A New Place to Meet!

For all of my friends attempting National Board Certification (and anyone else who would like some fresh new ideas to help them in the classroom)... I have started a WIKI to help us look at the second half of our book study. If you have never seen a wiki, it is a great way to collaborate on a project and is fast becoming a great new tool for teachers in the classroom.

Join our wiki here: www.teacherbooklist.pbworks.com

The second half of Building the Primary Classroom deals with teaching the curriculum content in the areas of

• Language and Literacy
• Mathematical Thinking
• Social Studies
• Scientific Thinking
• Technology
• The Arts

I will have a page for each area. Not only will I add information from Building the Primary Classroom, but I will also include lots of information that I gathered during my attempt at NBC and information from work on my reading specialist and technology classes. The great thing about a wiki is that you can add information too! Share any great information about teaching!

You can join our wiki here: www.teacherbooklist.pbworks.com

Chapter Three- Part Four- Clear Expectations About Behavior

I just finished watching a great video series on behavior this week. You can see it here: http://www.paec.org/teacher2teacher/max_instructional_time.html

It goes great with this book, because the presenters discuss positively stated rules and the difference between rules and expectations.
The authors of this book say that children will feel safe when they know how they are expected to behave, when they understand the reasoning behind classroom rules, and when rules are consistently enforced. You can develop these expectations from day one by:

• involving students in creating classroom rules;
• taking care of the classroom; and
• introducing the proper use and care of materials.

Now, you may have already bought the cute poster at the teacher store that has the perfect classroom rules that is ready to hang and matches your theme :) But... kids are more likely to follow rules that they generate. Establishing rules for your classroom community is a great social studies lesson and teaches children to make their own good decisions. Help students state rules positively and be specific! Don't make your list too long and be sure to revisit your list often. It is much better to be proactive rather than reactive in the behavior department!

Making students responsible for the care of the classroom is important to keep things organized and give students some ownership over the room. Many suggest having a classroom job for every student in your class and rotate the jobs periodically. Once again, just google "classroom jobs" and you can see so many great ideas for jobs you probably never even thought of.

Last, it is important to introduce materials as needed. Begin with only the materials you will need at the beginning of the year. Then, introduce procedures for new materials as you need them.

So, take a minute to think about your own classroom...

• Are materials stored close to where they are used?
• Are supplies and materials well-labeled and easily accessible?
• Are there spaces for active learning stocked with interesting materials?
• Do you provide furniture and spaces for independent and collaborative work?
• Do you have your daily schedule and classroom rules posted?
• Would a visitor see evidence of clear expectations for behavior in your classroom?

I am sure that some of you have some great things going on in your own classrooms! do you have a picture of your job chart or rule poster. Do you have a picture of a neat meeting area or science center? Share them with us! You can post a link to your picture in the comment section below this post or email your pictures to me at wj1128@yahoo.com !! I will edit this post to add pictures as I receive them!

Chapter Three- Part Three- The Daily Schedule and Routines

There are many considerations for planning your daily schedule. You probably have some district or school guidelines concerning your arrival and departure, meal times, special classes, recess, etc... So, you may want to start the year by making a chart of the week and filling in the times of each day that are fixed and cannot change. Now, you can see where you have big blocks of time each day.
Next, you will need to determine your priorities.You will need to consider:

• consistency vs. flexibility
• meetings
• work times and center times
• whole and small group times
• choice time
• literacy block
• theme or project time

Be sure to pay special attention to those difficult times of the day. Arrival is usually not the best time of day to teach something new. So try picking an activity that allows you to greet students and will not need to be made up if students are late. As lunch time nears, you will probably see attention decrease as the kids get hungry. This may be a good time to read aloud, offer free choice time, write in journals, or finish up work. Warn children when a clean-up time is approaching. And last, make some time to wind down and review the events of the day.

Post your daily schedule in an area visible to all and review the schedule each morning. If you have not posted your daily schedule before now, just google "Class schedules" or "schedule charts" to get some good ideas!

Classroom routines are necessary to establish a structure for classroom life and contribute to the positive sense of community. Take time to discuss and model routines as you introduce them and don't expect children to remember them right off the bat!

Last, think about times in your daily schedule when children are offered choices. When children have choices in school, they are likely to feel competent and independent about their work. Children are always more motivated about an idea that they were allowed to choose! You may need to guide students who are not accustomed to making choices.

What are some ways you allow children to make choices in your daily schedule? What effects have you seen from giving your students some ownership over their schedule and routines?

We would love to hear about your classroom! Just hit the comment button under this post!

Chapter Three- Part Two- The Physical Environment

The physical environment sends strong messages to your students the minute they walk into your classroom. The authors suggest that your classroom should convey these positive messages:

• This is a safe and comfortable place.
• I belong here and I am valued.
• I can make friends and share.
• I know what I'm expected to do.
• I can do interesting work here.
• I can find what I need and return materials where they belong.
• I can make choices.

So, let's take a look at your classroom!

Meeting Area- We want to start with the meeting area because it will occupy a well-defined place in your room. You will need enough floor space to accommodate all of your students. You can define the space with a rug, carpet squares, or benches. Include any displays you will refer to such as your calendar, schedule, morning message, ...

Furniture and Tables- To encourage collaborative learning, tables are preferable to desks. But you can still group desks for 4-6 children. You should try to separate noisier areas from quieter ones. Make sure that you can see all areas of the room without obstruction.

