Tonight #mschat was rocking. Over 90 Educators showed up to tweet their feels and thoughts on homework. Excellent ideas were exchanged. Sadly Storify, the tool I use to archive chats: could not handle the volume of tweets and kept overloading as I tried to insert all the tweets into the story. I did get over 500 from the conversation and am working on getting more. Will update if I can save the entire conversation. The chat was too good to not save what I could. Check out the link below to see most of the conversation.
Author: Sweat to Inspire
Educator and Parent
#DrivingSchoolSpirit -It is that time of year!! – Show your school spirit on Instagram
I was selected for this sponsored post by Hay There Social Media. All opinions expressed are my own.
Show your school spirit on Instagram during Local 4 Friday Football Frenzy
As the fall weather rolls in, the leaves on the trees start to change color, it is High School Football season. I remember being in high school looking forward to the Friday night showdowns on the gridiron. There is nothing like the feeling of rooting for the home team with your friends on a cool fall evening. The community comes together for a common cause. Watching high school heroes in the making. I grew up in Quincy, IL where high school sports were the only game in town. If we could not make it to the game we would listen to them on the radio, not wanting to miss out on the action.
I was excited to hear about Local 4’s Friday Football Frenzy as a place to keep track of all the local football action.
You as a fan can contribute by uploading you photos of games to Instagram sent to @FordDSFL and tagging the with #Drivingschoolspirit.
You can check out what other Friday Football Frenzy fans have shared here.
As teenagers are flocking to local sporting events, we as parents and educators are all to aware of the danagerous that exist on the roads especially late at night. Ford is teaming up with Local for the help with the “Ford Driving Skills for Life”
A program designed for teams to be aware of all that is going on around them on the road. Concerned parents and teachers should check our Ford’s tools to help young drivers learn.
Parents: https://www.drivingskillsforlife.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=7
Educators: https://www.drivingskillsforlife.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=1
Enjoy your Friday Nights at the game and be safe!!
#MSchat 9-12-13 Celebrations from the first weeks of school
Tonight the chat was Positively, positive and focused on the celebrations from our first weeks of school. Good group in the chat tonight sharing their stories. Many great ones. Lots of links shared. Worth a re-read by me.
AMLE and #MSchat Homework: Flipped Twitter Event Sept 19 at 8 EST
Amle and #MSchat are collaborating on a flipped chat on 9-19-13 about homework. For this to work we are asking all chatters to read a couple perspectives on Homework from AMLE Magazine and then join the conversation on Thursday Sept 19 at 8 pm EST using the #mschat hashtag.
First Monday- Advisory Lesson to Engage Students
Yesterday was my first Monday of the school year (last Monday was a Holiday). Most students don’t like Mondays, it means the end of living on their terms. No laying around the house, watching TV and playing video games while eating junk food. When I walked into my classroom for advisory at 8:10 I found many heads laying on the tables and blank eyes staring back at me. The students weren’t ready for the school day, heck many weren’t fully awake yet. After taking attendance, I felt I needed to do something to get everyone’s blood flowing and engaged for the day. So, I turned to one of my children’s favorite wake up songs Wake Up (By Verve Pipe a band I enjoyed in bars as a college student)
The lyrics seemed to connect to the students. Heads lifted from the desks, if not only in wonderment about what was going on. Eyes started to stare in wonderment towards the from of the classroom. When it was over, I was ready to pass out an article to discuss sleep deprivation in teens. I noticed the students weren’t quite ready to get to work. Blood was flowing but not enough. Then I remember a video Adam Bellow had share at MACUL Conference back in March.
At first a few students yelled out,”Not Rebbeca Black!!” But then they realized it was something different. A few started to snicker, others stared at the imagines in disbelief of what they were seeing. Was a teacher really playing this? As the chorus started to play “Its Monday …” I sang along. A few student looked at me and smiled. Realizing that school does not have to be a “drag” students started singing along and a select very comfortable few even got up to dance.
Afterwards we discussed sleep and eating habits to help students get into the groove with school.
If I felt this was an awesome lesson, I would have posted it last night. It wasn’t till today in advisory, that I realized how powerful it was. As I was taking attendance, with the plan of watching CNN student news and discussing Syria, a hand popped up. “Mr Bloch, are we going to listen to the Wake Up song?” A few yeahs echoed from behind the questioner. Could I deny students a 3 minute song? Of course not. It made most of the classes day (Can please everyone). Student sang along and were moving. It really created positive energy to get the day started.
Think about finding hitches that get the students up and moving to start their day!
#MSchat 9-5-13 Meeting students’ Physical Needs
On Thursday we has a great discussion on how to meet our students’ physical needs. Check out the Storify archive below.
