I've known for awhile that I had a job, but last week found out what grade level and building. Beginning in August, I will be teaching 1st grade at Butler Elementary in Fort Dodge, IA, my hometown. I have heard wonderful things about the Butler staff and I cannot wait to become a part of it. I will be meeting my team over spring break and pick out my classroom for next year. It is all very surreal. I can't wait for next year, but right now, my focus needs to be student teaching.
The 2nd graders keep me busy and on my toes - I love seeing them every day. I am finally full time teaching and it is fabulous. It makes me so excited for my own classroom next year. I've been able to get to know each of them, which has been very rewarding. They make my heart happy. Only 3 weeks left with them; I don't like thinking about having to leave.
We have doing a lot of things, but my favorite project we've been working on in 2nd grade is our blog. We have been using KidBlog to publish our writing to express our opinion. This writing unit began by introducing opinion writing and what that should include. We used an OREO to help us remember.
O - state your Opinion
R - back it up with Reasons
E - provide Examples
O - and restate your Opinion
Next, I introduced the blog. This lesson was a bit of a nightmare, yet a success all at once. I went home that day mentally exhausted. Of course, with technology, you have to be patient and know that something will always go wrong. It was a process to familiarize the kids with it - they had lots of questions, but their engagement and excitement level was through the roof.
The next lesson, however, was a breeze compared to the first! They had a better understanding and the initial craziness of a new app had subsided. They still had questions, but they didn't bombard my brain like last time. They published their first post - an about me post - including 3 facts about themselves. 22 second graders sat quietly at their desks without a single reminder, while writing. SUCCESS!!!!!!
I learned an important lesson during these first lessons; trying new things requires you to take a leap of faith, but the jump is SO worth it. We have had great discussions about digital citizenship, proper use, and purpose of our blog. We are all learning as we go; learning new things each day.
The students have been able to publish a few opinion writing pieces, comment on peer's posts with editing advice or their thoughts, and write to an audience which provides great purpose to their writing. It makes writing much more appealing to them.
Our next project is a book review. It has many components, but I am very excited to try it out. Here's a breakdown of the plan:
- Students pick a book
- Students brainstorm on paper
- Students write a draft on paper
- Students revise and edit
- Students get their final draft approved by the teacher
- Students post their book review on the blog
- Students read their book review and are recorded
- Videos are posted to YouTube
- QR codes are created for each YouTube video
- QR codes are placed on the books in the library
- Students can scan the QR codes to listen to their peer's opinion and recommendations about books in their classroom library
This will be my first time doing anything like this, but as my cooperating teacher says, "This is your time to try new things!" Very true. I'll never know unless I try.
Realistically, it will probably be awhile again until I am able to blog due to the craziness of life, but hopefully next time I'll have a successful book review project to discuss!!
