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julie.veneman@lakotaonline.com - Endeavor math and science

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50 Questions other than “what did you do in school today?” for parents.

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50 Questions other than “what did you do in school today?” for parents.

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Now that we have a new baby in our home, time with my oldest girls (ages 8 and 6) is even more difficult to find. Between constant nursing sessions and shuffling kids to and from activities, it's been an adjustment.

To say the least.

So I asked our writers to share some of their favorite conversation starters with their kids. These are especially great after a long school day when your babies don't want to chat.

(You may also want to check out - Not Just Bedtime Prayers: 70 Faith-Focused Questions To Ask Your Kids Each Day.)

Here's some of their favorites!

1. What made you smile today?

2. Can you tell me an example of kindness you saw/showed?

3. Was there an example of unkindness? How did you respond?

4. Does everyone have a friend at recess?

5. What was the book about that your teacher read?

6. What's the word of the week?

7. Did anyone do anything silly to make you laugh?

8. Did anyone cry?

9. What did you do that was creative?

10. What is the most popular game at recess?

11. What was the best thing that happened today?

12. Did you help anyone today?

13. Did you tell anyone "thank you?"

14. Who did you sit with at lunch?

15. What made you laugh?

16. Did you learn something you didn't understand?

17. Who inspired you today?

18. What was the peak and the pit?

19. What was your least favorite part of the day?

20. Was anyone in your class gone today?

21. Did you ever feel unsafe?

22. What is something you heard that surprised you?

23. What is something you saw that made you think?

24. Who did you play with today?

25. Tell me something you know today that you didn't know yesterday.

26. What is something that challenged you?

27. How did someone fill your bucket today? Whose bucket did you fill?

28. Did you like your lunch?

29. Rate your day on a scale from 1-10.

30. Did anyone get in trouble today?

31. How were you brave today?

32. What questions did you ask at school today?

33. Tell us your top two things from the day (before you can be excused from the dinner table!).

34. What are you looking forward to tomorrow?

35. What are you reading?

36. What was the hardest rule to follow today?

37. Teach me something I don't know.

38. If you could change one thing about your day, what would it be?

39. (For older kids): Do you feel prepared for your history test?" or, "Is there anything on your mind that you'd like to talk about?" (In my opinion, the key is not only the way a question is phrased, but responding in a supportive way.)

40. Who did you share your snacks with at lunch?

41. What made your teacher smile? What made her frown?

42. What kind of person were you today?

43. What made you feel happy?

44. What made you feel proud?

45. What made you feel loved?

46. Did you learn any new words today?

47. What do you hope to do before school is out for the year?

48. If you could switch seats with anyone in class, who would it be? And why?

49. What is your least favorite part of the school building? And favorite?

50. If you switched places with your teacher tomorrow, what would you teach the class?

HUGE thanks to our writers for their awesome questions. Seriously, guys we could have 300+ questions to ask. The key here? Ask them.

I started asking these 4 questions to my kids each night and it has made all the difference. Truly. There's no excuse for me not being able to get these 4 questions in - no matter how busy our day may be.

Here's hoping these help start conversations in your home too!

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50 Questions To Ask Your Kids Instead Of Asking "How Was Your Day"

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Now that we have a new baby in our home, time with my oldest girls (ages 8 and 6) is even more difficult to find. Between constant nursing sessions and shuffling kids to and from activities, it's been an adjustment. To say the least.

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1) build rapport with kid - more likely to come to school if they know you care
2) communicate with parents  - share positive news
3) lead by example - be there as a teacher
4) use online resources (seesaw, canvas) to record progress for the day
5) Ditto Canvas resources
6) Pair a "hog" with chronic absentee
7) have group member share notes, activities, pictures, etc.
8) Frequent check in by teacher and close proximity of teacher when they are in class.
9) home visit
10) get counselor/admin involved to see if there is a deeper reason for absentee
11) Designated area for class papers
12) Educate parents on necessity of school attendance
13) Survey students to see who likes to help others who are absent
14) Individual project to give access to standards yet exposure to the PBL
15) Find out why

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We are all Hogs & Frogs:)
To help we have a list of jobs and they are assigned jobs or they sign up for jobs.

