Kristen Welton

As I finish my Master’s program at Michigan State I have started to plan my future goals.  Having accomplished one goal, completing the program, I have many others that I have added since starting my Master’s Degree.  I took a class that emphasized reading best practices.  It was in that class that I realized I would like to add reading centers or the Daily 5 to my classroom routine.  Then, I took a design class that emphasized looking for original ideas and using project based learning in the classroom.  In this class I realized my classroom did not utilize enough projects.  I especially recognized the need for projects in my Social Studies curriculum.  Lastly, when I first stepped onto the Michigan State campus I took a giant leap into the digital age.  That first day I was signing up for Twitter and creating my own blog.  After the program is over, I would like to continue utilizing online spaces to expand my network and my knowledge of what makes a great fourth grade classroom.  All in all, these improvements in teaching 4th grade will lead to my ultimate goal of becoming a lifelong learner and in becoming a leader to my teaching cohorts.  

 

When I reflected on my future goals I first thought about my immediate classroom.  Where does my classroom need improvement?  I have made many changes to my classroom through ideas from the Master’s program, however there are additional ideas that I would still like to implement into my own classroom.  These improvements include project based learning and Daily 5.  One of the key take aways I have from the program is about becoming a technology leader.  I believe I am becoming a leader.  I look to the digital world to help guide me in making

my classroom great and for giving me continuous learning opportunities.  I

will look to the Twitter and blogs I have created during the program to guide

my own teaching.   By learning from these different resources and by adding

my own ideas I will become a leader in technology.

 

At Schoolcraft Community Schools we do not currently have a reading

curriculum.  We would compile many different worksheets to use as reading

curriculum for students.  In an effort to improve student reading scores, as

well as use a program that will help students, I would like to implement the

Daily 5 curriculum into my fourth grade classroom.  The Daily 5 website will

serve as a guide in launching Daily 5 lessons.  It also explains the different

elements of the Daily 5 framework.  It will be important to follow the steps

outlined on this website for this program.

 

Schoolcraft Schools also does not have a Social Studies curriculum.  In past years I have used Oakland Scope to guide my Social Studies lessons.  Within this curriculum I would like to add some Project Based Learning.  I have the flexibility of creating my own curriculum, so I have the opportunity to add in projects for students to learn Social Studies.  I found an idea for a project at A fourth grade teachers blog.  Students in my class learn about the economy.  I would like them to turn our classroom into a market.  Each student would be in charge of producing a good and then selling that good on Market Day.  They can rent desks and other items to produce their product.  During this project, fourth graders will learn about various important aspects of the economy by opening their own business on Market Day.

 

I know there are many resources out there through Twitter and various blogs.  I find myself during the school year wondering where I could look to find people to follow that have good ideas about the fourth grade classroom.  I would like to become a more active member online by looking at various blogs and Twitter followers to find creative ideas to take my classroom to the next level.  I found a website at Top 100 blogs that ranks the education blogs from 1 to 100.  This may be a good place to start my search for blogs that would help improve my classroom.  I also found Top Twitter Educators that ranks many education leaders to follow on Twitter.  I think it is important to start with these recommendations before moving onto finding the smaller blogs or Twitter accounts that would also be helpful.