The Power of a PLN

"Just close your door and teach." These words were well-meant when they were spoken to me during my preservice years over 20 years ago. They were meant to inspire confidence in our ability to manage student learning and be autonomous. But over the past 20 years of my career I have learned a valuable lesson: Open the door! No man (or teacher in this case) is an island. In this profession, there are so many things to learn and know, that we need one another's support and guidance. This is why building a Professional Learning Network is so important.

My Professional Learning Network has contributed to my professional growth over the past several years in a tremendous way. I have been introduced to new web tools, new ways of thinking, and have been a part of collaborative conversations with people from all over the world. As an educator, I believe that growing my PLN is one way to continue my growth and effectiveness, not just in my classroom, but within the education community.

During the course of this workshop, my PLN has now grown to include podcasts and RSS feeds. I had never really listened to or created podcasts, but through this workshop I can see the benefits of short audio broadcasts. I'm also excited to have been introduced to a tool for subscribing to RSS feeds. When my Google Reader closed down many years ago, I was frustrated. I had spent quite a long time creating feeds of my favorite blogs. The prospect of starting over was not something I looked forward to doing...so I didn't. This workshop has reminded me of the enjoyment and learning I gained through those feeds and provided me a simple way to start organizing them again.

Utilizing RSS feeds and podcasting are two ways I plan to continue growing my PLN. I plan to do a few more podcasts and just see if that's something that would be beneficial to others in my field. I'm also toying with the idea of using podcasting in the classroom. It would be a great way to meet speaking and listening standards, and I know my parents would love a weekly update delivered by their child. When I implement these ideas, I will chronicle them on this blog and on Twitter so I can share with the education community and further their professional growth. Perhaps I could share within a Twitter chat or on a popular hashtag thread. That will invite many comments and opportunities for collaboration with colleagues.

Podcast, Anyone?

I love to blog, and have listened to a few podcasts, but today is the first time I've ever created one. I'm curious...how many of you listen to podcasts? Who are your favorite podcasters to listen to? Do you podcast? If so, I'd love to hear from you. Here's my very first one, inspired by my recent success doing a classroom transformation:
Listen to "Farrah Kilgo's show" on Spreaker.

Detective Classroom Transformation!

Have you seen all the awesome classroom transformations floating around social media? I've been toying with this idea for a while, and when I started planning for this week's skills (drawing conclusions and context clues), I knew this was the perfect opportunity to bring in a little thematic fun. I was a little concerned that the amount of effort to pull it off would just be too much, but I have to say that my kids' excitement and learning was WELL worth the upfront work!

I started with this really great product I found on TPT. 

This product is editable and gives step by step instructions for setting up this mystery. Basically, we set up a crime scene with particular evidence. Students observed the scene. Then we provided suspect pages (questions/answers already completed ahead of time from the product) that students read. They highlighted evidence from the suspect sheets that matched the evidence in the crime scene to infer who kidnapped the principal.

My awesome 3rd grade team all wanted to join in the fun, so we divided the tasks to get ready for this classroom transformation. I updated the digital materials to make it fit our school and printed off everything we needed, including a few decorations, one teacher copied everything, another one laminated and cut out name tags for the kids, and one gathered the physical materials for decorating like crime scene tape, Dollar Tree fake mustaches, and black tablecloths.

I loved this classroom transformation because it was simple, exciting, and a rigorous application of skills for students.  

Preparing (including the printing and everything) took about an hour or perhaps 1 1/2 hours. Here's what they kids saw when they arrived at school:

I watched a fabulous vlogger on Youtube to get some great ideas about pulling off this transformation. You can see it here. As the students arrived, I welcomed them to the Kilgo Detective Agency and called them "Agent ____." They were really into the detective theme and I think that helped them persevere when the detective challenge became, well...challenging. Check out these pictures of my detectives at work:

My principal (and the culprit, a second grade teacher) were so great to play along! Our principal allowed us to use his office as the crime scene, and the teacher brought a pair of her shoes for us to use as evidence and really played the part well. 

The best part of this day was that students were HIGHLY engaged in learning and is definitely something I will do again. 

How about you? I'd love to hear about your classroom transformation success stories, ideas, and questions. Drop me a comment below and let's talk.

Veterans Day Learning

Honoring our country's veterans is very important to me. As Veterans Day approaches, I wanted to take the opportunity to teach my students as much as possible about this day and help instill a sense of patriotism in them as well. Here are some of the great learning activities we've participated in this week. 

Probably the most meaningful for my students was a visit from my nephew, who has recently returned from a tour of active duty. My students were so excited to learn that he came through the very same school system they attend. They had lots of great questions for him, and learned a lot about the military from his first hand accounts. 

This patriotic STEM activity was also a great opportunity to practice grit while utilizing the engineering process. It is very simple to prepare, and highly engaging. I will definitely to this one again. Not all of my groups were successful in the challenge, but they all keep working to improve their designs. I also saw a lot of innovative creations and great teamwork. 

Finally, this set of differentiated passages has a great Veterans Day close reading passage. I used this in small groups this week to practice reading skills while students learned about the origin of Veterans Day. 

I'd love to hear about how you teach American holidays to your students. Feel free to drop me a comment.