Today is the first weekend of fall 2018. I am sitting at my local coffee shop reflecting on this new season... the season that is cool weather, pumpkin everything, sweatshirts and the season that is also the new school year. This new season also marks ten years of being a teacher, a big milestone in my eyes! Ten years of ups and downs, struggles, learning about myself, meeting amazing students and educators, and stepping out of my comfort zone. This milestone makes me stop and reflect on my why. Why am I a teacher? Picking my major in college was a no brainer. I grew up having wonderful teachers, parents that put education first and I loved to lead and play school. Until this past summer I never had a definitive answer when people asked me why are you a teacher? My response would always differ.. because I like being around kids, I like helping them grow as a learner, or I'm good at it! Ten years of teaching, ten years of students, ten years of experience... I needed one perfect response that put every truth together, into a strong bold statement for when I am asked why. I believe that every person is predestined for a path and a purpose on Earth. I believe God has created that purpose and plan. I believe that every experience good, bad, frustrating, sad, exciting is all part of His plan. There is a reason why I have been blessed and chosen with teaching each student that has walked through the door way to my classroom over the past ten years. My why is simple... This is my way to change the world! Teaching is God's plan for me to help make this world a kinder, more caring place. I have been chosen by Him to be the role model for each student that I interact with and show them what kindness looks like. I have also been given the purpose of helping each child to become a successful learner! Those who have been chosen to teach have a HUGE responsibility. It is our job to ensure that each student is receiving a great education through our engaging and creative lessons. Every second of the school day is an opportunity for us to instill a little bit more wisdom and power to each student. Spending time reflecting on my why this summer made me really want to change the way I started the school year. I wanted this year to have a different feel than any year before. Each school year I always made time to focus on getting to know my students and build those relationships while teaching the content, but I always felt like if I only had a little more time I would maybe get to know a child better and be able to build that relationship into a stronger one. I wanted to grow my class of 19 students into a classroom family, classroom community, or as I like to call them a classroom tribe! I wanted to get to know each student (their likes, their dislikes), I wanted students to get to know the other students, I wanted each student to get to know me, I wanted my students to learn how we can all work together and how we each have a purpose in our classroom tribe. Since my classroom this year is full flexible seating, this meshed extremely well! Students share their classroom materials and also have the opportunity to sit where they feel they learn best. Taking the extra time to build these relationships would help the classroom run smoothly. Before students came in, I put these bracelets on their desks. I found this amazing saying on Pinterest and thought it would be great to include the old school friendship bracelets. I wanted these bracelets to symbolize that we are a classroom tribe. I told students that every time they wear their bracelet, it is their visual reminder of how much they are valued and loved in our classroom. I went on to share with students that I would be wearing my bracelets (I have both colored bracelets) every day. This was how we kicked off our school year! We then proceeded to spend countless hours over the first two weeks participating in getting to know you activities, modeling what behavior should look like and not look like in our classroom tribe, discussing equality vs equity with our learning and building strong relationships with one another. Most importantly, I said over and over to my students that they are world changers! I wanted this message to be ingrained in their heads this year. When I first said this to my class, I had a student raise his hand and ask me how I could think they are world changers because they were all just fifth graders. We had a long conversation about what being a world changer is and looks like. We discussed that a world changer is someone who can change the world with their kindness. That they are all capable, even as fifth graders, to change the world by showing kindness to everyone they meet and come into contact with. I believe that each student, in my classroom, in my school, in our country has the power to change the world! I believe every student is a world changer and that it is vital to teach students love and kindness through relationships that are built at school! It is our job as teachers to help the students in our classroom be the best version of themselves and to be successful learners... we should never take the power of our role as a teacher for granted! "With one kind gesture you can change a life.
