Connected From The Start by Kathy Cassidy - A Review

Kathy Cassidy is a grade one teacher in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.  She is one of the first grade one educators I connected with when I joined twitter in July 2011 and I can't thank her enough for generously sharing her knowledge with me.  This past week Kathy published her first book, Connected From The Start: Global Learning in the Primary Grades. 

Kathy's book takes a look at the journey of connecting  young learners with the world.  In clear, gentle language Kathy explores connecting through skype, blogging, digital portfolios, twitter, and wikis.  Within each section, in addition to comprehensive text, she provides loads of links to websites, blogposts, and videos. You truly get to peek into her classroom.

I love how Kathy starts by stressing how important it is to teach our children how to be safe on-line instead of limiting their access.  And that access to an abundance of technology is not needed to get started on this journey.  A lot of what Kathy talks about can be done with just one device with internet access.  

What inspired me when I first met Kathy is how she has her young learners blogging from the very first day of school.  Her chapter on blogging clearly explains the how and the why behind this thinking.  She writes: 

If I did not let my pre-writer students post on their blogs, but instead waited until they could write prose correctly using writing conventions such as capital letters, periods, spaces between words and acceptable spelling, they would not be able to post for many months. Their parents would miss out on the opportunity to watch and be part of the incredible growth that takes place as children are learning to write. The students would be denied a global audience for their work and they would miss some encouraging early feedback in the form of comments. pg 68

In her chapter on digital portfolios Kathy reminds the reader how powerful making learning visible is and how important it is to have the child involved with making decision about the sharing of their learning.  

Throughout the book Kathy continues to remind us that having  students connected provides them with authentic literacy opportunities. Using twitter is about reading and skyping is about listening and speaking.  Connecting with real people whether through skype, blogs, wikis etc.. is a powerful way to learn.  In her words...

I could have just told the children that people around the world eat different things for breakfast. I could have suggested foods that these other people might eat. I could have read them books. I could even have bought the same Vegemite and shared it with the children. But the process of the students actually collecting information from other people around the world, and of discovering the commonalities and differences for themselves, made the experience so much richer and more meaningful.  pg. 104

But in true Kathy style she remains humble.  She talks about many of the errors that she's made along the way but stresses that it's okay to make mistakes.  This genuine honesty makes it easy for the reader to connect to her writing. 

Kathy is a truly gifted educator. Her book provides many examples of ways to connect a primary classroom with the world.  It is an inspiring read, and one that should be read by all primary teachers.

Why do I blog?

I blog because it helps clear up the traffic jam of ideas inside of my head.  Why do you blog?

What a YEAR!

As I look back on my year I can't believe how much has changed for me.  Here is my attempt to recap the journey I have taken professionally in the 2011-2012 school year.

