"Glow & Grow" Blog Plan

The conversations about blogging at the conference was one of the more exciting aspects of the Fall Conference, perhaps it's because I take a huge interest in blogging and I love browsing other peoples' blogs for information and good ideas!  Our group came up with a great idea about blogging that I'm really excited about.  We decided to check in once a month for a "Glow & Grow".  We will be checking in with one another by the 15th of each month to give a positive feedback (the glow) and to give constructive feedback (the grow).

Fall Conference Reflection

Q:  How were you inspired by the fall conference sharing?

A:  The Fall Conference was interesting as I wasn’t quite sure how it would all work out.  I was a bit apprehensive going into the conference, but quickly found myself engaged.  When I was most engaged was when I met up with others from my grade level to discuss blogging.  I felt least engaged toward the end of the day as I was getting tired of sitting and my mind began to wonder about the upcoming week.

Q:  What ideas did you gain that you will take back to your classroom?

A:  I am excited to learn how my “bloggy” friends are doing with their Action Research in their own classrooms.  Many of them are implementing Daily 5 into their teaching and I am interested in learning more techniques before jumping into it myself. I will learn more about this as the year goes on and I am able to gain knowledge about this through reading their blogs.

Q:  Consider the Lasallian principles of AGAPE. Which aspects were supported through the sharing and how?

A:  I think that the conference allowed many opportunities for the Lasallian principles of AGAPE through the sharing and collaborating with others who teach at the same level.  Association, generativity, adaptive, presence and engagement were all present at the conference. 

 

For association, we were all able to collaborate and cooperate with others from different learning communities to better our techniques.

For generativity, we were all able to contribute in a non-threatening and safe environment.  I felt that we were valued as a learner.

For adaptation, I was able to expand my thinking beyond myself and listen to others. I had to adapt to a new environment and new people in the small group break-out sessions.

For presence, I think that it all depended on the person and what their attitude is before entering the conference.   Some people were very open, friendly and welcoming and truly wanted to learn from others while others didn’t seem very present.

For engagement, I think that is it very similar to presence in the fact that some people seemed to enjoy their time and make the most out of the conference while others were there just because they had to be there.  I was lucky that I joined a blogging group who welcomed me and seemed to be very present and engaged in our conversations.

BD Sharing Process

I am surprised at how much I enjoyed teaching my Backwards Design Unit.  Actually to be completely honest, when I was writing my lesson plan I wasn't thinking about the BIG idea as much as I was thinking how BIG of a pain in the butt that this was going to be.  However, my students (and I) had so much fun!  My big idea that I wanted my students to learn was the difference between fiction books and non-fiction books.  This was the first time that I've fully designed any lesson around a specific common core standard.  I decided to teach them about spiders (since all of my students believe in celebrating Halloween-and it’s quickly approaching I thought it would be a good fit!) See more of what we did in class by clicking HERE.

I checked out many, many, many books from the library (mostly non-fiction) coupled with my own “spider” library (mostly fiction) and was able to teach the difference between the two.  I have to admit that I learned a lot of interesting facts about spiders that I didn't know a week ago!  Maybe that was a good thing as my Little’s had a lot of questions about spiders that I didn't know the answers to.  We had wonderful journey learning together in a fun and exciting way that was mostly student driven!  It has opened my eyes on how to make learning even more fun.  I know that they learned the difference between fiction and non-fiction because they would specifically ask me to read a non-fiction book for our read aloud just so they could learn more interesting facts about spiders.  Through this process I learned a lot of different things about my children, for example, before we began our unit we completed a K-W-L chart about what we know about spiders.  Some of the children gave me facts and some gave me their opinions, which leads me to another BD lesson-one that I wasn't planning on until later in the year.  However, next week we will be learning about bats and the big idea will be learning the difference between fact and opinion. 

I have to say that I’m pretty proud about our love for non-fiction books in our classroom since teaching this unit.

