Classroom Blogging

Blogs provide a helpful platform for communication between teachers, parents, and students.  I know that many schools require every teacher to have a blog, but even without the requirement I could definitely see myself creating and maintaining a classroom blog.  I like the idea of being able to informally stay connected with parents and showing them how we spend our time at school.  A blog would help to expand our classroom community to include parents as well as online resources.  I know that sometimes homework gets sent home and parents are frustrated because they do not know how to help their kids.  On my blog I could include links to homework help for the parents and students.  I see myself doing lots of quick, little posts as updates.  I also see myself using it to showcase student accomplishments, taking pictures of projects and classroom activities and uploading them for viewers to see.  This would help students take pride in their work and feel recognized when they have done a good job.  

If I were blogging about my octagon lesson, I could include links to math game websites concerning geometry and polygons for at-home practice.  I could post images of our polygon foldables for parents to see.  At the elementary level, especially as low as third grade, a blog would be more for parents than students so I would still keep most of the content during class time rather than posting it online.  The blog would mostly be to help parents understand what their children are learning and to provide links to further student growth. 

Helping Students Reach Academic Success

In our third grade class, we use a workshop model for math.  This model includes a warm-up activity, a focus lesson, and then center time.  This format promotes maximum learning as it engages prior knowledge, respects the amount of time third graders can sit still and listen, and allows for immediate application with feedback.  To aid in the information retrieval process, as we begin a lesson, we have the students do a warm up.  This process pulls their minds into math and helps them recall the skills that will be needed in order to learn the new content.   

We keep the focus lesson as brief as possible to maintain engagement.  In this lesson we provide both abstract and concrete explanations and examples, to help students understand the content as thoroughly and in as many ways as possible.  We also encourage students to know their math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication) so they can focus on the new content.  This automaticity helps to limit the demands on their working and long-term memory.   

Then during center time, students take 15-minute turns doing various math activities related to the day’s goals.  These may be flashcards, math games, or iPad apps.  This allows for application of the content, but is self-paced.  They also retain some ability to choose their center activities, and this choice helps to promote engagement and interest.  Furthermore, students at South Cedar are academically active and are happy to take part in class and classroom activities.  While sometimes reminders are needed, students will get back on task when asked.  Most students are motivated to learn and we try to keep it that way by designing lessons that set students up for success.      

Third Grade Pre-existing Abilities, Prior Knowledge, and Prerequisite Skills

One of the third grade Common Core standards (CCSS.Math.Content.3.G.A.1) requires that by the end of the year, third graders “Understand that shapes in different categories (e.g., rhombuses, rectangles, and others) may share attributes (e.g., having four sides), and that the shared attributes can define a larger category (e.g., quadrilaterals). Recognize rhombuses, rectangles, and squares as examples of quadrilaterals, and draw examples of quadrilaterals that do not belong to any of these subcategories.”

To achieve this standard with South Cedar’s third graders, I am planning a polygon unit for them.  One of the lessons toward the end of the unit focuses on octagons.

Here are the skills and abilities needed by the students to be successful in this specific lesson:

·      Know and explain the attributes of a polygon (straight sides, closed shape, 2D)

o   The students will learn this information earlier in the unit when polygons are introduced.  Since children study shapes from a very early age, and kindergarten, first grade, and second grade standards all require students to know the names of qualities of shapes, students will have prior knowledge concerning many shapes like squares, rectangles, triangles, and so on.  Using this prior knowledge, they can apply their understanding that shapes like squares and triangles have straight sides, have no gaps between connecting lines, and are flat.  They already know the qualities of shapes, so in this unit they are just learning the classification term (polygon) and learning which shapes belong in the category and which do not.  

·         Count to determine the name of a polygon based on the number of sides

o   Counting skills and strategies begin in kindergarten, so by third grade students will be able to count with one-to-one correspondence to determine the number of sides on a shape.  This will allow them to determine if the shape is a triangle, quadrilateral, pentagon, etc.  This skill will also allow them to count as they create octagons to make sure they have the correct number of sides.  

·         Use a straightedge to create octagons

o   This skill comes from both art, math, and from practical usage in other fields.  Students have experience connecting two dots with a ruler or edge of a book.  I have watched them all do as much as they created shapes in earlier math lessons.  

·         Open the GeoBoard iPad application and create polygons, including octagons

o   The school received iPads at the beginning of the school year.  At that time, all of the students were given tutorials.  Each student has a chance to use an iPad about every other day, so they keep up on their abilities.  Every student knows how to turn on an iPad, locate a specific app, open the app, and use it.  We introduced the GeoBoard app during a lesson about area and perimeter earlier in the year, so I know that they can successfully use it. 

General Characteristics of South Cedar’s Third Grade Class

This third grade class consists of 25 students between the ages of 8 and 10.  Out of those 25 students, only 10 are girls and 15 are boys.  Even that slight unbalance of 5 students drastically changes the atmosphere of the classroom.  The ratio of boys to girls, as well as the personalities and behaviors of the specific students, gives the classroom a talkative, active, somewhat aggressive atmosphere.  The vast majority of the students, both boys and girls, are already very interested and involved in athletics.  Sometimes the sport mindset invades the classroom through cheering and trash talk, directly influencing the most effective type of classroom management for this group.   

The racial demographics of the class include 3 Hispanic students, 2 Black students, 17 Caucasian students, 1 Asian student, and 2 multiracial students.  This breakdown makes sense considering the racial demographics of the school as a whole:  1 American Indian, 8 Asians, 26 Black students, 340 Caucasians, 29 Hispanic students, and 31 multiracial students. 

These students are primarily middle class, but there are still a significant number of students living in nontraditional settings and receiving free or reduced meals (specifically 27% of the school, regarding the meals).  Most students are able to focus on school and have academically supportive families, however a few students sometimes complain of being tired because they stayed up way too late because there was no one to tell them to go to bed.  Same goes for those few students and their homework – not always completing it because no adult checks in about schoolwork or because their home life is so distracting.

Regardless of their fixed characteristics, as a group these students are engaged and involved in classroom activities.  Yes, sometimes they are more interested in chatting with friends then math, but they are quick to back on task with a reminder.  Three students have a harder time than the rest attending to the task at hand due to medical and behavioral conditions, so they need reminders more often.  Students are respectful and trusting of authority figures.

As I mentioned above, this class loves sports.  A great way to keep them engaged is to tie the lesson to a sport or athletic team.  They also love reading.  Every single student says they like to read.  They do not all like to read every book, but when they are allowed to choose their own text, their excitement and interest is nearly tangible.  The students are also really interested by their local and school community.  The values of their district have been engrained in them, so they are always able and happy to talk about their school and nearby places.  Go Wildcats!