Reflecting

As this graduate course comes to an end, I can honestly say that this was one of my favorite classes and one of the ones that I feel I learned lots that I can implement into my own classroom. My favorite element of this class was the time that was given to us to explore the various different online tools that were brand new to most of us. Some of my favorite tools that I was exposed to during this course are Animoto, VoiceThread, Edmodo, Wordle, Storybird, Padlet, and Kidblog. My biggest take away from this class was becoming involved in the Global Read Aloud Project. I have already started to connect with teachers across the globe and I am truly looking forward to the Fall to experience this global connection using books. Each week I enjoyed using this blog as a platform to share what I was learning and to follow other teachers, including my colleagues in this course. I plan to use Kidblog in the fall with my new second grade group of students and to hopefully use it to connect with other classes through the GRA. Padlet conversations, Animoto videos and stories created using Storybird were favorites among my own students and I look forward to using them more in the future. Below is a Wordle that I created to reflect upon my time in EDUC584, Integrating Technology and Literacy.

Surveys

In my grad class tonight we were asked to create a survey using Google Forms. I chose to create my survey with a theme of holidays because I love holidays.




Please take the time to complete this survey :) Thanks!

Literacy Project - Padlet

Every day in my classroom, students write about what they are reading. Typically I give my students a prompt and they respond to it in their journals using either a text I have read aloud or a book that they are reading independently. In my graduate class, I was introduced to an online tool called Padlet which allows users to create a "wall" that they can then post text, images, videos, etc. The best part about this tool is that users can share the URL (which they can personalize!) with others who can then post on the wall without having an account. This allows for communication and collaboration with others. For additional information about Padlet check out these links!

Ways to Use Padlet in the Classroom

For my literacy project, I chose to use Padlet with my advanced level students. These four students are all reading at a fourth grade independent reading level. They have participated in literature circles, reader's theater, and are advanced in both reading and writing. For this project, these students read Return of the Homework Machine by Dan Gutman which is a sequel to the original story The Homework Machine. The original story was a favorite among this group of students so I chose for these students to read the sequel in a reader's theater model where they each take on the role of one of the main characters in the text. This correlates well with the structure in which this text is written - where each character is speaking about what happened that previous summer. At different points while they are reading the text, I used Padlet to provide them with prompts to respond and reflect on the text. The idea is that these students will begin to think more deeply about the characters and plot and be able to reflect on what their peers are saying and thinking. Additionally, I will provide feedback to the students as they respond to the text on the Padlet wall. Below is an image of this Padlet that my students used for this project. To see more check out our URL: http://www.padlet.com/jwolanin/ROTHM

My heart is still in Africa

As I was checking my blog roll this morning I noticed that the creator of the Global Read Aloud Project had posted a new blog post. As my colleagues know, I love to create connections for my students with other students around the world. So far they have been communicating with other second graders in a different state as well as in Brazil! Well, I am very excited for the Global Read Aloud Project for next year and using it as a means of opening my students' eyes to the world around them. Anyways, I digress. I saw this post on the Global Read Aloud Blog and was amazed at the powerful connections that are made through this project. Take a look here and if you have time, come back and let me know what you think :)

Student Authors

As the end of the year is upon us, I have decided to give my students an opportunity to use Storybird to create stories of their own. I must say, for all of the ways in which I do not like Storybird, it has sparked creativity in my students. For two hours each day this past week my students have used Storybird to create some stories of their very own. I modeled how to create a story, showed them my own digital story (a few posts back), and set them free. What I saw happen was amazing. My students were completely engaged in their stories. They were excited to share them with their peers and many students took it upon themselves to assist their friends when problems arose. I was so impressed with the stories and illustrated poems that were published this week. Take a peek at some of the stories created by student authors...

A story by Kwaku

A haiku by Emily



A diamante poem by Ray

Student Blogging

This evening in class we participated in a Google Hangout with another professor from our college where we talked more about using technology with our students. I have been interested in ways in which I can incorporate more technology, specifically blogging, with my students. Due to the lack of resources in my classroom, I feel that it will be extremely difficult to implement student blogging with fidelity next year. Instead, while we were participating in the Google Hangout my wheels were turning and I think that next year I plan on creating a blog, or using this one, so that I can post about activities that we are doing in our classroom and communicate with parents. But then I was trying to contemplate a way in which I can have my students blogging. I think that I will have a student blogger of the week and provide them with an opportunity to post on the blog about something that we are studying that week so that they have the experience with blogging but in a limited format. Maybe by the end of the year, I can begin to have more and more students posting on the blog each week.

Does anyone have any ideas of how to slowly implement blogging into the classroom? Any experience with this?

