RPI - Day 9 - SHARING

Today was our final session of RPI.  It is both a great releif as well as kind of a what next moment.  

This program has been very intense (thus its name) and has required lots of extra thinking and critiquing classroom planning and practice.  I loved being reminded again of how reading is a way of students looking in mirrors, windows and sliding doors and that in many ways this is how we expose our student to the bigger wider world.

Todays session was focused on the importance of creating a reading community both within our classrooms but within the wider world too.  Students learn from us as their teachers but this is by no means the only way students learn.  Creating and sharing provides those extra opportunities for students to go back into what we are teaching them, back into what they know, back into what others around them know, to build that greater overall understanding that enables them to critically analyse the world around them.

Sharing provides the why.  The why is the Voice, Audience and the knowledge that someone else is listening to (or reading) what they are learning.  

There is the age old debate about students not having complete control over what is posted and that it has to be correct.   My current takeaway thinking on this is ...

* If it is a post that is learning orientated and is something that we as teacher deam to be a priority to share academically then we use this as a teachable moment and we look at what makes a quality post and check spelling and content.

* If it is a student lead post that is spontaneous and more social in direction then this is students just sharing and doesn't need to be checked to the same degree.  This is where student share photos of things they do at home, winning a trophy at a sports event or things that generally interest them.

This thinking is also based on my knowledge of blogging in classrooms, as well as seeing how as students progress through school their love to share seems to drop off.  My own children hear me talk about blogging and 1 in particular says he absolutely hated blogging at school and did everything he could to avoid it LOL (he popped home from work while we were in our meeting today and this was the anectodotal conversation he had with me as I was trying to focus).  This is also not what I personally experience as a year 4 teacher.  The kids seem to want to blog all the time and its more a matter of - Actually we can't right now as we have these things here to do and I won't have time to check it before you post.



I however did appreciate Kiri mentioning a strategy she used where she had different levels of quality checking for blog posts.  I'm not sure if this is where my students are at, but I know I have a few that would be not far away from the ultimate level of Independent.  So might work on this if possible. 

1. Independent,
2. Peer check
3. Teacher checked

Next steps.

• Continue with what I have already implemented
• Finish analysing my student profile data - So many great things but need time to reflect fully on this - Will blog this later as requested.
• Keep working on my whanau engagment challenges within the class and school as this is definately working and a way to engage/enthuse our students.
• Remember when looking ahead to next year to review the content of this course as there is so much I have yet to take on fully and implement - We only take on the bits we are ready for and reviewing means we can take on a few more bits each time.