What Do We Have to Fear?

Blogging Challenge Day 30 (Last Day!)

What would you do (as a teacher) if you weren't afraid?

Jamie- If I weren't afraid, I would probably leave my job as a classroom teacher to start my own

educational consulting business.  I'd also like to be a full time writer.  What stops me?  My students! 

I love being in the classroom surround by the enthusiasm only kids can possess.  I love to see the light bulbs go off when they truly understand a concept.  I love nurturing them as readers and writers. I love to challenge them to do their best.  I like helping them down the path of becoming an adult.  It is a great privilege and honor to have the opportunity to touch the lives of our future.   Teaching brings me the greatest joy, and I am afraid to walk away from it to follow my other dreams.  Perhaps the right opportunity will present itself one day.  Right now, being in the classroom is where I belong!

Meg- If I weren't afraid of meeting deadlines, the impending PARCC test, and the opinions of
parents, I would definitely spend all day every day examining all of the *cool* real-life math that is out there.  Now this doesn't mean that I don't do real-life math.  It just means that I definitely follow more of a guided path based on the CCSS and the collaborative plans the other math teachers and I create together.  I also would never be afraid to try a new project with my students because I wouldn't be afraid of running out of time.  Time always seems to be the biggest issue when a risk I take in the classroom goes sour.  I have just "wasted" precious time that I cannot get back.  I try to keep my adventurous, creative spirit in mind as I plan to allow for some of my risk-taking and plain old FUN real life math to wiggle its way into my classroom.  I just had to make sure I am balancing it with all of the other standards I am actually "supposed" to be doing as well.  :)

Our Evolution as Teachers

Blogging Challenge Day 29

How have you changed as an educator since you first started?

Jamie-The longer I teach the more I understand the middle school student.  I've done a lot of reading about the development of the brain and the role hormones play.  I think middle school teachers sometimes forget how young middle school students really are in 6th-8th grades.  Seriously, they've only been on this planet for 12-14 years--they're babies!  With that said, I think that I have become more understanding and more patient.  This age group needs a lot of help with executive functioning skills.  So, I spend a great deal of time in my classroom talking them through how to break down assignments, how to write their homework down, and how to advocate for themselves when they need assistants.  I take nothing for granted!  Secondly, I have really embraced the whole concept of formative and summative assessments.  I take the time to use formative assessments to gauge if I need to slow down or continue forward.  When I first started teaching, I was more focused on getting through the curriculum versus whether or not my students were really learning anything.  I am sure there are other things that have changed, but I feel these two things are the most important and have impacted my teaching the most.
Meg- Can you say formative assessment?!  I have truly evolved in my teaching practice over the course of my nine year career.  Without a doubt, the number one way in which I have changed is by really focusing on creating effective formative assessments and providing timely, specific, and targeted feedback to my students.  I love the analogy of formative assessment being like taking a trip to the doctor as opposed to having an autopsy done after it is "too late".  I tell my kids all the time that the formative assessments allow me to take their learning "temperature" so I can diagnose their learning problems and address any confusion as early as possible.  If I don't utilize formative assessment effectively to inform my instruction and interventions, the students will fail their summative assessments (and then it's "too late" for them!).  I also think more deeply about the types of feedback with which I provide my students so they will really be able to improve and grow.  Take a look at this chapter from Susan Brookhart's book How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students for some clear examples and ideas of providing timely and effective feedback to students.

Finally, when in doubt, look to Rick Wormelli for advice on utilizing formative and summative assessments.  The video below provides a basic explanation of how to meaningfully use formative and summative assessments in a differentiated classroom.

Technology in the Driver's Seat?

Blogging Challenge Day 28

Should technology drive curriculum, or vice versa?

Meg and Jamie:  Technology is a tool.  It should definitely not drive curriculum.  That is like asking if a pens, pencils, and paper should drive curriculum--absolutely not!  With that said, we believe that you cannot ignore the fact that technology has changed the way kids learn.  We live in a world where information is at our fingertips.  The presence of technology in education should make us ask new questions about our curriculum.  We love this quote from Will Richardson found in a book titled 21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn, " We now officially live in a world where even twelve-year-olds can create their own global classrooms around the things about which they are most passionate."  Richardson continues by asking:

• What should classrooms be when we connect with other teachers and learners around the world?
• What is the best role for teachers when knowledge is distributed widely in these networks?
• And, most importantly, how do we reframe our own personal learning experiences as educators and as people in light of all these shifts?

