As a teacher, it's always important to reflect on your methods and practices and to be a life long learner. This summer I'm participating in a book study put together by Greg from The Kindergarten Smorgasboard. Chapter 1 is hosted by Primary Possibilities, Mrs. Plemon's Kindergarten, and Enchanted Kinder Garden. We are reading the book Teaching with Intention by Debbie Miller. I'll be posting my thoughts and responses to the reflection questions on Wednesdays!
This chapter was all about how your ideal classroom should look, sound, and feel. It was an easy read and really inspired me to think about how my classroom set up will be in the fall. I'm moving to a brand new school and I'm already thinking of ways I can make this new classroom my own.
At the end of the school year, I often find myself reflecting on how well my classroom set up worked this year and what aspects I will want to change for the next year. I want my classroom to be a warm and inviting place filled with calming colors and super organized. In her book, Debbie talks about how kids are gathered around tables, desks, and rugs on the floor working independently, with partners and in small groups. I arrange my students in small groups around tables. I feel like this is a great way to allow for collaboration to happen so students can truly learn to work as a team. I also love for students to be able to move freely and have space to work while they are engaged in centers around my room. My biggest project this year was my classroom library and it was definitely one of the favorite places to be in my classroom this year.
So many great things happen when students work together and have a chance to communicate with one another. This year, our school used Daily 5 in our literacy block and it lends itself nicely to collaboration amongst students. In the time we had allowed, I was able to pull 3 reading groups a day during Daily 5 and the rest of the students were engaged in the 5 stations of Read to Self, Read to Someone, Work on Writing, Listen to Read, and Word Work. My students' favorites were the Word Work, Read to Someone, and Listen to Read stations. Daily 5 takes a long time to set up and put in place but once the students know what to do and what is expected of them, they can really take charge and run it like a well oiled machine! It's wonderful because it allows me to work with children in small groups and one on one to really make sure all of my students are truly understanding the concepts being taught.
This year I really tried to make sure my classroom set up was organized and that everything had a place when the first day of school rolled around. It was by no means perfect, but my piles of papers were kept to a minimum on most days and my desk was cleared off a lot more often this year than in any other year of my teaching career so far! My work at the beginning of the year in setting up really paid off.
I also think that my Daily 5 worked better this year also. I purposefully selected activities and had determined where I wanted my students to be in the room working and made sure that they knew the routine well. It allowed for more authentic learning and the students really had ownership on their activities for the day.
I'm constantly reflecting on what I can do to make my class better for the next year and how I want to improve my teaching. I really loved the part in this chapter where Debbie Miller talked about conferring journals. While my students were in the Read to Self station of Daily 5, I would love to make conferring journals for my students to write down the title of the book they read and any reflections they might have after reading it. It would really help me get to know my students even better as readers and really make sure they are 1. being held accountable for their reading and 2. choosing a variety of books and seeing what really interests themselves as readers.
No comments:
Post a Comment