Solo week, coming right up

My solo week is coming up right after Thanksgiving vacation. What this means is that I'll be the primary teacher in the room for the entire week. My mentor teacher won't be around at all. I also have to do all of the lesson planning for the entire week, from morning meeting to end of day grading and everything in between.

I'm feeling pretty mixed about this. I have a fun project for the writing class and I'm excited about that. However, my mentor teacher and adviser keep asking me things like "what are the students going to learn on this day," and "what is your objective for that day," and I just want to have fun. Sigh. I guess fun isn't the primary goal of teaching.

As excited as I am for the writing class, I'm a little less confident in the rest of my lessons. I have them, loosely, but they still need work. Work that will have to be done over Thanksgiving vacation, while travelling.

I'm also mixed because I get excited when I finally firm up lesson plans, but then things never go as planned. A fact of life, I know. Five days is a long time to be "on" full-time. One misstep or off day and I'll have lost that class for the rest of the week. No pressure.

Plus I'll be observed and recorded off an on throughout the week. Then I have a mid-year assessment due the following week, based on the lessons from my solo week. Lessons that aren't yet finalized and apparently don't have any "hooks" or student learning in them.

I have to just keep reminding myself that I knew this would be a tough year. This will be a tough year, but time goes by. Whether you're ready for it or not. Time goes by. I have less than four weeks left in 5th grade!

Digital Storytelling

I went to a professional development seminar today on technology in the classroom. There were three session choices: blogging, iPad apps, and digital storytelling. I had to think long and hard to decide between the iPad session and the digital storytelling session, but I finally decided on the storytelling.

At the digital storytelling session the instructor introduced us to three products: VoiceThread, Meograph, and PowToon. Each looked interesting in their own ways, and each would be used for very different things. While he was showing us the products I tried to think of a situation where students could use them in the classroom.

VoiceThread:
VoiceThread lets you add voice narration over photographs. You can have just one photo or a slideshow of photos. It also makes it very easy for others with accounts to comment, via text or voice, on your VoiceThread. At first I wasn't sure what to do with this product, but then I thought for young kids it could be fun to take a picture of their artwork and then have them record a voice narration telling the story. Children often have very elaborate stories to accompany their artwork. I could also see VoiceThread being useful in an art class. Students could photograph their artwork and then record a voice narration to go along with it. Their classmates could then view the projects and leave critiques. It could be a way to include technology in art classes, and a way to teach positive critiquing skills.

Meograph: Meograph sounded pretty cool when he described it, but when I looked at the few samples he showed it seemed less cool. I'll have to go play with it myself for awhile and see what I can build. Essentially it is a tool that ties Google Earth with historical time lines. In his example he had students map earthquakes in time (timeline) and space (Google Earth). The final project is a presentation of sorts. I could see Meograph being useful for an ancestry project, or perhaps a historical project that involves different places over time, such as the Lewis and Clark expeditions.

PowToon: PowToon lets you quickly and easily create animated movies or presentations. I think you could use this for little videos about a topic or as a dynamic introduction to a lesson or unit.

After the instructor introduced each of the three products, we were set loose to create something on our own. We were actually instructed to come to class with a story in mind, but sadly I came with none, so when we were turned loose I chose to make a little animation with PowToon. Not too shabby for a first try. :) The meeting also counted as professional development. I wonder if that counts for anything at this point in my life.

Sometimes it all comes together

I'm doing a solo day tomorrow. It's my third, so you'd think I would be comfortable by now, but nope. Actually, in the classroom I'm perfectly comfortable, but I have been struggling with the lesson planning at home. I was complaining to discussing with my husband a few days ago and he suggested a writing lesson idea I really liked, but my mentor thought it wouldn't be great. :/ Last week my mentor had suggested a lesson on slang because a lot of the students write "gonna" and "cuz" in their work. I liked the idea, but struggled to find support or inspiration for it. All of my Google searches were turning up street slang or SMS shortcuts. I don't think "slang" is really the term I needed, it's more like lazy writing. I watched YouTube videos, read articles, browsed Pinterest (with just a touch of procrastination mixed in!) and just felt stuck.

