Wonderful ideas that I Learned Form Our Workshop

Thank you to all of you. You did an outstanding job with your workshop. I learned a lot form each of you. We built a community of learners which was very important to me.
It was hard to choose which ideas I need to apply in my kindergarten classroom, because there is so much to choose from. I decided to take at least one strategy from each workshop and apply during this year.
I will start with April's and Christy's ideas to have the workshop daily. "Being consistent with the workshop makes the student be accountable, stable and organized".
I hope we can continue practicing in our classroom all that we learned here and also sharing ideas during the years to came.

Thirteen ways of Looking at a Memoir

The color of her eyes, the shape of his smile, the smell of fresh known hay, the call of kildeer on the beach. These I remember.
Shoeboxes under the bed. in the closet.
They threaten to take over the entire house
Like snapping on a pan of water I can glide over the high point of my life by just closing my eyes.
The story she poured onto the paper should have been a reflection,
a remembrance, a revisiting- but it was not. Instead it was her revenge.
The taking back of what she had never intended to lose. She was willing
to burn herself down as well, if this story would also take down
those she felt were at fault.
Reflecting, reflecting in what manner
reflecting of sadness or hapiness.

A Day Like a Nightmare- Earthquake 1970 Huaraz, Peru

10 Important Things about Conferencing

1. Is the heart of the workshop
2. Make the student an independent and critical thinker for their own writing
3. Is productive when teacher and students are prepared and being accountable
4. Teachers are supporters
5. A place where praising is valuable
6. Conferencing makes the students be critical readers and writers
7. Use strategies for the right questions in order to have a good answer
8. Conferencing is a place where Teachers and students grow in their integrity and identity
9. Conferencing is productive when is one by one
10.Conferencing is a place where the teachers performance is to be a good listener

Portfolios Reflection

Reflection, collaboration and sharing authority are critical components of a portfolio.The purpose of a portfolio is to reflect the student's best work and what they have learned in the process. I like the idea to approach the students in the way that they can be critical with their writing, this gives the opportunity to evaluate their own work, but the teachers's job is to provide the structure of specific questions to facilitate a better reflection.
In the kindergarten, we use portfolios for each child and keep their work in process, for example the first day of school the children write their names and the alphabet (sometimes its just scribbles) after that every three months they do the same, at the end of the school year they need to write their names using capitals and the whole alphabet.We compare and see their progress, how much thay learned to be independent with their own writing. In this case the journal has a good purpose to keep the records and discuss with the parents about the student's academic setting.