Growth as a Blogger and a Teacher

The most notable way that I have grown as being public as a teacher this quarter has been via Pinterest and through blogging back and forth with my cooperating teacher.

At the beginning of Winter Quarter, I started a blog for my daily reflections. I did this at my field supervisors suggestion, because I am experiencing so much right now, and it will be helpful to reflect back and see how much I've learned over time. It is also a space for me to think back and reflect on any obstacles or problems I ran into during the day. I decided to give my cooperating teacher accessibility to the blog as well, and now I can gain her insight and feedback on the days as well. I've found this to be useful in my current placement as my cooperating teacher and I don't often have time to chat during the day (we are so ridiculously busy!) but having my thoughts and questions up on the blog gives her a chance to see them and to comment back on them when she has the time. This is an example of me actively seeking and giving feedback on my professional thinking and it is directly applied to my growth as a kindergarten teacher in my main teaching placement. 

Pinterest and the teachers I have followed has helped me to delve into professional conversations happening in the community of teaching. I feel like my unique placement of kindergarten is really supported by a site like pinterest, where you can see exactly how other teachers modeled their thinking and exactly how they gave visual support to their students. I have been talking to my CT about implementing a sort of "kindness campaign" in our classroom (we both agree that it is definitely needed!) and I've been using Pinterest to get ideas of how to embark on something like that in our class. I've been looking into books like "How Full is Your Bucket" and all the assorted workshops and projects that you can have students do along with reading the book. I've found that my students retain the knowledge best when they can visually see and kinesthetically act out what they are going to do. Pinterest has provided me a plethora of ways to do this!

Thinking About Science and Technology Integration

Ever since our resume workshop this week, I've been really focused on how to bring more technology into the classroom in my main placement. This week my CT and I had some great conversations of things we can do each day to utilize the technology we already have!

One thing we've started to do this week is to use the ActivBoard to help us to do interactive writing with our students. Each student gets to use a whiteboard, and students take turns using the ActivBoard to write words for everyone to see. We began by having students brainstorm things that they are experts on. This is going to lead up to our "All About Books" which will be the focus of their writing in March. They've learned about all kinds of features that can go into informational books and so pretty soon they will be making their own All About Books! 

I'm about to start helping to take on a science unit where students will get to observe and interact with guppies, worms, snails, and other small creatures. Something that works really well for our students is having them work in small groups, so we thought we would have science centers where groups could rotate around the room. This made me think of- of course- technology integration! Because we don't have the luxury of having 24+ iPads, my CT and I could make use of our personal iPads in a small group setting. 

I'm not exactly sure what this will look like yet but I have some ideas. I've been perusing around the educational app website on Apple.com, and I've found a few interesting ideas for science stations with my students. One app I found is called "Sid's Science Fair". It engages players in experiential learning, and it's for ages 3-6. It looks like something where I could tailor it to focus on exactly what we were focusing on that day. I also thought we could use an iPad (or iPod even) for students to draw what they see. A simple drawing app could be used for this. We would focus on labeling parts of our diagram and then I could use a dictation program to help record what they say about their new found knowledge of all things worm/slug/insect! 

Another really relevant app for what we'll be taking on is called "Meet the Insects Village Edition". It provides information, pictures, videos all tailored for "little explorers". It includes an observation journal where students can upload their own photos.