Three Classrooms, Sixty-six Books, ONE conversation~ Today's Meet!

Today's post is my first post on Margaret Simon's DigiLit Sunday event. I am excited to be joining this great community and look forward to continuing in the future.



This post is also in reply to a tweet from @MissLuce1st. I found I may

need more than the 140 characters allowed by twitter to help you understand what it is that brought last night's reading alive in our three first grade classrooms!

This space is open to all three
1st grade classes for collaboration.

The Teachable Moment~
I have found that the teachable moments come at the most challenging times.  Do you abandoned the plans and follow the moment or do you stick with plan?  This is where the art of teaching comes in….and you have a decision to make!
One morning I heard a student in our class ask another student if Brady (a boy from another classroom) liked to read Ted Arnold's Fly Guy books.  It was clear he wanted to confer at reader's workshop and wanted to talk with another Fly Guy fan. When I heard this conversation (insert my OLW Listen which is helping me catch more of these moments) I knew this is exactly what readers do and what I wanted for the readers in our classroom, authentic reading!  This is when  it hit me, Today's Meet!  Today's Meet will allow the readers in all three classrooms to share their reading and connect with other readers in meaningful and purposeful ways. It may even breathe more life and energy to our reading from the previous night!

Today's Meet~
I quickly set up a room on Today's Meet, created a QR code (quick read code) and passed the codes out to the other first grade teachers, while enthusiastically asking, "Hey, does your class want to join us on Today's Meet to share last night's reading?" Of course they said- "YES!"

So Here's What Happened~

• Students came in in the morning and found a QR code on the table along with an
  
  iPad. The students began scanning  the QR code which took them to our room on Today's Meet. 
• Students began sharing their names and telling us about last nights reading. 
• As students finished posting they watched the live feed which is projected in all three classrooms for the students to follow.  

Chatter and excitement filled our rooms as kids watched their post pop into the feed and saw the post of friends from other rooms! I heard one student tell another to look at their post on the big screen, while another student gasped to see a friend in another classroom read the same book last night, and another grab a post-it-note to jot down two names who also like Mo Willems books, which lead to the conference pictured here to the left!  This book chatter warmed my heart and breathed new excitement into reading outside of the classroom, what a great way to start our day!

We plan to continue this classroom collaboration using QR codes! Maybe one day kids will find all three classrooms are visiting their blog! What ideas do you have for inviting collaboration into your classroom? Please leave us a comment we would LOVE to learn from you!