Is It Symmetrical?

We are working on symmetry.  We had one of those moments that I had to change my lesson plans on the spur of the moment.  I had my small groups work with a partner to create a design with geo blocks.  The design had to have at least one line of symmetry.  I photographed the designs they created.  Later I showed the designs to the rest of the class.  We had to determine whether the design was in fact symmetrical.  Students used a yard stick to show where the line of symmetry was.

This lesson turned out to be a home run.  It was a quick and easy lesson.  The kids loved doing it and they were excited to see their designs on the screen and to have them used in a lesson for the whole class.. 

Now we are following up with a lesson I found on Pinterest.  Students are using rulers and other drawing tools to create a symmetrical design.  Here is the link to the original post on the blog Art Lessons for Kids.

Ten Steps to Becoming a Techy Teacher

Friday was a professional development day in our school district.  Sessions were offered all over the city in various schools.  I presented one at our school called Ten Steps to Becoming a Techy Teacher.  When I signed up to present, I thought I would just be presenting to members of our own staff.  It turned out, however, that 39 people signed up from all over the district, including a few people who specialize in technology. That unnerved me a bit!

I am not a technology specialist, I am a teacher who uses technology in my classroom.  I began this journey about five years ago, after taking an on-line class from the local area education association, called "Using the Internet in the Classroom."  My initial interest was in having a class blog or website, and it has grown from there.  Here is my idea of Ten Steps to Becoming a Techy Teacher.

Step 1:  Get Yourself a PLN

Don't try to figure it out all by yourself.  Develop a PLN or Personal Learning Network.  Meet fellow teachers on-line who are more than willing to answer your questions, and share what they know.  I can't tell you how many times I have put out a question on Twitter, Facebook or Plurk and been provided with multiple resources to answer my question.  Here is a post from Richard Byrne about developing a PLN.

One of the easiest ways to develop a PLN is to join a Twitter chat.  I participate in #4thchat each Monday evening.  I learn a lot, and I meet new people who teach the same grade that I do.  I wrote a post a while ago about getting started with Twitter Chats.  Here is a link to that.  Below are two resources to find a chat that meets your needs.

• http://cybraryman.com/chats.html
• Weekly Twitter Chats

Step 2:  Go to Camp

There are lots of technology conferences that go on across the country, but as a classroom teacher, I don't have a budget for attending conferences.  That doesn't stop me however, and it shouldn't stop you.  Instead go to Edcamp or participate in an on-line conferences.  You will learn a lot and I promise you will be inspired to try new things.  

So far I have attended three Edcamps.  I have been to Edcamp Omaha twice, and this fall I went to Edcamp Des Moines.  Here are a few posts describing the Edcamp experience.

• http://daysclassnotes.blogspot.com/2013/09/edcamp-des-moines.html
• http://brentcatlett.blogspot.com/2013/09/edcampdsm-edcamp-des-moines.html

Find an Edcamp near you by visiting the Edcamp Wiki

If you would rather not leave home, try out an on-line conference.  I have participated in Edmodocon and the Reform Symposium.  

Whichever you choose, Edcamp, Edmodocon or Reform Symposium, the price is right.  You can attend any or all for free, and the experience is invaluable.

Step 3:  Make Connections and Collaborate

My students and I have shared some great opportunities collaborating with other classrooms around the world.  Use available technology to Skype with another classroom, or invite an author into your classroom.  For three years my class participated in a Thanksgiving project with other classrooms. Barbara Gilman, @BarbInNebraska, created a wiki.  Each participating classroom created a page about Thanksgiving to share with the other classes.

Some of my favorite ways to connect are through Kidblog or Edmodo.  Currently we are participating in the Global Read Aloud and connecting with other students and educators via Edmodo.

Learn more about the Global Read Aloud by visiting the wiki here.

Step 4:  Manage Your Classroom with Technology Tools

I love my on-line planbook.  I can write lesson plans, wherever I may be, and it's easy to use.  Check out Planbook.com.  It's inexpensive, just $12 a year, and is loaded with tutorials to help you along.

For managing files and documents, I can't get along without Dropbox, Evernote and Skydrive.  All three are great ways to store files in the cloud, and access it readily from any computer.

For fun I like to use Instant Classroom as a way to group students for activities, or to randomly select students.

I also use Class Dojo to get rewards and encourage good choices in behavior.  My kids like it.


Step 5:  Practice Digital Citizenship

Teach it to your kids and practice it yourself.  If you're not sure where to start, use the Digital Citizenship Starter Kit from Edmodo.  Check out more resources from Cybraryman or Krissy Venosdale.

