Introduction to Split Screens and #hyperdocs

When students are working on multiple tabs in Google Chrome and need to go back and forth between them it might be easier for them to split their screen. Thanks to Alice Keeler they can now do this! Today I had students download the extension AliceKeeler Classroom Split to make this happen. When students are working in their hyperdocs during reading this might be something they want to use. This way they can have their directions open on one screen and their work opened on another. Splitting the screen allows students to be more productive and efficient while working. If you do not have chrome you can create side-by-side windows. Learn more about that here!

Many of the students reading classwork is done in Google Classroom. I encourage parents to take an active and vested interested in their child’s work. You can ask your child to show you his or her Pax and hyperdoc work at home! Some students will be sharing their work at conferences, but it is available to you at home any time you want to look at it! Conversing with students about the books we are reading and how we are exploring books is another wonderful discussion point with students. If you do not know what a hyperdoc is visit this site to learn more. These have been an enriching experience for students and I to discuss books together.

What We Are Thankful For

Students were asked to think about what they are thankful for this week. They had insightful things to say!

Katie is thankful for friends and family.

Josh is thankful for family, friends, and money.

Jake W. is thankful for pigs.

Quinn is thankful for his pet.

Sophia is thankful for her family, friends, food, and shelter.

Marissa is thankful for family, food, and friends.

Stella is thankful for her home, family, health, and friends.

Rayyan is thankful for his family.

Alexis is thankful for family, friends, shelter, and food.

Archith is thankful for his family.

Julia is thankful for her home, family, and friends.

Olivia is thankful for her family, acting, and singing.

Zoe is thankful for acting, family, friends, and food.

Charles is thankful for family, friends, teachers, and life.

Anthony is thankful for family, friends, food, shelter, and his education.

Iniyan is thankful for his family.

Ryan is thankful for his mom, dad, a house, and a great life.

Maddie is thankful for her special family that loved her very much.

William is thankful for a house and food.

Emma is thankful for her kind family and my home.

Shawn is thankful for his leg no longer being broken.

Dylan is thankful for food.

Jake S. is thankful for family and friends.

Ms. Freedman is thankful for her agent community, her immediate family, and innovative thinking. 

Bringing Joy to Others

During this season I love to provide students with opportunities to give back to others.  This year we are doing a service-learning project with Catching Joy! I love this charity because a child who saw the need to give back to his community started it! It shows students where an idea can take you! It puts the joy of giving in the hands of the child. Check out Maxwell’s idea for the world he wants to live in here! The values of the organization are similar to those in our classroom community:

• We believe engaging children in volunteering teaches them to be caring and compassionate towards people, animals, and the environment.
• We appreciate that every child has time, talent and treasure to offer.
• We value the importance of families and friends volunteering together as it fosters stronger and more loving connections and community.
• We recognize the ripple effect that one person and one good deed make in the world.
• We affirm that Catching Joy means helping others.
• We have learned that true joy belongs to the giver.

Students can join any Catching Joy event! The one our class participated in was to help create Blessing Bags for those in need. The bags will be filled with cards, water bottles, toiletries, and snacks. They will be delivered to Second Step, Women's Lunch Place, Pine Street Inn, etc. The message of kindness, joy, care, and love will be spread on  the bags. I hope our students enjoy creating something that will put a smile on their faces! Joy will be dropping off items for our students to stuff the bags, but if anyone would like to donate items to go in the bags please feel free to send to our classroom the week after Thanksgiving. Contact Joy at joy@catchingjoy.org for more information or to learn how you can help!

Feel free to follow Catching Joy on Facebook to learn about other volunteer opportunities for kids!

What if You Were Hired By . . .

I knew I had to teach students how to write for expository purposes. I thought long and hard about teaching kids the standard 5-paragraph essay. Then I did some research of my own. I came to the conclusion that no one writes that way anymore. Expository is to inform so I wanted to provide my students with an engaging writing experience to teach them this kind of writing.

I had an AHA moment. What if my kids thought they were going to be hired for Wonderopolis and they had to write a wonder of the day? I went online and printed out the wonder of the day, which coincidentally tied right into our social studies unit. I wanted students to do a close reading of it.

The day of the lesson I told the students the exciting news! They were hired by Wonderopolis to write the next Wonder of the Day. A lot of buzz went around the room. Is she serious? Can we really do that? Will she really share our work? YES! YES! YES! I opened up the site online for the class to see and handed out the printed copy. We discussed features on the page, and students recognized the heading, image, caption, questions, and paragraphs. There were 10 paragraphs, as some were short. We discussed expectations would be similar for their own wonder. We then transitioned to talking about main idea. Students were able to tell me how it could be what the paragraph is about. We discussed how it could be sentence of a few words. I asked if it could be an interrogative sentence. A few hands went up and said yes. We reviewed what type of sentence that was. Then I asked about a declarative sentence. Nice to tie in some grammar!

Then students met in random groups by using the agent stick mug. They were tasked with reading the passage and highlighting the main idea.

Students and I reviewed the main idea of each paragraph, learning about the importance of supporting details. Some students still get confused about the difference so seeing how a main idea has to capture the essence of the whole paragraph is important. Students were then asked to give me three wonders of the day. I will be taking these and forming PLCs within the classroom of students interested in a similar wonder. Students will then be paired with someone to collaborative work on their wonder of the day together using Google tools. I am excited to see what they create. Our next lesson will cover research tools!

Why Go Gradeless?

We started with another question today in social studies about the architecture of the ancient civilizations. I asked students to think about how their homes and buildings are similar and different than the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas. Students wrote done their thoughts. I could have just showed pictures on the SMART board and discussed whole class the answer to that question, but I wanted students to construct knowledge around this rather than be told the answer. Students were handed images of homes and structures of the ancient civilizations and discussed their thinking about what tools the civilizations used to make their homes and buildings, how their structures looked compared to ours, and observations they had. They jotted bulleted notes about their ideas and shared them with classmates. Then we went on a small field trip through the school for butcher paper. I asked students to work with their tables to show me how ancient civilization architecture was similar and different to ours. Every student had to be working on something. I then saw groups begin to organize themselves and plan out how to show me their thinking on the butcher paper. When I told students time was up I got groans. This is the best sound to a teacher.  I want my students to want to keep working!

After the students cleaned up we had a conversation about the method I chose, and students shared this was an activity they were excited about getting back to. I shared with students they would not be graded, which led to a conversation of how I only grade what I have to per the school’s expectations (math and reading assessments).  I asked students why they thought I went gradeless many years ago. They shared with me that I could have done this because they are not numbers, but rather people who think. One student said not grading relieves pressure, anxiety, and stress. Another said some students do not test well. These are all great explanations, and I added that I couldn’t grade growth. Students need to time to explore, love learning, develop skills, and have empathy for others. I put myself in their shoes. I was a bad test taker. I spent hours stressing over tests. No one has ever asked me for my GPA. I do not live life by a rubric. Rather I look for ways to improve my teaching and learning. At the end of each school year I groan. I miss the watching the growth of my current students. However, I know their growing has just begun. They have a whole story yet to unfold. They have a mindset that does not involve equating themselves to a number but rather see themselves as people who have room to grow and learn. Over the course of the years students stopped asking me what their grade was and started asking how they can improve. That is a question I love to hear!