COVID NEW YEAR

On Friday, March 13, 2020 we were told that we would not be going back to school on Monday. It's been a year and a lot has happened. A lot of bad things happened. A lot of bad things. 

I'm exhausted from all the bad things.
Death, sickness, bankruptcy, etc.

I made the choice a few days ago to reflect on the GOOD things that have gone on in the past year. In some ways, the lockdowns and quarantines have forced me to improve some aspects of my educational life.  That's what this post is all about. Some of these things might have happened, and others most definitely would not.

Here are some of the good things as I reflect on the COVID New Year.

I Wrote (finished writing) a book: When I got back from Afghanistan, I was working full-time for the Michigan Army National Guard. I opened up a Google Doc titled, "Leadership" and every once and a while, I would open it up and write a few sentences about something I have been dealing with. After I left the full-time gig I would check on it every few months, reminiscing about all the great times and great friends I met while doing that job. When we closed school, I opened up that document and realized I had a lot of content! I organized that content and it will become a book this spring! Thank you to Darrin Peppard and Road to Aweome LLC for taking a chance on me!

Watch for, "LESSON 1: Leveraging Leadership in Everyday Life" coming in May 2021.

It will be available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
You will be able to order an autographed copy at www.johnvandusen.com

Blog Series: When we closed down, we weren't supposed to cover any new material with our students. We had gone from the Proclamation of 1763, through the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, War of 1812, Westward expansion, Mexican/American War, and were just about ready to start in on the Civil war. I had a lot of material to go back over, but I also wanted to do something that would help in the following years.  So, I wrote a five-part series on the Declaration of Independence and a 10 part series on the Consitution. I put them in a Wakelet along with a podcast to go with it (See below). If you ever wanted to know the down and dirty of those two founding documents, check them out.
Declaration 
Consitution

America's Start Podcast: Along with the blog series on the Declaration and Constitution, I basically did an "audio blog" where I read them aloud. Again, if you want to know more about our founding documents, you can listen on your favorite podcasting app! America's Start Podcast

YouTube playlist: I am not good at relaxing. While I was quarantined for 24 days (Close contact....10 days +14) I started a Youtube Playlist called, "Teacher PD" with fast lessons for busy teachers. I did short videos on:

- Rocketbook
- Socrative
- Pear Deck
- Getting more steps at work
- Making better lists
- Growth Mindset

It was a lot of fun..and A LOT of work! But, I had the time. Check out the entire playlist HERE.

Pear Deck: This has been an AMAZING tool to help engage students, especially while we were virtual. Basically, it's a way for students and teachers to interact with Google Slides in real-time. I have used it A LOT in the last year, and 366 days ago, I didn't even really know what it did. Now I do and I use it all the time. I even use it when I'm teaching for the Army. I will never get to meet my Army students, our course will conclude before we will be allowed to be face to face. I know it's EXTRA hard to be a virtual student. I also know that Pear Deck makes it better.

Socrative: This is a fast and easy tool for making online quizzes. Again...watch my video above! You can make multiple-choice, true/false, and short answer questions. Students take it online and it's graded automatically. It's very user-friendly. 

Head Freshman Football Coach: This year's football season was a complete mess. We had two solid weeks of practice, followed by two weeks of not being able to see our players, followed by games, cancelations, and uncertainty. My team was able to play three games (two were against the same team, back to back with a week in-between). 

In our first game, we were down 20-0 at one point, and we looked like Freshmen who were playing in their first game. It was rough, to say the least. However, we caught some good luck (and recovered a fumble) and ended up winning the game 22-20. My players were ecstatic! We lost game two 12-0, and then headed off for game three against a JV team. 

We grew up A LOT as a team that night, and as young men. If you would have watched the first offensive series, you would have thought we were going to get beat 70-0. But we didn't. We dug deep and found a way to complete.  With the last play of the 3rd quarter, we went up 13-12. We had the other team in a 4th and 2. If we stopped them we would be able to run a few plays and run out the clock. 

Their sophomore quarterback tried to sneak the ball but was knocked back. He landed on his feet and squirted around the right edge for 4 yards and a first down. They ended up scoring on that drive and we just didn't have enough in the tank to take it back to the endzone. Freshman vs. JV's is a big difference. I am VERY proud of my team. They have that FLIVVER HEART!

With these GOOD THINGS that have happened during a terribly exhausting and precious year, I'm optimistic that 2021 will be full of GREAT THINGS!

www.johnvandusen.com

Better than a Video Game!

he last few weeks I have been trying to give my students some tools to use over Christmas break. I have been giving them simple STEM games that they can play at home either by themselves or with a few friends/parents/relatives/people/whomever. 

