October already! What happened? I've had three Mondays with our class and have to be away at the board office this Monday. I'm having to accept the fact that it is really had to build community with a group that one sees only once a week. I think that my teaching partner has done a fantastic job of creating a class cohesion - something I sense when I pop in to talk to her or to a student during the week. So when I say that it has been hard to create community with the class, what I mean is that I do not yet feel part of their community. Interesting.
We started Family Groups this week. These are groups of about 16 students K-7 who will meet every other week with their teacher-leader. The staff has agreed to take this leap of faith with me and I so badly wanted the first meetings to go well. I prepped the grade 7's to go and pick up the kindergarten and grade 1 students and take them to their groups, but some of the kindies were too afraid to go. That was really the only hitch. I have already heard some positive feedback from teachers and students. Nancy explained to her group that they were like a school family, like brothers and sisters, and when the students had to return to their own classes, they all said, "Bye Mom!" Liam, in grade 7, has "adopted" the kindergarten students that he picked up from class. He's decided they are his. Teachers are having conversations about students. They are noticing strengths in some that they did not notice before. I am pleased!
October is a month for giving thanks. I am going to try to focus on all of the people to whom I am grateful: for the students and teachers and parents, the support staff, the custodians, the plumbers and the painters who keep our school looking good, for the board office people who keep up the paperwork and for my wonderful office assistant, Denise. Thanks.
Hi Margaret,
ReplyDeleteI can relate to the part where you describe how you don't feel like part of the community in your Monday class. I had that experience a few years ago as a prep relief teacher. A teacher whose class I covered also did a fantastic job of creating cohesion in her class eventhough she had a very challenging group of students. That teacher was you of course and that experience motivated me to take a closer look at Tribes. I am now taking a technology in education course and would like to meld the two together somehow. I am thinking of starting out with having the students do biographical assignments such as a personal timeline and web using Inspiration. They could then share these with one another. Not sure where I'm going after that....
Hi Marian. That assignment sounds like a great idea. Kids love writing and talking about themselves (well, who doesn't)! I'm doing webs with the gr. 4/5's - the lab was not up and running or I would have used Inspiration, too. I'm going to laminate them so that they are like place mats. Each time the students join a new group, they'll share their webs, until eventually, they will have shared with everybody. Might take all year!!!
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