Mrs. Slaviero's Blog

 It's been a very busy start to the school year. We are building community and laying a foundation for a good year in US History and Language Support-History. Today's post is about the success we are finding in LS History, specifically with listening, speaking, reading, and writing practice activities. My students in this class are very capable and strong learners, but they struggle with the English language. Striking the balance between finding and creating age-appropriate materials for newcomers that are challenging, yet language-appropriate, is always essential. Two activities my Historians have really enjoyed so far are playing Gimkit to review the concepts related to the 5 Themes of Geography, and, to my surprise, performing in front of their classmates! I created a short two-person skit related to ordering food in a restaurant (we are going out to breakfast as a Language Support team early next week). Students watched my co-teacher parapro and I perform the skit first, th...

  My 8th Graders end their Middle School career with a Promotion Assembly and a Party, which typically occurs the second-to-last day of school. The actual last day is usually a day to relax and enjoy one another's company. I like to provide my students one more opportunity to capitalize on their feelings of good will and nostalgia by writing a short thank you note. I start class asking them about the events of the day before, and point out that the day was all about them, and they deserve to celebrate. I then point out that today, before they leave school for the last time, they might want to take a moment to thank a staff member (coach, secretary, bus driver, teacher) for something before they leave. Gratitude is affirmative for the giver, as well as the receiver. Students are always receptive and some even ask for more than note. It's a really good full-circle moment for them, and a chance to think outside of themselves and share appreciation with others.  I never assume I w...

  My Language Support Historians and I began our National History Day journey today. My first group was getting started when we went virtual, and this project was too daunting a task to do with all of us at home. My students have come so far this year, and this is a great way to challenge them to continue their growth. We did book tastings and each student selected a topic. I've streamlined the NHD project into two parts: a presentation to their class (to practice speaking skills) and a paper bag album (to not overwhelm with many choices, and to focus on the key points of the project, in a novel way). I'm also creating a model album, with a topic none of my students are studying: Rosie the Riveter. A model project will make expectations clear. Paper bag albums were something I made for an elective class years ago, the kids loved them because they are easy to complete and keep when finished. This will also be a good way for students to practice the art of writing (not typing) in...

A classroom that's too quiet can actually be distracting. Our usual classroom environment is one of group work and discussion. There are often times, though, where independent concentration (in short bursts) occurs, and no noise isn't necessarily conducive to learning. It can be challenging to focus if people do not have something to hear while they're concentrating. I've played relaxing background music for years and found that all of us prefer some background noise while we are in class. My go-to music is usually instrumental classical, although I've been mixing it up to include instrumental modern music. Another instrumental soundtrack on heavy rotation during class is the instrumental Hamilton soundtrack. (Words in music can distract, and modern songs that students know might make them concentrate on the song, instead of their classroom activities.) This year I've really focused on adding more historical options and it's been successful. We have listened...

We are diving in to math, science, and engineering this week.  The 7th Grade Ancient Civilization teachers introduced me to coding with Sphero . They have successfully used the program with their students. this year After learning about chariots in class the students made chariots and raced them after coding little  spherical robots that are used as the horse. The kids had a lot of fun, and I tried it with my Language Support-Historians shortly after. I was more than a little nervous, but it really was a great experience.  One of these 7th Grade teachers is also a US History teacher and discovered an activity that would bring coding into US History, too. After we studied the impact of the geography on the settlers, we decided to enhance this learning and try Sphero with our 8th Graders for the first time. Student Historians are building a 4 wheel, 2 axle Conestoga wagon and coding the 8 parts of the Trail. Creating a project of this magnitude from 1 small class to 4 large...

This morning I learned I renewed my National Board certification.  Achieving initial certification is rigorous--a detailed portfolio, videos featuring whole-group and small-group instruction with written analysis and reflection on both, and six exams in a professional exam setting, the same setting used by medical and law students, among others. For all of the challenges, I am so happy to have undertaken this endeavor. My students have benefitted from my progress and accomplishment. The renewal process was still daunting, made even more so because of the struggles of the pandemic. In retrospect, I was wise to start renewal as soon as I could, this allowed me to defer renewal during the start of the pandemic to the 2020-21 school year. I needed to focus on my immediate student needs before I could focus on this work. My renewal portfolio had to be created during the shift from in-person to dynamic virtual and hybrid learning, though. This was daunting, to be sure. I knew I could mee...

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...