It's the little things...

I've been in a kind of a slump the past few weeks.  School has been bumming me out.  Frustration has been taking over.

I've done two little things in my room that have gotten me a tiny bit out of this slump.  They both come down to one little word.

Choice.

1. During our study hall time, it can get loud.  I get grouchy.  So, I put together a Grooveshark playlist.  I asked each of the students to tell me a couple of their favorite (school appropriate) songs and made a list. I now play that in study hall and it's lightened the mood. It's also a lesson in tolerance of everyone's music tastes.

2. My students share about their independent reading with me once a week.  For the last three years, the students have turned in a letter written in their notebook in classic Fountas and Pinnell style.   Now I have 3 options for the students.  They can turn in their letter, record their response on our new Flip cameras from Digital Wish, or blog their response on our classroom blog.  I've already had 3+ students blog their responses and two students record their responses on the Flip.  I'm especially excited because the two students who recorded their responses on the Flip are students who usually have late letters.  I think the writing aspect of it was hindering them.

This week, my burdens and feelings of burnout have been lessened.  Choice can be a little thing that can make a big difference.

What are some little things you do in your classroom to encourage choice?

Why Blog?

Below is from the mouths of my students when thinking about their blogs today.  We will start writing on them this week.

Why blog? What should we use it for?

• Share our writing
• Get constructive criticism - improve your writing
• Share writing with relatives
• Comment on other people’s writing - improves their writing
• Turning in assignments - easier for Mrs. Goerend (less paper)
• Share your free writing - get feedback
• Share pictures about what we’re doing
• Get people’s opinion on something for a project.
• Ask readers for feedback
• Get ideas for specific parts of your writing (introduction, conclusion, etc.)

Classroom Bloggers

I gave my sixth graders a username and password for access to my classroom blog. 

I now have two student "jobs" each day.  One student is the blogger of the day and the other the photographer of the day. 

I gave them 2 guidelines:
1-Take no photos of students' faces.  I don't want to have to deal with permission for that yet.
2- Write something acceptable for your parents to read.  This makes sense because all of their parents get an email of blog posts delivered to them daily via FeedBurner. 

So far, it has been good!  The 3 bloggers of the day have come at the end of the day with something to write about.  The 2 photographers of the day have had a picture ready to share and a caption to add.  It's been fun to see the photographers (and their friends) ponder what to take a picture of.  We have even received a couple comments, one of which we have drafted a class response to. 

Why am I doing this?  Doesn't it take up extra time?
Sure it does!  My goal is to teach my students through experience how to appropriately communicate online.  Our class blog is a purposeful place for them to do this.

Check out what they are doing on our classroom blog!


Are you doing this in your classroom?  If not, why?  If yes, what suggestions do you have for how I could make this more purposeful?