I, Joy Kirr, am a middle school teacher, author, and speaker. My 7th grade ELA (English Language Arts) classes are working to improve their lives through student-directed learning - without marks throughout the year. This is a log of my learning experiences... Want to have me speak with your staff or facilitate a workshop? Here is my PORTFOLIO.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Meme Maker Me

Taking my own advice from my last "quick tip," I needed to write about one take-away from EdCamp Madison...

I was sitting in the "Google Sheets" session after lunch. The session had taken such quirky turns, it was entertaining, even if the session wasn't applicable for me anymore. I would stay just for the entertainment alone. One part that made it better was Jason Bretzmann sharing a meme with Andrea Kornowski, and then Andrea sharing another...

Heading into the next session about "Learning Targets" (grades, SBG, how to get kids to shoot for the targets), Chuck Taft heard that I had never created a meme. Why not? Because I don't have anything funny to say! So he created one on the spot, before the session even began.
Finding this absolutely hilarious, I took a screen shot of his Twitter handle and waited to hear this...
The explanation for this is that his learning targets are numbered one through four. Three is his goal for students, as a three means they've hit the target.

I decided to keep trying...
And, because I was encouraged with feedback from Ashley (who was in kahoots with Andrea!) and Trisha who was watching the hashtag from afar... 

...I had to try again.

This morning, I retweeted an idea about inquiry, and Phillip Cowell tweeted me a picture of cavemen, with the words under it "The Inquiry Cycle - (it's not a new idea)" - looked like he created it with theEasyAppCompany.com.

It reminded me of those motivational posters, so I found the motivational poster creation site and created this:

I've seen teachers ask students to create memes for books (such as Lord of the Flies), and I've cracked up at what they've created. I'd love to ask students to create some for our next larger piece of text! I'll be trying to add some creativity, wit and humor to class using memes...

Already making memes? Please leave me a comment as to where we can find YOUR favorite memes and your favorite meme tool! Want to make your own? Google "meme generator" for many free tools.


1 comment:

  1. Awesome. Meme's have been around for quite a while now and I am honestly a little surprised teachers ask students to create their own memes still.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for adding to the conversation!