I’ve been loosely participating in a tweetup for #isedchat this evening. The folks for this tweetup include some of my oldest tech friends, @lizbdavis and Maureen @bcdtech. Their enthusiasm for their work – teaching tech skills in Mass. schools – has motivated me to veer away from the chat and write a post about some great work that went on today. It is not tech work from the students point of view but it is a clear example of my own ongoing professional development with my PLN (personal learning network.)

Yesterday, I told the class we were going to be doing a special project today and if they could read most of the 26 sight words I had on a list, they would we able to slowly but surely build a neat snowman in a cut and paste activity. Then I asked if anyone would like to have a copy of the words to take home for practice. Every single child raised a hand! Extraordinary!

It wasn’t entirely my idea though. In fact I picked it up online through one of the daily papers I subscribe to. I read about the activity and thought it would fit well into our snow-abbreviated plans for the week.

So the students eagerly set out to meet the challenge. One student was planted at each table to act as the “checker.” These were students who I knew could read most if not all of the words on the list. Each time a student saw a word on the list they knew, they cut out a piece of the snowman and pasted it on the blue paper. Along side they pasted the word that won them that piece. When they ran into a word they didn’t know, they pasted it to the back of the sheet. They really wanted to own each of those words. Students who had the most trouble got extra adult help in breaking the word down into more manageable sounds and their faces glowed when they got it. Some folks pasted the extra known words on top, as clouds in the sky over the snowman.

It was a great project and the kids worked tirelessly. With this success behind us, I have created a new yet similar activity and have plans for even more. I’ve created an entire winter scene, most of which came from clip art. Next month we could have a presidential or valentine theme, maybe a combination of several important things about the month of February. The activity can be added to the Work Board now that they have practiced it, and the word lists can be modified to meet the challenge needs of more advanced students.

I can’t wait to see what new adventures in learning await me tomorrow – just like my students!