Working together and collaborating to find the central idea of a text. These types of scenarios involve me taking a step back and not micromanaging how they decide to arrange themselves in the classroom. Instead, I've learned to observe how they choose to manipulate the furniture into whatever works for them. If it doesn't work out, I step in and offer a solution whether it's redirecting to the task at hand, moving a student to another group to be more productive, or pulling up another desk for more writing surface. I've found, however, that these desks are plenty big enough for two students to work comfortably in this type of activity.
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This ranks pretty high up on some of the professional development events I've been able to attend. Thanks Kelly for the invite to Douron for movie night! The film "Most Likely to Succeed" was so inspiring. I think I watched the first several minutes of it with my jaw resting on the table - I was so impressed by the high level of engagement in the film. Their cross curriculum strategies were creative, and effective. More info here: http://www.mltsfilm.org. David Stubbs presented and led a round table discussion following the film. As a teacher, it was interesting for me to hear so many unique perspectives on school and classroom structure from architects, purchasers, designers, etc. I felt incredibly honored to be a teacher at that table, and sort of get an idea of how many integral cogs there really are in designing and building an educational facility. I do hope they continue to include teachers in these discussions as we are "out in the trenches" so-to-speak, and try our best to advocate for our students. An added bonus, while on site at Douron's Owings Mills location, I had a "goldilocks" experience getting to try out a lot of their neat products! I could see my students enjoying many of these designs in a learning commons, and a classroom. Learning about persuasive writing techniques...
I found a great video that talks about Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. I told them to move their seat to where they were comfortable and could hear the audio. Desks got moved out of the way a little, and the green benches dragged in front. They were so absorbed in the video, they didn't see me snap the photo! :-) Can we just talk about this article that dropped into my inbox this afternoon?!
http://neatoday.org/2016/09/23/ditching-classroom-desks/?utm_source=nea_today_express&utm_campaign=161019neatodayexpress&utm_medium=email&utm_content=starbucks There are so many great points they bring up that I could relate to. Here are some of my comments... There is something orderly, functional and maybe even comforting about students sitting behind rows and rows of desks all facing the teacher. – Yes, more comfortable for the teacher because order is the traditional staple of classroom management. ...messing with the classroom furniture could invite additional classroom misbehaviors – This is a classroom management issue, and although you will learn management styles in college, the most effective learning will be the kind that occurs in the moment. I’ve become convinced that traditional educational settings dull the senses. – I agree!! It stifles creativity, and after all, don’t we want our students to be innovative? How can we foster progress and thinking outside of the box when we confine the physical space? ...it’s the openness of her classroom that provides the collaborative space and the ease of movement to keep students “awake and engaged.” – I have noticed I’ve had the head-down, sleeping battle far less with my students this year! ...look at less-expensive options, such as yoga or bath mats and crate seats. – I disagree, I don’t think some of these items would hold up in the long run. Then you’ll have spent the same amount of money replacing an item multiple times when you could have just purchased one quality item. Teachers will likely face a level of skepticism from parents – I disagree with this. I have not had one disagreeable comment from a parent about the classroom. If anything, I would predict that they are hearing more about the classroom at home than they would if the old furniture was still in use as the article goes on to state. It’s not just an issue of having top-notch classroom management skills (though this is critical), but educators must be ready to surrender a degree of authority. – Finally, this is addressed. You have to let go of the notion that the student will sit still in the chair. That’s not what the new designs are promoting. You have to let go and accept that some students just wiggle and acknowledge the fact that yes, the student is still wiggling, but now they are engaged in the learning while they are fidgeting. Accept the classroom management challenge as professional development. I have more than one student that likes to zip around the classroom in the wheeled chairs, but it only takes one time of swapping the wheeled chair for a green stool (also designed for fidgeting but without mobility) and they buckle down. Actually, most of the time, suggesting that I’m going to swap out the chairs if they can’t handle it nips the problem efficiently. I asked the kiddos yesterday what they liked best about the desks, what made these desks better than their other classrooms. Their response was that they're more comfortable, they have more space, and they like the design. Because they are not allowed to bring bookbags into classrooms, and they don't like to sit their books on the floor, they like that the desks are a little bigger and they give them enough space to put their belongings without compromising writing space.
