I think I'm gonna' like it here...

This year, I started a new adventure. After teaching third grade for 8 1/2 years, I moved to grade six.  Many people responded to my news with a comment like, "That's a big jump".  After teaching for two days, I can tell you already that I am liking, "That big jump".  Did you know that sixth graders can follow multi-step directions without modeling every step and writing each step on the board? Did you know that sixth graders can add, subtract, multiply and divide close to the speed which I can? They have a sense of humor, they have opinions.  I think I'm gonna' like it here. 

My first day of sixth grade went well. Students began the year by coming into their new classrooms, and decorating a part of a puzzle piece. They were to put their names on the piece and draw or write about something that they are really good at.  We also completed a word search with no word bank...the words were their classmates first and last names so they had to look around the room to "find" their words. Next, students took their puzzle pieces and tried to find their matching counterparts. Each student had 1/3 of a letter, which made up the word "TEAMWORK".  We discussed how each one of us brings a special talent to the classroom. How each one of us is part of the puzzle and we need to work together as we learn together over the next year. We are in this together. 

We shared items from our summer adventures to talk about something we did over the summer weeks. Around this time, I noticed the students getting a little bored. We decided, as a group, that we would revisit this sharing time. Quickly our conversation turned into sharing stories...getting to know each other, and laughing at the same time.

When students returned from Art, we began a writing activity. In groups of three or four, students went around the classroom and chose three items to put inside a brown paper bag.  Placing the bags at the front table, groups then came up to choose a "bag" and write a narrative story that included the three items inside their bag.  At the end we met in the reading nook, and I asked students who wanted to, to share their stories. I was surprised when each group volunteered to share what they had written...as a TEAM. 

In the afternoon we completed many "first day tasks" including making our lunch choice cards, practicing opening our locks...and helping each other (TEAMWORK :), labeling our subject dividers, reviewing our daily schedule and the reading requirements as well as the homework agenda book. 

I went home feeling good about my first day...but not great.  Where is the enthusiasm that I saw in my third graders on the first day? Where is their excitement about learning and beginning a new year with new friends and a new teacher?  How can I adjust my plans, to include an activity that a) they haven't done four times before and b) they get excited about?

So, I spent some time in the evening asking for some help in my Twitter network, and scouring the pages of Mailbox Magazine, my new best friend.  And after many pages and many ideas that I have seen or done in the classroom, I found an idea that I thought might just yield the results I was looking for. Place Value Mansions.  A math activity where students would work in teams to create a mansion of great value.

We began our day learning about our grade level checkbook behavior incentive, and how to fill out the ledger incorrectly...I mean, correctly. My computer crashed and I was trying to send attendance and lunch count to the appropriate places, as well as yield questions from students and take in three sets of returned paperwork.  We didn't get started until 9:15. And guess what? I didn't have to correct the behavior of even one person during that time. The students sat in their seats, talked amongst themselves and allowed me the time to reboot and submit the information.  So...we started out adding a deposit to our checkbooks. The title? "Being Awesome". No other way to describe that. We quickly added deposits for other things; signed agenda, signed reading log, and returning papers. 

Next, I pulled the students together in the Reading Center to discover what was in my special "Pillow Case".  The first hint was that it was special because it stank. After guesses of dead squirrels possibly being in the bag...ummm...yeah...I started to pull out some of my shoes...one at a time. We talked about how each shoe had a purpose...one for church, one for riding motorcycle, a flip-flop for hot days, a snow boot, running shoe...each shoe had a different purpose (Daily5) Would I wear the church shoe to gym? Would I wear the running shoe to church?  No. Then I had two students, of obvious different shoe size, trade shoes. Did that work? No. Shoes are like our interests.  We have different interests and what fits one person may not fit the other.  Just like we have unique topics that different books offer us.  What one person enjoys may not "fit" another person.  We went over a book selection strategy entitled, IPICK I look at a book, Purpose, Interest, Comprehend, Know all of the words (Daily5).  We discussed interests, and students were encouraged to think of these things as they chose their first library books.

