OneNote Collaboration

The past week I've been able to collaborate with one of my 7th grade team members in OneNote. We were able to work together to share OneNote with our faculty. It was such a neat experience. We were able to talk about the different ways we use it in our classrooms. I felt like many of our faculty members were very excited about having the opportunity to use this program. That made me even more excited about using OneNote.

I'll be honest, it sure does help to have someone else who's using it too. It gives a sounding board, someone to share ideas with, and to be excited about using it. I know that this year I've been using it on a small scale compared to what the program can do. We've had a few hiccups along the way, but now I have someone to collaborate and troubleshoot with. Here's a sample of our PowerPoint.

Presenting this to our faculty was awesome! After our presentation, we decided to create a OneNote notebook that we could share and collaborate on. We can add pages, test out the collaboration space, and so much more. I feel like this is just the first step in being able to use OneNote to collaborate as teachers. I can see so much potential in this. I can't wait to explore it more in depth.

Twitter

Up until this school year, I've been a twitter dropout. I signed up for an account several years ago. I tried using it. Part of my problem was I liked to write more than 140 characters. I was encouraged by my administration and my humanities coach to really give it a go this year. I dabbled with it a little bit at the beginning of the school year and now it's one of my favorite social media platforms. 

As an educator, there have been so many benefits to using Twitter. First and foremost, I've been able to learn from other educators outside of my circle. I've been able to see the exciting things they are doing in their classrooms. I've learned about OneNote, Workshop model, and just met some inspiring people. 

Another thing,  I've really enjoyed is following authors. The first time an author liked my tweet, I felt like a million bucks. I like being able to give some quick feedback to them, even if they don't have time to answer. Twitter has brought me out of my comfort zone and encouraged me to have the opportunity to reach out to others.

Honestly, I'm so glad that I started to use Twitter this year. I've been able to connect with people that I would have never had the chance to connect with before. I feel like this social media platform has made my search for educational resources much more effective. I can zone in on things I want to learn specifically and network with others about those topics.

Revealing their thoughts in OneNote

Once a week for the last several weeks, I've been giving my students one writing prompt in OneNote. It is something I found on TPT. It's called 300 Common Core Creative Writing Prompts. I've been able to pick one a week to have the students respond to the picture prompt. I'm really enjoying these. I feel like they are even useful in my writing practice.

I can honestly say I'm so excited about their progress. I'm able to get a better quality answer from many of my students. I find that the quality is better instead of just "how much" they write.  Some of the prompts are challenging for my students, but most seem to be easy for them to understand.

How does OneNote make this process more meaningful in the classroom? Honestly, I feel that OneNote has given me better insight into what my students are thinking. I have a group of students who thrive in being able to use their laptops in class. I see the benefit of having students typing their answers into OneNote. It gives them a place to write without feeling judged. As a teacher, I can see what they are working on in real time. I can see their thought process as it unfolds. I feel that it's less pressure for them feeling as tough I'm hovering over their shoulder.

I have students who don't typically write anything. Some of my students struggle to write legibly. Using OneNote has given me opportunities as a teacher that I feel I didn't have before. I really like having the opportunity to have access to their binder at all times. I can go back and reread something, leave feedback for students, and help them with organization.

Here are some student samples. 

Shadow Day

In February of this year, I had the opportunity to visit Mrs. Meyer’s classroom. Mrs. Meyer’s teaches 7th grade ELA. I observed two inclusion classes and a partial PreAP class.

Mrs. Meyer’s welcomed me into her classroom with open arms. She was very transparent with me regarding her classroom setting. She was flexible and willing to allow me to see any element of workshop that I needed. The fact that she was willing to change her lesson to meet my needs demonstrated the type of teacher she is.

Her classroom is amazing! She has flexible seating, an incredible library, and student centered environment. I looked at her bookshelves for quite some time searching for new book ideas.

There is a strong sense of classroom community in her room. It is obvious that her students respect her. She has established a positive relationship with her students. She knew exactly what they needed and worked to meet those needs.

As for workshop, I was able to see the process from start to finish. I was so excited that we were working on the same skill in writer’s workshop. I was able to gain a few new ideas to bring back and utilize in my own personal classroom. Another thing that made the shadow day so meaningful.

There were several take-aways I had from Mrs. Meyer’s classroom. 

• Classroom management and routines are imperative! Workshop doesn’t work without clear routines/procedures. The first twenty days of workshop procedures resonated with me at this time. 
• Students needed to be sent back to their work spaces with a clear purpose. This purpose should be an extension of the mini-lesson taught in class. Students were given a clear purpose, a time frame to work within, and expectations of the evidence of the work.
• Small groups are possible! I’ve been struggling to determine how to set up small groups to work with me. I saw first hand how students are often able to sort themselves into that particular group. She worked with the group that needed her most. If she saw students off task, she invited them to the group to work with her. This was my biggest take away! I was able to create a “help desk” in my own personal classroom. The first week of implementation, students were crowded around it begging to work with me. I felt like I was working on a level that was able to meet my student’s needs.
• Workshop looks different in everyone’s classroom. The structure of workshop is the same: mini-lessons, purposeful independent practice, and conferencing. This shadow day gave me the confidence to implement workshop into my classroom.