Mystery Skype–April 13 (#2)

Remember our Mystery Skype last week? Well after that AMAZING experience, the first things that came out of my kiddos’ mouths were “When are we doing this again?” That meant that I had to get busy because I needed to schedule another one for them! I tweeted out a request and quickly I got many requests. One of them was today. Here’s the story. 🙂

We are all about learning in Rm. 2o2 and so the first thing we did was reflect on the experience from last week and talk about what had happened. I showed them the blog post I had written and asked them to think about what they saw. We analyzed the photos and talked about what we would do the same and what we would change. Some noticed that there were not pictures of everyone, and we agreed that the next photographers would make sure to get images of each job that we had on our list.

Next I showed them the video from our first try. We did the same analysis and noticed somethings we could change. Many of the “issues” just came from the fact that this was the first try at something like this for our videographer. We talked about some technical things like shooting at people’s faces (and not their legs and feet), not moving the camera too fast (because it makes the watcher d-i-z-z-y!), not talking over the recording and making sure–just like the photographer–to get the WHOLE room in the video. We made sure everyone knew that we were only working on how to make our next try even better, not saying that anybody did anything wrong.

It was time to pick jobs and so we sat down to decide what each person would do. After our debrief from last time, we had decided to add in Tweeters (check out the AMAZING job Mrs. Sisul, Ja’Mia and Makayla did today!) and Closers, so that made just two people doing each job. Rather than the chart we made the first time around, I thought I’d try to start digitizing some things, so I made our job list in a Google Doc like Mr. Solarz’s example. I just made a doc that we can add pages to for each MS (at least that’s my plan for now) so we can keep track of who’s done what during each session.

I hope to start using a Google Doc for questions next time, too. For today we hand wrote them and I entered it into the table:

We had to go to PE right after this, but before we left, we agreed we should get everything set up, since we only had 10 minutes from when we got back until we got started. I was SUPER pleased that this was what I saw them do:

The Data Enterers had their area ready, the maps for the Researchers were laid out, the chairs for the Questioners, Greeters and Closers were in place and the Photographers and Videographers had their iPads raring to go! Isn’t it amazing what 7-8YOs can do when they are motivated and have a purpose? LOVE!

Here are the photos we collected from our session today:

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And the video. Don’t worry–this one’s a bit shorter than the one from last time. And you should get sick and dizzy either. At least I hope not. 🙂

Then, when we were finished we sat down to debrief. We said many of the same positive comments as last time, but I noticed many kiddos were a little unhappy about their jobs this time around. Well, some of them were. When we went through the assigning of jobs, obviously some kiddos got the one they wanted, and the others didn’t. We talked about what to do about it, and we were divided about how to fix the problem. We suggested that we could stay with our original jobs, since we felt that we had done a great job of finding the right person for each one (which we had agreed upon after we finished the first time around). Not surprisingly, not everyone liked this idea. We also considered just staying with the new ones we made today, since we didn’t really have time to reassign before our next scheduled Skype tomorrow morning. Again, not everyone agreed this was the best. Then, someone quietly suggested that we could trade. He said, “What if I want a new job and so does someone else. Can we trade jobs? That might work.” BINGO! Everyone loved this idea and so we quickly had the “traders” meet on the rug and most got a satisfying trade out of the deal and walked away happy. Unfortunately, since there was an odd number, one person did have to stay with a job they don’t really like, but I’m sure it will all work out and next time she’ll be able to try something new. Oh, and I had forgotten until now, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that one of the reasons someone gave for trying new jobs every time was “I like to make mistakes so I can learn something. That happens when you try new things.” HA! Pretty amazing, right?

And you know, as fun as this is, and as much as it reinforces geography and inquiry and does loads for engagement and motivation, I just love watching what happens when you get out of the way, let kids do their thing and they run the show in ways that are far beyond what you’d think the realm of 2nd graders would be. But then again, I continue to see it over and over, so I should stop being so surprised, right? 🙂

Design Challenge: Landforms

Last week we tried a challenge in Science where kiddos had to create a representation of a body of water. Since then, I’ve heard multiple times “When are we doing this again?” Then, when my friend, Mona, asked me if I was planning on doing the same thing with landforms I knew we just had to!