We had an interesting discussion today about the durability of the desks. I was running through the earthquake procedure with them, and explained they would need to get under the desk to protect their head and spine. They were concerned that the surface of the desk was not strong enough to withstand stuff from the ceiling falling down. I told them I would double-check on that! I'm thinking that it could withstand lights and ceiling tiles but likely not a whole cement and steel roof. Thoughts? New week, new layout! We've been doing a lot of work in discussion groups and I wanted to incorporate a new design. I decided to attack the new layout on Friday (I know - what was I thinking?!) and to my surprise, some of my students who stay for an extra-curricular activity popped in to see me. They were so excited when I showed them the different formations on the key Kelly gave me that I ended up standing back and letting them put the pieces together! It was even better when they arrived yesterday to oooh and ahh over the new arrangement. To make use of the new layout, I had them complete question cup. In this activity, I gave them critical thinking question stems to help them formulate higher level thinking questions. As they read (we are currently on chapter 5 in The Outsiders) they come up with three critical thinking questions using the stems. They write their question on a post it along with their name, and page #. Then, in class, they fold the post its and place them in a cup. In groups, they take turns drawing questions, discussing them, and writing down a well-rounded response. I was so impressed by some of their questions today. They were asking their peers to explain their answers, and to find text evidence. Not to mention making these really creative connections that I had never considered after reading the book! This layout seems to really promote group discussion. A little bit of feedback they've given me this week: I am finding that they students almost always prefer the green benches/couches. They prefer the chairs on wheels that do not have the automatic wheel locking safety feature. It is hard to fit more than 3 people at the round table. The students don't care for the taller chairs on wheels because the seat is too flexible. They say it makes them feel like they're going to fall or slide out of it. They love that the white tables are dry erase and can flip over to share work! Students are reading and loving The Outsiders! In discussion format, I give each student group a question to discuss and formulate a solid answer to share with the rest of the class. I am happy to see high levels of engagement! At one point, a student group flipped their dry erase table to share their answer with the rest of the class, and the other students had pulled up their chairs, stools, perched on a couch, made themselves comfortable on the floor leaning against a couch, and gave that student group their undivided attention. I was so impressed with them! I thought I snapped a photo on the iPad but it's not showing in the photo stream :-( I'm not too bummed, though, because I know they are more than likely to recreate this environment now that they have the resources to do so! (P.S Some of them are a little camera shy!) Today, the students participated in a jigsaw activity centered around characterization. First, the students read Chapter 1 of The Outsiders independently. Then, they worked in a small group to outline one character, citing details about their age, background, personalities, and personal interests. Once they had their character sketch done, I rearranged them into a second, larger group that would have one character representative from the first group. Once they settled into their second groups, they introduced their character to the rest of group and took notes until their entire packet was filled in. This worked really well, and had high levels of engagement. The flexibility of the furniture allowed for me to have many small first groups, and room to hold the larger groups. One of the first activities I wanted the students to do was to work in groups on anchor charts as to what a good classroom looks like, feels like, sounds like, and what it is not. This activity helps them establish a good foundation of expectations for respect. They shared their group anchor charts with the class as a whole to create a master list, and then used their collective findings to come up with non-negotiable "We Will" statements. I had laminated poster board for groups that could not fit around the dry erase tables. The poster board is much harder to clean off, and not quite as efficient for group reflection and sharing. We all much prefer the dry-erase tables. I wish I had it on film the first time I flipped the table into vertical mode so you could hear them say "wow! that's so cool!" Check out the pictures below!
I had a few extra minutes at the end of a class, so I asked the students to write their first impressions of the furniture on a post it. A lot of them think it's super neat and I've encouraged them to come in each day and find a chair that will help them learn best. They have not needed much encouragement beyond that to manipulate the furniture to suit their needs. The wigglers find the green stools and the chairs on castors. Some of them position the chair backward so they can lean forward on the chair rest. Their one caveat, however, is along the same lines of what I've been thinking as I've been moving the furniture around the room, or straightening the room before I leave: the regular student chairs are more difficult to move around. The rubber piece on the bottom is great for not marking the floor, but it doesn't slide quite as well. However, I think if that's the only mild complaint, we are in good shape! I have had some comments about preferring that I have the wheel locks on, but I've spoken with them about it and the necessity to keep the locks off so that we don't break the locks.
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December 2016
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