A Daily Blog - Tues, Sept 1

Supervising Teacher (6th grade): "Judy"

Here are a few reflections about things I felt were most impactful on this first day of school...
When I say "impactful," I mean to the students--and to me!

Predictions for our classroom community:
First day of school in LWSD! Throughout the day, I kept thinking...Judy is sooo clever! She packed the day with fun activities all surrounding getting to know each other, getting to know the classroom, and becoming familiar with what school in this classroom will look like. All the while, Judy articulated to me her reasons for presenting certain activities and how these actually aided her in getting to know how these kids will function as students in her classroom. The activities involving students getting to know other students indicated to Judy how kids interacted socially (e.g. verbally, space issues, assertiveness). Judy also presented a few activities whereby kids had to work in groups (either table groups, or whole group) to complete an activity page; she would follow-up with questions about what strategies they used and how they came to a single response for a group. Without the students knowing, Judy was able to arrive at a general idea of what kind of community this group of kids could become.

It takes a village:
During all of the days' activities, Judy was extremely complimentary to individuals and to the class as a whole. Instead of articulating her fears about potential negative behaviors, she never once mentioned (for instance) the need to send anyone to the principal or giving warnings or turning over cards. She totally lightened the moods of the students by projecting a sense of the start of the new school year as starting with a clean slate--a fresh start and hopeful beginning. By spreading her positive attitude and displaying her confidence in the students' abilities, she has bestowed them with the old (cliche!) "can-do" attitude. A key component to her conversations of success among individuals was her expectation that each student will be a leader, contributing to the classroom community. It's not just about her leading 22 students; the learning will happen through collaboration of 23 brains! Gotta love it!