Have you seen THIS?!?!? Amazing!!

So.... after a year of waiting....I finally received my 6th grade science TE textbook.  I received it last week.  It has been kinda tough trying to go in blind my first year teaching 6th grade science, but I also have to admit that this year has been soooooo refreshing as well.  I have taught from those "scripted" texts for several years in the past, and the district watched over me like a hawk to make sure I said and taught the content just that way.  

What a blessing this year has been!!! The best part has been this blogging community in which I learn so much--- thank you all you wonderful writers and posters and inspiration givers! 

So let me share something I found this weekend....you may already know.... but I had no idea.  If you are a fan of brainpop (super fan right here) you will love this new site through Scholastic.

Its called StudyJams and it for Math and Science teachers.  They have videos, songs (with lyrics), and quizzes that you can do with your class.  In fact, click on the link to see the video I showed to my 6th graders today on integers.  

Here is a video I found on youtube, but it just gives a brief glimpse into this awesome website.

I use videos to engage the kids when I first teach a lesson, or after we briefly discuss the concept on hand.  Today we talked about integers, but before I showed the video, we made a T-Chart with the 2 columns labeled as "Positive Situations" and "Negative Situations."  I gave them about 20 different scenarios (below zero, profit, above sea level...ect) and we classified them as being positive of negative.  Then (I just love it when this happens) one of my students pipes up, "Mrs. Johnstone, didn't you say integers are numbers?  Where are the numbers here?"  Its like I handed them a script for their question.... LOVE IT.   That was the perfect jumping point to talk about positive and negative whole numbers ans play this video.

I was going to save this post for the weekend, but after reading Charity's challenge on The Organized Classroom Blog I felt compelled to share tonight.  If you too are up for the challenge then head on over and read her amazing post and become a