Net Smart was an interesting read for me. I did a lot of stopping and starting throughout the book. As mentioned in the book, I often find myself taking mental breaks or setting little goals to get through some assignments. I know I work best with incorporated breaks. That actually was the chapter that I was assigned to do the pros and cons with in class. Some of the pros, was working in small increments, taking mental breaks and being able to regroup between working sessions. Some pros to that is not wanting to start back up, taking extended breaks, falling asleep, lack of momentum. All are downsides as well. Another part of the book that I heavily related to was the social media section. I always am finding myself reading blogs and watching webinars on various topics in education. Both to obtain more information and to see different perspectives on the issues at hand. All great ways to stay connected to the educational community and not just see my perspective.
I think using the pro's and con's assignment could be useful when teaching math strategies. We briefly discussed this during a shared reading time. We explored all the different math strategies we know how to do and see what would be the best strategy to use when taking the SOL. Not only did students have to apply them but also reason on which strategy would be the best use of time.
In my class we do brain breaks when the students need to refocus. A quick go noodle video to get the wiggles out, play 5 mins of Gestures, or my favorite and the kids favorite is to do a 30 second nap. The kids absolutely love 30 second nap. Little do they know I do this when I need to count to 10 because no one is paying attention I need a moment to get my life together. Another way to incorporate this book would be to do a student blog. Having the kids respond to blog questions similar to how we do blogs and reflect on others responses. A more authentic way would be for the student to create a famous American twitter. Students would have to take significant events in the Americans life and create tweets that correlate with the time and event.
I’m so stealing 30 second nap if I can get the student buy in. I tend to go to something funny to relieve the(MY) tension but this doesn’t work with all students as some then take it from fun to silly and it gets out of control. In one of the books I read over the summer that I’ve mention before “Shift This” the author talks about letting the students take control of the Twitter account or Instagram account and they get to take photos of what is important and what they want to share. The teacher has to approve the photos/commentary but she states it's a great way for the students to practice many skills but namely main idea/succinct writing as Twitter only allows so many characters. She teaches middle school and I teach elementary school but it stills seems like a idea that might create an authentic problem and audience that the students would enjoy participating in.
ReplyDeleteWow, so many great ideas you put together at the end there! Like Rachel said, I am definitely trying 30 second nap. Last year I had students create an Instagram post from a settler about hardships they were facing in Jamestown and they loved it!! Twitter would also be a great idea, especially when we start to focus more on individual people in the Revolutionary War unit and 20th Century Virginia.
ReplyDeleteMy students love their GoNoodle wiggle breaks. I do one in between each subject; a fun break for them and a chance to regroup and get ready for the next lesson for me.
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of students being famous Americans and tweeting about events that are happening in their time! Hope you get a chance to do that with them. I be they could make up some great twitter names too.
I like the idea of 30-second nap, too! Perhaps we'll try it in these 3 weeks before Winter Break... The kids love Go Noodle, but the ones they all want (Disco Brain & Cat Party!!) wind them up, and like Rachel mentioned, they have a really hard time coming back down from them. I've tried the focus/meditation Go Noodles, but not as much buy-in. Rachel, I still have your Shift This and perhaps I'll be able to read it over winter break. I'm definitely loving these ideas about students taking control of more in the classroom, like the Twitter feed. It'd be fun to have the students take on the role of someone in Rome, Greece, or Mali and tweeting or blogging about their days.
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