Introductions

Gosh! I'm sorry I didn't think of this first, but we really SHOULD introduce ourselves, shouldn't we? :-)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Liz Fitzgerald on June 30, 2009 at 1:43pm

Hey everyone,
I'm Liz in Salina, Ks. This is my second year teaching. I teach at-risk reading to K-3 students. I am currently working on my masters degree from Baker U and one of our assignments was to check out Classroom 2.0, so here I am. I am really looking for more tech ideas to do with younger kiddos that have a hard time focusing. My classes have been introducing blogs, youtube, and googledocs. I have some good ideas to try, but it's always helpful to hear about things that others have already tried and worked great!

Permalink Reply by Kim Kerian on July 4, 2009 at 10:49am

I am a 3rd grade teacher in a small town in NE Iowa and love every minute of it! I received both my degress from the University of Northern Iowa, with the latest being a Masters Degree in Elementary Reading/English Language Arts. Go Panthers! I have taught many grade levels as I have been a teacher for 10+ years and am very passionate about my job - especially in the area of literacy/reading.

Outside of school, I have 2 children ages 11 and 14. I am constantly on the move going to their sporting events year round as they are both very active in sports and school. I also have a stepdaughter who is studying elementary education at UNI. My husband is a business owner with a huge passion towards golf. He also takes time to help coach a lot of our children's AAU teams and attend their events as well. We have two dogs who are the babies of the family. :)

In my classroom the past year, we did some podcasting of students' reading to future teachers at Luther College studying education who would do running records of the reading and then send comments back to their "podcast pal" about reading slso via podcasting. We presenting this activitiy and findings on fluency this past spring at the International Reading Conference in Minneapolis. Great activity that students loved. This year we hope to add videocasting to it as well. I am just getting into blogging with the students so that is coming up in the fall also as well as many other activities! Also so much to do!

I excited to get to know everyone and collaborate/share ideas!

Permalink Reply by Elisa Waingort on July 4, 2009 at 11:36am

Hi Kim,
Welcome! As a grade 2 teacher, I am very interested in your podcast pal project and how you got going with podcast in the classroom. I am generally very aware of new tech developments even if I am not an active participant. However, when it comes to using podcasting and other software with kids I hit a brick wall. I feel like it's something I need to see in action and even follow step-by-step to get the hang of it. Any tips?
Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Kim Kerian on July 6, 2009 at 12:02pm

Hi Elisa! This project was set up with a professor at Luther College who teaches a methods class to future educators. What we did was match each one of my 3rd grade students up with one of her students - she had two sections so some doubled up. My students would record a reading passage using the iPods and then I wiould use Garage Band to upload them as a podcast to my school webpage. They would also include a retelling after their reading through the iPod /Podcast. Their podcast pal from Luther would then have a copy of the passage they read (I sent them to their professor and she handed out or emailed) - they would do a running record and then send back suggestions and strategies to work on with the next reading. Some of the passages were "cold reads" - with no practice - but most were not as the 3rd grade students practice applying the suggestions from their Luther Podcast Pal so they practiced before they made their new recording. We tried to do this every other week - as it was a new activity. I would have liked to do it weekly, but the college students also had other projects etc. so once every two weeks worked well.
I happened to have a group of "at risk" readers last year and fluency was a big concern. That was the main component of this project at first. Then we moved into retellings and suggestions for that from the pals as well. This project really made them motivated to read more and practice suggestions that they not only worked on with me but were also suggested from their Podcast Pal. Putting the recordings on my webpage then enabled parents to listen to their child's reading fluency and retelling throughout the year also. The parents loved this aspect of it!
I would suggest starting out by having students record his/her reading through the iPods and then putting them into a podcast. I did a lot of modeling with them on recording their reading and saving on iPods so that I didn't have to sit with them while recording. I did the first time, but then the students did it individual during literacy time. I used Garage Band to upload and create into podcast, but you might try something new. I am hoping to do the project again with the college students, but if not, I thought I could also have high school students partner up with my students and give suggestions as well. So if you can find a group of college students, high schools students in a literature class, or even 5th and 6th graders to be your "pals", that would be great. You could even have students partner up with each other in your class and give suggestions to one another that way.
Start simple. . . just record readings and put up as podcast. . .I typed passages from books that were at the students' guided reading levels so there were different passages for different students. It's important that students listen to their own reading and set goals for what they think they should work on also. Then see if you can find any grade or group of students to partner up with you. If you can't find anyone, let me know and maybe I can help find a group of students.
It is overwhelming at first, but it turned out to be very beneficial for the students. They improved in all areas!
Hope that helps. Let me know if it was too much and/or I can help in any other way.

