Ok, so let me start like this: I always have a plan.  I know the things we need to work on, the way I want us to do that (and probably the ways I don’t!), and it’s “penciled in” for everyday.  But the great part about that plan is that it is flexible.  There is ALWAYS another option if we (the kids or me!) see that we need to go another way.  A better way, perhaps.  This is just what happened on Friday.  I can’t WAIT to tell you about it. 🙂 Friday morning’s recess was great–it was the first time in WEEKS that the temperature had gotten over freezing–and we took full advantage of the sunny playground.  I won’t tell you the whole story here, but in short, Millie and Makayla found a collection of things while we were outside that I thought was “blog-worthy” enough to tell you all about.  “But why should I tell their story?” I thought to myself, and at that moment decided they could be guest authors on our blog (and that that would become our plan when we came inside from recess).  “But shouldn’t everyone have a chance to do that?” I thought next.  That’s when the light-bulb moment happened. As soon as we got in from recess we sat down to do something we’ve done many times before: create our chart that we’d use for our Class Meeting later in the day.  What they didn’t know (until I told them next), was that we’d be doing something else very cool with it BEFORE our actual class meeting.  Here’s what the list looked like after we brainstormed a bit: Once I explained the idea, it wasn’t long before kiddos had paired up and chosen their topics.  But we weren’t ready yet. The next conversation was about how writing on my blog would be different than writing on their Kid Blogs.  The first difference was audience.  They figured out that rather than kids being the main readers, parents, principals (including our own beloved Mrs. Sisul!), teachers, authors, librarians and other adults (many that we don’t even know!) are the main readers of this blog.  We discussed how that would mean we’d need to “up” our game to make the posts ready for 20somethingkids.  Kylie was quick to add in that when I blog I use lots of pictures, and that my posts usually tell the “why” of the story–so that teachers can use our ideas with their own students.  We agreed that we should probably use that same kind of thinking in our guest posts.  At this point I just had to sit back and appreciate the amazingness of Rm. 202 kiddos.  I smile when I listen to their wheels turn and their ideas flow; when I get out of the way, they make some pretty fabulous things happen on their own! Ok, so after our purpose and audience was set, and we had decided on our platform (which would be Notability since they all knew how to use it and I could easily copy it into WordPress), I set them loose.  And left them alone.  And watched them dig in and work hard and “buzz” with that sound that happens when kids are engaged and learning.  They had a real purpose, a global audience of real people to write for, and lots of great learning from the week to share about.  I got out of the way and let them be amazing.

Ella Marie and Sara discuss what they will tell blog readers about our history projects from this week.

Emily and Jacob draft their post about our class picture from earlier in the day.

Kylie and Lauren chose to write about the races kids have starting running at our morning recess.

Makayla and Millie (who’s work at recess sparked the whole idea in the first place!) write about a really cool collection of “B” things they found outside on the playground.

Peyton, C.J. and Thomas work hard to explain how we use writing journals in our room every day. They are EXPERTS at putting great ideas in their journals and were perfect for this topic. 🙂

Evan and Joshua chose to tell blog readers about PE and why they like it.

Ava and Amelia wrote about how we use Dreambox to learn as mathematicians every day!

Landen and Nate knew right away they wanted to explain our math warm-ups!

Charlie and Diego worked to tell about our current chapter book The One and Only Ivan (we are LOVING it, by the way!).

I am SO excited to share their work with you!  Rm. 202 kiddos–I’m SO PROUD OF YOU!!!  🙂