Web 2.0

Next year I will be teaching 2nd grade in an independent school. I see myself using Web 2.0 as an introduction to social networking with them. I don't imagine we would get too deep into it, but I believe it would be valuable to create a blog as a class and post snippets of information from our weekly events. I think the parents would really appreciate it and it would be cool to show the journey of the class from day one until the end of the year. There is so much that happens in a day that I always feel bad I can't articulate or remember every little special moment with my students' parents. I think this would be an awesome way to virtually bring them into our classroom so they can understand, read, see and feel what their children are experiencing in their academic environment. It would probably be a lot more energy and work on my part, but I like to document and look back on a personal journey to see how far I've come, so I would enjoy giving the kids this perspective and hope they would appreciate it as much as I do. Plus, they would take part in posting and deciding what we want to show and talk about on the blog. I imagine it would be a fabulous community building opportunity. If anything, it would be a great way for me to communicate with the outer community of parents, siblings, friends and family members of my students.

Some ideas for a class blog:

• Group and individual photos

• Videos

• Announcements

• Birthdays

• Art work

• Updates

• Assemblies

• Field trips

• Holiday celebrations

• Books

• Homework

• Reminders

• Lunch/snack menus

• Goals

• Schedule

• Curriculum units

• Math focus

• Guest speakers

A Teacher's Responsibility

Watching the Rafe video this week made me realize just how much responsibility we (educators) have in the classroom. I was relieved, yet personally startled, when Rafe described the code of responsibility he placed upon his students. I thought, how simple to make them accountable for their own destiny! But for some reason it all came crashing down on me and I had this overwhelming sense of anxiety about how much we have to accomplish- academically, socially, emotionally, morally... It made me think, what is a teacher's primary responsibility in the classroom? Below is a list of answers I received after reaching out to my peers. What do you think?

To educate
To inspire!
To encourage
Differentiated instruction
To increase achievement (academic and emotional)
To develop a person's character
Making sure they stay motivated to learn
To become obsolete
To make them think
Give them a secure and supportive environment
Success without discrimination
Teach values and ethics
To develop good human nature inside them
To show them right and wrong

The Lottery

The Tivoli is showing a new documentary called The Lottery, starting today, that anyone in the education field might want to check out. The link is posted below.

http://thelotteryfilm.com/about

Elementary Metacognition

I love the idea of teaching metacognition in the classroom. I feel that this learning concept was seriously lacking in my academic upbringing. I have learned that it is essential to understand personal learning processes and that it enables you to improve comprehension, articulation and acceptance, which potentially could all lead to building more confidence in the classroom. I teach 2nd grade and I find that I have to model the art of metacognition daily. Really slowing your "everyday moments" down and explaining them out loud helps students to understand the art of self-evaluation. Even if they aren't able to do it yet themselves, they get that it's possible and somehow (subconsciously) they begin to grasp it on a deeper level. Seeing that I love bullet points, I've decided to list a few ways that you can incorporate metacognition into your own classroom!

• Model the act of self-talking and thinking aloud
  
• Activate prior knowledge
• Use KWL models
• Journal
• Verbally reflect/share and debrief
  
• Ask HOW not what, why, where, or who
• Process as a group
• Talk about thinking
• Plan, plan, plan
• Cultivate constructive criticism
• Evaluate your actions, thoughts, ideas
• Don't take yourself too seriously