Blogging...a Reason to Keep Writing

After a great deal of effort, our student blogs are finally online!  There were many delays as we tried to have all the students publish their blog posts at the same time.  With the help of some parents, we did some promoting of the blogs on social media and the students became very excited about the feed back they received.  They continue to check on their comments and page views often. Check out our Student Blogs!

As I had hoped, the idea of blogging has given my students an authentic reason to be writing.  It has given them a platform to use their voice even when they are trying to discover what that voice might be.  I have students who are writing about our school, sports they participate in, video games they love, fan fiction, families and stories to share.  They continue to ask for time to work on their blogs throughout the week.  Some have even been working on them at home, without being assigned to do so!  It is exciting to see the fire that has been ignited within them.

I have also begun using Google docs for my students' other writing assignments.  I began using this tool as a way for me to read and comment on the writing of a student who broke her leg and was not able to climb the stairs to our classroom.  It offered me a way to conference with this student during the writing process without being in the same room.  It was so successful, I began using it with the rest of my students as well.  This has led to some unexpected benefits.

First of all, as my students are writing, I am able to comment and keep them on task.  Knowing that I am able to join them on their document at any moment, they are more focused on their writing.  I also have time to focus more on my student's writing.  I have access to these documents whenever I have the time to read them as well as I can comment on all of my student's writing during our writing time in class.

The most surprising reslut of using Google docs has been my students' desire to keep writing even during our winter vacation!  My students had just turned in a project before vacation and I had decided not to give any work during their time off.  Several students came to me and asked if they could work on their writing at home now that they had access to their documents through Google docs.  That is a request I have never heard as a teacher and I have to admit, it lights a fire within me to find new ways to use these tools in my classroom.

I am excited to expand my use of Google tools with my students!

Have you used Google tools in your classroom?  I would love to hear about it!

Student Blogs...Coming Soon

It has been awhile since my last post. The Christmas season has come and gone and school is getting back to normal.  I am sad to admit that I did not meet my goal of getting my students blogging online by the end of 2014.  However, I am not discouraged because we are only days away of letting the world hear what we have to say!  This past week my students have spent time setting up the look and layout of their blogs, and I have to admit it has been very exciting. They are learning how to access them from their ipads, tablets, ipods, and smartphones. But most importantly, they have been writing, writing, writing.  It has been fascinating to see how focused they have been on their writing.  Having an authentic purpose for their writing has made an enormous effect on the length and quality of their writing.  I see them completely focused and taking responsibility for their work.  Several students have written more than one post and show no signs of slowing down.  They are all very excited to see how many people read their blogs and are hoping to have people comment on what they post.

We have decided to wait until everyone is ready so that we can publish together.  I expect to have our first posts published by early next week.  Stay posted....


Have you had experience with student blogs?  I would love to hear about other classroom blogging experiences.

Choosing Their Own Voice

Recently, our 4th grade class finished reading the book Rules, by Cynthia Lord.  The book is about a young girl who has a younger brother with autism.  The young girl, Catherine, has a loving relationship with her brother, but has a difficult time with the way others see him.  She is protective of him and at the same time embarrassed.  During a visit to her brother David's OT clinic, she befriends a boy who is confined to a wheel chair and is unable to speak.  He uses a communication book which allows him to point to words in order to have a conversation.  At the same time Catherine is trying to make friends with the "cool" girl who moved in next door. She is torn between her brother, her new friend who can not speak, and pretending they don't exist in order to impress her new neighbor.  As we read this book, we focused on the question: "What does it mean to have voice?"  

After we finished reading the book, I gave my students a communication book of their own with words that I chose for them.  They were not allowed to add words of their own to the book, but their friends could.  In the novel, Catherine adds to her new friends communication book so that they could have conversations about things that were important to her.  My students also had to rely on others to give them words.  

After some time, I asked them questions that they had to answer using their books.  They agreed that it was a fun activity, but also very frustrating not to be able to say exactly what they wanted to.  I tried asking them questions that they would have difficulty answering with the words I had given them.  Earlier that day our chapel message was about being an ambassador for Christ.  My students really took this lesson to heart, so I asked them how they could be ambassadors for Christ.  Knowing that I did not give them the words that I would expect them to use to answer this question, I expected them to be frustrated.  To my surprise, they all flipped to the back of their communication books, where I had left blank spaces for their friends to add words.  Each one of them had the words, Christ, God, and Love!  They chose to add these words to each others books so that they could communicate better, not the words, video games, One Direction, or Mindcraft.  When they contemplated the need to have their own voice heard, they chose the words: Christ, God and love.They never cease to amaze me!

Why Don't We Run Out of Water?

This week I posed the question to my class: Why don't we run out of water?  I set them up for their 3rd SOLE session with one modification.  I had the students take notes on what they were finding instead of cutting and pasting into the scrapbook that is available through The School in The Cloud website.  I wanted to eliminate their desire to spend a great deal of time finding pictures rather than concentrating on reading to find information.

What I loved about this particular Big Question was that when the students began to look for information, they typed in the question and the results were not very helpful.  They were quickly frustrated, but soon realized that they needed to think of the question in a different way.  They began asking questions about where water come from.  They immediately found information about the water cycle and were soon taking many notes on the subject.  To show what they had learned, I had them create posters.  I made three interesting observations while they were working on their posters.  The one student in my class who is exceptionally verbal chose to do the drawing for his group's poster.  Drawing is not something he has ever been comfortable with and I was surprised that he chose that task. The second interesting observation was that the one group who seemed the least interested in the big question and chose not to use all of the allotted time to research, appeared to be re-energized when they began working on the poster. Finally, I realized that letting my students do things in their own way is very difficult for me.  The noise level in the class room was very high, but as I walked around between the groups, they all were focused and excited about what they were doing.  I gave them a time limit to complete the posters in hope that it would keep them focused on the task at hand.  It did indeed keep them focused, but also increased the energy level of the classroom.  Noise does not have to mean not working.

