This week was a great week and full of all kinds of experiences.

I started the week with a sharing circle.  Every Monday morning I am going to try to start the week giving everyone a chance to share one experience from their weekend.  There is a sharing time each day that the students are used to, but it often ends up being similar students sharing each day and I am hoping to get everyone sharing a little more.  I am not too concerned with what they share, it can even be what they ate or something very simple, but my goal is to increase inclusiveness and get more people sharing.

Following the sharing circle, I threw a bit of a curve ball at the students.  The class has been in rows all year long, but in order to try something new in math, I had them put their tables in four groups.  I had ten different worksheets of increasing difficulty prepared and I allowed the students to choose which level they felt they were at when selecting a worksheet to work on.  Prior to selecting the worksheet, students had to set a goal on a sticky note and place it at the top of their desk.  To improve this, I would make sure to demonstrate what each worksheet looks like and how many questions were on each one.  This exercise actually went quite well and I would like to try using this system regularly.  It increased the students peer to peer learning quite a bit.  I learned a lot about different seating situations and the pros and cons of each.

Other moments from the week:

I moved the desk configuration for math class into groups and gave students the choice of what level worksheet to try. I actually think it went well and would try it more often, but it definitely needs some more structure and refinement.

In science, the students started their body system presentations. I was pleasantly surprised by quality.  There were some very personal presentations.  One student did a fantastic presentation of post traumatic stress disorder which his father suffers from and his highlight was speaking with his dad about it.  Another student did an amazing job on the immune system while one group did fecal matter and melted chocolate bars to demonstrate consistency.  It got a great reaction from the class.

I did have to deal with an explorations teacher coming to give my class a lecture about their behavior in her class.  I had to manage her expectations with the reality of my class.  Added to this, dealing with any grade 8’s near the end of the year can be a challenge.

I had a couple of new students join the class and it was an adjustment.  It changes the dynamic of the classroom quite a bit and I had to try to figure out where they are with curriculum and what I need to do to work with them.

Finally, due to a number of students missing one day, I had the chance to joining in with them during open PE class.  It was so much fun to have a manageable class size.

Another great week.