1) Project Manager helps keep everyone accountable by checking in with them daily. Teacher views this - helps the logs stay accountable.
2) Modeling team work
3) Checklists per hog, frog and log
4) Assign certain locations so frogs can't 'hop' around
5) Frequent assessment check
6) Socratic Seminar
7)  Use "Fish Bowl" strategy to model group expectations
8) Learning contracts to clarify expectations
9) Peer assessments
10) Strategic grouping
11) Write Around strategy where a question or topic is given and each student
writes a response to the previous student (on one card)
12) Frequent modeling of collaboration, reference to teamwork rubric.
13)Team building activities so that they develop a desire not to want to disappoint anyone.
14. Accountable listening: Have students share what their partner said and not their own thinking.

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Work with other content teachers.
Make sure that you have checkpoints set in the beginning to help avoid this.
Pull from other content areas.
Indoor recess
Provide research for them
Anticipate slackers and push them
Plan for extra days to help avoid!!!  YES!!!!!!
Have extensions ready for students who are truly finished  early (with high quality)
Provide more scaffolding to catch up
Provide a false early deadline to give yourself and kids cush time
Ensure that the check in points/due dates need to be made clear with the students as well.  Make it clear and visible.
Adjust plan by removing extra built-ins.
Allow work at home
Inform parents more than a week ahead of time of any deadlines.
Give yourself grace!
Be flexible

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*Group grades = small percentage of grade,
*Individual grades = larger portion of grade
*Jill's example:  group grade 5 points, individual grade 30 points
* Keep evidence for all grades
- formative checklist to get around to each student to show evidence of learning
- give opportunities for students to evaluate each other.
- Students do self-assessment
- Ss use a rubric created by T for a grade
- T checks group grade
Have each person turn something in
exit slips
end of unit assessment for grades
* Share rubric and project expectations with parents
* Roles in group collaboration
* small part of their group grade is peer evaluation.
*

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Project Design Overview

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Great resourses from a PBL teacher

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Order my newest book now!
Just Ask Us: Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement
My newest book shares the results of my nationwide survey of 6th-12th graders. In that survey, I asked one simple question: What engages you as a learner? The responses came from states all over the country and from every school model, from traditional public schools to charter schools, from private schools classes to homeschooled students, from rural communities to urban centers. With every response, I soon realized that are all asking that teachers utilize the same strategies. These requests became the focus of the chapters of the book. Just Ask Us is full of quotes from the students themselves, research from those in academic circles, videos into classrooms to see each strategy in action, and lessons from across the subject areas to try yourself. The companion website also includes a downloadable survey for your own students so that you can start on a journey to be the engaging teacher that you can be. Order now!
Just Ask Us: Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement
Interested in customized workshops in student engagement and implementation strategies?

Interested in learning more about technology integration, Project-Based Learning, and leveraging student interests in your content area?

Interested in learning more about the tween, their brain, and strategies to engage even the most distracted learner?

Interested for your staff to learn more about curating, in a useful way, all of the resources that are out there?

Interested in your department or district to learn more about designing and implementing face-to-face and/or blended curriculum?

Contact me for options for parent groups, private schools, public schools, or any model in-between.

heather@tweenteacher.com

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Order my newest book now! Just Ask Us: Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement My newest book shares the results of my nationwide survey of 6th-12th graders. In that survey, I asked one simple question: What engages you as a learner?

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Nice tool to use with students to ensure all voices are heard.

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Link to Project Design Rubric:
https://www.bie.org/object/document/project_design_rubric
Link to Planning Forms:
http://www.bie.org/objects/cat/planning_forms
Link to Research about PBL:
http://www.bie.org/objects/cat/research
Link to Student Handouts:
http://www.bie.org/objects/cat/student_handouts

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bit.ly/PBLOhio101Grad

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http://bit.ly/pbldesignelements

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Driving Question Tubric 2.0

The DQ Tubric 2.0 helps you practice writing Driving Questions by framing initial words, person or entity, action or challenge, and audience/purpose.

The Tubric is a fun, hands-on way to practice the often-challenging task of writing a Driving Question for a project.

Use the Tubric in professional development or collaborative planning time to help you and your colleagues design effective projects.

