DigiLit Sunday: Have a Hub

When I first began taking steps toward digital literacy with my students I realized there were a few challenges; among them getting six year olds to a myriad of spaces.  When you are six typing in a URL can take a bit of time.  It was in these early days that I realized the need for a central location to make it easier to get to the places we needed to go.  It was then that I began to create, what I like to call, a "hub" for our classroom community.  In its first days, the hub made it possible for students to learn one link that would take them everywhere they needed to go.  It was possible for students to access this site from school or home.  It wasn't long until I realized there were other benefits to a hub in connecting our learning community to others.

Why Have a Hub

• Centralize Links:  As a classroom community we use Kidblog, VoiceThread, Educreations, Shelfari and other sites for learning.  Knowing how to get to all of these sites can be challenging for young learners.  To help them to locate spaces without having to wander the internet, I found creating a hub to house our important links makes it easier for students to get places.  Additionally, families and other classrooms can easily locate the work we are doing around the internet.  
• Build Connections:  Using a Twitter account (@DarbyCreekReads) to connect with other classrooms, I found having a hub helped other classrooms find out more about the work we are doing.  Additionally, during events like the Classroom Slice of Life Challenge, we have a common place to host our participation.  
• Inform Parents:  The possibilities of the internet can make it nearly impossible for parents to keep up.  Locating spaces and finding information can be a challenge if it is housed around the internet.  By including a page specifically for parents I can keep parents informed of important information.  This page not only includes important updates, but also allows me to share links, embed Pinterest boards for parents, and share other useful information in one central location.  

Choosing a Host Site 
There are many sites available to host a class hub including Google Sites, Blogger, and Edublogs (more possibilities can be found in this post from Education Technology:  10 Excellent Platforms to Create Your Classroom Website).  When creating a hub, I chose to use Weebly (here's why).  Weebly combines flexibility and ease of use.  I'm able to create webpages around topics or common information.  

Here's a very informal tour of my Weebly hub:

Each Weebly site allows multiple pages.  In addition to creating webpages with fixed information and links, blog pages can also be added.  As a classroom teacher, I have found Weebly to be the perfect place to host our class blog.  Using the class blog for shared writing of posts with students in our community allows us to share important information about our learning, but it also provides opportunities to understand the decisions we make as writers of blogs.  In addition to a blog page, our Weebly hub often houses Symbaloo collections of links for learning, how-to videos created to help when similar questions continue to arise, links to other school accounts, and much more.  Having a hub is the first step in growing a community that easily extends beyond classroom walls.

Other Hubs I've Created:
Weekly allows you to host multiple sites under one account which has allowed me to create and host other hubs for centralizing learning conversations.  A few hubs include:

• Merely Learning Together (my old class hub)
• #cyberPD (in process to connect #cyberPD community)
• New Voices, New Audiences (a site to collect and share links about digital literacy)

Listening --- Really Listening: #cyberPD Final Thoughts

"A dialogic classroom is one in which there are lots of open questions and extended exchanges among students....classrooms in which their are multiple interpretations and perspectives." Peter Johnston (p. 52)

The Event
For the month of July a group of educators have been discussing Peter Johnston's book, Opening Minds:  Using Language to Change Lives (Stenhouse, 2012).  At the bottom of this post you will find many important links related to our 2nd annual #cyberPD event.  Today's final reflection is hosted by Carol Wilcox at Carol's Corner.  Stop by to read, comment, and join the conversation.


What's Next
I've been trying to wrap my head around all of the thinking in Johnston's book.  Thankfully, stopping by blogs of colleagues in this event has helped.  These blogs, however, have also made it necessary to pause to consider different perspectives and new thinking.  As I've been thinking about this post I've been asking myself a lot of questions:

• What key ideas am I taking away from this book?
• Can I get what I have learned down to one important word?
• What teaching behaviors will I try to unlearn?
• What changes will I make as a result of this conversation?
• How will our learning community look different this year?

Listening --- Really Listening
Somewhere in my archives of pictures I have a photograph of a chart I made with one of my kindergarten classes years ago.  It was a chart about listening.  It is probably better that I cannot locate it, but it had a huge picture of a student sitting criss-cross on the carpet, hands in lap, eyes forward and attentive.  It said something like "listening is" and then listed a few characteristics: "Eyes on the person talking, hands in lap, sitting criss-cross, mouth closed, and ears listening."  It might not have been that extreme, but it likely was.