Supplies and Materials- Materials should be accessible and well-labeled to encourage students to use them independently.

Display Space- Displays should reflect children's work and thinking as well as the diverse cultures and backgrounds of the children in the class. Display books on various subjects.

Personal Belongings and Work- Keep in mind when and where the students will need access to their belongings.

The authors remind us that children learn best when they can explore and investigate objects, events, and places. So, you should also keep this in mind when setting up your classroom environment. These are some of their suggestions:

• Have an organized space for your library with good books from different genres. You may also want to place books in others areas of the room to convey that books are important.
• Supplies for writing and illustrating work should be included.
• Place math materials in one area to help students find them efficiently. Include collections of household objects for counting, estimating, and sorting. Manipulatives, games, and supplies for recording discoveries should also be included.
• When organizing science and social studies materials, be sure to have sufficient space for students to conduct explorations and display work.
• The authors suggest also including areas for art and construction, block building, cooking, music, dance, drama, and computer.

Last, it is important to consider children's physical needs as you plan the physical environment of your classroom. Bathrooms and drinking water should be available as needed. Consider making hard furniture more comfortable. Make accommodations for children with special needs. Offer places to be alone or to calm down when needed. And be sure to provide space and time for large motor movement.

Chapter Three- Establishing a Structure in the Classroom

Structure and organization help students to become self-directed learners. But this does not come naturally to most students. Teachers must explicitly teach the structure of the classroom. Try to envision this classroom that the authors give as an example:

"When you enter the classroom, you hear a steady hum of activity. At first you don't see the teacher; she is sitting and talking with one of several small groups of children working on a variety of math activities at tables arranged in different areas of the room. Each group has three to four children and they seem intent on the materials they are using together. Children are talking in lively voices about what they are doing, explaining their ideas, giving directions, asking questions, challenging one another, and laughing. You sit down near one group of four children using geoboards and rubber bands. "Tell me something about what you are doing," you say. One child immediately volunteers: "We are finding out how many ways we can make different shapes. Look, we've made triangles, squares, and diamonds," he says, pointing to each one. Another child adds, "and I've made a hexagon. I know because it has six angles and six sides." you then ask, "How did you know what to do?" A third child explains, " We had a meeting and talked about different shapes we knew. Then each group got different things to use. We got the geoboards, that group got popsicle sticks, over there they have tangrams. Look around and you'll see." Just before you leave, the teacher calls the children together in the meeting area so each group can report on what they have did and what they learned."

So, what would we see and hear in your classroom? To some, this classroom might seem noise and not have structure.... but what do you think? Are the kids on task? Do they have a predictable routine? Are they learning? SURE!!!

Chapter Two- Part Six- The School as a Community

The authors end this chapter by challenging you to share the idea of a classroom community with your entire school! Sometimes it only takes one teacher to start a project with other classes that can benefit the whole school. Some ideas might be: school beautification, family projects, community service, etc..

To close this chapter, I want to share another item from my inservice with Judy Jablon. This training was for supervisors and she gave us a checklist for things to look for in a "Classroom Community"

Teachers:

• use children's names, smiling, and modeling respectful interactions
• set up a meeting area large enough to accommodate all the children sitting in circle (so they can see and hear each other)
• hold daily class meetings throughout the day for different purposes (e.g. to start the day, facilitate transitions, lessons, and to get closure at the end of the day)
• teach and reinforce specific problem solving strategies
• teach friendship skills (using modeling, role-playing, and social coaching)

Children:

• take turns, share, and give and receive help
• engage in cooperative learning and peer coaching
• show respect for the environment and other people
• solve social problems and resolve conflicts
• converse and interact during work times and class meetings

I hope this list helps you think about your classroom and ways to improve. For my national board friends, I hope you can see connections to your entry on your own classroom community. If you have questions or would like to discuss this chapter, leave a comment!

Whitney

Chapter Two- Part Five- Promoting Social Problem Solving Skills

You probably have been given a nice character education program to use at your school? Where does it fit in the standards-based curriculum? Does it get 5 minutes a day? 5 minutes a week?
The authors make a case that if you spend more time being proactive by teaching social problem solving skills, you will have less disruptions and can spend more time on lessons!
We need to teach problem-solving skills more than ever now. So, how do we incorporate it into the curriculum?
Problem-solving is not learned in a quick, five-minute lesson. It is a process learned over time by continual practice. Modeling is the key. It is important for you to model handling anger. You can teach it as needed with individual groups of students or use class meetings to discuss conflict resolution, feelings, social skills, etc..

The authors give some steps to helping children handle conflicts among themselves:

1. Help children calm down
2. Identify the problem
3. Generate Solutions
4. Evaluate solutions and choose one
5. Implement and evaluate the results
6. Encourage children to resolve conflicts on their own
7. Provide a place in the classroom to calm down

Again, this will takes lots of modeling by the teacher to work through problems all year long. You may also need to address conflicts that involve the entire class through a class meeting. Allow the students to generate a plan to solve the problem and give feedback on results.

I shared with you the link for Dr. Becky Bailey's Conscious Discipline. She uses brain research and her own research to give some great ideas on solving problems with children.

Check out these other links to social skill curriculums:

Al's Pals- http://www.wingspanworks.com/educational_programs/about_als_pals.php

Character Counts- http://charactercounts.org/

Please post a curriculum or activities that you use to teach problem solving and conflict resolution. Just hit the comment button under this post!

Whitney