Reflective Teaching 30 Day Blog Challenge Day 5 - My Classrrom

Day 5: Post a picture of your classroom and describe what you see....and what you don't see that you would like to.

For three years now I have not had my own classroom.  I help teachers integrate technology into learning, which takes me in to many classrooms.  In these classrooms I see students using technology more than ever before.

1st grade students creating books

A 3rd grade student working on her first Google Doc

One of my favorite photos: demonstrating the importance of mobile devices
to allow students to move and find the right 'space' to learn

What I would like to see more, is collaboration and sharing. Critical learning is missed when we don't encourage students to explain their thinking, share their ideas and collaborate to solve problems.  As we start this new year I hope to be able to create more opportunities like this for students.

Students collaborating on their coding projects

While working with 5th grades students on coding projects I observed many instances of spontaneous collaboration.  Students would group up to discuss how to solve a problem or to share a new accomplishment. We also encouraged students to share each stage of the process as they were creating with the class by projecting their working via Apple TV and the projector.

This picture is awesome because it shows students working together in informal groups
and you can also see that students are watching someone sharing their work
with the class via the projector. So much collaboration and sharing!