For years, actually since that chart, I've been on the journey toward helping young learners in the classroom community really learn to listen to one another.  Every year I get a little closer, but it is not an easy task with listeners whose developmental tendency is to be a bit egocentric.  For me, reading Johnston's book, and participating in the #cyberPD discussion with so many thoughtful colleagues, has provided more tools for helping to support students in learning to really listen to one another by thinking about the words of the friend speaking.

Listening to One Another Learning from One Another
Maybe this is all I need to do; change the way I talk with students about listening to one another.  It isn't the listening I'm so concerned with, though it is essential to the larger goal, it is the learning that happens each day in our classroom.  This year I really want students to understand all they can learn from one another.  I'm hoping to take myself out of the equation a little more.

• Build learning conversations in share circles.  Johnston says, "We develop a metalanguage for thinking about group processes and establishing their significance as something to attend to. (p. 107)"  Perhaps we could say:  "I learned ____ from ____ when they shared ____.,  I was able to think about ____ because I/we _____."
• Help students to see the power of learning together.  Johnston says, "A group can have intelligence that can be more (or less) than the sum of its members' intelligence. Group intelligence is related to...the average social sensitivity of the group and how evenly the group distributes conversational turns. (p. 96)"  Perhaps we could say: "____ tell ____ how you did that., When we started thinking we thought ____, but when we talked together we realized _____.,  Make sure each person has a chance to say something so that you're sure you don't miss different ways of thinking about it." 
• Learn to recognize when our thinking is changed by someone else.  Johnston says, "Listening is the foundation of a conversation and it requires that we are open to the possibility of changing our thinking. (p. 102)"  Perhaps we could say:  "____ made me think about _____.,  When I heard _____ I thought _____.,  I never thought about it like that before."    
• Know it's ok to disagree (and how to do that with kindness).  Johnston says, "We expect to have more interesting and powerful conversations when people bring different perspectives and when they disagree.  (p. 103)"  Perhaps we could say:  "Now I'm wondering...,  Could...., Do you think ____?,  What do you think about what ____ said?,  It looks like you might have another idea."
• Learn to rephrase the thinking of friends:  This is likely going to be something I'm going to have to work to change.  Instead of rephrasing students' comments, have other learners talk about what they heard or find other ways to say the same thing.  Perhaps we could say:  "Can you explain what ____ said in another way _____?,  Would you tell _____ what ____ means?  Repeat what ____ said so we can think about it (p. 27)."
• Develop skills to be flexible thinkers who build on the thinking of friends.  Johnston says, "They (students) understand that knowledge is constructed, that it is influenced by one's perspective and by different contexts, and that we should expect and value different perspectives because they help to expand our understanding." (p. 57) Perhaps we could say:  "Is there another way to do that?,  Is there a different way to think about that?"
• Wonder together:  Johnston says, "It is the perception of uncertainty that enables dialogue." (p. 59)  I'm hoping we can set the tone to get comfortable with the unknown, the uncertain, and the unanswerable.  "I wonder..., What are you wondering?  When I heard ____ I wondered ____., I can't figure out ____, what do you think?"  

This is just my beginning thinking, and it may be a little soon to just put it out in the world.  Thankfully I know you will all consider it thoughtfully.  So what do you think?  Are there other aspects I should consider?  Different language?  Please leave your thoughts in the comment section.  

Picture Books
As I read Peter's book and visited blogs I began to consider picture books that might support the community conversations I have to have.  Here are two Listmania lists I have started thanks to this thinking and some of the posts from our #cyberPD community.  These are growing lists.  I can't wait to get into my classroom to get my hands on my picture books so I can add more titles.  Let me know, if you have titles to add.

