Sheryl's guest posting

Seems that time flies when you are having fun ... or are buried in paperwork and grading. I have actually been doing some fun stuff with my students in the month I see has now gone by since my last post, but I've also spent a lot of it trying to get organized, learn our new online gradebook, and grade, grade, grade. I promise to try to catch up on writing about the interesting parts soon. In the meantime, I'm very excited to have a guest posting by my friend and fellow "TL in the Classroom," Sheryl Grabow-Weiss. Sheryl and I were colleagues in the library in our district for years and are now colleagues in the classroom. Sheryl sent me two paragraphs for her guest posting. The first paragraph is from her own blog in late August. The second paragraph is one she just wrote this month. .... Here goes ....

"Summer is over: ( Time to face the reality that I'll be a classroom teacher this year. I am fortunate that I'll be at the same school I've taught at for 12 years. Instead of being the Teacher Librarian, I'll be teaching two sections of LASS (6th grade language arts and social studies) and a computer research elective for 6th graders. The elective is part of the 6th grade rotation; a 5 week long course covering a variety of topics including languages, computer graphics, art, music, drama and my Computer Connections unit. I've decided to utilize CSLA's Middle School Learning 2.0 for the elective. I plan on having students work on 2 "Things" per week, with an emphasis on web site evaluation, cyber safety and being a good online citizen.

"It is now the beginning of October and I’m settling into the routine of being a classroom teacher. It is a challenge, one that I struggle with every day. Being in the classroom has definitely given me a new perspective of what my teachers go through on a daily basis. I love the time I spend with “my” students. The planning, grading and classroom management tasks are the challenges I struggle with. I’m truly enjoying the elective I teach. This first group of students has taken to blogging like a duck to water. They have enjoyed learning about all of the web 2.0 tools introduced in Teen Learning 2.0 and have found other tools and gadgets to embed in their blogs. They have added gadgets I have on my blog, discovering and utilizing these gadgets without prompting. They love Shelfari and enjoy making VOKI’s – activities that were not part of the original program, but should be included. Introducing students to blogging has given them a voice – a place to explore their creativity.

Sheryl Grabow-Weiss

10/4/09"

You can follow Sheryl's blog "Keeping Up" with her students at http://aewkeepingup.blogspot.com. Thanks so much for posting, Sheryl!