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In their article titled Rebooting Industrial Era Seating, posted on Edutopia https://www.edutopia.org/blog/rebooting-industrial-era-seating-eric-sheninger-thomas-murray, Eric Sheninger and Thomas Murray wrote: “If we are truly going to ensure that students become college and career ready or-more importantly-life ready, then we must help develop students who can work together, engage in respectful discourse, problem solve, and collaborate in both physical and virtual spaces.” The space and seating options I wanted to incorporate into my classroom would do just that. I wanted to create these learning spaces that encouraged collaboration and problem solving! I wanted spaces where students could sit around and have deep engaging discussions around topics we were learning. With my funded Donor’s Choose project, I received: 2 high top pub tables, 4 bar stools, 2 square ottomans, 2 Zenergy ball chairs, and 4 Wobble stools. A high school friend graciously donated two armed pillows to the class as well. I also had a teacher friend, who was transitioning into a new position, donate her class set of lap desks. In my classroom I already had 8 stools, a futon, and two bowl chairs, along with all my traditional desks/chairs. I knew I wanted to transition from desks to rectangular and circular tables. I wanted to have a mix of pillows, stools and chairs available for students to sit on around these spaces. I found circular tables, but had no luck getting rectangular ones. I decided to group six desks together instead. I also decided I would cluster four desks and put chairs with fidget bands (bought from Amazon) around them. Lastly, I talked my husband into letting me bring over an old loveseat and oversized chair with a longer ottoman (that would act similar to a coffee table). Since I was getting rid of desks, I had to find a solution/place for students to keep their supplies and learning materials. I decided to make our school supplies, like pencils, erasers, highlighters, etc. community supplies. These supplies were now kept in the middle of the tables or in easy to access spots in the classroom. We decided that we would take a community ownership over these. Since I was making this transition in March, I had already purchased students pencil boxes at the beginning of the school year. I allowed students to keep their special pencils and erasers from home in their pencil boxes and those were kept in their individual cubbies. I bought book bins (from Amazon) for students and had them put all of their folders and notebooks in their personal bin. We kept these in a central location, which was on a bookshelf in the front of the classroom. We stored the text books on various shelves around the room. Once I had gathered all of the seating options that I could and we figured out where materials were going to go, I put all of the options in the middle of the classroom and I allowed my students to help with the design process. Since I wanted this to be a space for them to learn their best in, I figured what better way than to have them design it and take ownership of the space! The students saw all of the seating options and designed floor plans. Some students chose to work with friends, while others wanted to work independently. The designs they created turned out great! We decided as a class to combine a few designs (many were identical or very similar). What was created was exactly what I would have mapped out for my students. I explained to my students, that the design would maybe need to change over the few weeks until we got it to a just right fit. (I think we actually only had to tweak the classroom design once or twice.) Now, most teachers would start the school year off with flexible seating, since it is such a HUGE adjustment for the teacher and the students. This also gives teachers a chance to model and show expectations for flexible seating, while they are building those relationships and expectations for the school and classroom. Since I wasn’t anticipating on my Donor’s Choose project being completed, I wasn’t banking on starting it at all last year. When my Donor’s Choose project was funded, I figured why not jump in! Why not allow my students the opportunity to participate in this new style. Why not allow my students the chance to be even more engaged in their learning and to start practicing making choices in where they learn best. Starting flexible seating in the middle of the year (end of March/beginning of April) had its struggles! I reviewed and modeled the expectations. Students practiced sitting in the various new seats and reviewed the expectations for each spot MANY times. Since we had already built our strong relationships in the class, I thought this was going to be an easier transition. We went through a honeymoon period for about three weeks, where students were making great choices and I didn’t have to move anyone. Students were able to come in and pick their seat for the day. As we got closer to the end of April and closer to the end of the school year, behaviors started ramping up and students were forgetting the expectations. I had to give numerous warnings and then follow through with moving students to where I felt their best learning spot was for the day. Then I started giving students assigned seats from the beginning of the day and only allowing them to pick their flexible seating spot when we moved to partner work or independent work. This is how it stayed until the last day of school.