• Picture Books for Social Imagery 
• Picture Books that Illustrate a Dynamic Learning Frame

Paired Readings/Professional Books for Continued Conversation

• Choice Words by Peter Johnston
• Number Talks:  Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies by Sherry Parish
• Mindset by Carol Dweck
• Fires in the Mind:  What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery by Kathleen Cushman 
• Making Learning Whole by David Perkins

Event Links

• Stop by our #cyberPD collection of posts from the entire event at Jog the Web.  Click on the left table of contents to view pages in the Jog.  If you'd like to go to the page, just click the "show url" button at the top.  
• July 11th:  Opening Minds Chapters 1-3.  Discussion hosted here at Reflect and Refine. 
• July 18th:  Opening Minds Chapters 4-6.  Hosted by Jill Fisch at My Primary Passion.
• July 25th:  Opening Minds Chapters 7-9.  Hosted by Laura Komos at Our Camp Read-A-Lot.
• July 26th:  Archive of #cyberPD Twitter Chat with Peter Johnston.
• Opening Minds:  Words to Live By a cooperative Google.doc started by Julie Balen.
• #cyberPD Wallwisher 
• Professional Learning Conversations:  #cyberPD:  An event post hosted by International Reading Association's Engage / Teacher to Teacher Blog.  
• Twitter List of #cyberPD Participants

A huge thank you to Laura Komos and Jill Fisch for helping to create such an amazing event.  Thanks to all of the #cyberPD community for sharing your thinking, making me reflect, creating new resources, and collaborating in this professional learning conversation.  I know I will be able to continue to count on all of you to help me in my learning journey.  

Building a Community of Learners: #cyberPD Part 3

"Intelligence, creativity, and caring are all properties of communities as much as of individuals, and teaching children with that in mind will result in individual achievement but also collaborative achievement and accompanying social and societal benefits."  Peter Johnston, Opening Minds (p. 123)

Today we will be discussing the final chapters of Peter Johnston's book, Opening Minds:  Using Language to Change Lives available from Stenhouse (at 20% off during Blogstitute event).

Today's #cyberPD conversation is hosted by Laura Komos at Our Camp Read-a-Lot.  If you are joining the conversation from your blog, you will want to leave your link there.

Important Event Links

• Our Event Jog:  A collection of the posts from the entire event.  Just click on the table of contents on the left to move from page to page.  
• #cyberPD wallwisher:  Stop by to leave important quotes, related links, or questions to ponder.  
• Google.doc of Language:  Julie Balen began our Google.doc of language to consider for changing the lives of young learners.  Feel free to stop by to read, add, and share.  

Event Schedule

• Opening Minds: Chapters 1-3 hosted here at Reflect and Refine
• Opening Minds: Chapters 4-6 hosted by Jill Fisch at My Primary Passion
• Upcoming Event:  Twitter #cyberPD chat, Thursday, July 26th at 7:00 CST (note 8:00 EST) 
• NEW CONCLUDING EVENT:  Wednesday, August 1st Carol Wilcox will host Final Thoughts and What's Next at Carol's Corner

Building a Learning Community

For the last six years I have been back in a first grade classroom.  There are many things I enjoy about teaching a variety of age groups, but first graders are interesting in the amount of learning that happens in just one year.  In first grade, the amount of growth in learning is easily measured in student work.  You can see it in their writing.  You can hear it in their reading.  You understand it in their thinking and solving conversations.

Individual growth is easy to illustrate, but what about collaboration and social imagination?  One of the parts of my teaching I've been working on for the last few years is establishing stronger learning communities.  Our classroom structure allows for opportunities to own our learning.  It allows for collaboration, choice, goal setting, and time to learn among other things.  I've tried to spend more time talking about learning with peers, listening to one another, and thinking about what our friends say.

Reading "Opening Minds" has really helped me to think about ways to establish more of a community of learners where everyone has equal voice.  Johnston reminds us, "When each (my emphasis) person in the classroom community is viewed as able to contribute to the development of knowledge, there is not the typical hierarchy. (p. 102)"

How is this accomplished?  In our classroom we have learning conversations across our day.  When we are on the carpet together students have learning partners.  These partners share in thinking, learning, and collaborative talk.  Johnston reminds us that turning to talk isn't enough.  Students need to learn to value the thinking of their friends and build on the conversation to push the learning to a higher level.

Students often work together in pairs or small groups across our workshops.  At the end of each workshop, we gather to share our learning.  First graders love to share and tell what they've been doing, but helping them to value the thinking of their friends develops across the year.  Johnston says, "We develop a metalanguage for thinking about group processes and establishing their significance as something to attend to. (p. 107)"  In the typical busy academic day, it is sometimes hard to slow down for this important step.  I know I will need to take more time this year to have these conversations.