I have included below pictures of the students at work and their finish posters.

A Second SOLE Session

This week, my 4th grade class held our second SOLE session.  SOLE stands for student organized learning environment and we used the resources found on The School in The Cloud website.  If you have not done so, I invite you to read my earlier post regarding our first attempt at a SOLE session.

After studying volcanoes for the past month, we began by discussing the different rocks that are formed by volcanoes. Then looking at some rocks that were found in our area, we asked the question: what other ways are rocks formed?  The students were given a half hour to complete their task.  When the students were asked to chose groups, I noticed that the previous groups that had trouble working effectively chose to work in different groups.  Having had a previous experience with this type of independent task, the students quickly got to work.  All of the participants were focused throughout the allotted time.  There was one group that finished early, but when evaluating their presentation, it was apparent that they did not have enough information to fully answer the question.  One group in particular was fascinating to watch.  Each time they found something useful, they cheered for themselves.  As they found more information, their excitement grew.  At the end, this was the group that had the most thorough answer to the big question. 

After the students completed their quest, and created their presentation, they had the chance to share with the whole class what they were able to find out.  Part of this sharing process is taking time to analyze how they worked in their groups and the effectiveness of their presentation.  One group in particular seemed disappointed when then realized that what they thought was a complete answer to the question really did not answer it at all.

 

For the most part, the groups worked well together.  The students were much more focused on the question this time than the first session and did not venture to see what other groups were doing.  If seemed as if the shorter time gave them more urgency to stay focus at their own station. Perhaps extending the time during our next session would eliminate the pressure and allow them more ease in collaboration.

I am planning another session for next week. I am considering eliminating the computer presentation that is part of  The School in The Cloud website.  This would eliminate the time the students want to take finding pictures rather than information on the given topic. Students can take notes and create a poster presentation after the session is over.

I would love to hear from anyone who might have tried a SOLE session in their class.  

Faced with a New Challange

    So far, this year has been very exciting.  I have been trying new things which have been welcomed in my class.  Now I am faced with a new challenge that I know I will need help with.  I have a remarkable student in my class who needs to be given the opportunity to be challenged daily.  I have had very bright students before that needed the classwork to be differentiated in order to meet their needs, but this is different.  This student's knowledge is beyond the 4th grade and at the same time he is just a little boy.  I gave our year end math test and he got 20 out of 22 questions correct..  Mind you this is only October and we have only completed 2 topics out of 16 in math  He is reader like I have never seen before. Last year he read a total of 87 book including the complete Harry Potter series which he completed in 3 weeks.  He was 8 years old. He has an unexpected understanding of the world around him and needs no prodding to research anything he is interested in.  In short, he really does not need to simply trudge through the complete 4th grade curriculum.  He has a thirst for knowledge that goes beyond the walls of our classroom.  I struggle with knowing how to meet his needs. I have no problem enriching his language skills, but when it comes to math and science, he needs more than I can give him by differentiating my instruction.  I was considering flipping the classroom for him so he can explore subjects and advance his math skills at his own pace.  My problem is I am not so sure how to do this.  Has anyone been successful in doing this for a particular student?  I would love your ideas and suggestions!

SOLE Session

  This week, I tried something new.  I had my students participate in a SOLE session.  SOLE stands for student organized learning experience and is the creation of Sugata Mitra.  Mitra is a professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University.  In 1999 Mitra began conducting his "Hole in the Wall: experiments where groups of children were found to be able to learn anything by themselves if given the right tools and allowed to work in a community.  In 2013 Mitra presented his findings in a TED talk and as a result received TED prize grant to develop his ideas into an educational tool for all children.  He since created The School in the Cloud.  On this website are all the tools necessary to create SOLE sessions in the classroom.  I was a little nervous about the process, as my students are not used to be given that much independence with their own learning.  The computer situation in our classroom is not what I would like it to be in order to conduct one of these sessions, but I figured we could adapt with what we have.  I hoped for the best.
    When I explained to my students what we were going to do, they were very excited.  Their eyes lit up with excitement and trepidation when they realized that they were going to have to rely on their own instincts and get the work done.  I set the session up for an hour because I knew they would need time to figure out how the online program worked: cutting, pasting, using the scrapbook.  At first they were afraid to ask each other for help, but as soon as one started, they began to communicate across different groups.  We did have some computer issues that I need to intervene with, but for the most part, they were able to figure out how to search, cut, paste, and create a presentation on their own.  One student in particular became the go to person for advice in these matters.
   Although the SOLE  session is designed with student independence in mind, it does not mean that the teacher has no role at all.  As this was the first session and my students are young, I often had to remind them that they could think for themselves and be successful.
    As it turned out, several of the groups were very successful answering the question and creating their presentation, but others had some difficulty staying focused.  It was a great opportunity to discuss why some groups were more successful than others.  We analysed how people's behaviors during the session effected the outcome.  For me, the purpose of this first session was not only to come up with an answer to our question, but to gain independence in getting there.  After the session and discussion, I asked my students what they thought of the process and I received a resounding two thumbs up!  I am looking forward to the next session.