What Would You Do If You Had A Wall Where You Could Post Ideas Daily?



Idea Wall



Dear Students and Parents,

I would like to open up a digital collaborative post-it board/idea wall for our classroom by using Wallwisher, an online notice wall maker.

I would like to hear your ideas, opinions and suggestions regarding our classroom community, field trips, lessons and assessments.

At the end of every week, I will arrange the posts on our classroom Wallwisher idea wall and provide feedback. I am sure we can use our idea wall in many different ways to promote learning in our classroom. As always, please remember to be respectful of your learning community when you are sharing your ideas. Thank you. Enjoy posting on our class wall!

 

Classroom Wallwisher Idea Wall

Here is a video tutorial about how to use Wallwisher

Our Class "Wordle Word Cloud" About Being A Good Listener

Be A Good Listener

Dear Students,

As part of our upcoming unit about community, we have invited a surprise guest speaker to our classroom to inform us about a community agency. Of course, when we invite a guest speaker to talk to us, we have to listen not only to show respect and appreciation for the guest speaker's time, but to learn and participate in the discussion as well. So, we decided to review our previous knowledge about being a good listener.

After our discussion, the members of our class community have spoken! Here is what you came up with to create this Wordle Word Cloud to express what you think being a good listener means to you. This is also a good way to share what is important to you and to brush up on your listening skills. Use the What Our Class Thinks Being A Good Listener Means link to see what you have created and enjoy listening to the surprise guest speaker next week!

Our Class Wordle Word Cloud

What Our Class Thinks Being A Good Listener Means





Discussion Prompt For Our Upcoming Unit: "Participating in Our Community"

Helping Hands

Dear Students,

Our upcoming unit is "Participating in Our Community."  In this unit, we will explore topics such as being a responsible community member; understanding the law, our community resources, and opportunities for volunteering. I am as excited as you are to go out and meet our community members, utilize volunteering opportunities and prepare a delicious Thanksgiving meal with other classes for our annual fundraiser!

Our classroom and school are an important part of our community, too. This is why, for our class discussion next Wednesday, this is what you will do:

• Choose a social topic in our school to educate other students about.

• Let our classroom helper Ms. Voki Avatar assist you in organizing your thoughts! Use the link below to hear Ms. Avatar walk you through the steps. You will need to write down what the issue is, who is affected by it and ideas for a solution.

        Useful Tip: You can listen to Ms. Avatar as many times as you need. She is more than happy to help! 

Classroom Helper Ms. Voki Avatar helps you with your discussion prompt

Ms. Voki Avatar

• After our discussion in our classroom, we will use http://edu.glogster.com/ to create an interactive poster in order to educate and persuade others in our school community to take action or become a part of the solution to the problem you are addressing.

You can learn more about Glogster here

Reading Tips and Strategies for Parents

Many of you have been asking how to help improve your child's reading at home. There are simple things that you can do to support your child in improving fluency and comprehension, which in turn will help with their overall success. Try to read to and read with your child every day. Shared reading is a good way to improve your child's reading. There are various ways to do "shared reading." I will give some examples:

• When you read with your child, take turns reading. You can determine the length of the reading, according to your child's comfort level. For example, you read one paragraph, and your child reads the next; or you read a page, and your child reads the next page.

• Try "choral reading" which is reading aloud together in unison with your child. Running your finger under the words while you read together will help your child to follow.

• When your child is reading, if there is a word  he/she can't read, don't stop your child to sound out the word or correct a mistake. Instead, let your child pass over that word and come to the end of the sentence. After that you can go back together to the unfamiliar word and work on reading it again.

• Instead of giving your child the word, guide them by asking questions, such as "Did that sound right to you?" or "What sound would make sense here?" This way, you can coach your child in figuring out a tricky word that he/she is unfamiliar with.

• Make the shared reading time a fun time you share with your child. Give a lot of positive feedback and praise to see your child's self-esteem and love of reading grow at the same time!

Welcome to Mrs. Maffia's Blog!

Welcome to my classroom blog. I hope to create a digital platform where educators, students, and parents can get together to share ideas and learn from each-other.

My Educational Philosophy

See my interactive educational philosophy poster here