Building Community in the Classroom

This is the community quilt we made as a class during September in my main placement.  After our summer course, in Human Growth and Learning that focused on community building activities in the classroom, I was very excited to do one with my students.  It was a lot of fun and allowed us all to learn something new about one another.  The kids loved this project and began to see themselves as a community instead of just a bunch of individuals sitting in a room together.  It created a shared experience that we can look back at everyday since it is still posted up on the wall in the classroom.  This is definitely something I will be doing again and again in future classrooms.  But, what community building should I do next with my students?  Any ideas, or favorite ones you have used or seen in your placements? 

Oh Twitter...

          Hmmmm, what to say about Twitter?  This quarter I was "forced" to join Twitter, yes I did say forced.  Before this quarter I could have guaranteed you that I would never join Twitter or Tweet, but I would have been wrong.  After a whole quarter of following people on Twitter I would have to give it a mixed review.  The good thing about Twitter was being able to follow and read about what educators are talking about.  The best thing I got from Twitter was a how to guide for teachers about blogging with your students in elementary school classrooms.  This was very helpful and I don't think I would have come across it if I hadn't been on Twitter.  With that said, I didn't really get a whole lot more out of Twitter.  Most of the other Tweets I found useful just linked me to a blog post, which I feel I could have gotten otherwise from just following blogs.  I kind of feel like the overall time I spent on Twitter was not well spent.  I could have used the time spent on Twitter more productively, by doing something else.  Though I won't write it off completely.  I do see that it may be a great resource once I am in my own classroom, especially my first year of teaching.  What do you think about the usefulness of Twitter for teachers?

Going back home!

The day has finally come.  I get to go back to my main placement and see my kids.  I cannot possibly express how excited I am to see each and everyone of them.  While I have been back a couple times over the past 8 weeks to visit, it is extremely exciting to be going back knowing that I will be with them for the rest of the year.  I can't wait to see how much they have grown and learned while I have been away.  I am also excited to apply what I have learned over the past 2 months from both my methods classes and dyad placement.  I can't wait to try out one of the small group inquiry math lessons with my kiddos and see how it works.  What type of lesson are you most excited about teaching to your main placement kiddos?

Class Meetings

Ok, so I know I want to have weekly student run class meetings in my future classroom, but what is the best way to structure them.  When I was volunteering in a 6th grade classroom a couple of years ago I was introduced to weekly student run meetings.  I thought it was such a great idea.  The students were able to address issues that were important to them and involved every member of the classroom community.  The teacher pretty much stayed out of it, accept in rare circumstances where he felt he needed to intervene or interject. 
I have not been in a classroom where they have regular class meetings since I was in the one I previously described.  I was wondering if anyone else out there is seeing regular class meetings in their placements.  Some important key parts of the meetings I saw were that students ran the meetings and came up with the topics and issues discussed; there were clear guidelines and agreed upon rules that students followed such as being respectful of one another and only the person with the ball could talk.  Does anyone else have any ideas or knowledge of resources to help structure student run class meetings?  What are some other key parts?

Working the Gap

How do I find balance between the required scripted curriculum and pacing guides, mandated by school districts, and my own voice as a teacher? 


With all that I am learning in my Teacher-Ed program, as well as in my interactions with students, it is clear that the best learning happens when students are deeply engaged in their learning.  How do I get my students engaged in math when the textbook itself seems so dry and naturally unengaging?  I definitely believe it is my job as a teacher to take the curriculum and mold it in a way that works best for all of my students, not just some.  I also realise that doing this well will take time, perhaps a lot of time.  I don't expect to perfect this in my first year of teaching.  But, it also doesn't mean I am going to wait until my 5th year of teaching to begin trying to use alternate methods of teaching subjects like math.  I am constantly trying to figure out how I can make learning more interesting, exciting, fun and accessible for my students, both now and in the future.  For example, the interactive, hands on, small group ways of teaching math, that I am learning in my Math Methods course, seems like a drastically better way to teach math!  So why am I not seeing this style of teaching math in classrooms? 

Blogging in the Classroom

If you have ever thought about having your elementary school students blog click here!  This is an amazing how to guide, created by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano (with resources from many others), that explains in detail how teachers can start blogging with their students.  Any questions I previously had about where and how to get started with bringing blogging into the classroom, is laid out clearly and in great in detail in this guide.  There are many resources and detailed lessons on how to teach your students the purpose of blogging academically, how to be safe and protect themselves, the benefits of blogging and so much more.  There are also videos you can show your students about online safety.  There are numerous links to current classroom blogs that teachers and students can look at to get ideas.  As well as, tips on effective commenting and relevant writing.  I feel so lucky to have come across this wonderful resource that I just had to share it.  It is how to blog with elementary students from A to Z.  I already knew that I want to incorporate blogging into my future classrooms but wasn't really sure exactly how or where to start, now I know both and can't wait to give it a go next year.

What to think about Sugata Mitra?

Hmmm... What to think about this video?  I agree whole heartedly with Sugata Mitra when he said, "if children have interest than education happens."  But what exactly are the children in this video learning?  For example, when he quoted a 12 year old girl who recited an impressive line about DNA, what did that show other than the fact that she was able to memorize a sentence from the computer?  Did she have any real knowledge or understanding about what she was saying?  While this was an interesting and enjoyable video to watch, I am not convinced by watching that the children were involved in "deep learning." 

Furthermore, how were the kids being tested? And what were they being tested on?  It does seem that the kids were learning something, but what?  Yes, they seemed to be teaching themselves how to navigate the internet, but to what extent?  What is the value of such learning?  I see the value in having students work together in groups and how much students can learn from their peers, but how does answering a single question, that can be answered solely by looking it up on Google, equal the "deep learning" he claims that it does? 

While this video did both intrigue and puzzle me, it mostly left me with many questions.  What is the value and purpose of his experiment?  This video showed the resilience and curiosity of kids, as well as the power of the internet to connect people from all over the world, but what kind of learning did it show?  Hmmm... Can't say that I am sold.