Fairburn celebrated College Awareness Month with some fun activities, including a door decorating contest. I admit, Room 17 took liberties with the meaning of "door," opting to decorate one entire facade of our bungalow. Many thanks to our head room mom, Sabra, for getting the pompoms from Party City! I got the cute and clever idea of using students' "selfies" from a first grade teacher on Pinterest.
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Creating a classroom podcast has been one of my dreams for a very long time, and this summer, I was determined to make it happen. I searched the internet for other classroom podcasts to get inspiration, but interestingly enough, didn't find very many out there, and wondered, why ever not? There are so many rich benefits to having students create a podcast. For one, it integrates so many of the Common Core standards, beginning with writing . . .
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.5--With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.4--Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences. . . . and here was the standard that came as serendipity for me, which especially validated my idea for a podcast on top of all the others, and I only happened upon this after my students and I finished our first podcast: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.5--Create audio recordings of stories or poems; add drawings or other visual displays to stories or recounts of experiences when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings. And this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of how many standards this touches on, and of the learning experiences that students gain from creating a podcast. I knew, before diving into the world of podcasting, that my students would be able to have a very rich, very deep opportunity to communicate in a way that would extend beyond writing a first draft of a story, editing, revising, and posting it on the classroom's bulletin board at Open House. They would be able to share with a much wider audience, with friends, family, and with people outside of school. I also knew, with this new and cool technology that children typically have never dealt with, that they would be extremely motivated to read and write. I have made it a condition in my classroom that no writing can be shared on a podcast if it does not demonstrate all the qualities of good, polished writing, as agreed upon in our class rubrics. I also have made it clear that students may only share their writing on a podcast if they can read their pieces fluently and with good expression. The interest in writing stories, not to mention the amount of time my students have practiced reading their own writing, has increased tremendously. This year, I hope that students will be able to write and share about anything they are learning, ranging from social studies, science, art, literature, music, and anything of personal interest to them. I get giddy just thinking of all the possibilities that come with integrating this technology with countless topics! And above all, I find that podcasting has been so very gratifying for me and my class this past week. The children worked beautifully together, encouraged one another, and had fun as they learned. And perhaps, most powerful of all, they have been given another way to make their voices heard. Have a listen to Room 17's PhoenixCast here, and comment below to tell us what you think! PhoenixCast Episode 1 In this episode, the students of Room 17 explore the theme of friendship. Featured here is the poem, "Could We Be Friends," by Bobbi Katz, and children's responses to the question, "What do you look for in a friend?" I have never been a fan of practical jokes or April Fool's Day. Fortunately for me and the class, aside from starting a striking art project (blog post coming soon), April 1 was quite uneventful (hear my sigh of relief!). However, I found myself slightly tempted to try one or two of these kid-friendly pranks I found on the site, Growing A Jeweled Rose. These are fun and funny without being mean-spirited. Save these nifty ideas for next year.
Although this is not directly related to what's been happening in Room 17, I felt this was worth sharing--a thoughtful blog post that would make many teachers stand up and applaud. As someone who used to teach in an inner city school, I can definitely relate to much of what this blogger expresses in her writing. Read this pithy commentary by Kristie, a former teacher, who pretty much covers all the bases of the teaching profession, I think.
"For My Fellow Teachers," a blog post from Keeping Up With Kristie I have been backlogged in my writing for my own blog, having been inundated with parent conferences, but will make a better attempt to catch up with current goings-on of Room 17 soon. Thanks to the fun teacher blog, Simply Skilled In Second, Room 17 was able to dive into the new year with a thoughtful and colorful activity, the 2014 flip flap book. Essentially a booklet made of different-sized overlapping pages, this flip flap book encouraged the class to reflect on highlights and favorite memories of last year and to think about resolutions for the new year. I started off introducing the idea of new year's resolutions with a read-aloud I found on YouTube of the children's book, Squirrel's New Year's Resolution by Pat Miller (I was so thankful to have this video, since I didn't have my own copy of the book on hand). After the read aloud, we made a list of our new year's resolutions on the Smartboard. Among my favorites were, "I resolve to use my iPad less," "I resolve to practice more piano," and "I resolve to read more!" Students then recorded their new year's resolutions in their flip flap books.
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