Resources To Help You Start Your Own Class Twitter Account

Twitter is an invaluable tool in my classroom.  It hasn't always been.  In this post, I want to point out some of my mistakes and how I overcame them to help you and your students be successful with Twitter.

#1 Classroom Twitter Mistake
The Teacher creates and publishes the tweets.

When I first created my Twitter feed, my purpose was to share what we were doing in class.  I created the tweet, took the pictures, responded to tweets, and shared the feed once in a while to my students.  Who owned the learning?  Certainly not my students!  The way I rectified this was that I sat down with my students and we created a new Twitter handle (@mrswideensclass) and I kept the current feed as my professional Twitter handle (@mrswideen).  Instead of me tweeting about my students, my students are now tweeting about their learning and have created their own meaningful connections with peers, as I had, through my personal learning network. 

#2 Classroom Twitter Mistake
Jumping right in without laying the ground work first.

I know you and your students are excited to jump into the the Twitter sphere and start tweeting.  But WAIT!  You need to lay down some parameters first.  Twitter is just like any other digital citizenship piece.  It needs to be discussed over and over.  Safety is our main concern so it is imperative to co create some Twitter norms or rules for being safe while tweeting.  Here are my classroom Twitter Norms that my students and I created and are hanging up in my classroom:

You can download these posters here

#3 Classroom Twitter Mistake
Leaving the parents out of the loop.

Keeping parents informed about incorporating Twitter into the classroom is important in cultivating a sense of community with parents.  Sending home a quick note regarding our Twitter feed with our Twitter handle and how to follow our class was a start to our communication.  Being available to discuss concerns and how we were going to proceed was the most beneficial.  In my experience, clearly explaining that safety is a priority and that the focus of using Twitter in the classroom is always learning, parents supported me whole heartedly.  Included here is a sample of a parent letter created by Samantha Steinberg and myself that was sent home to parents regarding using Twitter in our classroom

Download the letter here

#4 Classroom Twitter MistakeKeeping the Class Twitter Account Locked Down

The purpose of Twitter is to CONNECT with others.  If you make it difficult to connect with other classes, then you are defeating the purpose of Twitter.  Now, I am not saying you follow anyone and everyone that follows your class.  My students and I choose who we follow very carefully.  We follow classes that tweet themselves, add value to our learning and that use Twitter as a tool.  We also love the adults that follow us because they help answer our inquiries and push our thinking.  Twitter expands learning possibilities by making instant connections to a global community.  Sharing perspectives and opinions about the topics my students care about builds writing skills and improves research skills.  

Once you have created your classroom Twitter and are looking for activities to do on Twitter, read my previous posts on I Created A Class Twitter Account, Now What? and Using Twitter To Extend My Math Lessons

Read More

I Created A Class Twitter Account, Now What?

Each morning as we start our day together, I draw attention to things that my students may have missed or mentions from our Twitter feed.  This short time together each morning discussing our Twitter feed has resulted in rich discussions that prompt thinking, cause us to wonder and lead us to seek out further information.  

There are many opportunities during the school day to incorporate the use of twitter.  A good place to start is to read the tweets from the other classes you follow, ask questions or provide comments as a whole class.  The following examples will give you some ideas on how to involve Twitter in literacy, math and science.  All of the Twitter activities explained can be done as a whole group, small group or by individual students. 

Wonder Questions

I encourage students to continuously ask questions and be curious about their surroundings.  Students are always encouraged to pose questions they are wondering about on Twitter.  It has been fascinating how many people have responded to my students’ questions.  This activity has shown my students that Twitter can be a place to acquire information from others.

Fairy Tale Riddles

During our Fairy Tale unit my students discovered by reading the class Twitter feed that a class in Maine was also learning about fairytales.  They connected through Twitter and started tweeting a fairytale riddle to each other each day.  You can see some of their riddles on the right.