The Daily Five

This past summer I participated in a summer book study with my colleagues using the text The Daily Five by "the sisters." This tool and way of teaching has totally transformed my ELA block. Previously I had used a workshop model but the Daily Five just enhances it. What I have done in my classroom is kind of a mixture of ideas I have found on fellow teacher blogs as well as the standard model of using the Daily Five in the classroom. So far, this mixture has worked really well for me.

The Daily Five consists of five rotations or centers that students go through each day. This provides them with structure and a limited amount of time at each activity. The five activities include: read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, word work, and work on writing. In my classroom, my students participate in: read to self, word work, and work on writing. I changed my structure to also include reading response and guided reading group time. This allows me to meet with students while the rest of the class is working independently. My students rotate through four activities each day and they spend 15 minutes at each rotation. So yes, my guided reading groups are short but students have time to practice after I meet with them when they go to read to self.

Also, in the original Daily Five, students have their choice of what activity they do each day. I have altered this to ensure that students are completing activities that are necessary. For example: my lowest reading group meets with me each day, then goes to read to self, completes a reading response, and typically goes to word work to practice. This may differ for your classroom.

This management system has totally transformed my classroom. We spend the first 3 to 4 weeks of school mastering the routines and procedures and building stamina in each of the four activities. This limits disruptions and issues later on in the year. I have asked my students what their opinion of the Daily Five is and almost all of the students love it. They enjoy having several activities to go to each day and the routine is helpful too.

Below are some links to fellow teacher blogs who have implemented The Daily Five as well as the website that outlines the Daily Five in greater detail.

Buggy for Second Grade

Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits

School is a Happy Place

The Daily Five

Fables Galore!

As part of the second grade curriculum, students in my classroom participate in a unit where they study the elements of fables. Once students understand the elements of a fable, they look at examples of fables and assess each one based on the elements as well as establishing what the lesson, theme, or moral is portrayed in that text. As a culminating activity, students create their own fable with a lesson, theme, or moral of their choice. In an effort to provide students with additional examples of fables, I created a digital story of a fable about a Leopard and Monkey centered around the theme of "you must work for all you get."

Next year when teaching this unit, I plan to include this digital story to show my students an additional example of a fable but also to show a way in which they can create and publish their own fables. This fable was created using Storybird which is a tool that I am still new to. In a previous post I shared my experience with using it for the first time. After more exploration with this tool and allowing my students some time to explore, I must say that I can better see the positives and abilities of this program. While there are still limitations to Storybird, I must say that the pros outweigh the cons and I plan to use this website more often with my students.




Please note that this just a rough draft of my digital story. If you have any ideas for changes or improvements to the story and/or ways in which this can be integrated into the curriculum, please comment and share them below.

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Update:

I have since used this fable in my classroom to introduce Storybird to my students and I have found that the students LOVED that I wrote this story and that they can become authors themselves using this online tool. Some other ways in which I believe educators can use Storybird in their classroom are:

- Educators can create assignments and grade using the program
- Educators can create a library on Storybird which students can access and see everyone's stories
- Teach a lesson on details by having students describe the images provided in the galleries
- Teach a lesson on expanding sentences using the details of the images.
- Use it for prewriting or organizing
- Teachers can use it to work on emergent reading skills with young readers
- Have students collaborate to create a story as a group
- Have students free write using the images to create a story

There are so many ways in which educators can use Storybird in their classrooms! How would you use Storybird with your students?

Organizing Anchor Charts

In my district, we use A LOT of anchor charts. I love them and have found that sometimes I end up with way too many of them! The problem I run in to is that I hang them up for the unit and then run out of room so I end up taking them down. Then I couldn't figure out where and how to store them so that they were accessible to students at any time. On top of that, hanging anchor charts has been quite an issue due to fire and safety regulations limiting the amount of wall space that we can use. So I turned to the internet, more specifically Pinterest. After searching for ideas, I stumbled upon this blog Teaching My Friends where Nancy, a fellow teacher, blogs about her ideas and experiences in the classroom. When you click on the link you will find the specific post where she describes her anchor chart organization system. I love her idea! She takes pictures of her anchor charts and compiles them into a binder where students can refer to when necessary. What is so fantastic about this idea is that it holds so many possibilities and is so flexible to use it in many different ways. Need to refer to an anchor chart in a small group? No problem, grab the anchor chart binder! Does a student have a question about a previously used anchor chart? Teach them to use the binder! The best part of Nancy's anchor chart binder system is that she has created a spreadsheet to serve as a table of contents so students can quickly locate the specific anchor chart that they need.

Source: Teaching My Friends blog

She even has the link so that you can download her anchor chart index page to keep track of the anchor charts you put in your binder!

I started using this system midway through this year and I love it so far. My students refer to it daily and it is so easy to just take a quick picture of the anchor chart, print it, and file it into the binder. I love Nancy's idea of making extra black and white copies of the anchor charts to put in the back of the binder so that you have easy access to it for small group purposes.

