Spring Conference Notes

Reflection

I really enjoyed attending the different sessions during the conference.  I felt the most valuable sessions were the ones where I was an engaged participant, I was sharing with others,  and I was doing something related to the topic of choice.  This description fit three of the five sessions I signed up for.  The other two sessions were fine, however, they were more of a "lecture" style and it was hard to relate to and take away ideas when I am such a visual learner. 

One of the sessions I really enjoyed dealt with data collection folders.  This seminar inspired me to possibly dig further and use this as my action research.  One of the most important things I took away from this session was that it creates an intrinsic motivation for students, especially the struggling students.  It also keeps parents up to date and can be used across the curriculum.  In my own classroom, it would be a possibility to incorporate this into their counting, number identification, number writing, reading level, sight words, etc.  I already brought back this idea to one of my coworkers and we're talking about doing it next year.

**Resources: folders, "I can" charts broken down into achievable goals

Another session I liked revolved around the topic of math work stations.  In my room this year, I already do a lot of differentiation, however, I took away new ideas on how to pair students up and new game ideas I could incorporate into their math binders I am already using.  I also learned about a new idea called "math talk cards."  These cards are used to get students to talk about their math concepts in an engaging, purposeful way.  Using these cards encourages students to think deeper and use appropriate vocabulary in the correct context.

**Resources: Daily 5 framework anchor charts, math games (folder), Math Work Stations

Finally, the last conference I attended was about using math journals within the classroom.  I've been thinking a lot about incorporating these into our day, but never really took the leap of faith and tried it.  I walked away from this session with confidence that it would be successful and that everyone could benefit.  During this session, we discussed the importance of writing, so students become engaged in an authentic way and they're using appropriate vocabulary / pictures to explain their thinking.  Reflecting on my students this year; this is something that would benefit them in receiving additional exposure and show the growth they've made throughout the year.  Currently I use writing journals and I love looking back and how much they've grown since they came in September.

**Resources: composition notebooks, ribbon (bookmark), and Problem Solving Prompts

Instructional Strategy Resources

The instructional strategy that I chose to research was Whole Brain Teaching.  I've always been interested in how students learn, what current research says, and the best approach(es) to help achieve this learning.  Here are a few websites I found that helped support how students learn based off of what brain research has found:

1.  Whole Brain Teaching

     

     This is a great website that I have wanted to look into, but never found the time to explore.  Within this website, it has a ton of free resources that go along with the idea of using the "Whole Brain Teaching" approach within a classroom.  It has been proven successful with students in Kindergarten - College.  This website not only provides resources on how to get started, but it also provides the "why" behind each of the seven core instructional techniques.  After looking through this website, I realized I could easily implement a couple of the techniques, specifically the "Class! Yes!" and "Hands and Eyes!" as soon as Tuesday when we go back to school. 

2.  Whole Brain Teaching Blogger

     Another resource I found explained all the benefits of Whole Brain Teaching.  Like the resource above, this website also explored the seven core techniques, but it could all be located in one spot in a quick, easy to read kind-of-way.  Within this website, it also compared WBT to Understanding by Design and gave insights on how it is a best practice approach.  Finally, it gave some potential challenges that could appear when using this within a classroom.  I could apply this resource in my classroom by reading through the techniques provided and scaffolding my students by choosing a few to start with and continuously building off the techniques that have already been taught and practiced.

3.  Brain Based Learning Resources

     This resource links back to Edutopia, which has a ton of resources related to brain based learning as well as many other instructional strategies.  Many of the articles found within this website explain how the brain learns.  I came across multiple articles that provided ways to teach students about how their brain works.  I can use this resource in my classroom by researching how the brain learns and then transferring that learning to my students by what I do on a daily basis.

YouTube Videos

Here are a couple of YouTube videos I found pertaining to my unit of Pebbles, Sand, and Silt.  

Rocks and Soil Song

This video is a song that is catchy.  It demonstrates how rocks and can be made into sand and clay.  It also gives examples of real world objects made of rock materials.  This video could be easily shown at the beginning of my unit of study to introduce students to some vocabulary terms.


Life Cycle of a Rock

This video goes through the life cycle of a rock.  It starts with a picture of a boulder and ends with a picture of silt.  I like this video because I will be teaching my students about these different earth materials and it blows up the picture to make it big enough so everyone can see.  This video would be useful at the beginning of my unit to introduce vocabulary or at the end of the unit as a review.

New Year - New Blogs

While I was searching for blogs that had some sort of significance to my learning, I came upon two that I really enjoyed.

Creating Questions

This is a science blog that was created as a resource for students, parents, and other teachers.  It was created by a science teacher who serves students in 1st-3rd grade.  I really like this blog because it has links to a variety of science units.  Within each of these links, he posts information such as, "major understandings, games related to the topic, and short video-clips.  

I decided to follow this blog because I chose "pebbles, sand, and silt" as my unit for our Backward Design assignment.  I liked how this blog has games and video-clips that I can quickly integrate into my unit to assist my students in their learning.  Although the units that he teaches at each grade level don't match with what we teach, it just takes a quick click at the top and some exploring to find the unit that matches.  I will definitely use this blog in the future.

Edutopia

According to Edutopia, this blog provides teachers with practical classroom strategies and tips, lesson plan ideas, and innovative ways on how to improve your teaching.  Looking around this blog, I found many quick, reliable articles pertaining to the classroom environment. 

I chose to follow this blog because it has quality materials that pertain to teaching.  I did a quick search on "classroom environment" and found a variety of articles pertaining to this topic.  A few of the articles were titled, "Building Relationships," "Building a Positive, Trusting Classroom Environment," and "A Place for Learning."  This website will come in handy when searching for useful information regarding our collaborative Action Research assignment. 

Noteworthy Blogs

Here is one of the many blogs I began to follow:

Smart Classroom Management

On this blog, there are many simple, helpful tips and strategies for everyday classroom management.  As I was perusing through the blog, I found some topics such as "How to be a great Teacher through Detailed Modeling" and "A Classroom Management Strategy every Teacher should use."

I chose to follow this blog because I think it has a lot of great information that can pertain to any teacher.  It also shares many tips and strategies on how to better a classroom.