• joined Twitter in July 2011 and now follow over 750 people, have over 775 following me, and have tweeted over 5,500 times not including my direct messaging (tons!)
• started this professional blog as a way to document and share some of my learning
• took part in many twitter educational chats including but not limited to #1stchat, #kinderchat, #edchat, #elemchat #gtchat, #storyappchat, #D5chat
• set up a class blog which ended up with 199 posts, 253 comments, and over 22,000 hits
• set up individual blogs for my grade one students who have now written over 750 posts and received over 1,600 comments
• completely changed my writing program to allow my students more choice with their writing and in the process created genuinely motivated writers
• completely changed my reading program to allow my students more choice with their reading and in the process created genuinely motivated readers
• changed my word work program to all my students more choice with their word work and in the process created self motivated learners
• dropped my traditional "calendar" routines and replaced it with math chat
• used the Mind Up, Fun Friends, and Fin's Friends social emotional programs to better meet my students social emotional needs
• learned and used many web 2.0 tools
• utilized  technology to better meet the individual needs of my students,  and to connect my class with the world
• set up a class twitter, youtube, and closed class facebook account
• was selected to a part of a special district literacy learning lab utilizing technology with early primary students
• helped write a successful Innovative Learning Design grant application
• created many videos and slide shows
• had my class Skype and Face Time with students in Illinois, Ontario. and Saskatchewan
• Skyped, Google Hung Out, and Face Time'd with teachers in Hong Kong, Illinois, Ontario (several), Saskatchewan, and Florida
• had my class read and comment on class blogs from around the world
• read and commented on many professional blogs from around the world
• participated in three global projects - Quad Blogging, Flat Classroom : Building Bridges K-2 Pilot Project April-May, and Bean Wiki with my class
• attended EdCampDelta, EdCampSurrey, and EdCampKinder in Las Vegas
• visited three schools and had several teachers both from my district and another district visit my classroom to learn and share
• met and connected with several Surrey School District teachers, administrators, and school district leaders ( I am far more known around the district this year than I have in any other time in my career)
• presented professional development workshops for my staff and my school district
• asked to present professional development workshops at three more schools at the beginning of the new school year, as well as for the Surrey Primary Teachers association
• wrote posts on Twitter, Tablet Computer Apps, and Digital Literacy for the International Reading Association
• sparked the use of KidBlog as a blogging platform for students in my school district, and beyond
• participated in webinars
• attended two workshops at Apple Canada Institute
• attended Surrey's Digital Dinner series
• attended two BC Primary teacher's conventions
• attended workshops led by Alec Couros, George Couros, Adrienne Gear (Reading Power), Gail Boushey and Joan Moser (Cafe), and Lilian Katz (Reggio)
• have read (or in the middle of reading) Mind Set by Carol Dweck, Drive by Daniel Pink, No More "I'm Done!" by Jennifer Jacobson, Personal Learning Networks by Richardson and Mancabelli, Teaching with Intention by Debbie Miller, Catching Reader's Before They Fall by Johnson and Keir,In Pictures and In Words by Ray, Writing Power by Adrienne Gear, Reading Power by Adrienne Gear, Reading Power Non Fiction by Adrienne Gear, Choice Words by Peter Johnston, The Daily 5 and The Cafe by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser, Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds by Lindsay and Davis, Math Exchanges by Kassia Omohundro Wedekind, Teaching with Tools Kids Really Use by Susan Brooks-Young, Making Thinking Visible by Ritchhart and Church and Morrison, Number Sense Routines by Jessica Shumway, One to One The Art of Conferring with Young Writers by Calkins and Hartman and White, The Passion-Driven Classroom by Maiers and Sandvold, Play by Lisa Murphy and the list continues...
• successfully completed 20 years of teaching and still love it as much, if not more than ever before

A special thank you to my #1stchat, #kinderchat, #sd36learn, #bclearns, #bced, and #elemchat friends. Without you I wonder how much of this would ever have happened.  An extra special thank you to Elisa Carlson (Director of Instruction, Surrey School District) for believing in me. Elisa will never really know how powerful that has been for me and I can't thank her enough.  And yes, of course, I need to thank Tia Henriksen, mother of one of my grade one students this year, former vice principal of mine, and friend because it was she who coaxed me into giving twitter a try.

What a year it has been. What have you accomplished this year? I'd love to hear.

Next up, goals for the 2012-2013 school year.

Never Let a "Label" Define A Student

I have been spending some time learning and sharing with the wonderful people over at #kinderchat.  While I don't teach kindergarten  I am constantly inspired by what they are doing with their little people. I love how they are keeping things developmentally appropriate for their students, yet they too are pushing the limits on what little people can do. I LOVE it.  Anyhow I love it so much that I have been following their blog and this summer they have created the Kinder Blog 2012 Challenge. Each week a topic will be posted and it is my job (and everyone else that's in the challenges job) to respond with a blog post.  Here is this week's topic.  

What did you learn this past (or, for our southern hemisphere friends, what ARE you learning this current) school year that you couldn’t have learned any other year, from any other students or colleagues or administrators or parents? What lessons did this particular year, this particular setting, these particular children bring into your life?
posted by @happycampergirl for #Kinderchat #Kinderblog2012 Challenge

So here goes...


I could say it was getting connected, or getting my students to blog but both of those had more to do with me learning through twitter, than actually learning from my students, or colleagues or administrators or parents. For me one big theme that stood out with this bunch of students is working towards a goal with out giving up, in other words perseverance.  I had several students with learning challenges yet not one of them ever complained about school being difficult.  And no I didn't make it "easy" for them.  The word "can't" was seen as a naughty word and was not used in our classroom.  Every one applied themselves  to the best of their ability day in and day out.  It was a little piece of heaven really because some of them really did have a lot to complain about.  But complaining didn't happen and instead they achieved so much.  

