Category Archives: Reflections

In The Spirit Of the Studio

In the spirit of the studio Learning from the Atelier of Reggio Emilia -second edition

I especially enjoyed chapter ten- a discussion of a shift in perspective to the idea of a school as a “generative” and living place.

“For a long time, schools have functioned as nonliving systems where there is little evolution of parts in relationships; rather, ideas are fixed, teachers teach them and children are supposed to learn them”.

The way I planned (and unplanned) for instruction I believe allowed myself and students to experience learning in a more authentic, organic and ultimately living way. The information in this book, including the stories of other educators implementing the Reggio Emilia approach in their classrooms in North America really influenced and inspired my practice as I pursued my inquiry question about children’s 100 languages, and the use of the Reggio Emilia approach in the intermediate years.

I was lucky to work with Nancy as a co-researcher. Her inquiry question about learning spaces and mine about the Reggio approach convened to become a closer look on the classroom design, using the environment as The Third Teacher and the possibilities of small studios and ateliers throughout the room.

Mahima

Making Our Quilt-

“First you have to find out how many squares you have and how big they are.Then you have to make your design, and then we planned it out with paper. We did it once with the fabric and planned it. Then we had to draw it out. Then we started sewing. The sewing was quite fun”

Since May 1st I have been making a quilt with my class. This has been a huge project and an area of growth for my students. A lot of planning was required! On my part and for the students.

The challenges:

– Each student was given their own fabric which I had pre-cut into 12cm X 12cm squares. Because the fabric that was donated came in different quantities each student had a different amount of squares. The range was 12-18. Each student measured their squares and found the area and perimeter each square, and of all of their fabric together.

– Students then had to work together cooperatively to plan and create blocks. We used paper triangles to plan our patterns. Students also had to figure out how many groups of two, three and four their fabric could make in order to plan the size of each block.

-Quilt Blocks were either 2 X 2, 3 X 3, or 4 X 4, in other words – 4 squares, 9 squares or 16 squares!

– Each quilt block or combination of blocks had a variety of intersecting lines, parallel lines and angles within triangles. Protractors, measuring tape and rulers helped us look closer and the complexity within each piece.

-To piece our quilt together we needed to rotate, translate and sometimes reflect the patterns.

The quilt has been an ever-changing complex and authentic math problem for our class. We covered all kinds of math concepts in geometry, numeracy and visuospatial thinking. We have had to change our thinking and evolve with the project, myself included. At first I thought that each student would be able to use up all their squares in the quilt. One of the students in my class collected measurements from each student and calculated that if we used all our squares our quilt would be over 150 feet! We had to change our plan! Shape and space has to be my favourite part of math. This project has been too fun, for me and the students!

Quilting has also been an interesting look into the past for us. Quilting is a huge part of the heritage of our community. Before we began this project we looked at quilt from the online archives of our local museum.

Aside from the math this project has been amazing for social emotional learning. There is a lot of self-regulation required in sewing. We have discussed at length in our class the “zone” you need to be in to quilt. You need to be calm and focused to help use the machine. To do the sewing the students pinned the pieces together. Then either myself or the LST would sit at the sewing machine with the student. We would then work as a team to make the seams. I would use my hands on the machine and the student would use their hands to control the pedal. Pushing on the pedal too hard or too fast would result in uneven and messy seams – so students need to be calm and steady!

We learned about ways to reduce risk and be safe especially when using sharp pins, scissors and the machine. This project has been amazingly community building. I really encouraged the students to try and work with someone new by choosing a partner based on what fabrics go together. For the most part almost everyone worked with someone in the class they don’t usually spend a lot of time with. Social-Emotional Learning can be a puzzle when it comes to assessment. This situation was a lot easier for me- I can look at the quilt coming together and see the cooperation and new friendships.

The students are so proud of this project. We hope to enter our quilt in a local competition.