In what has become our world of testing, assessment, and data collection it is easy to forget the real goals of education.  I thank Johnston for reminding me of the bigger mission we must all accomplish - about the real significance of the work we do every day.  

Some Quotes

• "Discipline that points out the consequence of prosocial behavior and attributes a motive of kindness and generosity is likely to be most effective.  (p. 88)"
• "Conflicts are opportunities to examine our assumptions and values and they are exactly the places where students find morality most engaging.  Social problems offer concrete spaces for understanding different perspectives, understanding and managing emotions, learning strategies for negotiating social conflict, and asserting a commitment to fairness. (p. 91)"
• "A group can have intelligence that can be more (or less) than the sum of its members' intelligence. Group intelligence is related to...the average social sensitivity of the group and how evenly the group distributes conversational turns. (p. 96)"
• "Our ability to think alone is substantially dependent on our ability to think together. (p. 96)"
• "Fostering more egalitarian relationships through collaborative talk emphasizes the class's work together and the value of each member of the classroom community in creating knowledge.  (p. 102)"
• "Listening is the foundation of a conversation and it requires that we are open to the possibility of changing our thinking. (p. 102)"
• "We expect to have more interesting and powerful conversations when people bring different perspectives and when they disagree.  (p. 103)"
• "Each person's experience, what they notice, the logic they bring, and the assumptions they don't accept  enrich the conversation and, if we are trying to solve a problem, make a solution more likely. (p. 104)"
• "We want our children to recognize when things are unfair and to act to make things right. (p. 116)"
• "Children are more engaged when they have choice, a degree of autonomy, and when they see the activity as relevant.  (p. 118)"

Some Questions

• How will I help shape a community that listens and values the thoughts of one another?
• Is our classroom environment and community conducive to thinking and learning together?
• Is there a hierarchy of learners in my classroom or does everyone have an equal voice?
• Do our school teams value different perspectives, sensitivity to the thinking of others, and work toward distributing conversational turns equally?  Is everyone heard and valued?
• What picture books might help to start conversations toward fairness and social justice?
• Are students fully engaged in learning in our classroom? 

Language for the Classroom

• "What's the problem?"
• "How could you solve the problem?"
• "You solved the problem.  You figured out what the problem was and you worked out a solution."
• "Why do you think that?"
• "Could you explain?"
• "I agree, because..."
• "I disagree, because..."
• "Make sure each person has a chance to say something so that you're sure you don't miss different ways of thinking about it."

Opening Minds: #cyberPD Begins Today

"The language we use in our teaching changes the worlds children inhabit now and in the future."  Peter Johnston, Opening Minds (p. 7)

The Conversation Begins
Today we begin our conversation about Opening Minds by Peter Johnston, our second annual #cyberPD event.  (Here is the Jog to last year's conversation about Patrick Allen's book, Conferring.)  I'm happy to be hosting this event with Jill Fisch (July 18, Chapters 4-6) and Laura Komos (July 25, Chapters 7-9).

Today the conversation about the first three chapters begins here at Reflect and Refine.  If you are participating in this event by posting on your blog, please add your link to the comments below.  As the host blog, I will then move your comments into this post.  If you do not have a blog, you are welcome to comment on Twitter using #cyberPD, leave a comment at one of our blogs, stop by our Opening Minds Wallwisher or any other way you can think of to join the conversation.  We're flexible.

Foundational Conversations
During my training for Reading Recovery we focused on the language we use to support readers.  We talked about the prompts we could provide for generative learning.  As I moved into work as a literacy coach, conversations continued to focus on the language we use with young learners.  We looked at ways to use language to help students become strategic thinkers and move them toward independence.  Peter's first book, Choice Words, changed the words I used as I sat beside my students each day.  When I saw he had a new book released I was excited to read it.  Language is such an important piece of learning in our communities.

In the first chapters Peter shared his beginning points about the language used in conversations in our classrooms.  Peter reminds us, "In classrooms, events happen, but their meaning only becomes apparent through the filter of language in which we immerse them."  In these beginning chapters he shares the way the conversations we have as a community shape the way learning will look in our classroom as well as the way students will perceive their ability to change, learn, and grow across the school year.

