Twitter Opens Doors

Twitter opened doors to learning, collaborating and creating. 

I have started reading the book What Connected Educators Do Differently by Todd Whitaker, Jimmy Casas and Jeffrey Soul. I find myself shaking my head in agreement as they share how much twitter can change your professional and personal life as an educator. This quote stood out for me, "Twitter has rekindled a strong sense of renewal to our profession.....In short,  you become encouraged and professionally challenged to strive for greatness!"

This is so absolutely true. I found myself learning so much, so quickly. Each educator I connected with giving me a little bit more and another challenge to try. As I opened each door, another followed. Everything was suddenly exciting and new again. It was like when I walked into school as that new teacher! I hadn't lost my love to teach, but I was losing the energy. I find myself with that renewed energy they spoke of in the book. 

I am not going into depth about all the doors opened, but want to give a snapshot. 

1. Skype in the Classroom: I had used Skype. I have grandchildren who live far away and that is a tool we use to stay connected. I had even used it in my classroom once to connect to one of the grandson's classes for a pen pal project. But, through my connections with other educators I learned about Skype in the Classroom and how to really use it. I suddenly had incredible resources at my fingertips to bring into my classroom and experiences for my students. Authors, scientists, explorers and it was amazing! I learned how to connect to other classrooms and take part in engaging learning experiences with map skills and number skills. So many incredible things you can do with Skype! I even used it to create my own lesson and we began connecting and doing Reader's Theater with classrooms using Skype!

2. Blogging: When I first heard about primary students blogging, I thought NO WAY! But I kept listening and decided to open the door. Sure enough, I tried it and was amazed as I watched my first graders blog. Then invited (again through twitter) to a blogging community and they became connected with their blogs and had an audience. They commented and read comments left on their blogs. The skills and excitement this brought was so rewarding!

3. Classroom Collaboration: It was amazing when I made a personal connection with a first grade teacher in Iowa.  Leka Degroot  (@lekadegroot) began to discuss ideas with me that she had for math. Her ideas were some I would never have thought of. We began to meet weekly and "play" math games with our classes on google hangout. (another introduction for me) This later became a math center in the classroom where small groups in each class would spend center time playing a game together while instruction carried on in our classrooms. Leka taught me so many things with technology and ways to use it with purpose and giving student's voice and choice. A twitter connection such as this is what makes it personal. This door not only opened to learning, but in gaining a friend. 

4. Global Collaboration: Throughout the year you learn of so many incredible events to become involved in. We did things like Global Read Aloud, Dot Day, Global Play Day, A Day in the Life of a Student, A Day of Code, and Projects by Jen. We played Kahoot with classrooms in 7 different states at one time! Each of these were valuable, and served a purpose. Through each one the world can flatten a little more, the classroom walls come down. It is motivating, engaging...not just for the students, but for me!

These are just glimpses of the doors twitter opened. I couldn't begin to tell you them all. I couldn't begin to give you a real understanding of the impact. But I do encourage you to do it...get connected. Open those doors, walk through. Keep discovering and learning! Revitalize that energy! 

Open that door...I dare you. 

Labor Day Weekend Check In

It is so hard to believe that Labor Day weekend is here. Time marches so quickly. When we return to school it will be our 19th day. Many schools are just starting!

I am thankful for this 3 day weekend. It came at a perfect time. Things are truly rising to the surface as to the needs of my 19 students. I have had a chance to sit with them, listen to them and watch them. The first few weeks are full of teaching routines, expectations and building community. A teacher gathers so much information during this time. I will be spending some of this weekend thinking about how to take the time I have and use it wisely to meet the many needs of this diverse group of students. It is a challenge I love and plan to succeed!

In our classroom, we continue to have a wonderful time. I wanted to share a little bit about our day. When students arrive each morning they meet with their partner or group and practice a script or poem for reader's theater. It can be a little noisy in the room and each week there are new partners so there may be some disorganization. But, I must say, it is a beautiful thing to behold! They are reading...and trying to read at the right speed, learning new words and patterns, learning new information, practicing expression and reading words in phrases. We spend some time talking about those expectations. These scripts also go home to practice for homework. We usually practice for a week, then they get to perform. The class points out all the wonderful things they did after their performance. Then, there are some who get to go perform for the principal! They are motivated and excited readers. Look here at the smiles!

 

 



Our next routine is our morning meeting and message. Our letter has a different focus each day. On marvelous Monday we talk about our weekend. On tangled Tuesday, we have to untangle some sight words in the letter. On wacky Wednesday we have to fix some errors in capitals, punctuation and spelling. On thinking Thursday we have some things in the letter to think about and respond to, usually Math or Science! On finish-up Friday we have to add some missing words or letter sounds at the end of the word. Here is an example of our marvelous Monday letter and thinking Thursday. The students get to take these home. I draw names and they are so excited. Many tell me they use them to play school! We were reading these together, but then I found out I have a class of readers. So, they are taking turns reading the letters now. It is a great time to learn new things about reading. They can even chunk some 3 syllable words!

 





Our morning continues with reading centers, phonics and vocabulary instruction. Then we have our Reader's Workshop time. This is a time to learn new strategies and then practice them in their very own books they choose. I get to go visit and talk with them about their reading and thinking. This is usually when we meet some of our critters! Our critters help teach strategies. So far they have met Stick with it Stork, who taught them about stamina and how we need to spend time working on things and not give up. Ollie the octopus taught them to listen to their thinking voice and they even learned the big word metacognition! Our newest critter is Lips the Fish! He taught them to use their lips for sounding out the letters in words. We practiced with two tough sounds, v and f. We felt our lips, the air and our voice and realized the differences in those sounds!

  I didn't get a picture of Lips. I'll post it next time!

Here are some "real" readers using those strategies!

After lunch and some structured physical activity (SPA), we come in for some writing and science. Students have been busy learning about writing sentences and using their best handwriting. They are also bloggers! You can read some of their writing here on our class site! Our Class Blogs They love to read your comments if you would like to leave one! In science they have been observing the properties of objects. I forgot to take a photo of them being scientists! They were really being precise and detailed!

Students then head off to their special classes such as PE, Art, Music or Media. We end our day with math! These students are amazing mathematicians and they are growing in knowledge every day. We have a routine of counting, guessing a mystery number, doing some subitizing with dot cards or ten frames and finally mental math. Then students are off working in groups on mathematical practices. These are some things they noticed they do.

They are working on counting up to 120. They are counting forward and backward and now some are even finding some patterns when they count by 10's on the number chart. They practice their math fluency of facts on a computer program they really like.

 

Interactive notebooks are fun practice too!










A long post to just explain our day! We are having fun here and will keep the updates coming. I didn't take pictures of this but we do try to often stop and post a tweet or two about our day. You can follow us on twitter @FirstatBatters ! Give us a shout out or favorite some of our posts. We'd love to know someone is watching and noticing all our hard work! Soon we will be Skyping with others and tweeting with our first grade classes. We will be a part of a global read aloud too! Our class is a happening place. Stay tuned for more!