Flat Stanley

This year I read "Flat Stanley"written by Jeff Brown to my Grade One class. In the past 7 years, I have done a Flat Stanley project with 2 of my other classes, but nothing like the project it became this year. Thanks to Twitter, our project went online and across North America. I asked my amazing PLN if anyone was willing to host one of our Flat Stanley's and quickly I had an amazing response. Teachers from all over Canada and United States offered to host a Stanley in their classroom. I realized this was bigger than I had imagined and created a blog for people to post pictures and information as well as the traditional way of mailing pictures or postcards to our class. For the past few weeks, my mailbox at school has been very busy with a new letter inside everyday! We have received stickers, pictures to share, books for our classroom, etc. The generosity has been amazing! Our Flat Stanley blog has also been filling up - we have over 60 different posts of where Flat Stanley has been and the adventures he's had. We've watched videos, shared pictures, read tweets and have gotten a small glimpse into a variety of different classrooms.

To my PLN - thank you for taking the time out of your busy classroom schedule to host our Stanley. My students have been absolutely thrilled with the adventures you have shared with us. We have learned so much about our province, country as well as different cities around America. Our world has grown a lot bigger, but also smaller, as we've been able to make many connections with how things are similar in your classrooms with ours. You have been very generous with your time as well as your resources to share with us. The cost of postage alone for some was shocking. Thank you for being so willing and selfless to share your adventures of a 'piece of paper' with a classroom you've never met personally. That means a great deal to me and all my students. From the bottom of my heart and 22 other students in my class, THANK YOU so much!

If you haven't had a chance to check out our Flat Stanley blog, go here to see all the fantastic adventures Flat Stanley has been up to in the past month.

Using Educreations... and failing at it

Sometimes the best learning happens when you fail.

Today, I messed up. I tried something new and although it seemed to be going smoothly at first, it didn't end as well. I had my students use Educreations to record their learning on 3D shapes. I split my class into groups of two and with iPads in hand, we went out into the school on a shape hunt looking for 3D figures. We took lots of pictures and they were being so creative in where these objects could be found. Once we went back to class, I thought we'd put these pictures into Educreations and create a short little movie. We have used Educreations the past few weeks sharing their made structures and explaining how they built them. (Side note: our school has recently gotten 20 iPads to share - so using iPads is still a very new thing for us!) I thought that since we've had success with this app before, it would be a great app for them to use today. My Grade Ones were importing their pictures, creating a title page and were totally focused and completely learning by labelling and discussing their 3D figures. They were just about to get to the audio part when we realized the bell was about the ring and it was time for home!

OH NO!

1 group finished and were able to save.

Another group began their audio, but was interrupted by some noisy kids in hall getting ready for home. Turns out, you can't re-record...

The rest of the groups were not quite done and needed some more time another day, but it turns out, you can't save a draft...

These iPads are not ours - they are the schools. Other classes use them and have them signed out for the next few days. Educreations may be used by other classes, so I had to save what they did have done, even though it was not complete. It was a sad moment for me to realize their hard work of a final product was not possible from today's work.

It's not always about the product, it's about the process. I've been saying this to myself lately as our class is working through inquiry. I needed to remind myself of this as the realization of my mistake.  Did my students find, discuss, compare and label 3D figures? ABSOLUTELY. It was hands on, engaging and purposeful. Some of my students didn't even realize they were doing MATH! The process was a success. The product? Not so much.

I am so proud of my Grade Ones and the things they are capable of - even if I can't share their learning with the world. At least this time.  I've been told from a great twitter friend (@slfirstgrade ) that 30hands app is great for this. You can re-record audio and save draft files. When it's finished, it saves in your photo roll so easy to embed too!

Lesson learned: Educreations, although a wonderful app for sharing our learning, taking pictures and recording audio is not always the BEST app to use when you need more time to complete and may need to re-record.

Sometimes the best learning happens when you fail.

