Flex Seating #2

So the students walked in on Monday morning and oohed and ahhed over everything.  I had talked to them about it the Friday before, but as little kids have a hard time remembering the recent past, they were still really surprised.  Some of the comments I heard were "It's so cool!"  "It feels so relaxing in here" "There's so much space!"  and lots of other positive stuff.  I was thrilled!  I let them explore for a few minutes and then I called a class meeting.  We talked about expectations and I ran through all the different options that they had to do work.  Moving around the classroom is not a problem for my kids, as I do a lot of center work and they know what to do and how to act during these times. 

When we moved to work spaces, it went much more smoothly that I imagined it would.  They quickly chose a spot and there was no arguing.  I had made it clear that everyone would get to try everything over the next couple of days.  Through the day I kept track of where people were and tried to make sure that they moved through all the options.  For the most part, it worked.  After the initial trial I didn't worry about it, as they moved themselves around easily and I only had to intervene with a couple of kiddos. 

Here's what it looked like in action:

In my next post, I'll talk about what I learned from the whole experience.

Flexible Seating #1

A couple of years ago, I read about flexible seating.  I thought it was very interesting and tried to imagine it in a primary classroom.  Most of the examples I was reading about were in high school settings and they looked amazing!  Couches, lamps and coffee tables; it looked like a living room.  Other examples I saw had wide open spaces and different table configurations.  For a while I thought about it, and then put it away.  No one I knew was doing it, no one knew what I was talking about and I lost interest, honestly.  It seemed unattainable and with the class I had at the time, there was no way I could introduce something like that and stay sane. 

Fast forward to 2016, and now flex seating is everywhere!  People in my district are muttering about it and some teachers are actually trying it in elementary schools!  My interest was reignited and I started to think about the changes I could make in my own class.  I had watched my friend Angela Gatt, from Fun in Fourth, do the switch at Spring Break and decided I would jump in.  It was June.  Many people thought I was crazy to try something at the end of the school year.  I thought I was crazy to start something like this at the end of the year, but when I sat down and really thought about it, I had many good reasons to do it.

1.  No time like the present- I'd already waited for so long, and really you don't know what will work until you do it.
2.  The kids were already antsy anyway, giving them something to concentrate on other than the calendar would be a good thing.
3.  The kids know that routines, know where everything is and were able to adapt to small changes in routing with ease.
4.  I was excited about it.

So one Sunday morning, I called Ang and I went to Walmart.  I had a cart filled with stuff and met her at my school.  I knew what I wanted to do, but I wanted her opinion and experience to back me up.  I didn't leave the school until after 5 that day, but when I did, I was energized.
Here's what it looked like:

-I kept two table groups of 4 just as they were
-I took the extension legs right out of the tables in one group
the brown table has exercise balls to sit on
-4 desks were by themselves
-4 desks were in the hall
-I scrounged a bench from the gym and had cushions on the floor for them to sit on and use the bench as a writing surface.
-1 group of desks were raised as high as they could go for a standing option.

So for options I had:
-1 wiggle stool
-kneeling
-sitting on cushions
-standing
-laying on the carpet with clip boards
-regular desks and chairs
-desks in the hall

The reactions of the kids on Monday morning was awesome!  They walked around looking at everything and loved it!

Blog Resurrection

It's been a very long time since I used this space, but it's been a very long time since I've had the energy or want to use it too.

Things have changed since I've posted last:
- I had the most challenging class I've ever had
- there was a strike
- I moved schools
- I taught grade one
- I taught a split 1 and 2
- new curriculum was introduced
- I have tried flexible seating
- My application for an inquiry project was accepted.

So much has happened in the last 2 years, but I'm not going to recap that.  Exciting things are going to be happening this coming year and I feel refreshed and excited about teaching again.

First week down...

The first week always passes by in a bit of a blur and for some reason I always forget that.  I showed up on the Tuesday morning to all my furniture moved back into the room.  I'd completely forgotten about all the little things that I usually do leading up to the first day.  I'm totally behind this year.
By the end of this week, I managed to create piles around the classroom of stuff that I wanted to get rid of.  That's about all.  I will be spending the better part of my weekend in my classroom.  I need to get the physical space cleaned up before I can work on any of the planning etc for this year.

I am really lucky again this year, as I have a straight grade 2 class instead of a split.  Yes, I do have 23 students and many of the students have needs (3 are identified) but I have 2 EAs in the room with me.  That will really help.

This week, I had my class for the whole week and it was busy!  I feel like I am perpetually catching up.  I remember thinking I would try out a couple of new systems in my class this year, but I'm trying to catch my breath as it is.  We'll see.  At least all the basics are covered for now.  

The Countdown is on

I have been thinking a little more about school these days, even though we don't start until September.  It must be all the American blogs I follow that are talking about heading back soon.  Anyway, I've been looking at a few things for the new year including Daily 5 and Guided Math.  I think I am going to implement both of these this year.  I've been doing some bits and pieces of both, but really like what I've been reading about them in the resources and want to go a little further. 

