Breathe. That is what I did this week. The week felt better. It helped to have a concrete question to research and be free to think of ways to try to help other people mold questions.
1. Resources/Ideas shared:
- My favorite vocabulary book: Bringing Words to Life
- Harry Wong's book: The First Days of School
- http://www.ignitelearning.com/pdf/The_Power_of_Academic_Vocabulary.pdf
- Photo Story program and document: http://vimeo.com/63372767
- Brain-stormed research question ideas with others and helped fine tune them
- Ideas of how to differentiate to accommodate two levels of math
- Math differentiation PowerPoint http://www.east-haven.k12.ct.us/attachments/244_Great%20Ways%20to%20Differentiate%20Math%20Instruction.pdf
- Writer's Workshop for Kindergarten students: http://mrsriccaskindergarten.blogspot.com/2011/12/writers-workshop.html
2. Impact of sharing Resources/Ideas:
- I am hoping that the book Bringing Words to Life will help Kevin and others learn some new and creative ways to make vocabulary tier 2 and tier 3 words come to life. I am looking forward to how they might incorporate some of these techniques into technology vocabulary instruction.
- I shared the Wong's book: The First Days of School with Lexie after taking her Survey Monkey Quiz. In order to effectively differentiate groups in math, I encouraged her to have an organized, procedure-based, structured classroom so that all students will be successful during group and independent work time. I shared the book on #seaccr as well as a great tool for classroom management and routines from day 1 of the school year.
- I shared an article about vocabulary with Kevin as he strives to increase the student's learning of tier 2 and tier 3 words. The article gives some key ideas for making students want to learn vocabulary.
- I shared a PhotoStory Vimeo with Halie as an example of helping students improve speaking and listening skills. I explained how we used it in our class to help students become comfortable with reading aloud (speaking aloud) and listening (while viewing illustrations) to other students stories. I also suggested Audacity and Smart tools for recording students voices and letting them listen to them. They can hear their voices and re-record as many times as they would like to practice and improve both listening and speaking skills.
- I spent most of Thursday Twitter meeting trying to help two fellow students organize and finalize their questions they planned to research. After many Tweets the question was finally in bare bones stage. I also helped Karen (who teaches in my town) try to fine-tune her research question about technology use in reading at Middle School level.
- I sent a Power Point to Lexie that discusses ways to specifically differentiate for multi-levels of Math.
- I explained to Michelle how our K-6 does Writer's Workshops in our school and sent her a link to a blog of a Kindergarten teacher who actually does it. Our school uses cross-grade buddies to help build and publish Kinder writing pieces in the first quarter while students are still learning their letters.
3. Actual impact:
The actual impact of the above specific encouragement can only be surmised with observation. I believe that the books I shared will be looked at if not now, at a later date. My fellow students expressed interest in them. Lexie and I tweeted several times about ideas for classroom differentiation and she seemed excited that it is being done in other schools. I let her know I would be happy to help her in the future if she wanted more details about how we have done it at our site. I gave her several examples which she 'seemed' to consider. I don't know if she has watched the Power Point but her demeanor did seem to improve and her excitement is building in her research project. I do not yet know if Hallie has watched the Vimeo. She did mention that she might record the students and have them listen to their own reading and speaking voice. I am hoping that she can connect with Jaime who is in a mostly non-verbal village situation and deals with some of the same struggles (although they have different research questions.) I hope but don't know if Michelle will follow up on the Kindergarten Writer's Workshop blog since it is not her actual research question.
Final note on funny things: Here I thought I was helping Amber H. with her research question and she has re-written it with one that might make a perfect match for collaboration. I am excited to see what comes of it. I am wondering if I can change my question from : Will integrating more content rich non-fiction, informational text into the daily curriculum increase the fluency and comprehension of 2nd grade students at McNeil?
The actual impact of the above specific encouragement can only be surmised with observation. I believe that the books I shared will be looked at if not now, at a later date. My fellow students expressed interest in them. Lexie and I tweeted several times about ideas for classroom differentiation and she seemed excited that it is being done in other schools. I let her know I would be happy to help her in the future if she wanted more details about how we have done it at our site. I gave her several examples which she 'seemed' to consider. I don't know if she has watched the Power Point but her demeanor did seem to improve and her excitement is building in her research project. I do not yet know if Hallie has watched the Vimeo. She did mention that she might record the students and have them listen to their own reading and speaking voice. I am hoping that she can connect with Jaime who is in a mostly non-verbal village situation and deals with some of the same struggles (although they have different research questions.) I hope but don't know if Michelle will follow up on the Kindergarten Writer's Workshop blog since it is not her actual research question.
