I suppose this makes sense since Chapter 4 is titled "What Does Your Ideal Classroom Look Like?" Of course, I can't really explain everything about my ideal classroom since that would take too long, so here are some quick, concrete changes I'm going to make in the 2018-2019 school year to try to achieve a more learner-centered approach.
First Days
I do think that I do some good things in my first days of the year: asking students what good learners and leaders do and posting them for the whole year (thanks, Innovator's Mindset!), asking students to write a letter of introduction and introductory poem, learning their names within the first few days, creating discussion norms, etc. However, I think I could do better!
Poems and Books
First, I want to use something that I learned at Chad Everett's (@chadceverett - worth a follow!) Scholastic Day of Reading workshop. He talked about using a George Ella Lyon "Where I'm From" poem to get to know the students AND to make initial independent reading recommendations! I was floored - I've used those poems (and several variations of biopoems) to get to know the kids, but I have never used them for reading recommendations. Such an easy switch and one that I think will really pay off.
I Wish My Teacher Knew...
Several months ago, I read a story about an activity a teacher did with her students called "I wish my teacher knew...". Students ended up sharing a lot of personal information, some of which was incredibly sad, and all of which was very helpful. I feel like I thought I was asking for students to do this in their introductory letters, but I think I made that assignment too narrow and prescribed for them to really express themselves; I asked about specific things like reading and writing goals, and there's time for that later in the year. So this year, I'm just going to ask them to finish that sentence and see what happens.
What Should School Be/What If?
Here's where Chapters 3-4 start to come in. I love the idea of asking students what they think school should be and changing our narrative from "Yeah, but" to "What if?" (52). I'm sure I've said "Yeah, but" more times than I can count (and I was never permitted to say that as a kid because my father thought it was going to be followed by an excuse - he was right!), and I'm feeling a lot of regret for how many opportunities I let get away. Obviously, you have to be realistic about things, but I don't think "Yeah, but" should be the first reaction to something. I'm going to ask the students what they think school should be (another activity that was also brought up by Chad Everett) and build on that to have them answer the "What if?" question. Hopefully, that will drive some different experiences this year!
Significant Learning Experiences
The last thing that I'd like to get to in the first week of school is the Significant Learning Experiences activity described on p. 104. Katie Martin recommends doing it with the staff, which I think is a great idea, but I would also like to hear about the significant and positive learning experiences the kids have had before. I'm not sure yet how to structure this activity, but I think it will reveal a lot about how the kids learn and probably tie into the "What should school be?" question as well.
Beyond the First Days
I am excited to try these new things, but I am also a realist: I tend to start the school year with a lot of excitement, but then somehow it's December and I have a million papers to grade and meetings to go to and emails to answer and then somehow it's March and the entire year has gotten away from me. So I think I need a plan for keeping on top of the things I want to implement and making sure that they don't just last for September and then it's business as usual.
 |
| (Image from https://www.jwfpalmbeach.org/jwf-imagine-the-possibilities-campaign/) |
No comments:
Post a Comment