I have been feeling like the countdown has already started because we are heading on a trip and will not be back until right before school starts, (think 2 days!!) and what ever didn't get done to this point will have to wait until September.  I have found some new organizational things for my room and will also be putting together a TOC binder.  I used to have one and got out of the habit of it, but realize that I've missed it.  I bought one from here  before my friend Angela at Fun in Fourth created hers, but you should check it out, especially if you are in BC, she's used all the Canadian lingo so it's print and use!  Regardless of which one you use, having a TOC binder or a Sub binder is a great way to keep all the info in one place and have emergency plans ready to go.  I had a couple of emergency leaves last year and it was not fun having to plan the days at home.  This year it'll all be ready, just in case. 

This September will be a busy one especially with all the reorganizing that I'm going to have to do to get the two new programs up and running in my room.  We'll have to see how that goes.  My little DIY projects were mostly successful, at least the filing cabinet was. The chalk board is black and looks better, but not very magnetic.  Not sure what I'll do about that one.

Good bye this year, hello next year!

Well is has finally happened, the end of school.  I was ready, the kids were ready, the parents very ready.  Even as the year was coming to an end, I was already thinking about next year. 
I am saying good bye to the frog theme that I have had for 3 years and saying hello to owls.  Before the end of school, I had already placed my order with Scholar's Choice for the Owl Stars products.  It wasn't only pretty products that I was thinking about though.  I also started thinking about what worked and what didn't.

Next year I will be doing Guided Math more.  I am going to use some time this summer to read this resource and create a work station board, much like the one I have for Guided Reading.  The small group approach is one I am comfortable with and think the students get more out of.  I think that for next year's group it will be especially helpful.

Another thing that I've been thinking about is class set up and the look of the classroom.  Summer is always a good time for me to be looking at changes, because quite honestly, once I get into the school year the curriculum is what is front and centre for me.  I think the basic furniture set up with stay the same, but there are some things that I need to look at.  Word wall is one of them.  I know what the literature says, but with the kids in my class having word books in their desks, they don't use the word walls at all.  I tried a math word wall this year, putting up the words as we worked through different units of math.  I would draw their attention to it, but I never had a student refer to it on their own.  It might go away this year.  Maybe a math dictionary?  I do want to incorporate more writing in their math journals.  We used them for problem solving mostly this year. 

I am doing a little DIY in the classroom this year which will help give it a little face lift.  I'm always a little jealous of the rooms I see in different blogs I follow.  They go in and paint walls and cupboards etc.  I'd be shot if I did something like that here.  Very strict rules about encroaching on union jobs (even though the stuff I want done will never make it onto their never ending list), and there is always some excuse from maintenance about why we can't add a coat of paint.  I don't like ugly, no one does!

Because we are getting back from holiday 2 days before school starts, I want to go next week and do some purging and planning.  As I was emptying my filing cabinet, I found files that I haven't looked at since my practicum!  Yikes!  I also want to get some boards done so the room doesn't look so empty when we get back. Currently it looks like this:

Is it really June?

May went by in a blur.   A blur of bad weather that is.  I like to do a kite unit in May, but the weather was so awful that I abandoned that idea and turned to another idea.  The Honeybee.
We have been very busy in class learning about the honeybee.  The kids were so excited and drove their parents crazy with facts about bees every night.  As we learned something new about bees and their hive, I added something to the display board.  Every morning, the kids would come in to check out the display and talk about the changes.  It was awesome.  The biggest hit were the dead bees.  I went to Rose Prairie Honey and got a small jar of dead bees so the kids could look at them up close.  When I got there, he'd just opened a hive and had transferred some bees into his observation hive.  There were hundreds of upset bees flying around, slightly sedated
from the smoke.  Did I mention that I have a very big fear of bees?  That I had a childhood allergy?  After the initial adrenaline rush, I calmed down enough to really watch the bees.  It's a very fascinating society.  I learned as much as the kids did about bees.  At the end of the unit, I had the bee keeper come in to do a presentation in our class.  This unit prompted me to do research into the decline of bees and what can be done to help get their numbers back up.  I'm still trying to get Chris to agree to a hive in the back yard.

We also had Paul Hann visit our school right after the long weekend.   I'd heard about him before, but never had the experience of working with him.  The kids learned 2 songs with him.  One that he'd already written and one that he wrote with us on a predetermined theme.  The theme we picked was keeping our hands to ourselves.  We are currently working on PBS a lot at our school, so our AO wanted to keep in line with topics to do with that.  Chris and I were having a hard time with some of our kids keeping their hands off of each other and  bugging each other so that's what we chose.  It was hard, and mostly the song was written by Chris, Paul and I.  We had many laughs and I know I enjoyed the process much more than I thought I would.

As well as trying to keep the kids' focus and juggling all the extra special days we've been having, assessments have been happening as well.  I call them check-ups in my room rather than tests or assessments.  We've been talking about them as check-ups all year, so the kids know that I am interested in what they know, no pressure.  I tell them it helps my teaching and tells me what I need to know about their learning.  They also get a kick about all the "homework" it generates for me. 

Right now, it's the home stretch.  We have a field trip to town planned, a district track meet and a fun day all coming up.   Our class has 14 days of in-class time left and I find kids are missing randomly more and more.  I had 5 away on Monday!  With the sun being up so much longer now (11pm is still a little light)  parents around here are ready to be done with school too.  Kids are going to bed later and later and plans are in the works for vacations.  It's hard to keep anyone's focus these days.