What I had said before that got eaten by the blog monster was that part of my renewed passion for blogging is to get in the habit of regular writing.  I have always had this deep seeded urge to write, but never sure about what and doubtful that anyone else would care to read it.  So I thought, why blog?  It would be like talking to myself, but I guess I do that already, so what’s the harm?

One of the huge motivators for this is that I am pursing my National Board Certification.  If you have been through this process you are well aware of the amount of writing involved.  Now I realize National Board writing and blogging are really not in the same leauge of writing with the previous being way more academic than my blogging style, but my hope was that through regular blogging I would be less reticent about writing for my portfolio.  As of this point I have yet to write anything significant for my portfolio, but I am in super planning and executing mode, so I know I will have something on paper for my portfolio very soon.  I had hoped to post it here, so I guess it is a good thing that Steve’s 4th assignment was about protecting your content.  I may have something worth stealing one day. haha

Ok I hope the blog monster doesn’t eat this one! (Mrs. Ruiz crosses her fingers…)

Assignment 4 was to use Creative Commons to obtain a content license.  I did so and got this:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

I said some other stuff, but I am too frustrated at the moment to redo it.  Oh well.

Assignment 3:  Write a thank you note

Hmmmm, sounds simple enough, I think I have written a few of those before.

Since I am a new blogger, Steve says “Pick out a blogger who in some way influenced your decision to begin blogging and write them a thank you note.”  Well, that would have to be Steve!

So I would like to publicly thank Steve Dembo for the amazing work that he does with Discovery Education.  He has repeatedly shared his techic knowledge with scores of teachers and we have all benefited tremendously from it.  I think it was a wonderful idea when he came up with this whole series on blogging.  I have always wanted to be a better blogger and just never knew where to start.  He made it simple and fun.  So thank you Steve for all you do for bloggers and teachers and techies everywhere!

30D2BBB

I have 3 websites I have created and maintain, the oldest of these being 3 years old.  I hate to admit that I never bothered to look at my stats…ever.  I didn’t see the point.  My oldest site is my class website.  I created it strictly for classroom use.  I knew my kids were using it because I made them…those were my stats.   I think I may have also ignored stats on it before because I don’t think my host (Start Logic - Great host!) had very easy to read reports.  They have recently done a revamp and the visitor report is awesome and easy to read.  I only came to know this because I started a side business and hooked up with a consultant that forced me to look at my stats.  So that is kind of what Steve is talking about with site traffic, only in this case specific to this blog.  So I’ve got to add some special thingys to it to start getting some data.  I guess I figure no one is really reading this except for Lori and Mark when I started it a several months back.  So I guess I know I’ve had at least 2 hits! haha

Ok, I’ve got Site Meter all set up now.  I will have to check it later to see if I got it going right.  Now onto Google Analytics…  Oh, that one is scary!  haha  I signed up for it easily enough, but then it threw this large amount of HTML code at me with some cryptic note about posting that code on every page I wanted to track….  Uh….what?  I think I like Site Meter better, was MUCH more user friendly.  Guess I will only be going with one tracker for the moment!

Assignment 1:  The “About Page”

I think I had this set up, but I am not sure now, so I will have to go check.  Ok I checked, it was terrible, surprise surprise.  So I made it better.  Check it out by clicking the “About” tab above.  See you tomorrow for day 2!

Having a combination class is a lot of work.  I am not complaining, I am just stating a fact.  I strive to deliver quality instruction that meets state standards and utilize the district approved curriculum, in a way that will engage, enrich, and motivate my students.  This is no small task.  I know I can’t teach perfectly all the time and it frustrates me when a lesson doesn’t come together as I would have liked.  I have learned to reflect on my teaching to refine my practices and sometimes I need more reflection time than others.  I feel as thought the class is coming into a rhythm now that the new school year is into it’s second full week.  We will have Response to Instruction starting August 25th, which will change things a bit more for our class rhythm, but I know it will be for the better.  I will have more opportunities to work with each grade level in isolation and be more like a small 4th grade (12 students) or small 5th grade (17 students) class.  I feel strengthened by the fact that I know my administration is behind me and looking out for my combination class as much as possible.  Finding the balance between 2 grade levels curriculum’s has proven to be a challenge, but it is not impossible.  I believe it is just challenging my imagination more than it has been challenged in the past.  I am having to find creative ways to blend the material or creative ways to keep one grade level meaningfully engaged in a relevant task while I work with the other grade level.  Fortunately for me I have technology on my side and I am drawing on the many things I have learned from the DEN.  My students are just crazy about blogging and so much more than any other class I have had.  The love to post, reply to forum topics, vote in polls, and upload and comment on their favorite photos.  They will be webquesting soon as well and I look forward to the projects they will create. 

Overall there is so much to think about as a teacher in planning for your class, and for the combination class there is even more.

I am very excited to be working with the group of students I have this year.  My 5th graders are very bright and well mannered.  They are outstanding role models for my 4th graders.  I am so pleased with my 4th graders too!  They are also very well mannered and handling being in the same room with 5th graders very well.  Both grade levels are working very well together, so much so that it is hard to remember who is a 4th grader!  They are all lovely children and I am glad to call them my class!  I am not sure how many actually read this, but I want to thank all the students, parents, and teachers who have been gracious enough to share there thoughts with me about this combination class. I take it all to heart and it definitely helps shape my teaching.  Thank you all!

P.S.  Feel free to comment to my blog so I know you are out there!