What are we doing?
Monday, 5. October 2009
Reading in the library
I thought I had a bad day and then I remembered of how my day began and how it ended. The day began when I reluctantly shifted out of my comfortable living room chair intensely conscious that I had only had only consumed a third of my ritual morning coffee fix. Fifteen minutes later it was 7:30 and I was greeting the first members of my volleyball team. For an hour and a bit they trusted me to teach them how to be better players. Nine seventh and eighth grade girls giving over precious adolescent sleep time.
I allowed a few frustrations to rattle me at the pool a short while later when my home room went for their swimming lessons. Delays for forgotten swimming suites and the frustration of missing clothes; its a bit difficult maintaining perspective when you are focussed on a schedule and a bewildered student looking for his pants. Those moments temporarily eclipsed the experience of watching them swim, dive and water slide (well that was recess for them). I was reminded of it all when I was transferring some pictures from my camera to the desktop.
Today was my students’ day in the computer lab. The SLO (student learning outcome) was demonstrating that they could initiate discussion threads on their wikispaces. When they return, we will follow up with replies. Thanks to the delay at the pool, this was all we were able to get through in the morning. My reading period went missing. A student hung back at the beginning of lunch to ask if I could help her brother start a wikipage. He hovered at the door until I invited him in to establish an account and activate the boy’s division email account. His eyes widened slightly with interest when I told him the account was his until he left school. The pair left hurriedly to eat their lunch. The younger sister will mentor her brother for a while and then I imagine he will quickly take ownership. In passing I noticed three students are trying to build their digital portfolios before I am ready. Three students have YouTube accounts now. This started when one wanted to create and upload his own video. His first efforts are embedded on his page now. The three students subscribe to each other’s accounts.
We spent an hour with a First Nations storyteller right after lunch. I was struck by my student’s eagerness to volunteer for the roll plays generated by the stories. A number of boys unselfconsciously acted out the roles from where they sat watching: irrepressible engagement, “Can we stand so we can see better?” Recess was late so all I managed was a brief writing activity before I turned them over to a colleague. He helped me begin the math pre-assessment that slipped my notice throughout September. His time on this was brief. The students ended their day in the library exchanging books. I caught up with them there in order to capture some portraits we will use in a Thanksgiving art project. I had a SST (student support) meeting at the end of the day so I almost missed the departure of my students. A few of them were distracted by their cross country match after school. They were wrapping that activity up when I left a little after 5:00.
I stressed the missed academic classes today. Reading, writing and math benchmarks preoccupy me these days. I marked a spelling assessment as the students swam this morning. The regular classes are feeling fragmented at the moment. Continuity in Social Studies, writing and science is strained for the next few weeks. It is hard to let such things drop.
The beaming person in the picture attached usually smiles. Its hard not to think he had a good day. Volleyball, swimming classes, social networking, a Cree storyteller, library and a cross-country run, the Student learning outcomes are not always clear and there will be no end of year assessment. Well perhaps there will, when the students look back on what they learned and what they did. It is really a very prosaic sort of day in an elementary school I think.
I was writing digital portfolios into my Professional Growth Plan and I raised the issue of student confidentiality. Creating a students presence on the Internet is problematic. Four of my students have parental restrictions on the posting of either personal information or student work. I would still like to see these young people participate in the digital portfolio project. I think the issue is important enough to justify a little expense. For $5.00 a month I can turn my Digital Portfolio wikispace into a private space accessible only to the members (students). I think I am going to follow through with this when the time comes to begin adding material. What do others think about this? It has been pointed out our students love to share themselves with the world. Would a private wikispace dampen their enthusiasm for the project?
Despite my interest in blogging, I still find a web site, or in this case a wiki the best way to manage my student’s access to the internet and their approved social networking tools.