10 Great Ideas to Engage Your STUDENTS for EARTH DAY!! pssst #10 is a FREEBIE BONUS!

On April 22, 1970 the first Earth Day took place. And from that day on, it became a reminder for people to take better sustainable choices.

As teachers, we are change makers, everyone of us is at least impacting 30 students a year. We teach them and we give them skills and knowledge. We inspire them to be responsible and caring. No matter how the world judges us, we change the world one generation at a time. We can stop racism, we have the power as well to save our dear EARTH.

April 22, 2021 is coming in less than a month. This year hasn't been the best for humankind, but it has given our planet some time to heal according to NASA's official site. check the article here.

That's why we need to be prepared for this day.. and to help you be ready I tried my best to gather for you and your class some ideas that can work for different school levels. 

*** now you will notice that I won't elaborate on ideas because I'm a visual person and I hate long long texts.. if you need any help, don't hesitate to contact me through my social media accounts linked below***

1- Writing an Essay (Step-in Strategy)

2- Make an Awareness Raising Poster

3- Watch a Documentary 

one of my favorite is the TEDed talk with Greta Thunberg

4- Design a Comic strips

It's my favorite! You can do it yourselves or check my amazing detailed templates for 3-12 classes

Earth and Planets Comic Strip

Earth and Elementary Heroes

Earth and Middle School Characters

click on the image if you are interested in saving time making this resource

5-Make a water filter for the world water crisis

click on the image if you are interested in saving time making this resource

6- Record an Inspiring Motivational Speech

7- Being Active List

have students make a chart with a checklist … then allow students to record their habits at home!! make it a class challenge! the more involved they are the more people they will influence.. remember it takes 21 days to make an action, a habit!

8- Write a Song

Either collaborate with the music teacher.. or make it a class project!

simply choose with your students a trendy song and alter the words!!

make it more fun by using tiktok to try to make it a social media trend!

9- Make a News Report

click on the image if you are interested in saving time making this resource

BONUS FREEBIE

I HOPE THIS WAS BENEFICIAL TO YOU!! LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS!

WORLD WATER DAY PROJECT!

 March 22nd !! it's the world water day! did you get an activity up and ready?!!

IF NOT ! I got your back!

As global citizens concerned about the water world crisis, students will work as engineers following the engineering process in solving a problem to design a water filter that can be of use to those who are suffering from a shortage of clean water all around the world. They will define the problem, design a solution, plan a prototype, build their prototype, predict results, and test their work. After that, they will reflect on their design and have an extended task to brand their clean water for charitable purposes thus designing a logo and creating a mini-campaign. It will a great experience and you will love the outcome!!

I KNOW YOUR MIDDLE SCHOOLERS EVEN HIGH SCHOOLES WILL LOVE IT AND THEY WILL LEARN TO APPRECIATE CLEAN WATER THEY HAVE !

Middles school Science: Engaging project based learning for Meiosis and Mitosis cell divisions

Mitosis and meiosis can be challenging topics for middle school students! It troubled me some nights! I could swear I lost sleep some nights thinking about how could I make it more engaging! With years, I gathered some ideas that you may find useful as well ( if you know any middle school science teacher, please share it forward) … so let's dig right in 💃!!!

all of the ideas can be done by any science teacher with intermediate tech skills 
 

1- Engaging 3D videos as starters

Hooks or engaging starters work like magic! They grab students attention, I play them silently and students focus and their attention is directed to the engaging video/meme/riddle.
From there, let them wonder or ask questions without answering, predicting or whatever suits you..

2- Displaying the content in an attractive form

You can find some amazing templates at slides.go, slidesmania, slidecarnival...

Quoted
from a student: "Your slides makes us want to go study right after the session, can you please send them to us right away!" enough said

3- Project based learning

When students start applying their knowledge, that's when you figure out who understood and who needs scaffolding, you can use these ideas in both distance or face to face learning, and you can also use them as an assessment for learning (aka formative assessment), without further elaboration, (I tend to speak a lot 😅)
I will share with you some ideas on how to do that.

a- Comic strip (digital activity)

Comic strips are very engaging, sparks creativity and imagination!! Students have to use moveable clipart of cells, chromosomes, sister chromatids and centrosomes to create a comic strip about the story of a chromosome in cell division (works for both meiosis and mitosis)

This is a comic done by one of my students using my comic project resource! I'll link it, just incase you need it
(of course you can make it yourself as well)

b- Making a flipbook

Flipbooks uses both creativity and hands-on skills … the experience helps the students feel accomplished and helps them grow their planning skills.