Student Blogging

In September when I started blogging with my Grade One students, I was probably more scared than they were. Our first computer lab period was...  insanity. My Grade Ones were taught how to log on and use a computer in Kindergarten, but they had a summer to forget and I wasn't just asking them to log on. We needed to log onto the computer, get into kidblog and then start blogging. It was a completely brand new, multi-step task for them but I pushed them to try it. It was probably one of the most loudest, craziest computer periods we ever had - but I have absolutely NO regret it. We are now into our 7th month of blogging and my Grade Ones are independent bloggers! They still need help once in awhile logging in or starting a new post, but generally, all my students know how to blog, read and leave comments for others. It's so exciting to see! They have an authentic audience and a purpose to write. I have 6 and 7 year olds that are learning that their voice is important and others will read what they write.

This week we just came back from March Break. We all had a week off and now back into routine. We started Monday by talking about what we did over the break. We shared with each other and got inspired by our stories. Then I asked my students to draw a picture of their March Break adventure. I hadn't asked them to write anything down yet, but to put their story into a picture. After break, we went into the computer lab and I have my students blog about their March Break adventures. I gave them their pictures back to look at it while they started writing. All students got right into their writing and worked their best. Tonight I added their pictures to their blogs so they could share their March Break adventures with the 'internet world'. They produced their best writing yet. I have a group of 6 and 7 year old bloggers. You can check out their blogs here.

Looking back at their writing from September until now, I can see a huge growth in their writing development. They are becoming quite the writers! It is such an exciting process to see. Thank you to my #1stchat friends who encouraged me at the beginning of September to just start blogging with my Grade Ones right away and to 'jump in with both feet'. Well, I jumped... and I'm incredibly grateful I did! Grade one blogging is the best!

New Inquiry

Last week I started a new inquiry on 'Objects and Materials' with my Grade Ones. Inquiry scares me a little because there is less control and a lot of unknown. My students love it as they are in 'control' of their learning and this is the most important part. Inquiry is about the process not the product. We are in the process of finding out what we know and what we have an interest in. We started the inquiry with time to explore a variety of objects and materials. The students asked questions and enjoyed "playing" with all the objects around the room. They noticed a variety of things, like the smell, texture, whether it was hard or soft.

We talked about some of the materials and read a book about the materials they played with. Most of my students were interested in metal. Some wanted to know more about wood. We read a book about metal and wood and I had the students take notes on stickies and talk to each other about what they learned and what they wondered. They wrote their ideas from their stickies on larger papers in small groups. We took the large paper information and shared it with the class to create a chart. I did this with the metal group and then the wood group. Each group gained a lot of information working together and sharing the information found from the non-fiction books.

Now, where do I go next? My thoughts are that I need to bring in metal and wood objects for students to explore. This can go nicely with reading and writing - I know they will love to write about different objects.  Here's a picture from a blog post just written today about one student's interest in metal:

I love how an inquiry can tie into all aspects of the curriculum and not forced upon, but rather by choice of the students.

Our class will also have to go on a metal and wood hunt, looking for different objects in the room. This also compliments the Grade 1 curriculum, as students need to be able to identify objects that have specific materials.

I would love your thoughts about inquiry. Where do think I should go next? What have you done that works?

#etmooc

So I've joined something called #ETMOOC - Educational Technology & Media - Massive Open Online Course. I've heard the term "MOOC" on Twitter before, but I really didn't have a clue what it really meant. Now I know, it's just an Massive Open Online Course. What does that really mean? I don't know yet - but I'm going to learn in the next few months. :)

When I started hearing about #ETMOOC floating around on Twitter I thought I'd check it out. It looks like I'll be hanging around with hundreds of educators around the world. Ranging from Elementary teachers to University Professors, Administrators, Educator Specialists and just about everything in between. Do I feel like a little fish in a HUGE pond - you bet!!! I'm feeling more like a minnow or something smaller than that.

BUT, I'm learning that sometimes I need to 'jump in with both feet' and just take a risk. So, here I am. Attempting something brand new, something out of my comfort zone, something HUGE, but something that will make me become a better teacher and learner - so that is why I'm taking the plunge and joining in.

My blog will be used to document my learning, as others attending ETMOOC are doing as well. It's going to be an exciting process. Here's to my first MOOC! If you haven't joined yet, join in (Check out #etmooc on Twitter). If you have, I'm looking forward to learning with you.

