Hello all…
Well this blogging experience may be new to
many of you but I just want you all to know that this is new to me also. I have tried a few times to create a blog for
my own use and found it just didn’t work for me. Mostly it was due to my lack of understanding
of how the technology part of it worked… thankfully Jennine is around to help
with that!!
So I think we need to consider our school
blog as a way to reflect on what is working for us in our classrooms and to
share those things with each other. We
could also ask for advice from each other regarding specific problems or
concerns.
I know when I was teaching kindergarten
last year, I thought no one else would be interested in things we were doing,
but why not? Even if it isn’t
transferrable to other grades it can help to make us more of a community within
the school. Some of the comments that
came up at staff meetings was how there seems to be a divide between staff and
this could go a long way to bridging some of those gaps. I know I certainly haven’t had time this year
yet to get beyond my classroom or little section of hallway to see what is
happening in other classrooms but I would love to hear from everyone here.
This year has been a big adjustment for me
and some days I feel like NOTHING is going well… J BUT I also can say that I have loved
incorporating Google Classroom into my class and using it to share work with my
students. It is shocking to me how I can
create an assignment (or let’s be honest, adapt one of Jennine’s from last
year) and see the students working immediately on it while I circulate and help
individuals with their questions. It
allows for differentiation as some students can research more thoroughly or add
extra facts and others can research at a level that works for them. They definitely are more advanced on this
working solo thing than kindergarteners!
I hope you will all share your thoughts,
successes, and concerns on our blog as the year progresses. I know I would like to read them! And if anyone would like to come see some of
the Google Classroom work in progress feel free to chat with me about a time to
come watch what’s going on in 5A!
