Who's Teaching Who?

Last week was a bit of an anomaly - Wednesday I participated in training for our district's assessment management system, Thursday was an early release day for students, and Friday I took a personal day. 

With that said, these two classroom experiences demonstrate why I love my job so much! And in going along with the anomaly theme, this post takes a more reflective tone.

Fact Families

Last year I was fortunate enough to work with four first grade classes on a regular basis. I got to know the students well and looked forward to working with them each week. It was astounding how much they learned and changed over the course of the school year. Fast forward to this school year and those students are now second graders. 

The first few weeks of school those students and I passed one another in the hallway with waves and smiles, but this week I had the opportunity to help some of those students share what they know about fact families using the app Educreations. The app allows users to create "movies" that include visuals and voice recording. As students are explaining what they know about fact families, they can illustrate or highlight key points. Students worked to model a fact family and the series of equations that belong to their chosen family. 

A student recording his fact family knowledge with Educreations

While they have only been second graders for a matter of weeks, they are so different than the first graders I worked with a few months ago. Students who used to become frustrated when they were unable to articulate their thoughts or didn't get it "just right" the first time showed perseverance and patience. Others, who sometimes tested boundaries, were excited by the task at hand and engaged in the lesson. 

It was amazing to see the progress these students made and caused me to reflect on the changes I see in my son from day to day. At home I try hard to take in these moments and only hurry when it's a must. We often get so caught up in the hustle and bustle and working toward our end goals that we forget to stop and celebrate the small (or big!) changes that happen along the way. With pressures of pacing, testing, deadlines, 20+ students and more it's often easier to get wrapped up and lose sight of these changes at school. While I hope I taught these students something about fact families and Educrations during their center with me, I am certain that it was not as valuable as the lesson they taught me. 

A student works on the title slide for his Educreations video

Programming with Kodable

As mentioned my first post, one class of first graders is learning the basics of computer programming, or coding, with the app Kodable. The classroom teacher and I are working to help the students become independent coding so that it can become a regular part of their math rotations each week. I've found that with this "new" way of thinking for students, many of them benefit from talking through their strategies, or sharing why their "fuzzy ball" keeps getting stuck at a certain point in the maze. While helping other students talk through their work, I glanced over and noticed this... 

These two students were stuck on the same level and began working through the task together. This, to me, is learning. Go beyond the surface of two students sitting next to one another looking at their iPads. Here are two students deeply engaged in the task at hand - in this case problem solving. They are communicating their strategies, analyzing what's working or not, collaborating to develop a solution... skills that will be used far beyond the walls of our school! This is my happy place!

Creating experiences for students that allow them to get wrapped up in their learning and go beyond the content is what I strive to do each day. I'm already looking forward to my next post. Third and fourth graders are using technology as a way to "go beyond the content" in Social Studies and Reading this week!