What Would You Do?

What would you do?" scenarios help students be proactive so they respond rather than react to conflict for improved self-management, responsible decision-making, and maintaining better relationships.

Circle Time

Circle Time is used to prevent interpersonal problems between students by building relationships.

Circle Time happens at the beginning of the day and involves every student and the teacher in being greeted by name and answering a question about themselves or a classmate.

STEM Shark Tank

Using students’ interests in learning activities promotes problem-solving and collaboration while having fun. Grab random objects, have students research, learn and present about them.

Building Community Engagement through Music

Are you looking for a way to build your school community and get parents excited about school? Holding evening music concerts for each grade level encourages parents to become involved in school.

Orion Heat Shield Experiment

After building a scale model of the crew capsule, Orion (which will be used in the upcoming Artemis missions) teams then designed and tested a heat shield, using an assortment of materials offered. Students added a Hershey's Kiss inside thier capsule, then simulated the heat and turbulance of reentry into Earth's atmosphere with a hairdryer. The goal was to keep the astronauts from melting, while being as budget-friendly as possible with materials. Items gathered from the STEM center were the emergency heat blankets and hairdryers.

Visual Note Taking

Using visual note-taking is one way teachers can see what students understood from the lesson. Visual note-taking (or “doodle notes” as I call it) can be structured by the teacher or left open for students to draw what they hear and focus on during the lecture.

Submitted by: April Lesher, Mesquite High School, Gilbert, AZ.

Using Kahoot for Fun, New Knowledge, and Review

Kahoot is a "game website" where you can use others content or create your own of ANYTHING. I have created vocabulary or content review sessions. There are also options that others have created around holidays, TV shows, literally every content area. Students enjoy it for the competitive piece that makes the learning more fun. The top three students get put on a podium and the more points you score before time is up drives the "game". You can do it as a whole class, or even assign it as an individual task. There are also options for collaborations and lesson embedding options.

Submitted by: Christina Salazar, Legend Springs Elementary School, Deer Valley Unified School District.

Self Care for Educators

Self care for educators is crucial to avoid burn out, develop health stress management, and survive! Yoga, Mindfulness and Meditation are some examples of simple self care techniques that educators can adopt.

Submitted by: Beth Tyrell-Prevost, Summit Academy, Mesa, AZ.

Creator Mindset Lessons

Creator Mindset lessons focus on helping students establish a growth mindset in which they learn to take responsibility for their successes as well as their failures. It is a mindset that involves not blaming others and keeping a positive attitude no matter the circumstances. They view obstacles and problems as challenges they can overcome. The lessons for creating this mindset involve journaling, roleplaying, and analyzing situations to determine how they can act as a creator of their life rather than a victim of circumstances.

Submitted by: Cindee Badalamente, Camelback High School, Phoenix, AZ.

Technology Transformations

Students use the design process to transform one type of technology into another. I begin by putting out several items (from the resource center) and letting each group pick an item. Then we begin the design process. They brainstorm things they can possibly make out of their item or the parts from their technology. Then they plan, build, improve and create. Finally, they share their final project. For example: one group of students took an electric toothbrush and transformed it into a fake tattoo machine using ink; another group took an RC car motor and plastic pieces and turned it into a boat with a propellor that worked in their pool; another group transformed a beanie hat into a mini backpack and used the wire for straps and created a button.

Submitted by: Misty Schreiber, Las Sendas Elementary, Mesa Public Schools

Unidad: Ciencia y Tecnologia

Students compared the use, effectiveness, and material of two electronic devices in the target language (Spanish). During the lesson, students had the time to write down any observations focused on use, effectiveness and material of product. Next, students compared the findings with peers and discussed any points of confusion about the products. Students used thinking maps during the process, prior knowledge from their science courses and focused on developing their writing skills. Overall, students had the opportunity to practice their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills all while using the target language.

Submitted by: Ruby Reyes, Westwood High School, Mesa, AZ.

7 Habits of Happy Kids

A video summary of the "Leader in Me" core concepts based on the 7 habits of highly effective people and with hand motions to make it easier for kids to remember and teachers to reference in class.

Submitted by: Andy Gibbons, Noah Webster Schools

Inquiry Journaling in Math

Inquiry journaling in math is a great way to start a new standard. Generally, I will show an image along with some guiding questions for students to start thinking about the new content. By allowing for inquiry time, students will pull from their background knowledge and they will have time to explore and come up with their own reasoning prior to being given definitions or formulas for the math.

Stomp Virtual Concert

I am currently teaching 2 separate classrooms and a group of online students during the same class period--57 students total! I am doing this by creating a curated list of activities based on the topic we are studying. I create a document with a table listing the activity title, a description, a section for notes, and a column for the students to mark it as completed. The first item on the playlist is always a video I have created listing the expectations for the list, including the days the students have to complete the list. The playlist is broken up with daily checkpoints, and I include videos I have created, videos from Youtube, Google Forms surveys/quizzes, guided notes pages, Padlet, and Nearpod activities.

Submitted by: Julie Thibodeaux, Madison Park Middle School, Phoenix, AZ.

Flipped Learning Playlists

I am currently teaching 2 separate classrooms and a group of online students during the same class period--57 students total! I am doing this by creating a curated list of activities based on the topic we are studying. I create a document with a table listing the activity title, a description, a section for notes, and a column for the students to mark it as completed. The first item on the playlist is always a video I have created listing the expectations for the list, including the days the students have to complete the list. The playlist is broken up with daily checkpoints, and I include videos I have created, videos from Youtube, Google Forms surveys/quizzes, guided notes pages, Padlet, and Nearpod activities.

Submitted by: Tasha Grant, Barcelona Elementary School, Alhambra Elementary School District.