Once Upon A Tweet

Erin Mastin, a grade 1 teacher in Michigan created the hashtag #1uponatweet.  The idea is that one class begins a story with a single tweet adding the hashtag, #1uponatweet. Then a different class will continue the story adding to the previous tweet.  At the end of the week, day or however long you want to wait, have students read how the story has changed from when they added to it.  One idea to extend this activity is to type the story out for your students, have your students choose a tweet to illustrate either on paper or the iPad, then tweet out the finished product! Another idea to extend this activity is to discuss if the story has a beginning, middle and end or a main idea.  You could also discuss voice and or audience.  There are endless possibilities for this activity.  

Post A Daily Word 

Challenge your students to unscramble an anagram, contribute antonyms or synonyms, or tweet a definition to the word of the day.  This could also be done with their weekly spelling words or words of the week.

Creating Math Stories

Another great hashtag to participate in is Karen Lirenman’s creation #MathStory.  Students create math stories or problems for other students to answer. 

This is a great activity for any child because they can select the most appropriate leveled question for themselves.  Another great thing about Twitter is that your shy or more reluctant students will be more willing to participate in these activities because they choose what to answer or comment on.  The first time we did this activity, I connected with a colleague on Twitter and we set a time where our students would ask math questions back and forth.  I had all of my students on the carpet with the Twitter feed displayed on our white screen.  At the same time, my students all had their iPads and were on the Twitter app.  We read the questions together as they appeared on our Twitter stream and then students volunteered to answer the question they wanted to answer. We then took a turn creating and asking math questions. Not only were my students responsible for creating and asking the questions, they were also responsible for responding to the child that answered their question by telling them if they answered the question correctly or not.  We then had a Skype session to debrief the students on the activity and they ended up continuing with the math questions by way of Skype because they were having so much fun.  This example really illustrates how an authentic audience motivates and encourages students to participate and extend their learning. 

Many of my students enjoy sharing their art creations, a quick snap of the camera roll and an explanation of the art project is all that is needed to tweet it to the world.  Other students use twitter for research.  They may ask questions that need to be answered by experts in a particular field.  Students also like to respond to questions or comments from other Twitter feeds that we follow.  A great way to begin tweeting is to simply have students write about what they are up to at school that day, or start with the “Tweeter of the day”.  Where one student is responsible for tweeting the news of the day.  All the above examples incorporate, thinking, reading and writing for an authentic audience and best of all, my students are excited by it!  Bring a little excitement into your class this year and create a class Twitter feed!

Read More

Why Have A Class Twitter Account?

I wanted to share some of the ways my class uses their classroom Twitter account.  Up until this year, I tweeted the things we do in our classroom on my personal Twitter account.  However, I wanted my students to take ownership of the learning.  Instead of me tweeting about them, I wanted them to tweet about what they were doing.  I also wanted them to gain the connections of other peers as I have through my professional Twitter.  Twitter has helped me become a better educator.  I have made so many connections, learned so many new things and have had other educators push my thinking and question how and why I do the things I do in my classroom.  I wanted my students to gain all of the benefits that I have gained from Twitter.
My students now learn and share their learning with other classes through Twitter everyday.  We are fortunate to have iPads in our classroom, so the class Twitter account is logged into all of the iPads.  My only rule is that they need to show an adult their tweet before they publish it.  Because access to Twitter is so easy for my students, they go on Twitter frequently throughout the day to read other student's tweets.  I also draw attention to things that they may have missed or mentions each morning when we start our day together.  Here are a few great learning opportunities that my students have experienced using Twitter.

#MathStory

This is an example of how my students originally teamed up with Mrs. Degroot's Class from Iowa to share math problems the children created.  As you can see from the tweets, other classes joined in the fun.  Mrs. Lirenman's class from British Columbia, @PalmyKids from New Zealand and @JanevilleK1 from New Brunswick all added math stories or answered the math stories my students tweeted out.

Learning From Others

My students were very excited when I brought in 7 tadpoles last week.  Some of them tweeted about it. We connected with a class from Singapore on Twitter that saw our tweets.  They gave us some tips and shared a picture of their tadpoles.  The students want to become experts in the next couple of weeks and want to share their learning with other classrooms that may have tadpoles through Twitter.

