Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Cross-Curricular Teaching (Electives/Core) in a 1:1 Environment

These are my notes from Kristy Lovett (teaches HS Art 1-4) and Erica Carey‘s (HS consumer science) afternoon presentation at the Crescent Public Schools‘ 1:1 learning conference on 4 June 2010. The title of his session was, “Cross-Curricular Teaching (Electives/Core) in a 1:1 Environment.” MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

MY ASIDE: THE STORYCHASERS MOBILE LEARNING TEAM BLOG IS A PLACE FOR EDUCATORS IN 1:1 SETTINGS TO SHARE IDEAS.

“Of Bridges and Blue Suede Shoes,” cross-curricular connections
– best PD sessions always have 2 things: chocolate and door prizes!

This entire press is available online, created with Dreamweaver!
http://www.crescentok.com/staff/klovett/ofbridgesandbluesuedeshoes.htm

today we want to talk about making curricular connections, and helping make curriculum RELEVANT for kids
-we want to share projects we’ve done and have worked for us

Why Elvis?
– he was the KING
– on the cutting edge, the trend setter
– you will have to adapt

One for the MONEY: our goals
– promote cross-curricular teaching
– equip teachers with cross-curricular info and strategies
– provide tried and true tips for success in 1:1 tech/digital teaching environments (from non-techie people)
– challenge you to create a technology facilitated cross-curricular lesson

Cross-curricular teaching is a bridge over troubled waters
– involves a conscious effort to apply knowledge, principles, and or values to more than one academic discipline simultaneously

TV dinner teaching: everything is separte:
– today we spice it up, mix it together!

Cross-curricular teaching makes students operate on the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy
– businesses want to hire people who can think for themselves!
– that is my main teaching goal!
– create students who are capable of adapting, doing new things, making the world a better place

Motivation
– motivation doesn’t last but neither does bathing… that’s why we recommend it daily! (Zig Ziglar)
– Eisenhower: Motivation is the Art of getting people to do what you want them to do…

Retention: B Franklin – Tell me I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

This is our story
– cultural diversity fair (every other year)
– TAH Grant – Civil War
– TAH Grant – World War II
– The Origins of FAiry Tales / German Romanticism
– Germs and Hygiene
– Careers

With the TAH grant this year, we took a week out of our curriculum and EVERY class studied and taught the civil war
– family life in Civil War, made and ate hard tack, analyzed diets of people during the Civil War

Quotation on the wall: “The wise are glad to be instructed, but babbling fools fall flat on their faces.” – Proverbs 10:8 (NLT)

It is so much easier using the Internet to differentiate the curriculum and give students more choices about their learning

Our entire staff taught a unit on WWII because of the TAH grant
– propaganda posters (was very interesting because the students’ projects were very politically correct, yet propaganda is usually anything BUT politically correct)
– students couldn’t bring themselves to take a current issue and make a statement / make propaganda about it

Civil War studies: did Winslow Homer (an artist who traveled with Civil War troops, did illustrations for magazines like Harpers)
– Lincoln was one of the first people to EVER use political photography, he had to sit for THREE MINUTES per photo when they were taken (WOW IS THIS EVER AMAZING!)
– students received a grade in English for the essay, and a grade in Art for the artwork they created

Careers example: Get grade in English and in Careers

Germs and Hygiene project
– students taught preK kids a few years ago the proper way to wash your hands
– science instructor had kids swap everything on door handles and elsewhere in the school, then they GREW those germs in cultures
– then the art teacher helped them create posters of the germs in large scale
– used black-light reactive powder first, before the lesson, and used it as a way to show where the kids hadn’t washed or other places they had rubbed their hands…

studied fairy tales in English, talked about differentiating
– painted Caspar David Friedrich

In March I lost five years of work, all my pictures
– get a terabyte drive and backup!

(MY THOUGHT: ALSO CONSIDER PUBLISHING TO FLICKR!)

communication is the key for cross-curricular unit success
– find out what others teach and what you have in common
– more conversations!
– example: moving abstract expressionism to the same time of the year the history teacher is covering post-WWII economy

1- Theme: must engage your students
2- Grade-level appropriateness

http://edsitement.neh.gov

http://edsitement.neh.gov/

3- Focus- a single sentence that represents the direction and focus across curriculum areas
4- Objectives: specific to subject area PASS objectives

Most sites on Google for cross-curricular projects are primary/elementary

Use ALL your resources

I don’t like videotaping myself and putting it out on the internet, I feel very vulnerable
– I do PowerPoint podcasts

5- General Activities
– web-based podcasts

6- Discussion

7- Culminating Activity: creative project that can be evaluated across subject areas

8- Assessment- subject rubrics

9- Communication, Communication, Communication

My online curriculum:

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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On this day..


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