I didn’t want to make the situation exactly the same, however, so I thought of ways I could change the parameters to up the level of the challenge. Last time, students chose their own group, as well as the materials they used to build. It was great that somehow everyone chose something different and there was no arguing about who used what. That doesn’t happen a lot in our room, but I was super glad it didn’t come up here. So this time I again let them choose who they worked with (which because of numbers was groups or 2 or 3), but there as more chance in both their landform AND their building material. I wrote the choices on index cards (very high tech, I know) and put them in two cans. Each group chose one from each container.

I was impressed with how easily kiddos accepted both of the cards without complaining. Again, not much of that happens with Rm. 202 friends, but I was pleased with how quickly they got to work planning their next moves. After about 3-4 minutes, most were ready. There was only one pair who did fuss a teeny bit about how they’d be done really fast and how their cards were not a challenge. We talked about how that meant that they needed to figure a way to challenge themselves, ask themselves “What could we do differently than we had originally planned?”

Much like last time, they had 25 minutes to work on their representations and then we’d do a gallery walk to see if we could guess what everyone had created. They were to work for the entire time and had to use their assigned medium, but other than that there weren’t too many rules.

Ok, here’s your chance to see if you can figure out our landform creations, and then I’ll give you the answers.

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What do you think? Did you guess them? Here are the answers:

plains
hills
valley
barrier islands
canyon
plateau
mountains

We love how building challenges work for learners in Rm. 202, and we want to know how they work for you. Any stories to tell us? What suggestions do you have for future design challenges we could try?

What’s in Your TBR Pile?

Many, many years ago I was a presenter for Project Construct. I had a super responsibility of teaching Missouri teachers about how to incorporate Readers’, Writers’ and Math Workshop into their classroom routine. It was during this time that I learned about “nightstand books” and TBR piles. Oh, you know, that 12-inch stack of books that sit next to your bed so you have them ready to go when you have a few minutes to read before bed?

Well, often my pile sits elsewhere than my nightstand, but for sure it’s always there. And sometimes it’s taller than 12-inches. Like in the summer when it’s about as tall as my 5-YO (she’s 40 inches right now, by the way. 🙂 ). My current TBR pile looks like this:

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Anyhow, after we had learned about recipes and how they help guide us with book choices, we talked about something else readers do–make plans. I started our conversation by asking a simple question: Why do people make plans? I didn’t specifically say readers at this point because I wanted them to think broader and try not to guess my specific plan for the day just yet. Kids turned and talked to their partners and came up with SUPER ideas. They connected this to how builders use blueprints and how important those are to making the building look “right” in the end. They mentioned how writers make plans so they know what their stories are supposed to be (can you tell what we’ve been doing in Writers’ Workshop lately?). They talked about how plans keep your organized and help you know what to do.

After that great start, it was easy to then expand the idea to how readers make plans for what they will read next. This allows them to move smoothly from one book to another, without wasting reading time wandering around the library. It helps readers think critically about what they want to read and why (I explained to my kiddos why each of those books is in my pile), and to be more purposeful in their choices. This becomes especially easy if you choose books that are in a series, or if you “trust an author” and read all the books that they’ve written. I can TOTALLY do this with Ralph Fletcher, Sharon Creech, Jerry Spinelli, Joan Bauer and Liane Moriarty.

Kiddos had a great time trying out this strategy, and then send me their lists when they were finished. We’re going to use them now and I plan to hold kids accountable to try out the books they put on their list. While they can change, these piles (which are saved as pictures/notes on their iPads) help them think ahead and more purposefully use their time both in the classroom and at home. I’m excited to see how they continue to help us grow as readers through this year and even beyond!