Reflecting back on last school year I had many successes with flexible seating, but starting halfway through the school year is what made it tough. Even with all the research I had done and ideas I gathered and had prepared, I don’t think jumping in mid year was best. We had already established the flow of our class and throwing in this new style was hard for some students to transition to mid year. Going into this new school year, I am beyond excited to start the year off with flexible seating. I am looking forward to setting my expectations from the beginning. I have spent the summer observing and finding ways other teachers, who have been successful with flexible seating, show their expectations and manage students. One of the teachers I follow through my teacher Instagram (@adventuresofmrsgainer), Shane Saeed (@fantasticallyfourth) has given me some fresh ideas to take into the classroom this school year. This summer I have also been gathering new objects for my classroom. I have been searching through yard sale sites on the internet and Amazon and have purchased some great additions. I am keeping everything I had last year, but this year I will be moving out all but four of my desks. On the Facebook Marketplace site I was able to find a 4’x4’ Ikea table for FREE! On the same site I also found a large circular table and 4 tall Ikea bar stools with backs. Through Amazon warehouse I purchased a long rectangular table that has adjustable legs, 4 wobble/stability cushions and 5 new stools. On Amazon Prime Day I purchased an inflatable donut ball seat for FREE (thanks to a Whole Foods deal where when you spent $10 in groceries you got a $10 gift card to use on Prime Day)! I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to start this journey last school year and that this summer I was able to do my own professional development and even more research on what works and what does not. I am happy I have been able to fine tune how this will look and how I will implement flexible seating at the start of this coming school year. Here is one of my brainstorming designs for flexible seating in my classroom this year! Last summer I started searching for information and research on flexible seating. I had heard of this teaching style, but wanted to know more! In my searching I came across an article authored by Kayla Delzer on the topic of Flexible Seating on Edutopia, https://www.edutopia.org/blog/flexible-seating-student-centered-classroom-kayla-delzer, where she wrote: “I was working on my TEDx presentation at my local Starbucks and, looking around, I realized that everyone seemed to be happy, engaged in their work, and relaxed. Some people chose the traditional chairs and tables while I opted for a big, comfy chair with my MacBook on my lap. The quiet music, perfect lighting, and overall aesthetics of the coffee shop were favorable for a variety of learners. And if I wanted to switch up my seat during my stay, I was free to do just that. That's when I decided that our classroom in 2015-2016 was going to look radically different than anything I'd ever done before.” I had been going back and forth on my thinking about transitioning my teaching style to flexible seating, but reading this statement made it very clear that this was the type of environment I wanted to offer my 5th grade students. What she wrote jived with my teaching mantra. I have always wanted my students to be engaged, to collaborate with one another and to create an environment within my four walls where we were a community of learners and everyone could do their best learning. Flexible seating was something that boosted what I was already doing in my classroom. Flexible seating can take on many forms. Some teachers keep the desks, but cluster them in groups. They then change out the regular seats with seating options that cater to each learner in their classroom. I have also seen teachers keep desks and chairs for whole group instruction and then allow students to move to the various flex seating options, while they are doing group or independent work. I am fortunate to have a larger size classroom and was looking to move totally away from traditional desks and chairs and bring in a couch, stools, stability balls, low tables, standing desks and pillows to sit on the floor with. I wanted to give my students the choice as to where they wanted to do their best learning at all times throughout our day. The only downfall to me jump starting this transition, was that I did not have the seating options that I wanted to make it work. I researched and looked at various designs that other teachers, who had successes with flexible seating, offered to their students. I decided to create a Donor’s Choose project looking to obtain various seating styles to begin flexible seating with my students. I had created Donor’s Choose projects before and did not have much success, so I was not getting my hopes up for this specific project. When I created the project online, I thought it was a great time to start discussing what flexible seating was and this project with my students and their parents. I started sending emails, putting up Facebook/ Twitter/ Instagram posts asking for donations or for people to share our project. I also started asking for items that people didn’t use anymore like: stools, tables, pillows, stability balls, etc. My students were so excited to transition to this new style of learning and asked me every day if our project was close to being funded. My students knew that with this new type of learning, there would be a lot more responsibility. The idea behind flexible seating is to allow students to have a choice in the type of space they do their learning. Like some adults, not all students learn their best sitting in a hard chair at their desk all day long. I wanted to give my students the opportunity to learn in the best way possible. This was not only a big transition for my students, but it was also a huge transition for myself as a teacher with my teaching