Well today is the big day, I'm finally jumping into the world of blogging. I've read and gathered ideas from blogs for a long time and feel others may be able to use a few of my ideas, learn from my mistakes and share in those rare perfect days.
Currently I'm a 3rd grade teacher who's taught 2nd and 4th grades as well. Looping is my preferred state of being. Working with the same group of kids and families for 2 years is amazing. When we get into the 2nd year of the loop, the class is off and running during the first week.
The name of my blog, Digging into Learning, is the heart of my classroom and how I operate as a teacher. The mind of a child is amazing to open up to real thinking. At times kids struggle and get to a point of feeling they can't and are awestruck when they find they can do it. We just finished a long month of writing informational text in different structures. This is pretty challenging work for third grade kids, probably most adults. It was crunch time and all the kids were feeling the stress of a deadline. One of my more needy girls was feeling like she just couldn't finish and struggled through the cause and effect piece. Rather than help her write each sentence, I've suggested she look at some of the anchor charts around the room, think through what ideas she wants her reader to get out of her piece, think through all she had learned about the structure and to trust herself.
The next day we were putting together our published pieces and she came up to me. This girl who struggled so much informed me, "Ya know, during this unit it was REALLY hard, but ya know what? I'm really proud of myself for doing this." Moments like this are why we do, what we do.
Joy
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