Giving the students the choice on how their learning outcome would be presented, motivates them to show a better end result! (rubric and resources for each challenge is available in this resource)

c- Stop motion video

I usually assign this to high tech students or gifted students to get them working and developing editing and tech skills … the end result is usually explained wither in person or by adding a caption.... its not required of you to learn those skills, you could simple let those kids be challenged by learning through tutorials and applying over 1 or 2 sessions.. the outcome will be fulfilling for them.. one of my girls created a stop motion through google slides !! I didn't even know that was possible!

d- Write a story..

"You are a chromosome in a cell that is undergoing mitosis/ meiosis!! Tell us about you adventure and all the exciting events that happened to you!! Be creative!!" And that was all I had to say! Boom! Amazing stories were told.. some even added graphics !

e- Crafty around our home (LET'S RECYCLE)

In this challenge students would use recyclable material around their home to build a model for cell division. It could be on a cardboard with scraps of clothes, cartoons, pipe cleaners, stickers or even plastic plates and some straws and threads! let them be creative!

If you have any other engaging trick!! let me know😓

 

 

3 tips for Engaging Middle Schoolers !

 How hard could it be?! well with online learning, IT IS REALLY HARD !!

but through experimenting, ( 2020-2021 year was full of experimenting) some things seemed to work with me and I'd like to share them with you!!

Oh GOD! Those frustrating Middle School Meetings! Talking to myself!

1- Engaging starters aka hooks!

engaging starters, hooks, attention grabbers, or check in.. whatever you may want to call it, it has been a game changer for me.. so as you may have experienced, middle schoolers may come a bit late to the session so in order to avoid wasting time waiting for them or start the session and have to repeat part of it for those who are late.. I dig up interesting videos - not related to the lesson every time- and share it with the students some times its a short animation movies, song, new invention, recent occurring event, artificial intelligence... and start a discussion about it! One would be amazed by what ideas come up to their minds! 

another idea would be this or that, in this starter you would bring up 2 events or 2 objects that are hard to choose between, and spark a discussion...

other days I would use a riddle, make a student prepare a starter!

NOOO, not that kind of hooks!

2- Relate lessons to real life or a subject of their interest!

Any lesson can be linked to real life ! As a science teacher - I admit that would be very easy for my subject ( unlike math for example..) - relating friction to accidents, waves to earthquakes, sound waves to animal hearing, etc... explains many phenomena that middle school students may be wondering about and thus keeps them highly attendant to what I'm saying or displaying !! relating my lessons to our country as well and to subjects of their interest ( Minecraft, Fortnite , Among us games...) worked much as well!! 

yep! that's what Generation Z is crazy about... NOICE!

if you're interested in a post about what kids these days like, write in the comment!!

3- Giving them choice for their project outcome!

Giving my students options on how they would like to present their learning outcome was such a success! In some projects I provided them with a choice board. For example in learning about cell organelles, my middles where provided with different challenges, from which they had to choose one to show their understanding of cell parts! you can find it here as well as other differentiated project ideas.

                                                           

if you have any other engaging trick!! let me know😓

 

 

Back to School Activities

I Say GO TEAM!

      Starting a new year, students are new to each other just like you are new to them. Some students might come from a new school, area, even a country and they already feel awkward and lonely.

       

      Going for building a team activity for your class whether with other sections or other levels, would be a blast. Aside from being FUN, it is a great ice breaker and builds teamwork skills in students. It as well provides you a chance to start passing your rules to your students without going all strict from the beginning of the year.

       If you are a new teacher, my advice is to always make your rules clear and always, always repeat and remind students of what is expected of them. 

Check this video taken from youtube link: smart training solutions

  

Hello world !!

For the new teachers on block...

 We were all new teachers once... and we lived the suffering especially with the new generation so called " Generation Z".

I've started this blog to share with you my experience in teaching and my passion in teaching active, life long learning and critical thinking skills to our students who deeply need it.

so welcome aboard.