Recipe For a Good Book

I remember vividly the first time I ever taught about recipes in my classroom. It was towards the end of the year, when I was teaching 4th grade (ok, I don’t remember the exact year–maybe 2006?–but I do remember the kiddo!), and during a reading conference a kiddo was struggling with finding a book that was a good fit for her. For some reason I was thinking about how what she really needed was a plan–a recipe–for how to find a good book for her. And since that first conference so many years ago, I’ve found that this lesson is one that almost every kiddo (and probably some adults, too!) could find helpful. I went back to look at when I had written about it here, and I found this post from about 4 years ago. Rather than try to explain the whole thing again, I ask you to take a few minutes and read about it from back then. Really, I’ll wait. It won’t take long. Just come back when you’re finished and I’ll tell you about how it worked in 2nd grade the other day (See? Told you all kinds of kids could benefit from it! I think I’ve used it in every grade level I’ve taught over the years, and even for myself!) 🙂

Are you back? Well, like I said before, this issue seems to come up every year and now that I think about it, maybe that speaks to the lessons I teach at the beginning of the year on how to choose books. I wonder why they aren’t “sticking” and why kiddos eventually need this secondary explanation of “good book” recipes. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that they change so much as readers over a given school year (especially if they are younger readers, or struggling readers making big gains) and so the books that were just-right or “good” for them in August are certainly not the same for them in March. I guess like anything else, as well, just telling them once probably isn’t enough. Perhaps I should find a way to incorporate book choice lessons into every unit that I teach. In many ways choosing a just-right fiction book is very different from choosing a just-right non-fiction book anyway. Oh, and I feel like I should mention that my definition of “just-right” book doesn’t have so much to do with a level as it does with student interest, motivation and desire. All of that other stuff can be worked on once you help them find THE book for them. Many times the kiddos who first need my recipe lesson are ones who don’t really see themselves as readers yet. They don’t really know what to do when they’re standing in the aisles of the school library or looking at the buckets in our classroom library and need a hook to get them started. That’s really what I’m thinking about when I help guide them here.

Ok, well, just like it happened in that example from 5th grade many years ago, I had a conference with a kiddo the other day who needed some guidance to find his version of a good book. We talked about books he has read that he really liked and what it was about them specifically that he liked. We used those things as our “recipe” and wrote them down:

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This now becomes a shopping list when he’s in our classroom, the school library, the bookstore, the book fair, the county library, etc. The big idea is that if he knows what he likes he knows when he’s found it. This is a HUGE idea that kids often miss. They so often just wander through the shelves not really knowing what they’re looking for, expecting that they will just know what it is when they find it. It’s like traveling to a new place without a map AND without really knowing your destination. You will NEVER get there.

Well, after this first conference, I ran into two other friends in the same day that needed the same lesson and so it quickly got moved to my “everybody-needs-this-as-a-mini-lesson” list. I then showed everyone in Rm. 202 the plan the next day by sharing my own example:

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Not everyone is necessarily ready for this right now, but everyone had a go at trying their own list and we will tweak over the coming days as they practice using it for book shopping. The great part is that it is customizable, personal, and specific to each reader. And it can be easily changed as they change as readers. LOVE!

I Saw Pacifique! Pacifique is HERE!

Remember last fall when we were able to host some amazing Rwandans in our school? Well, since he is now forever connected to our Robinson family (and some teachers in our school, too), he comes back now and then to visit. When he was here at the beginning of March, we joined Mrs. Appelbaum’s class next door to learn more about his Rwandan culture (since were in a culture study of our own at that time!).

He answered our questions, and even sang and danced a little for us. What a great visit with an old friend! He really is a celebrity around our school now. 🙂

Design Challenge: Bodies of Water

We have been studying Earth and how it changes. We’ve talked about slow changes like weathering and erosion; fast changes like earthquakes, volcanoes and floods; landforms like plateaus, mountains, plains, barrier islands (which I have to admit I didn’t really know about!); and about bodies of water. Because we needed to breathe a little bit of life into our work after having been discussing and watching videos for a few days, and because I know my kiddos are builders and creators at heart, I tried to figure out a design challenge of sorts that we could try. There were many options I could have employed (and still might), but I thought that bodies of water would be a nice place to start.

So kiddos chose groups (in 4s) and then I explained their job: Create a representation of the body of water they get (I passed out cards to each group) so that everyone else can guess what it is. They had options for research before they got started if they needed clarification on the characteristics of their body of water, and they could use whatever supplies in our room that they wanted. There was a 30 minute time limit.

