Seesaw is a student-driven learning portfolio that has been a powerful tool in my classroom for the past few years. It is a tool that I have used with all content areas. With goals of having a student-driven classroom that empowers my students, Seesaw is a must-have! Students can track their progress; I can easily give feedback; students have an authentic audience for their work. I can go on and on about this amazing tool, but for now, I am going to focus on how I use Seesaw to engage PARENTS!
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Explicitly teaching digital citizenship skills has been a top priority in my classroom. With goals of giving my students opportunities to connect globally and provide authentic learning experiences, I know that understanding how to be a citizen in our digital world is a MUST for students. This year, I chose to explicitly teach how to be a responsible and respectful digital citizen. Here are the anchor charts that we made together. We created a class iPad contract that was signed by both students and parents (click the images to enlarge): Charts inspired from AmplifyEd by Kristin Ziemke and Katie Muhtaris Next, we spent about three weeks doing lessons from CommonSense Media. We had so much fun with these lessons, as they were so applicable to my 3rd graders. We discussed how we would react and respond in many online situations within our digital lives. After completing the course, we pledged to be Good Digital Citizens ALWAYS!
Now that many skills have been explicitly taught, I plan to keep referring back to these behaviors and the importance of being a RESPONSIBLE digital citizen. I constantly remind my students that when they are ready to publish a piece of work, it should be their BEST work. When they post or make a comment to a friend's work, then it should be positive and kind. My main goal is to make sure digital citizenship skills are always embedded into the curriculum. I will be a model to my students, as digital citizenship starts with ME as the leader in the room. Check back for updates on how I've been providing authentic learning experiences for my students and how being a good digital citizen is a key component for it to be successful. This is a part 2 from my previous post on 21st Century Skills and Close Reading. Here's how it went!
Day 1: I did a read aloud with the book So You Want to Be President. I chose this book because of the upcoming election and the high interest from my students. As I read, students took notes on the advantages and disadvantages of being the president on a T-chart. After reading, great discussions were held on the jobs of the president and what characteristics/qualities would be needed for these tasks. This was the first read and first exposure to the text. Day 2: I made a copy of a couple of pages from the book. I posed the question: What characteristics make a good president?I modeled underlining and circling words that stuck out to me. Together, we looked for patterns we saw within the words we underlined. Using the clues we underlined and thinking about the patterns that we came up with, we inferred that the President must be honest. Then, the students used a different page from the book and underlined words that stuck out to them. Since this is such a new skill for us, I decided to let a few students share what they underlined. Students then looked for similarities among the words that they underlined. After noticing patterns within their important ideas, they inferred some qualities that a good president would need. Check out the work! I love giving my students a real and authentic audience for their writing. They need to be held accountable, and what makes it even more engaging is that blogging gives students an audience. I use kidblog.org to allow my students to blog about their favorite books. Basically, they log on to their blog and write a book review or reading response to the current book they are reading. They can comment on their peer's blogs too!
I am currently working to find other classes to connect with. I think this will really open doors for my students, as they can see what other students their age are reading and writing about too. Allowing my students to blog also helps me to get to know my students better. I see their personalities, writing styles, and personal interests through their blogs. Check out our class blog by clicking the button below and give us a follow! Producing students for the future requires a teacher to be knowledgeable in the skills that they will need to be successful. This is a graphic from the World Economic Forum that I love because of the way these skills are organized into 3 categories: Foundational literacies, Competencies, and Character Qualities. After attending a literacy conference with Chris Lehman, author of Falling in Love with Close Reading, I have developed some new ideas on incorporating some of these 21st century skills into my literacy block with close reading lessons.
Lehman suggests that close reading can teach students how to choose a perspective on how to view the world. Students will go from consumption to caring (building an awareness of our world). I love this idea because I want my students to be aware of our global diversity and take an appreciation for it. So, as I think about how I will set up my classroom to be a highly effective literacy environment that develops global diversity, these are things I will focus on:
Would love to have some feedback or comments on how you use close reading in your classroom. As a lifelong learner, I am committing myself to reflect on the good, the bad, and maybe even the ugly of my teaching practices as a third grade teacher. I am a believer of producing students who will be independent and innovative thinkers. I do this by providing my students with opportunities to think critically while collaborating with peers and developing ways for them to show their learning through creative processes. Problem-solving and creative thinking are skills that students need to be future-ready.
I have been very fortunate to teach in a school with a 1:1 iPad design. This has opened many doors for my students and myself. I have so many big dreams for my students and myself, which is why I want to begin reflecting on the progress of my dreams and goals. I am hoping to grow as an educator through this process and to keep working towards my dreams and goals as a teacher of the future. I want to make my dreams come true along with the dreams of my students!! |
Miss HilemanThis is a teacher's blog that will reflect on my teaching practices and goals on becoming a teacher who changes the world...one student at a time! Archives
March 2018
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