments was the day I certified as a National Board Teacher. My Cooperating Teacher is an NBCT and after witnessing the impact she had on her students (and me) it became one of my top bucket list accomplishments when I was hired twenty four years ago. One of my closest colleagues achieved certification eleven years ago, she and other colleagues convinced me to attempt and I certified in 2011. It's hard to believe but it's been close to ten years since my initial certification and I became a renewal candidate this school year. My initial certification cycle consisted of four portfolio entries, two unedited videos (one of me teaching small group activities, the other of me teaching a whole class activity), and six Assessment Center tests covering pedagogy and Social Studies-History concepts such as how to understand and teach primary sources to students. (The tests were stressful--candidates are required to go to a testing site and t...

Today my Student Historians started to create a One-Pager. One-Pagers are new to me, but English Language Arts teachers have been using them for some time. These graphic organizers promote deep learning and creativity, and is a meaningful way to have students show what they know. The focus of our One-Pager is Thomas Paine's "Common Sense". Students translated six quotes yesterday, rewrote them into 21st Century language, and discussed these tricky meanings together as a class. These primary source quotes are now at the heart of the One-Pager. My Historians needed to select one of the quotes and bring it to life in their project. A template isn't necessary for One-Pagers but I believe at this point in the year my students need the structure a template provides. I found out that most of my students (like me!) had never created One-Pagers before. I searched and searched last night for a One-Pager template that was free and easily accessible, but had no luck.  I ...

The school year is off to a great start! My US History 8 students are starting the year learning the academic vocabulary we will refer to throughout the course.  The Thinking Like a Historian plans from the Stanford History Education Group are an excellent resource, their class activities are student-centered and relevant. These history terms will be supplemented with a few concepts from AP classes, too. I am making a Word Wall and we will add to it throughout the year. I am greatly enjoying my first time teaching the Language Support-History class, too. These students from Grades 6, 7, and 8 are so eager to learn! We've started our study with learning about maps and directions. We've used Google Earth and Google Maps to research the streets in our city and how to give directions. These lessons will support tomorrow's first field trip--we are taking a tour of our city! We are going to the Library, Police Station, City Hall, and Civic Center. It will be exciting t...

The iMovies are completed. As I'm viewing them I'm struck at the talent and creativity of my Student Historians.  Groups of students studied one year of the war, ranked three events from that year they believe impacted the end of the war, found primary source documents from each of these events (including at least one Mathew Brady photograph), drafted explanations of the events, and composed and explained an original piece of music on GarageBand. Their music compositions needed to exemplify  the tone of their year of the war.  I will share projects over the next few days, here is one outstanding example. Bravo students!

This video is an example of how students benefit from cross-curricular opportunities in learning. These Student Historians created an exceptional graph analysis combining their understanding of History and their knowledge of Mathematics to produce a project that thoroughly explains their awareness of the Big Picture ideas present in American during the Early 1800s. They were able to use a math graphic site to create a detailed graph, event though that wasn't a requirement.  My outcomes for students was that they understood the concepts of Nationalism and Sectionalism present in America during this time period and that they realized that there were events that led the United States to the Civil War. All students were able to show their understanding of these concepts, all were also able to do this in ways that made sense to them. Differentiated instruction enables students of all levels and abilities to shine. I will have more examples to share soon. #innovationforthewin

Student Historians began a thematic assessment yesterday. I have implemented this assessment for a few years now, adding more specifics each year. This assessment requires students to examine examples of growth and change in early American History, from the Presidency of George Washington to the Missouri Compromise.  Students ranked each of the events using a scale of -4 to +4 and explained their rankings. This is a sophisticated skill--they need to explain why, for example, a positive event that rated a 3 in their view wasn't a 4 but also wasn't an example of a negative change for the country. (They will also need to describe their positive events in terms of nationalism and the negative events will more than likely be examples of sectionalism, a concept that ultimately leads to the Civil War in the 1860s.)  When rankings were complete students received a graph and plotted their points. The next steps of this project completely take me out of my comfort zone--stude...