Will Richardson Skyping with our LIT505 class

These questions can be great guides for educators as they contemplate how to best integrate technology into their classrooms in meaningful ways.  In fact we were lucky enough to Skype with Will Richardson this summer during the grad class we co-teach at Judson University.  We love how he helped us to convey the message that educators need to be thinking about how technology has changed the learner as well as how it has changed our occupation.

Take a few minutes (4 minutes and 53 seconds, to be exact) to watch the video below from Edutopia about technology integration.

Time to Rejuvenate

Blogging Challenge Day 27

What role do weekends and holidays play in your teaching?

Meg- For me, weekends and holidays are a chance to play catch-up.  I grade all those papers that I wasn't able to squeeze into the work week, I create resources to use with my students in the upcoming week, and I take some time to reflect on my recent successes and failures in the classroom so I can continue to work towards making my class the best place possible for student learning.  The weekends and holidays also provide me a much-needed chance to spend time with my husband, catch up with friends, exercise, and SLEEP!  Waking up at 5:22 AM (fun fact: I always set my alarm for even times that do not end in a zero) definitely takes a toll on me, and getting a good 8-9 hours of sleep for a couple nights makes me sane again.  I have found that I am a better teacher when I have a healthy work-life balance.  My patience lasts longer and I am more creative.  With that being said, I am off to the gym on this lovely Saturday morning to jump start my day!

Jamie-I have just returned home from a beautiful fall day spent watching my niece play softball. So, weekends are definitely set aside for family.  I try to reserve a set amount of time for work on the weekends.  If I work (grade papers) on Saturday, then Sunday is an off day or vice versa.  If I don't take time off, I have less patience for my students when I return to work on Monday.  There are times on the weekends, before my husband wakes, early in the morning where you'll catch me reading educational blog sites, perusing new tech tools, and/or looking at websites connected to my teaching.  It is also a time for catching up with my reading.  I have to be a role model for my students on Monday morning for Reading Weekend Update.  So, I have to get some reading done in my independent reading book.  In fact, I just finished Doll Bones by Holly Black this morning.  It was so good!  My students could hardly wait for me to finish because they want it next.  The waiting list for this book is long.  Think I might need to buy another copy!  After typing this blog, I am headed outside to enjoy a glass of iced tea and The Book Whisper by Donalyn Miller.  This is a must read for reading and/or English teachers.  I am loving it, and I am only on page 50.  

Fave Go-To-Sites

Blogging Challenge Day 26

What are your three favorite go-to sites for help/tips/resources in your teaching?

Jamie:  My favorite go-to site  is definitely a blog written by Richard Byrne called Free Technology for Teachers.  The purpose of the blog is to share free resources for teachers to use in their classrooms.  At times, Mr. Byrne hosts guest bloggers and conducts webinars.  If you are looking for inspiration on how to use tech in your classroom, this is the blog for you.  It is excellent! My second favorite place to visit on the web is ReadWriteThink .  It is site sponsored by both the IRA (International Reading Associations) and NCTE (The National Council of Teachers of English).  It is full of free resources for language arts teachers including lesson plans. I love that you can search by grade level and/or a topic.  Third, I am absolutely addicted to Pinterest.  I have found numerous education blogs to follow through Pinterest as well as finding images of things I can recreate in my own classroom.  Before school started this year, I found fun activities to use to get to know my students, helpful ideas for creating an interactive notebook, and classroom design--think setting up a reading corner.   Love Pinterest!
Meg:  I also think Free Technology for Teachers is a wonderful resource; thank you, Richard Byrne!  For math resources, the NCTM (National Council of Math) Illuminations site provides a plethora of lesson ideas which can be searched by grade level and math strand.  The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is a fabulous web resource to use to help visual learners understand math concepts.  In fact, I just used their factor tree manipulative with my students yesterday!  Finally, can I say Twitter again?  I know we just wrote about it the other day, but seriously the ideas, resources, and posts shared on Twitter are the catalyst for some wonderful changes I have made to my teaching.

Ideal Colloboration

Blogging Challenge Day 25

The ideal collaboration between students--what would it look like?

Jamie- Too funny that this would be the prompt today.  During advisory today, I experienced collaboration at its best.  Yes, I'd like to think this collaboration is a direct result of all the modeling I've provided on how to work collaboratively thus far in the school year.  However, I think it may have been a pity act.  My students felt sorry for me, so they came to my aid.