So do you think you can guess what each one is? Try it out. Here is body of water #1, a picture and a video (oh, and the video might have a spoiler, so guess before you watch it!):

Ok, here’s #2:

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Try it with group #3:

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Group #4 made this:

Check out #5, made with Legos:

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Ok, and now that you’re done, check your answers. Promise that you’ve tried it?

#1–ocean #2–creek #3–lake #4–river #5–bay

The best part? We had fun, we learned alot and the only thing I’ve heard since we finished is “When are we going to do this again??” 🙂

Mystery Skype–For Real!

You might remember that last year we prepared for a Mystery Skype by Skyping with Ms. Turken’s class INSIDE of our school. We were ready and had a plan, but then our Skype that we had scheduled fell through. Somehow we didn’t get another on the books until this year. So a week or so ago we did a Mystery NUMBER Skype with Ms. Bartin’s class at Keysor–the next step above someone in our school is in our school district. hee hee

Then, when I tweeted about how much fun we’d had, I asked for any takers on another Mystery Skype. We quickly got a bite from Mrs. LaRose’s 2nd graders! We quickly put a day and time on the schedule and I got busy getting my class ready for the big time.

Since a few years ago when I did this with 5th graders, I have made some new “friends” on Twitter and knew that they would be the right ones to go to for help. Paul Solarz, 5th grade teacher extraordinaire and author of Learn Like a Pirate has some GREAT Mystery Skype resources, and I used many of them to get us prepared for our conversation.

It started with determining our jobs. While Mr. Solarz has 5th graders and does most of his Mystery Skype work online, we were still able to use many of their listed jobs, modified a little to fit our needs.

While I think that Mr. Solarz assigns jobs, we had a meeting before we got started and I explained each job, then we decided who should do each one. If more than the allotted number wanted a specific job, kiddos had to find a way to decide who should do it (many of them played rock-paper-scissors to get to a decision). In the end, we agreed that the right people were in the right jobs, based on their strengths and personalities.

I was excited (as were they) and even though I had done this many times before, I really didn’t know what to expect because I hadn’t done it with this format in any other session previously. Because we were ready a little early (ok, I did that on purpose), we were able to practice. We were able to run through the whole deal twice, with me pretending to be the other class and them trying out their assigned jobs (thanks, Mr. Solarz for that idea–it was SUPER helpful!). First I was in Illinois (Chicago, actually) and then I was in Florida (ok, fine–Orlando). If you know me at all, you could probably guess those would have been my choices. Ok, fine, they probably had a little head start on that, too. Anyway…

While we were working, I was surprised with how busy everyone was, how well they worked together and how quiet but bustling the room was! We were even able to host a few teachers who wanted to see what this whole Mystery Skype thing was about without any real trouble. Thanks for Ja’Mia and Landen for submitting the pictures for this post, and for Khalani for taking the video.

Check out our archives from our first-ever REAL Mystery Skype!

After we were finished, we sat down to debrief and it was great how excited they all still were–I had them turn and talk so everyone could get all their thoughts out, then they shared some with me. Here is a little of what kiddos said, some positive and some things we might change:

I liked holding up the “Good job” sign, it made me feel great to see everyone focusing, learning and doing the right thing! -Sara

I thought it was fun and I really wanted to do a good job to help out our class! -Thomas

I liked that I helped find Vermont! -Amber

I didn’t like walking around the whole time. -Landen

I liked my job because I got to remind people. -Ella Marie

I thought it was tricky trying to find a question. -Emily

I liked it when Nate and Charlie asked about the time zone. -Lawrence

I like that my behavior was good. I got a “good job” card and I really wanted to do my very best for our class! -Jacob

I liked being a greeter. I was good at that job because I am friendly. -Joshua

I liked learning things that I didn’t know about our state. -Ava

I liked learning about maps. -Evan

We also debriefed on jobs. The consensus was that there were too many researchers, and that we needed to add a couple of new ones: Tweeters and Closers. Mrs. Sisul, our principal, texted me during our session and asked that I make sure to Tweet since she couldn’t make it and I could not believe that I hadn’t even thought about it! We will definitely find some friends to do that next time, as well as choose two friendly kiddos to close the call and say thanks and good bye. 🙂

One more thing…it’s very long and it’s kind of shaky–it’s our first time, after all–but I think it gives a great example of all the hustle, bustle and hard work that was happening during our Mystery Skype. We’d love to hear what you think, especially if you notice anything or have any questions.