After returning from library, I was super excited to introduce the Place Value Mansion activity to them.  As I had hoped, they were EXCITED. We went over how to work as a TEAM, as I reminded them that when they worked as a team they were not guaranteed to get what they wanted. It's called compromising.  We talked about how to watch out for and include others if we saw someone not fully participating. And then we began. They were enthusiastic and miraculously, they could have cared less that they had to count the value of their home when they were done. The only thing they were worried about was the design and creativity.  One group in particular took off right away in the creativity department. Other groups seemed to be stuck in the design of the house, instead of the creativity.  I encouraged groups to check out their classmates mansion and before long we had some real architectural engineers.  Creativity was flowing, and I was A.M.A.Z.E.D..

It was so fun to watch them. They worked as a TEAM. They helped each other. They included each other. And the results were spectacular.  (Check out the PhotoPeach Slideshow on our classroom homepage).  The project ended up going much longer than expected. Originally I planned for thirty minutes of design. But thirty turned into forty...they were just having so much fun! And then it was time for recess...but wait, some of them didn't leave. They stayed behind to continue improving their mansions. Then it was time for lunch...and they still didn't leave. So I asked again, and they still didn't leave...Then I put my foot down, and they left.  When we returned from lunch, we finished up the project. Using a paper guide students chose the mansion which they thought had the greatest value, recorded the name and their estimate. They then recorded their estimate on an orange index card and set it next to the mansion.  Groups got back together...and worked as a TEAM...to find the actual amount and then compare it to the closest estimate. 

WOW.  What a project.  Here's the thing.  Students initiated ideas. Students worked together to complete their project. Students encouraged each other. Students helped each other. Students fought with each other (you didn't think I was in an imaginary world, did you? These are sixth graders...c'mon!)  Did I get everything accomplished that I wanted to today? No, I did not. With the students in the drivers seat, an enthusiasm and a referee on the sidelines, the students shaped this day into much more than I could have ever hoped. 

I think I'm gonna' like it here.

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Webinar 7/29/11

This afternoon I participated in my first live webinar. http://www.nmc.org/connect/2011/July/29  I decided to participate in this webinar, after Patti posted the details on Edmodo. I participated in PLP last school year, under the leadership of Will Richardson and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach. Last year was the first that I had been formally 'taught' about the influence of the digital age to the classroom setting. Will Richardson has some great thoughts about the future of our schools and he is out there trying to make a difference. When I hear him speak, I often wish he was a leader in the U.S. education system and philosophies. His ideas need to be heard and implemented.

I signed on a few minutes late (you can't plan everything perfectly with young children :), and listened for some time to Will Richardson speak about education and the changes that are desperately needed. After listening for some time, I began to participate in the side channel chat on the side. I appreciated that my ideas and questions were responded to, and I felt like I was welcomed into the room.  I thoroughly enjoyed this time, and look forward to participating again.

Here are some quotes and notes from the webinar. 

• Kids are out there on the internet, finding things they are interested in - - - no one is teaching them how to do it well right now.
• We need to create a laser focus – how do we learn with access?
• Inquiry based education = higher motivation
• Teachers need to have students’ paths (their passions/interest learning) meet objectives/standards from state and school district curriculum.
• The easy way is for everyone to be approached the same way. This is why we have implemented standardized testing. Standardized testing is the easiest way to make sure everyone is achieving. 
• We do not trust our teachers to make assessments.
• Classrooms are moving towards using social tools through the curriculum. Teacher is co-learner. Teacher aligns learning to expectations we all have for students to meet.  This is much more beneficial.
• Students being pushed through a curriculum is not the best way to serve students in today's society, when we have the access to the information.
• Teacher needs to be perceived as a learner. Will asks students, “How smart is your teacher?” Students have opinion right away, which is evidenced by their responses on sites such as Ratemyteachers.com Will asks, “How does your teacher learn?” They are clueless. Students don’t see adults in the room as a learner who is connected.This needs to change. 

