New School Year Surprises
By Maria Croley, MS Spanish
8th grade fashionistas…
and it’s not who you might think it is!
I am consistently amazed and amused by my students! One of the things I love about my 8th grade classes this year is that I get to teach half of the students I taught last year. One of the advantages of teaching the same kids two years in a row is the level of comfort reached in the classroom early on in the year. This became so evident yesterday when six of my eighth grade boys proceeded to model the clothing I had brought into the classroom to help us review clothing / color vocabulary. I never intended for them to put the clothes on… my clothes! They had so much fun! They amused themselves, the class and me- and it really was a great learning tool. When I suggested taking a picture, one of the boys immediately grabbed my laptop and snapped this photo…priceless!
One of the most fascinating new tools I’ve implemented this year in my classroom is the online learning environment- Moodle. I have one for each of my class periods, and I love using it. It was wonderful way to begin going “paperless.” I am able to post notes about class, link to Quia quizzes and websites, and even have students hand-in assignments that can be automatically graded. It is a private site- that requires log-in, so even though it is web-based, the security is still in place. That being said, I also want to say that there is no substitution for one-on-one relationships and the power of a face to face conversation. I think one of the advantages we have being in a community like Lovett is the rapport we have with our students. This rapport allows us the flexibility of being able to explore new technologies, such as laptops in the classroom, blogging and online learning environments such as Moodle. I think that our relationships with our students will become increasingly important and more valuable as we continue to define how we, as educators navigate the 21st century shift.
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