Be sure to to check your school district policies regarding Internet use and using student names and photos.  I make it a point never to use student names with a photo.  I also get releases from parents at the beginning of the year, so I have written permission to include students in photos.

Whether you are social networking or blogging, what you put on the Internet becomes part of your professional identity.  Use correct grammar and mature vocabulary.  Proofread! Once it's out there, you can't take it back.  It's also a good idea to Google yourself every now and then.  It pays to find out what websites and photos are being connected to you.


Step 6:  Communicate with Parents, Kids and other Educators

Write a blog.  Make a classroom website or wiki.  Take advantage of tools like Remind101, which is a way to send text messages to parents and students without giving out your personal cell phone number.

Step 7:  Teach Kids to Learn using the Internet, But Keep Them Safe

I work with 4th graders and one of my favorite tools for research is the webquest. This helps students to get to the websites I want them to explore.  A great resource for ready made webquests is Quest Garden.  I usually make my own, and that is easy to do with a wiki.  Here is one we are currently using to learn about mountains:  Mountain Trek

I don't let my students use Google, but here are some of my favorite kid friendly search engines.

• http://www.sweetsearch.com/
• http://www.kidrex.org/
• http://www.kidsclick.org/
• http://www.ask.com/

Step 8:  Teach Kids to Create Content

I love the creative possibilities of using technology.  Some of my favorite creative tools for kids are:

• Kidblog
• Voki
• Storybird
• Bitstrips
• Toondoo
• Storyjumper
• Glogster

Step 9:  Let the Kids Be the Teacher

It can be overwhelming when you are introducing a new tool to students, so don't try to do it alone.  Let the kids be the teachers.  I often introduce a new website to a few students.  Then I let them teach the rest of the class.  We often partner to begin with, before we begin to work independently.

Lots of times, I learn from my kids.  They discover possibilities that I had totally missed.  You just have to be willing to let them explore a little, and listen to what they learn.

Step 10:  Share

Finally, share what you know.  The rest of us will be eternally grateful.  

Edcamp Des Moines

Yesterday, I spent the day at Edcamp Des Moines, and a very awesome day it was.  I have been to Edcamp twice before, both times at Edcamp Omaha.  It is always a day packed with learning and inspiration.  Edcamps take place all over the country.  If you have never attended an Edcamp, I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity.

The day begins with people gathering in a central location.  There are no pre-arranged sessions, the topics are decided at the beginning of the day.  People who are interested in presenting or just talking about a topic sign up in a time slot.  As the schedule fills up, people consider which sessions they would like to participate in.

Most sessions that I have attended may begin with the "presenter" sharing information, but they quickly open up to the participants sharing and contributing their own ideas and knowledge.  This is a kind of respect for all participants that I would like to see present in school district PD.  You always end up learning as much from the other people in the session as you do from the presenter.  That's what makes Edcamp so powerful.

Twitter Handles for just some of the educators who showed up on this Saturday in September.

Edcamp is not just about technology, though I always get great ideas about new websites and apps from these sessions.  This year I attended sessions on

• How are you incorporating your passions into your classroom?
• Engaging all students, even the ones who don't know they want to be engaged.
• Less Us, More Them;  Student Engagement
• How Are You Pirating?  (based on the book Teach Like a Pirate)

You can see there was a definite theme in the sessions I chose.  I am really interested in bringing more creativity into my classroom, and even though I tend to be a very autocratic teacher, I am working toward making it more student centered.

So this is what teachers do on a Saturday.  Here is a link to the Edcamp Wiki:  http://edcamp.wikispaces.com/   Check out an Edcamp near you!

Book Talks and Reading Conferences

We have been in school for three weeks now, and I feel like we are making progress with our reading.  I am working to implement ideas from The Book Whisperer into my instruction, so this week I started meeting with students for reading conferences.   I am required by my school district to teach the little readers that go with the Houghton Mifflin Journeys, so it is difficult to get these in.  I am trying to find a balance between district curriculum and keeping our focus on reading good books that will really engage my students as readers. Since I have thirty students divided into four reading groups, this is not an easy task.

Each day, I had one reading group use their small group time to give an impromptu book talk about one of the books they were reading.  I had also planned to meet with two students at the end of each day for book conferences, but most days I ran out of time.  Instead, I used all of my small group time on Friday to catch up on conferences.

For the reading conferences, I had students bring their reading notebooks and the books they were currently reading.  Instead of sitting in my usual spot at the end of the table, I sat with the students along the side.  I called two students at a time.

Each time I met with a group, I observed the same thing.  The kids started out cautiously, expecting me to quiz or grill them about the books they were reading.  When they realized that our goal was to just talk about the books.  I saw them begin to visibly relax and participate in a discussion about the books they are reading and have read.  This was true during the book talk time and during the conferences.

