If you previously followed my Wordpress blog, then you may have seen this post Juggling Act, way back in November 2013. I was THRILLED when about 5 teachers took me up on my offer to work alongside them to provide feedback, try some new things, and troubleshoot together how to fit everything in. As an instructional coach, it's important to have buy-in when coaching teachers, and because I'm support for instruction in a site based management district, I need to be invited into schools. Not to mention, co-teaching requires time to plan and reflect together that might feel like "extra" time teachers don't have. Alas, every teacher I worked with was so inviting and their students were, are INCREDIBLE kids!
Snow days interrupted the first few classrooms I was welcomed into, however we'll be finding more days to work together.
Some things I got to try that weren't part of my classroom days that I absolutely LOVED were our Discovery Ed Science Techbook and Blendspace! When it comes to new ways to do old things, I'm a nerd. I love learning all the new ways technology can make our lives, our jobs more efficient. Here's how these two tools helped me and the teachers I was working with!
Discovery Ed Science Techbook was an engaging and interactive way to look at plant life cycles and animal life cycles in 3rd grade. One of the teachers I worked with stated that she didnt' have enough Science textbooks for each student, and the text book was boring to them anyhow. So we pulled up an interactive activity where students put pictures of the plants and animals into the correct life cycle stages. The students loved it, I mean LOVED it, and when they were given directions to draw their own life cycle diagram, each one of them was successful! I'll admit, I probably would've learned more and been more interested in Science as a kid had I had access to a book like this!
Blendspace could possibly be the one thing I URGE all teachers to learn and use!!!! We have SO many resources these days, and constantly flipping back and forth between powerpoints, flilpcharts, internet, videos, documents, etc takes valuable time away from instruction. Blendspace is a cloud based program that allows you to create "lessons" in one place! I'm thinking of all the possibilities for teachers and students. We used Blendspace to create a writing lesson for 2nd graders, we used it just as our "visual" much like a Promethean flipchart, but the cool thing was we were able to show students examples of grade level writing, and each day we were able to add new pieces of student writing to share. It was so easy! The other great thing was during a math lesson, we wanted students to do some research about animal weights, and the teacher created a Blendspace with only 4 websites she wanted the students to search for their information. It made research safe, and the teacher knew each of the places students were looking for information had her approval!
Thank you so much to the teachers (Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Chivers-White, Mrs. Barnes, Mrs. Patrick, and Ms. Sylvester) who welcomed me into their classrooms! I learned so much and can't wait to come back and see the great things you continue to do! I hope I lived up to your expectations for the experience!
Pictures from our time together coming soon!
Snow days interrupted the first few classrooms I was welcomed into, however we'll be finding more days to work together.
Some things I got to try that weren't part of my classroom days that I absolutely LOVED were our Discovery Ed Science Techbook and Blendspace! When it comes to new ways to do old things, I'm a nerd. I love learning all the new ways technology can make our lives, our jobs more efficient. Here's how these two tools helped me and the teachers I was working with!
Discovery Ed Science Techbook was an engaging and interactive way to look at plant life cycles and animal life cycles in 3rd grade. One of the teachers I worked with stated that she didnt' have enough Science textbooks for each student, and the text book was boring to them anyhow. So we pulled up an interactive activity where students put pictures of the plants and animals into the correct life cycle stages. The students loved it, I mean LOVED it, and when they were given directions to draw their own life cycle diagram, each one of them was successful! I'll admit, I probably would've learned more and been more interested in Science as a kid had I had access to a book like this!
Blendspace could possibly be the one thing I URGE all teachers to learn and use!!!! We have SO many resources these days, and constantly flipping back and forth between powerpoints, flilpcharts, internet, videos, documents, etc takes valuable time away from instruction. Blendspace is a cloud based program that allows you to create "lessons" in one place! I'm thinking of all the possibilities for teachers and students. We used Blendspace to create a writing lesson for 2nd graders, we used it just as our "visual" much like a Promethean flipchart, but the cool thing was we were able to show students examples of grade level writing, and each day we were able to add new pieces of student writing to share. It was so easy! The other great thing was during a math lesson, we wanted students to do some research about animal weights, and the teacher created a Blendspace with only 4 websites she wanted the students to search for their information. It made research safe, and the teacher knew each of the places students were looking for information had her approval!
Thank you so much to the teachers (Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Chivers-White, Mrs. Barnes, Mrs. Patrick, and Ms. Sylvester) who welcomed me into their classrooms! I learned so much and can't wait to come back and see the great things you continue to do! I hope I lived up to your expectations for the experience!
Pictures from our time together coming soon!