In our previous post we talked about general tips for Working with Middle School Classes. In this post we are going to dig deeper into the concept of Bell Ringers.

Anticipatory Set, Bell Ringer, Warm up, there’s many different names but the concept is the same.  Get the kids working as soon as they walk into class.  The sooner you classes are engaged, they less behavioral problems you’ll face.  In addition you communicate to kids that you have work for them to do.  Establishing this routine early in the year or at the beginning of a new class paves the way to an effective learning environment. 

Class transition time:
Be sure to greet students as they come into class by name.  Especially those students who you know could be a problem.  It’s important to establish positive communication.  I generally will greet them and let them know what they will need (notebook, computer, book etc.).  Additionally, this is a good time to ask about last nights band concert or todays Volleyball match.  These few minutes are vitally important to establishing a positive climate.  During this time, your bell ringer activity should be posted, either on the board, on paper or projector.  A portion of the class will begin to read and think about the question or activity right away.  This is an important point, if half the class is reading your bell ringer, that means there are less kids to redirect at the start of class time.

Bell Ringer Types
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Content Review Questions:  These are simply lesson objective questions from the previous day.  Generally low order questions (we want a quick start with lots of success).   The goal here is to engage lots of kids in yesterday’s work.  For example, reviewing parts of Photosynthesis in a science lesson.    I created an Ecology Bell Ringer Pack for this purpose. 

Content Preview Questions:  Sometimes we’re looking to see where a class is at.  For example, does a class understand absolute value, providing a few sample problems. 

News Events:  I like these because they instantly engage student.  For example, The Chinese Space Station Crash.  Kids hear about these items and want to share and talk.  I like to tie these into content areas to make class more meaningful.
Physical Challenge:  Sometimes its fun to have kids just build something simple.  I have some classes with very active students, so I use physical challenges that get them thinking hands on.  Draw a box, build a cube, make a quick tower.  I created a Science Stacker Series for this purpose.

Grading:  I like to have students keep a section of notes dedicated to bell ringers that I can check at the end of a section or quarter.  Additionally, if they are doing something that you want to engage them a little more, use a stamp to grade their work.  This allows you to circulate the room, spot checking work with a stamp letting everyone know they completed the work. 

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The key to bell ringers is using them.  Be sure to have something up everyday.  The more teachers in your school that follow this procedure, the more productive your classes can become and the less behavioral headaches you’ll have to deal with. 
 

A colleague of mine introduced me to the wonderful world of Arduino.  These simple microcontrollers allow you to program, build and create simple inventions using inexpensive microcontrollers.  There is a vast online community that offers sample code and ideas.  From this humble introduction we currently have middle school students. . ..

• Creating lighted curtains for the musical
• Building remote sensors to monitor the school garden
• Creating remote sensors to monitor our aquariums and hydroponics set ups.
• Planning a Light and Music night, using LED strips to light up sculptures. 
• Remote Controlled Moon Phase Models

So what exactly can you do with them in a middle school classroom, anything you want!
Arduino starter kits cost around $35.00 via Amazon.  You will need a computer to use Arduino IDE, the programming language.  There are online versions and ones you can download to the computer.  It seems that most of the online versions charge a small fee, while the downloadable versions ask for a donation (not required).  I used Donorschoose.org to fund my latest  project and it took about a week.  There are many companies and individuals looking to support STEM based teaching ideas. 
So instead of asking your students to make a model, or an imaginary invention.  Take the next step and ask them to create the real thing using Arduino controllers!  I will be writing more on the topic in upcoming articles.  If you do get started, I would suggest trying the Blink program.  It turns a light on and off on the control board and introduces you to the basics of coding.     

Day 100 has passed, we’re well into the second half of the school year.  We’re also getting to the point that difficult students are driving us crazy.  So, what can you do as a classroom teacher?  In this series of posts, I’m going to review a handful of tried and true strategies to get your classes back on track and maintain your sanity.  Hopefully along the way we can return valuable instructional time.
 
Starting class.
The most important daily routine for middle level students is getting started as quickly as possible.  The longer your students sit with nothing to do, the more likely there will be discipline issues.  I set a mental note to always be teaching when the bell rings or class starts.   This requires a few steps.

1.        Always have a bell ringer or warm up exercise posted.  Greet your students by name and direct them to this activity. 
2.       Start class with as positive attitude as possible, I’m not talking about playing unicorns and rainbows.  But the incidents from yesterday are far away in students mind.  This is a struggle for teachers because we don’t forget anything.  I try to give the kids the benefit of the doubt each day. 
3.       Clip art does wonders to PowerPoints.  It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but kids will start talking if they see something that interests them.
4.       Understand that 75% of kids will be ready when class starts, work on the 25% who aren’t.
5.       Be ready to redirect off task requests.  There are always a handful of students that their first act of class is to ask you to do something.  Can I.. .
              Go to my locker
              Go to the bathroom
              Go call my parents
              Go to the library
You can respond to these request in two ways, “NO” or “We can talk after class gets started.”
I use both approaches, the ultimate goal is to get your students together and on track at the start of class.   Many kids use this as avoidance behavior, which leads you to interruptions 3 minutes later when they return.   Side note:  if a kid is turning green I will tell them to go to the nurse or restroom.  These are the rare exceptions where professional judgement tells you the kid is not feeling well.    
 6.       Seating charts are a must.  In classes that are difficult, we must provide structure.  Removing the daily questions of who will I sit by reduces drama.  Additionally, it’s one more variable you can manipulate to help improve students learning.  We’ll talk about this on in later posts.

