Make it Fun! Slow it Down!
I'm at school a LONG time. The kids are at school a LONG time. I've always felt since it's somewhere that we need to be, let it be fun. Needless to say a big part of that is letting go and being silly (after, of course, important norms have been established). We sing, we dance, we make up silly poems to help us decompose numbers. Anything fun sounding (that has rigor) I am usually all in. Thankfully, my teammates always bring a gentle dose of reality when I over plan the fun :) The kids quickly see me putting myself out there and when they see it's okay, they also join.
One student, who will remain anonymous, came into my class without so much as saying a word. It took me months to see a smile, and even longer to hear a laugh. She took her time with everything and thought deeply, I could see that. Watching her wanted me to learn to slow down a bit (it became my year goal: "Don't rush things Mrs. Miller"). I'm a bit on the hyper side, so watching her grace and pensive nature inspired me. But, being the spaz I am and people pleaser to a fault, I was secretly sad that this little one did not appreciate my funny side. That is until she slowly let me know through her writing. Below was my spark. She did think learning was fun. By the end of the year she was joking and laughing with us. She also felt comfortable questioning me, which I loved. I remember I was working with a full table of kids who needed help with a concept. My sweet, sweet pensive girl kept coming up to the table. She was struggling matching a detail with a fact that she was writing in an informative piece. She finally got one, showed me, and I quickly approved. Not one second later she came back. She said, "Read it again." I obliged. We both looked at each other. She said, "I'm writing another one." and she did. She came back and had a much improved detail that went with that fact. She let me know that even though I said it was okay (and it was...just okay) she pushed herself to do better. I knew from then on to read her writing slowly, carefully, and with great precision. She took the time to do it, and I needed to take the time to read it with her precision in mind. That sweetie taught me to yes, have some fun, but also slow down!
Take the Time to Get to Know One Another and Be Kind!
I am blessed to teach at a wonderful school. Teachers are viewed as professionals and their judgement is supported. The whole child is focused on and celebrated. It is a wonderful environment. Support wraps around you like a blanket and starts with the administration. My two wonderful administrators realize that the relationship that they have with their teachers directly affects the relationship that their teachers have with their students.
It is because of this that I allowed myself and my class to really have the time to get to know one another this year and it has paid off in so many ways that I can't count. I made sure to plan (usually around a holiday) a Friday block of time where we have free roaming art/activity stations. There are usually 5 or so activities and the students can choose how quickly or slowly they move through each. Truly they can stay at one the whole time if they want. There is usually WAY to much to do in that time period, but I always allow my few that have to complete them all to take a project home to do if they need to. There is no ding and switch, no rushing, no need to do a project that they have no interest in. It is their time to choose. During this time I also choose. I choose to take time to sit and color with each one, listen to them, and hear their stories. I'm not rushed to finish a lesson, get to recess, or anything else. I am just there to listen.
At first, I just did this so the kids could have some fun. However, what I quickly realized is that this turned out to be the best classroom management tool I have ever used. The kids became bonded to me and they realized that they mattered to me. They did not want to disappoint me. I also learned about what motivated them. I had a reluctant writer who loved comic books. Soon after learning that I had him write comic books as a choice. By the end of the year, writing was no longer a struggle with him. I learned that one student loved koalas. I brought in fluency passages with koalas as the topic and her reading flew. I also learned from another student that his mom used to be a teacher! She never told me. Soon after, she did a huge project with my class. I enjoyed getting to know these little people and they enjoyed me listening to them.
Now, even though I had a very well behaved class to start with, it was not without challenges. I had a student who stomped on classmate's feet for awhile pronouncing that he would not stop and that he would not stop because he wanted to step on feet. I also had a student who cried for the better part of the first four months for up to an hour a day to name just a few challenges. I spent extra time at first with these guys. Slowly, they began to trust me. Then, slowly, their behavior started to change. Now this choice art/get to know you time did not alone make a smooth running classroom. Along with clear expectations, a calm demeanor, fair consequences, parent help, and structure our classroom ran smooth. However, I couldn't help to see how these "art sessions" every 4-6 weeks changed things so much.
We also really focused on kindness, filling our book bags with Chrysanthemum and other books that explored kindness and how it affected people. We also focused on random acts of kindness. At the end of the year we plastered our school with these posters (shown below) for the last week. We hid, pretended we were on a covert mission, and were very sly when we put them up. We didn't take credit. That was the beauty. If someone asked if it was us, we would of course fess up, but the beauty was doing something kind just because. The kids and I LOVED it. It especially hit home when one of the most challenging students in first grade had one of our notes sticking out of his pocket. My class went wild when they saw it. Our actions affected someone.
Gratitude!
Another thing I learned this year was to focus on gratitude. Each day, at the end of the day, we wrote what we were grateful for (we are blessed with awesome white board desks). I modeled, and at first we started small with a sentence. Then, after time, I modeled longer statements of gratitude. If we missed a day the kids would let me know, immediately. The above gratitude made it all worth it. It was from a student who didn't love writing his gratitude that much. He fought me a little, but I stuck with him and near the end he was writing beauties like this. It also shows how important a things like getting invited to play basketball at recess is to a kid. It puts everything into perspective.
Share and Celebrate Learning!
