Sway allows me to import Tweets, images, and links, and presents the information in a format that is user friendly and appealing. I can easily share the link or embed the entire page onto Schoology. It was incredibly easy to throw together, and I'm very happy with how it turned out!
As I start my second year of teaching, I feel like parent communication is where I can improve the most. I want to share more successes, not just student needs, I want to contact them instead of mainly having them contact me, and I think I one way I can do this better is through a weekly or biweekly newsletter. To make my life easier, I am doing one newsletter that encompasses all of my classes, and I am using an Outlook app called Sway.
Sway allows me to import Tweets, images, and links, and presents the information in a format that is user friendly and appealing. I can easily share the link or embed the entire page onto Schoology. It was incredibly easy to throw together, and I'm very happy with how it turned out!
I realize that it's still the first week of school, so I may not always be this on top of things (obviously). But at the very least, I'm glad I've set the precedent- I'm already doing better at communication than I was last year!
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As I approached the start of a new school year, I though there would be no better way to get the kids in the right "mindset" than to teach them about the difference between Fixed and Growth mindsets. I wanted to make it accessible for them, so I told a lot of stories about my own experiences and used "The Secret to Raising Smart Kids" by Carol Dweck. After looking at the difference between the two mindsets, I also had the students take a Multiple Intelligences Self Assessment through Edutopia so they could learn a little about themselves as learners. For a group activity, I showed the students the following cartoon: I asked them what this image meant, and we talked about Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs), SATs, and ACTS. Most students thought what is portrayed in the image was unfair, so I helped them apply what they had learned about mindsets. Each group, sitting in their table clusters, was assigned one of the animals from the picture, but not the monkey or the bird. Their assignment was to take on the role of the teacher who would help prepare their animal to climb the tree. I told them to consider their animal's natural abilities and environment and to equip these animals with the tools and resources they would need to be prepared to climb the tree. After brainstorming as a group, they took their best idea and drew a picture to represent their solution. The results were great! They all had such great ideas. The groups took turns sharing their pictures and explaining their solutions. Then, as a class, we related what they had drawn to our own classroom.
To bring it all together, they will answer the following questions on Schoology:
I am SO happy with how it all turned out- it was the perfect way to start the year. I'm going to refer to this throughout the rest of school year. Have you ever thought about how we've taught reading the same way since... forever? It's ALWAYS been book reports and novel studies, painstakingly perused one word at a time, with teachers picking the books without any say from the students. Just because that's how we've always done it, is it really the best way to teach reading? And what about the fact that many schools focus so much on teaching to test that books are seen less and less in the classroom??? It's thoughts like these that really got me thinking about how I teach reading and use books in my classroom. I want to encourage a life-long love of reading. I want my teaching, even my teaching of reading, to be student-centered. I KNOW students will become better readers (and writers) if they read. And to back up my philosophies, I have turned to the following books in order to find research to back up my ideas as well as effective strategies to use in my own classroom. I HIGHLY recommend them! Donalyn Miller Creator of the Nerdy Book Club, the Book-a-Day summer reading challenge, and the 40-book challenge, Donalyn Miller is one of my educator heroes! I got to meet her at last summer's NTCTELA Conference and again at a local high school choir concert, and I was totally starstruck :) She is a teacher here in Texas who has made a huge impact in the reading teacher community. Her 40-book challenge requires students to read (you guessed it!) 40 books throughout the school year. Students pick the books, any books they want, with the stipulation that they read from a predetermined number of genres. Feeling skeptical? Read her books! After reading them, you might just change your tune.My biggest take aways from her books?
Penny Kittle
Kelly Gallagher
In case you're interested, I just came across this paper I wrote about encouraging lifelong readers using the findings from Readicide. I come from a district that was attempting to fundamentally change how they approach reading instruction based on some of the research and philosophies from these texts. We were provided with the books, given opportunities to meet and hear from these authors, and encouraged to try their practices in our own classrooms.
I have been happy to see that my new district shares many of these philosophies. I am excited to introduce colleagues to these authors and to see how the reading lives of our students change! |
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