filling buckets

i am so lucky to have partnered with CH for a writing project this year. she is working on her masters in reading and approached me with a project that would involve character education and writing. she mentioned bucketfillers and i told her that i had done them with my first graders at SSE. i told her about all the quirks of my class - kinders, inclusion, attention issues, poverty, etc. - and she wanted to try. i was concerned, but hopeful that the project would get my kids excited about writing. i read the book - how full is your bucket for kids - to them. they enjoyed it, but it certainly wasn't as good a read as the original book. the next day, i read the original book - have you filled a bucket today - and they were hooked. we had a long discussion about the kinds of things we can do to fill each other's buckets. we colored buckets and taped them to paper cups. then i created a bulletin board with all of the buckets. CH came to our room many mornings and helped the kids fill out bucket slips for each other. the enthusiasm and joy built each day. we taught the kids how to take pictures and let them see examples of good and bad pictures. they were easily able to discern the difference and began taking pictures of each other demonstrating bucketfiller behaviors. not only did our kids write bucketfiller slips to each other, we had them write ideas of how someone could fill a bucket in response to story starters, such as "words are powerful. i use my words..." CH assisted every student to write their ideas and illustrate them. then we scanned the images and built a voicethread. this week we will record our voices on the voicethread. it is impossible to fully describe the joy and enthusiasm in our room that i attribute to this project. our kids are doing good deeds. they are trying so hard to improve behaviors. they recognize when someone's bucket gets dumped out. and they want very much to fill each others' buckets!

bing!

every day since forever we have been looking at the daily bing image and making guesses (inferences) about what it might be. then we research and learn. one of the fourth grade teachers told me that she had started using bing images to get her kids to write. and i thought: bing-o!!! (okay, really bad pun). yesterday, i introduced this idea to my kids. i told them every day they were going to write about the bing image BEFORE we talked about it. they could write a description of what the image looked like. or they could write what they thought the image was. or they could write a story that involved the image in some way. you would have thought i gave them a pony! they went crazy over this idea. now, you must understand that my 6 and 7 year olds do NOT like to write stories. only a couple of them really enjoy writing despite all my attempts to get them to write down all the tales that they tell me every day all day long. talking is much easier for them. today, instead of morning work, i just put the bing homepage up on our big screen (well, 42" flat) and told them to have at it. there was near silence in the room. WHAT???? they wrote and wrote and wrote. then they all wanted to share. and lo and behold, my principal came in to tell me something and they bombarded him with their stories. he seemed pretty pleased. he left and lo and behold, my assistant principal walked in to do an unannounced observation of my teaching. i briefly explained the process to him and we started sharing their writing using the document camera. we switched between their writing and the bing image and we did a little research, too. i made a chart of words that would be useful in future stories by writing fixes for their errors and doing some little phonics and grammar lessons in between. one of my lowest kids - ESL - Spanish speaker - wrote the best story she has ever written. filled a page. we praised her up and down. it was AMAZING work. and such a proud moment for her as her classmates raved about her piece. it was the BEST hour ever. and they cannot wait to do it again. yeah, bing images!!

naturals

they took to netbooks like ducklings to water. perfect naturals. helping each other. asking questions. trying new things fearlessly. nothing earth-shattering today. just 20 kids using computers as tools as if they had been doing it since birth. digital natives. i don't know what computing will look like when they are in middle school, high school or college. but it is so exciting to think that they are taking the first steps toward digital lives. leaps and bounds. there are no baby steps.

teach your children well

yesterday morning, a fourth grade teacher came to me and said that she wanted to use the netbooks, but first she thought that maybe some of my first graders could teach her kids how to use them. that's what i'm talking about! teach your children well and they will be the teachers of others through their actions and deeds. model and they will model. tell them they are capable (you are smarter than the fifth graders!) and they will be so much more than capable. this is why i teach. this.

