Today the Third grade put on a play about the Mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim, a topic they learned about in Chumash. The play was excellent and Kol Hakavod to Morah Yehudit for her efforts.
I wanted to recap what I said and what Morah Yehudit said at the play about how this short 20 min. play is so important to what and how we are teaching our students.
In my previous post I mentioned the importance of having students engaged in the learning process. What better way to have them engaged than having them put on a play showing what they learned in class. It also gave them an opportunity to put the Hebrew they learned to practical use by speaking and doing the play completely in Hebrew. Finally the play also showed relevance in that what we learned in Chumash is not just stories about the Avot but it applies today to our daily lives.
We should all be proud and have Nachat from our children and student, but we should realize that a play is more than just fun activity but it is actually a great learning experience as well.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving and Shabbat Shalom
Akevy
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Blogging= Engaged Students
A while ago someone I follow on Twitter (@shareski) wrote a post that to be an excellent teacher all you need to do is blog ( I am simplifying it a lot).
However what I can say is that if you want students to be engaged then simply blog. I set up a blog for each of my fifth grade students using kidblog.org . Then I gave them a choice of topics to write about and asked them to comment on at least two other blog posts. I must be honest the writing and the comments need some work but the enthusiasm was amazing. Students were looking to see who commented on their blog and one point a student said "how come nobody commented on mine yet." When we got back to class one student said "boy that was fun" another commented "can we do that again" . Later that day I left some feedback and comments on each post. Then an amazing thing happened today a day later students came in and said I read your comment but I didn't have a chance to edit my post and another said "when are we blogging again".
During a recent #edchat( a forum on Twitter to discuss relevant issues in Education) someone commented that students are blogging anyway why not bring into the classroom. That is so true ,we have a perfect opportunity here to make a connection and relate to our students on their terms and in their world why not take advantage of it an make it a learning experience.
Once students are engaged and are excited about what they are doing the learning happens almost automatically.
Akevy
However what I can say is that if you want students to be engaged then simply blog. I set up a blog for each of my fifth grade students using kidblog.org . Then I gave them a choice of topics to write about and asked them to comment on at least two other blog posts. I must be honest the writing and the comments need some work but the enthusiasm was amazing. Students were looking to see who commented on their blog and one point a student said "how come nobody commented on mine yet." When we got back to class one student said "boy that was fun" another commented "can we do that again" . Later that day I left some feedback and comments on each post. Then an amazing thing happened today a day later students came in and said I read your comment but I didn't have a chance to edit my post and another said "when are we blogging again".
During a recent #edchat( a forum on Twitter to discuss relevant issues in Education) someone commented that students are blogging anyway why not bring into the classroom. That is so true ,we have a perfect opportunity here to make a connection and relate to our students on their terms and in their world why not take advantage of it an make it a learning experience.
Once students are engaged and are excited about what they are doing the learning happens almost automatically.
Akevy
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