Mike, I love your referral to having a "6th sense" about about your students simply from having those conversations in the morning with them. How appropriate that we just read about attention and what's deserving of our attention! I too see a huge impact of having those conversations in the morning. We serve breakfast in our classrooms this year and, as much as I was dreading it, it's given me time to sit down and chat with students as they're eating in the morning. Knowing that "extra" about them is so beneficial and can really help to make your year much more enjoyable and meaningful :) Glad to hear your year was so successful!
How encouraging that your 1st graders have grown such a passion for reading because of changes you've implemented! I'm excited (and honestly a little nervous) about implementing more of a constructivist approach to learning next year. Beginning of the school year is pretty crazy as it is and I'm sure there will be times when I feel like I don't have control. Did you experience this? How did you handle it?
Quite an article Mike, are you really writing all this with only 1st graders in mind? ...:) Creating ownership to their learning and see how they have grown from that is rather profound at that level. mjb
You're absolutely correct with your assessment on the beginning of the school year Maggie. I strongly believe the true constructivist classroom setting is only achieved after many explicit modelling routines have been implemented. With my students, we model and model and continue modeling correct behavior and expectations until the last week of school (if needed, but it is through this modeling practice, that the students gain an understanding of their boundaries and what is "acceptable." Once this general understanding is achieved, the students can gain more independence, and I can release more control onto them. There are definitely times that the boat gets rocked, but we do our best to stabilize it together. The most impressive concept about this whole process is, when it works, everything runs on autopilot. Does this help?
4 comments:
Mike, I love your referral to having a "6th sense" about about your students simply from having those conversations in the morning with them. How appropriate that we just read about attention and what's deserving of our attention! I too see a huge impact of having those conversations in the morning. We serve breakfast in our classrooms this year and, as much as I was dreading it, it's given me time to sit down and chat with students as they're eating in the morning. Knowing that "extra" about them is so beneficial and can really help to make your year much more enjoyable and meaningful :) Glad to hear your year was so successful!
How encouraging that your 1st graders have grown such a passion for reading because of changes you've implemented! I'm excited (and honestly a little nervous) about implementing more of a constructivist approach to learning next year. Beginning of the school year is pretty crazy as it is and I'm sure there will be times when I feel like I don't have control. Did you experience this? How did you handle it?
Quite an article Mike, are you really writing all this with only 1st graders in mind? ...:) Creating ownership to their learning and see how they have grown from that is rather profound at that level. mjb
Thank you for the responses-
You're absolutely correct with your assessment on the beginning of the school year Maggie. I strongly believe the true constructivist classroom setting is only achieved after many explicit modelling routines have been implemented. With my students, we model and model and continue modeling correct behavior and expectations until the last week of school (if needed, but it is through this modeling practice, that the students gain an understanding of their boundaries and what is "acceptable." Once this general understanding is achieved, the students can gain more independence, and I can release more control onto them. There are definitely times that the boat gets rocked, but we do our best to stabilize it together. The most impressive concept about this whole process is, when it works, everything runs on autopilot. Does this help?
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