Using a "Chalkboard Splash"

"What are the five most important safety guidelines to remember before doing a chemistry lab".  This was the question that I gave to my students last week prior to discussing safety with them.  I placed my students in groups and had them answer this question on large pieces of paper.  Once all students finished creating their posters, we spread the posters throughout the classroom.  Next, all students rotated around the room reading the posters and analyzed all the posters for three things: similarities, differences, and surprises.  If you don't have large paper or chalkboards, you can use the cement floors in your rooms and chalk.  Students are very interested in what their friends think.  This will also begin a dialogue of how similar, or different the responses were.  It allows for many ideas to be generated during class time.
 Step for a Chalkboard splash
1.  Create a sentence starter, prompt, or question
2. As students create their response, have them write it on the chalkboard, easel paper, or the cement floor with chalk.  Designate different areas of the room for different groups of students.
3. Have students rotate around the room reading other students' responses and writing down similarities, differences, and surprises.
4.  Place students in small groups to share what they noticed then ask for volunteers to share with the entire class.

Similarities	Differences	Surprises

Making every student an Active learner

Greetings my friends!
Have you ever looked at your lesson planning and realized that it is based on "I".  For  example, I will do a demonstration, then I will present information, then I will ask questions, and finally I will close my lesson.  The problem with this type of planning is that it doesn't reflect the students.  It is not about the teacher but about the students.  In order to have a student centered classroom, you need to have active participation from all your students.  It is having a gauge in the classroom where you can tell if the students understand so you can move on.  Perhaps you need to slow down and re-teach or perhaps you need to quicken the pace.  If the students are not actively involved then you as the teacher have not received the feedback essential for engaging students in the learning process. One of the main reasons for student failure is the teacher presumed the students understood.  "I taught therefore he learned" is the most common mistake a teacher can make.  As professionals, we need to make sure our students are learning by creating classrooms centered on active learners.  By asking for their feedback during our lessons, we can adjust to the students' needs.  Here is a method to try to gauge student learning.  It is based on facial expressions.  On the first day of class, have students draw 3 different faces either on index cards or small pieces of paper. One expression per side of a piece of paper or index card.  The first card is a happy face, the second face is sad, and the third face is to show some confusion.  As the lesson progresses, the students flip the card to show how they are feeling regarding the content.  The teacher by moving around the classroom has a visual representation of her students' progress towards the content.  She can then adjust her teaching to meet the needs of her students.  Once the cards are made, the students keep them and can use  them during every lesson. (If you attended the seminar at Peace House during June, this is very similar to using  red light, yellow light, green light.)   I'll post pictures of the cards as soon as my students make them.  Until next time,
Donna