Get Rid of Your Goats and Get Some Bees...

My hopes, visions, and dreams for the 2011 - 2012 school year are to try and get rid of the things that may have a negative impact on my classroom, just as goats may have negative impact on trying to grow a forest. Instead I would like to add more things that will have a positive impact on my classroom, similar to the way bees would have a positive impact on a forest as they pollinate and help it thrive. These analogies come from a video we watched in class called The Man Who Planted Trees, as we watched the video we compared the man to ourselves as teachers.

My hope is to have a great school year with my new class of 25 students that I have not yet met, and one way I hope to accomplish that is by increasing student choice in reading. I know that this change is going to take time and if I want it to work to its potential I know I need to be slow as I introduce each choice and set up the expectations associated with that choice. My Reading Workshop time is going to shift from a time where all students did was Read to Self, to a time where they could also choose to Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Write about Reading, Work on Writing, or do Spelling/Word Work I have so many ideas in my head as to how this is going to work, my hope is that I find the TIME to get it all figured out in a concrete way so that it can have a positive impact on my 4th grade readers! I look forward to make this vision a reality, and while I know it is going to take a lot of work, I am going to take the advice of a fellow blogger and remember that Slow and Steady Wins the Race!  

To Blog or Not to Blog....

TO BLOG! as that is the assignment this week! I have never had a blog before, mainly because I am not sure that people would want to read about my life, although I do follow the blogs of a few different people because I am just interested in keeping up with their lives and what they are doing. I am now seeing blogs in a different light, as they can be used in the classroom and for educational reasons. I feel that this blog will be a good source of reflection for me on my Action Research journey and could help anyone else that reads it see what has and has not worked for me in terms of implementing student choice in my 4th grade classroom.