Extending Their Learning of Fairytales

My students have been learning about fairytales during writing.  We have been reading and studying fairytales because we will be writing our own fairytales eventually.  One of my students tweeted a familiar line in a fairytale we had read that day, and the fairytale riddles were born.

These are only a few of the ways we use Twitter in our classroom.  There are so many other great ways to incorporate it into your classroom in meaningful ways.  My students' engagement level goes way up when they know that they have an audience.  These 3 examples show 6 and 7 year olds reading, writing, responding, creating and computing on Twitter.  When my students tweet, I don't have any that are reluctant to share or think that the work is "boring."  They tweet because THEY want to and because they love communicating, collaborating and learning with others.  I encourage you to sign your class up for a Twitter account if you haven't already.  Start following us @mrswideensclass and come learn with us.

Read More

Using Twitter To Extend My Math Lessons

As a primary level teacher it was my goal to have students communicate their learning from the classroom to the world while leveraging student safety and the logistics of multiple devices.  Leading my students through the creation of a learning network on Twitter was the ticket. 

Twitter is a classroom tool that empowers students to develop their voice through global connections.  

My students learn from others on Twitter and share their learning with a broader community. Through whole-group Twitter activities (mirroring our iPads through Apple TV) and individual Twitter activities (tweeting independently using iPads), my students recognize that there are connections to be made beyond our Ontario classroom.

We have been using Twitter for over a year now and in the last few weeks, my students have really taken the lead on using it to extend their learning in math.  It seems like over the past few weeks, if we have a few extra moments at the end of the math period or for my early finishers, my students jump on Twitter and continue the math lesson.  However, my students have changed the role from student to teacher.  They are asking the questions and providing feedback when they have members of their PLN answering their questions.

Here are a few examples of how my students have been reversing the roles and teaching their peers on Twitter about what they are learning in class.

These extensions on Twitter help solidify my students math knowledge and it keeps them coming back for more.  They can't wait for the next day to see if anyone has answered their questions.  If someone does answer their question, I have my students check to see if the answer is correct and respond back to that person or class.  If the answer is incorrect they must tell them and give them an explanation on why it is incorrect.

Not only does this enrich the learning but it is a fantastic assessment tool for myself.  When a student can create their own question and argue the answer, I know that they have mastered the concept.

Read More

Using Our Class Twitter Account To Learn About Surveys and Graphing

I love using Twitter in my classroom.  If you ask my students what the purpose of Twitter is for them, they will likely respond with, "To build relationships, learn from peers and to teach others."  I have done my best to model for my students that Twitter is a tool for learning and I hope that my students continue with this mindset as they grow older.  This past Tuesday, during math we used Twitter to extend our learning about surveys and graphing.  We have been working on the entire process of how to conduct a survey, asking a question, using tallies to record the results and then creating a graph to show the results.  Here is our anchor chart that we co-created this past week.

I felt that my students had a good grasp on the concept so I had them formulate a survey question about what foods their survey group would like best.  My students created a question with three choices, then tweeted it from our class Twitter account.  I was ecstatic with how many classes, and people responded to our questions.  The following day, we had enough responses for my students to gather to create their graphs.

When we connect with people outside of our school walls, it creates excitement and engagement.  My students couldn't wait until math class the following day to see how many people responded to all of their surveys.  Students created their graphs on chart paper and now have decided that they would like to create their graphs on the iPads so they can tweet their results to their audience.

Read More

Using Social Media as a Teaching Tool

Teaching Social Media as a tool is imperative in todays day and age.  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube are all applications that many of our students frequent everyday.  We also hear horrible stories of mistakes teens and adults have made that they can't take back on social media.  A snap of a picture that is sent via text could be detrimental.  Saying something inappropriate on Twitter or Facebook can put you in a lot of hot water or worse....jail.

This is why I teach social media norms and etiquette in my classroom. Do kids make mistakes?  Of course!  I encourage mistakes, because we learn from them.  I want my students to make those mistakes while they are in my class.  An inappropriate comment on someone's blog is a lesson learned in my class and hopefully not repeated.  The mistakes that are made in grade 2 are a lot less harmful than when that student is in high school.