My student who struggled with letter sounds was keen to blog and share his story .  My highly anxious students were able to speak in front of the class. My limited English speakers took risks daily trying to improve their oral language skills.  They all wanted to be the best that they could be yet they wouldn't let their challenge get in their way.  But the one student that sticks out the most from this year, the one who stuck with it even though her challenge was so great,  was my selective mute.  She was a very special little girl.

For the sake of this blog post we'll call her Kayla (although that's not her real name).  Kayla suffers from pretty severe anxiety enough that she will not speak at school.  But Kayla came to school every day with a smile and always did her best.  Although Kayla never spoke she was a very popular member of our class.  She made her friends giggle, and would lend a helping hand when ever she could.  Kayla was, and is a very bright student.

But Kayla was afraid to write in her journal at school.  She kept a nightly home journal so we had writing to conference with.  She always took my suggestions to heart and her writing improved dramatically over the course of the school year.  Kayla was also an avid blogger.  Blogging truly gave her a voice when her anxiety kept it from her. Blogging allowed her to express herself freely for all the world to hear.  It also allowed her to communicate with her friends through the comments she left for them on their blogs.

But Kayla never let her anxiety stop her.  She knew  about our school's  Musical Theater program and  made sure that she was involved with it.  Did I mention that she was the only student in my class that got involved with it?  I'm very certain that she knew every word to the songs and that every night she practiced those songs until she could sing them perfectly.  And on the day of the performance Kayla was up on stage with the rest of the choir.  And she sang! (We'll no voice may have been heard but she moved her lips to the music which is HUGE for her).  

Kayla reminded me that I must never under estimate the desire of a child.  That even if there are obstacles along the way to achieving  goals,  goals can still be achieved.  Kayla had the strength to persevere and step out of her comfort level to get what she wanted.  She wanted to be on that stage singing her heart out, and she did.

Never let a "label" define a child.  Let the child define who they are.  My class this year, and particularly Kayla, reminded me of that over and over again.  I'm glad I listened.

Small Steps Can Take You To Great Places

I've never been one to make resolutions.  I've always thought if there is something in my life that I'm not happy about I need to find a way to fix or change it.  I don't have to wait for the calendar to switch over to a new year to make a change.  For me change happens as soon as I recognize that change has to be made.

This school year I have been making a lot of changes.  I started the 2011/12 school year with quite a different mind set than I've had in the past.  For one thing  I spent the summer of 2011 not training for an Ironman which left me with a lot of spare time.  I spent a lot of that time learning from others through Twitter.  I read educators blog posts, and started making connections with other like minded educators. I began to develop my Personal Learning Network (PLN).  While I've spent many of my previous summers swimming, biking, and running ridiculous distances this past summer I spent it learning.  By the time term one began in early September I was determined to better integrate technology into my classroom.  I took small steps, but those small steps have taken me to great places.  Here is a recap of my growth term one:

• I created my first  class blog and kept it updated with regular posts all term long
• I learned several different Web 2.0 tools and tried to use them with my teaching
• I participated in a weekly Grade One twitter chat
• I helped present technology tools to my staff at two professional development days
• I made myself available to help answer my colleagues technology questions
• I visited several other primary class blogs and was particularly inspired by what I learned from Leanne Kolenberg and Jackie Nelson's blogs in Adelaide, South Australia
• I attended the BC Primary Conference
• I attended the first three of five "Engaging the Digital Learner" technology dinner series evenings put on by my school district
• I was inspired by two fellow Canadians Aviva Dunsiger (Ontario) and Kathy Cassidy (Saskatchewan) as well as several other educators from around the world
• I introduced my students to their individual blogs and was amazed by how powerful they are

• I  read (or almost finished reading) five professional books including Drive by Daniel Pink, Mindset by Carol Dweck, Choice Words by Peter Johnston, Math Exchanges by Kassia Omohundro Kedekind, and No More "I'm Done" Fostering Independent Writers in the Primary Grades by Jennifer Jacobson.

