Blog, Blogging, Blogged

A few weeks ago, I introduced blogging to my students. It had been my goal to start something like this, so I was excited to get it going! I showed them the basics, talked about a blog's purpose, gave them my expectations, and they were on their way. I still can't get over how quickly they picked up on this skill!

I wanted my kids to blog for several reasons.
1. To reflect on topics learned in school
2. To practice typing using correct conventions
3. To apply writing craft learned during Writer's Workshop
4. To have a global audience
5. To use technology in a meaningful and authentic way.

They loved it the second they tried it. They were authors and could write a journal entry for the world to see. Wow!

I am so proud of my little authors. Please follow us if you are interested! You can even leave a comment, as we will be discussing them.

http://206news3.blogspot.com/

Collaboration

       I could write about so many teaching topics that deal with collaboration. Having a student teacher and being in an inclusion classroom means that I collaborate constantly. And, it's beautiful. It's great. No one knows everything, so when more than one person is involved with a lesson or idea, amazing things can come out of it.
      Here is one example of how collaboration creates great outcomes: Last week, the special education teacher, student teacher and myself came up with a math lesson involving vocabulary word riddles. The students chose a math word that we have gone over in class, and with scaffolding, created a 5 line riddle about the word. Then, they had to demonstrate their understanding of the word by creating a real life picture. Finally, they took a digital picture. This is an example of what the finished product looks like.

Here are clues about this student's math word.

Here is this student's picture and word.

Here is the bulletin board we created.

 Observing the students figure out how to demonstrate understanding of their word was fascinating. I loved watching their thinking and creativity. This is what you might have seen if you stopped into room 206 on Friday.