Spring Break Re-Creation

Today has been a cloudy, cold day that has turned snowy.  Honestly, not the kind of weather for a stay-cation spring break you might hope for, but I knew this snowstorm was coming because one of our daily math activities is to graph the temperature.  That graphing has turned into looking at more than just the temperature.  My class website, where I post upcoming events and feature student bios, includes a link to the weather website, Weather Underground (wunderground.com).  Reading graphs is one of our math standards in 3rd grade.  The variety of graphs available on this site, especially when you click the link to see a Full Forecast, are a great way to show the commonalities of graphs - time is usually plotted along the X axis, temperature, chance of precip., and speed of wind is plotted along the Y axis.  Love it.

Much of teaching is about finding creative ways to expose students to the material they are to learn.  Quick caveat: I once had a college professor who bristled at that kind of wording.  "Exposing children to..." just sounded wrong to him.  But I digress.  Students need to see relevant uses of these skills they are tasked with learning.  There really is a reason they should learn it, not just because I said so!  Wunderground.com is a legit. website for real people who are really looking to know what to expect in their real weather.  It's not some Kiddie-site where everything is dumbed down. 

Notice that the X axis runs along the top?  The kids got a kick out of that.

Do I have to take them to a real weather website?  Heavens no.  Why do I do it then?  Why should I push students like this?  I think it is incredibly empowering show students who are beginning to grasp what the heck a graph is that they can read a real weather graph, just like adults do!  

Children are immensely creative.  I love seeing student individuality come though in their reading response journals, their writing topics, their requests to change a math coloring page's colors ("instead of pink, green, and yellow, can I use blue, orange, and black?" - Of course!)  Who cares if you wind up with blue tulips!  You love blue? Then, go blue honey!  The point is not to have pink tulips.  The point is to practice your rounding (or multiplication, or subtraction...)!  It is the reason I put sheet protectors on student lockers: to give students a creative outlet.  Their locker windows are their place to display anything they like (though I recommend against placing in flowers - they die and then are hard to remove). 

Students' locker "windows" where they can display whatever they like!

I am slowly introducing blogging to the class.  I feel like the first time I took my chocolate lab for a walk... or was it he who took me for a walk?  I allowed students to choose their topic, but it had to be an informative blog post.  They had to have 3 pictures about their topic, and they had to try to edit it the best they could.  Then I would do a final edit in front of the class, publish it, and then log in as myself and leave a comment.  The kids are gaga over it!  I am able to teach editing in a whole-group setting, I demonstrate how to leave a good comment, and kids see it actually being published!  We use Kidblog, and I love that I can limit the "public" settings.  After Spring Break, I will release responsibility, and offer to students the chance to publish their own blog posts on any of their blogging days (once per week).  Yes, I will allow them to publish their own post (persuasive this time - always matching our writing unit), which might seem scary, but I trust them.

A great resource for teachers!

I think students will really do well with this.  Here's why: students love the chance to show-off their skills, students love the chance to choose their topics, and students love the chance to do the things adults do.  So why not get students into blogging?  I have already seen a lot more writing from those  "too cool for school" kids as well as from the shy kids who have a lot to say.  We will continue our paper-based writing lessons, following the Lucy Calkins writing units, but during their blogging day students can follow a different thesis they believe in strongly.  They can try a writing strategy in their blog that day.  Especially within a persuasive writing unit, I think student comments will become an important part of our writing lessons.  Here is your audience.  Write to convince them!  And, as a reader, tell the writer if they changed your mind! 

Students thrive when completing authentic tasks.  I hope to incorporate creativity and choice as much as possible and use real-life applications to spark life into assignments.  Now you get out there and create too!