Looping - Possible Forms of Communication?

Next year, I will be teaching 3rd grade - the beginning of a 3/4 loop. I AM SO EXCITED! This is my dream spot. I have taught both kindergarten and 3rd grade before. I loved both of them, but am especially excited to teach 3rd grade again. I am excited at the possibilities - 1:1 chromebooks and I love the content, especially continent studies.

My priority with each and every class is to build relationships with students, with families, and foster them amongst students. My mind is racing as I reflect on what has worked this year and what has not been as successful.  This blog post will be my personal list of things to do. This list will be fluid and continually be edited and revised as ideas are added and tried.

Communication. I would like to establish a list of information for parents, as I do every summer, about how I will be communicating with them and how they can communicate with me.

1. telephone - Provide contact information, include cell phone or not? Objective: to relay specific information about your child, both positive and things to work on.
2. email - Collect an email address from EVERY family. If they do not have one, help them set it up. If they do not have internet access, provide paper copies of everything. Objective: to relay specific information about your child, both positive and things to work on; as well as group messages about our classroom.
3. Twitter - This will be a class Twitter page, the students will be tweeting. Objective: Students will collaborate with other classrooms around the state, country and world. Students will learn and practice internet safety. Students will also "tweet" information about what is happening in our classroom and is interesting to them.
4. Facebook - Our district is currently in the process of implementing a Social Media Policy. After this is approved by the board, I would like to implement my own classroom FB page. Objective: I will share pictures and events to share with families and the community to showcase what is happening in our classroom.
5. smore.com - Weekly newsletter via that will be emailed. Objective: MAIN SOURCE OF COMMUNICATION - Will list what is happening in our classroom; links to our social media sites; upcoming classroom, school, and district events; links to curriculum sites, and pictures.
6. school website - General information as well as updated calendar of events and links to frequently used websites (Envisions Math, Wonders, etc.). Objective: A general site for information such as my bio, contact information, school lunch calendar, links to our social media sites, and links to curriculum sites.
7. remind - Group text and email reminders. Objective: This will take the place of paper reminders.

Is this too much? It seems overwhelming as I write this list. I think it will be important to clearly state what the objective of each is. Going to go back and do that in a different color text...

I will also add a note about meetings. For example, "Parent - Teacher conferences will be scheduled throughout the year. If you'd like to meet with me any other time, please feel free to contact me and we will schedule a time." 

I strongly believe that it is important to have open two-way communication. I will strongly encourage families to contact me at any time and provide my contact information on all correspondences. 

#positivepostitday

I found the idea for #positivepostitday on Twitter. While the day was created as a positive response to a high school girl that was being bullied, I LOVED the idea of sharing positive and deliberate compliments to people for no reason at all, except to be nice! Far too often we think positive things about others, but do not take the time or make the effort to share them. Unfortunately, we (the teachers) are the only ones that tell some of these children anything positive. On Positive Post-It Day, we (students and staff) would take the time to jot a positive compliment about someone on a post-it note and share it with them.

We kicked off our day by watching a Kid President video, "20 Things We Should Say More Often".

My 2nd Graders loved it. I did too! I pointed out the last message, "If you can't think of anything nice to say, you're not thinking hard enough." How true! As a class, we then practiced giving specific compliments to someone. For example, we didn't want to write 16 post-it notes that said, "You are awesome!". We made a list of possible compliments that included thinks like, "You are so funny!" and "You are really smart and know so much about animals."

We then went to work! I had set aside about 15-20 minutes for the kids to write post-its. After 20 minutes, there was no way they were done! They were excitedly writing and very engaged. I was thrilled with the writing practice (had to be complete sentences) as well as the thought they were putting in to each heartfelt note. They worked hard for almost an hour straight. I had to stop them to go to art class!

I took the time to write out a positive post-it for each of my students at home, so I was prepared. I also wrote a positive post-it for each teacher in our building and put it on their classroom door. Not every teacher participated, but many did.


I found this post-it on the door or my daughter's 4th grade class (written by her!). I was proud of her for being so thoughtful, but also that she felt that way about her class.

This is my door. My heart was warmed reading the nice things that students and teachers shared. It was surprising to see some from students that I had never had, but had obviously impacted by simply saying hello in the hallway or lunchroom and asking them how they were.

Overall, I believe that #positivepostitday was a huge success. I look forward to making it an annual event!

Is Twitter Really Good PD?

I recently had a colleague ask me, "What is the big deal about Twitter? Why does our district want us to use it?"  

This made me think...

Pursuing National Board Certification taught me two things - to  assess student impact in everything that I plan and do, and to reflect. So, I asked myself, is Twitter really good PD? Or, am I caught up in the trend? How is this "professional development" impacting my students?