Recycled journals

Recycled Journals-

At the beginning of our study of “Fatty Legs” I made these recycled journals with the class for recording all our responses before, during and after our reading. The journals are made out of paper shopping bags of different sizes, and colours of recycled and loose leave paper. The spine of the books are made with washi tape, masking tape and staples. The engagement factor was high. The students felt a very strong sense of ownership over the books. I don’t think the unit would have been as successful if I had used regular exercise books.

At the time the 35 minutes it took to make these journals seemed to be an expensive use of time. The classroom was a mess from making these books. I realize now that the messy 35 minutes was really an investment that paid off every morning during our language arts time. Each student took pride and care in their work. Almost no one was missing work or any entries in their journal. Those who were absent were eager to catch up on any pages they missed when they returned to school

Visual Schedule

Although it looks simple, this visual schedule has been invaluable to me in organizing the morning with the students. When I started my practicum the morning was a difficult transition time for a lot of students.

“where are you in our routine?” is a really gentle reminder. When I first put this up I saw students would walk up to it to check where they are. Now students know the plan. Students are way more independent this way- they know the expectations.

Line up for the bell
Walk up the stairs safely
Put your backpack in the cloak room, take out your planner
Put your face in the basket
Put your planner in the basket
Sit in your assigned seat
Listen for the morning announcements
Chime time, breathe mindfully
Literacy Centres

All about my space

Usually my space is pretty neat and organized however after week 8 it was such a disaster I had to get a picture to show a friend of mine…she had lots of questions about all of the interesting objects… I realized how much it all says about me, who I am as a teacher and my values.

In this basket is where I keep a variety of children’s literature that I use in my teaching or lend to students in my class.The shaker in my basket is one of my kindergarten materials, I keep it around just in case!
I am always being gifted the most beautiful artwork and interesting little cards! I display all of it prominently to show students I value them and that they are important to me.
This dinosaur is for playing with! Often my school advisor’s little one will play in the class after school. Play is an endeavour worthy in itself, even in grade five (even in any grade).
I keep sticky notes in this ornate box which I often use for thinking routines. I was very careful to make sure all of the materials I introduced into the classroom environment were conducive to the cool toned colour palette in the room. As someone inspired by the Reggio Approach I know that the environment is The Third Teacher and my school advisor’s inquiry is about learning spaces. Between the two us there is a lot of attention to classroom design and aesthetics!
Recycled materials… so far used for planting flowers in and creating hand made journals… looks like junk, I promise it’s useful!
Directly below the floating number 6 is my folder system where I keep a file for each student. I include work that I have formally assessed and more informal records too. Sometimes I will find a scrap of something that says so much about a student, it’s nice to have a place to put it. I’ve found this system invaluable so far in the parent meetings I’ve attended.
This poster was given to me by the district aboriginal curriculum mentor teacher who is really lovely and has helped me a lot this year. My favourite from this poster and First People’s Principles of Learning: “Learning involves patience and time”
Under here is my daybook… most days it is much more visible in case I’m away. Then anyone can see what I have planned! I love my daybook because the cover has my own artwork on it. The way the book is folded on my desk no one can really see… but I know it’s there
This is a lap desk I found in my garage and repainted for student use in the classroom. We are trying a variety of options in the class including different sizes and shapes of tables and groups, some individual desks, standing desks, gathering areas and alternative workspaces. I need to take the lap desk home to make some more adjustments to it which is why it’s under my desk. I’m thinking of trying to attach something metal to make it magnetic…
I have these recycling bins all over the classroom! I will admit that paper on the floor does annoy me.

So here it is – all about me and my teaching from my desk! Although there is one thing about my desk that says the most about my teaching…you CAN’T see it in the picture so I will have to tell you: I AM ALMOST NEVER SITTING IN IT! 🙂

Top photo: December 2014

Bottom photo: June 2015- week 9!

Butterfly Release

After caring for these creatures since they were caterpillars we released our painted lady butterflies in the school gardens. We were sad to see them go, but we wanted the best for them! We treated them with love and care in our classroom and now they are ready for one of the earths more important jobs! Being a pollinator!

