The importance of reflection:

Last year I had the opportunity to be a fifth grade job share teacher.  Since I was working in a job share position, I taught class on Wednesday afternoons, all day Thursday and all day Friday.  This was a great opportunity for me, as it was my first teaching position.  Knowing this position was only going to last for a year I knew I had to make the most of it.  I wanted to absorb as much information and experience as possible.  I also wanted to be careful not to step on anyone’s toes either so I tried to implement my own ideas on the days I worked.

During this experience, my co-teacher introduced me to our classroom blogs.  She had done this in her previous years, so I followed her lead.  Each student was to create their own blog based off of their silent reading book, and yes, these blogs were going to be taken for a grade.  My students were so excited to begin this new adventure, and I was right there with them.  Each week, each student was required to write one blog post utilizing all of their reading strategies (picturing, figuring out, connecting, predicting…) and comment on three other blogs that their classmates have written.  Again, I thought this was wonderful!  I loved the interaction we were going to get between each student and I was very excited to read the students’ thoughts on the books they were reading at home.    This excitement quickly dwindled.  The students were getting graded on each blog post.  Each blog post had to include specific details and follow the rubric.  If students didn't follow the rubric or fell behind in their blogs they had to play catch up.  The blogs slowly weren't fun for them anymore because they were unable to write freely.  I also saw the comments beginning to change too, the students just weren’t feeling it anymore.  The blogs quickly lost their appeal when the rubric came into place.

I noticed this happening and yet, I decided not to say or do anything since this is what my co-teacher had done in the past.  I was very careful with the ideas I shared with my co-teacher and the comments I had made to her because any suggestion I had given in the past was not received very well.  I was wrong.  I should have discussed my observations with the blogs and suggested we do something different to my co-teacher.  Thinking back on this experience and knowing what I know now after just two classes, I know the potential these blogs could have had.  I wish I would have spoken up because now I feel that I have given my students a disservice.  I guess my main take back from this experience it to always reflect on the good and the bad lessons because there is always room for improvements.  

Change can be a good thing!