Spark Student Motivation: Overnight Camping

This weekend I'm joining Joanne over at Head Over Heels for Teaching for her weekly linky...

 I have taught in a parochial school for over 35 years, and although academics is an extremely important part of our curriculum, it is not the most important part. We are most concerned with our students' spiritual growth, how they  value themselves and each other, and how they live a faith-filled life. To this end our entire day, including academics, is built upon a faith foundation.

To help foster a sense of God's community within my sixth grade class and really motivate my students to live their Christian beliefs I involve my kiddos in an overnight camping trip (really an old-fashioned youth retreat).

We leave school on a late Thursday morning and travel about 30 minutes with all of our camping paraphernalia by bus to a beautiful nearby camp. Located directly on the southern shore of Lake Erie it is one of the most beautiful areas in our county. The presence of God is evident everywhere you look. God's gorgeous creation is just awesome!

Once we arrive, we settle into our lodgings and get started with team building activities. These activities are designed to help us learn to appreciate our talents as well as the talents of our classmates. We focus on problem solving, relying on each other, following directions, trying to succeed in a non-competitive environment.

 

 

The second day is all about God: God's beautiful creation, how we fit into God's creation, how we care for creation, what is our purpose in God's creation... some pretty serious stuff for 11-12 year olds.

A large part of this day is spent on a nature/scavenger hunt into the woods and along the lakeshore.

 

 

 

 

 

Next we gather in the arts and crafts building to create an artistic collage of our time spent together.

We end our stay at camp with an inspiring prayer service, held in a simple chapel built from felled trees during the building of the camp more than 60 years ago. Who wouldn't be spiritually inspired in this quaint building?

My students were required to keep a journal of their experiences, noting their feelings and experiences; however, they were unable to finish the journal before we left camp.  Many of the activities were purposefully not completed (our lives are not yet completed and are a work in progress) and will serve as starting points for discussions and additional activities throughout the school year. We will integrate our camping experience into all of our academic courses, from writing about it to creating a power point presentation, from doing science investigations to researching about fauna and flora we observed and especially into our prayer and spiritual life, our life lessons.

I can't wait for Monday morning to hear and see how my students have been motivated by this wonderful experience!

Five for Friday and Saturday Snapshots

Completely and totally random thoughts and happenings, five of them for Five for Friday with Doodlebugs {First Grade Rocks} and some of them for Saturday Snapshots with Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera.

1. I have become a TV freak this summer! I have discovered that I LOVE BBC programs, especially the dramas... LOVE "Downton Abbey" and "Copper." I'm wild about "Larkrise to Candleford!" So what am I doing watching "Primeval?" Seriously, like all 36 episodes this past week? I guess one never outgrows a love for dinosaurs! LOL!

2. I love learning new things on the computer and try to constantly keep up with the latest. It seems that the latest is QR codes combined with teaching resources. I've been seeing loads of QR task cards being offered on TpT and Teacher's Notebook. I thought QR codes were only for use with iPods and iPads and SmartPhones... NOT SO! I found an app for a regular old PC. It's called QuickMark. By downloading and installing this little beauty I am able to work with, create, and read QR Codes. Here's what I created for my eighth grade Language Arts students. They had to read The Coffin Quilt by Ann Rinaldi over the summer. This is what waits for them... a QR code takes them to a Padlet wall whereon is posted a question. Sure beats the typical question and answer worksheet. I also included a "short" url in case they have no access to a QR Code reader.

3. I had the chance to work a little bit on my classroom this week. I started by spreading all the things that I have been working on this summer. There's my class jourrnals, my table signs, my MOVIES bulletin board... all the polka dot monster themed materials.

4. Here are some of my bulletin boards. You'll notice all my polka dots and monsters but you'll also see Sabra from Teaching with a Touch of Twang's genre posters... LOVE them!

5.... and a must for every Saturday... Ms. DaisyMae who is NOT very happy with me once again. She had parked herself on my lap, promptly fell asleep, and stayed there for nearly an hour while I was watching "Primeval." (see no.1 above). I was pestering her, interrupting her beauty sleep by shifting about in my rocker. I happened to have my camera nearby for a change and was able to catch this pic of her. Too bad it wasn't a video because she was muttering a bit as well. However, if she were able to speak English we would not be able to include her words.

Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Check out my 20% off EVERYTHING Back To School Sale on Teacher's Notebook!

Saturday Snapshot Collages, 200 Continues

I look forward to Saturdays because of Saturday Snapshots with Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera.

I've never really considered myself much of a photographer, and I've never done much with a camera other than point and shoot. Oh, I play around with the settings now and then, changing up the type of shot that's produced. Sometimes I even turn off the flash or use night vision and when I edit photos I might crop or resize them. However, that's the extent of my "expertise."

I didn't even take any photos this week other than of my favorite subject, Miss DaisyMae. No Saturday Snapshots is complete without a picture of her.

I do enjoy taking photos, but I what I really like about snapshots is having fun adding speech bubbles to them or making slideshows/videos with them or even turning them into collages. I've found neat little pieces of freeware or web apps over the years that allow me to have a bit of fun. I've shared a few on Saturday Snapshots already: Phrase.It and Image Chef. This week I'm sharing a couple of images that I created to showcase a whole bunch of my snapshots. The first is of my favorite subject (see above), the second of my family, and the third of me.