I was helping a student with his math test corrections.  He was writing algebraic expressions.  I led him through definitions of the math vocabulary and writing the mathematical symbols that went with each math  vocabulary word.   Then I hit a road block.  I couldn't decide the placement of the unknown number, and the young man I was helping didn't know.  So, I picked up the phone to call the math teacher.  (Again modeling for my students what to do when you don't know the answer.) Only I dialed the wrong number and realized I had an outdated phone directory.  This is when two other young men came to the rescue.

There we were, all four of us,  pouring over this math test together. We read the problem aloud. We discussed the possibilities with one another.  We debated with each other over the right approach.  In the end, we figured it out.  It took all four of us to get the answer.  There were high fives all around. In that moment, I couldn't have been prouder of the collaboration my students demonstrated.

PS... I know we did it right because I asked one of the smartest kids in my class to see his test--ha! ha!

Meg- Collaboration is one of my favorite parts of teaching.  I get many of my best ideas while collaborating with other teachers, and I regularly share this insight with my students.  True collaboration between students occurs when all members are actively participating and contributing to the ideas and products being created.  Jamie will laugh because I like to use this analogy when we present, but true collaboration is like a comforter.  You cannot tell where all the different pieces come together.  We want to avoid a patchwork quilt model for collaboration, where it is apparent where one student's work stops and another student's work starts.  The first time I had my students create math video tutorials using Educreations I had them work in small groups.  The students created their scripts together, shared in the making of the slides, and each had a speaking role on the video.  Every student was accountable for being a part of each stage in the process.  Not only were the students beaming with pride, I was too!

Trends that Capture our Attention

Blogging Challenge Day 24

Which learning trend captures your attention the most, why?

Jamie-Flipped Classroom is something that really intrigues me.  I like the idea of kids watching short videos/podcasts to learn content at home, and then students returning to school ready to practice, discuss, and/or complete projects.  I have experimented with this in my classroom by having my students listen to me doing a read aloud at home as a first read of a piece of text that we will be working on the next day in class.  The kids for the most part came to class the next day prepared to complete a second closer look at the text.  In my opinion, it was a good first experience with using the flipped classroom approach.  It gave me more class time for Close Reading and discussion.  I really like the idea of me spending less time instructing with my meager 46 minutes class period and more time facilitating as well as conferring with my students.  It makes sense that students should practice at school with me what they have learned, viewed, or listened to at home.   I can then provide them support and make sure I am clearing up misconceptions as they work.  The idea of being a facilitator in my classroom has always been appealing to me, so I think this Flipped Classroom thing is something I am really going to like the more I explore and use it.

Meg-The BYOD-Bring Your Own Device-trend in education is intriguing to me.  Students bringing their own tablets, laptops, e-readers, and smart phones provides a great opportunity for connectivity in school if the district does not have the funds to purchase enough devices for students.  It also allows students to see these devices as means for accessing academic information, which may shed new light on a device otherwise used for social communication.  There is so much to be discussed when using any internet-connected device with students from leaving a positive digital footprint to finding reliable research sources.  Here's a succinct post from THE Journal that you may find interesting for some follow up reading on trends in educational technology.

It Takes a Village

Blogging Challenge Day 23: 

Write about one way that you “meaningfully” involve the community in the learning in your classroom.  If you don’t yet do so, discuss one way you could get started?

Jamie-Early in my career, my teaching partner and I would have volunteers come into the classroom to help us conference with our students about their independent reading.  In the past I have also had parent volunteers come into the classroom to help me with the revision and editing process for student writing.  Since my move to seventh grade a couple of years ago, I have not really thought about parent/community involvement in my classroom.  So, today’s blogging prompt has my wheels spinning.  I am thinking it would be very cool if I could get parents or people from the community to come in to share their favorite book(s) from their childhood and/or have people share how they use reading in their daily lives/jobs.  I think it is important for students to see the value of reading outside of school in the real world.  I'd also like  to try sponsoring a literacy night at my school.  It would be a fun way to celebrate reading.
Meg-I am reading today's question with a little guilt because I, like Jamie, do need to make more of an effort to involve the community in my classroom.  I have spoken to two parents about speaking with my class about how they use math as a part of their careers (an engineer and an accountant), but I have not yet scheduled a specific date/time for any of this to occur.  I also think it would be wonderful for my math class, or really any math class at our school, to be responsible for the financial component to our school's annual H2O for Life campaign.  Currently, there is a small committee of students led by a teacher who count the money and set fundraising goals.  The more I think about it, though, that really would be a perfect task for my math classes.  It will make my students more invested in the importance of service our school is striving reinforce while also providing them with some opportunities to utilize their math skills for an authentic purpose.  I am motivated--let's make this happen!

