Morning Meeting (1-100)

First off, let me start by saying how much I have enjoyed reading this book so far! I was so excited to actually have a copy of this book and to be able to use it because Morning Meeting is an essential part of Pre-K. It not only gives children the opportunity to see value and importance in all of their classmates, but it also really helps students to develop their socioemotional skills.

The author does a great job so far with providing little anecdotal stories throughout the chapters because it really helps you to visualize how this could actually play out in a classroom. I also like the fact that the purpose of each topic is discussed so that the teacher can understand why it is so essential. Including possible questions that may arise for teachers reading the book and providing the answers to each question was extremely helpful especially for somebody like me. However, the true treasure of the book (and yes this is me peeking way ahead) is the appendix provided at the back of the book that gives you boundless resources.

Now I am going to provide some key quotes that really stuck out to me in the book:

Research indicates that educators who establish firm boundaries, foster warm personal relationships in the classroom, and enable students to have an impact on their environment strengthen students' attachment to their school, their positive behaviors. (Elias et al. 1997, 44)

This was one of the first quotes that I definitely wanted to take note of mainly because when I started in my classroom I had to get acquainted with my students and I knew the best way for me to do that was to immediately attempt to form relationships with them. I knew that that a way to do this was through Morning Meeting. It was just really comforting to know that research has been done to prove that by establishing the positive relationships with students it benefits them in more ways than one.

Meetings are rich with opportunities for students to assume responsibility and actively participate. (Kriete, 1999, p. 23)

This quote stood out to me because it was accompanied by a photo of two students up writing on the Morning Message. Reading this quote and looking at the picture just made me think about how the meeting is really less about me and more about students. They should be able to run the entire meeting while the teacher is just there as a facilitator. However, I know that for my kids they would need a lot of modeling and opportunities to practice before they could virtually run the morning meeting with less guidance from me. But, it is a great thought to have in mind for the beginning of the year because you have more time to really teach students how to take ownership of Morning Meeting.

Most teachers find it helpful to have a sign-up system which ensures that each child is a sharer at least once a week. Children sign up to share the day before Meeting or that same morning. Another way is to assign each child a regular day for sharing. (Kriete, 1999, p. 61)

I was sooooo happy to read this!! I have been having a huge issue in my class with children not being able to understand that not everyone will get a chance to share all at once and that we all have to take turns to share. Also, it helped me to consider the children who never get a chance to share at all. I think a sharing sign-up sheet is totally doable for my students. However, I think that the first couple of implementations of this would definitely consist of me assigning children to share for that day. I also do think it could work with students signing up for a day once they understand the method of how signing up works and the guidelines that go with it. I think this idea could be really beneficial for some of my more chatty students and it would also give them a reason behind why they have to take turns sharing.

Younger children tend to blurt out what they need to say when they need to say it. With the help of their teacher, however, they are very able to recognize that some news is serious and demands a different kind of response than other, lighter news.

This quote was very relevant to my classroom setting because my students always tend to blurt out things when students are in mid-sentence of presenting. I have found this to be something very difficult for me to get around during Circle Time. Lately I've been trying to give some students something else related to the topic to discuss while I am talking to the rest of the students about the topic. It seems to have been working in terms of blurting out but I'm not sure if it's really effective in terms of them paying attention. However, I am glad the book touched on this a little. I just wish they would've suggested more resources about how to teach young children to begin to take turns in conversations.

All in all, I have really enjoyed reading the first couple of pages of Morning Meeting and like I stated earlier, I am extremely excited to have the book! The information that I have been discovering from it has been priceless and I cannot wait to see what other considerations are present when thinking about how to facilitate  one of the most important parts of the day.