• I arranged for my school district's loaner set of iPods and shared them with my staff
• I got to know my technology helping teacher, Orwell Kowalyshyn and utilized his knowledge
• I got to know my district's Director of Instruction, Elisa Carlson and shared my journey with her
• My professional blog link was added to a list of teachers and administrators blogging in my district
• I wrote an article for an international reading organization which will be published later this month
• I got invited to join a local high school for iPad training at the Apple Training Centre

• I was given a district iPad to use with my class

• I loaded the district iPad with over 100 apps all geared towards helping my students with their learning

• I  created story bird accounts for my students 

• I had many professional discussions while running with two fantastic teachers at my school Megan Birdsall and  Erica Segec

When I started this school year  I had no idea that it would take me to where I am today.  I was just taking small steps on my journey.  If you are reading this blog post as someone new to Twitter, or new to getting involved in this global world of ours, my biggest piece of advice is to take it one small step at a time.  Perhaps you can leave a comment on a blog that got you thinking, or retweet a tweet with a link to an article that inspired you.   Each small step will lead you towards your greater place.

If you are experiencing a rapid growth year like I am I'd love to hear from you.  What do you struggle with? How much support to do you have? Does having or not having support change your desire to grow? Obviously I'd love to hear from you.

Blogging With My Grade One Students

Whenever I get talking about my class one of the first things I'm happy to share is that my young students are blogging.  I owe the idea of having my students blog to Kathy Cassidy, a grade one teacher in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan that I have "friended" on Twitter.  While I have never met Kathy I have spent time reading her tweets and checking out her professional and class blogs.  Her class blog has a spot for class updates and a place for each child to have their own individual blog.  In September I checked out her students' blogs and I was impressed with what they were doing.  As someone always up for a challenge, I decided to give my students their own blogs too.

At first I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to do it, or more that my students wouldn't be able to do it.  I have several students new to Canada this year.  Many of my students speak a language other than English in their homes.  One of my students is a selective mute and does not speak or write at school.  Another student has extreme difficulty remembering letter names and sounds. Another is autistic.  I have a typical class in my school district with a variety of needs that need to be met. About 25% of my students do not have adequate access to the internet in their home  because they don't have a computer, or their computer does not work, or they do not have internet access.  So it wasn't going to be easy.

In all honesty it was tough getting started.  The link to our class blog where we have a link to our individual blogs was long.  But I really wanted them to go through our class blog because I wanted them to be aware of what was on it and how valuable it could be for them and their parents.  I think the first time we tried to find our own blogs it took nearly our entire time with the computers.  Nothing got published.  But I didn't give up.  I could see from Kathy's students' blogs how powerful they were.  With time we got better at logging into our individual blogs.  By Thanksgiving weekend (Oct 10, 2011) my students started submitting their first blogs to be published. I was ecstatic.

I also have a student that does not have permission to have her work published on the internet.  After a bit of searching on Kid Blog I discovered the publish privately setting.  I spoke with her mother and she was okay with her blog being published privately.  So now this one student is blogging too, her posts just aren't being published publicly.

As I write this post it makes me so proud to inform the world that my students have published 183 blog posts publicly and six privately, and have 34 sitting in draft mode.  My selective mute is an avid blogger.  My student that struggles with letters and their sounds is blogging.  My autistic student is blogging.  My limited English speakers are blogging.  EVERYONE in my class is blogging.  Many are blogging from home too - so far this school holiday I have published eight blogs written independently by students from home.

So why do I have them blog?

Blogging has provided my students with an authentic audience to write for.  I know some teachers feel the world is a scary place (and yes it can be) so they password protect the blogs that their children write.  I'm not one of those people.  My students know that what they write can be read by anyone who has internet access.  We've talked about how to blog responsibly and safely.  Many of my students smile knowing that anyone in the world can read their blogs.  Blogging gives them a voice.

Blogging has also helped them to get to know one another.  They have been encouraged to read each  others blog posts (see how I've snuck in authentic reading in there too) and comment on each others blog posts.   Speaking of comments they LOVE receiving comments.  I've made it my job to post a comment every time I publish one of their blog posts.  Yes, it takes time from me, but it's time well spent.  I've also utilized the private comment feature available on KidBlog to leave the specific feedback to help them improve for next time.

