Mrs. R's Challenging Perspective

I am so excited to be going back into my OWN classroom after 12 years. I am excited to use what I've learned in these 2 challenge classes. They classes came at the PERFECT time for me!! They helped remind me of the nuances of teaching...the little details. They reignighted my excitement to try new things in my classroom. They helped reinforce to me of my love of learning and teaching. I can't wait!

Right now, I use technology in my classroom as a information source, a communication tool, and production tool. It benefits my gifted students because I have a "must complete portion" - these are for everyone. I also have an "extras" portion - these are extra videos to watch or games to play that are content based and intended to be for my gifted and talented students, who will finish the "must complete" portion quickly. It keeps my gifted students engaged and on topic, while getting to experience some different experience. Sometimes, I will have my other students ask if they can watch the videos or play the games at home, which I encourage because I want them to be excited about learning. I know that I could make this more challenging for my gifted and talented students, and I plan on continuing to work towards that. I want to be better about using Technology as a Interactive Learning Tool. A lot of these things came about over the past 12 years while I ...

I recently read a blog - https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/grecian-urn-lesson/. It described how sometimes our beautiful projects and assignments can be a "Grecian Urn." We can sometimes find ourselves focusing some much on the "thing" or product that the students are creating, that we forget to focus on what we are wanting them to learn from it. I think this blog is a very effective tool to remind us to look at the big picture of a project. What is goal the product? How is this helping them learn? What are we wanting it to show us that they have learned? After reading this blog, it had me re-evaluate, tweak, and add to a project that was given to me to use in my 3rd/4th grade IMA class! Now when I am planning, I say to myself, "is this a Grecian Urn?" when deciding what and how to access my students. Projects can produce beautiful work...but was it worth the time and effort that went in to it? Did they learn the standards that we were addressing?...or did t...