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!!