Class Website

My classroom website has come a long way since I made my first one several years ago.  Initially I made my website to let parents know what was going on in our classroom and to have some links handy for my students.   Over the past year I have made a lot of changes that I think have made my site more useful for everyone.  I have videos for parents and students to watch of concepts being taught and current trends in education.  I have put links for custom searches my students use in their research.  I even use a file cabinet for sight word phrases for others to download.  My classroom website has transformed into much more than a newsletter.  It has become an interactive place for people all to visit.  I know that I still have a long way to go but I am headed in the right direction.

I would love to incorporate my blog into my site and discuss upcoming things in our classroom.  One thing that I tried, unsuccessfully, last year that I am hoping to do again this year with better luck is to have a book for my students to listen to or read online then respond to for their homework.  I also need to do a much better job keeping my site up to date, I seem to fall off keeping it updated about mid year....  Like I said, it's a work in progress.

Reading and Writing All Day Long: It's What We Do in First Grade

In my first grade class we read and write all day long,...it's what we do!  We start off our day with a choice we read or write, no morning work for us.  Some of my students who are struggling spend the first part of their morning reading books on Raz-Kids, reading fiction and nonfiction books on their reading level. During reading we read and respond to books in a variety of different ways.  We incorporate science and social studies standards in reading by using nonfiction read alouds and leveled readers throughout the year. We also keep observation journals, where my students write about experiments that are happening in our classroom. 

In math we have math journals where the students solve problems and explain their thinking.  We create class books where the students write story problems for others to solve. These books are the most popular in our class library, I see students working on these problems in the morning when they arrive at school almost daily.  This is a great way to assess my students knowledge of the math strategies that we have been learning.  When we are working through the process of creating word problems the students that do not have a good understanding of the math concept we are learning about really stand out.  Allowing me time to review and help them with whatever they are struggling with.  

 At our math centers students are creating equations for others to solve, writing word problems on white boards for their partner to solve, as well as getting their hands on manipulatives practicing their problem solving skills. Throughout this time in math students are creating, problem solving, and writing in math.  It is a great time in our classroom for review and I get to meet with small groups of students that may need extra help or enrichment.

Reading and writing happen in our first grade classroom all day long.

First Grade Wikis

After doing some research on Educational Wikis I found two different Wikis with first grade content.  The first Wiki I came across was Literacymalden and the second was GHTEACHERS.  Both of these Wikis provided lots of information in the areas of reading and writing. Literacymalden gave much more information about the content provided in the Wiki and visually look more appealing.  GHTEACHERS had a great deal of resources but not much information about what was on their Wiki.  It seemed to be a warehouse of resources of district information housed in a central location.  I think that is a great idea.  However, it doesn't really lend to outside collaboration. I had no issues with the links on either page but really enjoyed how Literacymalden.  I especially loved the center idea page.  I found the Literacymalden Wiki to be better organized, more visually appealing, and lent to collaboration from educators outside the district.  I did really like that a district put their curriculum resources on a Wiki for others to download and use.  To me that is what education is all about, sharing information to help students learn and teachers teach.

Resources

http://literacymalden.wikispaces.com/FirstGrade

http://ghteachers.wikispaces.com/1st+Grade

Google Forms In First Grade Math

• There are so many different online tools to use in the classroom, it is hard to determine which one to use and when to use it. For me it comes down to ease of use for myself and my students, and what we are currently learning about.  While teaching a unit on data and graphs that tool was a Google Tool, Google Forms.  I am very familiar with Google Forms so that made it easy for me, Google Tools are easy to use, they are easy to edit, and easy for my students to use and create.  The hardest thing about creating the forms was getting my first graders logged into their computers and Google.  

• Last year during our math unit on Representing and interpreting data, my first graders and I worked together to create a survey using Google Forms.  After modeling how to do it I created a Google account for my class to log into and they worked in pairs creating a survey.  They were deeply engaged and excited about there surveys.  Once these were complete and I had a chance to look them over The students set up shop and took turns filling out each others surveys.  Once we did that we had the opportunity to go out into our school and survey other classes to gather more data.  The kids loved this!  

Using the Google Form to survey others about something that interests first graders was a wonderful use of this technology.   This made learning meaningful and fun for every student no matter what their educational needs were. Now I have examples for next year already stored on my Google Drive.  After we gathered data the students were able to draw so much more from the different graphs they made.   

If you are not familiar with Google Tools and how you can use them in your classroom I urge you to check out this workshop Using Google Tools.