Mrs. Cassidy's 1st Grade
This blog is wonderful! Full of good ideas done by a good teacher with willing students. It was amazing to me how Mrs. Cassidy found time to do all these fun activities with her students in light of the testing craze and how she managed to blog all about it, as though she didn't need to plan for the next day. Maybe I'm a little skeptical and a little jealous. Haha. But her school is in Canada where they do not have the same testing regulations as the US. It seems like she has a little more freedom in her curriculum and implementation than the average American teacher. For instance, she did an entire unit on working with materials and objects and the had a "construction day" at the end. The tables were covered with a variety of materials such as egg cartons, styrofoam boxes, paper, glue, beads, etc. Each child had free reign to create whatever they wanted, then they got to explain their creations in front of the class and on the video to be used in the blog. They Skype with other classrooms around the world including one in Brisbane, Australia, who sent them a couple books for Christmas.
As I looked more closely at her pictures and videos, I realized that she usually had about 15 students (the class list on her blog lists 19 students). Of course she's able to do cool projects and can find the time to take videos, pictures and blog! She has a little more than half the number of students that most teachers in America have in 1st grade! When I think about how I have 22 students in my 3 and 4 year old preschool class, I can only imagine how relaxed her classroom must be.
Another issue I would like to point out is the homogeneity in her classroom. I believe I only saw one non-white student in her classroom. I'm sure this is representative of Moose Jaw, Canada, and most likely the neighborhood in which the school is located, but it is in stark contrast to many classrooms in Albuquerque and other cities in the US.
I'm really excited about following Mrs. Cassidy's class through this spring semester. I'm sure she'll tell me many good ideas, but I will have to keep in mind the classroom culture and cushy number of students before I start to directly apply them to my teaching.
What a great communication tool for parents! When I think back to my kids' early years, I would have LOVED to have been able to go online and see what their days were full of so I can make home-school connections with them. Especially with my son who, to this day, when I ask him about class I get one-, maybe two-, word responses.
ReplyDeleteDo you know whether she got any resistance setting up her classroom blog? The blog I read had an entry about how he didn't agree with how U.S. schools think they are "protecting" students by not allowing social media to be part of the classroom experience.
Great blog, I love the Wellie Wang! Than man threw that wellie incredibly far!
ReplyDeleteI was surprised that she was able to have so much personal information about her students on the web for all to see. I found the links she had to each child on the side of Mrs. Cassidy's blog. There was computer artwork and some free hand art work from each child. Also, some of the children had typed in personal notes to their parents.
As a parent I would love to see some of the things my child works on in computer lab, but I wouldn't want the world to be able to see it. I think maybe a password or parent only blog would have been a better showcase for her students personal works.
I found Mrs. Cassidy’s classroom blog. Yes, it does look like she must be very busy planning and carrying out a lot of fun activities! Even though her class may be very different demographically than a class you might teach, hopefully there are some useful resources and fun activities that you could implement in your class. Perhaps, there are some ideas that you could pull from, and then adjust to fit the particular needs of your class. Another thing that I noticed is that her classroom looks really nice and spacious to accommodate all the fun things the students get to do!
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