After completing my BD unit, my questions are:

• how long should a BD unit typically take?
• how many different "Big Ideas" should be in a unit?

AR Sharing Process

Achieving quality small group instruction time 

through the management of literacy centers.

My review of literature focused on the concepts of literacy centers and small group instruction.  Ideally, I want to gain more quality time instructing small groups while the rest of my class is independently engaged in various literacy concepts.  However, at the kindergarten level it can be difficult for children to remain focused and independent during this time.  The question guiding my research is: How can I keep the rest of the class responsibly engaged in meaningful learning while I am working with small groups? 

Through my research on managing literacy centers, some of the things I have learned are: the importance of building a caring classroom community, creating a safe and welcoming environment, providing children with choice, allowing time for children to make personal connections, making expectations fair and attainable, and allowing time at the end to share.  These are just a few of the important features to think about when implementing literacy centers, however, my research has listed a plethora of other ideas to help making literacy centers successful.  As a result of the review of literature, I have made several changes on how I implement literacy centers in my classroom.  I have taken time and will continue to build a kind, caring and compassionate classroom community.  I have created little “learning centers” in my classroom where my students will spend their time learning independently in a safe and welcoming space.  I have set up the learning areas in an organized manner where the children have 6-8 activities to choose from, which offers various modalities of learning (visual, kinesthetic, auditory etc.)  I am in the process of giving the children time to explore the materials connect personally with each other and the activities at each center.  I have made my expectations very clear for each student and my students have made their learning goals evident.  The one area that I have been struggling with is allowing time at the end of center time to share.  This is an area where I need to focus more on to get the full benefit of implementing literacy centers.  My students have been building their center stamina and have been learning how to handle conflicts when they arise.

Throughout the next few weeks I will do a better job at allowing time at the end of literacy centers for the children to share so they can examine and discuss what they are learning at each of their centers.  This will give each of us the opportunity to celebrate one another’s work and accomplishments.  This will also give me time to informally assess what knowledge the children are acquiring.

As a result of the beginning phase of implementing my action research, my questions are as follows:

• What tools can I use to gauge how students are engaged?
• What tools can I use to gauge how my students are making their learning meaningful?

Differentiation

Since differentiation was my first AR topic and I read most of the Differentiation articles for my AR paper, I was already beginning to implement my new learning. One of the things that I’ve learned through my action research is that differentiation is not making lessons different for every child, but keeping learning open ended. I am applying this to my Literacy Work Station time in my classroom. It is an hour of the day where my kids are at various areas of the classroom learning ideas centered on literacy. To keep my activities open-ended I have introduced activities that don’t have definite answers and the activities can be on-going. I’ve created activities (and used some activities from TPT) that are open-ended. For example, at the Alphabet Station I have provided an alphabet hunt where the letters of the alphabet are hidden around the room and the children grab a clip-board and walk around the room to find the letters. Depending on their ability and interest, some students might just find the letters and write them randomly on their paper, others might trace letters that are on a laminated paper, others might find the beginning sounds that correspond with the letter while others are finding the letters and recording them in alphabetical order. This is just an example of one out of the six-eight activities that would be found at the Alphabet Station. I’ve noticed that most of the kids are choosing the route that best applies to their learning ability. For those that are having more of a difficult time choosing how they want to record their answers it gives me the opportunity to teach them how self-monitor to figure out how they learn best.


I also learned that choice is an integral part of making differentiation successful. Instead of telling my kids what they need to learn at a specific Work Station, I have been introducing a new activity and just placing it in the station for them as a choice to work with. At each work station I have 6-8 different activities that they can choose to work on. This last week I noticed that the majority of the kids are choosing to work with the new activity that I introduce first. Not all of the kids are choosing to work with the new activity though, and I believe that they may want to finish a previous activity; or they are not ready to try the new one or they are just not interested in the new activity. Either way, they are still practicing the concept at the specific station and I am okay with that because they are making the learning meaningful to them.