Tools to use in the classroom for Students to CREATE

Following I have outlined some new programs that I would like to implement this next school year as well as "old" ones that I have used in the past and plan to use again.  

New ideas for projects in the classroom:

Bit Strips: http://www.bitstrips.com/landing Comic Strips for the Classroom...awesome.

https://bubbl.us/ looks like a great site to engage brainstorming activities. It can be shared, uploaded, printed, etc. 

Wordpress:  Our district has purchased subscription to WordPress. I am excited about using this new tool, however it will take a little bit of work to grasp how to use it, and what other things I have been using that it will replace. I really wish we had our log-in information so we could explore in the summer! 

Blabberize: cute program that allows you to animate a drawn picture. I could see using this program in language arts when studying different types of sentences, etc., etc.. 

My e-book: http://www.myebook.com/  Create an e-book for free, students can publish.This may be a better choice for my age level: Story Jumper - students create a book and then parents can purchase if they choose.  http://www.storyjumper.com/

I love the example Eric (Nicole :) posted on Museum Box.  This could be used in many ways in the classroom and would be a neat virtual activity. This activity could be done in the classroom using a shoe box, but it would not be nearly as cool as creating a virtual one! 

I have seen, but never used Picnik http://www.picnik.com/ The special effects on Picnick would be a nice alternative to what I tried to do via Microsoft Word and Google Draw tools. 

Scriblink looks awesome! A colleague of mine used a program similar to this to collaborate with a different school. They used a program specific to SmartBoard...I should have known there was a program out there for me to use as well!

My Fake Wall - I'd like my students to create a Fake Wall this year.  MyFakeWall.com is a fake Facebook page. On the site, are friends and conversation that "could be true".   I really think that this site challenges students to think about the lifestyle, friends, and environment of a person. 

My Maps within Google: Using the example shown here, I plan to use Google Maps in sixth grade to have students give a tour of the country they study through our World Regions unit.  Students would do something similar to what is shown here on this tutorial. I used Google Maps in the classroom last year, for the first time. I'm excited to use My Maps in correlation to our study. 

Examples of projects I did in the classroom, for the first time, this past school year:

Glogster: Students used Glogster to create a story map of a book that they read. Students also used Glogster to create a poster about themselves. Many students enjoyed these projects and made ones at home in their free time as well. 

Prezi: Studying famous people, presidents and places, I completed a student choice project where students choose from a list (or justified a different person/place of interest), researched, and presented to the class via Prezi, Glogster, or PowerPoint.Students uploaded YouTube videos to their Prezi, as well as photographs and links.

MyFakeWall.com - I introduced this briefly to the students by showing them examples of fake walls. Students could use these fake walls to explore some of the famous people/places we studied.  I would LOVE to have my students create a Fake Wall, in grade six. I did not feel like it was age appropriate when I taught grade three last year. I'm looking forward to being able to push my students further in their tech use.  

Little Bird Tales - We used Little Bird Tales to publish students stories. Students could read their stories, and display their hand drawn pictures.  

Animoto - used in the classroom to display photographs. 

Google Forms - students created a Google Form to send out to their classmates. Students created questionnaires for data analysis, and also a form that served as a peer check when they presented to the class a project.  

Google Maps - I used Google Maps in the classroom this past year, to zoom in on different areas of the world that our classmates and their families visited during the school year. We learned about different cultures and the students were able to see firsthand a variety of places around the United States and world such as; Florida, Tennessee, Iowa, Louisiana , China, England, India, and Ethiopia.

VoiceThread: as a third grade team, we purchased a subscription to VoiceThread. We used it for a variety of projects throughout the year. One of the best uses was for students to post and/or answer questions about a chapter book they were assigned to read. 

Stixy/Wallwisher: I used this tool in the classroom when we studied Landforms. As a homework assignment and to introduce my lesson, students created a Stixy page where they uploaded pictures of landforms and named the type of landform.  We invited others through Twitter to join us, and our principal posted a pictures with some clues of where she was. Students needed to use the clues to identify the landform.