My students see Social Media as a teaching tool.  Twitter is embedded into the daily instruction in my classroom.  As well as posting their learning on their personal blogs or uploading their work to our Youtube Channel.  Our classroom Twitter norms were created with my students to ensure ownership of our norms.

A few weeks ago we were working on writing a persuasive letter.  I wanted to make this an authentic task so as a class, we brainstormed a list of things that we could persuade our principal to buy or let us do.  My students agreed that they wanted to persuade our principal into buying us a bird feeder to put outside our observation window.  My students came up with the idea to post the letters on their blogs and then tweet them directly to our principal on Twitter.  Students tweeted their letters and got responses from not only the principal.  We received a bird feeder and birdseed on behalf of our Director of Education, a bird house that one of our students made and a humming bird feeder from my mom.

One of my student's letters on their blog.  (Check out the response).

I think the above tweet says it all.  The connections being made in my classroom that day was amazing.  Students were discussing how powerful social media can be.  They spoke about how quickly the message got around and how if they would have delivered the letter to the principal's office we would have not received all of this support from other people.  This also sparked a conversation about if you were to post something that was harmful or inappropriate on Twitter, how many people could potentially see it very quickly and how you can't take something back even if you delete the tweet after it has been tweeted.  These conversations help mold my students opinions and work ethic around social media.

Another great example of how social media has a positive impact in my classroom, is when I  recently received this tweet on the weekend from one of my students:

I was so excited to get a tweet on the weekend from a student that on their own, researched about our current inquiry and tweeted it to me!  (Remember, he is in grade 3).  This student isn't using social media to see what Justin Bieber is up to or to ramble on about his weekend.  He is using it in a purposeful way to show his learning.

 After the weekend, my student was all set with two QR codes printed out to share with the class.  Amazing!

Remember mistakes are welcomed in our classrooms and when children make mistakes it creates new learning.  Don't be quick to "shut it down"  when a mistake is made on social media.  Be thankful it was made in a controlled environment where students can learn from their mistakes without it being detrimental down the road.

Read More

Need an Authentic Audience for Math? Use Twitter

For the past couple of weeks my 2nd graders have been learning about data management.  This past week they have learned about collecting data through surveys, how to create bar graphs and how to analyze the data they have received.  For their culminating activity I asked them to create a question about "favorites."  Once they had their question, I had them tweet it out on our classroom Twitter account (@mrswideensclass).  I then retweeted the questions on my professional Twitter account to try to get enough responses for them to collect their data.  After two days, we had about 10 questions that had a sufficient amount of responses.  The next step was for the children to find their questions on twitter and tally the results.

After the student tallied the responses they created a bar graph to show the data.  I then had the students take pictures of their work and had them use Pic Collage to show their work.  We did this because we try to respond to everyone that has responded to our class on Twitter.  My class wanted to share their results with the people that answered their survey.  After my students created an image in Pic Collage they saved it to the camera roll and responded to everyone that took their survey with the picture of the results and a quick message.

First, I want to thank our PLN for responding to the questions.  The children were so excited to see all of the results.  What a fantastic and different way to collect surveys that are real and authentic.  It is also a fantastic piece of assessment that my students enjoyed, were engaged and eager to complete. 

Read More

Why Introducing Young Students To Social Media Is So Important

Last year my grade 1 students were uploading videos to their personal blogs and to youtube, tweeting from our classroom Twitter feed, face timing, skyping and participating in Google Hangouts with peers, soon to be teachers, teachers, experts in a certain field, and the class down the hall.  We participated in global projects like the Global Read Aloud and created our own global projects.

Why?

There are many great reasons why we have embeded social media into our daily classroom routines.  The two most important to me are, the increased excitement and engagement I have experienced in my students and because I think it is imperative that we model appropriate digital citizenship at a young age.

I am in charge of a Primary Blogging Network that started this past Monday.  There are approximately 80 classes, grades K-3 from around the world participating in this project.  The classes are put into groups and they are currently visiting and commenting on classroom blogs that will eventually turn into visiting and commenting on student's individual blogs in a few weeks.

