Mrs. Slaviero's Blog

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...

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!

My full circle moment. Almost one year later. Monica Burns from  Class Tech Tips wrote an intriguing article about using GarageBand in the reading classroom  in 2016 and posted it on Twitter. I  blogged last July about how I'd like to use this with my Student Historians . That opportunity finally came and the result was profound, especially for one group of students. My History classes have studied the Civil War the past two years by completing an iMovie. I created a twist, though, each group studied one year of the war and ranked three events of that year they feel most strongly impacted the end of the war . Students needed to use investigative and discovery skills to learn about the entire war, then the impact of their focus year. Groups were required to find three primary sources related to those events, one Mathew Brady photograph from that year, and a piece of Civil War-era music (not necessarily from their focus year). The GarageBand article gave t...

Oh what a night! The first OneTROY National History Day Celebration took place this past Thursday with Student Historians from Larson, Smith, and Boulan Park and it was a huge success! When teachers from our Middle Schools decided to take on National History Day projects this year I promised I would do everything possible to help make NHD run smoothly for them and promised myself that I would plan a sharing event for all.  The Celebration was an opportunity for our students to share with the community their thinking and learning about the 2018 theme of "Conflict and Compromise". Siblings, parents, grandparents, principals, teachers, a School Board member, members of the Teaching and Learning Department,  Deputy Superintendent and Superintendent were in attendance. They were able to interact with our students while seeing the amazing work our students created this year. But, what exactly did students do?  Student Historians · researched and selected a topic of...

Student Historians will continue work tomorrow on their National History  Day research. We are at the point in the process that all of the students will experience frustration and a setback or two of various degrees. This is what I've termed "The Wall". Creative, open-ended projects are messy.  Project-Based learning is messy.  One "correct" answer doesn't exist to solve the problem.  The learning that takes place doesn't follow a prescribed plan and it's not linear.  This is disconcerting to students, especially those that have found great success with traditional education. Parents and teachers want to help students but the best thing we can do when the going gets challenging for them is to walk our talk. We consistently tell our students that we believe in them and in their abilities (and we mean it). We let them know we think they are capable of great things.  It's our time to show them.  We cannot rush in to ...

This week in NHD featured "The Shift". The Shift is moving from my planning what we are doing the entire class period to the students taking responsibility for their own planning. Our agenda: *Noodle Tools--write to-do list (we will do this one together to model it--you will create individualized to-do lists from now on) *take survey (if you haven't already) *see Symbaloo updates (links to previous category descriptions, etc.) *search MS Media Databases (they're on Symbaloo ) *write research question in Noodle Tools *write 1-2 checklist items of your own This project, as previously stated, is multi-faceted. Students need to have some general guidelines so they aren't overwhelmed. What they equally need, though, is the parameters to take on planning themselves . To-do lists are an excellent way for students to clarify what needs to be done and note when these tasks are completed. (Many students know how to do this, but just as many do not.) I in...

Creating a large-scale endeavor like a National History Day project takes time. Going through the process for the first time can be overwhelming for teachers and students alike. It's critical to remember, though, that it is a journey. These projects are rigorous and require many steps. Too often we expect immediate gratification--this is not the type of project that will offer quick results.  Students will be thinking, reflecting, pre-searching (to use a colleague's term), researching, selecting a topic in US History they are passionate about, locating primary and secondary sources, writing a research question, developing a thesis, grappling with this year's theme and applying it to their topic, writing digital note cards, keeping track of resources, developing a project, ensuring they place their topic in historical situational context, creating a process paper to reflect on their experience, and possibly back-tracking and at any point if they lose focus.  Students...

