 “Change is an Opportunity to Do something amazing! @gcouros The above quote got me moving during the transition into this temporary new normal. of self isolation and social distancing. I have been a roller coaster of emotions like everyone else as we navigate the changes. I thought about... “How can I make a difference from where I am?” Will it matter? Then I remembered The Story of the Starfish. So I committed to helping
The one thing that took me a bit to start was making face masks. There were so many mixed messages about whether they helped or were needed. Then, I was asked if I was making them by someone in the medical field. That was all it took to turn an I don’t know into a commitment. There are a lot of facemask requests on the site I was directed to. It was a bit overwhelming, so I just went back to The Story of the Starfish. and reminded myself to do what I can. Please remember, whatever the difference, no matter how small.....it will matter.
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Today, I discovered it works best for my student(s) to share the screen in Zoom for SMART Learning Suite Online (SLSO). This made it possible for them to manipulate the activities and for me to see what they are doing. I also learned that gallery view allows you to see both yourself and your student(s). This helps you to know if you are in the viewing window and that what you are showing is visible to them. ( I had not figured it out in these screenshots, but once I did my window showed up below my stduent(s).
As you can see my student was practicing sight words in the activity called Flip Out seen on the left. And then sorting short i words in Super Sort on the right. These activities are only two of the options available. They have more options that will cover all grade levels. I used clipart I purchased from educlips on Teacher Pay Teachers to create my games and manipulatives. The background themes are included in the SLSO program. BONUS! Students love when they complete the sort and the spaceships take off.  I also figured out how to download an activity created by a teacher and manipulate to do what I needed. This saved me a bit of time. I needed a letter board and I found this one created by erinlily80. I made some changes and you can find the one above at SMART exchange by clicking here. You will need to download SMART Notebook to create or alter this board or you will need to add it directly to SLSO. SLSO is currently available for 45 days for teachers to use through a free access.
I am working through this learning curve and thankful companies have made it possible to try out some platforms. Just remember the ones I have shared are trials and have limites before you will need to pay for them.. I am also thankful for the today's successes, the learning that both my student(s) and I achieved,, the independence I am already seeing in my student (who is a kindergartner, help from my student's mom and the ability to stay connected.. Good Luck and Many blessings to all who are working hard to make a difference during these times. Stay Healthy, April  I would have to say our first day of tutoring was a success. It wasn’t perfect, but I was able to accomplish all components of the lesson with my student with help from his mom. He loved the games on SMART Learning Suite, I also included some of the ClassDojo clipart for decorating your room since this is now my room.
Tools I used to get started:
There is definitely a learning curve with distance learning and it will not happen overnight. My hope is to stay connected, have some learning success, keep students engaged, and help them develop some independence so parents do not have to be so involved the whole time. If anyone knows how I could do this better I would love to hear your ideas. My one word for 2020 took me a while to discover. It started as bloom because I read my friend Laura Steinbrink’s blog post and it resonated with me. Check it out here. I loved the idea of growing and not just growing, but exploding with growth so much that it seems as though a fireworks have gone off. That is what I think of as I watch my peonies bloom. A fireworks of color springing open to brighten the day.
Have you ever tried to help a child write the letter e? They often make them upside down, backwards or in parts. They make many strokes like they are drawing the letter instead of writing it. While using the program Handwriting Without Tears I was introduced to the saying “Hit the ball and run around the bases” for remembering how to write the lowercase letter e. It has made a huge difference in developing the writing of that letter.
S: "It is a little big."
Me: "So, what do you think your next goal should be?" S: Looking at me puzzled. (So I questioned him through it.) Me: "I heard you say the e was too big, so what would you like it to be?" S: "I would like it to be smaller?" Me: "So, do you think making the e smaller next week should be your goal?" S: "Yes, that should be my goal for next time?" The next week we practiced tracing the e as a reminder of the correct path. He then wrote his name and that e was smaller without any reminders. Another goal achieved and another celebration. My big AHA! Was he noticed the e being bigger than the other letters in his name. I am not sure what he has been working on in his classroom, but the thing I was excited about was his self_reflecting. He is in the beginning months of kindergarten and is able to self-reflect. That is a strength on which we we can build. Recently, I started volunteering in Kindergarten at a local elementary. This is a new experience since I am used to being a part of the school staff and having access to the data, demographics, assessment information, etc. As a volunteer I have limited access to information, rightly so. Confidentiality is oh so important. So this is going to challenge me to support in a different way. This is an opportunity for me to grow. Always a good thing. So… Here I go. Time to Innovate Inside the Box. (If you have not read this book by George Couros and Katie Novak you should)
I will be working with a total of 17 students at this time from 4 different rooms in a two hour time slot over two days. Some students meet with me twice a week and some meet once. It will mean I am working with each student for less than 10 minutes. I have been provided with information about letter recognition for upper and lower case and sounds for each student. It is amazing how that is not as important as I once thought, at least initially. I started my session with each student chatting from the classroom to the work room since I am pulling out. I introduced myself and shared what we would be doing and building excitement about this opportunity. We took a photo and then I showed them how we could add their name using a photo collage app. Who knew the amount of learning you could witness from this one little activity? I discovered the following.
