Morning Meeting with Ms. Lyle's Crocodiles

Walk into Kate Lyle's third grade classroom in the morning and you will find her students engaged in their Morning Meeting routine. The students are on-task, listening to each other, greeting their classmates, and having a lot of fun!  I have been fortunate to be in a few of Kate's morning meetings and decided to find out the secret to her success.

Mia offered her thoughts on how the Morning Meeting runs each day.  "First, we all sit in a circle.  We start with a greeting.  For example, we can do the backwards name greeting, the ball with a silent rewind greeting, or the formal greeting with a handshake.  Sometimes we share in morning meeting.  Ms. Lyle also picks people to read the morning message and write the date on the Smartboard and to read the daily schedule."

I was in Kate's room this morning for the ball greeting.  Students gently tossed a large inflatable "globe" ball to each other while saying, "Good morning, ______ (insert name)."  Once they caught the ball, they were allowed to share something exciting from Thanksgiving break.  I learned that Ishan went to Florida, Ms. Lyle and Charlie are getting new cars, Nicole went to a movie, and Ben went to the King Tut exhibit with his aunt and cousin.  The students were very excited to share their adventures from the four day vacation. 

Other students chimed in their thoughts about Morning Meeting.  Edan said it's important to do each day because "you know what's happening that day and you get to recognize everyone in your class."  Ben noted that, "Morning meeting lets us start the day as a community."  Kayla commented that, "We get to socialize before we start the day.  My favorite greeting is called Hit the Floor."  I was intrigued, so I asked her to describe this greeting to me.  Hit the Floor is a greeting incorporating a lot of movement.  Students chant, "1, 2, 3, 4, come on _________ (insert name), hit the floor!"  The student who has his/her name called can then go into the center of the circle for a quick dance break.  If the child doesn't want to dance, he/she can hit their hands on the floor.  I definitely want to be in Kate's class the next time they do this greeting!

Finally, I asked Kate her thoughts on the importance of Morning Meeting.  She felt that it was key to do each day because every student feels acknowledged and comfortable in their community. 

Building community is basis for an effective learning environment.  Kate's commitment to the Social Skills curriculum, including the Morning Meeting, enables her students to feel welcomed,  to learn to take risks, and to celebrate each other's unique qualities.  I highly encourage you to visit Ms. Lyle's Crocodiles during one of their Morning Meetings.  You will feel like a part of their community immediately!

Podcasting Personal Narratives

Second grade students love to talk.  They love to tell their personal stories and anecdotes to all types of audiences. Second grade students also love to write.  Pop into a classroom during Writer's Workshop to see the children concentrating as they try to capture their ideas on paper. Thea Wirkus-Platz recently capitalized on these two truths by designing a project for her second grade classroom that allowed students to combine their love of writing with their love of talking.  The result....podcasting personal narratives!

This project began within the Writing Workshop unit of study on personal narratives.  Students chose to write about special events in their lives and illustrate their writing in their own books.  The second part of this unit was turning these stories into podcasts.  Thea utilized Audacity to capture her students' writing and create podcasts of their narratives. (If you are wondering what is a podcast, it's simply an audio or video file available to you on the web to either listen to or watch.  I regularly listen to different podcasts on my drive to school each morning via my Iphone on topics ranging from using Smartboards in the classroom to training your dog).

I was fortunate to be in the computer lab with Thea's class with a group of students learning how to podcast.  I listened attentively as one girl told the story of how she got her dog and a boy told the story of his first roller coaster ride with his mother.  The roller coaster story began with, "I hear a BOOM!  I hear an AAGGHH!  I'm scared to go on the roller coaster."  I could imagine the fear and excitement that this student had felt during his first roller coaster ride by his word choice and the sound of his voice. It was fascinating to see how enthusiastic the students were as they created these podcasts.  They had clearly practiced reading their stories as they read into their microphones with amazing fluency, expression, and inflection.

After creating their podcasts, Thea had each student write a self reflection using Max Write relating to this unit of study.  She asked the questions:

• Did you like making a podcast?
• Would you rather write your personal narrative using paper and pencil or create a podcast of your personal narrative?
• Why did you like podcasting?

Students also drew a picture of their podcasting experience.  Below are examples of the students' reflections.

Thea is planning on posting all of the student's podcasts on to her Blackboard page for families to enjoy.  

I asked some of the second graders what they thought about the podcasting project.  One girl told me it was important to do because, "All kinds of people get to hear my story."  Another student commented that, "More people get to hear our stories about special events in our lives.  We can share them with the world!"  Clearly even the second graders could appreciate the benefits of using this technology in a classroom as it gave them a real world audience for their stories.  Their writing was no longer confined to the classroom setting, they had an authentic purpose for crafting their stories, and their motivation increased as the new technology was introduced.   

Want to learn more about the potential of podcasting in the classroom?  Be sure to stop Thea or her students when you see them in the halls to ask them about this special project.  I know that they will be excited to share their learning with the CES community!

Want to learn more about podcasting in education?  Check out:

http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/