C4T # 3

  I was assigned Live the Conversation which is a blog by Becky Goerend. She is a 6th grade teacher in Iowa. The first post I read was about her being a little frustrated and in a slump. She was informing us on a few things that is helping her deal with it. One was making a playlist with the students favorite school appropriate music to help calm them during study hall. This gives her a little quiet time. The other idea was instead of writing what their independent reading was about they were giving options on how they could do it. She gave them the option of video, letter, or a post on the classroom blog. I left her a comment agreeing with her that options and choices have everything to do with how the students function. I said that there has to be some variations in the classroom to keep the students attention.


My second visit to her blog she had posted that if you give students a meaningful project, they will take off and amaze you. Her students had been given four student AVerPens, one teacher AVerPens, and a document camera. The only instructions that was included was to the document camera. The students divided up into groups that were grouped by their strengths and weaknesses not by groups of friends. They have already made a lot of progress. They have learned how to charge the pens and how to hook the document camera up. Children are amazing and are very smart. Teachers need to know that and guide them more than anything . Students will not learn if everything is done for them.