Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Students as Teachers!

Mrs. Yollis' students are not only students, they are also teachers!
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Today several teachers from the district visited our classroom to learn about how we integrate technology in our learning.

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During our Language Arts period,
Mrs. Yollis' class worked toward finishing a future post that uses student-created images and high-level writing.



Above, third graders
discussed and evaluated
their images for the post.
Questions included:
  1. Why did you pose this way in your image?
  2. What story are you trying to tell with your image?
  3. What makes your image a good one for the Internet?
    * * * * *



    Above, students typed their text on their wireless computers and then peer-edited.

    In Mrs. Yollis' class, everyone strives for high-level vocabulary words to insert in their paragraphs.

    How did it feel to be a teacher?
    What do you think your students will do with your information?

    18 comments:

    1. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

      I was very nervous, but happy atthe same time, and I think the teachers will do the same thing that we do with the information that they got from us. Did you ever have teachers as students to you, and did they come into your classroom? Did they ask you any questions?

      Your buddy,
      Kayla

      ReplyDelete
    2. Dear Mrs. Yollis' class,

      I was one of the teachers who visited today. I want to thank you for allowing me the privilege of observing your class. I was so impressed by how hard all of you work on your blog postings and the excellent quality of your writing. I am confident that the experience you gain from blogging with Mrs. Yollis this year will help you all become outstanding writers. I look forward to reading more of your work and sharing it with my own students, who are 7th graders.

      Sincerely,
      Mrs. Lofton
      Lindero Canyon Middle School

      ReplyDelete
    3. Dear Mrs. Yollis
      I had a fantastic time today with the other teachers that came to learn about making a blog. I'm sure that they are going to have great blogs. They are probrably not going to show too much of thier face, and tell their students not to.
      From,
      Gal

      ReplyDelete
    4. Wow Mrs. Yollis it looks like you were very busy today. I am so impressed with your class and their blogging!

      Mrs. Levy

      ReplyDelete
    5. Dear Mrs. Yollis' class,

      One thing that you didn't mention in your blog was that I was lucky enough to be your teacher for just a little while when Mrs. Yollis was speaking to the group of adults. What a great class you are! I was very impressed at how well you corrected homework together and helped each other when needed. Someone will have to tell me how "Badger Claws" ends because I haven't read that story and I wonder how the boy will do living on his own in the mountains.

      It was a treat to be with you as your teacher and I am so proud that you were excellent teachers for our visitors.

      Mrs. Harding

      ReplyDelete
    6. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

      I think the teachers will tell their classes about the information we gave them. I really liked being a teacher to the other teachers. I hope most of those teachers leave a comment on our class blog. What was your favorite part about having the teachers over in our class room?

      Sincerely,
      Nick

      ReplyDelete
    7. Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,

      I feel so fortunate to have visited your class yesterday. I really learned a lot from you and I will be starting a blog with my own class very soon! I have been somewhat apprehensive about starting a class blog, but after visiting all of you, I feel very confident about blogging in the classroom.

      Thanks for letting us come and visit you all. I look forward to corresponding with you again.

      Sincerely,
      Mrs. Madden
      Sumac School

      ReplyDelete
    8. @Kayla,

      I agree with you that it was exciting to have the teachers come and watch our Language Arts blogging period, but I felt a little nervous, too! I have had teachers come in the classroom before, but not a group of twenty-four!
      Thanks for helping out!

      @Mrs. Lofton,

      Thank you for your kind words! We look forward to hearing from your middle school students. We wonder which of our posts will be the most interesting to them. :-)

      @Mrs. Levy,

      Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. We commented on your first grade blog this morning. I haven't told my class about the special project we're doing together in December! I wonder who will read about it right here! :-)

      @Mrs. Harding,

      Thank you so much for being our substitute teacher for a portion of the morning. My students thought you were very professional and you seemed to know exactly what to do. :-) My students wanted to know if you are available to substitute for me if I am ever out. I told them...I think being principal is a full-time job!

      @Nick,
      Thanks for a great comment! In response to your question about my favorite part, I would say I loved that teachers are thinking about integrating technology in their classroom. All of you have become better writers and readers, and that is because of your participation on this blog!

      @Mrs. Madden,

      Thanks for visiting and for leaving a thoughtful comment! We hope that when you start a blog you will let us know so we can visit and comment back to you!

