Utilizing Technology

I am very fortunate to have piloted a one-to-one tablet lab.  It is showing its age, but I know that I am very fortunate to have this kind of access to technology.  I am always looking for new ways to teach students to use technology in a useful way.  I tell the kids that if they ask me to play on their tablet that the answer is always no.  Our tablets are used exclusively for learning although sometimes this involves learning that they would consider "play."

Yesterday we used our tablets and RAZ kids to do some content area learning on the water cycle.  Here two students are able to share the same book and share their experience while reading to enrich the learning of both students.  The students were able to take an electronic quiz for comprehension on the book that I could quickly monitor.

Our main focus has been on learning to use Google Drive to work on word processing.  This has unlocked additional interest in writing for some students and has allowed me to monitor students writing to an even greater degree.  I am even able to do electronic conferencing with their documents where they can read my comments and ask me questions about their writing that is e-mailed straight to me and I can comment after school and even on my phone.

We live in an exciting age and I feel very fortunate to be able to guide their development as students who learn to use technology responsibly and in a way that enriches their education.

Teamwork and Effort

There is no greater gift that one can give than to teach others how to work together.  Teamwork is going to be one of the biggest keys to employment for these second graders when they go to find a job in 10-15 years.  In our world, collaboration is becoming more and more important.  I have been proud of how my team has pulled together to help each other out.  

Lately, I have been using a computer program that automatically generates groups from my class list and we have done a great job of seamlessly working with partners across the classroom.  I don't see complaining when people don't work with their best friends.  Instead I see students working hard to bridge gaps and assist each other in learning.

I find it interesting to watch the truly curious students pick out new partners when they have choices for partners.  There is always at least one partnership where I think, "Hmmm, I don't know if I have ever seen those two students sit together or talk with each other."  I think certain students are trying to stretch their boundaries and hear different perspectives.  

There is nothing better than seeing students feel excited about learning and sharing with other students who can understand their perspectives.  Our science review yesterday was a collaboration of group work and then a conversation across the class that led to some new teaching and a collection of facts from books and videos.  I am excited by their eagerness to ask questions and desire to learn about our earth and its natural processes.

Bonding Over Chemistry

Yesterday, we watched a short Bill Nye segment on the water cycle and practiced learning to take notes during a video.  The question came up about molecules which was mentioned in the program.  I took that question and ran with it to do a kinesthetic lesson about how molecules behave.

It was a blast to have them act out the structure of a solid, a liquid, and a gas.  They enjoyed bouncing around the room like a gas and we even acted out the structure of a cloud and how molecules slow down before they fall back down to earth as precipitation.

If they didn't tell you yesterday, make sure to ask them about the solids, liquids, and gasses.  It is an awesome situation to have a class that is working hard enough that I get to spend some time explaining and showing them how things work that they are interested in.  I am very proud of the way they problem solved and thought about the molecules throughout the lesson.

Reading News

I have been very impressed with the reading that I have heard during this period of DRA (Diagnostic Reading Assessment) testing.  Student's reading rate and fluency have been markedly improved and that comes with the kind of practice that happens at home and not just at school.  Our next big step as readers is going to be working even harder on written comprehension.

As readers grow, one of the most important parts of becoming a better reader is using your metacognition.  This is a fancy word we use to describe the way that we think as we read.  It is very natural for adults to think about what they are reading and to be analyzing characters and events, but children are just getting to the point where they are developing and discovering the depths to which they can do this as they read.  It will be an important step in beginning to read harder material.

As a way to assess this process, we use writing as a measure of growth.  The summaries this marking period were very strong, but like usual we will be focusing the second half of the year on interpretation and reflection strategies.  Students are making good attempts, but we have to talk about things in a deeper way that looks at the question "Why?"  Students are going to get tired of me asking it, but it is the key to looking deeper.

We will also be working hard on answering questions in complete sentences that restate part of the sentence.  This is a good habit that helps them communicate what they think in a way that teachers trust they know the answer.  This is one of those important skills that will pay off long term.  When you develop these habits, teachers at higher levels tend to trust your thought process more when you spend the time to answer in a thoughtful way.

Overall good job on reading this marking period, but we will be working hard to continue expressing ourselves more clearly.

Valentine's Day Poetry Jam

Yesterday, we started preparations for Valentine's Day poetry jam.  I have informed the students that the party part of our day will be a poetry jam where we perform poems from children's authors.  We started looking through books by Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutskey, and Bruce Lansky among others.  My vision is that each student will read/perform a poem by themselves or with a partner.

