Wow! I cannot believe November has come and left! It seemed so very short of a month mainly because Pre-K had a week long break from school (which was much needed lol). Besides that, November was an extremely transformational month for me! I started out with one group of students and transitioned to a totally new batch toward the end of the month! My TiP connections consisted of tracking my "highs" and "lows" with both groups of students. I noticed from recording these that although my classrooms had changed, my patterns within a classroom setting were still very similar!
I'll begin with my lows... I noticed that a lot of the moments where I noted my lows were during Morning Meeting! I didn't understand how one of my favorite parts of the instructional day was such a low point for me during the month of November! The more that I looked over my reflections I noticed two things were missing: classroom culture being established and routines!
Thinking back to Becky Bailey's Conscious Discipline, I really was starting to see the negative effects of not starting the day off on a positive note and allowing children that down time to really get settled in for the day's lesson.
“To build a school family you must focus on the following: physical environment, social environment, school routines, rituals, rules, and expectations” (Bailey, 2000, p. 60)
This quote became very evident to me in both classes and I was able to note why I was noticing so many lows during Morning Meeting and it was because I had not yet began building our school family and Morning Meeting is the perfect place to see that flourish.
As far as my highs go, I noticed that the trend that I saw across the board was really giving the children exciting and engaging lessons to look forward to. All of the lessons, read alouds, and activities in which I incorporated my students interests and/or a real world aspect to seemed to really make a difference in whether or not they cared about what I was teaching. All of these activities went so well mainly because students felt like they were in their natural element of discovery and I think that was really important for them.
“We are learning all the time, so anything we engage in we learn about- provided we are interested and not confused. How they learn and what exactly they learn depends on whom they are doing these things with and on their perception of themselves and of what they are learning about” (Smith, 1998, p. 56-57)This quote was very evident in my classroom through these activities were students interests were really valued and the objective was not overwhelming or confusing for students.
All in all, I feel as if I have grown so much and really learned a lot about myself in the month of November. I've noticed the things that I am really great at and the things that I still need to continue to work on. I really love reflecting back on the month because even though day-to-day I might not always be able to see the progress being made by students, reflecting back always shows you how much not only have your students grown but yourself as well. I'm really looking forward to ending this year strong and taking on whatever new challenges the new year brings!
Tilifayea,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I think that a Congratulations is in order, so Congratulations for the new Lead Teacher position! Now, you can really let your creative juices flow and not be worried about its acceptance because you are the "assistant teacher". Just keep those feelings in mind when working and communicating with your co-teacher.
Now about your blog, it takes a while to establish rituals, routines, and classroom culture and even once you established those, you'll still find yourself creating more. So be patient and no that everything will fall into place. Just teach them as necessary and continue to reinforce them. I remember spending a whole week just teaching routines to my kindergartners when we transitioned to our class together but even now they still need reminding every now and then.
I definitely agree that students need that moment to transition to and get settled for the day because I have noticed on some days when we do not have morning meeting the difference in the rest of our day. You’ll learn your students and what works for them and when you do, you will have no worries. But for now, great job engaging them at other times of the day! And I’m sure you will do great things!!!
Hi Tilifayea!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing your blog. It was particularly interesting to read your blog because I feel like we share so much in common and have had a lot of similar experiences, despite the fact that you teach pre-k students, and I teach third graders :) I too have often found that many of my low points take place during morning meeting or other moments that are very transitional in nature. I thought you made a great point that emphasizing routines and creating a sense of community are important to keep in mind while conducting morning meeting. Do you have any ideas of how you may implement that? Perhaps you could incorporate music and movement or another kind of relaxation-based activity that would make the transition in the morning easier for your students? I know that I too am trying to think of ideas for how to make this time a more relaxing and effective transition, so I definitely would love to share and bounce ideas off of eachother :) I also could relate to the connection that you made between your "high" moments and times when your students seem to be learning for the sake of learning, or "classic" learning, as Smith calls it. It was so great to read your blog and not only see that we share a lot of the same experiences but also see how strongly you care about and are dedicated to your students! I am so excited to hear how your next month goes :) Thanks again for sharing! Emily
Tilifayea,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, congratulations on your new classroom! I'm so happy that you are in a room that you are comfortable in and have ownership of. I can tell from your blog that it has been a positive change for you. :) I'm excited to hear about how you build your classroom culture, as it is something that I am always trying to grow on in my classroom as well. I have been hearing alot about morning meetings being in need of a revamp, so you are definitely not alone! I think you can definitley tie in what you said about the correlation between giving kids exciting and engaging lessons and their success. Maybe if morning meeting was somehow more exciting and engaging, the kids would look forward to it more! My students love the songs that we sing and come into the classroom asking to sing them. Maybe something like that would work for your class too! I love how you wrote about students feeling like they are in their natural element of discovery when they are engaged in a lesson they are excited about. What a cool way to word that! It goes along perfectly with The Book of Learning and Forgetting's preaching about how learning is something that is natural and not difficult. I can tell that you love your kids and truly care about their interests and how to help them succeed. Awesome job and good luck with the rest of your semester!!
Tilifayea,
ReplyDeleteCongrats on getting your own classroom! This is such a huge step and you have made such huge strides since the beginning of the classroom. Hats off to you, I can see that you really rook the time to reflect on your development which is so excellent to see. I 100% connected with you on the difficulty of creating a routine within the classroom. While I think it is great that you are invested in your morning routine I think it is so important that you invest your students in the morning routine. You might want to have a discussion with your class about why morning meetings are important to your classroom.
It is so wonderful to see students engaged and excited in the content and I encourage you to keep this level of excitement up in your classroom. During certain times of the year it can be difficult for students to stay engaged and involved but it is even more important that you keep their motivation up. I know you can do it!
Keep up the good work.
Kyla
What's up Tilifayea,
ReplyDeleteI can empathize with some of the lows you experienced this month. It is very important to set the tone the first thing in the morning. Reading your post has made me realize that I'm not doing a great job of setting my classroom culture up. As you said, " I really was starting to see the negative effects of not starting the day off on a positive note and allowing children that down time to really get settled in for the day's lesson". Oh yeah, that was an awesome quote from Bailey.
I am so happy that you are giving the children exciting lessons to look forward to. Children love to be engaged, and when their engaged they are able to make important connections. I am excited about your progress Ms. Griffith. Keep up the great work!