When they went to sit down they immediately went for the smaller student chairs and avoided the teacher computer chair. When I am able, I offer the comfy chair to the student. In this case, I also had another reason. There is a taller table in the room I work. So, putting the student in the chair adjusted higher allows them to reach materials and work in a better setting. I want to set them up for success. I will also offer to allow them to stand in the future. I may also move the chair so it faces away from the door to remove distractions. Considering the environment is so important. I loved the reactions to the question, “Would you like to sit in the big chair?” Some jumped right into it. Others were a little apprehensive, but jumped in when I showed them the why. When they sat in the smaller chair there chin can to the top of the table. Then, I asked them to sit in the bigger chair. We discussed how the girl in the three bears tried out all three chairs to know which one is just right. They all decided the taller chair would be just right for them so they could reach the table. Next, I had them match magnetic letters to the printed letters on my dry erase board. My watch fors were:
I had a student who wanted to build words and she built like and no. She said no, but built on. I could praise finding the correct letters and then ask what sound do you hear first. She immediately changed the letters. This tells me a strength. She can hear the sounds and knows what order she heard them so she has some phonemic awareness skills. The students I will be working with have a wide range of skills. They all have strengths we can build on and I want to give them a sense of them determining their learning path. I make sure to let them know they are there to teach me what they know and what they need/want to learn. I am a student too and if they teach me we can grow together. Book Pensive ~ Foreword to Chapter 2This month I am participating in a book study of Innovate Inside the Box. by George Couros and Katie Novak.. My blog will be a pensive of takeaways, big Ideas and Aha moments as I read. This week, I decided to share them in the form of #BookSnaps. BookSnaps are one of my favorite ways to take notes and share ideas about books, To learn more about Booksnaps check out a blog Tara M MArtin and I wrote here or her website here.       
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 | Have you ever noticed that when you shift the words you are using your thinking goes right along with it? I have been reading Word Shift by Joy Kirr. In her book she states, "Our thoughts become our words, and our words become our actions." I have noticed since reading her book and intentionally changing the words I am using it is also impacting what I am thinking, and what people are perceiving because of my word choice. |
| As I was reading, I came upon the word crazy. What Joy wrote resonated with me. If you asked me what word others would use to describe me I would probably tell you crazy. I owned that title of crazy and never really thought about how others might perceive it Until... I was asked in an interview what word others would use to describe me. The first word that came to mind was CRAZY! But, is that really what I was. Was I crazy to have provided ball chairs, flexible seating, and regular chairs for the students in my classroom? Or was I really innovative, courageous, and/or Impactful? We must be careful of the words used. Not everyone will perceive them the same way. |  |
Ready to have some fun reinforcing spelling and word study? In the game Boggle EDU you can do just that in a short amount of time and possibly time that would be used just waiting around to use the bathroom. In this challenge, put together by my friend Brooke Sulzmann, students reinforce concepts taught through a game based activity increasing their enjoyment, motivation, the love of words, pattern recognition, critical thinking, and scanning skills. Here is how she did it.
“Use them but don’t abuse them
and always know what will serve your children best”
Dabell, J. (2018)
Boggle Challenge
By Brooke Sulzmann
I challenged the 2nd grade through 4th grade students to a game of boggle.
I display the boggle board in a central location. In my school, I chose near the bathrooms where the students lined up throughout the day for bathroom breaks. Prior to hanging up the board I visited each classroom to explain the rules. They were to have at least 3 letter words, no abbreviations, no names, and real words must be spelled correctly. They cannot repeat the same letter (example - sleep, using the same letter, must be two separate e’s) I answered any of their questions and gave several examples and let the kids look for words and see if they would count toward the challenge. I provided sheets to the teachers each week and I went to the classrooms on Friday to collect the sheets. I also provided a picture of the new weekly board to the teachers through an email so they could display the board on their smartboard. I scrambled the board each week for different challenges.
By Brooke Sulzmann
I challenged the 2nd grade through 4th grade students to a game of boggle.
I display the boggle board in a central location. In my school, I chose near the bathrooms where the students lined up throughout the day for bathroom breaks. Prior to hanging up the board I visited each classroom to explain the rules. They were to have at least 3 letter words, no abbreviations, no names, and real words must be spelled correctly. They cannot repeat the same letter (example - sleep, using the same letter, must be two separate e’s) I answered any of their questions and gave several examples and let the kids look for words and see if they would count toward the challenge. I provided sheets to the teachers each week and I went to the classrooms on Friday to collect the sheets. I also provided a picture of the new weekly board to the teachers through an email so they could display the board on their smartboard. I scrambled the board each week for different challenges.
Week 1 - I did not provide a specific challenge, I just wanted the students to explore the game of boggle. And continued to answer their questions throughout the week.
Week 2 - I challenged them to find a word that is a reading strategy they use when they are reading. (example - question, infer, predict, etc.)