Yesterday I received information from a teacher that a child was writing inappropriate content on her class blog.  Luckily, she moderates the comments before anyone sees them so there was no harm done.  At first, I was mortified.  Many times we jump to conclusions and put blame on the teacher.  "Well, if the teacher had been paying more attention...." or "Didn't they go over blogging etiquette?"

First, we all have had a child in our class that pushes the boundaries and is always curious on how far he or she can get without getting caught.  Think about it in a positive light.   This is a wonderful teaching moment!  This 2nd grade child that was writing inapprorpriate words in all of his comments needs a refresher in digital citizenship.  Luckily, he is 7 years old and this is a minor issue that resulted in no harm done.  We know exactly who it was and he will learn a valuable lesson.  One that will hopefully remind him in the future to think before he posts something online.  We all know a story about a teenager, posting a picture or video or writing something inappropriate on a Facebook page, or texting someone something that they can't erase.  The ramifications of those mistakes are far worse as you get older.  I want my students to learn about these things now, in our classroom with my guidance, so they don't make those mistakes when it could seriously hurt someone or themselves.

My students use Twitter almost everyday.  They see Twitter as an educational tool that enriches our learning environment.  My students don't see it as a place to follow teen idols or to post garbage to their friends.  I hope that as my students get older they will continue to use Twitter for a significant purpose because they have only been exposed to it in that way.  My students already have created a wonderful personal learning network where they share their learning and use social media as a way to answer questions.

Last week during a lesson on where to find information my students came up with this list:

Look at how my students view social media as a TOOL.  I am so proud of them for how they view it.  Would this list look different if I didn't model and let my students use social media?  You bet it would.  Would there be a higher risk of them getting into "online trouble" when they are older.  We can't be sure about that but it would be a very interesting action research project.....

Read More

Read Alouds - From Boring to Brilliant

Who remembers when they were young, listening to their teacher (well not really listening) do a read aloud to them?  I'm not talking about a short picture book, I am talking about a chapter book....I remember sitting there, day after day, while my teacher sat at her desk, and me at my desk, and her reading to us, while we sat completely still, thinking about anything else besides the book she was reading.  To be honest, I can't even remember a single title of any read aloud my teacher read that particular year....

I really think my teacher just thought if we did anything besides sit there and be still we wouldn't be able to pay attention to the story.  But in fact the opposite was true.

Now I'm not saying that every child in my classroom is 100% engaged while I am doing a read aloud.... However, I know it is a very high percentage of them.  I know this because they are showing their thinking while I am reading to them.

I have worked very hard this year on modeling explicitly how to show their thinking while reading.  Not just with read alouds, but with independent, shared, and partner reading.  From this modeling, I am confident that my students are thinking critically while they participate in our read alouds.

Here are a few ways we spice up our read alouds in my classroom:

Using TodaysMeet.com

I have an anchor chart on my board with ways that students can show their thinking:
they can make connections, ask questions, visualize, write down vocabulary they are unsure about, write about their feelings, write a summary, etc.  I remind them about all these ways, then I let them go at it while I read.  I use todaysmeet instead of sticky notes, a notepad, or an iPad a lot lately because it gives them a little push to write.  I like todaysmeet because students can see who is writing the comments, other students can read and comment on other students' comments and it is a closed environment.  All I do is set up a room, hand out QR codes that take them to the correct URL and they show their thinking while I am reading.

Draw or Sketch While You Read

My students love to close their eyes and visualize the pictures in their heads, they often sketch in their notebooks or on the iPad what they are visualizing.  Here is an example from a student who drew a picture on her iPad, then uploaded it to her blog.

Use Twitter

We have a classroom Twitter account, so students can tweet out things that we are doing, or respond to what other classes are up to.  One of my students tweeted about reading the book Clementine last week and we had responses from many other classes that are also reading it.  

