This is our first blog hop of the 15-16 school year where educators all post to their blog the same night at the same time. The prompt for this blog hop: What has been your most memorable learning moment this fall? Please check out the links below my post to hop on over to their blogs and read their stories. We would love to hear your comments too!
So I’m going to break the rules today and share my two best moments. To be honest, I’m lucky to be able to experience a lot of these happy – exciting – ‘YES!’ – type moments in my job.
When I first started thinking about the prompt for tonight I thought of a meeting with an educator last week. It was one of those moments where all the pieces seemed to come together not just for my own understanding but for the educators as well. It was only a day earlier that a colleague had sent a message asking for advice for some English Language Learners and I was suggesting the Tiny Tap. At the same time I connected with an expert in the field and asked for strategies, when she shared the Language Experience approach. So when I sat down to work with an ESL educator and he mentioned Language Experience, the pieces were coming together. We worked through the steps and possibilities with the app, rejigging a few times along the way. See I am easily excited when those moments happen but it was so cool to see his excitement grow as well. We were a bundle of excitement together. An amazing way to end a day!
I was set with that being my story till I watched some of my grade 3 friends today. Our activity wasn’t anything out of the ordinary with a poster in Pic collage and then sharing our work with the classroom educator. From class to class I watched student after student teach their friend how to get in to the app, attaching a file or scanning a QR code. Now that isn’t out of the ordinary as well. I see a lot of amazing collaboration in classroom. As I stood over my friend walking another student through scanning the QR code and he did it better than I did. Please note he scanned his first QR code about 15 minutes earlier. Another amazing way to end a day!
I’m so excited to read some of my colleagues best moments below. Click on each of the links below to hop on over to their blog.
- Jonathan So
- Amit Mehrotra
- Jim Cash
- Melanie Mulcaster
- Heather Lye
- Erica Armstrong
- Matt Fletcher
- Jason Wigmore
- Matt Forestieri
- Jason Richea
- Pam Taylor
- Sarah Dadgar
- Phil Young
- Shivonne Lewis Young
What has your best moment been? I would love to hear all about it.
Miss Kit Kat 
I love hearing about students collaborating, and being in a high school setting, I usually expect my students to do this. It’s much harder to expect this from students in grade 3, so it’s amazing to hear that it’s happening. My daughter is in grade 2, and it’s very inspiring to hear the great things that are happening with our elementary students.
I love those moments of ‘wow’ in a students eyes when they use that piece of technology to do something they never thought was possible before. Then look out, the sky is the limit for them after that!
I walked in to a classroom last week and a kid said she remembered me. I hear it a bunch but she could describe what I was wearing when we learned Shadow Puppet. It was surreal to see that what seemed simple in my mind, stood out in hers.
Loved hearing about your moments, Tina! When things “come together” like you described, sometimes people might assume it is a bit by accident but nothing of what you described was an accident. You careful attention to detail and to depth paid off in a more rewarding experience for every person involved, including students!
Those moments when things “click” are really special.
So I really thought about breaking the rules but hesitated (though I wrote another blog post instead). The moments that things click is why we became teachers. Those moments are precious and unforgettable. Thanks for sharing.
I saw that. You were good Jonathan. I just could resist as my friend was telling his classmate to place the QR code in the red square on the screen.
I think what you’ve written about standing back and watching is something we need to do much more often in our classrooms. We need to set up the learning situation and then just get out of the way – and remain quiet. It’s so difficult at times, but can be so rewarding.
I know, it’s so hard not to jump in. Thanks for the comment!
I don’t think I’ll find myself in a Grade 3 class anytime soon, but I’ve seen how powerful learning is in the younger grades. Students surprise you all the time, every single day. You’re very lucky that you have a window into (and are a part of) that learning.