I laid out that this can be done in a couple of ways.  The simplest way would be to go up and read a poem off a piece of paper.  The next step would be to memorize your poem by yourself or with a partner.  These should be shorter poems so it shouldn't be too hard.  The final way would be to dress up or make a prop at home to go along with your performance.

We will work this week on selecting our poems.  After that, I will send home a copy of the poem so that the student can practice and possibly plan their performance.  We will be doing the performance during our Valentine's Day party.  We will also still be doing traditional valentines for each student and having a box contest for the Valentines.  It would be fun if the child's box tied into their poem.  

I don't have a date yet, but I wanted to let you know what was on the horizon.  Thanks and have fun practicing or searching for a great children's poem.

Learning Facts in a Flash

Yesterday, I talked to the kids about using flash cards to practice their math facts.  We are kind of at a crossing point in math.  Our next week will be devoted to working on multiplication facts.  After that, the third and fourth marking period are going to be building on this knowledge.  Students who struggle with their math facts are going to have a much harder time being successful as problems are going to consist of multiple steps and it is going to become difficult and time consuming to draw pictures or skip count to solve problems.

Much of the computational math that we will be doing will be using addition and multiplication math facts.  Students who have these solidly will really have a chance to push the upper boundaries of our assessments.  We have a few students who are gaining daily because they are able to spend five minutes being introduced to a more difficult topic.

We talked about how you can probably find a pack of flashcards at the dollar store or cheaply at Meijer, but you could also make them at home.  Sometimes the process of creating the flash card can help as much as practicing with them.  It can take any shape between a simple production with paper and crayons to something very "pinteresty*."  (*Made up word I know.)  I had one family who made flashcards on card stock using glitter paints and it became a fun thing to practice because the student was proud of their creation.

However you practice, it would be a good idea to make that a daily thing until it is solid.  Major strides can be made quickly.  We had one student who went from the lower third of the class to the top five students in one month.  She went from the middle of addition to the lower end of multiplication in less than a month.  If students start passing daily, I skip them to an appropriate level to keep them challenged.  

Rocket math isn't everything, but the students who are farthest in rocket math have a high correlation with success on STAR math.  There are a few students who haven't been super successful on timed tests that are still very successful on the STAR assessment, but there aren't any students who are doing multiplication rocket math that aren't in the top half of the class on the STAR assessment.  

Some students have greater natural math aptitude, but learning math facts is something that ALL students can do with the right effort and encouragement.  Keep practicing and we will keep raising the bar in class to push each student to their potential.

Counting Money and Coin Identification

I am finding some wholes in student's knowledge when it comes to counting coins.  This is something that I usually teach and assess in the third marking period, but I am finding that it is coming up as one of the places students are not making as much progress on in STAR math testing.  This would be a great project for parents to take up at home as a "homework" opportunity.  

Students need to know the faces and approximate size of the penny, nickle, dime, and quarter.  It also wouldn't hurt to be familiar with the half dollar and the dollar coin.  After being able to identify coins, students need to be able to add coins together to find a total amount.  During the third marking period, I work on making change as part of my decimal unit, but we just briefly cover counting coins as I try to spiral through and help students before that.  When students have a solid grasp on this topic it makes the later learning much easier.

I think this topic can be a fun one to practice by keeping a jar of coins on the table and just scooping some out for each problems.  You can also work on strategy problems by naming an amount of coins and having students figure out how many different ways they can make $0.32.  One of my focuses when students write money is to have it always be in the dollar and decimal form and not with a cents symbol.  It helps transition into adding and subtracting larger amounts of money.

I understand everyone is busy, but if you can add in twenty minutes a week on some sort of money practice it will help down the road and help students excel even more on their STAR math test.  Thanks for all that you do.

Here are some other technology resources:

Worksheet generator - 

https://www.mathfactcafe.com/worksheet/money/

Arcademics Games - 

http://www.arcademics.com/games/dolphin-dash/dolphin-dash.html

http://www.arcademics.com/games/dolphin-feed/dolphin-feed.html

ABCYA - 

http://www.abcya.com/third_grade_computers.htm#numbers-cat

I like most of the money games on this site also.

There are a few fairly cheap apps that deal with money and they are all good, but I haven't found one that I absolutely love yet.