Wordle: I used wordle several times throughout the year to create word splashes on unit vocabulary, and presidential speeches. 

(Mis) Communicating with Parents

One of my greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses is communicating with parents. 

I communicate in a variety of ways with parents through the classroom website, bi-monthly newsletters outlining all subjects, etc., parents volunteering in the classroom, and as a community member. I spend many weeks at the beginning of the year purposefully building a relationship with parents.  The combination of their child "enjoying my class" and them being able to "openly communicate" with me builds the foundation for a successful year.  I don't share with many that there are several nights (sometimes in a week), that I stay up late to respond thoroughly to parents questions or comments to share my thoughts, work with them, and make sure they understand where I am coming from. 

That being said, this past year was a year that I did several of the mentioned above, but I had VERY few e-mails from individual parents.  That was number one, to make me feel disconnected from parents. Although I had many conversations with parents, it just didn't "feel right" this year.  Beginning, middle, and end, I felt like something was missing.  I spent a lot of time at the end of the year and much of the summer weeks thinking about why it didn't "feel right" this year.

I have thought of several reasons...

1) I was overwhelmed. I have two young children, and my husband works very long hours. I get them up, to the sitter, go to work, pick up from sitter, play, bed, schoolwork...every night.

2) I started the year with a student teacher 

3) Through PLP I was working very hard to try new ideas in the classroom. The first year of a new idea is not the smoothest. And, I was implementing "new" ideas in the classroom that a few parents didn't seem too happy about. They wanted to see traditional. 

4) Many plugged in parents felt the need to judge "Public School" as a whole, and felt that the school, as a whole, wasn't "up to par" with what they would want for their child's education.  They were disappointed in the system, not necessarily me.

5) I started to see weaknesses in the "system" as I reflected on where the state is/was taking us, and where I thought education needed to go.

So, other than that... :)

All of these things together equaled what I felt was my "worst year ever" in terms of how I felt about my relationship with my parents. Even though I had the support of my boss, and many colleagues, I didn't feel confident in what I was doing. Was it because I didn't teach from the "cookie cutter" manual? Yes. Was it because I wasn't as worried about students' grades because I saw a bigger picture? Yes.  Was it because I was questioning what I was doing? Yes.  Am I being to critical of myself? Yes. I would say a majority of my parents didn't think there was a problem at all. Which is a good thing. But there was. Whether it was in my head, or some parents saw a glimpse of it. It was there.  

Has anyone else ever felt this way?
What coping mechanisms would you offer?
How do you balance traditional vs. new ideas?
How have you been successful communicating non-traditional projects to your parents (especially those who are teachers, themselves and do not agree with your philosophy)? 

Organizing Information on the Internet

Amber McCabe and I are colleagues at Brecknock Elementary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  For this project, we both struggled to find tools on the internet, to help our students organize themselves. At the elementary level, the teacher's website seems to be the "organizer" of information as they are not yet independent enough to sift through the web themselves.  Dr. Brunsell gave us permission to work together on this project because we both had similar thoughts about what programs we could use in the classroom. We will post independently as we will have some ideas that are different, but if you notice similarities to our projects it is because of this.

For this project, I chose the primary focus to be Diigo.  I began using Diigo in the classroom last fall.  I was extremely excited as I thought about where Diigo could take us, as a third grade team within the school and even as a third grade team in the district.  I met with my third grade team, and then subsequently met with the district team of grade three teachers. Everyone seemed excited about the opportunity to share. We downloaded the toolbar together, and I gave them a short tutorial. I thought it seemed like a great way for us to connect and share things with each other that we had found...in essence, we were creating a mini-search engine for our curriculum.  Sounds wonderful, right?  Perhaps people were lurking on the site, but very few posts were made.  Why?  I don't know. I talked to them again at another in-service and it seemed like my colleagues were not finding things worth posting.  Does this mean they were not continually scanning the web for ideas to supplement the curriculum. Yes, I think that's what it does mean. I'm not sure where to go with that. 