Mystery NUMBER Skype

This year we finally did a Mystery Skype with someone that wasn’t inside our school. Remember that from last year? It really was pretty cool anyway.

I have a friend, Jen Bartin, who teaches 2nd grade at another school in our district, who was looking to do her first Mystery Skype as well, and we decided a good first try would be with a mystery number rather than location. Nope, that wouldn’t be very hard to figure out.

Unlike a typical Mystery Skype, we needed a hundreds chart instead of a map. We got ourselves into pairs and brainstormed what kinds of questions we could ask to narrow down the number. We had done this kind of thing before as our Math Warm-Up, as well as a game we play during Math Workshop. The part that we hadn’t done was talk to another class over our computer while also answering questions about our own mystery number. But we were excited and prepared.

While we chatted, kids took turns at the computer asking and answering a question. Ja’Mia and Ella Marie were in charge of writing down the questions each class asked, and Landen and Amelia had the important task of marking the 100s chart to narrow down the choices as we got information from our answers.

It didn’t take us long, but it took them even less time to figure out our number was 62. We did a great job of asking broad enough questions that we crossed of lots of numbers, but specific enough ones that we finally got it right. This was fun and we were ready to do another one!!

Top 5 Reasons Why Twitter Makes Me a Better Teacher

I have been on Twitter for almost 5 years now (started in July 2011), and I can honestly say that it has been a great decision since day one. Probably there are lots of people who haven’t evaluated their Twitter decision, but I wonder if the reason I did is because I use it solely for my professional life (where I am often evaluating the effectiveness of decisions I make). Nope, no celebrities or sports figures on my “following” list; I follow other educators (of all levels, not just the one I teach), authors, librarians, principals, consultants, instructional coaches and other related to education. I do also have a few family members (although they don’t really tweet), and also news organizations because even thought they are not teachers, they inform my teaching and keep me informed as a person. I decided that meant they fit the criteria.

I went back to look at if I had already written this post (sometimes I have the same thoughts over and over LOL), and realized I haven’t really ever done that. I did write about the fact that I use Twitter in a reflection I wrote for grad school a few years ago, and I wrote a post called Why I Blog, inspired by educator and author David Warlick (@dwarlick). I realized I mentioned Twitter in that post, but only the fact that I’m on it–not why.

So I guess in some ways this post is five years in the making–hopefully that doesn’t mean it will be five-years long! Here we go!

Personalized Professional Learning–in my pjs!: Because I have been particular with who I follow, I am pretty certain that every time I log on to Twitter I will read a tweet that includes something I didn’t know. Whether it’s someone who’s tweeting from a conference they’re attending, someone tweeting an article they’re reading (or have written!), a blogger publicizing their latest post, someone tweet a meanginful quote, a chat in which I’m participating about a specific topic or just a statement about the day, I feel smarter for having spent that time there reading. Sometimes I am able to read the whole thing right then, but often I will retweet or save the tweet for later so I can find it when I have more time. Either way, I am able to cater the learning I am doing to my needs, on my time, and like I mentioned before, to where I am (and what I’m wearing!).

Publicizing: While it’s certainly not the only thing, having someone to read the blog you’re writing is kind of an essential thing to keeping a blog going and having a conversation. I use Twitter as a place to publicize my blogs, as well as the ones that my students write. I use hashtags to add to the readership, and cater them to the topic of the post I wrote. For my students’ writing there is always #comments4kids, and some typical hashtags I add are #2ndchat (2nd grade teachers), #1stchat (because I taught 1st grade last year and many things I write about could apply to that grade as well), #moedchat (MO educators), #ksdpd (my school district), #803learns (my school’s new hashtag), #tlap (Teaching Like a Pirate), #LearnLap (Learn Like a Pirate), #elemmathchat (elementary math educators) and #miched (Michigan educators–just met many of them in a chat last week!). Often I add in ones specific to ELA (#rwworkshop, #tcrwp, #kidlitchat), science (#elemscichat) or social studies #elemsschat). I could really go on forever with hashtags because they are kind of endless, but adding them can maximize the number of people who see my posts as they far outreach the number of followers I have.