Having living things in the classroom was never part of my plan this year but the experience has been so enriching for the students and for me I would most definitely do it again. In caring for our caterpillars recently, and our salmon I have seen students organize themselves, take initiative, be responsible, make observations, ask questions, be gentle and act lovingly. We are stewards of the earth!

Fatty Legs – A True Story

The group has become excellent at developing questions using our “Think Aloud” protocol… I like to build a lot of intrigue before starting any text.

Using just the cover illustration we developed a number of rich “why” questions. We resisted the urge to try and answer them right away! We will revisit them when we are deeper into the story!

Why are they wearing the same clothes?
Why is one girl standing in front of the others?
Why does this one girl have red socks?
Why is it snowing?
Why is it a true story?
Why do they look depressed?
Why is it called fatty legs?
Why are none of their eyes showing?
Why are they not wearing any snow gear when it’s snowing?
Why do they look like twins?
Why is Fatty Legs in bold red printing?
Why do they all have short hair?
Why is there no background?
Why is one girl crossing her arms?

I’m ready to delve into this book… I didn’t originally plan to do a unit on this before I started my practicum but after I heard about this book and read it I knew this would be a good fit for my class. I think Fatty Legs is the perfect book to open a discussion on this topic, so much so that I went through great lengths to gather enough copies to have a class set! I have some copies from the public library, some copies from two different high schools, a copy from our school library, and some from the district resource centre! I hope one day the school district invests in a class set of this book as I think other teachers would like to use it. Another grade five teacher in the district has used the book with her class and between us I think we have created enough resources for other teachers to get started with this book. The story is beautifully illustrated, sensitive, and developmentally appropriate. I spent some time meeting with the district Aboriginal Curriculum Mentor Teacher and I feel ready to carefully and respectfully approach this text and the sensitive topic of residential schools.

Earthwise Gardens and a “normal” day!

Last week I took the class on a field trip to Earthwise Gardens. Earthwise gardens is a local organic farm that I was familiar with from my time working with the Chamber of Commerce in the community. One of my friends also worked there as a gardener so the location had been on my radar for a while! I knew they did “eco-tours” for school groups and I called to ask about a tour for our class. One of their regular programs is about pollinators- a topic we’ve been studying! When I told the education programmer that we were especially interested in bees she contacted the beekeeper and we received an engaging tour of the hives. We donned bee suits, learned about different plants indigenous to Delta, what types of flowers bees prefer, what bees do in the winter and how the bee keeper cares for them! The experience was very interactive. We saw the paint the keeper uses to mark the Queen Bee, we saw inside the hive, we even tasted honey and a few brave students held bees. No one was stung! We are were all mindful and respectful of the bees. If a bee got very close to us we practiced mindful breathing.

I would highly recommend Earthwise gardens to other teachers!

Making an unusual day productive:

Something a little unorthodox that I did was that I planned the field trip on the same day as the district track meet. Some people would avoid this day but I strategically made the decision. I wanted to have as normal of a day as possible, even with eight students away for the track meet and a long weekend coming up for the students because of Victoria Day and a professional day. This is how I made the most of the day:

– At the beginning of the week I started reader’s theatre. I made it clear that next Tuesday would be the day we perform. I made a clear schedule of how to stay on track and posted it to the board. This set up Thursday as the last day to practice. On Thursday morning the students knew what to expect and were ready to get started.

-I created groups of 3-5 for the project. The eight people going to the track meet were in groups together. This way on Thursday morning no one was missing a group member during the rehearsal time.

-I politely asked the other intermediate teachers if I could keep my group together for Thursday due to our field trip in the afternoon. I did not receive any students from other classes on this particular day. I felt that I had planned my activities and organized my students in a way that I had enough students left to have a normal instructional day. I know that one of the grade seven teachers had also asked to keep her group together too. Last week with only a few students left from my class I didn’t mind at all taking in students from various classes. However with the majority of my students left I was a little bit cautious not to get too off track from our regular activities!

