C4T Summary #4

This month, we were allowed to choose our own teacher blog to comment on. I chose Primary Perspective by Deb Frazier based on the facts that 1. she teaches first grade which is one of the grades I would like to teach, and 2. it appeared she was very up-to-date. Unfortunately, however, my first comment has yet to be approved and she hasn't posted anything in over a month. Anyway, I did still find her posts very interesting.

In "Shelfari~ Another Tool in Building Wild Readers", Ms. Frazier writes about a website that allows people to create virtual bookshelves. She registers her students and they create their own shelves of books they have read or wish to read. This is really exciting for her class because they can share the books with their classmates and even tweet them out for a larger audience to see.
In my comment, I told Ms. Frazier that I had never heard of Shelfari. I think it sounds like a great resource, though, especially considering how excited the students get about it. I'm really glad I came to her blog and found this post, because Shelfari is definitely something I want to keep in mind for my own classroom.

"The Best Part of Teaching~ Learning Alongside the Kids" focuses on what Ms. Frazier has learned from her students recently. She mentions that during the day they form a circle to share their work, but one day they shared books instead because that is what she overheard the kids already talking about. This worked so well that she began doing the same with their writing as well. She even says that she may have them sharing digitally to ensure that every student is being heard.
My comment is as follows:
It really is amazing what you can learn from students! I've only spent a limited amount of time in classrooms so far in my schooling, but I've still probably learned more from the children than they've learned from me. Your post is a great reminder to listen on in their conversations and see what they are interested in. It's great to take that and run with it to turn it into a great learning experience as well as a simple conversation.