Hello Friends,
I thought I would share some interesting items I found on
other teachers blog. I always wondered how to better use math journals and this
teacher by the Deedee Wills had some wonderful ideas. I was able to download
twelve free sheets that I can't wait to share with my students. You can buy
more ideas from her and other teachers. Her classroom is huge and very well
organized. Everything is well defined and the work areas are inviting. Her
presentations to her students are very clear.
This is her site http://www.mrswillskindergarten.com/p/about-me.html.
There are many other teachers that belong to this site and I am so excited to
see how they manage their classrooms.
Here is just a few examples of her room.
The next teacher's blog that caught my attention was a by
Tiffani Mugurussa. What caught my attention was her concept about giving
kindergartners homework. She said there were several reasons why she gave
homework. One reason was she was required to do so it provided practice, it
built routines, and parents expect it. I believe in the same principle as she
does in that homework gives opportunity for the students to exercise on what
they have been at doing school. Giving homework is also another means of
repeating the objectives of the day that needed some reinforcement or just a
bit more practice. These are great sound reasons why homework is very
important. Here is a concept we all have heard about lately homework builds
routines. I believe like she does
"why not start at an early age having students get into the practice of
coming home from school, having a snack then sitting down to do homework".
What a perfect routine of getting in the habit of doing. This assignment should
not take long if these students are in kindergarten. A teacher should send home
a variety of different kinds of homework. Make the homework fun and maybe even
have parental participation. This is the beginning to their educational journey,
they might as well learn to embrace it. This is her classroom:
My next subject was
Delia Garrett. She also works in a kindergarten classroom. What caught my eye
in her classroom was how she did her reading comprehension.
With prompting and support, identify characters, settings and major events in a story. Teacher always do the typical routine of reading the story and asking questions who, where and what about the story. This is to ensure the students understood what was going on during the reading of the story. She shared this story about what her students were learning and her responsibilities.
The teacher stated that she read many books in regards to Thanksgiving. During those reading and while the students examined the pictures the subject of “Thanksgiving became more significant to the students. She began to link text to self and text to text to create mental images with real life applications for her students to grasp the concepts of such an important part of our history. The teacher noticed the students’ pictures and the details in their artworks. She listened to her students retell the story through their pictures. She was in awe of the details they included. Without recognizing they were indeed nailing RL1, 2, and 3 of the reading standards. Then, that "Aha" flash at her! Thoughts ran through her mind as to how to make the connection with what they already knew. Once more her students had engaged in running with the idea and it was her duty to follow their interest. Through collaborative conversations (Yay! An opportunity to practice another language standard) they illustrated vocabulary words in which they had recorded from "Close Reading" sessions during the week .Bingo! The students began to identify story elements for character, setting and events! She recalls how amazing it was to hear the students' vocabulary and see the details in their drawings as they shared and justified the placement of their work on the display chart. This story gives so much relevance to the use of strategies.
There were so many interesting site that I am really looking forward to using this site in the future. I feel it can make a big difference in my lesson planning. The next teacher I found was very unique and I was not sure how you would do this in kindergarten but I read on. She does "Student Led Conferences". She of course invited the student with the parent and she set up centers where the students played the teacher and the parents were the students. In station one the students were able to exhibit their reading skills to their parents by doing games that incorporated reading. Station two the students worked in showing their math skills. They did an easy math problem in their journals. This gave the parents an opportunity to see what they do every day. The third station was to mean a little difficult but I can see doing this assignment as a whole class and getting it ready for the conference.
They looked through their Data Notebooks with their parents
and talked about their learning goals & wrote about what they felt
they needed to accomplish In order to be ready for 1st grade. Their answers were great. Here are some of the examples they had:"I need to behave better."
"I need to learn to tie my own shoes."
"I want to read better."
"I should pay better attention more."
...and one little confident one said "I'm ready now!"
In station four they read easy books to their parents and in station five the parents and student filled out a survey on what they thought about the centers and they were also able to input their ideas. I felt this was a wonderful way for the teacher to let the parents know what goes on during school. I thought it was also a way that the parents could see where their child might need help. I feel it is a way to get parents more involved in the success of their child.
I can see how wonderful these blogs are in helping all teacher with new ideas and inspiring them to try something new. These are wonderful areas to invest time into if you want to be the best teacher.
Mugurussa, Tiffani, April 13, 2015, Why I Give Homework in Kindergarten, http://www.time4kindergarten.com/
Garrett, Delia, November 22, 2013, The "Schema" of Things through Collaborative Comprehension, http://kinder-kafe.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-schema-of-things-through.html?spref=bl
Young, Kelly, 2011, Student Led Conferences, http://youngkindergarten.blogspot.com/
