Something I once loved...

Back a few years ago, I began blogging as a requirement for receiving a grant.  I was to blog about what I was doing in my classroom and how we were using the iPads I received.  Over the years, I came to really enjoy blogging.  I refocused my blog to be about spiritual lessons I learned that could be applied to the classroom.  Every now and then, I post a blog about a cool project we did in my class.  For the past 5 weeks, I have been in a master's class that required me to blog each week.  At first, I thought the blog had to be over what I learned (apparently, I didn't read the project guidelines carefully enough-oops).  I soon learned I could blog about whatever I wanted.  I chose to continue using my regular blog and blog like I normally do.

I know I posted something about this on my Facebook with the first blog I posted for class, but since I'm required to do a "Blogging Reflection" I thought I'd share my thoughts in a full out blog post!

Even though I got to blog about whatever I wanted, blogging because I had to, changed my motivation and robbed me of the joy blogging once had.  As I thought about this and struggled with the blogging for the past few weeks, I thought about conversations I had with high school students about using technology in the classroom.  These students shared they did not like using the technology for school work.  These students loved using technology to connect with their friends.  They Snapchat, Tweet, Instagram and now Periscope!  (Yes...I used all of those as verbs)  But some students detest when teachers use the technology for projects.  What I gathered from the students I talked with was they want to keep their "fun & personal" life away from school.  I never understood until this summer.  I want to keep my personal blogging away from my school life!  I enjoy blogging with no strings attached (and most definitely not a grade attached).

As I ponder this, I am at a loss for connecting learning to students and applying personal loves to the classroom.  I want learning to be meaningful but never, do I want to rob them of the joy they find in an activity.  One thought I had was, students in elementary school find more joy in using personal activities in the classroom (such as Minecraft).  Maybe when the activity benefits their personal gains, it isn't as much of a downer.  It could just be high school students and older.  I write this post, looking for thoughts from other educators.  I have no answers.  I am about to take Minecraft (something my students love) and use it for educational purposes.  Is this a good idea?  Do you experience kids engaging more with personal activities or withdrawing?  How can we use their likes and interests to engage rather than detour?  HELP!?!?

Just so you know...I will continue blogging after this class is over.  I might take a few week break, but that is not new!!  I have not been detoured from blogging completely!  I enjoy sharing my thoughts with anyone who will listen (whether the audience is 20 readers or 210 readers).

The Empty Pot

A dear friend of mine shared the Children’s book called The Empty Pot by Demi, and presented an illustration that is important for all teachers to hear.  As the story goes the little boy who loves to garden is given a seed to plant and grow just like all the other children in the kingdom.  Ping dedicated his life to making the seed grow and tenderly cared for it day after day without seeing any results.  At times and in the end, he was discouraged and disheartened.  He knew he was a good gardener but he could not get the plant to grow.  After a year of the plant still not growing, Ping began to question his gardening skills and himself.  Ping presents his empty pot to the Emperor only to be rewarded with being Emperor himself.

Each day we are given seeds that we are to plant, nurture, and watch grow.  The problem is they do not grow or grow enough to meet the standards that are evaluating us as teachers.  Teachers walk through the halls of schools feeling defeated and disheartened, lacking the esteem needed to persevere.  The power behind this story is that you may not see the benefits or the rewards immediately or at all.  Even a year may past, but in the end whether or not you see the benefits, a life was touched.  The beauty of a child’s story is that they are NOT a “baked seed” and have the potential to grow and flourish.  It is vital to the success of students and schools that teachers take time to love and nurture students.  Maybe they need to be “planted in a new pot” meaning they are moved to a new seat or a different small group.  Maybe it means they need to be “watered” a little bit more with love from teachers.  Just because you do not see the growth in two or ten children, does not make you a bad teacher in the same way Ping was not a bad gardener.  My message is a simple one: when you invest in nurturing each seed with the utmost care, whether you see it or not, you will make a difference and be reward.  Defeated teachers: you will be rewarded for your efforts of care and nurture!  You ARE making a difference!  You ARE doing a good job!  Be the gardener you love being and keep fighting for EVERY ONE of your students!  

"I hate coming to computer lab!"

Slap in the face...okay, maybe not a real one, but definitely one that you feel as a teacher.  Let's be honest, MOST of us want our kids to enjoy coming to our class and want the kids to like us in some way or another.  This past week, a teacher brought her class to the computer lab and shared that her class was not excited to be there.  They said they hated coming.  Ouch!  As soon as she said it, I knew why.  The second graders did not enjoy learning to type.  Although we practiced typing for a few weeks, then did something different, the weeks of typing were becoming dull.  I could tell the kids were getting antsy and even the good students were complaining.  It was time for a change.  