I've been trying to come up with a way to update our National History Day journey when the name jumped out at me--I suddenly remembered "This Week in Baseball", a sports show I used to watch with my Grandpa when I was a kid. (Google it for some great baseball memories!) "This Week in NHD" it is! I met with all 8th Grade US History students again yesterday and we completed a few business tasks--we logged onto NoodleTools, the website that will help us organize our sources and ideas this year, joined the Schoology 8th Grade NHD Group I made for all 8th Graders so that I can easily send every student, not just my students, information and resources, gave a brief overview of the project this year, and shared the Symbaloo Webmix I created for them.  This Webmix is going to become an essential resource. The necessary resources are all in a user-friendly format, color-coded and organized for ease of use. I will add tiles to the mix as the need arises and I look...

My Student Historians will, once again, complete National History Day projects this year. I'm eager to give them the opportunity to explore student-centered, project-based learning that is rigorous and challenging.  Our Media Specialists have been invaluable to the process and they will continue to help this year. There are, I'm pleased to say, two new twists to this endeavor. One change is that all of the 8th Grade US History teachers in the district have decided to join us. Every student in the district will complete projects!  The 8th Grade Language Arts teachers in the district met with us History teachers today and they will, to varying degrees, be working on this project within their Language Arts classes, too! We will now give our students a cross-curricular Capstone project opportunity that is authentic and based on student choice. The expertise and knowledge of our Language Arts and History teachers working together will help our students' projects shine e...

Two quotes are the basis for this reflection. The first is from someone I had the honor of hearing speak this past spring. Sir Ken Robinson is an author and education and creativity expert. The second is from William Plomer, a 20th Century writer and poet. Both quotes relate to the heart of my educational philosophy and the never-ending journey to make my classroom a place where creativity is an integral part of the process of thinking like a Historian. I came across a post yesterday that linked these ideas beautifully. "How to Use GarageBand in the Reading Classroom" by Monica Burns has some terrific ideas on how to use this music app in Language Arts classes. I believe that they can successfully be used in Social Studies classes, as well. The second tip was special and I can't wait to add it to the project-based learning my Student Historians will undertake this year! Ms. Burns suggests students compose a music piece that evokes a particular em...

Student Historians were given one year of the Civil War to analyze (see Civil War Investigation iMovie post). The following video was the overall selection voted by my students from all classes and was entered into a district video competition. The video is excellent and a great example of the work we do in class. Bravo! Another video worthy of showcasing is presented below. This group also clearly followed directions and found excellent primary sources. Well done!

Student Historians completed their video analysis of one year of the Civil War today. Students needed to have time to also vote for their classroom winner but most groups worked until the end of the hour so voting today wasn't possible. (My classes were asked to enter a district-wide video contest for the first time this year.  It was almost-perfect timing--I'd already had this video planned but we were up against the contest deadline and need to submit our overall winner Wednesday. We had a field trip, a career planning program, and guest speaker in the interim!) My solution to get the voting done in time--I think I flipped my class! (Who knew?) Students uploaded their videos to our Schoology page today. I downloaded the videos and uploaded them into folders by hour so that students could view them. Students now need to view all 6 of their class videos tonight or before school tomorrow and, using Google Forms, vote on the one winner from their class. I will compile results t...

Student Historians started their Civil War investigation this week. Teams were each given one year of the war from 1860-1865 (1860 was included because of the significant events that directly impacted the war) and will rank and justify 3 events they believe impacted the end of the war.  Project-based learning never gets old for me as an instructor. I find such joy in seeing the students interact, think deeply, and work together. I move from group to group questioning and guiding while team members sort through primary sources, storyboards, and apps and discuss and debate with one another. The sense of purpose is palpable and our class minutes tick away productively.  Today team members each chose one of five project roles: Producer, Director, Screenwriter, Special Effects Director, and, of course, Historian. Tomorrow each role will have specific tasks to complete, including deciding on the overall tone for the year being studied and developing justification for this t...

National History Day projects have wrapped up for all but a few students in my classes. Six students are competing next Saturday in the Michigan History Day State Competition and had time to reflect and enhance their projects between the March 4th District competition and the State Competition. These students represent three different projects: a group website centered on Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and his work toward equality for African-Americans, a poem about the achievements of the Culper Spy Network during the American Revolution, and a dramatic performance about former First Lady Jackie Kennedy's stand to save Lafayette Square from demolition. As I've previously written, the National History Day process has been a new endeavor for me and for my classes this year. Since none of this process is familiar to me I've had to reflect on each component during and after in order to put it into context and, more importantly, decide if it was a worthwhile project...

