What Makes a Museum Academy Star Student?...A 1st Grade Digital Story

Before reading on...know that this is a COMPLETE work in progress and I have lots of work to be done on my digital story. So far, I have audio recorded my students reading their writing, placed a song in the background and played around with the volume a bit. So far...it's a little tricky.

I started this digital story hoping to remind my students what the four pillars of our school (respect, responsibility, kindness, and safety) stand for. They have been going through what I like to call the "Mopey March-es", that time of the school year where they forget some of the rules they need to follow and start bickering with each other over pretty much anything and everything.  As a teacher who spent a good majority of the first weeks of school laying the ground rules for the classroom I found myself getting frustrated when students were forgetting how to act towards one another. I think this project will be a good reminder to my students as to what they should and should not do in the school to act like a "Star Student". I can't wait to finish the video and play it for them!

Teaching Children the Importance of Communicating in Multimedia Environments

As Troy Hicks mentions in his book, "There is no question that students are influenced by a variety of variety of texts that they encounter in the world, and learning how to compose in multimedia environments is a critical skill, and not just because the curriculum says it is." (Hicks, 2009, p. 59) Students are constantly surrounded and often inundated with a vast array of helpful (and sometimes not so helpful) technologies.  In this new generation waiting for a dial up, looking through a dictionary, and call someone from a pay phone are all out of date activities. Kids have the world at their fingertips when they turn on their Smartphones, iPADs, laptops, and E-Readers. So it is only right that they learn how to compose themselves and express their thoughts in an appropriate manner. Something that I worry about is that many children do not have the notion to think about once they publish something on the internet it is there forever and can be seen by anyone and everyone. 

Who's responsibility is it to teach these students how to communicate in this growing technological world? Parents? Teachers? Peers?

Hicks suggests that students take their own photos for digital stories and recommends using photo sharing sites such as Flickr. I think these are wonderful suggestions...but I have some hesitations. With safety being a concern should children be posting their own photos in digital stories? Again, who should be the deciding factor in this? Parents, teachers, or maybe someone else?

Read Across America

I know it may be a few days late...but you can always celebrate reading...right?! There are so many amazing activities and resources to use when thinking of celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday. A great resource I found was the Teacher's Net Gazette where they depicted how to incorporate Dr. Seuss not only in reading but across the curriculum (i.e., math, science, reading, etc.).

This year my school put on a little assembly for the students where Cat in the Hat himself made an appearance! He read Green Eggs and Ham to the students and they loved it! If you're looking for useful resources and ideas to celebrate next years Read Across America Day at your school check out this link. Judy compiles the best variety of resources from reading activities to fun apps to use on your iPAD, as well as gives you a short history on Read Across America and how it was started.

I have to admit I should have used more technology to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday...I went the old fashioned route and read a story to the kids. Did you do anything special to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday as well as Read Across America?

Tweet Tweet

When I used to think of Twitter I thought of social media, celebrity gossip and personal use. Never before had I thought Twitter could be used with students (let alone K and 1st graders) in the classroom setting. When reading Why Didn't I Do This Sooner? I came to the realization...what am I waiting for? I love the idea of kid blogging and I have made it definitive decision to start a class blog next year. But until then, I need to do something...right?! At this point of the school year, between district testing, snow days throwing off our schedules, SRBI files, report cards,  conferences and exhibition nights I really don't think I could put one more thing on my plate...but maybe in April? Here's to wishful thinking...

I am itching to start something new with my students. I want something that engages them in their learning, gets them excited about content and has them wanting to share their findings with the greater community outside our four walls. Our next Social Studies unit starts in three weeks and focuses on Geography. We use Flat Stanley as the basis of our unit and I want to incorporate Twitter, Blogging, or something along these lines into this unit.

Twitter seems to be a great avenue to provide instant communication with parents, students and families. I have been following some  Kindergarten teachers'  Twitter accounts and love that they upload pictures and short captions to keep the parents in the loop of what's going on in the classroom. Kids can no longer say "I don't know" when their parents ask them what happened at school that day!