Week 3 - I challenged the students to find 2 homophones (example, sail, sale, berry, bury)
Week 4 - I challenged the students to find a word that is part of our school expectations/Howard Husky Way (Example - respect, responsible, safe)
Every Friday at the end of the day I would collect all the sheets from all the classrooms. I would give prizes (Husky Bucks) to students that spelled all their words correctly along the rules of boggle. I gave another buck to the students who met my challenge. They were not ever expected to fill the entire sheet, but if they did, they would get lunch with me with another friend. I would hand out these prizes on Monday while introducing the new board and challenge.
Where would be the best place(s) on campus to deliver this content?Burgess, D. (2012)
How to play Boggle
Boggle for Education is played a little differently than the actual game. Boggle EDU starts with a game board put up randomly or with a focus. Next, Students are given a recording sheet and set expectations according to the teacher. Some teachers only allow vertical, horizontal or diagonal words. This is good for younger students. For a little older students it is acceptable to allow them to make words with letters that are touching consecutively You can assign points for words or just check the words. The skies the limit. Make it your own and especially what works in your classroom, hallway, school. In Teach Like a Pirate Dave Burgess Discusses The Safari Hook. (a hook is to activate student engagement) For this hook he suggests asking these questions
I think about this hook in the sense that our time is valuable and depending how you are using #BoggleEDU may determine the place it should be located. For Brooke’s challenge she placed it near the bathroom. It was a way to use a space and time that sometimes is lost to standing and waiting. She turned this time into a learning opportunity by reinforcing skills across three grade levels by using Boggle EDU. It allowed students to find words using word patterns, they have been taught.
The exciting thing is Boggle is not just for word study. Many teachers have been using it to reinforce math. By changing letters to numbers you can ask students to locate numbers to write an equation and reinforce order of operations.
Boggle for Education is played a little differently than the actual game. Boggle EDU starts with a game board put up randomly or with a focus. Next, Students are given a recording sheet and set expectations according to the teacher. Some teachers only allow vertical, horizontal or diagonal words. This is good for younger students. For a little older students it is acceptable to allow them to make words with letters that are touching consecutively You can assign points for words or just check the words. The skies the limit. Make it your own and especially what works in your classroom, hallway, school. In Teach Like a Pirate Dave Burgess Discusses The Safari Hook. (a hook is to activate student engagement) For this hook he suggests asking these questions
- How can I get my class outside my four walls for this lesson?
- Where would be the best place(s) on campus to deliver this content?
- Is there an area of the school that serves as the perfect backdrop? Burgess 2012
I think about this hook in the sense that our time is valuable and depending how you are using #BoggleEDU may determine the place it should be located. For Brooke’s challenge she placed it near the bathroom. It was a way to use a space and time that sometimes is lost to standing and waiting. She turned this time into a learning opportunity by reinforcing skills across three grade levels by using Boggle EDU. It allowed students to find words using word patterns, they have been taught.
The exciting thing is Boggle is not just for word study. Many teachers have been using it to reinforce math. By changing letters to numbers you can ask students to locate numbers to write an equation and reinforce order of operations.
When is the best time to deliver the content?
How are you going to deliver this content?
Is it using your time wisely?
Padalino, A. (2019)
Why
I know word searches and word games are sometimes used as busy work, but they do not have to be when used intentionally. I have been doing some research to determine their value in the education setting.
Here are some things I discovered about Boggle EDU.
For word Study Students
For math students
I know word searches and word games are sometimes used as busy work, but they do not have to be when used intentionally. I have been doing some research to determine their value in the education setting.
Here are some things I discovered about Boggle EDU.
For word Study Students
- engage in lots of scanning, sifting, and searching
- develop word recognition and can improve spelling
- introduce and review new vocabulary
- help develop pattern recognition
- improve problem-solving
- support learning context clues
- are self-differentiating
- can boost working memory
- foster persistence
- can improve self-confidence ~ Dabell, J. (2018)
- Increase enjoyment of word study
For math students
- engage in lots of scanning, sifting, and searching
- develop number recognition and can improve math skills
- Reinforce math facts and order of operations
- help understanding math families
- improve problem-solving
- are self-differentiating
- foster persistence
- can improve self-confidence
Resources
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Boggle Pocket Chart
This pocket chart is currently in production. Please fill out the contact form if you are interested in either a pocket chart or a pattern to create the chart. The word Boggle or Noggle can be added, left off, or replaced with a pocket so you can add your own title. Please specify interest in the form.
References
Burgess, D. (2012). Teach Like a Pirate, https://daveburgess.com/blog/
Sulzmann, B. (2019). Boggle Challenge. Guest blogger for https://www.bringedlife.com/blog
Dabell, J. (2018) Word Searches – A Waste Of Time? https://johndabell.com/
Burgess, D. (2012). Teach Like a Pirate, https://daveburgess.com/blog/
Sulzmann, B. (2019). Boggle Challenge. Guest blogger for https://www.bringedlife.com/blog
Dabell, J. (2018) Word Searches – A Waste Of Time? https://johndabell.com/
April Padalino and Cyndi Dull
We are educational coaches with a passion for learning and empowering students, parents, and educators to Bring Education to Life.
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