This assessment is an excellent example of how Student Historians analyzed the events that occurred during the Early Republic. They did a thorough job of answering the questions and thought critically about the events on their graph. This video also gives detailed answers to the questions and analyzes the events well. The two graphs  featured in these videos are different--this is due to different historical interpretations of the same events. Both groups have solid justifications for their events and those justifications were examined in class.  I am very pleased with the results of this assessment. Many groups surprised me with their knowledge of history and their knowledge of math--some groups used the terms "independent variable" and "dependent variable" when discussing their graphs--they were able to apply mathematical concepts to this social studies assignment with success. 

Students created a persuasive analysis and used primary source documents to prove George Washington was or wasn't our nation's greatest president by creating a Spark Video. These Historians researched the Mount Vernon archives as well as the National Archives to locate letters, documents, and other items that should explain why he was or wasn't the greatest president. We have used this technology once before and it's clear students knew the ins and outs of this app much better this time. Here are two excellent examples:

Presenting a project-based learning opportunity to my students is always interesting for me but I had an epiphany this week.  I was explaining a persuasive iMovie trailer project to my first class of the day and noticed that while students were viewing this rubric the room got quiet-- very quiet . The normal sounds you would hear with 25+ adolescents in the room were non-existent. I realized then it was because the students were internalizing the work they would be doing over the next few days.  I observed this "Thinking Time"--these students were wondering how they would complete their project with group members I chose for them. It was a very cool moment but I wanted to see if it was just this particular class. Sure enough, the rest of my classes that day did the very same thing--they got really quiet and internalized the requirements. (I will now be looking for this phenomenon every time I present a project!) This made me realize, once again, the necessity of gro...

The first video reflections my students and I created this fall were eye-opening. I felt I got to know my students better and their reflections captured maturity and wisdom as they thought about their completed poems. I have now asked students to create a reflection of their work during First Quarter. These are the questions students are asked to think about: I feel my best work in History this quarter was my... (choose an assignment we've completed). It's my best work because... Looking forward, during Second Quarter I hope I become better at... (POSSIBLE ideas: participating in class discussions, planning your National History Day project...). One thing I would like to try in History during Second Quarter is... The first reflections have been submitted and these are, so far, just as good (if not better) than their first ones. Continually looking back and planning ahead is a great gift one can give to themselves. I am seeing just how powerful a learning opportu...

Student Historians completed their thematic historical research project (see previous post) this week. The timing was excellent--my 8th Graders needed to turn in their iPads Friday; they submitted their iMovie trailers to me on Schoology Wednesday and we started analyzing them on Friday. The trailers had many components and I believe the project objectives were accomplished--student groups needed to study one year of the war, decide upon and rank the top three events they believe directly led to the Union victory, and include at least one primary source document for each of the three events. Midway through the project I added another task--groups needed to find out who Matthew Brady was (he was the preeminent Civil War photographer--a photograph of his is shown below) and include at least one of the photographs he took during the war in their trailer.  photo: http://www.ohiohistoryhost.org/ohiomemory/archives/1575 Reflection is essential to deep learning--each student ...

Student Historians began Civil War era research today, with a twist. My goal was to create a thematic investigative project. Upon reflection, Civil War projects at the beginning of my teaching career centered on various historical groups and topics but I noticed how these projects were actually more like a research report than an opportunity to delve into deep thinking and learning. I needed create something to help this year's students continue to hone the analytical and technological skills they've developed this year and I think we are really going to like the results. Six groups of students will each focus on 1 year of the war, from 1860-1865. (I included 1860 because the Election of Lincoln and secession of South Carolina were huge events that directly led to war.) Each group will rank three events that had an impact on the end of the war, as well as locate and analyze a primary source document for each. They will compile this information into an iMovie trailer pr...