charging up

today we had to share the netbooks with the computer assistant because her lab was closed due to testing. we were disappointed, but we know that these are not our computers. they came back while we were at lunch and they needed a charge, so i plugged them in and we settled down to a writer's workshop lesson. mini-lesson was touching every word when we reread what we wrote so we are sure that we wrote down everything we meant to say. prompt was to write about the netbooks. anything. what you have learned about them. what you like to do with them. anything. whilst we were working - amazingly a very productive and quiet room - our district superintendent wandered into the room. i glanced up from my one-on-one editing with a student and told him that we were so sorry that he did not catch us using our netbooks because we would have been able to show him all the wonderful things we have learned and can do. i asked the kids to tell him what we were writing about and they shared their joy with him. "we learned how to take care of our netbooks!" "they're red and rubbery." "we search bing for images." "we create documents." "we make cool fonts and colors!" "we can fix problems." "we shut them if we get a picture we don't like." "we are careful not to break them." etc. it's hard to read him, but i hope that he was impressed with all of their enthusiasm. i said, "who are you smarter than?" and they chorused "THE 5th GRADERS!!!" he smiled and nodded and headed out of the room. we went back to our amazing stories of our netbooks. soon to be published on the netbooks as a photostory (maybe) or voicestream (maybe) or something.

lessons

no one has asked to borrow the netbooks except our class. it's like having our own personal set of computers. i know that this honeymoon won't last. next week we are having our monthly faculty meeting and i suspect that the netbooks will be much more popular. i'm not sure if anyone will take the time to educate their kids on even the most rudimentary skills and best practices. i should have my first graders go around the school as little teams of tech support. it has taken me 4 days of lots and lots of mini-lessons to put my kids in the best position for success with their netbooks. we have had a blast. they assist their peers. ask all the right questions. make hilarious comments. make silly mistakes and brilliant discoveries. every moment has been a joy. they still squeal with delight when i open the cabinet at the beginning of our day and after lunch. their joy is infectious. what can we do next? just wait and see.

crisis averted

the netbook cart apparently has a reset button. they charged up and we only missed one day. whew. i need to chill.

notbooks

could not WAIT to get back to school this morning and get the kids started on their netbooks. plans. install sight word buddy program. teach kids how to save images to their share of the server. start planning our photostory projects. pulled the netbook cart to my room from its parking place in the media workroom before the kids arrived. they came in and were all talking about how they had told their parents about "their" computers. so much excitement. opened the cart and passed out the netbooks to partners. they popped them open and... "my battery light is on!" "my computer won't power up!" "what's wrong with my computer?" uh oh... plugged the cart in and popped open a netbook that was still attached. battery not charging. nothing. called the media specialist over. we were both flummoxed. this is the second cart! the first one was crashed and the netbooks wouldn't fit in the disfigured slots. this cart was totally new. but it won't charge ANY of the netbooks. cannot begin to describe the sadness in the room. the day the netbooks became notbooks.

netbooks

today we were the very first class in the school to borrow the new netbook cart from the media center. the kids had no idea that we were getting them today. when mrs. williams rolled the cart into the room, they could barely contain their joy. they were squealing and shaking. bit wild, but that's us.

i ran through some rules. no carrying when open. clean hands. don't go where you've been told not to go. if you get to a place or image that makes you feel uncomfortable or that you know mrs. patrick or your mom or dad would not want you to see, CLOSE the netbook and raise your hand. don't yell out what you just saw. mrs. patrick will take care of it. bunch of others. but those were the most vital. tried to keep it as short as possible, but as clear as possible. the usual suspects were in their own world and not listening. i knew who i had to go and check-in with later.

created partners. not their choice. mine. and passed out the netbooks. they ooh'd and ahh'd over them and got started. we did updates and they asked to go to bing. we go to the bing image every morning and they know how to find images, choose options like size and click through. within minutes EVERYONE was finding images of all kinds. we turned on safe search but had a few funny moments (funny for teacher), especially when one student was looking for pictures of houses and typed "hoes." search returned garden implements and, well, ho's. she slammed her netbook shut and raised her hand. it wasn't a bad image. just a lusty, but fully-dressed young woman. hilarious.

we spent the entire day playing, learning, doing, collaborating. we are working on thank you letters for our principal, media specialist and CTO. doing them in word with cool fonts.

so glad my room is near the wireless access point!

best day ever in our classroom. ever.