       ~ Jenni

Behaviour Management

It's been months since I last posted. I've written on my class blog, our kidblog and have done a lot of tweeting... but I've neglected my own personal blog. Now is the time to get this up and running again.

I've realized that the posts I put on our class blog could go into so much more detail and I should be doing that here. 

I have a challenging class this year. They have challenged me in the way that I teach. Sometimes it feels like September everyday, reviewing routines and structure. Then I remember what September was really like and realize how much my students have grown!

Today I started a classroom/behaviour management strategy. I don't like to always put these in place, because I like students to WANT to do well in class, not because they get something. HOWEVER... I also realize that I need to teach to my students' needs and we need to do something, so I will try this!

I've done a lot of searching and reading and talking lately and have come up with this solution right now. I'm creating a class goal that we will work on for a few weeks (or however long it takes to get it). When they show me the appropriate behaviour, they'll get a fuzzy to put into a jar. Once the jar is full, we'll have a celebration. Today we brainstormed celebrations. They got so excited thinking of the possibilities. Their ideas were very creative! Some suggestions were: a popcorn party, movie, extra art time, free time, outside time, pizza party, a trampoline party (at someone's house!), and even extra writing time.

Our first goal is to work on coming to the carpet quickly and quietly, ready to learn. In order to get my students to understand this goal - we discussed what it looks like and sounds like and took a picture of them doing it the right way. I posted the list and picture on our easel (at their eye level when sitting) so it should help them with the goal. 

I've done some research into the Clip Behaviour Chart - where each student is responsible for their own behaviour. Each day they start at "ready to learn" and have go up or down, depending on their choices. 
The tricky part with something like this, is managing it without it becoming onerous and eventually neglecting it. I want something that can work that can keep everyone is our class accountable. I have a few students that struggle with this and feel this might help.

I would love your suggestions. What has worked in your class? Do you have a behaviour management strategy that works?

I'm Changing It Up... I'm Not Teaching Forms

As we head into August, it's time to really start thinking about school. Although I still have a month until school actually starts, that means I only have a month until school actually starts. :)

I love this time of year. To be honest, it's just because I'm an organizational freak. I love new school supplies, organizing my bins, putting together my classroom library and overall just getting everything ready for my students. This isn't a job for me, it's my hobby. :)

Not only do I enjoy organizing my classroom, I love having the summer to think and read about WHAT I'm going to teach my students. 

Currently I'm reading through No more, "I'm Done!" by Jennifer Jacobson. I'm not even halfway through yet (organizing my classroom and the olympics have been my distraction!) but I love the idea of teaching various traits in my mini lessons and having students then write what they choose. This is their writer's workshop time. This allows me to focus on the mini lesson when having conferences with students during their writing time. Organizing my writing time this way, will move away from teaching forms and having everyone write the same time at the same time. This is a shift for me. I think teaching forms is easier to mark so essentially, it's easier to manage. All students work on the same thing at the same time, we can create success criteria using a specific form and I can create a rubric from that. This is organized. This is familiar. This works for me.

BUT

Is it beneficial for the students? Is it meaningful writing when everyone is writing a letter or a list at the same time? Even if they're not engaged or have nothing to write about on that topic?

This year I'm changing it up. I want to leave writing open for students to choose WHAT they write about. I want my students - most importantly, my reluctant students, to view themselves as writers. REAL writers. I don't think I get this with writing forms.

Am I going to throw away forms? Of course not. I have to teach forms, it's part of the curriculum  - just as voice, spelling unfamiliar words, adding capitals and periods, etc. are outlined in the curriculum. It just doesn't have to be my focus. I'll incorporate forms into my mini lessons, as I'll do for the various traits and grammar that needs to be taught.

This is not a new idea or a novel concept - I know that. Lucy Calkins outlined this beautifully in her "writing workshop" concept years ago. I've read it before, I believed in it before, but I went back to familiar - went back to forms. This year, I'm going to try hard not to get sucked back in. I'm going to teach to my students' needs. I'm going to conference with students. I'll give timely feedback about their writing. This is my goal. I'm going to try it. I know I'm going to get "messy". It might not be as organized as I like. But, I'm changing it up. Why? Because ultimately this is what's best for my students.