Why don't I let my kids run with things more often? I introduced our classroom blog to my class on Monday and couldn't be more impressed with my kids! They have jumped on board without hesitation! I have been so afraid to bring this into my classroom all year. I was afraid that it would be too much to handle and become too overwhelming for me to teach the kids how to use the site and then properly "blog."
After my last observation, I decided, what could it hurt? I set up the classroom blog last week and realized that it only took 10 minutes to do! I figured that would be the easy part, but it turns out, it isn't the easiest part. On Monday, I pulled up our classroom blog, showed the kids how to log in, and then we jumped right in and wrote a blog together stating our requirements. We did this as a shared writing and then posted it for them to frequently check back to.
My kids couldn't get to the computers, laptops, and iPads in my room fast enough to start "blogging." I had a few students ask if I knew how to write a blog post because they felt that the writing was different than a typical response. I was immediately taken back by the insight my kids had about this type/style of writing. I thought that the only thing I would get out of this experience was to read their reading responses in a more convenient way for me. Who would have thought that would be the smallest thing I would get from this?
My kids wrote posts this week that were deeper than any other reading response I have read this year (they used to write a response each week in a notebook that was passed between myself and them). My "lowest" readers/writers became examples for classmates on insight and depth in their thinking and writing about their books. I had students who never turned in a reading response (or rarely did so), posting immediately! Now, mind you, the requirements did not get easier, only harder! They still have to write a post once a week, but now they have to respond to at least three classmates. Plus, this is worth more points than their old responses (now 20 points, was 5 points a week).
Why do I think a huge improvement was shown? Well, I think for one, this was of high interest to my kids because it involved technology. They love the technology we have in our room with this pilot program (which I hope I never have to give up this technology), but now they have a way to interact with one another using this technology.
I think that their responses are more insightful and well thought out, because their peers are reading their posts as well! I would love to think that my kids valued my opinion on their writing, but the reality is, I am the teacher. Their peers have "real" opinions that matter to them much more than mine ever will. If the kids are anything like me and my blog posts, they can't wait to log into the blog, open up their recent posts, and see a comment about THEIR writing from THEIR friends.
If I could go back in time and was allowed to make one change to my classroom and instruction this year, it would be to start this classroom blog from the beginning of the year. I have already learned more about my students as readers (and writers) from this first week "experimenting" with this than I think I have learned from many of our conversations. I have also found that they are more excited to talk to one another about their reading and participate and share in our read aloud discussions. I am so excited about this in my room and can't wait to hear what my kids think after our first week is completed and we re-evaluate as promised.
Monday, April 22, 2013
The Power of Observations
As a teacher, we know that observing our students and what they do in the classroom everyday is critical to understanding what they know and how they learn and are progressing towards the learning targets. I do this often in the classroom trying to make a few observations about at least ten students a week in math and reading. I use a great log that I created that works for me. But, this week I learned that the power of an observation lies with more than just watching our students.
I had the opportunity to observe another teacher within my district teach her reading workshop block, Karen Terlecky. Earlier this year I spoke about how valuable observations are here. I find them to be so helpful to my teaching that I felt the need to reflect about them once again.
While on my observation, I found myself feeling so overwhelmed with questions and thinking about my classroom. I mentioned my feeling of grief about not supporting my students in a way that I felt they deserved from me this year. I wanted to be better for them in my classroom and wanted to start the year over to do that. The time I had to observe gave me a fresh perspective on what I am doing well and what I need to reevaluate in my classroom.
I left with so many reflections and questions for myself to consider as I complete this school year and start next year. I spent this year focusing on math, creating a math workshop that was supporting my students in a way they needed, and learning the content. I invested so much time in this that I found my reading block lacking in many ways. Sure, my kids were still getting instruction and are growing as readers this year, but not as much as I want them to.
The funny thing about my focus on math is that I started the year saying that math was my weaker area while language arts... well I had that one figured out. At the end of the year, I am realizing how very wrong that statement was. I can see that I will never have things "figured out" like I thought.
My observation spurred me on to try some new things. The kids are at the end of the year, state testing is almost here and done with, and I need to keep them focused for one more month. I decided the best way to keep their attention was to through something new and exciting into the mix.
I think it is so important for my kids to see how adults are reflective in their practice and decisions. I often try to model this for my class. I decided that I was going to be honest with my kids. I told them that I had been on an observation of another teacher and that I wanted to change some things for next year. I shared with them all the things I saw and learned. I then asked them, which new ideas sounded the most interesting to them for us to "practice" for my class next year. They decided on two focuses: read aloud notebooks and a bi-weekly blog post.
So, I promptly set me kids up on kidblog.com and we are going to jump in feet first on Monday with this. I don't know how it will go, but I have a lot of confidence that my class will teach me a lot that will make next years class better. Since we are going to do a reading blog as a class, I decided my reading notebooks (letters) were too repetitive. So we turned these into our read aloud notebooks. This has been a bit rocky, but after four days of intensive instruction on their use and long conversations around them, I can already see improvement.
Observing not only another teacher, but my students practice these new ideas is only going to make me a better teacher next year and has already made me better for my kids this year. I am finding that this is the time of year to do this! I am learning so much and I get to try it without worry of the failure it could bring. Happy observing in your own classroom!
I had the opportunity to observe another teacher within my district teach her reading workshop block, Karen Terlecky. Earlier this year I spoke about how valuable observations are here. I find them to be so helpful to my teaching that I felt the need to reflect about them once again.
While on my observation, I found myself feeling so overwhelmed with questions and thinking about my classroom. I mentioned my feeling of grief about not supporting my students in a way that I felt they deserved from me this year. I wanted to be better for them in my classroom and wanted to start the year over to do that. The time I had to observe gave me a fresh perspective on what I am doing well and what I need to reevaluate in my classroom.
I left with so many reflections and questions for myself to consider as I complete this school year and start next year. I spent this year focusing on math, creating a math workshop that was supporting my students in a way they needed, and learning the content. I invested so much time in this that I found my reading block lacking in many ways. Sure, my kids were still getting instruction and are growing as readers this year, but not as much as I want them to.
The funny thing about my focus on math is that I started the year saying that math was my weaker area while language arts... well I had that one figured out. At the end of the year, I am realizing how very wrong that statement was. I can see that I will never have things "figured out" like I thought.
My observation spurred me on to try some new things. The kids are at the end of the year, state testing is almost here and done with, and I need to keep them focused for one more month. I decided the best way to keep their attention was to through something new and exciting into the mix.
I think it is so important for my kids to see how adults are reflective in their practice and decisions. I often try to model this for my class. I decided that I was going to be honest with my kids. I told them that I had been on an observation of another teacher and that I wanted to change some things for next year. I shared with them all the things I saw and learned. I then asked them, which new ideas sounded the most interesting to them for us to "practice" for my class next year. They decided on two focuses: read aloud notebooks and a bi-weekly blog post.
So, I promptly set me kids up on kidblog.com and we are going to jump in feet first on Monday with this. I don't know how it will go, but I have a lot of confidence that my class will teach me a lot that will make next years class better. Since we are going to do a reading blog as a class, I decided my reading notebooks (letters) were too repetitive. So we turned these into our read aloud notebooks. This has been a bit rocky, but after four days of intensive instruction on their use and long conversations around them, I can already see improvement.
Observing not only another teacher, but my students practice these new ideas is only going to make me a better teacher next year and has already made me better for my kids this year. I am finding that this is the time of year to do this! I am learning so much and I get to try it without worry of the failure it could bring. Happy observing in your own classroom!
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