Impact of PLN on Teaching

Blogging Challenge Day 22

Day 22: What does your PLN look like, and what does it do for your teaching?

Jamie & Meg-When the two of us first started presenting at various conferences, we began to see the benefits of networking with other teachers outside of our school district.  At first we simply gave out our email addresses at the end of our presentations so those in the audience would be able to follow up with us following the conference if they so desired.  We would have a few people contact us to ask further questions or to share their success with things they had learned from us.  It was always a thrill to hear from someone who had been motivated by our presentation and wanted to know more or share their own experiences with us!  As we looked for ways to further network with people, we began using Twitter to promote our sessions at conferences and workshops.  We included our Twitter handle @jmliteracy on the first and last slides of our presentations as well to encourage others to utilize us as resources beyond the walls of the conference.  Twitter has become a great way for both of us to connect with others from all over the world about our presentations, about our book, about our teaching practices.  It has also become an easy way to access the most recent online articles, blog posts, and resources in education.  (Check out this post for 50 ways to use Twitter in your classroom, too!)  Basically, we heart Twitter.

Jamie is also a big fan of Pinterest to get ideas for her classroom.  Again, this social networking site is a way for educators to share ideas around the globe.  You never know what great idea may be awaiting you!

Bringing Our Hobbies/Interests Into The Classroom

Blogging Challenge Day 21:

Do you have other interests/hobbies that you bring to your classroom teaching?  Explain

Jamie:  One thing I like to do in my spare time is to practice yoga.  I find it to be very helpful in keeping my sanity as a teacher.  It calms me, and it helps me to be more centered.   In fact my yoga teacher certified me as an instructor for the purpose of using it with my students.  Early in my practice of yoga, I would share and demonstrate to my students the breathing techniques of yoga to help relieve students' anxiety before tests/quizzes.   It has also come in handy to help my students transition from lunch to English class (or anytime they need to calm down).   You will also hear me telling my students to use it before dance recitals or sporting competitions.  Over the years, I've had many students tell me that it really does work.  As I progressed through the process of getting myself certified, I began doing yoga poses with my students during advisory, as part of an after school program, and even as one of the reward activities for our school's PBIS celebration day.  The kids are always amazed to find that it takes flexibility, concentration, and balance to complete each pose.  My yoga teacher passed away a few years ago at the age of 92.  I think she would be very happy to know that I am passing on what she taught me to future generations.

Meg:  I'm pretty sure you all know by now that I'm a traveler.  There is nothing I love more than exploring a new culture in a new region and having adventures along the way.  I use the stories of my travels not only to build rapport with my students but also as entry points for showing students how math can be used in real life.  Currency exchange rates, travel distance calculations, budgeting for a trip...the list can truly be endless.  Any time I can make connections to math outside of the classroom AND have an excuse to talk about some of my international adventures, I am in teacher heaven.  :)

Curating Student Work

Day 20

How do you curate student work–or help them do it themselves?

Meg- A teacher is a curator...that's a teaching metaphor I hadn't thought of before!  But I guess it's as true as any.  Teachers strive to breed students who are critical thinkers and can meet high expectations, so of course we would curate their work to showcase the fruits of their labor.  I love to showcase work in the hallway bulletin boards when a tangible product is produced, although honestly nowadays more often than not the products my students create are not able to be hung up since they are creating movies, podcasts, and websites.  In order to ensure my students produce quality products, we go through the process of looking at some positive examples and some non-examples from my prior year's class (omitting student names, of course).  In chapter two of Moss and Brookhart's book Leveling the Playing Field: Sharing Targets and Criteria for Success, they emphasize the importance of sharing both examples and non-examples to provide students with a more well-rounded picture of the expectations.  When I do this with my students, we have rich conversations about the positives and not-so-positive aspects of the work.  I also explain to them that this is how I will select which student work will be showcased either in the hallway, posted on my class website, or (in the case of a video) on our class YouTube channel (first videos of the year to be uploaded this week...exciting!).  When students blog or create websites themselves, I continuously emphasize that their products already are on display for the world to see and use this as a motivator for them to produce their best work.  Students are generally self-motivated by this, and there are only a few students with whom I need to conference.

