The+Big+3

Sandy Choices- especially during "center" time Include students in the design of center activities More demonstration of learning activities--less seatwork pages
 * As we shift into a thought process that encourages "out of the box" thinking, spend a moment reflecting on three changes you could make that would create a culture of higher engagement in your classroom. Please approach this with a "can do" model and ignore the obstacles for now!**

Jessica Independent Reading contracts where they have choices of what activities they need to complete related to our Reading Unit for the week. I want them to be able to have input about what activities they would like to do for a student tic tac toe. Then I will tweak it to fit standards and so that I am getting quality work, but work that the students want to do. I would also love to get rid of seatwork pages and have the kids do more quality work with the skill that they will be using throughout the week. Wikkis- I would like to do a wikki where we can have a discussion board about what they think from our independent reader. I also want their parents to be able to respond and be aware of what their child is doing at school. I always have parents come up to me and say that their child says,"Nothing." When the parent asks them what they did at school today. A wikki is a tool that can be used for the parent to see what is happening at school and the type of movies and discussions the children are participating in.

Nicole -Practical Applications of Skills Through Inquiry Based Product Creation- letting the students chose to incorporate technology where/if it fits to them. -Use a wiki for some of the discussion on chapter books students are reading. Students have been improving at 'buliding' conversations with one another related to text so a wiki would allow for a record of this as well as a way to revisit the discussion if they have thoughts to add later. It would also be a great tool for students to access when they've been away from the book over the weekend before we read again to revisit what we have already read. - As the end of the year approaches I want student input/feedback so a clicker survey would be an engaging way to see what students have thought this year about intervention.

Phil
 * Students decide how to assess themselves at the end of a chapter
 * Students can pick their centers from a wheel that will last for two weeks
 * Allow students to take a class from their house

Danette -I have incorporated THE DAILY FIVE literature activities this year with a lot of guidance. It is designed to allow children to choose which activity they complete each day: word work, read to self, read to others, listening and writing and I need to give them those choices rather than assign the activities to each group -Possibly a classroom website where kids can participate, share what they are learning and teach parents -More assessments utilizing the clickers or on-line math tests for expressions

Scott - Allow for student creation in more forums. Too often I get hung up on a favorite "tool" or incorporate it in one specific area. I need to look at outside the box thinking opportunities in all subjects. - I need to remember to give students more opportunities to answer open ended questions that do not have right or wrong answers. The idea would be to let them work on justifying and supporting answers. - Create systems of collaboration (student to student and student to adult) rather than a few isolated incidents.

Laurie:
 * 1) Getting to know my interwrite system better so that my kids can use it to participate in class
 * 2) Create a wikki and make use of the opportunity of the netbooks to involve kids
 * 3) Use think/pair/share regularly to help kids to feel more ownership of the learning

Kyle 1. I am going to use technology to try to increase engagement in all areas. 2. I am going to find was to use as an assesment tool. 3. I want to enhance my educational practices.