The wheels began turning as I processed a lot of different things.  Are 2nd graders developmentally ready to type?  It is a district expectations that they spend 20 minutes a week typing.  How could that look differently?  How could I benefit the classroom teachers even more?  Could we quit typing? How will that change my whole K-5 progression?  Could I split the class time and do two different things?  

I can do things differently, we can split the class time, it will change the whole K-5 progression but this is a learning process!  

Since those were the answers to my questions, here is the new plan...(I started the next day with day one of my rotation)

The kids come into my classroom, clean their hands, and immediately get on the computer.  They begin typing and type until 10:00.  (This gives them 15-20 minutes of typing) We use Dance Mat Typing. 

At 10:00 we will work on STEM activities that tie to their second grade science report cards.  

We are starting with a study of how earth can change instantly-earthquakes, volcanoes-and how earth can change slowly-weathering, erosion.  We used an online thesaurus to look up synonyms for quickly and slowly because those were terms in the standard.  Then, we began talking about earthquakes, volcanoes, and erosion.  Next week, when they come in, we are going to use the search engine to look up structures that survive earthquakes.  The final portion of the earthquake study will include building earthquake structures and testing them on gelatin earths/fault lines.  Pictures to come!  To study erosion, we are going to look at cookie rocks and spray them with water before we do another search engine search.

If your kids don't like what you are doing, or are not enjoying the class, evaluate and ask yourself questions.  Don't be afraid to listen to your kids and change things up.  Don't wait until you are slapped in the face and the kids vocalize they "hate coming to your class."  See the signs in their eyes and actions!   Be willing to CHANGE things up! 

Digital Citizens!

Good thing I don't believe in making New Year's Resolutions.  I might have made one to blog more... and I'd be epically failing!!! I KNOW all 50 (I mean 40, since at least 10 of those views were probably me!) of my readers have been anxiously waiting for a computer lab update! 

Picture this:

You are at the mall in the food court. Someone stands up with a poster size picture of the pizza they are about to eat and yell: "Best pizza ever!" #mallfood #greasy #lunchdate #shopping

You are in the audience at a school assembly; a girl is introduced and brought to the stage. She begins her speech by identifying the grungy girl sitting next to you. For the next 3 minutes she talks about how nasty, stupid, poor, dirty, and friendless the girl is! Everyone hears it. Everyone sees it. No one stops it! 

Both of the above scenarios seem a little extreme and a little silly. But in reality, both things happen daily on social media! Let's be honest, at some point, you have posted a picture of food you've eaten! I know I have.  As a society we crave "likes", "favorites", etc.  We crave the high we get from comments or responses (both negative and positive).  Social media such as Kik, Vine, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and Snapchat consume our society.  

With the mass influx of social media, one might think our students should "know how to use it." The problem is, students know "how" to use it but they don't know etiquette for using it.  Due to the social media craze, I feel it is important to include digital citizenship into my curriculum! Our school counselor is required and finds it important to include digital citizenship  as well.  We decided to join together and co-teach digital citizenship. It has been a blast and we have done something a little different with each grade level. 

5th grade Digital citizenship lesson plans:

     OBJECTIVE:  When using social media, I can use online etiquette all the time.  I can define and recognize cyberbullying.

Students were questioned about the social media they use daily and engaged through a discussion all the different ones they use.  (I learned a few new ones)

We moved from the discussion into three different videos.  The first video is a rap song about ten online rules.  (Commonsense media.org is a great website for digital citizenship curriculum.  If you haven't checked it out, you need to do so!!) - Over sharing rap

After they listened to the a funny video about how to behave online, we moved into a video that defined cyberbullying.  It was very informative and told the kids how to respond to cyberbullying.  

The final video we showed...well you just need to watch it: Talent Show - Lesson on cyberbullying.  Between each video we had a discussion about the video and answered any questions the students might have.  

The activity that followed the videos was fantastic!  (Our counselor came up with it and made the cool items posted in the pictures below!)  Students were divided into groups of 2-3 and given a card with one of the ten rules for online behavior.  The kids had to come up with a skit explaining one of  the different rules.  Kids in the audience were required to identify which rule the skit represented.  The goal was to make sure eight of the ten were correctly guessed on the first time.  Not only did the kids have a good time, they practiced behaving properly online!  We wrapped up the lesson with summaries of what they learned.  