In addition each students' individual blog gives me a digital portfolio of their writing progression over time.  I am constantly reminding the children and their parents to go back and look at the older posts to see the change over time.  It's really quite incredible.

So what are some of the benefits I've seen from their blogging?

My students are writing.  Their writing is stronger, and they are much more eager to write.  They are authentic writers and they are telling their stories to the world.

My students' writing is getting read, and not just by me and their classmates.  They are receiving comments from parents, other teachers in our school, administrators both in our school and in our district, people higher up in our board office, and other students and teachers  around the world. Anyone who has taken the time to leave them a comment has taken the time to read their writing.

I have seen my new English language learners try to stretch their language learning with their blog posts.   My selective mute who is not yet comfortable enough to write in class is keen to blog from home and will even answer questions that are asked of her.  My student that struggles with letter names and sounds has gone from writing a string of letters (and then telling me what the letters say) to writing a sentence which can be read back to me.  The individual blogs have been a very powerful tool for everyone.

So where do I go from  here?

First off I want my students to remember to end their blogs with a question. By ending a blog post with a question you are inviting your audience to think about your question and hopefully make a comment to answer your question.

I also want my students to go more global with their commenting.  We follow some pretty great grade one classes and it would be wonderful for my students to read and comment on their blogs too.

I want to continue to encourage the parents of my students to comment more often on their children's blogs.

I want to teach my children more web based tools that they can embed into their individual blogs.

I want to continue to encourage my students to write longer, more detailed and meaningful posts.  I have many capable writers and it would be wonderful to see more of that excellent writing on their blogs.

I want my students to use their blogs to show all types of their learning. It can be a great place to store math, science, or socials learning too.

It's a good thing our school year is only one third over, we still have so much more to learn.

So if you've read this post this far you MUST be interested in reading and commenting on my students' blogs right? :-)  You can find them here.  I'm also curious to hear how your students use their individual blogs.  I know Kathy uses hers to have her students document all types of learning.  I'd love to hear suggestions of how I can better utilize our blogs.

Pushing Boundaries

As I started to leave a comment on one of Aviva Dunsinger's blogs I couldn't help but stop to think about how discovering twitter for educational purposes has really changed me as a teacher. Prior to twitter I was a hard working teaching who questioned things and looked for ways to make things better. But with the discovery of educational twitter and connecting with such incredible primary educators my questioning and desire to get better has exploded.

For example two weeks ago Aviva @grade1 posted on twitter that her 1/2 class was going to have a game of I Spy using the hash tag #Ispy2011.  It was a way to get her students to write for an audience as they provided clues describing common objects around a classroom.  Aviva invited the rest of the world to try to guess the answers, and write clues for her students to try to figure out.  Seeing that on twitter finally prompted me to create a class twitter account @MsLsClass so that my class could play along.  While Aviva had her students do this activity on their own as part of a literacy rotation, we did it as a group activity.   My students loved trying to guess what was being posted. It was our very first twitter experience.

Aviva's activity made me think about what I was doing with my class and how I could integrate technology into it.  Each year  around Christmas time I have my students create secrets about Santa.  I have a little paper form where we write and illustrate our secrets.  We post them around the room and some years around our school so that others can read our secrets.  Having just played I Spy with Aviva's students on twitter I decided to create the hash tag #santasec2011 to have my students share their secrets about Santa.  I posted it on twitter and invited the world to join in with us.  The world came, or at least a few other primary classes came.  Twitter is a powerful tool and I look forward to getting my students more involved with it.

This past week I set up a closed facebook group for my class to help encourage more of my students' parents to be involved.  The facebook group will not replace the classblog.  It will only provide another avenue to the blog.  I figured if my parents are regularly checking their facebook accounts for their day to day lives why not connect them on facebook and provide them with a direct link to our class blog every time it gets updated.  So far I have three families in the group but the notice only did go out yesterday and we have just started school holidays.

