Self-Monitoring

For this week's challenge of applying new learning into our classroom, I totally borrowed an idea from a fellow classmate. [Shout-out to Caleb: You ROCK!] I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to use this idea since I could imagine it working so well with my class at this particular moment. I think I will be taking a look at Classroom Management That Works by Robert Marzano in the near future.

My class has been having a hard time with staying focused during work time lately. There are just too many social butterflies needing to flutter around! I have been striking out with things that I have tried over the past couple of weeks so when I saw this idea I figured it was worth a try.

Today we had a fairly complex Art project planned. I gave the directions and explained how important it is for everyone to stay focused and really work hard. I then wandered around the room and made notes about each student regarding five different questions:
        1. Did I stay in my own work space?
        2. Did I follow the directions?
        3. Did I use my time wisely (not rush)?
        4. Did I complete my project?
        5. Did I work quietly?

It was hard for me to not give reminders, especially to those who need them pretty consistently but I stuck to my plan. After our Art time ended I handed each student a piece of paper with the five questions. They put up their privacy folders and answered each question about themselves. I used a smiley face / straight face / sad face sort of scoring and gave examples of each option. I then compared the self-monitoring scores to what I observed. The results I saw were pretty expected. A good number of students were quite honest, a few on each end of the spectrum were overly critical or overly passive on their behavior. This is something I am going to do more regularly and see if I can get some improvement. It was a very insightful activity!

Kids Say the Smartest Things

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day I was thinking about this gem I found a few months ago. Videos like this make me feel refreshed about why I am in the teaching profession. I get to help be part of the lives of kids who could turn out like these rockstars. On days when it seems like kids are overly entitled or unmotivated I think back to this video and know that there are awesome kids that are going to lead the way in the future. We can't forget to listen to the small voices that have big things to say!

And...we're...off!

Well today is the first day of the rest of my (blogging) life. I was trying to come up with a clever title for my blog and could not get past the the cliche titles that I am sure are on at least 158 other websites. Then I got to thinking about how this Master's program is going to hit some high points of my teaching and also the lows. In college my roommates and I would try to have "family" dinners once a week and everyone had to share their ups and downs of the week. It was very dorky but we loved it and and continued to do it for the couple years of living together. We just got together last weekend and someone mentioned doing ups and downs. We laughed, said how ridiculous that always was, and then of course shared our ups and downs of 2013. It was a great way to reconnect. I am looking forward to the the ups and downs of the next several months and using this blog to document them along the way.