Plastic Panthers

   After some recent traveling, I found myself obsessed with my destination.  I was frequently looking up more hot spots in Bali, flight info, and planning a second trip.  I also started following companies/activity guides online to get ideas and stay current with my favorite little island.  I found myself pleasantly surprised with some of the innovative people and accounts I stumbled across.  Two of my favorite accounts were by brothers, Sam and Gary Bencheghib.  The brothers were concerned with the amount of trash/pollution coming from Indonesia, the country ranked 2nd in the world only behind China, and wanted to do something about it.  They created kayaks out of recycled materials, mostly plastic bottles, and set sail down the Citarum River in Indonesia.  This river is one of the most polluted rivers in the world and I'm sure after just a few minutes of research you'll find your stomach in knots over it.  Families continue to use this polluted river as a source of food, income, bathing, etc. although it is teeming with trash and pollutants.  The brothers documented their journey down the river and made several stops along the way which raised a ton of awareness and generated enough buzz to influence Indonesian lawmakers to step in.  I shared their inspiring story with my students and couldn't believe their response, they wanted to get involved somehow!

Here is Sam and Gary's instagram video that initially drew me in...

    I was proud that my students wanted to get involved and started brainstorming ideas.  Thankfully, with the help of my administrative team, we came up with a great plan of action!  My students were made aware of the plan and immediately got to work.  We started collecting plastic bottles to begin.  We would bring them from home, lunch, around the neighborhood (if they were laying around), and ask family members to donate theirs to us.  We started gathering them quickly and discussed that we didn't want to purchase just for the sake of collecting; however, we were still able to collect many in a short amount of time.  We've been collecting for the majority of the school year and have already collected over 800 plastic water bottles.  We wanted to get the school involved as well, so we created a PSA about plastic pollution, our activity, and how others could join in.  This took us some time, but we were all pleased and proud with the outcome which was shared with our school community.

Our plastic video...

The boys and girls surprisingly hadn't lost steam with this project.  Although our collection has slowed down, which is good, we wanted to move forward.  We began researching companies to host a reusable water bottle fundraiser.  Students found multiple companies, priced out options to analyze how much of a profit we'd make, and even created mock designs.  With all of that information, we could look into a refill station for our school for all students to refill their reusable bottles with filtered water in an easy way.  We're currently still working out the kinks on this step and are excited to carry it out and move forward and begin creating our sculpture garden!  We'll keep you posted on the next two steps of our journey!  If you're feeling inspired, start collecting and donate your bottles to our cause, or start your own sculpture garden!

Centers and Secret Tabs: The Struggle is Real

Each year there is a new challenge to the craft of teaching.  This year for me, it's engagement.  This typically isn't an issue to be honest, well because, I'm hilarious.  I was class clown of my graduating class and I tell jokes that make my own self laugh on a regular basis.  Sadly, however, my excellent comedic timing is no match for...
INTERNET GAMES
Ugh.  It's been going on all year long.  I've asked about blocking websites, setting up special sessions in Go Guardian (our program for tracking students' computers), etc.  No matter what I seem to plan, how often I mention Go Guardian, or what I buy to bring into our classroom, it doesn't seem to matter.  I even have a 'Bucket of Shame' where Chromebooks must sit, untouched, if someone is on a site they're not supposed to be.  Internet games win every time.  I've even gone so far as to allow games... yeah, allow them... during homeroom, thinking that would alleviate my frustration the rest of the day.  Nope.
Recently we began our book clubs.  I'll give students various options of things to work on when they aren't with me.  They move around the room and we get started.  Now, obviously, I'm not a moron.  Kids who are sitting underneath a table or built-in desk, are clearly hiding something.  Thankfully, I have friends who keep me informed and then I have hallway discussions with rule breakers after my lesson.  This has been the struggle the last few weeks.  It's been happening in math as well, however, I've found more success!  How you ask? Awesome, no computers required, centers.  Those old-school centers have helped immensely and my math centers have started to be more successful.  Sure, it took work and staying late a few nights to set them up, but it's been totally worth it!  I was excited to begin the hunt for great ELA centers... in all my spare time.  No dice though.  It's either a monthly bundle where you print and organize and laminate a million items, or it's random busy work that offers no true review or experience that is worthwhile.  WHYYYYYYYYY!?
That was it.  After days, preps, after school hours, of scouring the internet, it hit me.  I'll fight technology, with even cooler technology.  HA!  Take that secret open tabs that aren't supposed to be open!
Enter *Alexa*
Oh yeah, baby.  I started to compile a list of super cool tasks Alexa could do.  Spelling games, writing activities, history lessons, local businesses, etc.  I was obsessed with my new idea.  I feverishly worked and finished creating the center in no time.  I'll be rolling it out this week and now my ELA centers will go from annoying and off task behind my back, to engaging, creative, and easily checked on for accountability.  BOOM.
About the center...
Ask Alexa.
Students will pick a card from the Alexa container.  They'll work with Alexa to complete the task on the card.  This task could be worked on during center time, or used if the child is an early finisher.  I designed the activities to be on-going.  Students will combine speaking and listening, with research, creation, math, science, history, and ELA.  I covered everything!  Some activities have worksheets to match while others require the scanning of our Ask Alexa flipgrid QR code so students can create a nature documentary, retell a choose your own adventure story, or more!  It's also the sort of center where more than one child can easily use it and then proceed to their independent work.  It's incredible if I do say so myself!  I gave the kiddos a preview on Friday and they cannot wait to try it out this week.  Here are some pictures of the center and you can grab your copy by clicking the link below!  Enjoy, and good luck to us all fellow teachers!

Grab your Ask Alexa center HERE