I love collaboration!  Today at our Foundations training, we had the opportunity to work in small "expert groups" and learn from each other.  At first, I met with a group and discussed Westward Expansion.  We talked about how difficult it can be to find primary resources that represent the Native American perspective on this topic.  We share our understanding of the importance of building historical presentism with our students and discussed great project ideas and resources.

In my next group, we talked about the latest technology.  We shared great apps and how to use them effectively in the classroom.  We researched the differences between IMovie and Videostar, and talked about how to use them to enliven the curriculum.  I now have a long list of apps and sites to learn more about over the Spring Break.

It was so valuable to learn from my colleagues!  I am newly invigorated and just need the time to continue the exploration!

This showed me what I was truly looking at when I responded, because the important words were bigger. Understanding content and enriching vocabulary was important to me.  I loved how they responded to this activity!

Synergizing!

My school has adopted "The Seven Habits of Happy Kids" as a model for how we can be more successful individually and as a school.  The Children focus on a different habit each month.  One of my favorites is the habit "Synergize" which means working together as a team, because "together is better".  I felt like our little PLC team synergized to come up with possible project ideas.  It was quite challenging to come up with a topic and writing area that accommodated all of us, because besides dealing with the difference in districts and order of teaching specific standards...I threw the different grade level into the loop.  We found areas of overlap and an idea that was broad enough for all of us to use with our varying dynamics.

We decided to focus on explorers and narrative writing.  For my fourth graders, we will using writing application 2.1 (writing narratives) and social studies standard 4.2 (describing the social, political, cultural, and economic life among European explorers landing in California.

More specifically, my students will use resources including books, articles, websites, and a field trip experience to build background knowledge to write a first person narrative in the perspective of a California explorer's journey.  They will be challenged to use "SPEC" in their writing.

I appreciated the ideas and insights of my team and look forward to sharing results!

Hooray for Heroes!

The last two days of our summer training were so rich with exciting strategies and ways to enliven the classroom with a focus on heroes.  I was very inspired by Dr. Denenberg and his over the top crazy ways.  At our school, we have had a tradition of celebrating "Hero Day" on September 11th as a way to remember the tragedy of 9/11 and the heroes that grew from that day.  I could not stop taking notes and snapping photos as he share ideas that I knew I would use.  I began the school year by having a quote of the week by famous heroes.  The children learned these quickly and always want to learn more about the heroes.

I loved the literature ideas that Dr. Fran Macko presented and used one of the books as I introduced the writing of our classroom Constitution. I also like the idea of connecting to time periods through rich historical fiction.

Back to the heroes...we had a great week in my classroom where we brainstormed characteristics of heroes. we learned about American heroes, heroes in our communities, and chose personal heroes.  The children wrote letters to their personal heroes thanking them for their "heroic" actions.  We held a Hero Brunch in the classroom and the children invited their heroes.  The hero sat in a big hero chair while they were honored with the letter (read aloud) and a special handmade medal.  It was an amazing, tearful event!

To conclude, I will use the hero theme all year.  Our school has embraced the "Seven Habits of Happy Kids" this year and we talk about these habits as being the "way of the hero".  I am thankful to Dr. Denenberg for all of his wonderful ideas and enthusiasm!

Summer Learning

It has been over a month since our summer institute and I have had a chance to use some of what I have learned in my classroom.  Over the last week, I have had the chance to revisit my notes and here is what struck me...

Dr. Sharon Sundue:  The background information broadened my knowledge, and though the content is not what I teach in Fourth Grade, my understanding of the chain of events and thinking throughout history is a powerful backbone for any history lesson.  One of the reasons I wanted to be a part of this grant, was that when I taught abroad for a year, I was ashamed by my limited understanding of my own country's history.  Dr. Sundue's lessons walked me through American settlements and through the colonies and enlightenment  with an understanding of the cultural and religious implications.

Anthony Fitpztrick:  Exciting!  Mr. Fitzpatrick is quite the entertainer.  He is always full of great strategies that I can use right away...even in the Fourth Grade setting.  I loved the "Elementary My Dear Watson" method of using primary sources to search for clues using Holmes' rules.  He returned to the strategies he had shared with us in past sessions (ARTIST, SPEC, Return Address, and White out).  It was great to hear these again and gain confidence in the possibility of applying them more to lessons in my classroom.  Solving for Y was an interesting process.  Y=MX=B  Finding the meaning of the reference, 3 examples of its use, and bringing it home!  I feel like I need more practice with this before I could use it.   I would like to spend some time looking through political cartoons to see what could fit with my curriculum in Fourth Grade.

These two presenters went hand in hand to help provide me with background knowledge...and how to bring it into my teaching!

What's new?

I feel like a kid in a candy store...it is not the Snickers or the Reeses... I love having access to and greater understanding of all the new techonology I've learned this weekend.  I am excited about beefing up my livebinder and exploring some of the resources.  I am still very nervous about Twitter, but certainly see the value.