Lunch and Movie with a Friend

The students can use their coins to buy lunch and movie with a friend. 

Parent Volunteers

Several of you signed up to potentially help out in the classroom.  I am trying something new this year because I would like for the volunteering to be as fair as possible and would like to give you a choice as to what you would like to do to help out.  We will see if it works well and if not we will make some in-flight adjustments to fix it.  I have created a sign up genius page where you can sign up for the date/time/activity that you would like to help out with.  The first sign up has been made for next week, the week of 8/26.  When you sign up I will get an email letting me know what you will be coming in to help with.  Just another note.... You must have had a criminal background check completed before coming in to volunteer.  I sent these papers home after I received your volunteer forms and many of you already returned them.  If you are reading this and would like to volunteer but still need a criminal history check, please contact me: tknust@pcsc.k12.in.us .  Here is the link to sign up:   Mrs. Knust's Sign Up Genius  Thanks for helping out!

Waiting on the Buses

We had a very fun time today before we loaded the buses! We did math board races on teams!

Blogging

Today we blogged for the first time!!! Check it out! http://kidblog.org/MrsKnustsClass/ 

#2ndgraderocks

Mystery Reader!

Our mystery reader for today read "Oh the Places You'll Go!" By Dr. Seuss. He did an awesome job! 

Getting to Know our Friends

Today we read Spaghetti in a Hotdog Bun and talked about the fact that even though we are all different on the outside, we all have a heart and feelings on the inside. We also talked about bullying and when to report when someone is hurting your feelings. Then we did a partner activity to find likenesses and differences with our friends. We made a Venn diagram and presented to the class. 

Caterpillar!

We are watching a monarch caterpillar in our classroom and learning about them! 

What's in the Bag Project

It was so fun to learn about my new students!  They did awesome on this project!!!!

Open House

Otwell Elementary Open House is this Thursday, Aug. 14 from 6-7 pm.  I will be leaving a special surprise on each desk for my students and their parents.  I hope to have 100% attendance!

Funny Stuff

So this is the first class ever in 16 years that has asked to do a silly picture.  I love it so I just had to post!

Luau Cupcakes and Jitter Juice!

#yum  #2ndgraderocks

First Day!

We had a great first day of 2nd grade!  We were busy, busy, busy and did not get everything done that I wanted to but that's ok!  One activity we did was with the iPads.  I had a QR code hunt posted through the hallways and the students had to scan the code to see the question.  This was a quiz about me so that they could learn a little about their new teacher. #techintheclassroom #2ndgraderocks

A New Class!

I am so very excited to be meeting my new students soon!  I look forward to this year in 2nd grade and can't wait to see my students learn and have fun!

Tech Course Reflection

In this course I read a lot of information about problem-based and project-based learning.  Although the information I read did not provide me any ideas on what to use in my classroom, it caused me to think more about it.  It is definitely my hope to use this in the upcoming school year.  Being made to transform a lesson helped me make that start.  I really like the geometry lesson that I revamped and I think my students will love it.

I think the stakeholder assignment that we had to do will be the most helpful in my professional situation.  I wrote mine as a parent letter and I think that the parents will be interested in knowing why I use so much technology in the classroom.

As far as the information being used in the rest of our school corporation, I am a member of the tech leadership team in which we are trying to bring in a 1:1 initiative.  All the reading that I did in this course will come in handy as far as being able to explain why technology is important.

Moving to a Student-centered Classroom

Being that I teach 2nd grade students, passing on the control and transitioning the learning to be more student-centered can be intimidating for the students and for me.  I begin each school year by creating a lot of structure and making sure my students know my expectations very clearly.  In the beginning we do our projects together.  I take it step by step, modeling every little detail.

In my lessons I often say things like, "I don't know the answer to that question but I know how to find it!"  I show them how to Google their questions.  I show them how to look at maps online and YouTube videos. I show my students how I blog to communicate with others.   I try to take every teachable moment possible to demonstrate how to take learning into their own hands.

Once I know that my students are grasping the basics, I give them more freedom.  For example, at the end of this last school year I had my students do a research project.  This was very student-centered and each student worked at their own pace.  They Googled to find information and pictures and created their own slide presentations.  There were some reluctant students whom I had to show more support to but for the most part, the class was very eager to have the independence and make the learning their own.

As far as "teaching students to demonstrate their master/understanding without explicit requirements," I feel like the modeling and setting of the structure in my classroom takes care of that.  When my students know that I have high expectations in all that they do, they will understand what I want to see when they are in control of their own learning experiences.