Tiles, mod podge and self-regulation

“This art project takes a lot of patience!”

: A finished product

: The process

: The process

A parent from the school donated several boxes of beautiful tiles to our class. Interestingly enough my school advisor and I were the only ones interested in having them…

I spent some time thinking about a way we could use these beautiful materials to make an art project, especially in time for mothers day.

I settled on an image transfer technique using mod podge… I wanted to make decorative tiles… similar to the Sid Dickens ones sold at decor and gift shops. A local gift store sells these tiles at a price point of $80-$100!! I consulted with a friend who has a fine arts background and was on my way!

Our class managed to make these as gifts at almost no cost as the tiles were donated, we borrowed the mod podge from another class and used loose leaf supply paper from the school.

I incorporated some flexibility and choice into this project in a few ways.

I left it open ended by telling students everyone would make between one and four tiles.
I had the students to choose their images or image theme
While mothers day gifts were the suggestion I left it open to students about how they would gift the tiles… one student preferred to save these for her mother’s birthday which was coming after mother’s day. Another student made two tiles for mom and two for grandma. Depending on family situations mother’s day art activities can be sensitive… I framed this more as an art activity we were doing and you could use this project as a gift for your mother.

In my daybook I gave this activity a lot of time which turned out to be a good choice! There was a lot of trial and error…I expected this to be a process, however to be completely honest I didn’t realize how messy this project was going to be and how long it was going to take. I made a couple tiles myself the weekend prior and had figured out the basic process which I demonstrated under the document camera.

Many students were not successful until their 3rd or 4th try on this project. I warned students before we started that it may take some time to get this right and that you may need to wash your tile and start over a few times. The first demo I did under the document camera actually didn’t work- in some ways that was lucky for me because it set the tone for the students that it’s okay to not be successful on the first try. I also had an opportunity to show them how to scrub the tile to start over!

In some ways it was a really excellent learning opportunity for some students. One student who is always successful at everything we do tried at least six or seven times before she managed to make hers! I was impressed with her attitude and perseverance. In the end she created four beautiful tiles that she was very proud of.

There was however one point when the room was an absolute mess and I thought this art project was a total failure. Just then I overhead one student say “This is the most fun art project we’ve done!”

Ultimately every single person was successful in making at least one tile. I’m happy I did this project. At first I was very tempted to just use one of the mother’s day art project I had done in a previous year. It would have been a lot easier…

Now I have something new to add to my repertoire! I was even able to make a lot of connections to our math learning about transformations, especially reflection and rotation when positioning the image on the tile!

The process required a lot of patience, focus and self regulation. Not to mention that the art process required a lot of physical strength from pushing, rubbing and adding pressure. (One student even asked if this was my idea of having another gym class!) The end results however were absolutely amazing. There are a lot of things I would do differently if I were to this project again (mostly to streamline the process). I also think I would never ever do this project with a primary grade because it’s just too frustrating for young children.

Grade 5 students however… they were so proud to make these. Many students told me the following monday how the tiles were on display in their families homes including in their gardens, on patio tables, and even mounted to the walls!

Grades 5/6/7

With all the shuffling today for track I found myself teaching a group of grade 5s, 6s and 7s from many different classes! There were only six students from my class who didn’t attend the track meet so many other students from other classes joined us today while their teachers supervised the meet. It was a fun experience. having a multi age environment.

The few students left from my class enjoyed showing off our classroom and showing of our classroom to our new classmates for the morning! We have so many fascinating projects going on that students from other divisions find fascinating…

I tried to follow our routine as much as possible. We had modified literacy centres this morning – I had everyone doing word work. Then I read the story One Grain of Rice on the document camera and we had fun with our manipulatives following along with the story and pausing in between to try out different math operations and ideas! I love using children’s literature in math, especially when some books pose such wonderful rich problems. After, I did a short lesson on digital literacy and we did some research on dying bee populations (another theme my class was able to help people get up to speed on!). The students have their eyes peeled now for plants in our community and on our school grounds that may attract pollinators. We ended the morning with some time after recess to work on projects that other teachers had left for us and some math fun!