In addition, with the iPad that I was given to use in my classroom, my use of technology integration continues to explode.  In the two weeks that I've had the iPad it has constantly been in the hands of my students.  As I said in another post we are using it to read, write, do math, create, explore, and discover. I even took it on our field trip and we practiced math facts as we waited for the performance to start.   I have discovered wonderful apps that will help my students with their individual learning needs.  For example I have one student that is a selective mute. I've down loaded Talking Tom as a way to get her to speak at school.  Granted the speaking will be done in complete privacy but if I'm lucky the motivation of having the silly cat repeat her words may help her take that first step of talking at school.  Right now she is giggling like crazy when others talk to and are repeated by Talking Tom.  Then there's Dragon Dictation. I have another student with severe speech language issues and a severe learning disability.  He will be using Dragon Dictation to practice speaking clearly.  If he is successful with his speech he will be rewarded with personalized typed text that he can then use to write his journal entry.

My list of examples of change and growth because of inspiration or knowledge I've gained from twitter goes on and on.  Just getting me to think like this has been 100% inspired but what I've learned and read on and via twitter.  The connections I've made with like minded educators  has introduced me to so many new things I would have never known about without it.  It is pushing my boundaries far further than I every thought I'd want to go.  It has made me realize that twenty years into the best profession in the world, I still have so much more to learn and discover.  It has reminded me that need never be a dull moment in my career.

With that in mind there are still several things I'd like to integrate into my teaching or classroom.  This list is far from complete but it is a place for me to document what is spinning in my head these days.

I want to...

- use our big buddies to teach and help us learn how to use storybird (with hopes that my students will be motivated to use it on their own)
- show my class audioboo and use it to digitally document their oral reading and post it on our class and/or their individual student blogs
- revisit Voki as a tool for demonstrating our learning
- create QR codes for my classroom books stored by author providing direct links to the author's website to hear stories read by the author or to learn more about the author
- introduce Voice Thread, ShowMe, ScreenChomp, Explain Everything,  Puppet Pals, Toontastic, Sock Puppets, Wordle, as a way of documenting and sharing our ideas with others
- get my students tweeting our class happenings independently
- *find ways to get more technology permanently into my classroom
- create a google doc list of apps I use for teaching and provide the link to other educators and to the parents of my students
- continue to expand my Personal Learning Network and find a way to stay on top of all the amazing information coming my way
- continue to share my learning with anyone who will listen, and provide support to others where ever I can

As  I begin my well earned two week school holiday I will continue to ponder, discover, explore, and push my boundaries.  I'm curious to know how your teaching has changed either because of your interaction with other like minded educators, or your experiences on twitter.  I'd love for you to share too.


*Right now I have my school's one portable smart board and projection device in my classroom but I am only allowed to keep it for one term.  That term has just ended and I am pretty bummed to know it will be gone (but happy to know that other like minded educators in my school will get the chance to use it).   I will canvas my new administration for my own projection device to use with the ipad I've been given, but if I'm not successful there I will be looking at other avenues to get a permanent projection device into my classroom.  Having to sign out the school's shared one will totally mess the spontaneity we've had with having the portable smart board in our class.  Knowing that I'm about to loose it makes me realize how valuable it has been.

My Students Are Blogging!

I can't tell you how excited I am right now.  This afternoon I logged onto my computer to see a request to approve a blog written by one of my students on our  kidblog .  I've set up a class kidblog so that every student has their own page to blog, password protected and all.  Not only did they blog from home, on a long weekend here in Canada, but they even added a family photo.  No sooner than I had posted a comment and approved her blog for the world to see, did I receive another e-mail letting me know that there was another blog to moderate from a second student.  Then, a few minutes later a third blog from a third student.

In the past I've had a class website through our district server, but this year I took the step even further by having a class blog.  Snooping around other class blogs I realized what I wanted even more was a place for my students to do their own blogging - whether they were at home or at school.  Two weeks ago I gave them their individual passwords, and I showed them their individual blogs.  This week we headed back to the lab to try and write on our blogs, but it was taking us forever to log on so I decided to use the time to go over internet and blogging safety. Don't worry we had already talked about it but I had a great video that I wanted to show them too.  I then snuck back into the lab after school and set up a quick link to our class blog so we would no longer have trouble getting to our blogs.  So this week, the plan was (is) to utilize all the computers we have access to in our school lab so that everyone could write their own first blog.  I figured after that everyone would start blogging from home.  We of course would (will) continue to blog from school too.

