Reflections on Teaching

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Reflections on the school year

This was a year where I was perhaps overly ambitious. It was my first year in the computer lab, and I had a blast, but I was like a kid in the candy shop, in that I wanted to try it all. Here are some highlights, with cautionary tales:

• VoiceThread – Group conversations around images, docs and videos
  This was “the” application. It was so versatile, I used it for Math, Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. The only problem, well if you look at the fifth grade time lines, you’ll see that many have no comments. That’s because someone deleted the “default” identity for the grade level, erasing all the comments that students had made under it. A sad, sad, day, but a lesson for all of us.

• Poll of Students – Google Docs
  I ended the year with a poll of students using Google Docs. This is so nice AND easy! I’m going to play around with the numbers and ideas over the summer to see what it tells me. A quick glance suggests kids want to do what they want on the computer. We’ll see if I can work some learning in with that desire.

• Ms. Mercer’s ELD Class Blog
  Fourth Grade Blog
  Fifth Grade Blog
  Sixth Grade Blog
  These were the blogs I used with my upper grade students. In general, I’m pretty pleased with their writing, and work. I’ll expect more from them (and myself) next year. Look at the stuff in Writers’ Corner on the ELD Blog. I kept that for kids who wanted extra writing. I love the work from Abilene and Samantha on mood swings, and rules. You can see them growing up before your eyes.

• Alice Mercer’s PD Blog This was my attempt to create longer-term relationships with the PD I give. I’ll see how it works next year?

In general, I can only manage one major project at a time, so I think what I’ll do is rotate the projects among the grade levels next year. Also, I did not do enough pre-work and check-in/feedback when I attempted video projects. I need to keep that in mind next year. It didn’t get as much done as I wanted, but the kids and I did more than I thought was possible.