Did You Forget to Share?

I had my last cohort meeting this week and took so much from it.  My favorite part was visiting my dear friend and teaching pal, Barb's, classroom.  We talk teaching nonstop but this is the first time we've had the chance to really see each other in action {she came to my room this week too}.  She has the neatest way of engaging her kiddos with crazy facial expressions, whispers...then suddenly louder, and enthusiasm.  Her kids were absolutely riveted...I was jealous! Ha, ha!!

Our cohort group, which consists of three other teachers and a literacy coach, read portions from this book...

This book wasn't a big a-ha in terms of knowing how important it is to share, even the types of sharing and the fact that choosing who shares should be purposeful, wasn't much of an a-ha to me either...but it definitely was a good reminder that I should make more of an effort just because the benefits from it are pretty powerful. It's a great way to reinforce your mini-lesson or provides a great spring-board/connector for tomorrow's lesson.

I start each lesson with the intent of getting some awesomely meaningful conferring done and then I'll find those two or three thinkers who I want to spotlight and then life happens...

Somebody throws up...
The phone rings...
Somebody's computer won't turn on...
Somebody's computer won't turn up...
Somebody's computer won't turn down...
There's an ant on the floor...
There's a spider on a desk...
There's phone call...
There's a wiggle worm here...
...or a wiggle worm there...
There's that blue eyed cutie who has stolen your heart that keeps sharing their thinking...
There's a brown-eyed dumpling...who can't wait to share his thinking too....
Neither one of them are thinking what you're hoping they'll be thinking...
Somebody loses their tooth...
The phone rings...

But that doesn't stop me and it shouldn't stop you...some days our efforts are thwarted, but we must rally on!!!!!!!

So, I had a group of teachers come and visit my classroom - my kiddos were sooooooo awesome and the morning went swimmingly.  I knew that I should include sharing because that's what teachers do.  My nerves got the better of me, so I chose my sharers randomly.

That'll teach me...

"Boys and girls does anybody have a text-to-self connection they made while reading today that they would like to share with the class?"

Sweet one had read this book...

Hmmm....

It reminded her of her visits to her uncle's farm, where she ate popcorn.  

Yeah, I'm pretty sure she doesn't have an uncle who has a farm.

Quick thinker that I am, I'm able to twist things around and help her find a more meaningful {and truthful} connection...but it was a stretch.  A big one...seeing as she's not a pig and she's never been kicked off a farm.

Another professional goal {one of many} I've set for myself is to remember to allow time for sharing both in reader's workshop and writer's workshop AND make sure I'm more purposeful; thinking of the different types of sharing:

*Craft Share {where students share a technique they have tried in their writing}

*Process Share {teacher poses a question that pertains to the writing process, i.e. what do you do when you don't know how to spell a word?}

*Progress Share {students share where they are in their learning or their writing} 

Sooooo, with that....

Do you forget to share?