Use Skype or Google Hangout to Connect To Other Classes 

We are currently reading the book Clementine.  There are 18 other classes reading it at the same time.  We put a tweet out on twitter to see if any other classes were interested in reading a chapter with us.  Last Wednesday we read chapter 2 with another grade 2 class.  This led to a google doc being shared with us comparing the two main characters bedrooms.  Both classes added to the google doc below.

Participate in A Global Read Aloud

Reading the same book at the same time with several other classes is exciting.  Not just for the students, but for the educators too!  You can collaborate on projects, share resources, and have so many more options to extend the text.  My students are currently on Edmodo discussing the book Clementine with 2 other classes.  They not only have their classmates to discuss the book with, but they have other students from around the globe to collaborate with!  Here is the link for The Global Read Aloud 2013 . They are currently voting on which books we will be using.  You can also check on Twitter.  I was lucky enough to see a tweet from Louise Morgan - the #2ndchat moderator (@MrsMorgansClass) announcing they were going to do a global read aloud on the book Clementine, and I signed up!

Create A Class Project To Accompany The Book

I had Jenni Van Rees (@jennivanrees) contact me about us "hosting" one of her Flat Stanleys' for a month.  I of course accepted.  Jenni created a blog for the Stanleys' going out and gave us directions on how to get on the blog to document our adventures.  Since I knew we would be receiving Stanley, I started reading the first Flat Stanley Book.  My students loved the book!  What they loved more though, was thinking of adventures and taking pictures of Flat Stanley at our school.  I even had a child bring in the second book for me to read to the class for our next read aloud. 

Having a Different Person Read A Chapter

Tomorrow, we will be Skyping with Mr. Deluca's (@MrJDeLuca) grade 2 class.  Mr. Deluca will be reading chapter 4 of Clementine to us.  My students love to hear how other people read to them.  Will Mr. Deluca make different character voices?  Will he share some of his connections and thinking with us?  It will be a surprise!

What are some of the exciting things you do to engage your students while you read to them?

Read More

Join The Primary Blogging Community Now!

With the Primary Blogging Community beginning its second year, I wanted to do a little explaining on how this little project has become a bigger project.... At the end of August last year, I was partaking in my usual Sunday night ritual (participating in #1st chat on Twitter) when the conversation went to blogging.  Many teachers wanted to connect their classrooms with other classrooms from our 1st chat community. I volunteered to do some thinking about it and to start something.  I put out a Google Doc and asked for interested primary teachers to sign up.  The response was fantastic!  There were over 20 primary classrooms that wanted to participate.   I organized another rotation last February and we had almost 40 classes participate.

What is the Primary Blogging Community?

The PBC is a community of primary teachers (children aged 5-10) that want to share their students' learning via their classroom blog and their students' personal blogs.  Classrooms will be grouped with 3 or 4 other classrooms from around the globe.  The program is 8 weeks long.  The first 4 weeks will concentrate on the classroom blogs only.  Each week, one of the classes will be the focus class and the other 3 classes will be visiting and commenting on the focus class blog.  The following week, the second class will be the focus class, and so on.   This is a chance for the other classes to see what is happening in your school and class, to discover where in the world you are located and to learn about how to write a good blog post and to watch how you model and work together to write good comments.  After the first 4 weeks, we switch the focus from your classroom blog and concentrate on student blogs.  The same rotations occur but the focus is solely on your student's individual blogs. 

Why join the Primary Blogging Community?

1.  You will be collaborating with other like minded educators on this project and in return will build your PLN.

2.  PBC creates enthusiasm in reading and writing.

3.  It gives your students a voice and lets them be the teacher to their peers.

4.  Your students will have a built in audience that will provide authentic feedback to what they are writing about on their blogs.
5.  On some days in the last rotation, my students had over 100 comments on their blogs!  The excitement and engagement piece to this blogging community is huge!  

I created an Edmodo teacher group for us where we could collaborate on ideas and I could start putting a schedule together.  

We will be beginning again this October.

What Does The Schedule Look Like?

October

Each week one class' blog will be the centre of attention. The other 3 or 4 classrooms will be exploring and commenting on that one particular blog.  The following week, class 2 will be the centre of attention where the other classes will comment and explore on class 2's blog and so on.