Quick Sharing: Sometimes I do have time to write a blog (at least not at that moment), so I use my Twitter feed (@jenbearden) or our class Twitter feed (@jbeardensclass) to share what we’re doing through out the day.

Collaboration: One of the BEST things about Twitter (maybe I should have put these in order!) is that it has allowed me the opportunity to connect and collaborate with classes and teachers from all over the world–something I would not have been able to do otherwise. I forged a relationship with a fabulous educator in Australia early on (Hi, Tam!) and even 5 years and a couple of grade-level changes later, we’re still working together because of our connection on Twitter. I have found many connections on Twitter that allow me to bounce ideas off of others (even if I don’t really know them I know that they’ll respond). One of the best layers of collaboration that I’ve found lately is the ability to reach out to authors. It really is mind-blowing to 2nd graders (ok, sometimes to me, too!) that the REAL author of the book they just read would take time to talk to them and answer their questions. We’ve been able to connect with many fabulous writers this year and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that my kiddos are now the ones who suggest that we tweet at them our thoughts. Some of our favorites are Ralph Fletcher (he might be our bestie by now; we LOVE his books and he has become a mentor to my students as he has been to me for years and years; Betty Birney (she came to our school so we reached out to her before she came and told her how excited we were); Mary Casanova (also visited our school and we shared our favorite parts of her books); Kate Klise (we had a super author visit with her and have since asked her some writing questions), Marla Frazee and Maribeth Boelts (used their books for a craft study last year and still tweet to them when we find new books by them this year), and Charles R. Smith, Jr. who wrote an important text we used in Social Studies recently. Lastly, my kiddos have been able to connect with other classes from around the world simply via tweets on our class feed or even better with Mystery Skype–which are set up through teachers on Twitter.
Validation: Sometimes you just need to hear someone else say you’re doing a good job, you know? While I by no means do what I do for a pat on the back, or to toot my horn, but it does feel really nice when someone else agrees that what you’re doing is a good idea. Having someone retweet your idea or respond to you and tell you they agree with your thought feels good. Often it doesn’t even take anything on the other end, but just for me to see that someone is doing something similar based on their tweets or retweets. This often happens during chats (which could fit into the collaboration section, too), as you can talk to other educators about a common topic, learning and growing together, as you share ideas.

I’m not even sure that this covers all the bases (I’m sure that as soon as I hit PUBLISH I’ll think of something else I’ll want to go back and add), and in some ways it’s hard to even put it into words how much I feel like Twitter is an important resource for me. I’m hoping that this list at least gives some small idea of it’s great possibilities for helping both me and my students explore and connect with the world!

Why do you use Twitter? What would you add to my list? Leave a comment and tell us what you think!! 🙂

Second Grade Math Warm-Ups: Week of March 28- April 1, 2016

We were continuing with our study of subtraction this week, and so all our MWUs are related. Happy calculating!

Monday

This one is just to keep our brains fresh about money and time, since we’ve “officially” moved on, but that we obviously should not forget. 😊

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Tuesday

This problem pushed my kiddos to think about the reciprocal relationship of addition and subtraction. I had to remind many of them how this could be solved with subtraction, but we had a great conversation once I convinced them it was possible. The strategies are ones we had been working on in Math Workshop lately.

Wednesday

Just because, you know, I don’t want them to forget how to add…:)

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Thursday

Tried this format again because I wanted to see what they remembered. The great question after we modeled our thinking with the number line was “Where is our answer?” This one took a few minutes for those that still didn’t see the connection between the parts and whole, between how we could either add or subtract. It was also surprising (still) to some that the answer to the second equation is the same. Ja’Mia had to convince us of you she knew. And yes, she was able to do that by telling us about how addition and subtraction are “opposites.”

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What would you add to this week of warm-ups? 🙂

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