A day to say thanks...

Veteran's Day is one that is very important to our country and a day that we try to express the importance of to our students. In the middle school, there are students who have many different views of the day and understand the meaning, but they are not always sure how to express their feelings on the topic. The Veteran's Day Mini Lesson is a way for students to express their thoughts through a discussion and individually in their letter to a veteran. 

Veteran's Day Mini-Lesson

Each year our school puts on a large Veteran's Day assembly, inviting many Veteran's to celebrate. It is very meaningful to both the Veteran's and the students. It is always a powerful presentation of the recognition of the men and women who have fought for our country. I encourage others to look at what your classes can do to pay their respects to military members while still utilizing skills they are working on in class. A few examples: writing Christmas Cards to service members through the red cross, creating care packages with thank you letters, write letters to veterans living in the near by VA's, etc. 

Enjoy the mini-lesson for this important day!

Emily 

Character Education Lessons

As we continue down the journey of creating a school with Multi-Tiers of Intervention, students best interest is, of course, at the heart of all of the many changes. We have transitioned our 'Academic Lab' time to a 45 minuter class period twice per week. This had made a tremendous that opportunity to provide some very important and needed interventions during the school day. When sharing this change with the staff and even colleagues from other schools, we were met with the same question time and time again. "What are the students who do not need intervention during to do during this time?" This is a difficult question to answer, especially at the beginning of such a big transition for our building. While the hope is to eventually offer extension lessons specific to student interest, the focus has become to use the time for students who do not require intense intervention to experience future planning skills as well as character education lessons. A great foundation for our middle school students as they begin the decision making process for the rest of our lives. 

Below are a couple of the lessons created for character education purposes during Academic Lab:

The Kindness Boomerang:

This lesson focuses on the simple act of kindness. The lesson was created around a video that has been circling the internet showing small acts of kindness passed from one individual to another. The lesson includes an brainstorming time for students to determine acts of kindness they can perform for others in their daily lives and scenarios of social situations that allow students to determine ways to show kindness. Even my 8th grade students found this lesson intriguing and worth their time!

Click the link to go to the Essential Edification TpT store for the Kindness Boomerang Character Education Lesson. 

The Kindness Boomerang

Our Digital Footprint:

This lesson focuses on the fact that all actions in the world of technology can never be erased. Especially in the secondary schools, but also in the elementary schools, the use of technology is a topic of conversation that should be taken very seriously. This lesson allows students to think about their use of technology and how it effects the friendships, relationships, families, and even their very bright futures. This lesson forces students to ask themselves, "What digital footprint are you leaving?"

          Click the link to go to the Essential Edification TpT store for the Digital                                   Footprint Character Education Lesson. 

                                              Our Digital Footprint 

Thank you so much for stopping by, 

Emily