Celebrating: Student Voice

Last Saturday I spent the day listening to #TheEdCollab Gathering "PD in my PJs" with a cup of hot tea, and my notebook to collect all the juicy nuggets that I learned.

I am extremely thankful for this opportunity to learn side by side virtually with brilliant educators.  The ease of learning at home, being able to pause a session to switch the laundry or answer my phone was a perfect Saturday combination. Another key for me is writing down nuggets of learning and referencing the session numbers.  Did I mention the power of twitter? When you tweet and there is an instant community of learners. #purehappiness All the sessions are archived, so I can go back and listen again, or better yet share a session with a colleague.

One of my favorite quotes “Step back in your classroom and let your learners take center stage” My biggest take away was the reminder and importance of student voice.  This shift in thinking has happened for me over the last 2-3 years; however, I have to be purposeful with creating this feeling in our classroom. The sessions I listened to were focused on writing and honoring the power of writer’s notebook. The importance of teaching my writers that their notebook is a safe place to write anything. A sacred place they can choose to share their thoughts that they may not be able to express verbally.  Writers need a place to capture their thinking with free choice on topics.  Opening a mini-lesson with What Do You do with a Problem? allows all writers to have an opening and a choice to write about a difficult situation.  Some of my favorite picture books for an opening include:

·      First Day Jitters

·      Courage

·      Those Shoes

·      Henry’s Freedom Box

·      The Book Itch

·      OK Book

Continuing to learn to step back as a teacher and reminding myself that writing workshop is a perfect place to allow students to share their voice will be my target the last six weeks of school Thanks to Ruth for encouraging us to celebrate every Saturday. 

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Wednesday Word Work: Power of Virtual PD

This past Saturday I had the chance to spend the day with The Educator Collaborative Gathering. This is an unique learning experience because I was able to choose from a menu of presentations. The power of of the Google Hangouts and You Tube videos made this multi-dimensional learning experience.  All the sessions were archived so when I couldn't decide between two or three of them I can refer back to the link above and continue learning.

Opening Session with Sara Ahmed and Harvey Daniels

• it's important to lean into the learning  (I'm working on this by not going into conferences with preconceived ideas or questions. Allowing the students to guide the conference.)
• diversity is different for everyone (this was huge for me - I know my experiences impact my teaching but thinking about how each student comes into my classroom everyday with a different perspective is crucial.)
• students come to school curious (although the graph they showed scared me to death that by fifth grades students' curiosity drops considerably)

• if the work that students are doing in my classroom involves curiosity and inquiry then I don't need grit because the grit is built in (I don't get hung up on grit, but I am thinking about inquiry in all my lessons more than I have in the past)

I attended three other sessions and they were just as powerful I spent the day comfortable, part of the time in my pajamas, and learning. It's a gift to be able to learn along with so many smart educators, and I truly appreciate this amazing opportunity.  Follow them on twitter it's a wealth of information. And the icing on the cake, I've already calendared in the next #TheEdCollabCollabGathering