I think one of my favorite parts about teaching English language arts classes is the simple fact that I really have the freedom to pick, choose, and design materials that my students or I find interesting. With language arts classes, especially in middle school, you have resources available, but no one is standing over you saying that you HAVE to teach this book or that book. You DO have to teach certain concepts and elements, but the resources you choose are up to you. These topics, resources, and texts can cover anything because the main focus is creating better readers and writers. This gives lots of freedom. This is also where student surveys and brainstorming can give you a window into your students' interests. Highly recommend that. And while I do want my students to have choice and voice in the classroom, I also think it's great for teachers to share texts that they are passionate about: enter Chew on This. 
  I read this book about 10 years ago, and hadn't really stopped thinking about it since. It's a great expository/literary nonfiction/persuasive book that informs the reader on fast food. Its subtitle says, "Everything you don't want to know about fast food." Needless to say, that's a pretty popular topic with junior high students. So, a few years ago, my co-workers and I decided to purchase it for our 7th grade classes. It's been pretty engaging ever since.
  You can teach so many things with this text: types of nonfiction, vocabulary, critical thinking, persuasive techniques, media, reliable sources, and tons of other literary elements. 
  If you're looking for an expository book that will engage students, I highly recommend this book. Here's a list of resources or ideas we tie-in. 
​- Teachers Pay Teachers Pack
- My YouTube Playlist
​- TeachingBooks.net Resources
​- We also start the study by buying a Happy Meal from McDonald's and keeping it in a plastic pet cage for the duration of our reading. It's based off this idea.
- Chew on This Playlist
​- We do several activities including: an assembly line activity and class taste test.
- Lastly, we're tying it into grammar and a class challenge this year as well! 

These are just a few ways we use Chew on This to teach critical thinking. If this book sounds like something you or your students might seem interested in, go for it!

Let me know how it goes!

Megan Gordon
​7th Grade ELA

I sat my piggy upon the scale to see what she did weigh.
I noticed then her weight was light.
"We'll weigh again soon," I'd say.

I took her home to quiz her well.
Her knowledge I did plough.
Did she know the skills it'd take to turn into a sow?

She rattled off the facts and stats so pleasing to my ear.
I drilled her 'til the sun sank low,
Next weigh-in drawing near.

We'd practiced all she'd need to know
To pass this simple test.
To fatten up my pretty pig, had been my only quest.

Sweat dripped from brim to brow 
As my piggy took the scale.
This was it.
THE BIG WEIGH-IN.
I hoped we would not fail.

Trembling steps my piggy took
As she met her final test.
Then panic as I epiphanized:
I'd forgotten what was best!

Too busy quizzing information.
One thing I did conclude.
How could I not have realized?
I forgot to give her FOOD.


My classes have been studying poetic elements for the last few weeks, so I thought it'd be fun to create a symbolic poem for my Week 5 #IMMOOC post. This week, I've really been focusing on the idea that we need to prepare our students for the real world not just for tests. My PLC has set a goal this year to make sure that we're asking our students to make meaningful connections and provide evidence of their own learning through different mediums. So far, I feel like it's been much more powerful and meaningful in our classrooms. To see some of the ways we've changed things up, check out our Classroom Page. 

Megan Gordon
7th Grade ELA

   If you've been following my posts about George Couros' #IMMOOC, you've probably noticed that my posts get longer and longer as I try to put words to all of my thoughts. It's difficult. So, today, I'm going to keep it short and sweet.
  I'm going to address the idea of strengths-based leadership, and how that's affected my classroom and my teaching.
  First, let me say that my principal is the bomb.com. He is what you would call a servant-leader. He leads us by serving us and our students. Just like George Couros writes about, this actually creates a desire in our school's teachers and students to work harder and be better people. He trusts us, and he encourages us to use our strengths, which in turn, enables us to take more risks. I can't remember a time when I asked him if I could try something (as long as it aligned with our standards) and he said no. He always says yes if I have good reasoning for trying something out. 
  I try to do the same things in my classroom. My goal is to make sure that every student believes they have a voice, believes they have a choice, and believes they can progress. Here are a few things I've done so far this year to try and empower my students, allow them to use their strengths, and allow them have some choice in the classroom.