Last night, while my husband got my son ready for bed, I continued to push through my block. Research, frustration. Then I took a break to lay down with my son and snuggle. Our nightly routine. While we cuddled he was so soft and so still. With my head on his pillow I listened to his breathing and felt his warm head pressed against my face. Now here I would like to say I was zen, at peace, completely present in such a wonderful moment... but that would be a bit of a lie. I was at peace, and calm, and suddenly my lesson solidified in my head. All on it's own. It just came together, a simple, straightforward lesson that my students would learn from and enjoy.

It felt like a weight was lifted. When I was done cuddling my son I came back downstairs and typed it up. I was hesitant to show my mentor, in case he disagreed with me, but I did and he loved it. He also agreed to let me do a bulletin board with the students projects from this lesson. It will be awesome. I can see it in my head already.

I went from tense and stressed about this solo day to feeling completely at ease and ready to rock tomorrow. I am going to have to do some serious reflecting (or something!) on why lesson planning is so challenging and stressful for me, but when it comes together in a moment of peace, it's a wonderful thing.

I'll post details of the lesson and a picture of my awesome (I'm sure!) bulletin board in a few days.

How to blow a bubble

We started our information text unit in writing this week and my mentor teacher had a great lesson lined up! We discussed the many different ways that exist to get information, including how-to videos. Then he had the kids break into pairs and create a how-to video on "How to blow a bubble." The kids LOVED it! Everyone got a big piece of bubble gum (they were sold on that alone!) and an iPad. They had a graphic organizer to help them create their script, then they went to work creating the videos. It was amazing to see all the different ways they did this simple task. Some had one person video while the other did the explanation and demonstration; others had one video and explain while the person on camera just demonstrated; still others propped the iPad up and had both people in front of the camera, one explaining and one demonstrating; and one lucky group of three created a very silly video with one running the camera, one explaining, and the third one demonstrating all the things NOT to do. I was also impressed with the variations of script, from very basic (put gum in mouth, chew, blow), to very detailed (use your tongue to push the gum out a little, then pull your tongue back in, creating a little crevice in the gum to blow air into), to everything in between. Everyone loved the project, students and teachers alike.

It reminded me of a lesson my sixth grade teacher did so many years ago, long before iPads existed! He had us write instructions on how to open a door, then he took each one and followed it, step-by-step, to the letter. The result was many smacks on the head by the door since almost all of us forgot to include the "step backwards" step before pulling open the door. It was hysterical... for us. He probably had a killer headache by the end of the day!

I hope someday I can create lessons that are as clever, engaging, and memorable as these are.

So much information

There is an amazing amount of information out there. From Google to blogs to Pinterest and Facebook. In some ways it's just amazing. Anything and everything you've ever wanted to know about is out there, just a quick click away. In other ways... totally overwhelming! You can spend HOURS lost in the Internet. I was recently told I need to incorporate technology more into my lessons, not just using technology, but also having the students create with technology. Ok, can do. My mentor teacher does really cool projects. Unfortunately my mind has been a blank. Actually, not a total blank. I have one cool idea but I'm saving it for my solo week next month, as it will take a few days to complete. For single lessons though, involving cool uses of technology, there's nothing up there. So I spent the evening on the interwebs, trying to find inspiration. I found everything else, it seems, but no inspiration. Then I started to realize that the more I browsed, the less inspired I felt. Instead of being inspired, I'm just overwhelmed. There's so much out there!

Chris Jernstedt, Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, spoke at UVEI a few weeks ago. When asked about note taking and how that helps or hinders learning, as part of his response he said that the novice takes copious notes because they don't know what to filter out, they don't know what is important and what is not. That has stuck with me and as I browsed the web tonight I realized that as a novice teacher I really don't know what to filter out either. Everything looks interesting, but not exactly what I need, and I can't easily scan things as I imagine a long-time teacher probably can.

Or maybe the fact that it's 11:30pm has something to do with it. Perhaps all this inspiration/overwhelmed-ness will percolate overnight and a great idea will come to me in the shower tomorrow! :)