Log in to get this resource...

To view or download this resource, log in here.

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Driving Question Tubric 2.0 The DQ Tubric 2.0 helps you practice writing Driving Questions by framing initial words, person or entity, action or challenge, and audience/purpose. The Tubric is a fun, hands-on way to practice the often-challenging task of writing a Driving Question for a project.

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bit.ly/pbldesignelements

www.pblu.org

bit.ly/hthcards

bit.ly/discoverycards

bit.ly/ELprojects

bit.ly/VanderbiltPBLpartners

bit.ly/educuriousPBL

bit.ly/BIEformsongoogle

bit.ly/BIEtemplates

http://pbl-wl.wikispaces.com/

https://docs.google.com/a/dps61.net/document/d/1TJX0t4AR9mMRG4v9Yu1BL5_XVHYw9t9-QObLHMn-QNU/edit?usp=sharing

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For the End of Day 2!!!

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Frogs, Hogs and Logs Activity to do with Students

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Frogs, Hogs and Logs Activity to do with Students

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Do you have students who sit around like logs, rarely ever participating in class discussions or activities?

What about those students who act like hogs, blurting out answers, not letting their peers have a chance to speak up let alone think about the question you just asked?

If you answered, "YES!" to either of these questions, you will love this morning meeting idea!

I got this lesson idea from my friend, Jessica from The Whimsical Teacher. If you are not following her on Periscope, well, you should be!

The first thing you need to do is print out the different masks. I laminated mine for extra durability because I attached them to our wall as a reminder after the activity.

You can print the pig mask here from Activity Village.

You can print the frog mask here from Activity Village.

Jessica suggested googling smiling log, to get the log image. I did that and found this one. I copied it into PowerPoint and increased the size of it. She said during her periscope it would be pixely and it is, but it works for the lesson.

UPDATED: If you can't get those links to work, I have a pdf file with all three of the masks here.

Hog, Log, and Frog Masks

Next, you gather your students around for your normal morning meeting. If you don't use a morning meeting in your classroom, you can just use this as a lesson during the day. Show the students the log and ask them what they think of when they think of a log. What might a person who acts like a log in the classroom be like? The students will volunteer ideas such as:

"They don't do their work."

"They don't participate."

Then, show them the hog mask. Ask them to tell you what they think of when they think of a hog. Again, ask them how this might relate to the classroom. Students might say:

"They answer all of the questions."

"They raise their hands like crazy all the time."

Last, show them the frog and ask them what frogs always turn into in fairy tales. They should answer, "Princes." You then say, "That's right, they always turn into princes and princesses, because they do the right thing. What might the right thing be in the classroom?" Answers could include:

"Participating in lessons."

"Always doing their best."

End the lesson by asking students what they would like to be, a log, a hog or a frog? The answer should be simple - they want to be frogs.

Throughout the year, when your students aren't making the best choices, you can remind them, "Didn't you say you wanted to be a frog?

My students LOVED this lesson, and it has been a great reminder for increasing positive student participation.

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog. All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.

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Increasing Positive Student Participation Are You a Hog, a Log, or a Frog? Morning Meeting Lesson

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Do you have students who sit around like logs, rarely ever participating in class discussions or activities? What about those students who act like hogs, blurting out answers, not letting their peers have a chance to speak up let alone think about the question you just asked? If you answered, "YES!"

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Erno Rubik

Lost Generation

What PBL Isn’t

Restaurant Project

Courtyard Redesign

Snakes are Born This Way

Entry Events (Declaration of Independence, Gender Project, Canal Winchester, Zoologist)

Wing Project

Watershed Project

Gender Project

Thumbs Up for Rock & Roll

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Sorting ideas according to a filter. Gives students autonomy while encouraging higher order thinking skills in a collaborative setting.

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Here is a video example of a Charrette in motion...

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Helping students to begin to advocate for their own learning needs during the course of a project.

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How do I know the difference between a project and project based learning?

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How do I know the difference between a project and project based learning?

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Thinking about your project, it is important to understand the differences between what is a Project and what is Project Based Learning (www.bie.org)

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An Accountable Talk Process...

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Edit away! This is a good tool!

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The 8 design elements in a PDF for your use when designing a project