- Give students a choice on projects. I wanted to assess that my students could analyze and identify mood and tone. Instead of giving them a formal test or assigning them one "recipe" to be completed, I gave them several options. They could create a mood/tone book page, write their own short story that clearly created a certain mood, or create a digital thinglink.com submission to display their knowledge. It was great. Students who felt strong in writing chose one, students who were better at drawing chose another, and students who were better at using technology chose the other. I even told the students if they had a better idea to let me know. I was open to suggestions!
- Give students a choice on tests. Since we are required to give at least two major grades each grading period, we try to alternate the formats of those major grades. Sometimes we do projects or activities, and then we'll usually end up giving at least one, more traditional, style test. This last one I gave, I allowed my students the option to take it online or to take a paper copy. An easy addition that enabled students to choose the format in which they felt stronger.
- "Create-A-Space" I have a new area in my classroom that is about to be transformed by the votes of my students. I couldn't decide how to decorate a corner of my classroom, so I ended up making a big poster for it that says, "Our Space. What will we create?" So far, I've taken a few polls on what they'd like it to become, and we're about to narrow it down this week! I've received great ideas that I never would have thought of. My favorite so far--a DJ booth where table groups get to create a playlist for the week and play it during class.

  While some of these ideas might not seem that innovative, they are getting there. You have to start somewhere. If you wait for the perfect opportunity, when you have everything carefully planned, and your idea is the most innovative you could ever create, I fear you'll be waiting a LONG time.

  What are some ways you give your students use choice, voice, and strengths in the classroom?

Megan Gordon
7th Grade ELAR

I'm really enjoying my weekly viewings and interactions with George Couros' Innovator's Mindset Massive Open Online Course. If you're interested, check it out HERE! 

Continuing the conversation this week on Part II of the book, The Innovator's Mindset, I'm going to focus on something that Kaleb Rashad touched on in this week's YouTube chat. It was so brief, but it really resonated with me.

The Cross-Pollinator
Kaleb referenced the book The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley. Apparently, Mr. Kelley has identified 10 innovative personas within an organization. It's definitely on my list of books to read now. The one that Kaleb referenced was the cross-pollinator. (You can read about all of them here.) 

According to Kelley and Rashad, the cross-pollinator draws inspiration from other organizations and seemingly unrelated concepts or companies to help inspire innovation in their own field.

WHAATTT?? That's me! 
I'm a cross-pollinator.
I had no idea.
It all makes sense.

The Proof
I always wondered why I was so intrigued and interested in other careers and types of organizations out there. I'm a cross-pollinator. This whole web site is actually a product of attending something called Circles Conference last year. It's a conference in Dallas, TX for creative designers. Most people who attend are graphic designers, artists, videographers, and the likes. I knew this going in, but I also knew that I have a genuine interest in the power of design, and I knew I could find something that related to my field. After-all, my degree is technically in advertising. I've always used that in the classroom as well. How can I advertise and design lessons that will engage and empower my students?

Circles' Twitter profile says, "Circles Conference is a place to learn from world-changing thinkers & innovators for the creative community. "

I want to be a world-changer. I believe myself to be an innovator. I'm a member of the collective creative community. Why couldn't I attend this conference?

Some teachers might think it's a waste of time to attend something that takes me out of the classroom for two days and, at first glance, has nothing to do with teaching.

Aha! This is where they'd be wrong.

I even had several attendees give me the crazy eye at first when they found out I was a teacher. "So...why are you here?" I explained that even though I'm not designing cool gift cards for Target or designing the next ad campaign for a fortune 500 company, I have clients who depend on me every day. They require empowering lessons and activities, and I have to deliver. My students are my clients. 

​My world was rocked when I saw and heard from these epic designers. You should have seen some of the their presentations. They were so seamless and smooth and beautiful. "That's what needs to be happening in classrooms," I thought. Not that we lecture and present that often, but how can we apply these design principles to our own classroom design? This was happening in the real world. Why shouldn't my students get these same experiences? How could I apply it to my classroom? My school? My students?

Teachers Who Design was born from these thoughts. It was born from taking myself out of the normal teaching environment, disrupting my routine, and seeing how things were run in different sectors of the world. Why not have a place where educators who value purposeful design can meet and collaborate? A place where we can post and share lessons and activities that we've passionately designed. It's still a work in progress, but it's already taken me down so many different roads and has introduced me to so many different people and information.

