My oh my, funny what a teachable moment can turn into. On the 100th day, one of my students said she would save her $100 to go to college in Mississippi. In the process of writing her idea, we worked together on how to spell Mississippi as all the i's and double letters were throwing her off a bit. To help, I shared with her, and then the rest of the class a little chant we did when I was in 4th or 5th grade that goes like this... well... why am I telling you? Watch the video and hear for yourself!
The best part of this video is that the kids completely choreographed this little diddy on their own and then performed it for myself, my co-teacher and our teacher's aide.
By the end of the video, I was laughing so hard that I was crying! What a group! I have a feeling that not a one of these kiddos will ever get the word Mississippi wrong on a spelling test or in their writing!
I think that so often in today's high stakes environment, we lose a lot of the creativity that goes into learning. The fact that my class worked together as a team to create this really made my day. CREATIVITY is alive and well in our class!
The best part of this video is that the kids completely choreographed this little diddy on their own and then performed it for myself, my co-teacher and our teacher's aide.
By the end of the video, I was laughing so hard that I was crying! What a group! I have a feeling that not a one of these kiddos will ever get the word Mississippi wrong on a spelling test or in their writing!
I think that so often in today's high stakes environment, we lose a lot of the creativity that goes into learning. The fact that my class worked together as a team to create this really made my day. CREATIVITY is alive and well in our class!
Hi Sara,
ReplyDeleteI am also a first grade teacher with a school who is continually increasing the technology in the classroom. I love it! I am however overwhelmed and try to keep up with it. I am currently signing my kids up for Kidblog and I am awaiting the new iPad 3 so that the iPad 2 cost will go down so I can hopefully get 2 in my classroom. Any suggestions as to how to use the Kidblog with my first graders for someone new to it?
Thanks for all your incredible posts! I don't know how you do it, but I love reading about it all!!!!
Hi there!
DeleteThanks for the comment! I sometimes don't know how I do it either, but I love what I do and somehow manage to find the time (usually after my boys go to bed and into the wee hours of the morning when I should be in bed myself)
I am just getting started with KidBlog myself annd haven't found the just- right way for me yet however we're having successes. I started out by telling all of my kids about it and showing it to them on the SMARTboard. I then worked with 4-5 kids at a time during a Daily 5 round to introduce it to them. I started by doing a post of my own and showing them how to read and respond to a post (this was easy as we've done that much on our classroom blog) I then showed them how to login and get to their own blog. Once there I showed them how to create their own post. (the creating part is pretty easy for them as well as it is similar to MS Word which we have used in class as well). That was a good start for all of them it's now just the management of when they get on, how often they get on, etc. They have access to the netbooks at Daily 5 time whenever they would like for the most part but need to be independent during that time. A good handful of my kids can handle that but some can't so I am struggling with, "do I let those that can be independent do it and oh well for the rest (basically making it an optional activity as part of Work on Writing) or do I assign kids a time to get on giving my kiddos that need help a time when there is an extra adult in the room? (making it more of a learning experience for all?) A conundrum I'm continuing to contemplate. Hope this helps a bit. Any great ideas from your experience? Would love to hear them!!