I totally stole this from the snoopygrams Instagram account. Love it.
Long text post ahead. My thoughts through the day ...
1) Oops. Thought it started at 8, not 9. Blech on being early when I live so far away from where it was being held to begin with. I just sat in my car and listened to the new Ricky Martin CD.
2) A little bit sad. Hardly anyone here. We had ... I would guess over 150 people at EdCamp back in the fall. Much better attendance. Is it the timing? Teachers still have to be at school on Monday. Kids get it off. Don't get me wrong, it was still good. But with this sort of thing a few more people would have made it even better.
3) Mentor Texts. How can I get more read aloud time with older grades? Scheduling ... getting them in for something besides a checkout time. Can't combine them because hello, they only get 15 minutes of checkout time and then the next class comes. There is not space in our library for two classes to sit and listen without moving 6 big, bulky, I can't do it myself tables. And still keep my voice? Sometimes (being honest here) I think I'm going to scream if I do one more "storytime." Who has time to plan something different for every class, but who isn't sick to death of even a favorite book after the 15th time? Then also doing writing in conjunction with it. Writing takes time. PUBLISHING RESEARCH takes time. In addition to the DOING of the research. We never get time. How can I do better? Great question ... how do explain the difference between using mentor texts in writing and NOT plagiarizing?
4) Book clubs ... online and in person. Confession here: it's been a while since I've done those successfully. Had some great online discussion of DIARY OF A WIMPY KID back when it was only on Funbrain and maybe one or two hard copy volumes? We had a closed "forum" they posted to so we didn't have to worry about if they had permission to have their work posted publicly. I love the idea of having all their stuff out for the world to see (hello, what am I doing here ;)) but it seems really hard for some parents to release that. And as frustrated as it makes me ... they are the parents, I have to respect that. Then Edmodo came along. That would definitely work now. Or try again ... maybe more parents would allow it? Oh! There is so much to do! We also used to have in person book clubs. Just finding time (and copies of the book) for that, too. Can we get kids before school? Can we get kids after school? Can we pull them out of the class? How do we get enough copies of the book? And should I be doing more bookclub promotion instead of makerspace stuff?
5) 40 Book Challenge and "accountability" for reading. Projects vs. no projects. Read for real, read more, fake reading. I know ... I do know, kiddos, at least ... we'll say half the time? That you just checked it out and didn't actually read it? You can't answer any questions or the answers you give are so generic. Then I also see all these crazy projects ... dioramas and mobiles. And it's copied straight off the book jacket. Or the parent actually tells me about all the work THEY did on the project. Or the parent come in on Monday looking for "a short science fiction book because her project is due on Thursday."
6) Best Tech Tools: didn't end up being super helpful as I didn't hear anything new and didn't really
7) Using Tech to Promote Reading: MODEL how to use e-readers with kids. They don't just know how to use them. It's hard ... time. Always time. Do they know how to turn it on/off? Do they know how to bookmark or highlight?
I have only ever attended one EdCamp and it was in April-my thought was I wish it was just before school started, because I think people are much more enthusiastic about growing at that time. I do a book club with our students-although I don't think I do it well. I have a list of various books they choose the ones they want to read from the list and share what they thought. I don't think it's as effective as everyone reading the same book at the same time, but like you said-the cost.
ReplyDeleteNot Just Child's Play