I thought the first chapters were the perfect chapters for thinking about the significance of the first weeks of school as we lay the foundations and set the tone for all that is to come.  I want young learners to think, as Peter says, "When you make a mistake, it means nothing more than that.  Fix it.  Learn from it. (p. 3)"  In our classroom students need to see themselves as "people who can act and have an impact (p. 3)" in our community.  They need to know their voices, their thinking, their learning matter to everyone in the community.  These first weeks are important in creating this learning environment.

Reader's Workshop
Across these chapters I thought often about Reader's Workshop.  The conversations we have as a class often lead into the independent reading students do within our day.  Johnston demonstrates the significance of these conversations in Manny and Sergio's conversation as they read A Picnic in October by Eve Bunting (p. 5).  Those are the kinds of conversations I hope students are having as they read during our workshop.  Many students like to read and talk about books with friends.  Having conversations that allow them to think more deeply about books, to negotiate meaning with friends, to agree and disagree, but most of all to understand that these conversations help them to grow as readers.

Goal Setting Conversations
Our school has been focusing on goal setting.  In our workshops across the day students set their goals for learning.  I have found this to be a way to shift the narrative by giving ownership of learning to the students.  Johnston's focus on changing the narratives of our classroom is powerful.  His discussion of the work of Carol Dweck and her theories of fixed and dynamic mindsets is important.  I read her book last summer and found it to help me reflect on the way students may perceive their learning.

As I think about the students in my classroom last year it is easy to think of students who had a fixed mindset.  These students worked under the premise that they were smart or they were not smart.  Those with more of a dynamic mindset looked at learning differently.  Students with a dynamic mindset were willing to work hard to improve.  They didn't seem to mind if things were hard for them.  Instead they noticed, and took pride in, the shifts in their learning.

Goal setting, especially when goals are about the process and strategic thinking, can be a way for students to see their growth.  It is a way to shift thinking from right/wrong, smart/not smart, and toward an understanding of how they change over time.  Students own this learning.  Instead of talking about how many levels students have improved in reading, they are talking about the ways they've grown as a reader.  Instead of talking about how many math problems they got right, they are talking about the strategies they can use to begin to solve a problem.  Instead of being a good writer or not a good writer, they are talking about new crafting techniques they've tried in their latests pieces.


Some Quotes

• "My intention with this book is to offer a basis for choosing more productive talk - how to make the most of those opportunities children offer us. (p. 4)"
• "In a dynamic view, the process - how they did things - is most important (p. 16)." 
• "Process information removes the 'genius' from performance and replaces it with both a dynamic-learning frame and the strategic knowledge of how the success was accomplished (p. 21)." 
• "interdependent reading" (p. 32 -- loved that term)

Some Questions

• What does all of this (especially the student conversation on page 5) mean for conversations during Reader's Workshop?
• Is it possible for someone to have a fixed mindset in one area and a dynamic view in another?  
• How do we help students with a fixed mindset develop a more dynamic view of learning? 
• What does this conversation mean within the process of RTI? 

Language for the Classroom

• Let's see which of these problems is most interesting?  p. 18
• Repeat what he said for us so we can think about it. p. 27
• How did you do that?  p. 31
• How did you know that? p. 31
• How could we figure that out? p. 32

It's Not Too Late To Join
As I finished chapters 1-3 it was all I could do to not start Chapter 4:  "'Good Job!'  Feedback, Praise and Other Responses."  That usually only happens in fiction.  I can't wait to continue this discussion.  If you'd like to join us, but are just hearing about this for the first time, you can jump in at anytime.  The book is available at Stenhouse for 20% off during their Blogstitute Event.  Peter Johnston will be posting during the event as well so keep watching.

Stop By Participating Blogs
Wow, there are a lot of blogs participating in this year's event.  I know I'm going to have to spend some time in the next week revisiting everyone's thoughts.  The conversation adds so much to a book that already provides much to think about.  We also have people participating at our Wallwisher, writing reflections in the comments on our host blog, and sharing thoughts at #cyberPD.  Make sure to check it out.  (Also, it is never to late to add your post.  Just be sure to leave a comment below.  I'll see it.)

