Just Pin It!

A few weeks ago I was sent an invite to Pinterest and after a few days of playing around I was hooked.

So what is Pinterest?

Pinterest is virtual bulletin boards. When you see something on the Net that you like or want to remember you "pin it" instead of bookmarking it. You create your own profile with your own boards. You choose the name or subject of your own boards, and you can have many boards. I don't know if there is a limit, but I have almost a dozen boards and have seen profiles with more.

Another great thing about Pinterest is you can look at boards created by other people. You also have the option to follow other people and when you log on to Pinterest you will see their new pins. You can follow a person's entire profile or just select boards that interest you. When looking at other boards you can "re-pin" links to your own boards.

I have been using Pinterest for managing and originating teaching resources. I have to admit that I had a very inefficient system of organizing information I found until I was sent my invite to Pinterest. Not only is my information organized now, but I have discovered a great source for sharing new information and ideas.

I can't forget to mention one more advantage to Pinterest. Another problem I had with organizing my bookmarks was due to the fact that I was creating bookmarks on multiple computers. Now I can pin something on my laptop or my PC and it goes to the same place.

There is one thing that I do not like, and perhaps there is a workaround that I have not figured out... It appears that you cannot pin a page that does not have an image on it. I have come across many online documents and articles that I would like to keep for future reference and if there is no image on the site you can't pin it. I guess I will have to stick to bookmarking in those cases.

Despite the one minor drawback I have to say I absolutely love Pinterest!

READING POWER

I was first introduced to Adrienne Gear's Reading Power in my last year of student teaching. I asked the schools learning leader to collaborate with me on designing a novel study for grade 5 students and she brought the book Reading Power to our first meeting.

As a new teacher it can become very overwhelming with the number of resources available and trying to decide what it worth the time (and money). I have to say I have grabbed on to Reading Power and I can see how it would with how I would design a balanced literacy program.



"Based on the research of David Pearson and influenced by Stephanie Harvey, Reading Power provides students with the tools to become more thoughtful and meaningful readers as well as how to become “meta-cognitive” or aware of their thinking while they read. Developing a “common language of thinking” across grades is a key aspect to this approach, while teachers learn the importance of using this language in all aspects of their teaching."




I highly recommend this resource. I have spent the last few days reviewing the book and I really appreciate the easy-to-follow way the book is designed, the book lists, black-lined masters, and the grade level suggestions.

Bike Safety

Jordan is being picked on by a few kids because he always wears a helmet when he is on his bike or scooter.  I have to say I am very proud of him for sticking up for himself and defending why he wears a helmet.  I am also very happy that he hasn’t tried to not wear his helmet.

A few years ago when many of his friends stopped wearing helmets we had a conversation about the reasons why it’s important to always wear a helmet, even for a short bike ride.  Nothing seemed to work and I felt like I was having a hard time getting through to him.  I think the desire to appear cool was stronger than any of the reasons I gave for wearing a helmet.  I had to think hard and get creative….. Of course I told him that people have lost their life from not wearing a helmet, but I think that many young children feel invincible and I had to appeal to is sense of looking cool.  I talked to him about brain injuries and how a brain injury could impact his independence and ability to perform everyday activities, like walking, talking, and using the washroom.  It was after this conversation that Jordan never asked again if he had to wear a helmet. 

If you ask Jordan why he wears a helmet his answer is always because he doesn’t want to wear diapers.  He will sometimes tell his friends that don’t wear helmets that they should wear helmets or they might end up wearing a diaper instead.  Usually Jordan's defense of wearing a helmet requires some additional explaining.     

I realize that making sure he wears a helmet during the teenage years is going to be even more difficult, but for now I know when he gets on his bike he will always have a helmet on.

My Blog in a Wordle

I thought it would be interesting to take the content of my blog and put it into a worldle......

Teacher Professional Growth Plan

I’ve really been struggling with what I want my TPGP to look like since I don’t know where I will be next year and what I’ll be doing. I really would like part of my TPGP to develop at least one inquiry project next year, but since there is a good chance I might be subbing I may not be able to achieve this plan. If I’m subbing or if I have a classroom I think my TPGP would look very different. What I’ve decided to do is to develop goals from now until the end of August.
Reading:
In February I purchased three books and I have not had the time to read them. My first goal is to read these three books by the end of August.
1. Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level, by Sally Shaywitz
2. Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the reading Brain, by Maryanne Wolf
3. Reading Power: Teaching Students to Think While They Read, by Adrienne Gear

Online Course:
At the student led conference I had a conversation with Bill Belsay about his online course at www.bullying.org and I’m very interested in developing an understanding of the causes and practical strategies to prevent and deal with bullying. My goal is to complete this course by end of August.

Work at maintaining relationships:
I have made some amazing friends here in the MT program and as I look at moving back to Manitoba I know that there are many people I will miss. I also know that maintaining friendships are not always easy, especially when you are two provinces away. When I moved from Winnipeg to Calgary I lost a few friends just because we fell out of contact and I don’t want that to happen again. If I do move it is my goal to make time to maintain my Calgary friendships.

The Student Inquiry Projects

Egypt: What's the Big Deal?

For the Student Inquiry project I work with the same group and the Great Task assignment. One of our struggles with the Great Task was how quickly our ideas grew and the "Task" became huge. I think it was really valuable for us to continue on with the task and turn it into a project. We did have some of the some issues with idea overflow. I am not saying this is a negative thing, but we did have to remind ourselves what our objectives were.

One question we came across was how do you find the "end" for a project that involves current issues especially because you can't predict the future with these real world events. I think as a group we decided that it is important to gauge the level of engagement with the students and use that as your guide, and potentially you may need to allow this to be a part of classroom conversation for a significant portion of the school year. I think I need to acknowledge that the thought of that scares me (just a bit).

Another aspect of this process that I need to acknowledge is how beneficial it was to work in this team. I think all of our great ideas came from sharing individual ideas and building on them as a group. I hope that this is something a continue to do well into my teaching career. I think I have begun to establish a relatively strong network of peers and mentors that I will hopefully will be able to collaborate with even I move back to Manitoba.

This has proven to be yet another remarkable experience where I have been able to pull together many of the big ideas we hear able during our time on campus and finally got an opportunity to put it into practice.

Thank you Michele.

Assessment for Student Engaged Learning with Amy Park and Candace Saar

Purpose of assessment:
To find out where learners are
To understand where you need design tasks to develop or build understanding.
To provide ongoing feedback for:
student, parent, teacher
Assessment should be ongoing and informal

Research to investigate further:
John Haddy
Feedback loops can improve student achievement by to 2 grade levels.

A question was asked: How do we avoid students just settling for mediocre work?
Using a rubric on an ongoing basis and not just at the end of a task increases a desire for excellence.
Students hold each other accountable for producing quality work.

“We need to realize important work takes a long time.”

“Engaged students will care more about that work rather than the grade.”

When involving students in peer feedback we should ask if their feedback is hurtful or helpful and how can we make comments helpful.

Rubrics don’t always have to be for big projects.
A rubric could be used for assessing behavior. (eg. carpet behavior)
These rubrics could be used to give students practice at creating rubric and using rubrics for self assessment.


A question that came to me when reflecting on the learning and conversation from this class:
When students are not used to having a choice with their learning how do we guide them when we provide them with a choice?