You can imagine how excited I am right now knowing that three of my students have already blogged from home.  And to make things even better, after I shared this exciting news with my PLN on twitter (I love you guys) each student received three additional comments from  amazing grade one teachers in other parts of the world.

My class schedule is set up so that my students have time in the day to do their own self directed writing. I know once they see the audience they have with their blogs  everyone else in the class will be excited to blog too.  Ideally I'd love to be able to offer a computer to anyone that would like one but my reality is I have one (possibly two) class computer(s) that they will be able to do their blogging on.  Not ideal of course, but we will make it work.

I  don't think I've ever been this excited to see my students after a long weekend.  I am so glad I'm doing this with my class. So very, very glad.

Changes, Changes, Changes

As I keep saying, this summer I discovered Twitter and the incredible people learning and sharing with one another.  So much has changed for me in such a short period of time and I'm super excited about all the changes.  I've always loved what I do for a living, but I feel like my enthusiasm for my job is just growing and growing.  There is so much I want to do with my class this year.

On August 2nd I set the following goals for myself after attending  RSCON3.  So far I'd say I'm heading in the right direction.

I will set up a class blog with my grade one class this year. I hope to have a blog that the parents of my students can go to see what we are doing in class, and that the rest of the world can check out too.  DONE!  My class blog is up and running.  Today we wrote a blog together as a class.  There are still so many more things that I want to do with the blog, but I don't want to over whelm anyone - including myself.  I've also taken this goal one step further by creating individual blogs for my students.  We are writing on them even though nothing has been published to the world yet.

I will take the time to learn as many Web 2.0 tools as I can that can either benefit my teaching, my students learning, this blog, or my class blog. I've learned a ton of new tools which I hope to use either for myself or with my class.  I've also shared my knowledge at two professional development days with my staff.  

I will continue to differentiate my teaching because I believe so strongly about it, but I will look even more closely at how I go about differentiating. This isn't new for me, but I'm going to look for even more ways to differentiate.  

I will provide more opportunities for my grade one students to show me what they know in the manner that they are most comfortable with. Still working on this one, but I know it will come.  So much of my time at the beginning of the year is focussed on setting a proper tone for the rest of the year. I'm really pleased with the tone that we are setting together.

I will book the “free” lab time more often as well as bring the laptops into my classroom much earlier than term three. Each week I'm looking at when the free blocks in the lab are.  Obviously with a large school I have to be fair with the extra blogs but so far even adding one extra block in the lab makes a difference.  Today it was for a math lesson, next week, if the time is available it will be for a big buddy lesson- can't wait to get our big buddies to help us explore Voki. As for laptops, I've managed to get a small set of the older laptops into my classroom.  These laptops are at the end of their life span, but they are good enough for us at the moment. It's so exciting to see my students so excited to get on them.  Of course, I still have the laptop carts that I can book, which once I feel like our programs are really up and going, I will book them - perhaps next week during our math block?  Using technology in my first grade classroom does not scare me.

I will look for grants to get more technology into my classroom, and into my school. I haven't been able to get anything permanent into my school however I have been in contact with the "right" people in my district.  At the moment my school has a class set of ipod touches on loan and we are scheduled to receive  ipads into our school for a few weeks too.  While these are just temporary additions of technology (three week visits), they are (or hopefully will) help my staff realize how amazing these tools can be for teaching and learning.

I will read as many blogs as I can, and comment as often as possible. I have been and will continue to read other professional blogs. I'm making a real effort to write comments too.  I love what I'm learning from others and how it questions what I'm already doing.  I also love reading other people's "Ah Ha" moments.

I will be willing to help anyone that can use my help. I still stand by this one and I have helped out a few people in the process.  I'm hoping I can help out more but even if they don't ask for help, I'm hoping that by sharing what I'm doing I'll maybe help them take a second look at what they could be doing.  I really want to bring down the fear factor for as many as I can.

I will have my class fully participate in the Post Card Project. I love this project but I still haven't written a post card despite receiving three. But I will, or at least my class will, write postcards soon.

