Wow. This year has been amazing and I’ve only been in the classroom for 7 school days!
I wanted to reflect on the pluses and deltas of my first week, as some of you are starting your school year soon, and as a place for me to share what’s going well for me!
Pluses:
Saying the I can statement every day!
Last year, I gleaned some wisdom from Thomas Sauer: it’s okay to plan the 90% TL we use, but it’s also really important to plan the 10% L1 use. While, I’ll admit, my class is not currently 90% TL, I’ve been using the first few minutes to go over the I can each day, and a check up or formative performance assessment each day for students to tell me how they feel about each I can. I think it’s had a really positive effect for my students – they can tell that they’re learning, and they get excited to give me a “I can” rating on their “thumb-ometer” (from a thumbs down to a thumbs up and anywhere in between! I stole this from a friend of mine who teaches middle school – thanks, Jess!) You could also use “fist to five” but I find that the variations on the thumb-ometer are more discrete to share, and tell me more than the difference between 4 and 5.
Saving a reflection space in my planner
Maybe you’ve heard that I prefer paper planning to online planning. I love technology, I am a millennial, and so much of my life is tied to the internet, but planning is NOT, or I scramble each morning to remember what I planned for each day. I have a Plum Paper Planner for the second year and I LOVE it – since I’m teaching 1 prep this year, I saved two boxes for a reflection of the lesson. I give the pluses, minuses, and obvious changes for next year. I love this short reflection each day!
Brain Breaks!
Gosh, I love the brain breaks I’ve been stealing from around the internet. Most of them come from Sara-Elizabeth, but Martina has a great list as well! It’s really nice to reset in the middle of the class before moving on to the next input stage. On a feedback form today, one of my students said he loved the brain breaks because it “relieves him” from one activity to another. Since that’s the point, I am glad that they see it that way.
Primacy/recency
My (short) teaching career has always started with bell ringers. Kids come in, sit down, and start whatever activity I have … orrrrrrrr they try to play games on their MacBook/iPad and tell me that they’ve done the work “in their head.” Since I start the class, there’s no wrangling kids who are trying to play “Slither,” pushing kids to finish quickly, or wondering what to do when 10 kids have finished and 15 haven’t. I will say that I started off terrified of starting the class with input, and I still get a little nervous, but it’s been going really well. I’m excited to expand input with songs and readings soon!
For a breakdown of what I’ve been doing:
(Say I can = no more than 1-2 minutes!) –> input activity –> processing activity –> administrative activity, if necessary –> brain break –> input #2 –> interactive activity/formative PBA
All of my classrooms
If you didn’t know, I teach in 4 buildings this year. I love all of my classrooms, not because of the furniture, infrastructure, or space, but because that’s where my students and I interact. I’m not shy about picking a favorite classroom, though. I have the amazing opportunity to teach in one of the model classrooms at the high school this year and I love every single thing about it. It really starts my day off on an exciting note. (The picture on the blog title is also one of my classrooms; I love it too!)
Friday feedback
Last year I stole the idea from Allison (who stole from CLC, I think!) to get feedback from students on Fridays … but I never actually got around to implementing it. Such is life! I did it today for the first time, and I loved it. It gave me insight – not just to the popularity of activities (I can usually judge that by the excitement level) but also by the reason why, which is so important. These were two of my favorite examples from today:
I could give a million more “pluses,” but I will save you the excessive exclamation points (or maybe not?)
Deltas:
Last class
My last class of the day is 15 students. This makes me simultaneously jump for joy and weep. I love the class size, but maaaaaaaaaaan, do we get through everything about 10 minutes faster than my other classes! I’m trying to use my own daily reflection to really make sure that we have the best lesson possible, but I’ve gotta figure out how to have equitable activities in this one!
TL use
I still don’t know how to hit the ground running with starting the year well. You might think that I have it all figured out because of the wild popularity of my 90% TL post last year, but I don’t. I’m still getting my bearings on that, but hope to switch my own TL use to 90% next week.
I guess another delta is that I don’t have more deltas! Whoops. I’m sure I’ll think of some along the way – nothing I do is perfect!
I’d love to hear about what’s working in your class so far this year!
En Français, SVP! 
Wonderful post, thank you! I too used to do Bellringers, but now we do SSR upon entering the class. I have paper novels and Scholastic magazines; as well as, online resources such as NewsELA. They read for a few minutes each day then fill out a Google Form to provide me with a summary (in English). The entire activity takes about 7 to 8 minutes.
Awesome! I would love to try out SSR, but I need some resources and logistics worked out before I start. When I get started, I know who to come to!
Great post, thanks! I am very impressed by the photo of one of your classrooms (the one with the blue sitting). We are looking into new teaching spaces in my school and I would love to know a bit more about this one. What technology do you have in them? Advantages of this set up? How many of this model classrooms are there in the school? Thank you
Hi Montse, in this room we have the large TV with Apple TV, and the smaller TV that can plug into a MacBook via the thunderbolt port. I love the set up because it is relaxing and comfortable, and the students are close, but far enough away from one another that they each have their own space. There are two model classrooms in my school, but the other does not look like this. Let me know if you have more questions!
Thanks very much! I really like the set up so might be asking some more questions soon if you don’t mind.
Hi! I’m really into the primacy-recency effect. I wanted to know if yu could see any changes in your students’ performance. I mena, I’ve read a lot about it, but nothing about results. Could you tell me your experience? Thanks!