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Launching Genius Hour, Google Secrets, and Homecoming Chaos

Ah, Homecoming Week! Despite all of the chaos the week's activities brought, we had a fantastic week of learning in room 112.


This week, I challenged the 7th graders to list 100 things they love, and wow, 7th graders love a lot of stuff! Once they got around two number 40ish, the real creativity kicked in. Of course I joined in on the excitement and wrote my own list.  We talked more about Genius Hour, and some students already started to worry about failing. We talked about the meaning of failure watched a few clips to help spark our conversation ("Audri's Rube Goldberg Monster Trap" and "Life=Risk").  We also started our class blog, so we can write about our journey with Genius Hour this year. I can't wait to see the results!
We used kidblog.org to set up our Genius Hour blogs.
Some of my list of 100 Things I Love.
We had an equally interesting week in Public Speaking. On Tuesday, students gave their first speeches. They were asked to introduce a classmate. This class delivered with the best introduction speeches I've seen yet. They had killer organization and attention getters. With the "dreaded" first speech out of the way, it's time to shine!  We also did some active listening role playing, and this class was "forced" to act out scenarios where it might be difficult to listen.  We had some interesting conversations about real listening.  We finished up the week with some group discussion practice using current events.

We generated this list as a class after giving our first speeches.  Note that "no one passed out" was our first accomplishment!
The 12th graders started the week by putting on their analytical caps. They looked at several examples of This I Believe essays and recorded what they noticed. We also watched a stellar visual version of the essay.  From there, the seniors impressed me by being able to tell me the requirements of their essay assignment based on what they saw in mentor texts. It was great to see their thinking and hard work. We set out to start writing essays this week and spent time in class drafting. They shared their writing progress with each other, which is not an easy thing to do, but worth it in the end.

The seniors selected a memoir for their first independent reading assignment. 
The 5th hour Google Doctors (hehehe) had a chance to explore a lot of cool Google features this week. They did a step-by-step activity that showed them many of the features Google Docs has to offer.  They then selected an "app" (these are really just websites) from the Chrome Web Store to create something with. Some of the apps they tried were Autodesk Homestyler, Build With Chrome, UseCubes, and Stupeflix.  We also tried a few Google Easter eggs and took some virtual field trips using Google Street View.

Based on all of that, I believe I'm due for a nice weekend nap (or two...or four)! Have a great weekend.


This is sitting at the front of my room, so my students can see my blogging goal (and nag me when I get behind).

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