Laura Komos shares her reflections at Our Camp Read-A-Lot.  In Opening Minds Part I, Laura shares some of her favorite quotes and expands upon each.

Sit down with Michelle Nero at Literacy Learning Zone.  In #cyberPD:  Opening Minds - Part 1, Michelle talks honestly about the importance of the conversations we have with children.  She reminds us that every word matters as we sit beside by learners each day.

Maria Caplin shares her thinking at Teaching in the 21st Century.  Maria talks about the implications Johnston's work has on her thinking for her learning community next year in Opening Minds Ch. 1-3.  She shares some of the points of influence she considers in shifting students toward a dynamic frame for learning.

At Inspired to Read, Amy Meyer shares her reflections in Opening Minds Chapters 1-3.  Here she talks about the significance of the language we use to help build children.  She discusses her role as a third grade teacher in helping students to change beliefs they may already hold about themselves as learners. In her post she shares many questions that will keep you thinking.

Jill Fisch, another #cyberPD host, shares her thinking at My Primary Passion.  In her post, Opening Minds - Chapter 1-3, Jill focuses on the role of language in our classrooms.  Her synthesis of the chapters, plans for practice, and snippets of language make this a post you need to read.

Stop by Tony Keefer's Tumblr page, atychiphobia 2.0, as he shares his thinking in #cyberPD Opening Minds:  It's About Time.  Tony is joining this discussion on his own freewill this year.  How could he resist?  In his post he shares his reflections on Johnston's books including thinking about his planning of mini-lessons, considerations for developing a dynamic learning frame, and getting to know our students.

We are happy to have Dawn Little, The Literacy Toolbox, joining our conversation this year.  In her post, #cyberPD - Opening Minds:  Using Language to Change Lives, Dawn shares her reflections of the first chapters.  She discusses the significance language, links to the Common Core, and the mindset of young learners.

Barbara Phillips has also joined the discussion again this year at Wondering Through 2012.  In her post, Opening Minds #cyberPD Part 1, Barbara shares her reflections about the beginning of Johnston's book.  Barbara shares important quotes, mindsets, and questions to guide learners.

You have to stop by to view Mary Lee Hahn's graphic response to the first three chapters at A Year of Reading in CyberPD.

Barb Keister joins us this year at Reading Teachers / Teaching Readers.  In her Opening Minds post Barb shares the key points of each chapter as she reflects on the implications in her classroom.

Make sure you stop by Thinking Stems where Tracy shares her reflections on Opening Minds.  I think you will like the way Tracy pushes Johnston's thinking even deeper.  Her emphasis on what is next, change, and the forward momentum of learning is refreshing.

Karen Terlecky joins us at Literate Lives.  In her Opening Minds reflection she weaves together Johnston's points with small narratives from her classroom.  I very enjoyable read.

Valerie Ruckes joins us at The Sensibly Savy Teacher where she discusses Johnston's key points.  Her "quote" and "important words to think about" sections give more to ponder.

We are happy to have Noreene Chen join us for #cyberPD at My Beautiful Planet Earth.  Noreene talks about the connection between dynamic learning frameworks, process, creativity and innovation.  Lots to ponder here.

Stop by Lit Prof Suz's blog, In the Heart of a Teacher is a Student, to gain a clear understanding of Johnston's message in his bookin #cyberPD Opening Minds Chapters 1-3.  Important points in moving toward a dynamic learning are discussed as well.

Dun da da.  (That was red carpet announcement music.)  Let's welcome Amber & Lisa into the blogging world at FOCUS:  Clarity through Collaborative Reflection.  I'm always so excited when a new blog starts during #cyberPD.  Stop by as Amber shares her reflection in Stop:  Engage the Growth Mindset where she discusses that point when we stand between a fixed mindset and a dynamic perspective.

Ann shares her reflections of Opening Minds Chapters 1-3 at Work Hard, Be Courageous, Celebrate Growth.  Stop by to see what she has to say about these important words:  already, mistakes, mindset, influence, yet.  Ann also shares her next steps here.

At Raising Readers and Writers, Julie shares her reflections in her post, Opening Minds #cyberPD.  You'll want to stop by to read Julie's messages for her community of learners in the coming school as she begins creating an environment that empowers her students and moves them toward a dynamic learning framework.