November

We will do the same rotation schedule and the same blogging buddies as we did in October, however, this time we will be focusing on our students' personal blogs instead of the class blog.  This will create more comments, more traffic and more enthusiasm for your students' blogs.  I can tell you from personal experience that on the week that my class was the "focus week"   it was not unusual for my students to have up to 100 comments collectively on their blogs in one day.

What is the difference between the Primary Blogging Community and Quadblogging?

Quadblogging -  Each week one blog is the focus blog with the other three blogs visiting and commenting during that week. In week two, another school/class blog is the focus with the other three visiting and commenting. This is repeated until each of the classes/schools has had their week in the spotlight. The cycle is then repeated. (from http://quadblogging.net)

Primary Blogging Community - Is the exact same as above except the second 4 week cycle we concentrate on your student's personal blogs, not your classroom blog.

What do I need to begin?

You need to have a classroom blog and your students need their own personal blogs.  If your students do not have personal blogs, I suggest you create them or sign up for Quadblogging.net instead.  If you do not have an edmodo account, I highly suggest you sign up for one and join our blogging community.  This is where you can ask questions and collaborate with the other teachers in the group.  The code to our group is nqsisy.  We also communicate frequently on twitter, use #PrimaryBC on twitter and follow me on twitter for news and updates @mrswideen.

If you would like to participate in the October rotation, please sign your class up below.  I will contact you in September with further details. The October registration is now closed.  We will be having another rotation in January.  Please fill in the form below if you are interested.

Read More

A Day In The Life Of A Connected Classroom

I had a group of teachers visit my classroom last week. They were there to see how we incorporate technology in meaningful ways into the primary classroom. I had a couple of teachers ask me if I had a schedule of what we do throughout the day to give to them. Alas a blogpost is born. So, here it is, a day in my room without you actually having to visit me! (I am taking the day that my visitors came in and writing what we did that day)

8:30 Entry

Students enter school and write a short message in their agendas.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays students read  or give mini lessons to their parents on the iPads in our Learning Commons.  For those students that don't have a parent come in they may blog, read independently or with a partner until 9:00.  On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays students choose to blog, read or write until 9:00.  Many students chose to blog about our new tadpoles in our classroom that day.

A screenshot of one of my student's blog posts 

9:00 Twitter Review - Reading Mini Lesson

If there are any mentions or interesting tweets on the class Twitter account, we read the tweets and respond.  On this particular day, we had some interesting tweets from a class in Singapore responding to our tweets about our new tadpoles.

After we read and responded to some tweets we were ready for our reading mini lesson. I have been teaching the students the difference between on the page and off the page questions.  I have taught the students that sometimes the answer is right in the book.  If we can put our finger or fingers on the answer, its called an on the page question.  The answer is right on the page.  We just need to use evidence from the text.  When the book doesn't tell us the exact answer/ when we can't put our finger on the answer/ when we have to add our ideas to help us answer the question then we use AEO and it is called an OFF the page question.  You need to use evidence from the text to answer the questions along with your own ideas.  I went over our anchor chart and I told them that they were going to be detectives  that day and they were going to figure out what type of question I was asking.  I was using the fabulous book, "Tuesday" by David Wiesner which is nearly a wordless book.  Because the book had very few words, I decided to read the book to the class first without asking any questions.   My students used the comprehensions strategies they have learned throughout the year and wrote about their thinking using todaysmeet while I read the story.  I made book marks with a QR code on them that took them to todaysmeet.  

Bookmark

Examples of students' responses while I read the story.

I then reread the story asking the following questions while the students saw the pictures up on the smart board. (I scanned the pictures so the students could view the pictures larger as we discussed the questions.)

1. What time is it?
2. What do you think the Detective is thinking?  What type of question am I asking?
3. What trouble do the frogs get into?  Use evidence from the text to explain your answer.

9:30 - Literacy Stations

Students are grouped in pairs and go to 1 station per day.  Here is a list of my literacy stations.  I have 2 literacy station groups for differentiation. 

