Today was our first day back from Winter Break. Typically, this day usually consists of re-teaching routines and re-establishing habits and norms. However, my awesome learners came in ready to go and ready to begin our Flexible Seating roll-out! How excited we all were today!
I brought in four stability balls ($5 each from Five Below) and 12 stools that I purchased via a garage sale website from a children's hair salon. There were two different types- a completely plastic fold-up type in bright blue and lime green, and a plastic fold-up with a fuzzy, glitter-covered top. I recovered the fuzzy, glittery part with some fabric from Hobby Lobby (my guilty pleasure) and they were ready to go. We had our Family Meeting as a class and we discussed Examples and Non-Examples of the stability balls and the stools. Then I had students share one idea from our discussion on our Schoology account so they could publish their idea, read others' ideas, and comment//validate each other. Schoology is another personal goal of mine, and I was able to use it a lot to facilitate discussions today! Woot! Anyway, we rotated our seating choices every 30-60 minutes (depending on our lesson/activity) and I had to give ZERO reminders/redirects on students using their seating options! AMAZING. I am a realistic educator, though, so I realize that the novelty and the excitement is also contributing to an increased motivation right now. I do have to say overall though, that this class is very highly motivated and eager to learn- they really rise to any challenge I present! I was also able to remove four student desks from the room, which is amazing. I'm hoping to remove more! Students can store their things in plastic storage drawers that I purchased from Target during their New Years' organization sale. Tomorrow we'll do some morning reflections on how/if/why our choices helped us to focus on our learning. I believe our Scoop Rockers will also arrive! EEK! Cannot wait!
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Mrs. Spina here. I'm looking forward to using this blog as a share for me to reflect on my own teaching practice. I'm new to blogging but I know this is a great way to be more reflective in my teaching and further developing my pedagogy as an educator.
Some things I'm looking forward to in 2017: Implementing a flexible seating model, continuing to use social media in our classroom, and helping my students develop stronger ownership of their learning. Thank you to the generosity of the Glenview Education Foundation (GEF), I am able to implement a flexible seating model in our classroom. I'm looking forward to purchasing our stability balls, wobble stools, lap desks, and chair cushions for our room. I've also scored a few new stools from a kids' hair salon for a cheap price on a garage sale site, and I've been spending some time updating them to fit our classroom decor. The kids are really excited about a change in our classroom where we are not confined to desks but rather have the freedom to move and be more comfortable. I believe that our students will be successful in this endeavor, but I know that I really need to set the stage properly by introducing seating choices slowly, giving students examples and non-examples of how to use the seat carefully and safely, and helping students use their own voice to empower themselves by selecting their choice. I cannot wait to get into the classroom before Winter Break is over so I can really start moving things around. We will be continuing to update our Instagram and Twitter with our current photos and progress. If you're not following us yet, please follow us @MrsSpinasClass on both social media platforms. In early December, I had the opportunity to speak with my colleagues at the State Bilingual Conference. I was so excited because we were able to speak about how to empower bilingual students- which is truly one of my passions. In my portion of our presentation, I spoke about empowering students within three spaces: the classroom, the school, and the local/global community. Within the local/global community topic, I spoke about my excitement in using social media as a tool to empower. When my students know that it's their turn to Tweet or post an Instagram picture, they are able to use their words, their images, and their thoughts to share with the global community. While at this time, we only have 48 Instagram followers and 39 Twitter followers, my students know that the world is watching their learning and cheering them on. Their voices matter, their thoughts matter, and their ideas are important. At times, I will post things on their behalf to save time, to provide quicker transitions, or to share something from my perspective, it really is worth the time to have them post without my voice influencing their words. This approach helps them to develop their English written skills, their digital literacy, and their ability to connect with the world using hashtags or messages. Implementing a classroom data wall is new for me this year, but I'm hoping that having our classroom data (posted not by student but by proficiency score) visible all year will help all of us to stay focused on our goals. Right now, our Data Wall just shows one thing: our math multiplication fact mastery. I've learned to start small so that I can be more reflective of my process and slowly add over time. The third grade teachers have designed a rubric for obtaining mastery of math facts 1-10. On the first Friday of each month, all third grade students take a 4-minute timed test of various multiplication problems representing 1-10s. Teaches grade and record our data reflecting correct answers and accuracy. My class was a little hesitant to use a Data Wall because they didn't want anyone to know where individual students were. After trying a few different models, the entire class agreed on the model we have up. The kids and I were all really excited about how much we've grown in this goal area. I'll be honest- I'm a bit nervous about our scores for after we come back from Winter Break. I'll keep you posted! |
Mrs. SpinaMy thoughts, my ramblings, my reflections, my thinking. Not perfect. Always learning. Always trying. ArchivesCategories |