While I've had a Twitter account for a few years, I just began engaging this year - reading regularly, interacting with others, and participating in chats. How has this professional development impacted students? While it has encouraged me to reflect even more, it also has produced some more tangible outcomes:

• Mystery Skype - Our class participated in a Mystery Skype. We not only practiced our geography skills, we practiced our people skills! My students were able to collaborate with children miles and miles away. They learned so much while playing a "game". 
• Learn Like a Pirate - STUDENT-LED CLASSROOM - I am so excited about this, I don't even know where to start! I learned about and purchased the book, "Learn Like a Pirate" by Paul Solarz. I am so excited to create a student-led classroom next year. That is a whole different blog post!
• #positivepostitday - My principals allowed me to present this idea at a staff meeting. Our entire elementary school will participate in #positivepostitday this week! We will share post-it notes with positive messages on them with students and also other staff members. This is a way to promote positive relationships and positive school culture.
• Genius Hour - I will be implementing Genius Hour next year.  My mind is spinning about all of the possible ideas that students can and will explore. I can feel the level of "E's" increasing already - excitement, engagement, empowerment, and enthusiasm. My favorite things.

These are just the most recent ideas off of the top of my head. Twitter has been amazing professional development for me. While it is not formal, it has been the most impactful. It has given me access to collaborate with educators all over the country and world. It has impacted my students by providing me ideas to collaborate with students all over the world, as well as increase excitement, engagement, empowerment, and enthusiasm!

Jobs

This is my first year teaching 2nd grade. In the beginning of the school year, I asked myself jobs or no jobs? I decided that I would have classroom jobs. Next year, no jobs. The reason being, that this summer I am going to research and prepare for a student led classroom. Instead of assigning jobs, my goal will be to teach students to think and act independently and responsibly. Depending on what grade I am teaching, this may be reconsidered...

Back to this year... I tried to come up with tasks that were important and that students could complete entirely independently. For example, "Tech Director". The tech director is responsible for all things tech - i.e. charging iPads and assisting with the Smartboard. I began with reading the title and description of each job to the class. The kids were pumped! Some jobs were much more alluring than others. Everyone gasped when the coveted line leader position was announced. 

Instead of randomly assigning jobs, I decided to create a job application. Students would need to complete the job application and apply for their job. Upon reflecting, I wish that I would have taken the time to have the kids "interview" with me. Too excited and too nervous to jump right in to the school year. 

The original application required students to record their personal information: name, address, phone number, and birth date. Students also had to write which job they were applying for. Most importantly, they had to note why they would be good for this job. Why should I hire them? 

This was way too much work for the kids, initially. Many did not know their personal information and struggled greatly to complete the application. I tossed the application and had students record the following information on a blank piece of paper: name, date, positions applying for, and why they would be good at the desired position. This was much more reasonable and realistic. However, I, again, wish that I would have taken the time to practice the information until they knew it all and kept practicing on each application. Note - students applied for jobs at the 1st of each month. They held their position for the month, unless they were fired. Students could be fired if they were not doing their jobs or were inappropriate. For example, if the line leader was running down the hall. 

Here are some of the applications that I received:

"I want to be paper monitor. I will be quick and not disturbing."

 "I will be a good messenger because I won't talk in the hallway." 

In the future, if I were to have classroom jobs, I would definitely have student complete a job application and interview process.

Mystery Skype

This week, we participated in our first "Mystery Skype". It was amazing! I wanted to reflect on this experience, because I would LOVE to do it again in the future.  Some notes...

What worked:

• We practiced questions beforehand and the kids did a great job. Possible questions:
• Do you border an ocean?
• Are you east/west of the Mississippi River?
• Do you border another country?
• Do you border a great lake?
• Vis-a-vie markers worked great on the laminated maps. 
• We discussed the objective: practicing map skills. However, we need to focus more on the social skills aspect.

What didn't work:

• Having an assigned speaker. We had one assigned speaker. Next time, have a rotation, give all of the children an opportunity to speak to the mystery class.
• Kids were sitting at desks. This was great to control movement, but could not see all of them on the computer screen.
• Someone asked the kids what the name of their school was...only one student answered and they answered incorrectly! They kept saying, "Northland Pines School." Not totally incorrect, but they did not include Eagle River Elementary School. Go over geographical information with students more regularly. We did this in the beginning of the year, but need to revisit it more. Our school is... Our city is... Our county is... etc.

To do in the future:

• Beforehand, make sure to go over the objectives with students. Why are we doing this? 
• To practice map skills.
• More importantly, to practice social skills.
• Practice marking on a map, show students what a small dash/mark looks like. More modeling of this. Also, show students how to circle a region to eliminate the rest of the states. For example, if their state borders a great lake, then circle the possibilities. This eliminates all of the other states without having to dash/mark them out.
• Students practice speaking. Look into the computer, do not start talking until you are completely seated, introduce yourself, and speak in complete sentences.
• Have the kids sit in front of the smartboard, have the other class crowd around their camera and take a "group picture"! Other class did this, great idea!
• Create a list of questions for the other class to ask about their city/region/state and come up with some fun facts to share about Eagle River and Wisconsin.
• Research Skype for Education website and see if there are more detailed lesson plans or formats to follow.
• Start IMMEDIATELY at the beginning of the school year. Ask students' families if they have family members with school aged children in other states that they would like to share our contact information with. Set a goal to Mystery Skpye with all 50 states!

