Staff Development Reflection

   Earlier this year I completed a staff development session on the many uses of Discovery Education.  Until this point, they only thing Discovery Education was only used to show full video or video clips to enhance the lesson they were teaching.  In the staff development I showed everyone how to add their students in order to create more meaningful ways to use Discovery Education.  Once everyone had their class added, I shared with them how how to create quizzes to go along with the video they were watching to check for student understanding.  I then showed them how to assign the video and quiz to all students or to just a select few.  Once everyone felt comfortable, I moved on to how to create writing prompts using selected videos.  The last thing I taught the staff was how to make an assignment to go with a video or a selection of their content.  I showed them the three different assignments I created for my class based on animals and how I would assign them to different student based on their needs.
   The staff development was focused on different types of integration.  The first was technology.  This concept integrated technology by giving the students their own was to connect to Discovery Education and take ownership of their learning,  I was also able to integrate writing into content by using the writing prompt and assignment maker.
   The information was presented to the staff in a more direct way.  I would show them how to complete a task and then have them complete one like it as I walked around to answer questions or help where needed.  For example, at the start of the development I showed them how to add students to the program and then had the teachers add their own students.
   The staff development was well received by most everyone.  There were a few staff members that do not like using technology unless the lesson is ready made and no prep work is needed.  Most of the people at the staff development really liked seeing the new things they could do with the program and have told me all the ways they have been using it within their classroom.  The follow up was to see how the staff was doing using Discovery Education and helping with any questions or concerns they had arise since the original meeting.
   This experience really gives you the chance to see what things are like on "the other side".  I try my best to stay quiet and pay attention while I am attending any training or staff development, but can tell that I am one of the few people that do that.  I was able to see how easily staff members were able to get side tracked and start conversations that were not about the topic I was teaching,  It also taught me that I need to make sure I am keeping any future staff development or training interesting and showing new ideas/concepts at a pace that will work for everyone.
   One of the things I would change if I were to teach this staff development again would be to separate the staff development into different sessions.  I think things would have gone better if I would not have had to teach all ideas on only one day.

March Post

This has been a very hard year for me, personally and professionally.  For that reason I have not done as much with Google Docs as I had originally planned with my classroom.  I wanted to be able to use it to provide a digital way for my students to complete their reading log as well as a way to provide information on projects or class assignments.  So far this year, I use Google Docs with our RtI team.  I was asked to keep up with the dates that student's will have meetings and to let their teacher know when their scheduled meeting would take place.  I created a calendar in Google docs to keep up with that information and shared it with not only the RtI team, but school psychologist, and our school principal as well.  Using the calendar made keeping up with meeting dates very easy for everyone.

February Blog

My class had a great time completing our Skype project with a classroom in Bladen County.  The best part for me was watching the student's faces as the "call" started.  They were so intrigued that we could see a class that was miles away.  They really enjoyed hearing the questions we researched to find answers to and being prepared to answer them as they were asked.  I think their favorite part was having the opportunity to ask their own questions about Bladen County.  I thought they would ask questions like what is you favorite band and what do you wear to school, but they asked really thoughtful questions.  Some of them were about their school and some were about what they like to do outside of school.  I think they really enjoyed hearing how alike they were to other student's that lived in a different place.  Over all I think this project was a big success!  My class ask me everyday when we can do it again and if we can talk to people in China.  I am currently looking for a way to make this happen.

January Blog

This has been an interesting month in the wide world of 4th grade.  The most exciting thing that I have going on right now is a project that my class is participating in with a class from Bladen County.  The project is called The Other 99 Project.  The fourth grad classes at Bladen Lakes Primary School have contacted one fourth grade in every county in North Carolina to gather information about the county they live in.  On Monday my class will be "Skypeing" with the class in Bladen County and giving them all the information we have looked up about Gaston County.  My student's are very excited to not only Skype with another class, but share the information they gathered from the computer lab as we gathered the required data.

I cannot wait to share how much my student's enjoy completing this project with everyone.

Gorilla Habitat

This project was completed by a group of 3 boys. They chose to research the gorilla's habitat.

Untitled Project

Squirrel Habitat

This project was also completed by a group of 3 boys. They chose to complete their project on Squirrels.

Untitled Project

Wild horse habitat

This video was created by a group of 3 girls. They chose to complete their project on Wild Horses.

Wild horse habitat