The Sound of Encouragement...

Wow. At the beginning of this school year I never thought that I would make it through and entire semester of my biggest fear: KINDERGARTEN. But with each and every day of counting to ten and saying my ABC's I began fall in love with the "little bugs" (as my CF would say). I must admit, one of the most annoying things about the kiddies is the repetition. Sometimes I felt like they were never going to remember what letters come after L-M-N-O-P and everything I was saying was going right over their waist-high heads. However, towards the end of SIT something amazingly adorable and encouraging happened. Throughout the semester I had been stepping way out of my comfort zone by dancing and singing songs with the class about anything and everything. If there was something they had to learn, I created a song and a dance using the information. One day during a typical Writer's Workshop all of the little ones were working independently at their seats. Then I heard it: 

"Columbus sailed on three ships, three ships, three ships. Columbus sailed on three ships in 1492. The Nina, the Nina, the Pinta, the Pinta, the Santa Maria, the Santa Maria. Across the ocean blue. Across the ocean blue."

By the time the first few students had gotten to the third "three ships" every student in the class had joined in singing together quietly as they continued to illustrate their Writer's Workshop pieces. I smiled as I listened to the students randomly singing a song I had taught them weeks ago together. Once they had completed the song they simply quieted down and continued working. Over the course of the next couple of weeks, they would randomly break into song during independent work singing one of the songs I had taught them in one of my many lessons.

Although this may not seem like that big of a deal to interns that have spent the past semester in the upper grades, to me this proved that on some level I had gotten through their little heads. Not only were they remembering the information, they were reciting it again correctly! Their random outbursts into song encouraged me that I had done something right and that they had clearly enjoyed my teaching. It may not seem like much but it lights up my day every time it happens.

A little advice for all of you making the switch down to kindergarten next semester: sing, dance, and get silly!

A Wiki Community

One of my greatest goals as a future teacher is to develop a classroom community where students strive to learn and do their absolute best. Until I began looking into classroom wikis, I never thought about the use of a wiki to create an extra dynamic in a classroom community. In my many internet searches of classroom wikis I found a fifth grade classroom that uses their class wiki as a huge part of their classroom. Here is a screenshot of their class wiki:

Click here to go to see the wiki for yourself! 

Visiting this class wiki was incredibly inspiring. It included a place for students to add to the wiki in the subjects of reading, writing, and math. Also, there is an ongoing discussion amongst the students that discusses why and how they can use wikis. This site demonstrates a safe haven for students to give their opinions and feel proud of something they have created. They have the opportunity to have discussions with one another about books, thoughts, and even math. I know this is just one of many great classroom wikis; however, it has inspired me to give my students this outlet for creativity and classroom community when I finally have my own classroom. 

Kiddie Bloggers?

I am not one of the most technologically advanced people around. I decided to get a new "smart phone" that consistently out-smarts me, it has taken me 6 months to connect my new printer to my computer, and the only time I check my Facebook profile is to get rid of the notifications I have gotten in my e-mail. Therefore, when I was asked to create a blog of my own I was terrified at the thought.

For one, I thought that blogs were a thing of the past one the internet. I had figured people stopped using those around the same time as they ceased the use of AOL. Clearly my misunderstanding demonstrates just how "out of the loop" I am in the online world. Once I created my own blog for my class I began hearing all different types of people that kept a blog or followed someone's blog. I started to realize just how popular a tool blogs were.

After reading Diane Penrod's chapter, Blogging and New Literacies, my eyes were opened to an incredible way to get students excited about the writing process. The idea of having students keep their own blog is a fantastic way to help students to develop their voice as a writer and develop pride and ownership of their own voice. Unlike former writing tasks that students may see in the classroom, blogging is work that is created for more than the teacher as the reader. The student understands that their writing will be viewed by their peers, teacher, parents, and possibly the general public. It helps students develop an understanding of the audience they are writing for and various ways to appeal to them.

This is something that I would definitely want to incorporate into my classroom because it gives students a chance to write authentically. Just like reading, most adults write wherever and whenever they get a chance. They are not simply given a writing prompt and sat at a desk at an exact time and told when to write. Instead they share their feelings on their lunch breaks, in a coffee shop on the weekend, or from their couch when they get home. Giving students the opportunity to write whenever they feel the need is both empowering and realistic for a learner. Therefore, it is important that they are taught to write in an effective way whenever they do choose to write. Learning to write appropriately and intelligently for an online audience is a skill that will be essential for our youth in the future. Therefore, introducing these types of skills at the elementary level and arming them with those skills will help them in the real world.

As I was searching for some other great sites for students to use I came across a site called Kidblog.org, this site was created by teachers for classroom blogs. However, after reading Penrod's chapter I felt like having a blog site that is exclusive to a classroom or school is not really giving students the full effect of having their own blog. To me, this seems like a technologically advanced writing prompt given by teachers to students for teachers to read. Although this site may be a good use for younger students that are just beginning to write, I think that older students would benefit much more from having the opportunity to reply to any of the general public that responds to their posts. Giving them an authentic opportunity to use a blogging site would really benefit older students.

This chapter really opened my eyes to the many ways that blogging could be used to help many different types of learners to write. In the future I plan on using this tool in my own classroom.