C4T #4

Holiday Card Exchange Project

I was assigned to Mrs. Kelly Hines for my fourth C4T assignment. I originally was assigned to her blog entitled "Keeping Kids First," but the last post she made directed all of her readers to her her new blog, "In the Trenches." Mrs. Hines is in her 14th year of teaching in Piedmont, North Carolina. In the blog post I read, "Holiday Card Exchange Project," Mrs. Hines explained a project that she did with her class. She got the idea for the project from a website called Projects by Jen. Mrs. Hines described how she wanted to celebrate the holidays with her students, while also making a variety of curricular and cultural connections. She included a component of service by having her class send a card to a children’s charity. Along with sending the cards, Mrs. Hines urged teachers to do a few things: pin a Google Map where students can see where their cards are going, have the students research the place where their letters are going, and make Skype calls with the classes you are coordinating with to share about the letters. Along with these suggestions, Mrs. Hines also urged teachers to blog about the experience of sending and exchanging cards.

In my first comment to Mrs. Hines, I began by introducing myself and letting her know that for my EDM310 class I would be commenting on her blog for the next few weeks. I gave her my email address and links to both my personal blog and the class blog. I praised Mrs. Hines for her great post, and I let her know that I really enjoyed learning about the holiday card exchange project. Since I am studying to become a teacher, I told her how much I appreciated hearing present teachers' suggestions on projects. I went on to tell her how vital I thought it was for students to be taught the importance of serving and helping others. I also told her how neat I thought it was that she pinned a Google Map for her kids to see where there cards were going. I concluded by thanking her for her wonderful post and ideas.

Genre Posters & Ideas

The second post I read of Mrs. Hines's was entitled "Genre Posters & Ideas." I really enjoyed reading all of Mrs. Hines's posts because she always provides fun ideas for the classroom. In this post, she describes how teachers and students can utilize posters in the classroom. She found a really great blog entitled "Think Share Teach" where she discovered an awesome Polka Dot Genre Poster that was completely free to download. She told us how she printed hers and laminated it on 18"x24" construction paper with a large open space at the bottom for her students to add thoughts and ideas to. She said that she would also let her students write the titles of the books they are reading on small sticky notes and leave them on the right genre poster so they can track the types of books they're reading. She concluded her post by asking her readers what ideas they could come up with for these awesome print-outs.

In my second comment to Mrs. Hines, I praised her for another wonderful post full of great ideas. I let her know that I explored the "Think Share Teach" blog like she suggested and that I found many more great ideas for the classroom there as well. I told her that because I am studying to become a future teacher, I always enjoy finding as many resources possible from present teachers. I also told her that I thought posters were a great way for students to become engaged in learning while having a great time doing so. I mentioned that posters were also a great way to add colorful decorations to the classroom, which is always a plus. I let Mrs. Hines know that English was my focus in college, so I really appreciated her reference of the polka dot genre posters. These posters are a great way for students to learn the different types of reading genres. I concluded my comment to Mrs. Hines by thanking her for her wonderful idea of these posters, and I let her know that I looked forward to reading more of her great thoughts and ideas.