Comments for Teachers 1

Becky Goerend is a fifth grade teacher from Iowa. In her blogs she discusses classroom issues, strengths, updates, activities, and more. In her latest post found here, she discussed a particular problem and solution in detail.

Putting in Their Words

In this post she questions why some instructions are not written in words the student can understand. In this particular instance the wording for a reading assignment was very difficult to understand. To overcome the problem the students worked as a class to translate the instructions into “student speak”. Then she asks if things should be written in words the students can comprehend. In the end the students were able to translate the instructions by using team work.

Building Community

In this post Becky Goerend discusses her success in building community in her class. The teachers at that school have a tradition of having all the students bring a bag with items about themselves. The students then share their items to the class. Becky Goerend was very pleased to see how quickly the students became familiar with each other. She was also excited about all of the things she had learned about her students. The emphasis is on how fast students can build community in the classroom.