      From,
      Mrs. Yollis

      ReplyDelete
    9. Dear Mrs. Yollis's class,

      You are all great teachers. I loved watching your class and I have learned a lot about blogging from your demonstrations. It is clear to me that you plan carefully prior to writing your blogs. Each piece makes me want to learn more about your topic.

      As the Assistant Superintendent for Education, I get into a lot of classrooms. My experience in your class ranks among the best I have had. What impressive writers you all are!

      Thank you for spending time with the teachers who visited you. They have all expressed how much they enjoy their experience.

      Congratulations on your most recent nomination!

      Regards,

      Mary Schillinger
      Assistant Superintendent Education
      LVUSD

      ReplyDelete
    10. Dear Mrs. Yollis' class,

      Thank you so much for being such great teachers. It was so much fun visiting your class and learning about how you blog and what you post. Your postings are very impressive. In fact, I shared your blog with my 6th grade glass today. They were so impressed with how professional your posts were that they have promised to use proper spelling, grammar and letter writing skills when they blog and post comments.

      Thanks again for an informative and fun morning.

      Sincerely,
      Sheryl Weiss
      A.E. Wright Middle School

      ReplyDelete
    11. Dear Mrs. Yollis' class,

      Thank you so much for sharing your time and enthusiasm with us. I was very impressed with your keyboarding skills and the quality of your writing and I look forward to following you throughout the year.

      Keep up the great work!

      Sincerely,
      Ms. Hamre

      ReplyDelete
    12. Dear Mrs. Yollis,


      I felt great when one of the teachers came up to me and asked me a question. It is so funny that the teachers were students, and we were teachers. What did you think about 24 teachers in our class being students?

      Your friend,
      Jared

      ReplyDelete
    13. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

      I felt really nervous the day before the teachers came in. The moment the teachers came in I felt happy to be teaching teachers! I hope the teachers who didn't comment, comment and see how it felt to be students.

      Sincerely,
      Caleb

      ReplyDelete
    14. Dear Mrs. Schillinger,
      It was very nice to meet you. I enjoyed having you in our class.
      Thank you also for the 4GB flash drive! I was very excited to have my own flash drive. I couldn't wait to show my parents. Now I can work at home and bring my work back to school.
      Sincerely,
      Trent
      (Mrs. Yollis' student)

      ReplyDelete
    15. Dear Mrs. Yollis' class,

      I was one of the teachers who visited your class last week. I would like to say how very impressed I was by the knowledge of each student whom I spoke with individually. You each really know a lot about computers, technology, and blogging!

      My 4th grade students have been using Moodle to publish their writing, but they haven't been quite as thorough as you have been. I think that once I show them how professional your 3rd grade writing looks, they will be more motivated to improve their writing, too!

      Thank you again for allowing us to visit your classroom.

      Mrs. Maxwell
      White Oak Elementary

      P.S. I think your teacher has some pretty cool ideas, don't you?

      ReplyDelete
    16. Dear Mrs. Yollis' class,
      Thank you for letting us visit your class last week. I was very impressed with your classroom blog and all the followers you have from other countries. I especially like how your comments are in letter form. I look forward to following your blog!

      Sincerely,
      Mrs. Folkeson

      ReplyDelete
    17. Dear Mrs. Yollis' Class,
      I was so impressed with all the fun things you are doing with computers & technology! Wish I was a third grader again!
      You rock!
      Mrs. Benning (Media Specialist)

      ReplyDelete
    18. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

      I felt a little nervous about teaching teachers instead of them teaching us. It turned out that two people asked me about the AlphaSmart that I had and one person asked about the blog. I'm glad that people asked me questions because I thought that nobody would ask me.

      From,
      Ava

      ReplyDelete

    * * *
    Getting feedback is important to our writers. Let us know what you liked or what you learned.

    Steps to Comment:

    1. Write your comment in the box below. Be sure that you have proofread it for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. Students should have a parent check it!

    2. Choose an identity. (If you have a gmail account, use it. If not, choose name/url. You can leave the url blank if you do not have a blog.)

    3. Click "Publish your Comment". You may preview your comment before publishing if you'd like.


    Important: All comments MUST be approved by me.
    :-) Mrs. Yollis