If you are looking to refocus and improve the start of your classes, remember, it’s your classroom.  We have a lot more control of what happens in the room than we think.  Start with the little details and they rest will fall into place.
 
Here’s an example of an activity I created for a particularly difficult group of students, Science Stackers.  The goal was to get kids working on a hands on activity that engages lesson content.  

Best luck with your teaching!
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Google classroom has many benefits as a learning management system, but some features are more helpful than others. What’s my favorite?  Assignments that automatically create copies or templates for students. 

Why?
Learning projects that push students to deeper learning are more complicated.  As a teacher, I have two choices, create a rubric with bullet points to keep kids on track or create a template that guides students.  Templates are far better because I can include video, instructions and tips in a format that’s easy for students to navigate.  Additionally templates are editable for the students, making grading easier and final products more polished. 

How?
Just open your Google Drive account and build a document that matches the requirements for your project.  Add links, instructions, pictures and examples.  Once you are complete, give it a descriptive name.  The video below will explain this in detail.  

Now go into your Google Class and select the class you want to use and click the Google Drive Icon.  By clicking recent, the last document you worked on will appear.  This is a huge time saver because you don’t need to sort through and find your files.
Google will ask you what options you want, by clicking “make a copy” for each student, it will automatically put a student’s name on the file.  No more forgetting to put a name on your paper!  This automatically creates a copy in the students Google Drive account that they can access either through Google Drive or Google classroom.
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These steps can be completed in seconds.  This is one of the reasons why I believe Google Classroom is a leader in getting content to kids.  Whether you are using it for class or making online copies for parents to access.  This will save you time and energy when creating assignments. 
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These are lessons I use that can be used with Google Drive.

TED Ed is one of my favorite video resources for use in middle school classrooms.  They have a variety of topics that are well designed and fit any lesson.  Best of all, they are free and can be easily embedding into any lesson presentation or used as online content for 1 to 1 classrooms.  Check out the "Myth of Oisin" published on January 18th.  

It all started out with Wiki, kids could edit information and "mess up" quality information.  To Wiki's credit and user ship, I rarely find bad information in my search for science teacher content.  Now making false, misleading and many times funny news account is a common practice.  A school custodian once told me that they were going to close route 90 near lake Erie/Buffalo because there was too much snow.  It would be closed for two months till spring, I had to be the bearer of bad news and explain that they fell for fake news. 

​ Thankfully this creates teachable moments for us in the classroom.  Now we can look for opportunities to teach our students how to be more critical and understand bias in news media.  Our guest poster Jeremy from LearningEdTeach recently did a tech tip about "Factitious" an online tool to help us better teach about fake news.  Check it out below.  

Bell ringers have long been a core instruction and classroom management strategy.  The goal is to get students into the class and get them on task quickly and effectively.   Teaching this from day one creates and organized classroom that allows all students to learn.  The question is, how do I use bell ringers with a 1 to 1 classroom? 

Option 1:  Computerized Bell Ringers.  The advantage here is students come in, log on and go to a LMS (learning management system) like Google Classroom.  The teacher posts an image or question for reflection and students begin to write immediately.   This is great because each kid has a rich, engaging bell ringer that they can compose and turn in online.  For the teacher there is no wasted paper laying around.   The management problem that can be an issue is students can waste time getting computers out and once they are online, its more of a challenge to get them to pay attention. 

Option 2:  Traditional Bell Ringer:  In this case, students walk in, pull out a bell ringer journal (notebook) and begin writing immediately.  This is effective because there is no transition time pulling out computers (if you use a cart).  It gives the instructor some time to discuss without students being distracted by a computer screen.  If you don’t know what I mean, ask 24 middle school kids to log on and listen to you at the same time.  Once the bell ringer is complete, I’ll provide students with an agenda of activities and send them off to get their computers.  

Reflection:  Bell ringers still play a vital role in classroom management and instruction.  New technology supports effective teaching.  As an instructor we need to remember that proven instruction strategies are still good, we just need to adjust them to support our broadening technology base for instruction. 
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If you are looking for 1 to 1 instructional resources for your science classroom, check out my Cells for Middle School Bundle.  It contains 3 self paced lesson, with videos and interactive notebook pages.  

Looking for a way to share content between Chromebooks in your classroom?  If you haven't tried Google Cast for Education you are missing out.  This free product provides a simple point and click sharing opportunity in your classroom.  Learn more below.