It made me aware of how much of the time, I am not listening to what kids think and have to say.  It is an eye opener as to how we block kids from being fully engaged in the learning and how rarely they are actually invited into a conversation about the things they are learning.  I know that I am a good teacher, but much of the time I am so intent on helping my students achieve learning goals, that I don't permit them to help shape the path that we are traveling to get there.

I am so thankful that I read The Book Whisperer this summer, and I am enjoying the way it is transforming my teaching.  It's important to stop and smell the roses along the way.  Not only do my students benefit, but I am benefiting as well.

Six Favorite Tools for Classroom Management

Tomorrow will be day twelve of our school year.  The testing if done for now, reading groups are meeting, and we are settling into our routines and schedule.  I am pleased with my group and the way they are taking responsibility for their work.  We have already completed our Top Ten Facts project, and students are taking turns presenting their poster.  I wrote about the Top Ten Facts Posters here on my Day In the Classroom blog.  Now that I have the computers back in my classroom, I am introducing my students to blogging, with paper blogs.

Sometimes it is difficult to remember all the tools I need to set up at the beginning of a new school year, and this year I added one or two new ones. Some are high tech, and some are definitely not.  Here are some of my favorites.

1.  Creative Ways to Line Up
With 30 students, I like to break up the group for many tasks.  That was made easier by this idea I saw on Pinterest for Creative Ways to Line Up.  You can download the cards and list by visiting I Love To Teach.

2.  Class Dojo
For behavior management, I like to use Class Dojo.  With Class Dojo, you create an avatar for each student.  You award positive points for good choices, and deduct points for poor choices.  If you are interested in learning more about it, you can read my post from last year here.  I just read a blog post criticizing this tool, but like anything it can be used well to reinforce the behaviors you want, or it can be used poorly in a punitive way.  I like it because I can give specific reminders or praise in a calm way.  By the end of the day or week, I have a record of specific behavior choices.  My school has an award system called Paw Prints, and I award them based on the points students earn on Class Dojo.  You can share this information with parents if you choose too.  Sometimes it can be enlightening.  Patterns may emerge, or sometimes I realize how many times I am giving reminders to some students.   My kids like it!  I don't usually project the avatars onto the screen during work time, but the kids like it when I do.

3. The Name Box
We do lots of partner and group work, so I am always looking for different ways to group students.  I have some high tech and low tech approaches to this task.  I set up my name box this week.  I use this all the time to form groups or call on people.

4.  Instant Classroom
Using Instant Classroom is a high tech approach.  You will find it at www.instantclassroom.com and you can use it to group students

or select students for a task.

I will warn you that sometimes this website is a little slow, but we like to use it on good days.


5.  Partner Wheels

Another tool I like for picking partners is my Partner Wheel.  This is another idea I found on Pinterest, and I blogged about it here.  I haven't made my wheel for this year, but here is a picture of the one I had for a previous year.

6.  Planbook.com

Then there is my most favorite of all, and that is www.planbook.com.  I love using an on-line planbook.  I like the fact that I can access it at home or from school.  The website has great tutorials to help you set up your planbook.  I always print mine off, so that there is a copy available to a substitute, and I like to check things off as I go.

Some of my favorite features are the templates.  You can set up templates so those things that you need to put in your plans all the time are automatically there.  I also love the fact that if I don't get to something that I had planned to do, I can extend the lesson plan for the next day, or bump the whole plan over to the next day.  Since I always over plan,  I use this feature all the time.  It means I don't have to keep rewriting the same lesson plans.  It is also inexpensive, just $12 a year.  If you've never tried it, check it out.  You can try it for the first thirty days free.  I wrote more about Using an On-line Planbook here.

Setting Up Our Reading Notebooks

We've been in school for just a week and a half now, and the class has had an opportunity to become familiar with our classroom library.  Our next step was to set up our Reading Notebooks.  I always use a reading notebook, but this year I am following Donalynn Miller's suggestions in The Book Whisperer.  I like to use composition notebooks instead of spirals, because you don't have the problem with the wire in the spiral notebooks unraveling and getting tangled up.  In the front pages of our notebooks we set up 

• A tally List for the genres.  Students tally the books they have read as they go, and keep track of the genre requirements.
• They keep a reading list, and record books they have read, attempted and abandoned.  Each entry includes the title, author, date the book was finished and the students assessment of how difficult the book was to read.
• A Books-to-read list:  Students plan for future reading.  They record sequels that are yet to be published, recommendations, or books they have previewed and want to read later.

