We started the school year talking about "being brave" in 1st grade. We watched Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin talk about this as well. After completing a week of school, I wanted to revisit the "be brave" rule in my classroom. Today we read Peter H. Reynolds book The Dot. Upon completing the book, we discussed how Vashti wasn't being brave with her art to start. When she took a risk to be brave she found out that she could be good at art. I had my students thinking about which subjects in 1st grade might be hard for them. They had to pick one subject they thought they weren't good at. Then they used this PDF to create their own "dot." After each student's "dot" was completed, they used the colAR Mix App to make their 2D dot come to life in 3D. The app allows you to snap a screen shot of your 3D "dot." All the students took a screenshot of their "dots." We then used Animoto to create a short video of our "dots" to be brave with this year. our "dots" to be brave with this yearcolar mix app in action
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As the new year has started, I have undergone some change in my behavior management system. I have gotten rid of the stop light style behavior chart. Check out my "Be Brave" post to find out more about why I got rid of the stop light behavior chart and am challenging my students to "be brave." One of the challenges that I have been facing was having students self regulate their choices. We spend a lot of time discussing the amount of choices they will have in my classroom. However, I wanted a quick little way for students to check themselves. I created the label above using address labels. It was a quick way to create multiple visuals that would stick to desks. During transitions, whole group, small group instruction I ask all students or sometimes even a single student to "check yourself." They hold up a finger to tell me what they think about their choices. I will also hold up a finger showing how I feel about their choices. If we are not on the same page, I ask them to fix it. It has been a simple way to refocus students on monitoring their own behavior. I have been amazed at how honest students have been when I say "check yourself." I assumed I would have some students that would not be honest but the students are usually well aware of their choices being good or poor. Download the "check yourself" labels below. I got to meet most of my 1st graders tonight at our annual ice cream social. This is the kickoff to the new school year. Students/parents get to come meet their new teachers. This year I am trying something new. For many years I have been using a behavior chart to manage behaviors. It has been very functional. However, I was reading Matt Gomez's blog post about his one class rule. He listed a couple posts "Too high a price: why I don't do behavior charts" and "Behavior Management: not systems but relationships" that were both written by his good friend Miss Night. The two posts resonated with me on how much emphasis is put on building relationships. I have retired the behavior chart and will be focusing on my students being brave. Both Miss Night and Matt Gomez have greatly influenced me to be brave as I go down an unfamiliar path with classroom management. Below is one of my bulletin boards that will help not only my students but me as well to Be Brave!! I know there may be ups and downs as I implement this new system to fit my teaching style and my students' needs. I look forward to fostering relationships and building independent students that make positive choices based on intrinsic motivation.
What are your thoughts? Do you manage your students in a "stop light chart" free classroom? Any suggestions? To kick off the new school year we had the privilege of listening to Jaime Vollmer. His speech was electric and provided us with some clear direction on how teachers have the "power" to reform education. Below is a quote from his website that describes a little about Jaime Vollmer. Once a harsh critic, Vollmer has become an articulate friend of America’s public schools. His presentations combine statistics, logic, and humor to energize and encourage educators, business leaders, and community groups to work together to build successful schools. He had many points that resonated with the teachers. If you have not had a chance to read the blueberry story you should do so. This story highlights what an educator experiences everyday and why it's not a business.....it's school! Vollmer also listed the great changes that have happened in education since 1900. He underlines the increasing number of additions to education such as bullying prevention, NCLB, Race to the Top and many more. However, the most vital element he pinpoints is the fact that we haven't added a single minute to the school calendar but still expect teachers to teach the plethora of additions to "education." See the PDF for a full list. Vollmer concluded with what we can do right now. He had 5 S's. Stop We need to stop griping about those around us. He pointed out that it used to be when a child had a problem at school, he/she had a problem with mom/dad when he/she got home that day. However, now when a student has a problem, the parent has a problem with the teacher. We need to build the trust with parents as well as community members. Complaining about other teachers, principals, administration while in the check out line or what have you does not send a message to build trust for teachers. Shift attitude to positive Regardless of how bad we may think we have it there is always far worse. Rather than focusing on all the negatives we need to focus on the positive. This not only continues to build trust but research has shown how it help you live a healthier life. Share the positive While we need to focus on positive, we also need to share the positive. This helps build up community, trust and much more. School is never going to get away from the "negative" persona until we not only shift our attitudes to positive, but make it contagious by sharing all the positives. Sustain It is not a sprint...it is a marathon. The additions to what is expected when receiving an "education" did not happen over night. This has been over many decades. We need to sustain our efforts in reforming education. Start right now
To finish, Vollmer said the most important piece to the puzzle is to get started right now. This is a summary from what I took away from his speech. I think there are a lot of positive elements that can be focused on and implemented into our daily efforts as teachers. The biggest change will come from teachers collectively working together using their "power" to promote what it will take to reform education without the business model. Find our more by visiting Vollmer's site or checking out his book Schools Cannot Do it Alone! To start the school year we have an ice cream social night. This is always a couple nights before the first day of school. Students and parents come to meet their new teacher/classroom prior to the first day. This helps students alleviate some of the unknowns about the first day of school. In an effort to be more paperless in my classroom, I am integrating Google Forms into my ice cream social night. In the years past I have posted papers on a table for parents to fill out information such as email, volunteering, how kids get to and from school, etc. This year it will all be done by Google Forms. The last question on the form asks about getting home from school. In Google Forms you can set a rule based on which answer is chosen. If parents select the "It is the same everyday" option they will be taken to the page below. However, if a parent chooses the "It is different on some days" option, then they will be taken to the page below. There is not a lot of information that I need parents to provide. Most of it is already filled out via an e-registration tool that my district used. However, this short Google Form will provide me with the necessary information without requiring paper and pencils.