For those of you who use any (or all) of these technologies in your class do you have any suggestions for the overwhelmed but eager teacher?!

Kidbloggers and Modern Day Literacies

Literacy takes on a new form in todays classrooms. It is not simply reading a book in class or writing a one page response to a prompt. Today, students of all ages are asked to go one step further and bring their learning to life through technology. Experimenting with technology is the easiest way to get kids interested and testing out these new resources. Kidbloggers are the latest edition to the blogging world. It is now quite common to see students blogging about their learning, as well as using their classroom blogs as a platform to share their opinions and ideas.

The 8th graders in Mr. Boylen's 8th grade class have implemented blogging in their daily learning. His students are given prompts to respond to as well as given a bit of freedom to write about their personal lives. These students are much older than my 1st graders but it is great to see students interested and engaged in blogging. The principal at their school, Greg Miller, shares his thoughts and opinions on kid blogging in his post Getting to the How and Why of Student Blogging. I think it would be beneficial to share this administrators opinion with my administration when I try to implement a kid blog in my classroom (hopefully in September!). I agree with many of the arguments Miller has in support of student blogs.

Kid blogs are beneficial in helping students to: 
-Become better readers
-Become better writers
-Exercise their opinions (working on defending their ideas with support)
-Become engaged in the material being taught
-Communicating skills (with peers as well as adults)

Do you agree that blogging should be implemented in the classroom? Why or what not?

A Hodgepodge of "Techy" Thoughts

There are so many amazing sites to look into that I couldn't decide what to dedicate this post to...so it's a bit of a hodgepodge...

Digital Storytelling
I'm starting to think about creating our Digital Story and feeling a little lost in all the information there is out there...here is a great link to a Wiki describing the simplicity of digital storytelling I found on Integrating Technology and Literacy's main page. As a visual learner myself I think having the ability to include pictures, videos, and text all in one digital story will be very helpful for all students. I'm looking forward to creating my digital story. Have any of you started thinking about what you'll do for yours? If you've already made a digital story, do you have any special tips?

Resources
Having an iPAD in the classroom is wonderful. It's a resource that allows students the freedom to use technology and explore new apps. I am always looking for new apps for my students iPAD. Our district was piloting a reading program that ended and now I am searching for a reading app I love equally. This site has awesome apps that are FREE and easy to use! You can follow them through your GoogleReader (check out mine if you'd like!) and get daily updates from their blog.

Class Tech Tips
My little ones just finished a math unit on 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes. Of course, now that we're done I find this awesome resource using a Geoboard iPAD app instead of a regular geoboard! I am definitely going to use this app when teaching the same unit next year.

There are so many amazing resources available online. Most of the ones I find have to do with reading. Are there any useful math blogs/sources/freebies that you recommend?

The Importance of "The Daily 5"

Literacy, Reading Language Arts, ELA Block, whatever you call it in your school this large piece of your curriculum drives your daily instruction from start to finish.

The Daily 5 can look different depending on what school you are as well as what grade.  Typically, it includes:

1. Reading to Self
2. Reading to Someone
3. Listening to Reading
4. Word Work
5. Teacher Work

This may seem like a lot to fit into a literacy block but in actuality it is pretty simple. With my 1st graders attention span being relatively short I try to vary up their daily activities (although I keep the same routine I try to spice up the tasks when I can!). At my school we include all five aspects of the Daily 5 in our Teacher's College Reading Curriculum. Students read to themselves during independent reading as well as to their reading partner for 5-10 minutes a day. They use iPADs, the listening center and the computer to listen to stories being read as well as to myself when I read books aloud. We complete a word work lesson every day focusing on short/long vowels, digraphs, blends, etc. and I run three leveled guided reading groups a day. All of this within a 90 minute block! It is a lot to coordinate but I see the benefit as my students' reading levels are improving and their confidence in reading soaring.

When looking at Tales of a First Year Teacher I found some amazing resources regarding The Daily 5. If you are at all interested in starting this in your classroom or making changes to your current instruction check out some of the links on her page!