Aimee joins us from Australia.  Stop by Teaching Journey where Aimee shares her reflections of Opening Minds by Peter Johnston.  In her post, Aimee begins to address the question of how to make the world bigger for the children we work with each day.

Stop by Nicole's Book Nook where Nicole shares her reflections in the first part of our discussion.  In Opening Minds Part 1, Nicole talks about our role in helping students' develop a dynamic learning framework.

Jacquelyn Sticca joins #cyberPD at Miss Sticker.  In her post, Opening Minds #cyberPD, she shares interesting points to consider about the language we use with parents.

Stop by Creative Literacy where Katie DiCesare shares the parts of Johnston's book she loved the explanations for his thinking.  In Opening Minds #cyberPD, Katie also shares some of the language she anticipates she will be using in her classroom this year.

Katie Keier joins the conversation at Catching Readers.  In her post, Opening Minds:  Sumer Cyber PD, Katie shares her "cheat sheet" of language she will be adding to the conversations she has with young learners next school year.

Melanie Swider joins us at Two Reflective Teachers.  In Opening Minds #cyberPD Post, Melanie discusses the type of self-talk we should model for young learners.

Stop by Snapshots of Mrs. V.  In Opening Minds Chapters 1-3, Mrs. V discusses the significance of this book on the work we do each day.

Closing a Community: Time to Reflect and Celebrate

The end is as important as the beginning.  After spending a year learning beside one another, I want the year to end as a celebration of all we have accomplished.  When you think about it, it is the last time that community will be together.  As May began we started reflecting on our year, celebrating our accomplishments, and planning our future learning.  Despite my best planning, the last day was a bit of a rush, but for the most part the year ended smoothly.

Here are a few ways we took time to reflect, celebrate, and prepare for next year's first graders.  (Yes, I've learned to create the bulletin boards and wall displays for the following school year opening with the students leaving the classroom.  It actually makes for a welcoming transition.)

Time to Reflect

• Reflecting on Our Reading Lives:  With two to three weeks left in the year I like to take time to reflect on all we have read.  We consider the authors, genres, characters, and favorites we've had across the year.  Keeping track of our books through Shelfari makes this task even easier.  This year, students commented with some of their favorites on a post I had written on Kidblog.  This was quick and easy.  
• Book Recommendations:  After talking about our favorites for a few days, students then created recommendation sheets for next year's readers.  After choosing a few favorites students drew a picture and wrote a quick blurb to make next year's class want to read that book.  Each student made about four recommendations.  These will hang on the bulletin board at the beginning of next school year along with some favorite character posters drawn by this year's class.
• First Grade Wordle:  You know how those conversations go with colleagues.  Carolyn on our team had just created wordles with her class about themselves.  These were hanging when Deb and I started talking about the end of year and somehow we came up with an idea to write wordles for the end of the year.  I had students make a list in their writer's notebooks about things they love about first grade.  Then we came together in a circle and took turns sharing things on our lists.  I typed these into wordle as students shared.  At the beginning of next year I will have the wordle copied poster size and hang it in our hall to greet the new first graders.
• Reflecting on Our Writing Lives:  Each year I have the best of intentions to send writing home across the year, but it never quite happens.  As usual, at the end of the year we were staring at quite a stack of writing.  We gathered our finished writing and then took time to look through out best work.  We talked about how we had changed as writers.  Students filled out a quick reflection about all they had learned as writers.  This year I was happy to see more comments about writing in different genres and developing a process for writing.  We took time to separate our very best work into a special folder.  This folder went home with student reflections for parents to enjoy.
• Next year:  Writing this I realize I need to find a way to reflect and celebrate our learning in math and content areas as we end our year.  Something to ponder.  

How do you celebrate learning at the end of your year?  Please comment with the ways you've discovered to close your community at the end of the year.

Creating Learning Spaces

Our Starting Arrangement

Our Classroom
One of my first graders from last year stopped by yesterday on his way out the door.  "You've changed everything," he exclaimed as he stopped in to say hello.  After talking to him I was relieved to realize he didn't think it was better or worse --- just different.  It's true I've arranged a few things to create the spaces we'll need for learning.  Here are a few pictures from before school the year began.

