Cyber Bullying Showcase

October is Bullying Prevention Month. Our community is also dealing with the suicide of a local senior that was cyber-bullied. In our English classes, students read an article (http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-38-fall-2010/feature/cyberbullying) about cyber bullying. We then discussed the reading and any student that wanted to take a stand against cyber bullying could trace their hand and write their name.

The support materials were found on MTV's website: athinline.org, a website dedicated to drawing a line between digital use and digital abuse. 

Twitter Classroom

I decided that elementary classrooms aren't the only places for theme decorations. And what do the high school students relate to? Technology! So I incorporated Twitter throughout my room this year.

Using quotes from famous people and recitethis.com, I created 25 posters, or "tweets", to hang up in the room. I also printed a picture of the person tweeting and placed that above the poster.

On my chalkboard (Yes, I still have chalkboards!), I created a poster that says, "What's Trending in Learning Today?" 

Here, I have a poster that says, "What Will You Tweet About Today?" Under that are large laminated sheets of paper that have 36 squares on each. The squares are numbered. Each piece of paper is labeled, naming my different hours. All of my students will be given a number. When I want a quick response from them about something, I hand them a post-it note and they write their response and stick it on their corresponding number on the way out. This is such a better method than exit slips because all I have to do is take my sheet of paper that lists the kids' names and numbers and figure out who the post-it belongs to. I can get a really good idea, very quickly, if the class as a whole is understanding the concept. 

And one thing I have learned in my eight years of teaching is that kids want you to know when their birthday is. So...on a bulletin board that I never really know what to do with because it is behind my desk, I printed off some cupcakes and labeled them for each month. I found a small candle template online and wrote all of their birthdays on the candles. (All 130 students!) 

I forgot to take a picture of it, but on my door I have a poster of the Twitter bird saying, "Follow Me".

Here is a list of the quotes I used...

“I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

 @AnneFrank

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

 @MahatmaGandhi

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”

 @DalaiLama

“Nothing will work unless you do.”

 @MayaAngelou

“Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.”

 @AbrahamLincoln

“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.”

 @MotherTeresa

  

“Even in darkness, it is possible to create light.”

 @ElieWiesel

“It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

 @JKRowling

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”

 @Oscar Wilde

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

@MahatmaGandhi

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

 @MayaAngelou

  

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”

 @MarkTwain

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…”

 @DrSeuss

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”

 @RalphWaldoEmerson

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” 

 @DrSeuss

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

 @AlbertEinstein

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” 

 @WinstonChurchill

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” 
@ Mark Twain

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” 

 @HarperLee

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” 

 @AnneFrank

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”

@Plato

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” 

 @WinstonChurchill

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” 

@Henry Ford

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” 

 @MartinLutherKingJr

Emoticon Cupcakes

After three days of state testing, a fellow teacher and I decided we would reward the kids with a little treat. She made some cookies and I came up with these cupcakes. I call them "The Many Faces of the ACT"

The kids really got a kick out of picking out a face that fit them the best.

The faces are drawn on with a tube of black food gel.