Up in Pieces is app that I have blogged about before here. After this post I had some people inquire about sharing the puzzles with their students. I wanted to elaborate a little more on the process of sharing your created puzzles. Below is a screen cast about creating and sharing Up in Pieces jigsaw puzzles. The app provides you with the option to share via Facebook, Twitter or email. In my screen cast I talk about sharing via email. However, what if Facebook, Twitter and email are not set up/allowed on your student iPads? I also discuss using QR Codes to share your created puzzles with your students. To kick off our new school year, my principal asked me to put together a short presentation on iPad apps. Below is a the presentation that I put together of apps. My focus was on free apps that could be used within the classroom. While the iPad is a great consumption device, a majority of the apps listed can be used for creation. This is by no means a complete list of the apps to use in a K-6 classroom. If you have any suggestions that should be added I would be happy to add them. Feel free to share the presentation with your teachers/staff. I was going through some Twitter feeds when I cam across a post by Matt Gomez @mattBgomez. He had Tweeted about Discussing an Augmented Reality world. This is where the Two Guys and Some iPads site comes into play. If you are new to Augmented Reality, Brad Wald and Drew Minock share their expertise about using it in their classrooms. They have some great ideas about using Aurasma. In addition, they have a page dedicated to explaining about meaningful integration of AR. This site is definitely a good resource for integrating Augmented Reality into your classroom. One resource on their website was about Augmented Reality greeting cards by Gizmo. This company is working to integrate Augmented Reality into greeting cards. They are trying to raise $20,000 by Aug. 23rd. They are currently half way there. DictaNote is a Chrome Extension that allows you to create text by using a microphone. I heard about this tool from @rmbyrne on his blog Free Technology for Teachers. In a nutshell, you can use your microphone to turn your speech into text. Teaching 1st grade, I always encounter students that limit their writing because of uncertainty with spelling words correctly. Many of them are nervous about taking a risk with the tricky words. I have tried many strategies for getting these timid writers to take a risk. I have used the app Dragon Dictation to help students spell unfamiliar words. However, this was very hit or miss. Students tried talking normal, slow and even like a robot. In the end, it was very spotty with the app recognizing the word a student was saying let alone a sentence. While Dragon Dictation was hit or miss, I tried another app. We installed the Google Search app onto our iPads. Students could hit the microphone icon (Voice) below the search bar and ask, " How do you spell ______?" More often than not, Google would return the correct spelling of the word. In addition, it would speak the correct spelling of the word to you. MY PLAN My 1st graders make huge progress throughout the school year. However, we are somewhat limited on time when it comes to typing our stories, on our blogs or digital stories using Little Bird Tales. I have a lot of single finger typers. I plan to have students try Dictanote to speed up the process. I will still have them type during the year but am interested in seeing the impact of Dictanote for some of my hesitant writers. Early on in the school year, my lower readers/writers tend not to write more than a sentence. Will Dictanote help those writers extend their stories knowing that he/she will not struggle to spell the words? What do you think? Do you have any suggestions for other speech to text tools? |
Andrew FenstermakerInstructional Technology Coordinator | Innovation Coach | Google Certified Innovator | Presenter | Blogger | Adjunct @UiowaEducation | Owner @kids_f_i_r_s_t |