                  

4th grade lesson plans:

    OBJECTIVE:  When using social media, I can use online etiquette all the time.  I can define and recognize cyberbullying.

I'm sure you noticed the objective was the same for both fourth and fifth grade.  In fact, the beginning of the lesson looked exactly the same...okay fine, I never do any two lessons EXACTLY the same, but you get the gist!  We showed the same 3 videos and had the same general conversation.  

However, we did change the activity.  

The fourth graders were asked to use Kidpix to illustrate how to stay safe online.  The pictures turned out really good.  Here is my example for the class:

3rd grade lesson plans:

     OBJECTIVE:  When using social media, I can stay safe online and keep my computer protected from viruses.  I can define and recognize cyberbullying.

We decided our third graders needed something a little different.  Ginger found resources at Brainpopjr.  We used their free online Internet safety curriculum to guide our lesson.  Together we watched the online safety video.  Following the video, we had a discussion of the different things the kids could do to stay safe online.  As a class we took the quiz over the video.  The follow-up activity was letting students write about how they stayed safe online.  

At the end of class, the students watched the last video shown with the upper grades (Talent show: cyberbullying) and had a discussion comparing the video to cyberbullying.  Some of our third grade classes were really moved by the video and what they saw.

2nd grade lesson plans:

     OBJECTIVE:  When using social media, I can use online etiquette all the time. 

Really our 2nd grade lesson plans mocked the third grade lesson plans.  We used the Brainpopjr and watched the same video.  The activity at the end was also from the website but instead of writing, the students were asked to draw a safe website they like to visit.  

At this time, we are not exactly sure what we will do with first grade or kindergarten, but their digital citizenship lessons will be coming up soon.  

I've really enjoyed the digital citizenship units over the past month and have been left thinking about my online etiquette.  I challenge you; watch the rap again and really think about the information you post online.  Think about the next picture of someone else you post...did you get permission?  If it were you, would you want it up? Before you post every 30 minutes, stop and think about the reader.  Be wise when online and remember, you are an example for your students and kids.  Social media can be great, but it can also rob us of human interaction causing us to crave more and more "likes!"

Code Much?

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting at my kitchen counter pondering what I should do with a couple grades in the computer lab! I found myself on Twitter and Pinterest searching for a lesson idea when I found an article about Hour of Code!! December 9-15 was the international hour of code.  (I'm all about supporting curriculum in the computer lab but sometimes you just have to do something fun.) Thankfully, there is freedom in the lab to go in multiple directions. I decided I was going to have Kindergarten-5th grade code.  Kindergarteners coding?  Yes, I AM crazy!!!

Monday I got to school and put a sign on my door. I created an "I can" statement based on one I saw online and I found a coding activity for each grade. 

Fifth, second, and third grade were on Tynker.com.  My fifth graders were given the opportunity to choose any activity from the website. My second graders did "Puppy Adventure" and my third graders did "Candy Quest."  Talk about loving what they were doing.  I had several fifth graders come in during recess just to do more coding.  SCORE!!!  The kindergartners and first graders used botlogic.us.  The kindergartners were on the iPads doing the activity while the first graders logged onto the computer.

Overall, the week went splendid and we had a lot of fun participating in Hour of Code.  I was so impressed with the requests to continue coding or about coding at home.  You know you’ve inspired kids when parents text you pictures of more completed certificates.  Here are just a few of the certificates from the week.  

The delight from so many of my kids really has me thinking about the direction I want to go in the computer lab.  How do you balance creating and making the curriculum fit but at the same time, truly igniting excitement in students? As I prepare for next semester I am truly searching for more engaging tactics and ideas to engage students who find school to be boring.  I want to inspire students and get them hooked on learning.  I love watching kids’ eyes dance with excitement when it comes to learning, new books, or a computer program.  Be looking and watching for the new ideas that come from the computer lab!!  

I also encourage you to try something new in your classroom.  Make the new thing exciting and engaging!  Coming from the classroom I know you can turn most things into something fun and engaging.  (Now long division is another story...seriously haven't ever been able to come up with something fun for that one!)  In one of our regular ed. classes the students participated in a technology activity to learn transformations.  Those kids were so excited to come show me what they were doing and I LOVED IT!  I also heard from their teacher they did significantly better on that particular topic when tested.  I love seeing kids enthusiastic about what they are learning...do something different and fun next semester to appeal to your students!!!