Ten days ago I decided to start planning early for the start of the new school year so I would be ready and not feel rushed that week teachers get back to work before the kids start. I found myself blocked and scattered and that took me aback. I spun my wheels and decided to put my thoughts into words, which is why I blogged about it. Blogging about my mind block helped but two days after I wrote a second post because I just couldn’t get started even though I was giving myself the time to do so! I mean, I was taking the time so I didn’t want to waste it.
That second post helped me and in the week or so after that I’ve managed to prep the first week for my 6th graders (the second week we go to a camp, Cispus, so I will prep that as we get closer to it), and the first three weeks for my 8th grade Science classes and my Robotics/Programming class.
I was fooling myself thinking I would get enough done to not feel rushed and stressed next week. I have our district and building meetings and trainings scheduled on my phone’s calendar and I will spend my free time finishing up my first week documents, making copies, getting my room ready, organizing kits and and setting up materials for challenges and activities, as well as getting all the Classcraft, Rezzly, and Bloomz accounts created.
Classcraft Quest Chains for 8th Grade Science.
I had hoped I would have created a lot more quests on Classcraft for my 8th grade Science classes and my 7/8 Robotics class by now. At least I have all my 1st quarter 8th grade Science quests on Classcraft and I have a bunch of my Robotics quests done. I do need to get more Robotics quests created to make it to the end of the first quarter, much less for the whole semester Maybe I can get some more done this weekend.
8th Grade Classcraft Course Prep Quests
8th Grade Science Weather Unit Classcraft Quests
Here’s my first week plan with links to documents I will be handing out in class including my class syllabi.
Here’s my class intro 6th grade Prezi, my class intro 8th grade Prezi, and my class intro Robotics Prezi.
Robotics Classcraft Quests
Here’s what a Robotics students sees when first accessing her Classcraft Quests.
Clicking on the Intro Quest, the student gets an idea of what is to come.
Starting the Quest chain reveals the next quest so the students can progress through the course content.
At least having that much done is making me feel a little better, not much, but a little. I’m an over planner. I’d rather have way more than I need and move stuff to the next day or the next week than find myself staring at a classroom full of kids and nothing else planned! I’m not all that great on my feet, I can only wing it so much, and having extra quests on Rezzly or Classcraft means I can always say, “we have some time left so check your quests and work on any that are not done yet.”
Yeah, that gives me peace of mind.