In the afternoon we switched off with the other teachers and had an exciting afternoon at the track! (Many ribbons and smiles in my class!)

The Salmon Twins…

A book my students love!

The Salmon Twins is quickly becoming one of my favourite books. This book is beautifully illustrated and weaves together legends and traditions from many Coast Salish First Peoples. The first time I read this book with the students it felt a bit rushed. I chose to read it last monday, the same day we went on a field trip to the salmon hatchery. I read this book aloud using the document camera.

The students loved the book but field trip days are busy and when we don’t leave first thing in the morning I find the students are really distracted by their anticipation. After reading the book I immediately regretted having the students at their desks instead of our comfy gathering area on the carpet. The students all successfully identified important characters in the text but we didn’t quite get to the deep thinking I had in mind.

On the Wednesday I attended a workshop presented by Faye Brownlie on CR4YR. This was just in time. I was inspired to try this book again with the class. Through that workshop I was able to touch base and return to all the ideas I knew about effective literacy practices and pick up some new ideas too. I was reminded of all the usual strategies that I’ve used before to engage primary students in shared reading and read aloud. I thought it was worth going back to those strategies, even with intermediate students. At the workshop I sat with a teacher who was my advisor for my third year practicum. When I was chatting with her she reminded me of all the things I did with her class that she thought were really strong and effective strategies. Being around her really lifted my spirits. She’s been teaching for more years than I’ve been alive and she still comes out to Pro D events in the evenings. It just goes to show you can always pick up something new, and if you already know something it doesn’t hurt to hear it again.

The very next day, Thursday morning I gathered the students at the bleachers for a think aloud about the book. I chose one page and told the students that we were going to do something different and we were all going to ask one question. Everyone had to come up with one question about what they saw on just that one page. We also were going to resist the temptation to try and answer any of those questions! I reiterated the importance of listening to each other’s questions since that might make us change our thinking. I reviewed that questions can usually start with who, what, why, where, when, how come, etc. and that your voice goes up at the end of a question. I gave the students some time to think and then we all shared our questions one at a time. Once everyone had asked at least one question only then did I allow some of the keen students to ask a second question (I picked this up from the workshop!). After we had each asked at least one question I finally read the text on that page. We then identified an interesting character and used the glossary of the book to help our understanding.

We then identified four key vocabulary terms from just that one page: Elder, Salmon, Greedy and Woodworm. I set out that my only criteria for the written response was that you use those four words in someway to show your understanding. I told the students that when they had a plan of what they were going to write they could quickly signal to me with their hand and I would give them the nod that they were ready to go back to their desk to write and illustrate. I told the students that if they didn’t have a plan yet they could stay at the carpet space to chat with me. I am really enjoying this strategy… it is really increasing our productivity- no one leaves the carpet without a plan! This allows me to “catch” everyone who needs my attention and no one is getting lost in the physical space of the classroom. Students who are not yet ready to begin working independently can choose to stay and talk to me until they feel ready. The work output was impressive. Some students completed more than one page and the illustrations were wonderful.

I followed up on Monday to let the students know I had read their work and responded. I kept my assessment simple but meaningful. The main goal for me was to show students that I was looking at their work and listening to their ideas. Another teacher at the school mentioned to me that her philosophy for assessment is all about quick turn around and timely feedback for students. I printed my little checklist onto sticky notes and got to it!

Today I revisited the book at the carpet space to introduce a new thinking routine “Circle of Viewpoints”. We used “I feel” statements to identify what the characters may be thinking at different parts of the stories.

Here’s an example:

Viewpoint: “I feel sad because I miss the twins”

Character: Grandma

The students really had fun with this one. We said the viewpoint and then allowed others to guess who the character was. It kind of felt like a bit of a game! We also talked about how “I” statements can be used to be respectful when we have disagreements with others. This thinking routine may be a keeper just like our compass routine.