I will try my best to instill in my students that they can feel, imagine, do and share. This is and will be an on going process which I will not give up on.

I will be a change agent.


I'm really eager to see what the next couple of months have in store for me.  It's going to be an exciting ride.

September: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Now that September is finally over (yes, I said finally as I find it one of the hardest teaching months of the year) here's a look back at September's good, bad, and ugly.

THE GOOD:


My Class

Late August every year I start to wonder and worry about who will be in my class. It's not that I don't think I can handle any student that walks into my room, it's just that I'm curious about the challenges I'm going to take on for the year.  Last year the kindergarten teachers at my school grumbled a little more than usual as they dealt with several challenging issues.  I don't know if it's just that the children are a year older, or those that caused the grumbling moved away, but I'm really loving my class.

My class does have its issues but I feel I can handle what I'm dealing with.  One issue that is more prevalent this year than in the past is anxiety.  I have a few (far more than usual) students that suffer from anxiety but I am doing my very best to help ease their fears.  We are using a chime several times a day to calm us and help us focus on our breathing.  I have also begun using the Fun Friends social emotional program which I was trained in last year.  In addition I'll be using the Mind Up and Vancouver Canucks Fin's Friends programs.  All three work well together and will hopefully (fingers crossed) give all my students more tools to deal with life.

I am going to have a great year with my class this year.

My Class Blog

I'm really happy to report that I have my first ever class blog up and running.  I've sent my parents some information about the blog, and most  have signed permission slips to allow me to post their children's work on the blog.  We are starting to get comments on our blog and my class is super excited to respond to the comments.  We are even starting to check out other class blogs and I think my class thinks it's pretty cool that other classes are doing what we are doing.

Just this past week I introduced my class to their individual blogs.  While we have spent some time writing on our individual blogs,  nothing has been submitted to be published yet, although I know that it's coming.  I've sent home the children's individual passwords too and I'm encouraging them to blog from home.

I'm really happy to be blogging with my class.

My Personal Learning Network (PLN)

I am so thankful for the people I've "met" on Twitter.  If there is something I'm curious to know about I just ask and the answers come to me. I'm still working hard at reading professional blogs written by others, and commenting too.  One of my favourite blogs is written by a fellow primary teacher Aviva Dunsiger. She teaches a few provinces over from me but what she says resonates with me.  What I like about what she's doing, is that she's pushing the boundaries of what primary students should be able to do with technology.  I love it.  I totally thought of her when I was at a Digital Literacy dinner session with other educators.  The table I was sitting at was surprised that I was attempting blogging with my grade one class, and that my students had their own individual blogs.   I explained what I was doing,  and why always keeping what Aviva does in my mind.

I'm also thankful for #1stchat - the grade one chat on Twitter.  Every Sunday afternoon (5 pm Vancouver time) I read and learn from fellow grade one educators.  I really appreciate what the "regulars" have to say.  We all come from different school systems so we are  able to share what works well, and not so well for us.  The chat also allows me to really think about what I do and why.  It always surprises me when something I say is retweeted by others.  I really look forward to this chat each week.

I am a different, hopefully better, teacher because of my PLN.

THE BAD:

Job Action

All the public school teachers in my province are in phase one of job action.  I don't like job action. I don't like that our contract talks have gotten us here either.  Without having a political debate on my blog I hope that all parties involved could figure out what is truly right for the people involved in educating students, and what is truly right for students.  It makes me so angry that politics gets in the way of true progress.

THE UGLY:

Postcard Project

Okay, I love the postcard project.  We've only been back at work for one month and already we have received three post cards.  So why have I posted this in the ugly?  Well.... (as she drops her head down in shame) we haven't written anyone yet!  I'm hoping I can blame it on the fact that we have only been together for one month, and really we've only been a class for two weeks.  I'm still trying to figure out where my students are at, and I'm still training my students.  I'm also on the hunt for postcards from Surrey because if I can't find any everyone will be getting postcards from Vancouver, the closest major city. Surrey is a city in Greater Vancouver, but it isn't Vancouver.  I'm quite certain my students will want their postcards to come from Surrey, not Vancouver.

So, those are the good, the bad, and the ugly from the my month of September.  What are yours?