Cross-Pollinator Tips
Since I don't just want this to be a reflective blog, I'm going to wrap up by sharing some of my cross-pollinating tips/ideas that also tie back into ideas expressed or encouraged in The Innovator's Mindset. I believe these questions and thoughts can help us create more innovative classrooms:

1. What are you passionate about on your own time? Is there a way to bring that into the classroom?
2. Where do you like to hang out? Have you ever thought about adding elements of that environment into your classroom?
3. What is going on in the music scene? political scene? pop-culture scene? current event scene? sports scene? that you could pull into your classroom or lesson design?
4. What's your favorite restaurant? Why? Could you pull in elements of their service or offerings into your classroom?
5. Think about other jobs and careers. What do people in other jobs do on a daily basis that you could add into your routine or agenda.

These are just a few questions to get you thinking like a cross-pollinator. I hope they help. Let me know which persona you connect with in The Ten Faces of Innovation and how you apply that in your own classroom or school. I'd love to hear from you.

Megan Gordon
​7th Grade ELA

*Photo from www.urbanfoodgarden.org 

 

As a teacher trying to become more innovative each year, I often feel a bit like Doc Brown. If you're unfamiliar, you should probably just stop reading this because you're obviously from a different planet. Kidding. But seriously, you might want to stop reading right now. Go watch Back to the Future then come back. You're welcome.

Okay, now that you're back...

In the film, Doc Brown is the inventor of the first time machine. He's a bit crazy, eccentric, zany, and yes, his hair is out of control. 

In The Innovator's Mindset, George Couros says that innovation is, "A way of thinking that makes something new and better." Doc Brown is a great visual reminder of this for me. Sometimes innovation is scary, and you're not sure of the roads it will lead you down. Fortunately for us, and Doc, we become truly successful or effective when we change, update, reevaluate, reinvent, and use our resources wisely. (Let's not forget he fueled the DeLorean with, what some would call, garbage!) 

Doc's mission was to create and recreate this time machine until it worked better than it had before. That is our mission as teachers. We create and recreate in hopes that our innovations will not only be new, but also better. These innovations will serve our students better and take them to new places on their educational journey.

My latest Doc Brown, "Great Scott!" innovative addition was the Figurative Language Exploration I sent my students on last week. While it' wasn't perfect and completely innovative, it was the next step for me to take in becoming MORE innovative, and I think that's often the key. Sometimes you have to take baby steps into innovation, and that's okay. It's better than staying the same!

So normally, when my 7th graders review figurative language before diving into poetry, we spend about two days of me, up at the front, guiding them through a powerpoint with some videos, funny pictures, and helpful information. They take guided notes and watch some things here and there. By the end, they've been somewhat entertained and they have figurative language notes to reference. They've also heard me talk a lot. It wasn't the worst. But it also wasn't the best.

This year, I decided to innovate a little. I took myself out of the equation. They didn't really need me. All of this was review information anyway, so why was I wasting my time, and theirs, by thinking that I had to direct the learning. They are capable, and I have to remind myself of that sometimes. I took my powerpoint, turned it into a Google Presentation, added some interactive elements (YouTube video activity), created a self-paced guide, uploaded it to our Google Classroom, and Boom! It was SO much better! Basically, I just said, "Okay, use this guide and explore the Google Slides today. You'll need your headphones and a pencil to add to your guide as you figure things out and practice." That's all. I. had. to. do.

(Granted, it took me about 6 hours to figure out how to create and update my original review in a more engaging way.) But now...I love the lesson! Even better, I heard students saying, "This is fun!" I saw students dancing and singing to the music videos. I heard students ask me if they could finish next week! It couldn't have gone better, which was really rewarding. I even Rick-Rolled my students on one of the slides. It was hilarious. 

Overall, there was time to review, practice, identify, and analyze figurative language...all the objectives I needed to cover... rolled into one interactive self-guided activity.

It wasn't the most innovative of all innovations, but I took a lot of steps and time to make sure it was better. That's innovation, right? If you're struggling with being innovative because it seems overwhelming, I totally understand.

It might help to look at it from Doc Brown's perspective: turn your garbage into fuel!  Generate those 1.21 gigawatt lessons! Use what you've got. Tweak it. Add to it. Take away. Make it better. Your lessons will lead your students and you to new destinations!


Megan Gordon
​7th Grade ELAR
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