It’s funny… it was a rocky start and I didn’t know that this story would capture the student’s attention for so long (or mine!). It’s been a wonderful interlude connecting our science unit about salmon to beginning deeper investigation, understanding and appreciation of Canada’s first peoples.

Did I participate in too many pro-d activities this week?

This week was very busy… on top of the usual happenings of our class (field trips! tea parties! birthdays! projects! assemblies!) I ended up attending numerous professional development activities…

Tuesday Math– In the morning I attended a workshop about differentiated instruction in math with my school advisor and other intermediate teachers. With a class as diverse as ours all of the ideas the speaker was sharing seemed highly relevant. I found her presentation style to be very engaging too. An idea she mentioned that I really agree with is that we shouldn’t rush students along to abstract thinking too quickly! The concrete demonstrations that can be achieved through rich problems and manipulatives do not water down the math learning, they only enhance it. I loved the cuisenaire rods she uses to teach fractions. They are beautiful materials!

Wednesday Literacy– On Wednesday I went to an evening workshop on Changing Results For Young Readers (CR4YR). Faye Brownlie was amazing, she does such as good job of modelling the strategies she teaches. I was able to use some of the ideas from her workshop the very next morning with a book called Salmon Twins, a simple read aloud that I was able to revisit in a very rich inquiry minded way after this workshop. The LST from our school just happened to observe this lesson and even she was impressed! Some of the content from the workshop was a refresher for me on strategies I already knew and some ideas were brand new to me. I knew enough that I didn’t feel lost but had enough to learn to keep it interesting! This workshop was so good I would honestly attend it again. As an intermediate teacher I’ve been finding my background in literacy research and intervention to be much more valuable and applicable than I expected. Intermediate classes have a range of readers from primary to high school!

Thursday More Math!– Thursday after school was a small workshop on division for intermediate teachers with the district’s math coordinator. She was very nice. I really appreciated her perspective on algorithms. Some teachers still choose to use them but I felt like she gave me a lot of other options.

Friday District Pro D, Aboriginal Education– Friday was District Pro D at the Longhouse. I learned more about coast salish culture and the whole experience was very interesting. The workshop was really powerful. At one point hearing from a survivor of a residential school was difficult. Being in the longhouse made me feel like I was part of a community of learners who were brought together to make a commitment to contributing to truth and reconciliation. Our part is to try and understand and incorporate aboriginal knowledge, culture and ways of knowing. Our part is also to support young people so they can be leaders of the community. I also got a chance to briefly meet the district Aboriginal Curriculum Implementation Mentor Teacher. She is coming to my school next week to meet with me about the language arts and social studies unit I have coming up.

Spring Cleaning and Organizing Project Based Learning

Something I have found challenging so far during this practicum is the organization of the physical space of the classroom. The class is a unique challenge because almost all the learning every day is project based. At any given time we may have 2-3 projects happening simultaneously.

Keeping the space clean and organized is a big priority for me this term.

Here are some simple strategies I’ve put into place to get organized

File folder- I have a file folder with one section for every student in the class where I keep completed work, documentation and evidence of learning that I intend to use for assessment
New attendance system – picture based and student directed. When you come in during the morning, put your face in the basket to let me know you are here! The students love it, they find it hilarious.
Visuals on the board to indicate progress. I have devised a simple system using magnets of the student’s names and tape. The students indicate where in a project they are so I know when I can move on to teaching the next thing.

This upcoming week I will be taking my spring cleaning craze to the next level. I’ve been driving around my car today to look for good condition items on the curb that can help organize the class.

One desk group has been having some conflicts over loose papers piling up and making a mess. After meeting with the group our simple agreed upon solution is to have a basket at the desk for the four students to put their recycling in. I found a suitable basket this weekend at the thrift store. We’ve planned to meet again at the end of this week so I’ll see how it works.

I have picked a basket for planners from some of the things one of my neighbours put out. Starting this week students will leave their planners in a basket by the bleachers in order to expedite writing in our planners at the end of the day to give us more time for working on all our projects and getting them cleaned up!