No Fear in Learning

I take the approach that learning should be a process that creates fearless risk takers.  I want students to feel safe to take chances and not dependent on asking questions or trying to find the right answers on other students' papers.  One of the places that there is "No Fear Learning" is with our morning math.  I don't take grades.  I just take a survey of how we are doing.

I stress that what I want most is for students to listen when we check them and to learn and never get that kind of problem wrong again.  This spiral approach helps students learn to take chances and encourages them to listen for the solution to something they may not have done correctly.  I encourage questions about anything that they don't understand after we have gone over the spiral review.

One of the things that I am stressing this month is using labels on story problems.  We will be marking any story problems wrong that do not have the labels written on them.  I tell the students that they shouldn't worry about getting that problem wrong if they did the math correctly and just forgot the label, but I also want them to recognize that the problem needs correction because it is missing the label.  

This may seem picky, but looking for the label of the problem is one of the ways that I emphasize problem solving.  Evaluating the problem and making sure we identify important words in the problem creates math students who analyze the problem and don't just look at numbers and guess based on what we have been working on recently.  

I am very happy with where we are going in math.  I just wanted to share my perspective on the daily spiral that we take home everyday.  I am a large believer in keeping all of our math skills sharp and not just doing skill sheets.  Our brains always need to be evaluative and not just sharp at doing arithmetic.  

Challenges of the Advanced Reader

One of the hardest parts about teaching advanced kids is the questions about what parents should steer their kids to next in reading.  I struggle with this as their aren't a lot of books that are challenging to high readers and yet sensitive to their interests and life experiences.  Many more difficult books deal with relationships and situations that are hard for seven and eight year old children to understand.  It can be challenging to help students take that next step. 

When it comes to oral reading in the classroom, I start the year introducing them to series books for kids that are strong from an interest level and ones that I think are well written.  As we progress through the year, I want to challenge their ability to think while they read and listen to reading.  This need to challenge them leads me to read books that I might not recommend for independent reading.

As a teacher, I am able to edit while I read and leave out any questionable parts.  I love the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.  It is one of my favorite books to read to young people because it is the epitome of an adventure story.  Paulsen is also one of the most skilled writers in physical description.  I use this book to teach visualization in reading and writing because he makes Brian's world come alive in this book.

Even though this is one of my favorite books, I do some editing as I read it.  There are a few situations in the book that I am not comfortable reading to second graders.  They don't effect the main story of the book and they aren't essential to the understanding of the story.  This is a Newberry honor book, but it is written for a slightly more mature audience.  Some students would not have a problem with these parts of the book, but it might not be appropriate for sensitive students.

Students often want to own or re-read books that we have read because they have enjoyed the story.  I would recommend that my students pick this up again in fourth grade and re-read this story as it is a wonderful book.  I would not recommend that they read it themselves in second grade, but you could read through it if you have any questions about it.

My goal in reading this book is not to expose them to mature situations, but it is to push their vocabulary and see the power of words that are used to describe situations.  My goal is to bring reading to life in a vibrant way and also to concentrate on the character in the story who learns that the most important thing that he has in the wild is himself and his determination.  I think that there are many great lessons to be learned from this story and we have had some great discussions as we sit on the edge of our seat and cheer Brian on through his survival story.

The Power of Curiosity

I love curiosity.  It is probably my favorite trait in a student and one of best determinants of success within the CAP program.  Students who have that unquenchable desire to learn are so fun to teach.  We were doing a simple brainstorm and discussion session on the water cycle today and the kids brought up the chemical formula for water.  I was approached by a group that asked me what (H2O2) was.  I responded that it was Hydrogen Peroxide that I dug out of the caves of my chemistry knowledge.  The next question was why wasn't it Hydrogen Dioxide because Carbon Dioxide is (CO2).  Hmmmm...

I knew that it was Hydrogen Peroxide but I couldn't remember what peroxide meant.  I had to scramble and do some research about what made it a peroxide instead of a dioxide.  I re-learned something about chemistry today and did my best to relate that to that group.  I love coming to school having to be on my toes and ready to admit that I don't have every answer.

You have awesome kids and I love that a simple science conversation can turn into a stimulating discussion that shows that all of our brains are working.  Many people think that science comes alive with "hands-on" experiments, but science also comes alive when you learn to observe and ask questions based on what you know.  If I do nothing else this year, I want to teach every one of these kids to ask probing questions about the things that they don't understand.