So tell me, how do you organize anchor charts in your classroom?

Success with Storybird

In class tonight, my colleagues and I worked together to create a picture book using an online tool for creating and reading books. This website was entirely new to me. The great part about this website is that there is a vast amount of artwork to use to create your story with. My classmates and I searched for artwork that was student-friendly and easily-lended itself to a picture book story. One part that I did not like was that when selecting artwork you were limited to one specific artist's gallery. This made for a sometimes small gallery and images that did not always work well together to create a story. None the less, we found an artist who had a series of images with a theme around one character. So together we created this story... Susie Goes Exploring. Our plan is to use this picture book in our classrooms when teaching inferences. The story is about a young girl who uses her imagination to go exploring. The students are then prompted at the end to infer where Susie is during all of her explorations which is ultimately at her house using her imagination. Take a peek and let me know what you think!

One Book...Endless Connections

Have you ever heard of the Global Read Aloud? I hadn't until my professor pointed me in the direction of the Global Read Aloud Blog and after exploring their blog I couldn't find a reason not to participate in this project. Reading aloud to my students is one of the best parts of my day and my students enjoy it just as much. I never really knew the power of read alouds until this past year. Midway through this school year, due to schedule changes I suddenly had an extra half-hour to read aloud to my students. When selecting a book I wanted to find one that the students would lose themselves in. I found just that! I read aloud The BFG by Roald Dahl and for two weeks my students were transported into Giant Country. Every day they would beg me to read just one more chapter and inevitable learned the value and purpose of a cliffhanger! Since this story, my students have been anxious to get their hands on any and every book by Roald Dahl. One student begged her mother to take her to Barnes and Noble for her birthday so that she could buy more books by her favorite author Roald Dahl! The power of read alouds has truly taken over my classroom.

As I explored the Global Read Aloud blog I was searching for a way that I could incorporate this into my classroom and I was nervous about the ease of implementing this project when our curriculum is so packed as it is. What I found is that this project is truly what you make of it. The purpose is to connect teachers and students using one book. However, it has expanded to include more than one book to meet the needs of teachers across the grade levels. The blog was easy to maneuver around and I was able to access the list of book choices for the 2014 Global Read Aloud. After looking at the reviews and age level recommendations for the book options I decided to select The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo as it is written by an author that we do an author study on. Now that I have signed up to participate in the 2014 Global Read Aloud I am anxious to find activities and ways to prompt my students to reflect on the book on their own blogs next year. I am looking forward to this journey and using this project as a platform to get my students blogging next year using Kidblog. Check back for updates of the 2014 Global Read Aloud next school year!

Magic Wings - An Animoto Adventure

As part of the science curriculum for second grade in my district, students study life cycles with a close look at butterflies and mealworms. Earlier this year, my students raised butterflies and learned the different stages that it goes through during its life cycle. It was so exciting when we went outside to let our butterflies go! As the unit continued, the students chose one insect and did an intensive research project which included the insects' habitat, life cycle, food, body parts, and fun facts. As a culminating activity, the second graders took a field trip to Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory where they were able to see and learn about numerous reptile and insect species as well as experience thousands of types of butterflies flying all around. The students learned a lot and enjoyed seeing what they had studied so deeply at the beginning of the school year.

In my graduate class, EDUC584, I was required to create a film using Animoto. I was excited about using this new technology tool because I had never used a tool like this to create a video. I was nervous and wondered if it would be very "user-friendly" but sure enough, I was able to input images from our field trip with ease and with the backgrounds and music that Animoto offers, I easily created a video that I think the students and families will enjoy during our end-of-the-year celebration. Take a look!



I am thinking about using this video as a launching pad to showcase the literacy work that my students have been working on regarding their insect exploration from the beginning of the year and their written work explaining their experiences on our field trip. The opportunities to use Animoto are endless and I am looking forward to incorporating more videos from Animoto into my classroom teaching!

Pumpkin Book Reports

In an effort to increase family involvement and to provide opportunities for students to practice public speaking, students complete monthly thematic projects. One of my favorite monthly projects in the Fall is the Pumpkin Book Report. With this project, students work with the families to create a character from a book using either a real pumpkin or a paper drawing of a pumpkin. The sky is the limit as students use their creativity to recreate a favorite character from a beloved book.

Baby Mummy from Where's My Mummy

Piggie from the series by Mo Willems

A. Wolf from The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs

Mike from Monster's Inc.

Since this project is done during the month of October it is one of the first monthly projects to be completed each year. The best part is that students get excited about reading and they are free to use their imagination to make their pumpkin into a character in whatever way they want to. Of course there are rules to the project: Students may not carve their pumpkin in any way and they must complete a written book report which fully describes the character from the text. Students present their pumpkin book report to their peers and families are invited into the classroom to celebrate the students' hard work.