 

 

February Theory in Practice Connections

February has definitely been such an eye opener for me! I've learned so much about myself and my kids in this short but sweet month (the snow days didn't help much with shortening the month even more lol) All in all, I must say this was a big month for WRITING! I want my students to engage more with pleasure writing so I allowed for them for them to have ample opportunities to write whenever they want and for whatever reason. I really wanted my students to have journals so that I could make free writing easily accessible for them, however, of course my school doesn't have the funds to provide for such a resource (yes this is sarcasm) But despite that, I had to get creative so I made notebooks for my kids using construction paper and by placing writing tablet paper on the inside. I also put my students' names and pictures on the front of them to add its own personalized flare. Students have started off by recording things they learned about in the stories we had been reading:

These writing engagements have been really remarkable to watch and are perfect ways to assess students to see for one, if they were actually interested in the story (because they want to write about it) and for two, whether or not they understood the objective that was at hand.

The Strategies that Work text has been working wonders for me so far and I'm so excited to try out and fail, succeed, and experiment with many more strategies. The ones that were really fun was my first attempts with the List/Group/Label strategy and also the Turn & Talks. At first my kids were really confused as to how to turn and talk to their neighbors but now they seem to really like it and it gives them an opportunity to get those talkative jitters out. 

This month we really talked a lot about Famous African Americans which I thought may have been a difficult concept for my students to grasp but they were so interested and engaged. They didn't know that they, too, could grow up to invent something or be famous for an awesome reason. My goal in the future is to not only talk to them about Famous African Americans during February, but make it an ongoing discussion throughout the year. 

I noticed that a lot of my lows this month were  in mathematical instruction. I'm really excited about diving deep in the Van de Walle text and finding more innovative ways to really effective instruct my students and create an excitement about math for them. 

I also really benefited from reading Conscious Discipline this month and addressing my idea of Positive Intent and what Choices mean in my classroom. In reading these chapters, I found out about a lot of great new ideas that I plan to really try to implement in my classroom to make it a better place for both my students and myself. I'm nervous about entering March mainly because I feel like it's grind time and it's so many things I still haven't covered yet that they need to know before they go to Kindergarten. I feel so much pressure on myself especially for some of my students who are still falling behind a little bit. However, I plan to make the best of this month and learn all I can about my students and ask them about the personal goals that they have for themselves and what they want to learn and try my best to meet those needs so if I am not able to do as much as I wanted to, above all else, I was able to do something that matters to my kids! :-)

January Theory in Practice Connections

Wow! January has been an eventful month to say the least! From being shut down on the first day back due to the icy cold temperatures to explaining to my students where snow comes from, January was definitely a great month to build upon my little ones' exploratory skills!

I think I have grown so much as an educator and am really beginning to feel my way throughout navigating my classroom and helping my students really become comfortable with the classroom setting. I can say that I'm really looking forward to diving into the Morning Meeting book because I feel like my students are starting to get bored with the same routine every day. We greet each other, we go over the months, the days, and we even do some counting and they are just over it! Right now I've just been trying to think of different ways to make it more interesting to them because some of them still haven't mastered these important skills yet and I just want them to be well prepared for Kindergarten. Luckily, I've been very good lately with thinking on my toes so once I notice that the morale is low, I've been trying to spice things up more and make the months seem more interesting than they really are lol

If I had to pick a theme for the month of January I definitely would say that I really keyed in on my students' interests. We have been talking about Wind and Water this month and I was really amazed to see how they could think scientifically and a lot of their thoughts and observations and even the connections they were able to make was just really remarkable to witness

It was really rewarding to me as an educator to hear my students leave from school telling their parents about all of the interesting things that they had learned for that day. I'm really looking forward to continuing to speak with them about things that matter to them and finding ways to incorporate those things into my lessons.

In terms of progress with my students, I would say writing has been one of their most improved area collectively and they also really enjoy it. I was already proud to see that almost all of my students are able to identify their names but now it's even better to see many of them try to write it! 