I've been utilizing blackout poetry as a means of assessing knowledge for a few years now  because it's one of the best ways to assess deep understanding of a topic. Yesterday's classwork was no exception. I've never used music from the hit musical "Hamilton" in my classroom before. I've wanted to but planning lessons seemed daunting because, frankly, many of the songs aren't student-friendly. I located a friendly version and decided to take the plunge--I'm so glad I did! We listened to and annotated the song two days ago and then wrote our poems yesterday. We are studying the New Nation and the seeds of discord surrounding Hamilton and Jefferson. The song "Cabinet Battle #1" tells the story of the negotiations into paying off state debts in the Northern states, creating the National Bank, and the creation of Washington DC (exciting, right?) I've never particularly cared for teaching this time period but I do now, thanks t...

Student Historians recently presented their National History Day projects to our school community. Thanks to the support from our 6th and 7th Grade Social Studies teachers, 8th Grade students were able to successfully defend their theses to their peers. The 7th Graders can see what they will be asked to do next year and the 6th Graders can use these projects as a spring board for their student-centered projects they will complete within the next month. Each grade reflected on the event and related it to what they knew, as well. It was also a wonderful community-building activity. National History Day projects are so meaningful to me because they are, at heart, Genius Hour projects within the content area of History. I promised myself this year's focus would be on helping students hone their passions and I believe this was achieved. Middle Schoolers need to find who they are and what they're about. Delving into what's important to them will help on their journe...

Student Historians have been busy reflecting on their project and thinking about their work so far as they completed "The State of My Project" reflections. (The title is a take on the Presidential  "State of the Union" Address.)  Students were asked to let their classmates know what topic they've settled on, what the approximate start and end date of their project topic is, how they feel their research is going so far, showing us their 4 Ts graphic organizer work at this point (especially the "triumph" and "tragedy"), and to let us know about any Aha moments or tips they may have for their classmates. These quick presentations are really going well (we're doing a few each day). It's providing us the opportunity to celebrate the learning that's taken place, giving students the chance to publicly reflect on their work, and to learn from one another as they provide tips or share moments when things started to "click...

This week in NHD featured presearching and researching topics in order to finalize choices next week. Student Historians continued to wonder and find questions about the topics they learned about last week in the Media Center. The Speed Topic-ing lesson was a hit and left many students wanting to know more about at least some of the topics they examined that day. This week started with a mini-lesson from Mrs. Chatel as she asked this group if their topic questions could simply be answered with a "yes" or "no" or if their questions were "Big Mac" questions--ones that would take many weeks to complete. A Big Mac question is the perfect National History Day project endeavor. Presearching and researching went well. These students are going to decide their project topics, partners they will work with, and what type of project they will create this week. Language Arts teachers will support this work with helping students begin to formulate a thes...

Teaching in the 21st Century never ceases to amaze me.  As stated in a post last year, I utilize Twitter in my classroom  through a classroom Twitter account several times a week. I find it to be an incredible way to allow parents and our community to witness the work that goes in my History and Study Skills classes and to showcase school events and the amazing young people I teach.  While posting a reminder about our school football teams' games on Wednesday a top hashtag caught my eye: #AskAnArchivist was trending.  I follow the United States National Archives   on Twitter and their latest post advertised an hour-long session in which a team of Archivists would answer questions tagged with this hashtag. I had less than 45 minutes before this window of opportunity closed. My third hour class took advantage of this teachable moment and it turned out so well! Student Historian groups came up with questions they hoped to receive answers for, ...

Reading a novel or non-fiction book aloud to my students is an essential part of my school year. I probably began this practice when the district-wide Troybery Reading Program was created by our Media Specialists. In this program students, teachers, and staff read the same newly published books throughout the school year and vote on the top book of the year.  Troybery is outstanding and has been existence for more than 15 years now.  My read-aloud selections are usually current Troybery historical fiction (or non-fiction) books. This year I have added a few other selections. My classes have just finished "nine, ten" by Nora Raleigh Baskin, a book about the events of September 11, 2001. Teaching Twentieth (and Twenty-first) Century History is incredibly important to me and I incorporate it whenever possible. Students have little working knowledge of this time period. We read the story aloud and then discuss the historic facts embedded in the story.  Reading al...