Mr. Rennie's Class

  This has been a very short week for me. Tomorrow the students have their project sharing but I will be at a technology training session to learn about the district's Share Point tech initiative. We are changing our entire technology platform to a Microsoft version as opposed to Novell. It will mean huge changes, new email, applications and opportunities to engage students like class web pages. I may not use this forum next year depending on how user friendly Share Point is.

  Right this moment the students are reviewing their learning logs as the start of a discussion on goal setting in regard to their group inquiries on Central American countries. They are revisiting their goals set early last week to assess their progress towards them. I am going to read them... I just got back to the room after reading a variety of reflections. Some people really thought about not only whether or not they reached their goal but what steps they took to get there. Some were very honest that they chose a goal that was automatic. A no brainer. They wiil need to actually stretch themselves if goal setting and reflecting is going to have an impact on their learning. Those who reached their meaningful goals were really able tothink back and see what they did to help themselves and their team members.

 The students who did not meet their goals got to see how their own actions but also the actions of others determined their success or lack therof. So far I'm really happy with how the learning logs are working out. I think they will be a valuable learnibng tool.

This week marked the start of a new field study for me. The students and I have started exploring learning logs also known as reflective journals. These logs provide students with an opportunity to reflect on, connect to and draw conclusions about their learning and experiences. This thinking about their thinking or metacognition, has proved in research to be a vital part in students improving their learning and self awareness about it.

The kids reflect a few times a day either at the start, the middle or end of a given lesson. The reflection at the start may help them prepare their brains to learn something new or connect with the previous day. The mid lesson reflection allows them to assess how the experience is working for them. The end of lesson write allows them to sum up or draw conclusions about what was learned or the process they went through during the period. The reflection is often written but the students have and will be encouraged to draw, map, web or choose their own method to represent their ideas.

This week the students wrote six entries. They wrote in response to reading, science, math and social studies/teamwork. It is no surprise to me that these initial efforts are rather short generally. The whole idea is kind of new for most .Some are at this point wondering why they are even doing it. As we work through the process and discuss the merits and applications of the logs I believe they will start to see the value and benefits of becoming more reflective learners and critical thinkers. For the most part they have responded to a content related question in order to hold their thinking or state their current understanding of a concept. For example they were asked in math to explain or show, "what does 0.01 mean to you? Explain your thinking. It worked very well as a basis for discussion with a partner and the next class we started with a review of the entry to get back to where we ended and prepare their minds for decimal work.

Lastly, I was super pleased with the response of my student teacher, Leah, to the whole learning log thing. She instantly embraced it and incorporated it into her lessons the very day we discussed it. This consistency of practice will help the students greatly as they realize it is a new routine that is not dependent on the adult in front of them.