Our Meeting Area

Our Meeting Area
The meeting area is by the chalkboard so I can add our word wall.  The magnetic surface makes this a great location for the words we are learning.

Math Area

Math Tools
I like to keep our math tools in a common place.  This place is perfect as traffic should flow relatively well when getting supplies and there is room to hang math related charts on the walls around the shelf.  A few book baskets with picture books about math help make the area ready for math learning.

Places for Collaboration
I'm most excited about this area.  Last year this lowered table was a hot spot for writing, reading, and working in small groups.  This year I wanted it by the window.  I had picked up a few stools at IKEA that are the perfect size for students.  They love reading, writing and working here.

Making use of both sides of easel

Rethinking Furniture
I've opened up the space behind my easel so I can use the back of the easel which I gleefully discovered is magnetic.  Oh, the possibilities.  Right now we are using it for a daily check-in question, but I think being able to use it for small group word work is another possibility.

To the left you will see our "island" in the middle of the classroom.  A colleague suggested I rethink this piece of furniture and I'm glad I did.  It is the perfect central location for supplies and recess games.  It is short enough that I still have visibility across the classroom.

Author Collection

Rethinking Spaces
I wasn't sure this space was going to work for me.  This piece of furniture is always difficult to place and, to be honest, I'm not overly crazy about it.  However, my students always love it.  Originally marketed for leveled text, I use it for author collections.  Every year kids pull up chairs to our author collections and read, read, read.  I've learned to like this piece of furniture and surprisingly I like it here.  First of all, I usually try to keep my tile clear.  It's a weird thing, I suppose.  However, I'm never crazy about furniture on the tile.  Secondly, I was worried about how this would work with traffic when it is time to clean up at the end of the day.  Actually it has slowed down movement as students clean up and is perfect.

I'm really excited about this open space our new arrangement created.  We have laptop carts we can bring to our classroom.  It is always quite congested when these carts are in the classroom.  This new space is right beside all of our plugs and internet connection places.  When I bring the carts into the classroom I can park them in this corner, plug everything in for students, and still have plenty of room to move around the classroom.

In the weeks to come the students will begin to shape the way these spaces look and are used.  Soon the walls will be covered with their thinking.  The charts we create as we learn together will begin to fill the walls.  When old students stop by I think they'll find things look different, not better or worse --- just different.

The Walls Are Coming Down

The walls are coming down. Yes, I’m talking about the walls in our classrooms. Teaching used to be profession of isolation. You walked into your classroom at the bell and didn’t step out until the end of the day. You chatted with your colleagues, maybe did a little planning, and then headed home for the evening. Teachers didn't always talk about what they were doing in their classrooms, and rarely did anyone get a chance to step into another classroom to see what was going on behind that closed door. Staff meetings were more about logistics than growing as professionals.

The walls are coming down. Professional development, professional learning communities, grade level teams, data teams, and other collaborative structures have started to bring the walls down. Collaboration is as important as the ability to teach children. Districts go to great trouble to create professional development plans for their staffs. Administrators work to create schedules to allow teams to meet and work together. Teachers carve time out of busy days to plan and collaborate.

The walls are coming down. The internet may be largely responsible for the greatest change of all by providing opportunities to grow our own professional networks. Thanks to Nings, Twitter, blogs, and other internet sites teachers are able to collaborate in ways not possible until now. My own professional network consists of teachers at my building, in other buildings in our district, in neighboring districts, in other parts of the state, in other parts of the United States - even in other countries. It is refreshing to hear voices from other places: to know what is happening in classrooms around the world, to hear new ideas for supporting learners, to find new ways to use technology.

The walls are coming down. The walls of my classroom are coming down. For months I've been contemplating this leap of faith - blogging. I've written blog titles on post-its, chatted with friends about possibilities, and read posts by many bloggers trying to decide if jumping into the blogging world was really something I wanted to do. I've wondered if I will be able to keep up with blog posting or if this will be like my exercise programs - short lived. I've thought about what the focus for my blog should be, what voice I'd want to write in, and what strengths I might have to share with readers. The truth is, I haven't figured any of that out. I'm going to trust the process and dive right into the madness.