As the year comes to an end, I felt that the best way to conclude my teaching career blog experience would be to let my kids do the blogging. Only they can truly tell you what I was able to teach them this year. Brutal honestly from 3rd graders is the only way to go! So I hand if off to them, to share our memories of learning from JVand3rd 2011-2012

Abi-Mrs.Vandergrift taught me how to prepare myself for 4th and 5th grade.

Alessandra- Mrs. Vandergrift taught us a lot of things about math, like charts and graphs.

Grete Mrs. Vandergrift also taught me that even though there are annoying people, you still have to work with them sometimes.

Lauren- Mrs. Vandergrift taught me how to line symmetry.

Cassidy- Mrs. Vandergrift taught me about angles.

Sebastian- Mrs. Vandergrift taught me area and perimeter.

Kyle- Mrs. Vandergrift taught me how to mutliplication and divison.

George- Mrs. Vandergrift has supported me with learning to do square roots.

Jesse- Mrs. Vandergrift taught me geometry.

Eli- Mrs. Vandergrift helps kids solve their problems.

Leart- Mrs. Vandergrift taught us cursive and decimals, and prepared us for 4th grade.

Kristin- Mrs. Vandergrift taught us to write poetry.

Sydney- Mrs. Vandergrift taught us how to think and work hard.

Brayden- Mrs. Vandergrift taught us how to do Kidblog.

Sawyer- Mrs. Vandergrift taught us how to copy and paste 🙂

Rafay-Mrs. Vandergrift has taught us the life learning skill, that you have learn this stuff now, because you will have to use it in your older life.

Keegan- Mrs. Vandergrift taught us with a lot of technology.

Riley- Mrs. Vandergrift taught us about the Solar System

Sarah- Mrs. Vandergrift taught math in a fun way.

Brooklyn- Mrs. Vandergrift taught us math.

Parmida- Mrs. Vandergrift taught us everything.

Ellie- Mrs. Vandergrift taught us everything we need to know to go to 4th grade even though we make her a little crazy .

Extras from my talkative boys : She taught us how to use technology the right way.

In the past Mrs. Vandergrift has taught us about science in a funny way with Jeff Corwin. 

My girls need to chime in extra too: She has prepared us for our future and the real world.

Needless to say, it has been quite a year. Memories abound, and good stories will always come from our year together. I wish them all the luck in the years to come and hope I instilled in them a love of learning and growing. To the class of 2021- May you always reach for the stars!

So my 3rd graders never cease to amaze me. They come in each day with a desire to learn, and all I have to do is employ my magic teacher powers to find just what it is that brings out that desire in 22 different children. Yup, just another day at the office. Today though, like many I have had this year, I see that what I am doing, really is bringing out a desire to learn. I logged on to Edmodo today, only to find my kids griping… about what you might ask…Well they were griping because I had not given them a new assignment, and they had nothing to complete on there! I really almost had to have a double take. Were 8 year olds really giving me grief because I hadn’t added any new assignments or extension questions on a Sunday night? Yup… appeared so! So I obliged… what else would I do?

So I guess what they have taught me this time is that I really do get what kids these days learn from. I see what excites them, what makes they want to learn. I see it, and I am apparently doing something right. So Thank you @JVand3rd for giving me a big ole pat on the back, just when I needed it most!

I am so excited to add this new section to my blog– As teachers we all know that we learn from the kids, just as they learn from us. This blog section is dedicated to just that!

This is how the story begins. After a long week of “AUP stalking” I was finally able to take my kids to the computer lab in our library! They logged in for the first time, changed passwords, as we do every year, and fumbled with multi step directions some too! Then the fun began… My kids logged on to Edmodo for the first time! This is my first year using the program, and I am so excited- and have been since June! Having them all log into my class and begin exploring polls, and free response questions was such a neat experience to witness. Thanks to Venita Jones, our MTA teacher, I also have pictures of them working on this for the first time. 

Edmodo, if you are unfamiliar, is the equivalent to facebook, but in the classroom form with safety and security built in! Students and thier parents will both be a part of this experience this year, and I am thrilled to be part of it!

So you are probably wondering what I could have learned from them by simply taking them to the lab and logging onto a program. Well…. TONS… First what I saw was the tiny little eight year old bodies as big grown up minds! I didn’t have to tell them anything once they logged on… They did it all alone, UNLIKE the whole changing your password extravaganza that took about 20 minutes and millions of questions along the way. Hmmm.. So lets see… these kids can get onto a social media type site and navigate independently… Guess maybe we are underestimating our students a bit eh! I rarely give a task the first month of school that doesn’t require a great deal of very detailed instruction, but Edmodo (a site they have NEVER been to before) is no problem at all. Tech savvy maybe? Ok that that was lesson ONE…

Lesson two from my kiddos looks like this… I arrived home, pretty excited about the experience and wanting to reminisce so I pull up Edmodo through the app on my Ipad. Guess what I see? Two of my kids have gone home on a FRIDAY night, with no direction to do so, logged on, added a profile picture, and answered questions on the page! Yes, you read that right… they went home and did something for school that was not asked of them…  Then this morning I see a third student has been on this weekend. All of this as self directed activity! WOW!

My final plug for this site is simply this… Social Media takes a lot of hits in this world, with one being a disconnect from face to face interaction. Let me say I have spent five 7 hour days with these kids, and in simply reading their responses on Edmodo, I learned more about who they are, what kind of personality they have, and how they communicate. Powerful ? I would say so!

I am so excited to see this in action… What a fun kick off to our year!