Two weeks ago we played "STUCK IN THE MUD" and "KNOCKOUT." Both simple dice games that reinforce the idea of probability. My students had a blast playing, and I had a few come back and say that they had played at home.  You can see my score sheets HERE! Make your own or print these off!

This week we are playing a simple form of YAHTZEE!  I have it scaffolded for EK/K/1, 2/3, and 4th grade. With the younger students I only give them two dice and one roll. The middle group gets three dice and two rolls, while the 4th graders get five dice and three rolls. It has worked well! I was a little concerned (as I often am) with the EK and K groups, but they are adding and having fun. I know that my students will have screen time this Christmas break, but my hope is that they will put the iPad down for a fun STEM game with some of their friends
.

SPOOKY SKELETONS!!!

Because it's close to Halloween, we HAD to do something fun with skeletons! It's pretty neat to see what students already know about bones, and how much they don't know!  I have had a few classes that were able to name the largest bone in the body (Femur for those who didn't know....no judgment here.) I have had ZERO classes able to name the smallest bone (Stapes..it's in your ear.) We had some "homework" to do while watching our skeleton video.
1) Where is the largest bone in the body and what is it called? (Upper leg - Femur)
2) Where is the smallest bone in the body and what is it called? (Ear - Stapes)
3) How many bones make up your skull? (21)
4) What do bones make? (Blood)
Then we had some fun making skeletons!
We started by making legs, then arms, then a rib cage.
The grand master challenge was to make an entire skeleton out of our Keva Contraption blocks.
Check me out on TWITTER for more pictures!

Knees in the Breeze

The 5th grade STEM class meets for 5 days in a row.They are on a rotation with Art, Music, Gym, Computers, and STEM.  Even though I only see them every 5 weeks, being able to have them for a few days in a row means we are able to do some pretty cool stuff.

Wile E. Coyote rocking the chute!

This sections project is to build a parachute.  After some brief discussion about what a parachute is, the history of it, how it works, and the science behind it, we get right to work using newspaper and masking tape!
It is really interesting to see the different designs that 5th graders can come up with.
At the end of the week we take the parachutes out to the Flivver Field grandstands and drop them off.  Some of the parachutes work REALLY well, while some...don't. Either way, we had a lot of fun and learned a lot about how parachutes work and what causes them to fail.
It has been a great project. Pictures really don't do the project justice, so I ask that you watch the video we made.
Check out our YouTube video here!
Check me out on Twitter to check out our latest project!

Christopher Columbus: The worlds biggest FAILURE!

Watch his story here!

With Monday being Columbus day, I thought it would be a great week to talk about one of the biggest failures of all time!

Floating Easy

That may seem harsh, but Christopher Columbus failed miserably at his mission.  He was trying to get to India.  He missed by about 15,000 miles. Not his fault though!!  He thought the earth was a lot smaller than it really is.  It's hard to fault a guy for that when most of the world still believed that the world was flat!  Almost everyone he came across told him he was crazy for one, thinking the earth was round, and two, for wanting to go sail off the edge of it. 

So how do you celebrate a man who failed.  Easy! Christopher Columbus may have failed at his attempt to find the West Indies, but he was brave enough to try! He could have listened to his critics and not tried at all, but, because he was persistent, he opened up trade routes with the Americas and is credited as the first European to set foot on these new lands. 

It's SINKING!

He tried so hard, that he succeeded, even in failure.

The boats come in all shapes and sizes. A few students have realized (Sometimes before and sometimes after) that a wider boat works better. Next lesson? Displacement! HA!

The main lesson this week is that even when the world (flat or round) is against you, you should always go with your dreams. Even if you fail, you may end up doing something extraordinary.

There is saying that says, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you'll land among the stars."
That's what Columbus did. You should too.

See more on TWITTER!

All About Apples!

The Kindergarten class went to an apple orchard for their field trip last week.  I thought it would be a PERFECT time to have a lesson about apples.

We watched a short video about how apples go from the tree to the store. (Watch it here) It is DEFINITELY for kids, but it's very informative and the students seemed to enjoy it. They especially liked the "apple river" and sticker machine.

Then we tried to build apple trees. We completed all 5 parts of the, "APPLE STACK CHALLENGE!" If you would like to try the Apple Stack Challenge, here are the Google Slides.  Feel free!

Building the apple trees was a lot of fun. I made a video of all the challenges here.

I was surprised while talking about apples how many students DIDN'T like applesauce....  Even less like applesauce with cinnamon.
I was NOT surprised at how many students liked apple pie, apple crisp, and caramel apples.
It seems that somewhere around 1st grade is when students start to experience apple cider.
Apple cider is one of my favorite drinks on a cold, winter day.

Learning all about apples this week has not only been a lot of fun!

See more on TWITTER!!