At the end of the day, I think little moments like Malik being so excited that he can finally identify that little letter between the "l" and the "k" in his name that had been troubling him or moments when Marley can literally retell the entire story to his classmates with supporting details without assistance from the teacher really make being not only an educator, but an educator of little people so much more worth it. I'm looking forward to seeing what February brings & I can't wait to talk about African Americans who have made strides in history to my students! :-)

Ladybugs, Tornadoes, and Swirling Galaxies Ch. 8-10

SQUARE:

“Our ELLs have been really successful when given access to a variety of strategies to communicate, and art is a great way for them to express their ideas. This is particularly true for emergent writers. Although their vocabulary and grammar may not yet be as sophisticated as it is in their native language, they are able to add to the words by using art as a means of communication” (Burhow and Garcia, 2006, p. 106)

This text really squared with my thinking because from my experiences with English Language Learners I have noticed that art is the best way for them to communicate themselves because even though we may not verbally say the same things, we visually see the same things. I have found this to be an awesome means of communication for me and my ELL students and even some times when they are saying something to me that I cannot quite decipher, I then draw a picture on a sheet of paper and allow them to engage in a back and forth pictorial conversation with me.

TRIANGLE:

“Instead of lists of vocabulary words or labels of innate objects, we use content-based word walls with images. These thematic words walls are often very useful for new English speakers. Instead of thinking of them as isolated vocabulary words, imagine a mural of exquisite art. Each and every piece is interrelated and creates a mosaic on the classroom wall that is useful and purposeful. Word walls based on the theme of study for a specific unit help children access new and prior schema, which allows them to write about what they know or what they are learning” (Burhow and Garcia, 2006, p. 133)

I really love this idea! In thinking about the quote that squared with my thinking, this one really pointed me in a new direction because by interrelating everything in our lesson while simultaneously including the use of pictures could create so much meaning for my students. The thing that I really like about this text is because the techniques are not only beneficial to my ELL students, but they are also beneficial to the class as a whole. Considering the fact that I teach Pre-Kindergarten students, I really see how a lot of the things that are discussed in the text coincide with strategies that can be beneficial for emergent learners as well.

CIRCLE:

“Differentiating instruction takes place in every classroom; however, in  a classroom where there are ELLs, two kinds of differentiation must take place: for complexity of content and for complexity of language. One easy way to facilitate this is to keep blocks of time open for inquiries” (Burhow and Garcia, 2006, p. 140)

While reading this quote, a lot of thoughts were still circling in my head. Although I think that this is an awesome idea and something very critical to consider during instruction, I am still wondering about how I can actually implement this in my classroom. I have no doubt that considering both these aspects while differentiating instruction can be accomplished; however, I think just the juggling act of it all and remembering to consider both content and language simultaneously during instruction will definitely be something that I will have to navigate through. All in all, I think that I am up for the challenge!

November Theory in Practice Connections

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!

Ladybugs, Tornadoes and Swirling Galaxies Part 2

Let me start off by saying that this section of Ladybugs, Tornadoes, and Swirling Galaxies really captivated me! It was such a pleasure to read more about Brad and Amy's classroom and all of the wonderful things they are doing to implement skills into their students. Every time I read some new information from this text it really hits home for because I teach a large percentage of English Language Learners. I really liked how the authors helped me think about questioning and how that looks for kids. Buhrow and Garcia discussed how questioning is the catalyst for inquiry and gave examples of ways to help children question and how to note take. This is a strategy that I most recently tried with my students and for some reason it didn't go well. After reading the text, I know that reason is probably because the way that I framed some of my questions was difficult for students to think of their own (mainly since they haven't had much practice). I really like the idea of having a "I learned, I wonder" type of question based chart rather than the typical KWL chart. The main reason why I really thought the charts that Brad and Amy use in their classrooms might work in mine is because they integrate tons of pictures during their questioning and I didn't have any, I just used my words.