I am very excited to do this next year, no matter what grade I teach! This activity lends itself nicely to differentiation; for example, more extensive questions, more detailed information about each state, etc.

P is for Pirate

I just got and read P is for Pirate: Inspirational ABC's for Educators by Dave Burgess and Shelley Burgess. Great, short, easy read. One "letter" and idea really stuck.

I was intrigued by this...what five words would I want? I decided that I would give my 2nd graders a little "pre-test". I asked them to write 5 words describing what they thought or felt about our classroom. I really didn't give them any other guidance. The responses were interesting and pleasing. The most used word...

Not only was it the most used word, it was the word that is most important to me. My first and foremost concern is my students happiness, their emotional well being. I want them to feel safe, secure and to know that I care about them. I have been thinking a lot about what I want my five words to be. I have run many words through my mind, and go back and forth. I will begin my list here! (Notice the exclamation point? I am trying to be confident...)

1. Happy 

I want every person in my classroom to feel that our classroom is a happy, fun place. I want a POSITIVE classroom culture. Even when things are serious, I want the children to know that I first and foremost care about them.

2. Safe

I want all students to feel safe. Not only physically safe, but emotionally safe. They will be respected and treated with love and compassion. They will not be demeaned or talked down to by any student or any adult, including myself, ever. I also want them to be safe to take educational risks, try new things. I want them to know that it is okay to fail and feel safe in doing so. 

3. Empowering

Students WILL be confident and resourceful. They will do these things together, not exclusively. For example, they will find the answers because they know that they can. They will search and not feel fearful of failure or uncertainty. Try, try, try.

4. Student Led

Students should know that this it THEIR classroom. I would ultimately like them to control as many of the daily routines as possible. I would also like them to take responsibility for their learning, to realize that they have a voice in our classroom.

5. Engaging

I want students to WANT to be in our classroom. I want students to be intrinsically motivated to learn, to crave more, and to be active participants in their own educations.

Kidblog.org

On Twitter, a few classroom teachers that I followed mentioned their students "blogging". My daughter's class dabbled in it last year (3rd grade). I wanted to try it, but...What was my objective? What was the purpose of having students blog? How would it impact them. I came up with the following:

1. It would be a way to communicate with families and the community about what was happening in our classroom.
2. It would be good writing and keyboarding practice for students.
3. It would continue to build and enhance relationships between students and myself, and also between students.

I decided that I would try it with my 2nd graders. I sent a TechSmith Snagit video that I made home over Christmas break. The video showed families step by step how to access the blog and create a post.

A few students wrote and I replied, but it never really got off the ground. Students did not blog regularly. After Christmas break, it took us a bit (as usual) to get back in the swing of things. We had all sorts of exciting things happening - parent volunteering for practicum hours, new student teacher, etc. It simply was not a priority during our ever valuable computer lab time, as we were constantly playing catch up.

I had been thinking about blogging a lot and decided we would give it a try today in the computer lab. I told the kids that I wanted them to write about anything they learned this week, and/or something they liked or didn't like. I anticipated spending 10-15 minutes on our first time blogging. Of course, it took us about 10 minutes to get everyone logged in, "Mrs. Simac, it's not working!!!" Note - it did work, but some of us are still working on our spelling and keyboarding skills. After that, they were quiet as mice blogging away. They absolutely loved it. I promised them that I would read their blogs. They were so excited. I was so excited that they were so engaged!

I encourage (and assign, but that doesn't mean that it gets done) daily journal writing. At one of our inservice days a couple, few (can't remember) years ago, we had a guest speaker talk to us about writing and the 6 + 1 Traits of writing. Something that I took away from that was to let the kids write. Everyday, just let them write. They can write about whatever they want - no spelling corrections, no punctuation corrections, no grammar corrections - just writing with no editing or revisions. Most kids love this. They write to me daily and I write them back. I promise them to keep their journals private, unless of course there is a safety issue. Again, most children love it. However, I have a few that are reluctant. They think they are not "good" writers and they simply don't enjoy it. It is hard work for them.

However, today during our blogging time, everyone was engaged. Every single student. Even my one CD child who cannot read or write. Today he typed. He typed random letters, but he was engaged, happy, and taking risks. He felt successful, because he felt productive. He is normally not in our classroom for literacy activities, as he receives replacement curriculum. This was a great opportunity for him to be a part of the class and be engaged to the best of his ability.

I will definitely continue to have the kids blog on a daily basis. At this point, I am not going to fuss about spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors, but simply encourage and foster their love of writing.

http://kidblog.org/MsSimacsClass/