Lemon and vinegar inquiry… All week I have had a jar full of vinegar, water, half a grapefruit peel and half a lemon peel on one of the tables in the classroom. I have set it up as a provocation, something I’ve been learning through my reggio inquiry. Students have many speculations about it… Some think that there are pears inside. Some students think I am making lemon aid. Many students think it is something I’m going to use for science fair. I will be adding a plastic spray bottle to this provocation to see if I can nudge students thinking towards making our own cleaners for the classroom. If this is a topic students become interested in it will fit perfectly with our study of measurement.

Water safety

We had our water safety course today at the pool. This was a wonderful field trip. Safety is a big theme in our classroom right now. It’s part of our health and career outcomes but it’s also part of our responsibilities as people who live near the water and as a caring classroom community. In our community it’s especially important to learn about water safety. Very recently there was some upsetting news in the media about the death of an elderly man in our community who passed away in the river.

We were able to have a meaningful and age appropriate conversation about the sad news that was very close to home for us. I noticed that although all the students were having fun and enjoying themselves, they were also taking the learning happening very seriously.

We learned about

-conserving body heat when in the water

-what should come on boats and what should stay on the shore

-CPR using chest compressions only

-Canoe safety

-floatation devices

and a lot more!

What was interesting for me was seeing the students in another learning environment. The wonderful staff and lifeguards are educators but not necessarily teachers. In this environment there isn’t a lot of modification or adaptations of activities. There are no IEPs and the instructors and the students don’t have any history together. It was interesting to see how the lifeguards interacted with the students. For a few students it was shocking, although no one reacted overtly negatively. It was just for one afternoon, a bit eye opening for me. I was able to watch the students react to a style very different from my own!

Interesting fact: when I was a student they used to teach you to do chest compressions to the tune of “staying alive”. Now they teach students chest compressions using “Uptown Funk”.

April 1st, Random Acts Of Kindness Day

I was very nervous about April Fools Day looming on the third day back from Spring Break. I was worried that some of the students in the class would think it was funny to do ‘pranks’. I don’t like pranks- they don’t really fit in with our classroom guidelines of take care of yourself, take care of others and take care of this place. I did a short lesson the day before April 1 about “The Smile Lady” to introduce the idea of Random Acts of Kindness. We created a venn diagram comparing pranks and RAKs. Our class found that pranks mostly embarrassed people or created a mess. RAKs however filled buckets, made people smile and made people feel appreciated. What pranks and RAKs have in common is that they can both be unexpected and spontaneous.

This really helped me redirect some of the energy the students had. We spent a little bit of time creating proposals for RAKs. Some people chose to work alone and some people chose to team up with someone else in the class. Every person submitted an idea and had it approved by me. I set up a couple basic rules for RAKing someone

– the RAK should not embarrass the person

– the RAK should not create a mess

– the RAK should cost very little to no money

– the RAK should not disturb anyone during school time

I loved the creativity that followed… I could not stop smiling. Some people left short anonymous notes with kind compliments on them. Some people cleaned the classroom. Someone chose to put a tablecloth on the bleachers and prepare a nice snack for the class. The day was full of kind surprises for those in our class and around the school. We even RAKed an entire class together as a team! The best part was that the RAKs actually continued the day after as well- the students in the class have found that doing nice things for others (even if it’s something small) feels incredibly rewarding!

I’m proud to say that not one person from my class did any pranks this April Fools day.

“You Can Do Anything!” – Reggio Inspired Story Workshop

“Are you going to write your story now?”

I had the opportunity to observe “Story Time Workshop” in kindergarten and grade 1. Story Time Workshop is a reggio inspired literacy approach. Something that is really influential to me is the poem “The Hundred Languages of Children” by Loris Malaguzzi. I believe that if you are listening to their voices close enough you can hear all one hundred of children’s languages (and maybe 100 more!). The story time workshop is about encouraging children to tell their own story in a way that honours their language of play.