Permalink Reply by Elisa Waingort on July 8, 2009 at 6:55am

Hi Kim,
Thanks so much for your detailed reply. It gave me lots of ideas for a starting place. I will keep refering back to your post in the fall and will write with questions as I start to think about this further. We have buddies in our school where an upper grade usually pairs up with a lower grade class. This year my grade 2's paired up with a kinder class which was great for their sense of feeling like "big kids" but I think I want some mentorship for my grade 2's from an older group of kids so I'm going to request a grade 5 or 6 class for buddies. Since there's only one of each it may be a difficult proposition. If it works out this would be a great project to undertake with our buddies. Of course, I could still partner up with a class to do this even if they're not buddies, it would just make it more convenient. :)
Thanks again!
Elisa

Permalink Reply by Dianne Krueger on July 5, 2009 at 2:40pm

Hello,
I teach 2nd grade and love reading with the children, to the children, conferring and having them do the same! Our school is a K-8 district with 1,300 students. I will have 2 new partners this year. Second grade has been my home base for 5 years. I have taught 25 years in various other grades, including eigth grade social studies and math! Can't wait to get into some good literacy based discussions. Our primary teams have had 2 intense years of training yet there is always more to be learned.
thanks
Dianne

Permalink Reply by Mrs. Wiles on July 13, 2009 at 11:58am

Hello, I am a new user to classroom 2.0 and I will be learning as I go. I am currently teaching kindergarten (lucky enough to be in a full day setting). I teach in Kansas, and typically have anywhere from 18 to 22 students each school year. I have four children of my own who are extremly busy with baseball, softball, basketball, and horses. I have been in the education field for 15 years and I am currently working on my master's degree (FINALLY!).

Permalink Reply by Sheri Fogarty on July 13, 2009 at 4:34pm

After staying home (4 children :-) for 14 years, I went back to school to get a Reading Endorsement, and now will be starting my second yr teaching. Last year I had 2nd grade, this year I will teach 1st grade. I believe in Fountas & Punell, Debbie Miller, and The Daily 5. I'm trying to figure out my game plan for this year. There is so much to read, to consider, to DO!

Permalink Reply by Denise Harris on October 1, 2011 at 8:16pm

How long have you been doing Daily 5? Do you have any advice for someone just beginning to implement the ideas? Thanks for anything you can share!

Sincerely.

Denise

Permalink Reply by Susan Mahood on July 30, 2009 at 6:25am

Hello everyone! I am an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher for a small school system in Virginia. I have been in my current position for 3 years, before that I taught grades K, 1, 2, and 3 for 17 years. I was excited to become a part of this group because reading is such an important foundation for everything else in life. In the past year I have worked with teachers and students to create enhanced podcasts for iPod Touch devices. You can see some of our projects at our website (http://bit.ly/3lXZC) or subscribe in iTunes.

Outside of school, I have 4 children ages 5, 5, 6 and 18. We are involved in scouting, baseball and school events. All of my children are techno geeks like me. My oldest has severe and profound special needs and uses technology (Cheap Talk) to communicate and a touchscreen on the computer to interact with educational content.

I look forward to many great discussions.

Permalink Reply by Kathy Meskell Smith on August 2, 2009 at 9:07am

I am a new second grade teacher but have been teaching 1-3 science for 9 years and special ed. for 8 years prior to that. I am heavily involved in creative problem solving and Odyssey of the Mind. I am also looking for ways to use my Smartboard in the classroom. I am always looking for new things to try in my classroom.

Kathy

Permalink Reply by Judy Foster on September 6, 2009 at 6:26pm

HI! I'm a fifth grade reading/language arts teacher in TN. This is my fourth year with this age group; I taught sixth grade and kindergarten before landing in fifth. I love this age group and my subject matter, and I am always looking for ways to make my teaching of reading better!

I read The Book Whisperer this summer, so the discussion about the book on your page caught my eye. It has definitely influenced my views of independent reading within my classroom. Donalyn Miller has some wonderful ideas, and she responds to emails!

Judy