On top of the things that really squared with my thinking, there were several other aspects that pointed my thinking in a new direction as well:

"Kid generated word walls give kids more access to meaningful print" (Buhrow & Garcia, 2006, p. 81)

I absolutely loved this when I saw it and I cannot believe that I haven' thought to do this sooner! I truly believe that allowing the students to become more involved in their classroom that they really will begin to take ownership of their learning. I think something like this could work perfectly for all Pre-K teachers because they could get the students to draw pictures of the words that describe the theme for that week and the teacher can simply just label them.

Some Scaffolding Strategies for Inquiry Projects 
Drawing first
Lines for words
Scribing
Word wall
Compelling images
Modeling
(Buhrow & Garcia, 2006, p.83)

I think a lot of the strategies that the authors suggest are ones that I was trying before but I had no idea that I was helping to develop my students' inquiry based skills. I definitely would like to implement the use of lines for words because I think that would be extremely beneficial to Pre-K students. I recently tried an unsuccessful lesson using a KWL chart and I believe that my lesson would have went much more smoother had I had compelling images.

"By giving them the opportunity to choose we are giving them the opportunity to think and to explore what is relevant and pertinent to them. This drives their learning, and rarely do we find that kids are distracted or bored when they are working on something that they've chosen." (Buhrow & Garcia, 2006 p. 93)

I recently liked the fact the authors pointed this out because oftentimes children are bombarded with tasks that they do not care about and end up involved in other activities that will spark their interests. I think in a classroom where children are in charge of their own learning then it makes it way more easier for teachers to provide proper scaffolding because they are not as focused on the negative behaviors in the classroom.

In conclusion, of course with all great things there comes a few things that still float around in your head. Although I love everything that Brad and Amy are implementing in their classroom, I can't help but wonder how feasible is this really. It seems like the author's classroom is a set up where the children are very much in charge of what they are learning and how they are creating it. I guess my question now is in a place where standards and formal instruction takes precedence over exploratory learning, how do we balance and find that happy medium? I am excited about trying out a lot of the strategies that Brad and Amy use especially since they can really aid me in fostering the growth of my English Language Learners. I am just going to keep remembering the question of who holds the power in my classroom and continue to stay true to my answer: children.

Responses:

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October Theory in Practice Connections

Man oh man! October has truly been a roller coaster ride for me! Although I have only had three weeks to get to know my students, I have learned so much about them in such a short period of time. Looking over my Theory in Practice connections, the main patterns that I see during my highs is that I have the best days when my students are actively engaged in the lesson and are able to be very hands-on during the lesson. Many of my students are still four-years-old so I definitely had to reference back to Chip Woods' Yardsticks to re-learn four-year-olds and the best practices for them in my classroom.

In our Child Development course, we talked a lot about Piaget and his theory about children and the way that they develop. I learned that the vast majority of students in my class are still in the preoperational stage of development and have a very hard time seeing a perspective other than their own. This explains why so many incidents in my class have been due to students having a lack of empathy for their classmates because they haven't  quite developed to that stage yet. It was so very interesting to try out the Piagetian tasks with my students and be able to see where they were in the developmental continuum.

A lot of my lows for this month consist of classroom management issues. I'm not sure if it is because my students have not been properly introduced to the classroom rules or if they still aren't used to me yet but for whatever reason, I have been having a bit of difficulty trying to manage my classroom. I must say that Conscious Discipline has helped me a lot in thinking about how to keep my composure in the classroom and ways to approach managing my classroom better.

Despite all of the challenges that I have faced so far in the classroom, I have so many things to celebrate! One of my ELLs who first had a lot of difficulty recognizing and writing letters can now recognize the letters in her name and write them!
                        
 
My students are learning how to cooperatively work together and how each person has something valuable to add to the class!
                   

And also, they are making strides in their writing and coming along so very well in the writing process!!

                           

Looking at all of the things that I have to celebrate in short a short period of time gives me hope for how much more I will be able to accomplish in the future. I'm exciting to keep getting to know my students and keep seeing them grow in all aspects of learning. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing the growth that I am going to make as an educator and all of the memories I'm getting ready to make with the awesome students of Pre-K 3! :-)