Jamie- Students are naturally their own curators in my English classroom through their writing portfolios.  I like to put the ownness on them to curate their own work.  I think it is important for students to have choice in what "piece" they want to put on exhibit to show their best selves.  During writers workshop, I work with students to shape and mold their work.  I let them choose writing topics to demonstrate their skills with language usage, grammar, spelling, sentence fluency etc.  Individual and group conferences provide my students with feedback and time to reflect on their work before taking it through the entire writing process.  When a decision is made to take a  piece to final copy, and it goes to the publishing stage, we always celebrate with writer's chair.

I saw this on Pinterest posted
by Ms. Pfeiffer, and I need to
jazz up my "boring" writer's
chair.

Writer's chair is simply a time to let them read their work aloud to their classmates, and to obtain positive feedback from them.  The digital world has changed writer's chair a bit as sometimes students will choose to make podcasts, digital stories, and/or  posts on a blog.  If you were to peek into my classroom, you might at times see students with headphones on listening/viewing their peers' work on their laptops.  You might also see a viewing party, with students gathered around the Smartboard as book trailers or student made videos are being shared.

  

Student Reflection

Blogging Challenge Day 19

Name three powerful ways students can reflect on their learning, then discuss closely the one you use most often.

Jamie:  

1. Conferencing both individually and/or in small groups
2. Having students keep a portfolio of work.
3. Having students complete an Exit Slip

I am a big fan of Exit Slips.  They provide students with an opportunity to process their thoughts and to think critically about something newly learned.  The teacher is given a quick way to check for understanding as well as a way to  quickly assess whether or not further instruction is needed. In fact, I like to use them during presentations at teacher institutes, workshops and/or conferences to get quick feedback from our attendees/audience.  

Exit slips can take on many different forms.  We've used note cards, sticky notes, Padlet, and of course just a piece of paper. 

Here is an example of one of my favorite Exit Slips:

3:  Tell me three things you learned today.

2:  Tell me two questions you still have about today's lesson.

1:  Tell me one thing you want to explore further or learn more about.

Meg-

My favorite tool for student reflection is a shared journal.  I personally have my students use a Google Doc that is shared with me, but you can also use a traditional notebook for a journal.  After a larger formative assessment as well as every summative assessment, I have students reflect on their work habits and preparation leading up to their assessment.  Asking them to think about their work habits allows them to realize that the decisions they have been making end up affecting their ability to learn content.  The most crucial component is the action plan that is created after reflecting on their past work habits.  Having students figure out how to maintain success or change work habits to improve promotes self-efficacy and is empowering to the student.  Another wonderful tool for student reflection is having them self-assess on a rubric prior to submitting any major project.  In my early teaching years, I would simply hand students a rubric for a project and send them on their merry way.  However, I now know that it is best practice for students to self-assess prior to submitting a project or completing a performance assessment because it makes them more aware of their success in meeting the requirements prior to the actual assessment.  Finally, making corrections and revisions to their work is another great strategy for student reflection.  I always tell my students it is okay to make mistakes, but it is important that they learn from them.  This is a lesson that is applicable far beyond the walls of my classroom, and I am hopeful that as they learn this lesson with me they will be able to learn from their mistakes in many contexts throughout their lives.

Our Teaching Metaphors

Blogging Challenge Day 18

Create a metaphor/simile/analogy that describes your teaching philosophy. For example, a “teacher is a ________…”

Meg and Jamie

In the spirit of completing our blog challenge for day eighteen, we asked our students to respond to the prompt, "A teacher is..."  on a sticky note.  We got some really great responses, and would like to share a few.

After reading through the ideas of our students, we were inspired and came up with this answer to today's prompt.

A teacher is a sculptor, molding the minds and hearts of our future.

Challenges in Education

Blogging Challenge Day 17:

What do you think is the most challenging issue in education today?

Jamie: I feel like I am in a profession that is always under attack. In my opinion, this is the most challenging issue facing education today.  At times it can be hard to go to work each day and to maintain a positive attitude. There are people trying to take my collective bargaining rights away, there are people trying to take my pension away, there are people who feel that my curriculum needs to be more data driven, and then there are people who feel we need the CCSS to reform my curriculum. It seems like everyone has an opinion, and I can't tell you how tired I am of education being a political football. I believe "we" are chasing really good teachers out of education and/or preventing good people from even going into education to begin with--this scares me!  

