Enough THINKING. Time for ACTION.

I spend a lot of time in my head about everything. My son broke his arm last week and had surgery to realign his bone, which gave me LOTS of time to sit and think about things as I nursed him in the hospital and at home.

I thought about what I am doing with my students. I have 6 computers that they only use when they are looking for library books. I have students for 50 minutes per week where 20 of those minutes are used for check out. What can I do with students for 30 minutes, 1x per week, that allows them to CREATE and PRODUCE, and allows me to TEACH. I am currently focused on retelling techniques. A few of my classes are doing puppet shows and some are learning to retell a story with string. I always feel that what I do is not enough. I want to have time to talk to them about searching the internet, taking notes, using reference sources, finding what they need in the library, current events, etc. etc.

This week I thought about focusing on those 6 computers and how I can engage the other 14-22 students in some other independent activity. I have been researching implementing library centers for a while. I think its time to stop THINKING about it and time to DO it and see what happens.

I just received my Califone MP3 Center!!

I ordered a Califone MP3 listening center for the library. The only thing is...I can't get my computer so recognize the device. The software that came with it is from Lexmark and I don't see anything in the software that resembles an MP3 driver. The website is no help...sigh. I will figure it out by the end of the week...hopefully.

I am so excited about starting library centers with my kids. I know that we will be working on procedures for quite some time before I introduce and open our library centers. I have been reading Debbie Diller's book, Literacy Work Stations. I am so grateful that there are educators out there who are willing to share their methods. I plan on having a computer center (using ReadAbout software, tumblebooks, or create a Moodle...if I am ambitious), a vocabulary center (students will play Scrabble and look up and record the words from the dictionary), a drama center (story retelling), a newspaper center, a poetry center, and maybe a video center if I can figure out how to make that work. If I can get my students working well in centers, that leave me with a small group of students to work with using reader's theater.

My goal is to get my students speaking with feeling this year and using their entire body to communicate. My ultimate goal is to get my students taking a more self-directed role in their learning. I want them to tell their stories and share them with with world. When I shared the idea of my kids podcasting with a K/1 teacher, he told me that I am being ambitious. You bet I am! My kids know that I believe they can do it. The real question is how long will it take to perfect the flow.