style. I wanted my students to become even more engaged and to have more collaborative opportunities throughout the day. I also wanted my students to implement making correct choices with this new opportunity. Now students would be able to sit by whoever they wanted to; so students would need to learn that sitting by your best friend is not always the best choice for your learning. In the real world we are allowed to make our own choices as to how we complete our work (standing, sitting, near others, etc), and I wanted to start teaching my students this responsibility. It was a whirlwind of events! I went to bed with only two donations on our flexible seating project page and no items donated to the class through my asking for unused things around student homes. The next morning I woke up to an email from Donor’s Choose, stating that my project was fully funded! Fully funded after being on the site for two months with very little activity. I was floored! A company by the name of Ripple, based out of San Francisco, donated a large sum of money, so that every teacher’s project on the website would be fully funded. I was in tears… tears of excitement for what I was now capable of doing for my students and tears of excitement for all the teachers who had their projects funded! Ripple blessed so many students with amazing opportunities and materials (like computers, books, seating options, etc.) I wanted to share the amazing news with my students, but wanted to do it in a fun way. Last school year we utilized the tech tool Flipgrid on an almost daily basis. I normally posted questions or problems and had the students give a quick response back to me with their answer. I went into school the morning I found out the great news and designed a Flipgrid activity for my students. They had to discuss in their response: what they were most looking forward to if our Donor’s Choose Project was fully funded and what they were excited about if we could implement flexible seating into our classroom. At the end of my activity post on Flipgrid, I wrote “Because guess what…. Our entire Donor’s Choose Project was fully funded!!” Here is the class reaction to finding out our project was funded: Stay tuned for my next post as to what our class received and how it went last school year! I work in a school district that is fairly large in size. We have 13 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, and 2 high schools! I have been teaching 5th grade in my district for 4.5 years and I am constantly looking for ways to make my teaching even better. Two years ago, my district started a digital cohort, where teachers had to apply to become a member of a group, who learned how to integrate technology correctly into the classroom. I did not apply for the first cohort because it seemed intimidating. This past school year, my district opened up a second digital cohort. You had to submit an application, like the previous year. This time I applied and it was the BEST decision I could have made! The second digital cohort was formed by teachers in various grades, subjects and schools within our district. We met a couple days every couple months with our coach, Weston Kieschnick. Wes pushed us to become even better teachers with each training! He made sure that we were looking at the outcomes and strategies first, before jumping in to any type of tech tool. He helped us as teachers to fine tune our craft and showed us how to use the blended learning format in our classrooms. Wes helped us realize many things, but there are two that will always stick with me: technology should be invisible in the classroom, not the main event and you need to step outside of your comfort zone because that's where some of the best teaching happens! Being a part of this cohort also meant having observations with our other coach, Venola Mason. Through these coaching sessions, Venola invited me to travel to the Model Schools Conference, held by ICLE, with herself, her partner Erika Tate and a high school teacher from Alabama, Miranda. At the conference we would be facilitating the Quad D Idea Lab sessions for teachers. At these sessions, teachers would rotate through 3 of the 4 Quad D stations and participate in various activities we designed! Saying yes to this was definitely out of my comfort zone, but I knew the experience would push me to become a better educator. The conference was held in Orlando, Florida. We held our sessions 4 times during the conference and helped teachers think about how they could do similar Quad D lessons back in their schools. Our stations covered various subjects and topics. One station was working with ozobots, utilizing math and science. Another station was called Re-Design, where teachers designed a classroom. The other station was focused on Maker Spaces, where teachers created or invented new historical monuments. My Quad D station was utilizing Flipgrid and growth mindset. Teachers had to create a TedTalk audition video explaining why growth mindset is important. The entire experience was AMAZING! What made this opportunity amazing were the many chances I had to collaborate and interact with others who were just as passionate as I am with education! I met educators from all over the country, who taught various grades and subjects. Each new meeting brought conversations centering around how we use these rigorous, relevant, and real world projects in our classroom. I gathered some new ideas and I sent some new ideas off with the educators I met. I am so happy I stepped out of my comfort zone and took a leap into this experience. |