Yesterday, as I sat at the back of the the room, listening to the keynote speaker, I was feeling very guilty. Guilty because I was not paying attention. The presenter was a nice lady, well-meaning, sincere, and her Wayne-Dyer-esque message was nothing I would challenge. But I did not want to shut my eyes when she asked us to; I even looked around to see who else was not cooperating. I did not want to get up and sit with someone new - and didn't. I stayed glued to my friend who was writing up lessons for next week, totally oblivious. And instead of taking notes, I wrote a list of "Things to do this weekend." I thought, "What's wrong with me? When I give a workshop there is nothing more annoying, even hurtful, than those who sit at the back and mark math sheets while I am sweating up front! Why am I doing this?" Then it occurred to me, and this is not an excuse for my bad behaviour - that a lot of our students are probably sitting at the back of the class, distracted, doodling, anonymous, thinking that their participation doesn't matter, thinking about their weekend, letting the teacher's words wash over them like a comforting blanket of elevator music, embarrassed and angry when they are jolted back into reality by the sound of their own name, "Margaret, what do you think of what Tony just suggested?"
I thought about what would have made a difference to my attitude and level of engagement during the keynote address: personal connections, intrinsic motivation, relevant material, a chance for structured talk, and positive interdependence with my peers. Our keynote speaker didn't have a hope in Hades of creating those conditions for learning in that auditorium. The class size was way to big, for a start! I am sorry for my bad behaviour. I promise to try to be a better student in future.

Tribes in Leadership

I am sponsoring a new student leadership group this year, with my intrepid colleagues Jill and Veronica. We have begun each meeting with Tribes activities, learning names, practicing safety and "paying attention." The students really enjoy these activities, but one of them asked, "Why do we play games in leadership?" Of course, we replied that the "games" help them to work cooperatively. When I ask the reflection questions they give all of the right answers. I'm not sure they see the connection clearly yet, but hopefully, when they get down to actually working, they will be more able to interact with people who aren't their close friends. I wonder what they think student leadership is all about. I wonder what motivated them to join. We were surprised by some of the students who came to the first meeting and who keep coming. Some of the more "popular" and confident students have faded away. Aren't group dynamics fascinating?
In my classroom this week, I repeated some of the activities we did last Monday, like Milling to Music, but with different questions, instead of Fruit Salad we did "I Like People, All Kinds of People," and I brought out the popsicle sticks to pair them up for peer editing. We also did "Something Good in My World." There were a lot of "passes" the first time around, but on the second time, everyone had something to share. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Eduardo said the day was "fun." There remains, however, a wariness in the room, a kind of tentative atmosphere - I think some are still trying to figure out whether they can trust me. (Kind of like my staff!) I realize now that because I am teaching them only once a week, it is going to take a while to build that trust and comfort. This gave me a sense of the challenges that the highschool teachers experience. Patience required. And remember: it might get worse before it gets better! These days when I feel discouraged about anything, I console myself with: "This is an implementation dip! It will get better!" Take care of yourselves!

Community Before (and with) Curriculum

I've realized that this blog is going to be about more than Tribes. But as you know, Tribes is not an entity, a program or a book. Rather it's a way of being together. It's not about playing games, warm fuzzies and a lack of discipline. In fact, it is about building discipline: "norming" the behaviour of ourselves and of the group so that we can function in a civilized society. At the same time, we are supposed to be teaching children about math and science and social studies. When I wrote "community before curriculum" last week, I was thinking about what is most important in our classrooms. It is more important for a student to feel safe and secure and appreciated, or to know her 9 times tables? Can she even begin to memorize her timestables if she's anxious, tired, frightened? This year, I like to work harder on those ways to use the Tribes activities with the curriculum. I want to find more ways to use group processing in the subject areas, not just as energizers or the start and end of the day. We did Milling to Music last Monday with "What is your favourite colour and favourite holiday." This week I'll try Milling to Music with a science question. I'll let you know how it goes.

First Day of School

Today was my first day of school! Actually, we have been at school since August 31st, but today was my first day with my new class. I am their Monday teacher. There are 28 grade 4 and 5 students. Having been a grade 6/7 teacher for so long, I was really afraid of frightening THEM! Especially as most are newly hatched from primary. It was fine. No one cried, not me or any of the students.

I started by showing them how to move their desks to the perimeter of the room in order to create a community circle. Thank goodness they do not have chairs attached to the desks, as in some of our classes. Once in Community Circle, we did some name games: the Koosh Ball game, I Sit in a Chair, and a new one I read about in Journey Toward the Caring Classroom (Laurie Frank): It's so easy! In the circle, have each student say their own first name, one at a time around the circle. Time them. The first time the kids did it it was 21 seconds. I told them I thought they could get it down to 15 seconds. It took about 5 tries, but they did it - 13 seconds! Reflection questions: What skills did you have to practice? What was hard/easy? How did you feel waiting for your turn? Extension: have one student start and the two on either side then pass their names- to the right, to the left... Which side will finish first?


After that we played Apple, Peach, Pear, Plum. I remembered to stress safety! We went over the Four Agreements. We started some "Get to Know Me Maps" that I`ll laminate. We did some spelling and some math and before I knew it the day was OVER!

I can`t wait until next Monday! There is so much to do, so little time! My daughter is in Mrs. Kelly`s class at BES and it was so great to hear about all of the Tribes activities Marian has already done - she has a orangutan called Tango, who watches from his perch - that reminded me to introduce the kids to Cosmo next week.

I will look forward to hearing from all of you about your classes and your great adventures in learning and being together!