I love my profession.  I love being a teacher, and I am worried about the teachers that will come after me.  Mostly, I am worried about how these things will impact students and the future of America.

Meg: There are so many hot button issues in education.  Like Jamie, I do think it is frustrating to be in a profession that is not always respected.  One of the issues that can be a contributing factor to that is the issue of teacher accountability.  What is the best way to hold teachers accountable for ensuring students learn?  No Child Left Behind didn't seem to work, so perhaps Race to the Top and the Common Core will help?  Or is the new state evaluation system the answer?  It is hard to come up with a concrete answer, and because of this challenge, many educators are feeling uncertain about their future and the future of our profession.

Super Teacher Power

Blogging Challenge Day 16-Tues

If you could have one superpower to use in the classroom, what would it be and how would it help?

Meg- Can my superpower be that I have an infinite number of superpowers?  No!?  Shoot.  Okay, then I guess my single superpower (how unfair) of choice would be to magically know how to perfectly differentiate for each and every student.  To me, differentiation is one of the hardest parts about teaching because literally every single child is different.  They have different background knowledge, different strengths and weaknesses, and different interests.  What works for one student certainly does not work for all.  While I have some good differentiation strategies up my sleeve, I realistically do not employ the perfect strategy for every child.  With every new group of students I teach, I am constantly challenged to find the glass slipper--the perfect instructional fit--for each child.  Sometimes I am successful, and many times I am not.  But if I had the superpower to perfectly differentiate, what a wonderful world it would be!

Jamie-If I could have only one superpower, I would want to have the ability to grade papers with a single scan of my eyes.  Along with this single scan ability, I would like the ability to blink my eyes to transfer my scan into insightful revision/editing comments for all my student writers.  Also, I joke with my students all the time about being able to jump inside their heads to pull answers out of them.  So, this scanning ability would be great to also scan their thoughts, but maybe this would be a bit scary.  I may not want to know what they’re thinking, right?  Seriously, I love being an English teacher, but there are times when I go home with an incredible amount of grading.  My students need me to help guide them as writers, but it can be very hard to meet each students individual needs.  A super scanning power is just what I need!

3 Educational Strengths

Blogging Challenge Day 15

Name three strengths you have as an educator.

Jamie-My greatest strength as an educator is my ability to connect with my students.  I take great pride in my ability to get to know each of them as individual learners and as people.  Secondly, I use my sense of humor to deal with my middle school students.  My ability to find humor in the sometimes strange and odd ways of adolescents keeps my students engaged.  It makes learning in my classroom fun.  Lastly, I like to learn and discover alongside my students.  I feel fortunate to work in a profession where I can model how to be lifelong learner. 

Meg- As an educator, I am reflective, I am a risk-taker, and I am a lifelong learner.  Reflection enables me to realize my strengths and weaknesses in my teaching and causes me to revamp and revise my ideas each and every day.  Being a risk-taker makes me try new strategies and projects with my students.  While not always successful, it is through this risk-taking that I can find optimal ways of reaching my students and allowing them unique opportunities to express their learning.  Finally, as a lifelong learner I realize that I cannot possibly master the art of teaching, but I need to keep trying.  Striving to constantly improve is what makes me a better teacher for my kids, and isn’t that what teaching is all about?!

Feedback for Learning

Day 14 Blogging Challenge

What is feedback for learning, and how well do you give it to students?

Meg and Jamie- Feedback for learning is a must.  We think providing effective feedback to our students is the area of our instructional practice where we have grown the most. We have learned how crucial it is to utilize effective formative assessment tools, not only to inform our teaching, but to inform students how well they are meeting the objectives of our lessons.  We utilize classroom conversations, teacher-student conferences, blogging comments, and exit slips on good ol’ fashioned paper. We seek out opportunities to communicate with our students about their progress towards meetings their learning goals.  Can we do better?  Of course.  It is not realistic for us to think we are providing every single student detailed and timely feedback every single day. However we are committed to providing students with multiple opportunities to receive quality feedback prior to ever being summatively assessed.  

For schools looking to improve their formative assessment practice, take a look at Fischer & Frey’s book The Formative Assessment Plan: Practical Steps to More Effective Teaching and Learning (and you can even read the first chapter for free!).

Edtech Tools We Love

Blogging Challenge Day 13:

Name the top edtech tools that you use on a consistent basis in the classroom, and rank them in terms of their perceived (by you) effectiveness.

