Ok, so I'm already behind. Its been a crazy couple of weeks with our new math adoption training and then TNCORE Training. Here goes:
I really loved this chapter. I am all about rearranging, reorganizing, and redoing my classroom this summer. Once school was out for the summer I stayed away intentionally for a couple of weeks. I knew I needed that time to reflect.
Here were a few of my thoughts: I need a much better traffic flow around the room, what am I thinking not having a large group area, why didn't I get rid of those 8 foot long cubbies last year, what do I want morning message/calendar to look like, what areas do I want to ensure student work is displayed in (we have to be real careful because of the fire marshal)?
I needed this chapter at this point.
I went in last week for a day, mostly because my son was participating in the art and tennis camp offered through our summer school program. On this day (after I fed my need for adult socialization) I recycled. And I recycled. And I trashed. And I recycled some more. I'm nowhere near done, I just ran out of time. I'm now waiting on my floors to be waxed so I can get in and get busy. Here are some of my thoughts on what will be happening in my little ol' space that I've taken from the reading and my reflection:
1. My classroom will be an inviting, welcoming place. I've got a purple rug coming from a funded Donor's Choose project and I am going to paint a shelf I have. I plan to make sure the room arrangement is comfortable and flowing.
2. I WILL have a large meeting area. I think this is the area I'm most excited about. My room is not very big. In place of the unsightly 8 foot long shelf I will place my rug, and just this week the custodians hung my new 6x4 corkboard that someone gave me for FREE!!!! That's where my calendar will be hung. I didn't even have a wall in my room where I could hang the calendar (the aforementioned shelf was also almost 5 feet tall)! In the meeting area I will make sure to have all the materials needed for our large group work.
3. Small group areas will be revamped to make sure that the materials we need can be kept easily accessible. I didn't really have a good system for this last year. I have 2 kidney shaped tables. Basically those tables are where my assistant and I work if we are at tables with small groups. I want to make sure the materials all have homes and aren't just scattered.
I loved the quote at the end of the chapter that says " Classroom environments are organic-they grow as we do." I truly feel like my environment has grown with me as I've grown as a teacher and I plan for it to continue to grow with me over my years of teaching.
Onward to Chapter 4. It's ironic that this is the chapter that hit for this week, while I've been in TNCORE Training with the state. One of our modules covered thinking aloud in depth and a lot of what we went over was covered in the book.
Let me start by saying that I truly believe, and have believed for a long time, that modeling thinking aloud is very important in teaching our students to be independent, critical, and creative thinkers. But I'm not very good at it. I love how Ms. Miller gave us some think alouds to get us started. Between reading this chapter this week and practicing in training, I'm feeling a bit more confident in this area.
I also asked myself "Why don't you make more comments on your students work?" I don't have a good answer for this. Laziness maybe. Lack of time possibly. Maybe I thought that the first graders wouldn't really read the comments or questions I posed. Not anymore. I think that I could really spark some great conversations this way, as well as encourage and promote the students in their own thinking and work.
There is so much more I could say about this chapter, but since I'm combining two weeks into one post, I will stop there. I can't wait to write about and show off my classroom at the end of the summer.
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