For the genre tally list, I found this one on-line.  I had to reduce it to fit into our notebooks. Each student will be required to read at least forty books during the school year.

Our 40 book requirement will include:

• 5 - Realistic fiction
• 2 - Historical Fiction
• 3 - Mystery
• 3 - Adventure
• 1 - Poetry
• 4 - Books recommended by friends, which could be almost anything
• 4 - Fantasy and science fiction
• 1 - Graphic Novel
• 2 - Biography, autobiography or memoir
• 5 - Informational
• 2 - Books by the same author
• 8 - Chapter books of their own choice

Any book over 350 pages can be counted as two books.

I am allowing them to record the books we read together, so they already have Fourth Grade Rats recorded.  We completed our first read aloud on Thursday.

That is followed by two pages that we will use as we learn about the characteristics of the various reading genres.

I used the reading list and books to read list from the Fountus and Pinnell's, Guiding Readers and Writers, Grades 3 to 6.  Students will use these pages to plan for future reading, and to keep track of books they are interested in reading.  

  

The rest of the notebook will be used for reading response.  This may be in the form of letters, character sketches, or other tools that I will come up with as we go along.

As suggested in The Book Whisperer, I set up a reading notebook for myself.  Instead of writing reading responses, I will set up a page or pages for each of my students.  Then I will use this space to keep notes from our reading conferences.  If I have space, I think I will write a brief summary of the books I am reading.  That will help me with book discussions.

I have already discovered that having my own reading notebook is a great way to model the tasks I want them to complete.  

I informed the class that I am also setting that goal of reading 40 books for myself.  When the class was doing some silent reading on Thursday, I took some time to choose a book for myself, that I had not read before.  I chose Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.  I didn't realize it before, but one of my advanced readers had also chosen this book.  She was absolutely thrilled when she saw that I was reading it too.  She has checked with me several times since to see how far I am, and to talk about the book.  Experiencing her excitement to connect about a book, was eye opening, and showed me just how beneficial this is going to be for my students.

One of my goals this year is to be open to trying and reading new books myself and in genres I don't usually read.  I've taught fourth grade for fifteen years, and I have lots of favorite books that I enjoy sharing with the class, but I realized that I've been a little stuck, and haven't ventured into some of the newer books.  I'm going to make more of an effort to read books the kids are reading.  It will also enables me to discuss the books with them.

I noticed that one of my struggling readers had checked out Bunnicula to read.  Bunnicula is one of my favorite books, so I decided to use that as our next read aloud.  She was excited that we were going to all read a book that she had selected.  

I am finding myself taking more time to notice the books my students are reading and to engage them in conversation about their books and interests.  I showed them some of the non-fiction books I am reading on subjects I am interested in; knitting, gardening, canning, and Argentina (because my son is going to school there).  Then I asked them to make lists of the non-fiction topics they would be interested in reading about.  I used Tagxedo to make a word cloud of those topics, and I took the list to our school library, where I checked out 23 books on as many topics as I could find.  In this way I can supplement the non-fiction section of my classroom library.

I feel like I am doing a much better job sharing my enthusiasm for reading.  Already the class is doing well at choosing books to read during those transitional times in the classroom.  I already do Daily 5.  I think it's going to be much easier to get that going now that we already have such a great start with our independent reading.  

Setting the Tone

Today was our sixth day of school.  Over the past week, we have done a lot towards establishing expectations and setting the tone for our classroom.  An important part of that is creating our social contract. I wrote about that last year here.  All classes in our school do this.  This was part of our training from Capturing Kids' Hearts.  This is the third year we have done this with children at all grade levels, and I could really see the benefit from that previous exposure.  I divided my class into small groups.  I asked four questions.

1. How do teachers want to be treated by students?
2. How do you want teachers to treat you?
3. How do you want to be treated by other students?
4. How do other students want to be treated by you?

Working together they brainstorm words that answered these questions, and what a fabulous job they did.

The more times a word was listed, the more important it is to the class.  I used Wordle.net.  This is a great tool for this project, because the more times you enter a word, the larger the font.  Those words stand out immediately.

Everyone in the class signs the social contract.  I like to jazz this up a bit.  Since everyone had a "hand" in creating the social contract, I had them trace their hand on drawing paper.  They were to write their name on it, and make it fancy, and then decorate the hand print however they wanted to.  I got that idea from, you guessed it, Pinterest.  I had seen hand prints used as a wreath.  I wanted to see their names, so we arranged them all over the poster board.  

I am really pleased with the way this came out.  It will hang on the inside of our classroom door for the entire school year.  From time to time, I remind them of the contract we made.  This is a great tool for setting the tone to safe and productive classroom environment.