I love seeing how my students respond to what they are reading. Whether it be a novel I am reading aloud in class or something of their choice, I thoroughly enjoy hearing their opinions, and more or less, innocent views of our world. I used to carry stacks of reading journals (lab notebooks, the kind without spirals) to and from home and respond to my students' journal entries. However, I couldn't keep up...I didn't feel like I could constructively respond to their reflections to what they were reading and I think this is very important. I also had students that were losing their journals, leaving them behind at school at not being able to complete their refelction or forgetting them at home. It became a journal-loose-leaf-paper-mess!
So, I brainstormed...A LOT...and tried to come up with a way that I could eliminate the journals (honestly, they get heavy and annoying after a while) and possibly get my students to be more active in completing their assignments in a timely manner. I finally came up with an idea...I started an online journal for my class. There are so many resources out there for teachers (thank you Internet) and I came across this site called KidBlog.org. It is specifically designed for the safety of student-teacher-classroom use and it's free (big plus in my book). Each of my students has a personal login and password, one in which I set and cannot be changed. I post questions to the KidBlog and they respond either in the comments or in a separate post under their own page. My students have also been able to respond to their peers' posts. I absolutely love it!
We've been using our KidBlog for the past couple of months and my eyes have been opened to a whole new world. I'm excited to report that many of my students are more likely to complete their homework because they don't have to take anything home with them and they get to do it on the computer. My students are "plugged in" to the max and I just had to find a way to tap into that resource. The other eye opener is the consistency, or rather lack their of, of families who do not have a set schedule for the students when it comes to completing homework. I'm absolutely baffled. Having a conducive study location and set time for students to work on their homework in a routine matter actually makes quite a bit of difference in student success. Kids love routine!
Growing up we had strict rules, which back then I wasn't all that fond of, but now I am extremely thankful for the guidelines that were set in our house. One of the rules I can remember is that within a given season we were allowed to participate in only one extra-curricular activity (Thank you, Mom and Eric, so much for this rule.) We also had to have our homework completed before we could do anything else. My students are rushed from one activity to the next, eating dinner in the car and not getting to their homework until 9, 10, 11:00 at night. Really? It's no wonder my students come in acting like zombies or extremely off their rocker and then crash by 2:00. How are my students supposed to focus, pay attention and excell in school when they aren't getting a good nights sleep and their life is a constant race? AND where is the family time? My guess is that family time is on the way from one event to the next in the mini-van/SUV with a TV. Quite frankly, I probably don't have a lot of room to talk because I don't have a family...I'm just the teacher who spends the most quality time with your kid; your child that I absolutely adore and want more than anything for them to achieve to the highest that they possibly can.
I thought my plate was full...I'm an adult and I don't have that much to worry about. Well, a little bit, but not much. My students are only 11 and 12 years old. They have 10-times the amount of chaos, craziness and worries in their lives. It's unfair, it truly is unfair. I can only hope that I can be that solid consistency in my students' lives...that is until they move onto the next grade.
Being a teacher, one that cares, is the toughest job I have ever had to do.
I'm tired...it's 10:30...this teacher needs to get to bed.
Good night,
Mrs. MacDonald
2 comments:
excellent points Robin. We have a set homework time and we eat as a family at least 5 nights a week but I would prefer 7 nights! Glad to see that you are seeing the positive in that and letting us all know! Love and miss you! :)
my mom and i were just talking about this today about how a lot of kids are overtaxed these days and it's no wonder it seems the 'family' is falling apart!! very sad and like you, it makes me EXTREMELY grateful for how i grew up!
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