Spring Conference

In, April we have an opportunity to attend the Spring Conference at St. Mary's.  This will be an excellent opportunity to see year 2 learners presenting their research and information.  I am excited to learn some new things and bring them back to my classroom as well as get some insights and what I will be doing next  year at conference as a year 2 learner.

We were able to choose 5 sessions.  I chose a variety of topics to gain new insights in all areas of my teaching.  Differentiation seems to be the buzz word in education in order to meet all learners needs.  I am attending a session about how differentiation in reading affects fluency and comprehension.  I am really looking forward to this as I am always look for reading strategies to help my students.

Another session I will be attending about reading has to do with a concept called Reciprocal teaching.  This is really going to help me understand what needs in reading my students have and how to help them with this.  It is also focused on comprehension strategies which is a big struggle for some students.        

I am also going to a session regarding formative and summative assessments.  The topic of assessments is very popular in the education world and figuring out the best ways to assess our students is crucial.  This session looks at ways students can be advocates for their own learning and progress.  I am really looking forward to this session regarding assessments.

The last two sessions are about integrating iPads to help engage students, motivate them, and increase their achievement scores and mathematical problem solving instruction .  Our school has iPads for our students to use when we can check them out so I am looking forward to this session to help me use iPads effectively with my students.  The mathematical problem solving instruction session is something I am really looking forward to.  In the last couple months, I have been working on implementing math journals in my classroom.  This is a way for students to reason in math and explain their thinking rather than just solve problems and get the correct answers.  I am hoping this session helps me use math journals in my classroom effectively.

I hope to learn a lot a take away a lot of great resources from the conference in April.

Learning in the 21st Century

This weekend in class, we dove into taking a closer look at 21st century learning.  As we explored this topic, I realized the things that I am doing now in my classroom and the things that are still a work in progress. I think that my students are benefiting from many of the things that I am doing now and will continue to benefit as time goes on and all aspects of the 21st century are implemented.  The explosion of technological resources has been a big part of my lesson planning this year and slowly introducing this to my students. It is a lot to keep up with but I am starting with one thing at a time so I am not overwhelmed as well as my students.  I am implementing life skills that my 3rd grade students will need to know for the future as they grow up and become individuals. The four C's are something that I feel are so important and I have been implementing throughout the year.  My students are collaborating in small groups, communicating in different ways, thinking critically about a variety of subjects, and using creativity across subjects. Overall, I feel good about a 21st century learning perspective and will continue to implement these factors into my teaching.

Master's Program

Lately, I have been into reading blogs but I never had the time to start my own!  Now, I get to start one since it is part of my master's program!  I am getting my master's program through St. Mary's University in Teaching and Learning.  One component of this program and to grow as a teacher is to plan changes that we want to make in our own classrooms. One change that I am focusing on for this semester is during my math block.  I plan on starting math journals in which the students will make flip cards for vocabulary and come up with different ways to illustrate in their journals the important math concepts and ideas that we are learning.  This is different from just writing down the definitions of vocabulary words as we learn them.  This is meant to be a reference for the students to refer back to and learn math in a different way besides just writing definitions.  I am excited to see how my students react to this and how it will enhance their learning in math.  Updates will be coming this semester on this project I am working on!