The first two collages were created using Shape Collage, a small freeware program that you download to your computer (both Windows and Mac are available as well as iPhone and iPad). Additionally, there is a pro version that you can purchase that has loads of bells and whistles and tons of options. It takes but a minute to install Shape Collage and begin using it; no tutorial is necessary. It works like a typical word processing program, inserting pictures, selecting a few options (shape of collage, background color, borders of photos), then creating (in lieu of saving).

Much to my delight, when I went to Shape Collage this morning while writing this blog post, I discovered that the company has now added a web app. Called Get Loupe, it allows users to connect with social media accounts, accessing photos and publishing collages with the click of the mouse. With Get Loupe there are more shape options to choose from when creating your collage than with Shape Collage but it's just as easy to use. 

I've not been able to use Shape Collage with my students since it's a program that needs to be directly installed on a computer... that's a story for another time. However, now that I've found Get Loupe I can't wait to have my sixers (and eighth graders this year) make their own collages. I can think of so many possibilities for using this in class. How 'bout you?

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My easy, peasy 200 Followers Giveaway continues for a few more days. Hop on over to this blog post to enter.

Happy Weekend,
Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Saturday Snapshots

I'm once again linking up with Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera for her Saturday Snapshot linky.

Last week was the first week for this new linky which asks us to share favorite photographs. Miss Nelson, an avid photographer, offers tips and tricks that she has learned to help other budding photographers. This week she discusses watermarks on photographs, something I had never heard of until I read her blog post.

I immediately went in search of a tutorial to help me understand what a watermark was and how to create one. A watermark is basically a stamp of ownership for a photograph. It generally is a rather faint (transparent) image of a name or website stamped onto the photograph that makes it a bit difficult for someone to claim/use your photograph as their own. I think it's just cool looking as my photographs aren't worth claiming by anyone other than moi!

I did find NUMEROUS tutorials for making a watermark using various programs, including Word, Publisher, PowerPoint, and PhotoShop. I chose to work with PowerPoint as it allows for a lot of flexibility when saving images. I pinned the tutorial so I could easily find it and so that my followers could as well.



After following the directions in the tutorial, I was able to add a watermark to my photographs. You can see it on today's snapshots. I'm  posting a series of pictures that show views of my classroom. Everything is decorated in shades of turquoise and purple. There are stripes, polka dots, plaid, and even paisley prints... quite eclectic... or as my family says- eccentric. What they mean is CRAZY!

I like the initial watermark, but I think I'll keep playing with it.

The colors of the walls and flooring are dull and dark, so my colors liven it up a bit!

Behind these curtains are 100's of picture and trade books!

Love this one... duct tape on a beat-up old PA speaker. My kids think it's COOL!

And this final snapshot is the reason why I am so late in posting today. These are my high school friends and I (the tallest one). We were inseparable before we graduated 37 years ago, but we hadn't been together as a group for nearly 35 years until last night, a night that stretched until nearly two in the morning! I haven't giggled so much in years until last night. What fun we had catching up and reminiscing!!!!!

Thanks, Miss Nelson, for Saturday Snapshots, and for introducing me to watermarks. I had fun learning about them and creating my very first one! SWEET!

And thanks to all my sweet bloggy friends who have helped me reach 100 followers. I'm still working on organizing a sweet giveaway in celebration. Come read more about it!

And speaking of celebrations and giveaways, my sweet bloggy friend Christy is celebrating her 300 Follower milestone! Woot! Woot! Please visit Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road for more about her celebration and to give her a shout-out!

Happy Photographing,
Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Saturday Snapshots

I told you I have been thoroughly enjoying myself with Bloglovin', finding all kinds of new blogs to follow. Another I found is Miss Nelson's Got the Camera. LOVE the name! This blogger loves to take pictures and boy does she take beautiful snapshots! I'm envious. Her new motto is...

We do not remember the day, we remember the moments.

Ah, so true! So wonderful! So inspiring! So I decided then and there, even though I am no photographer, to link up with Miss Nelson's new linky: Saturday Snapshots. The three snapshots I'm including today are those moments.

This first snapshot is probably my favorite of all time. The subject, DaisyMae, is also a particular favorite of mine as well. I just love how the camera caught the light around her, making it look almost ethereal, angelic... and my family will tell you Miss Daisy is anything but angelic. This snapshot was taken about twelve years ago with my first digital camera, the kind that folded up into nothing and could hang on a keychain. She was sitting on my lap watching a fly swoop around the room.

This second snapshot was taken more than 40 years ago with a Brownie camera with a pop-in flash bulb. Anyone remember those? I was only ten years and had received the camera for my birthday. I was the official photographer for  my sister's wedding. Not a bad shot from a ten year old, eh? Notice the border edges? Anyone remember those?

The last snapshot is not one that I took, and it is not one that I remember, but it is one of my favorites- my mom and me. The black and white will give you a bit of a clue to its age... sigh!

Happy Saturday,
Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6