Mr. Hill’s Class Gets It!
I am sure many teachers pulled out their tried-and-true first days of school “all about me” activities this week. Mr. Hill had a great new take on it. He capitalized on exactly what fourth graders would be thinking about on the first day of school…being scared. He has a cool Scooby Doo graphic that probably really helped the kids understand and set the stage for the discussions. CLICK HERE to see his blog post.
He clearly lays out the process for his students: (1) brainstorm using a thinking map (2) decide how to respond and (3) decide who will use the keyboard. I’ll bet this was a fun activity for his kids. (Mr. Hill, if you read this, comment back and let us know.) How much more engaging would this activity be in contrast to filling out the same old “Student Information Sheets” one the third day of school?
My favorite student responses:
“I might get a very mean teacher and she or he will be mean to me. By doing something
nice I can conquuer my mean teacher.”
and
“People might be so mean to me and make me nervous and make fun of me. I will defet my fears by not lisning to our heads and lisin to ar harts.”
Way to go Mr. Hill and kids! I am happy to see you using your class blog in a cool way. Keep it up!
Inspired Classrooms 
on August 31, 2006 on 9:44 pm
Thank you so much for recognizing my blog! I tell you, my kids were PUMPED when we looked at your comment on our blog- they were so excited to know that other teachers in Irving were looking at their work and congratulating them! It has really been a great tool in the class- I’ve used it twice now, and while it’s taken them a while to get used to the format (typing, knowing how to post a comment, etc.), I can tell I’m going to use it frequently this year. The kids LOVE it- they get so excited when their post appears online. I’m going to make it an integral part of my center routine, especially once the kids get comfortable enough with it to use independently. The inspired classroom in general has worked so well this first week and a half- it’s been a BIG change, but a good one. I encourage you all- if you aren’t already set up in the inspired way, you can do SO MUCH!!