Meg and Jamie- Edtech tools, one of our favorite topics!

The edtech tool that has most transformed the way students show us their thinking and learning is blogging.  We love KidBlog with a deep passion.  It is so very user-friendly, and it allows some of our most timid students to find their voice.  

Our favorite edtech tool!

We love that students have the ability to embed hyperlinks, images and videos just like any other blogging platform. The global audience also motivates (most of) our students to produce more thoughtful products than they did prior to blogging.  We rate Kidblog 4 stars out of 4!

For organization and providing student feedback, we love Google Drive.  Within Google Drive students can create documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and respond to Google Forms we create.  We love the ease in  which it allows students to share their work with us so we can provide comments/feedback as they are working right on the document or presentation, and we love the collaborative piece these Google tools afford students.  

Some final thoughts from Meg:

I have only one complaint .  It is the iPad interface for Google Docs is awful.  It has limited capabilities, and the typing freezes on a regular basis when my kids use it on their iPads.  I give the desktop version of Google Drive and corresponding tools 4 stars, but I need to give the iPad version of Google Docs 2 stars.

Finally, my (Meg’s) newest edtech favorite is Educreations.  My students just got iPads this year, and Educreations is one of the first apps we tried.  Success!  The students were able to create great math tutorial videos on number line topics, and after one 46 class minute of playing around and experimenting, the students were able to productively and efficiently produce the video in the following day’s 46 minute class.  My only suggestions to Educreations are to allow for editing a video after publishing, as well as providing the capability to erase only the audio associated with one slide rather than forcing the creator to erase the entire audio file for the project.  The company did respond to our suggestions quickly assuring us that these functionalities were in the works for future upgrades.  I give Educreations a 3.5 stars, with the potential for a full 4 stars on the horizon!

Why did Jamie not comment on the iPads?  At our middle school, only the sixth grade teachers and students work with iPads.  The seventh and eighth grade will be getting MacBook Airs next year--yippee!  I (Jamie) am having fun exploring the one I recently got in advance of the students, but that is a future blog post.

5 Years in the Future

Blogging Challenge Day 12

How do you envision your teaching changing over the next five years?

Meg-This is a tricky question for me to answer.  Education is constantly evolving, and I have no doubt that there will be tools and initiatives in place five years from now that will be hard for me to predict.  Nonetheless, I know I will remain dedicated to continued learning and will evolve along with these changes.  In the next five years I envision myself taking on more formalized leadership roles within schools.  I am only three weeks into my new Master’s Degree program in Educational Leadership and Administration, but I realize there is the need for school leaders who have strong skills in communication, instruction, and motivation (among a plethora of other skills).  I hope to develop myself over the next few years into a stronger leader who will be enthusiastically prepared to cultivate school cultures where everyone is committed to continuous growth and student learning.

Jamie-In the next five years, I see myself continuing to develop my curriculum to make it more about the process of learning and getting my students to take ownership of their own learning.  I want my students to leave my classroom being critical thinkers.  My goal is to produce young adults who are motivated to learn.  It is my hope that I can continue to make the curriculum more about my students and their learning interests.  I truly want to take on the role of facilitator in my classroom and allow students the freedom of choice in both their reading and writing. My district's One to World technology initiative will for sure play an important role in this plan. Every year I take a few more steps towards my goal, so fingers crossed for what might be possible in five years.  

Our Favorite Part of the School Day

Blogging Challenge Day 11:

What is your favorite part of the school day and why?

Meg-
My favorite part of the school day is the beginning of the day from 7:45 - 7:55 A.M.  In these ten minutes, the students come into the building (generally pretty energetically in sixth grade...not so much in the older grades, ha!) and buzz to their lockers.  I am at my perch outside my classroom door sipping on my tea and chatting with my students as they come to and fro. Sometimes I will have to go help a student with a jammed locker, and sometimes I will get visits from past students who want to catch up for a few minutes.  Other times I share in some pleasant collegial banter with the other teachers in the hall as we watch over our flock together.  In these short ten minutes, I am reminded of the energy and happiness that teaching brings me.

Jamie-
Passing periods are my favorite part of the day. 
I love to sit outside my classroom on my little

green stool greeting my current students, reminiscing with previous students, and sharing a few good laughs with other teachers/staff. I know that if I am having a bad day, all I need to do is spend a few minutes out in the hall with the kids. They really know how to put a smile on my face. And, I know that a simple greeting from me may make all the difference in someone else's day, too.