Group 1

1. Word Work A - Write the room

2. iPads - blogs

3. Science Station

4. Writing - Write About this app

5. Reading-Buddy reading

6.  Smartboard - ABCya.com  spelling practice

Group 2

1. Fluency Station - Audio Boo - You read to me i'll read to you

2. Writing -  Write about this app

3. iPads - Blogs 

4. Science Station

5. Insect Write the room

6. Library - reading buddies

I will share a description of a few of these stations:

Science Station

Download Instructions Sheet Here

Download Observation Sheet Here

Fluency Station

Download This Station Here

Writing Station

Download The Instructions Sheet Here

10:10 - 10:50 Nutrition Break

10:50 - 11:40 Prep

11:40 - 12:30 - Writing

Students are learning how to write fairytales and are learning about beginning, middle and end of the story.  My teaching partner, Mrs. Belanger, read the students a different version of Goldilocks And The Three Bears.  She then had them show the beginning, middle and end using the Popplet app:

12:30 - 1:10 Nutrition Break

1:10 - 2:05 Math

We usually have silent reading for 20 minutes, however on this day we were writing math problems to share on Twitter with Mrs. Degroot's class.  We tweeted math problems and solved math problems on Twitter until 1:35 then skyped with Mrs. Degroot's class and we exchanged math problems via Skype.

2:05 - 2:50 Art

On all other days we do math stations during this time.  However, on Wednesdays we have Art.  On this particular day we read "A Color Of His Own" By Leo Lionni and students created and painted a chameleon.

2:50 - Dismissal

Phew....that was a long blogpost!  Hopefully you gained a little bit of insight of what goes on in my very busy classroom!  

Read More

Primary Blogging Community - April edition

I have had a lot of questions pertaining to the Primary Blogging Community.  Hopefully this post will clear up some of the questions for you.

What is the Primary Blogging Community?

The PBC is a community of primary teachers that want to share their students' learning via their classroom blog and their students' personal blogs.  Classrooms will be grouped with 3 or 4 other classrooms from around the globe.  The program is 8 weeks long.  The first 4 weeks will concentrate on the classroom blogs only.  Each week, one of the classes will be the focus class and the other 3 classes will be visiting and commenting on the focus class blog.  The following week, the second class will be the focus class, and so on.   This is a chance for the other classes to see what is happening in your school and class, to discover where in the world you are located and to learn about how to write a good blog post and to watch how you model and work together to write a good comment.  After the first 4 weeks, we switch the focus from your classroom blog and concentrate on student blogs.  The same rotations occur but the focus is solely on your student's individual blogs. 

Why join the Primary Blogging Community?

1.  You will be collaborating with other like minded educators on this project and in return will build your PLN.

2.  PBC creates enthusiasm in reading and writing.

3.  It gives your students a voice and lets them be the teacher to their peers.

4.  Your students will have a built in audience that will provide authentic feedback to what they are writing about on their blogs.
5.  On some days in the last rotation, my students had over 100 comments on their blogs!  The excitement and engagement piece to this blogging community is huge!  

What is the difference between the Primary Blogging Community and Quadblogging?

Quadblogging -  Each week one blog is the focus blog with the other three blogs visiting and commenting during that week. In week two, another school/class blog is the focus with the other three visiting and commenting. This is repeated until each of the classes/schools has had their week in the spotlight. The cycle is then repeated. (from http://quadblogging.net)

Primary Blogging Community - Is the exact same as above except the second 4 week cycle we concentrate on your student's personal blogs, not your classroom blog.

What do I need to have to begin?

You need to have a classroom blog and your students need their own personal blogs.  If you do not have an edmodo account, I highly suggest you sign up for one and join our blogging community.  This is where you can ask questions and collaborate with the other teachers in the group.  The link for our group is here.  The code to our group is 5be0kt.  We also communicate frequently on twitter, use #PrimaryBC on twitter and follow me on twitter for news and updates @mrswideen.

Where do I sign up?

Please fill in the google doc here.

When do we begin?

I will be closing registration September 15 and we will begin September 22nd.  

Read More