Next school year, I will be working with a new team. I have already mentioned the idea to my new colleagues and they seem excited. But will it work? Will we follow through? Or, will we stick with "what we know" and bookmark on our computers?  We shall see. 

So, next year, where do I want to go with Diigo? Next year, I am hoping to use Diigo as a social bookmarking tool for my students, instead of for me as a professional.  I plan to give my students an introduction to social bookmarking, what the benefits are, how to tag, how to categorize, how to annotate notes.  Most importantly, as our book states, I want them to learn how to learn from each other. My hope is that this tool will help us to see the knowledge that we can gain from each person individually, and how great we are as a whole. 

Next year, my students will have access to a "Libell6th" Diigo account. Here they will be able to add to the classes "Library", which they can access from anywhere. They will be part of  a bigger picture, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it works in my classroom. 

On this link, I simply have the new Diigo account, and three resources to start us off!
http://www.diigo.com/user/libell6th

PLN

This past school year (2010-2011) was the first year I dipped my foot into the world of using technology to collaborate with other educators.  I have always loved technology, but there are MANY areas of technology that I have never seen. 

I started my PLN by checking out some blogs of other teachers, including professional blogs and blogs about the way they ran their classrooms.  Next, I found teacher's ideas posted online through different venues.  In October 2010, our principal introduced a group of us to Twitter. I spent hours and hours of time, reading what people were saying on Twitter. I was blown away by the amount of information that was available.  My professional reading multiplied, and my personal reading took a nose dive to zero.  I have found Twitter to be useful for two main reasons. 1) To read information regarding the revolution of change in education and 2) to be able to connect with other educator's around the country and world. 

I tried an RSS Feed through google, and setting up a Professional Blog through EduBlog, but I find myself to not be a blogger. I'm not a fan of blogging, and not a huge fan of following others blogs.  I was encouraged by my colleagues and boss to try it, and I did. It's just "not my thing". And I think that's okay.  I enjoy reading blogs on occasion, and I once in awhile I think that I have something important that I want to blog about. 

Over the past year, I have found some resources in my PLN that work for me, and some that do not work for me.  I have found HUGE advantages to developing a PLN and having a network of people that I know will help me to be a better teacher. At times I am overwhelmed, at times I feel like it encompasses my life :), but the value of what I have found is immeasurable.  One of the most valuable assets I have gained from my PLN is connections for my students. Connections to classes who will Skype with us, who will collaborate with us on Stixy.com or TodaysMeet (or the like), and teachers and children who will comment on our blogs. Twitter has opened up the world for myself and my classroom.

I describe Twitter as, "The teacher across the hall who loves to share everything....times one thousand :)"

First Thoughts...Class one of Master's Program

Don't want to read it? Listen to it here... http://blabberize.com/view/id/516000

My name is Beverly Libell. I have taught third grade for eight and a half years. In the 2010-2011 school year I will be teaching grade six.  I have been married for eight years to my wonderful husband Matt. We love to ride motorcycle together. We have two beautiful girls, Ryleigh (age six) and Brianna (age three).

My friend and colleague Amber McCabe and I are entering this journey together. Although technology is an amazingly wonderful tool, nothing beats a little moral support from the gal across the hall.  Amber and I both are excited about changing education, and under the leadership of Lyn Hilt we have a lot of administrative support to seek change in the classroom.  My biggest roadblock this year was using the technology effectively, and communicating with parents the “why’s” behind what I’m doing in the classroom.  I love to watch inspirational youtube videos, but can become overwhelmed with the effective application in the classroom setting and have wished on more than one occasion for a teacher’s manual.

There were so many good points in the videos posted, I’m not sure where to start. But I’m excited about expanding my newly discovered PLN and learning more about authentic uses of tech in the classroom.  I am equally excited about the implementation of what I learn this summer into my new classroom in the fall.