Final note on funny things: Here I thought I was helping Amber H. with her research question and she has re-written it with one that might make a perfect match for collaboration. I am excited to see what comes of it. I am wondering if I can change my question from : Will integrating more content rich non-fiction, informational text into the daily curriculum increase the fluency and comprehension of 2nd grade students at McNeil?
to match Amber H.'s question: How do I use non-fiction text to assist students in learning?
Both Amber and I are interested in collaborating. Would we be better off sticking to both of our original questions and collaborating from a different perspective or can we do the same question?
4. Next week's action plan:
First, I am planning on finding out if I should change my question to align with Amber H., or keep the one I have. Next, I plan to get caught up on all my reading. I need to start researching and reading for my own research question. I will post my blog earlier in the week so more people can comment. I plan to comment on different blogs than I did this past week. I tried to comment on half of them and will switch to the other half next week. I plan to use our group Tweet time to work on collaboration with Amber H. Finally, I plan to keep a log pad by my computer during Twitter Sessions to write down who I help, and who/how people help me! I am getting organized!
5. I learned from others and shared resources:
Thinking through the "How would we go about researching this question" with several students helped me better know how I would research my own. Amanda H. connected me to the Gurian Institute which she attended this past summer. One of the topics she had learned about while there was 50/50 fiction/informational text integration. I emailed her instructor who then forwarded me to yet another person at the institute. I have found multitudes of interesting information and plan to interview the director as part of my research. The focus is often on boys becoming interested in reading, which is their specialty, but also getting girls to read informational text. Not only did she give me a resource, she gave me a person! I also learned about online ebooks, ereaders and Evernote. Both might be usable in my classroom. Another tech addition is Survey Monkey. I am considering asking my own staff to help me with my research by using the tool. Diigo groups is another tool that is new to me. I am very excited to have all the URL's so easily available. I have the Diigo #seaccr group saved in my favorites. I have been reading quite a few articles from the feed #edtechchat that passes my screen on a regular basis. One of the perks of following my people!
Both Amber and I are interested in collaborating. Would we be better off sticking to both of our original questions and collaborating from a different perspective or can we do the same question?
4. Next week's action plan:
First, I am planning on finding out if I should change my question to align with Amber H., or keep the one I have. Next, I plan to get caught up on all my reading. I need to start researching and reading for my own research question. I will post my blog earlier in the week so more people can comment. I plan to comment on different blogs than I did this past week. I tried to comment on half of them and will switch to the other half next week. I plan to use our group Tweet time to work on collaboration with Amber H. Finally, I plan to keep a log pad by my computer during Twitter Sessions to write down who I help, and who/how people help me! I am getting organized!
5. I learned from others and shared resources:
Thinking through the "How would we go about researching this question" with several students helped me better know how I would research my own. Amanda H. connected me to the Gurian Institute which she attended this past summer. One of the topics she had learned about while there was 50/50 fiction/informational text integration. I emailed her instructor who then forwarded me to yet another person at the institute. I have found multitudes of interesting information and plan to interview the director as part of my research. The focus is often on boys becoming interested in reading, which is their specialty, but also getting girls to read informational text. Not only did she give me a resource, she gave me a person! I also learned about online ebooks, ereaders and Evernote. Both might be usable in my classroom. Another tech addition is Survey Monkey. I am considering asking my own staff to help me with my research by using the tool. Diigo groups is another tool that is new to me. I am very excited to have all the URL's so easily available. I have the Diigo #seaccr group saved in my favorites. I have been reading quite a few articles from the feed #edtechchat that passes my screen on a regular basis. One of the perks of following my people!
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ReplyDeleteI love the idea of keeping a notepad handy during our Tweet Session! I always forget who I talk to, and what I've said. This will be perfect in my reflection at the end of the week. Thanks for the suggestion!
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