The basic methodology to my understanding:

The children play with an assortment of materials, they have choice as to which materials they would like to use and all materials are set up in a way that is aesthetically beautiful and inviting. Some materials available today:

paint in analogous colours
wooden blocks interspersed with branches
thematic loose parts and materials for valentines day
clay and dough with accompanying tools
sheets and lights for shadow projections and sand with loose parts

The children use their materials to represent their stories through play. They discuss with each other and they create. Once they feel that they are ready or “done” they are encouraged to write their story. They grab their clipboard and start recording their stories. After this, they may return to the materials to to further represent their stories. Throughout this process the teacher is documenting through a variety of mediums (like video or photograph). The act of documentation in itself shows students the teacher is listening.

The students in this class are really engaged in the workshop. They love to write their stories… I think because they are given ample time to play and represent their thinking. I had similar results with successful writing when I waited until towards the end of my pumpkin investigation to do a writing activity.

Even the youngest K’s in the group understand the story workshop. I was playing with some loose parts with some of the children. I must have slowed down because a little one looked at me and said “Are you going to write your story now?”. With that prompt… I got right to work! She understood the framework and held me to that same standard for creative play and story writing.

Overall it was a wonderful experience. The atmosphere of the room is different from a traditional classroom. I was particularly intrigued by something one little girl said to me. I had sat down, grabbed some beads and said “I wonder if I can make a pattern?”. The girl said to me with conviction “You can do anything!”.

Wether she meant that she had full faith in my abilities or she meant that I had choice in what I wanted to do… I’m still not sure. However one message is clear, the environment in a reggio inspired program views students as powerful and rich, they can do anything.

District Intensive Literacy Class

This morning I observed a late literacy classroom in Surrey. Wow! What a great environment. I was thoroughly impressed with the strong classroom community.

What really stood out to me was how the students in the class supported each other and how motivated the students were. What I observed was a real growth mindset – this was evident even from just looking at the physical space of the classroom. Students had their goals posted on the walls as reminders to them about what they were working towards. These goals included short term goals like “Become a Better Reader” and long term goals like “Go Travelling to Other Countries”.

The physical set up of the classroom was also great. Lots of alternative seating for the students, attention to lighting, snacks available, attention to colour choice etc. The teacher had very carefully and purposefully created her classroom environment. I think I was extra sensitive to this in my observation of her room because of my interest in the Reggio approach. The environment is considered the third teacher in Reggio. The physical space was calm, accommodating and “unfussy”- much like the teacher herself.

I really loved the classroom motto- “No Stress”. The students, teacher and EA in this room were all lovely.

Making Thinking Visible with Ron Ritchhart

Making Thinking Visible

In January I went to a workshop with my school advisor, a workshop presented by Ron Ritchhart who is a researcher with Harvard’s Project Zero. It was excellent and I can’t wait for part II. Before the workshop and over the winter break I read his book “Making Thinking Visible”. I found it very interesting, I especially liked some of the “thinking routines” so I was really looking forward to hearing him speak.

Something that really influenced me from this book were the reflections of the second author Mark Church- he mentioned that early in his career he overemphasized “fun” and planned activities that were “hands on”, but not minds on. The example he gave was playing a game of jeopardy with his class to prepare for a test. This is a “palatable form of practice” but it doesn’t challenge students to think about the material in a meaningful way.

I think the work being done by the researchers at Project Zero is extremely influential for the field because it gives purpose to the idea of inquiry and project based learning. If we truly commit ourselves to wondering and asking questions then it is only inevitable we find out we have more questions than we started with. I view that as a positive thing. That is true learning. Questions reflect the depth of our understanding and asking questions is an authentic place to root learning.

I want to create a culture in my classroom where it’s okay to get the wrong answer, an unexpected answer, or even no answer at all. The most important thing is that you ask the question. I remember saying this when I did the pumpkin investigation in kindergarten. It’s still as real to me as ever going through science fair with my grade five students. I want it to be all about the process.

I want it to be learning and not work.