Walk and Talk

This week I tried a walk and talk strategy with some of my students. After we read a few chapters in our book I partnered them up and they walked around the room 2 times and were suppose to talk about what happened in the book. I also had them try and come up with 1 discussion starter. Most of my students were engaged during this time It was perfect to get them up and moving because we had been sitting for a while. I noticed they were more on topic when I would go around and listen to them speak. Many students were able to summarize what they read and were more comfortable talking with a partner instead of in front of everyone. After they were done I made statements like I heard one person talking about... did anyone else talk about that? We were able to keep a good discussion going because they had just talked about it with a partner.

repeating

The past few weeks I have been trying repeating more with my students. I know whole brain teaching and Envoy uses these strategies but I haven't really used it intentionally until these last few weeks. I was finding that I would say something like don't throw your wrapper away until I am done reading and then 2 minutes later I would have 2 students get up to throw it away. UGH! So one day on a whim I just started using it. As we sat down to read before I started I said "do not throw away your wrapper until I am done reading. When can you throw away your wrapper?" Most of the kids answered and I noticed right away that most of them responded. I was happy to see everyone kept their wrapper until I was done reading. I also started using it when giving a definition in math class. I try and use repeating for really important things (or pet peeves of mine- like telling them when they can sharpen pencils). I don't feel as though I am justing talking to hear my own voice anymore. It puts some accountability back on the students because if I have them repeat a directions, I know they heard it because they repeated it.

Instructional Strategy

This week I tried the jigsaw strategy in our science class. I paired the students up (one high student and one lower student). Then I gave them a type of rock to find 4 facts about from our book. For the most part this section of the activity went really well. My lower students were able to get help from their partner. Most students found facts and learned about their type of rock. I thought this was effective because they were summarizing the facts they found, taking notes and working with others. Then my plan was to get into groups and teach each other about the rock they researched. Because of time I had to adapt this part. We actually did this together as a whole group. We took notes on each type of rock and each group got to share their facts when it was their turn. I liked that everyone was prepared and were able to teach others about their rock. If I were to do it again I would plan a lot more time. It took longer than I expected and I also would use a rubric to set high standards of what good facts and good work looks like because I had many students rush through this activity.

Constructivism

When taking the Look Before you Leap checklist I noticed that I used some constructivist strategies in my classroom but I have a long way to go. I know giving up a little control and letting the kids take on their own learning is hard for me especially since I teach a lot of social skills to my students. I know I need to take baby steps. This week I have been trying to let kids take the lead a little more. In book club I tried to sit back a little more and let the students mostly speak. I didn't worry about making sure everyone knew all the details of the book, I just let the kids take on the discussion on their own. My math class works well with groups and partners so I have tried to incorporate more activities where they are learning from each other. If I notice some kids are getting it, I have them help others instead of me always trying to control and teach everything. Another change I'm trying is to ask more questions. Instead of being direct and just jump right into the content, I have been opening with questions and encouraging more dialog about the topic to get them thinking. We even did an activity about how to have a good discussion where I shared ideas like using the words "I wonder..." or "I think that". I know these little changes will help my students take learning into their own hands and experience learning by discovering and sharing.

Instructional Strategies

The instruction strategies I chose to focus on and critique were post-it summaries, KWL chart and analogy making. While comparing them to Marzano's effective strategies I noticed that they all met at least one of Marzano's guidelines. Post-it summaries the students wrote down 3 points they learned from a video and then when the music stopped, they shared their 3 facts with other people. This also got them learning cooperatively. This worked well with some of my tough students, but engagement was low with some of my shy girls. The KWL worked well and I will definitely use it again because I thought it was really effective. They had to summarize what they remember and activated their prior knowledge. It also got them asking questions about things they wanted to know. This can help guide my instruction. I used analogies with our vocabulary. This strategie really uses higher level thinking because they had to know the definition and compare it to other words. This worked well for my higher kids but was hard for my lower kids. This strategy is effective but I will need to work on it more with some students.

Technology resource

I tried student.infuselearning.com a few times in my classroom over the last few weeks. I love how easy it is to use if you have ipods or ipads in your classroom. It was an engaging way to practice some of our math problems instead of using our whiteboards again. The students could see each other's answers as they came up and they loved to see their own. First go to teacher.infuselearning.com and sign up (it's free) then the students log in on their ipod. You could either prep questions ahead of time or make them up on the spot like I did. The kids liked it and the more we use it, the more content we can cover (of course the first time we used it I need to talk about rules and how to use it).

Big Rock

I've always been a person that needs balance and I know my limits. I knew going into this profession that it would become one of my "big rocks". What I didn't want was it to be my biggest rock. For me, some of my biggest rocks in life include my family, my down time, my friends, sleep,  my health, and of course my job. There are times when I feel like my bucket is overflowing with all the little things in life that take up space, and at other times I feel like my bucket has plenty of space for all my rocks (even with a little to spare). After viewing the video on Saturday I found myself saying it is ok that I can't do it all. If the dishes don't get done, papers don't get graded or I decide to watch a movie instead of planning lessons...IT'S OK! I can't let myself feel guilty if I don't have time for all the small things because I know I need to put me and my family first. I have grown a lot over the last 4 years as a teacher but one thing that has stayed strong is the ability to put me and my family first. I have stayed strong with this idea and I need to remind myself sometimes that school is just a job. It is not selfish to put my family and myself first because life is short!