I have never seen the first days of elementary school since I was the student. Seeing them through the eyes of a teacher has been a huge eye opener. I did not realize how much time it took to get procedures and rules of the classroom in place. I am in a first grade classroom and for the first two weeks we have been going over the procedures of morning meeting, calendar, transitions, hallway, bathroom, lunch, recess, and the list goes on. Everyday the teacher reminds the rules and procedures before we do anything. It takes a lot of modeling and took more time and effort than I thought it would. Even though it is the first two weeks of school I do see progress, but like we have been told in our classes it is looking like it will take 6-8 weeks to get them down.
My school follows the responsive classroom approach. I am learning more about this approach by borrowing a book that my teacher was told to follow. I do like how with this approach the classroom is set up with the students. For example, the centers and classroom library all are covered with “coming soon” signs until the teacher can model and go through exploration of the centers with the students. This will set up procedures and expectations of using the center to prevent misuse. Most people that don’t know that this school uses this approach will find the room to be very bare at orientation and back to school night, but the positive to the room not being set up on the first day is that it gives the students a chance to create their classroom environment with the teacher to form a community.
I also got to be a part of my classrooms back to school night. This was an eye opener to me as well because I was expecting every parent to come with questions and concerns about the school year and not having enough time for those personal one on one conversation with each family. What realistically happened was 9 out of 17 families showed up and when asked if there was any questions or concerns there were none. I should explain that my school is a Title I school, which consists of low income families. The student population is a majority of Hispanic students, followed by Vietnamese students. Most parents could not communicate because they spoke broken English. My teacher expressed her appreciation for them coming and showing interest in their child’s school experience and reassured them that she would be bringing translators to her home visits and conferences. After back to school night talking with other first grade teachers it was low numbers of family turn out across all the classes.
I am enjoying my experience at this school and in my classroom and I am learning a lot about Title I schools and the responsive classroom approach. I am looking forward to the rest of my time in this class. Stay tuned for updates and my findingsJ
Heather,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you too are in an interesting classroom. Title & author of the responsive classroom book you are reading? First heard about "the coming soon" idea from Dr. G and it intrigued me then. Would like to read your book's idea on that.
I think because my daughter goes to a Title I school, I think it is important that we understand what that designation actually means. Perhaps this will be the topic of my blog this week?
Thanks for a good post and look forward to more details about your thoughts and experiences!
I too am in a school which about responsive classrooms and I can relate to a lot of things that you have touched upon. I also felt like you for back to school night. I have never been to one except for high school. I was expected for parents to come with questions. One or two did but most listen to Mr. Felts presentation of what to come for his class. I was also surprised when during his presentation a comment came on over the speakers for parents to listen to the general school rules in other languages and which rooms they could go to. It did show me though that many schools, especially in this diverse area, are trying to accommodate the needs to everyone. Would you be able to post the title of the book? If I am able to borrow any from my school I will happily share that too.
ReplyDeleteHeather I LOVE our school and the idea of a responsive classroom. You should see me all day, I am constantly scribbling down ideas and books that I want to get to (if we ever have a free moment).
ReplyDeleteEllen, I am not sure what book Heather is talking about but one that I am going to buy and read and keep is "The First Six Weeks of School" by Paula Denton and Roxann Kriete. My teacher is always using it and swears by it.
Another great book that I think is awesome is called the "The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary grades" by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. For the past 2 weeks my teacher has literally been follwoing this book when it comes to language arts. It's all about getting kids to an independent reading level, but it breaks it down into a day by day basis (each day building on the previous one).
They are both really great books!
Ellen and Shawna, the book Nisreen posted on "The First Six Weeks of School" by Paula Denton is one of the books my teacher has and I am waiting on the other one but I will keep you updated.
ReplyDeleteNisreen, I LOVE our school too:) I wish we had more time to talk about our experiences though like a time for us to meet weekly to reflect. Maybe we can start doing that on our breaks on Friday. I saw Dr. Malloy in our copy room today she is doing a research project with Seth and she says hello to everyone.