CLASSROOM ELEMENTS
Two essentials for me - the laptop and the diary. I make the diary using word, print it out and the local book binder does the rest!
The Parking Lot is one of those permanent fixtures in my room. When we've got a really good discussion happening or when the kids are doing work around the room, there are always kids who have a really good question or issue to share. These are really valuable but they'd take us way off path and subtract from the effectiveness of the lesson. So we put these ideas and questions on sticky notes and onto the parking lot. Later (I usually try for
the same day) we address what's been 'parked'. Sometimes that's with the whole class if they'd all benefit, sometimes it's just with individuals. It depends, teacher judgement, you know. The Parking Lot poster is here.
The Soap Box is just a lovely little place for kids to put up their news. We don't have any time for show and tell or bring and brag but the kids obviously miss it from their younger years so I encourage them to use sticky notes to share. I've always needed to tell them the origins of the soap box as a platform for public speaking and they're often fascinated by it. Kids put up things like 'we won basketball last night', 'I'm going to Dad's this weekend' and 'When are we going on an excursion?' The Soap Box poster is here.
The Brick Wall we use as a place for kids to put up any 'issues' they have with their learning and I put up things too. It's a sort of 'problem shared is a problem halved' ethic. We have notes like 'We didn't get enough time for maths today', 'It's too noisy during inquiry', 'People keep hogging the computers', 'We're leaving jumpers around the room too much' (that's usually from me!). When there's a few notes, we take time to address them and I get the kids to come up with solutions themselves and we add these to the bottom section of the poster. We monitor our solutions for a few weeks then clear the poster of problems that have been resolved. The Brick Wall Poster is on this page.
the same day) we address what's been 'parked'. Sometimes that's with the whole class if they'd all benefit, sometimes it's just with individuals. It depends, teacher judgement, you know. The Parking Lot poster is here.
The Soap Box is just a lovely little place for kids to put up their news. We don't have any time for show and tell or bring and brag but the kids obviously miss it from their younger years so I encourage them to use sticky notes to share. I've always needed to tell them the origins of the soap box as a platform for public speaking and they're often fascinated by it. Kids put up things like 'we won basketball last night', 'I'm going to Dad's this weekend' and 'When are we going on an excursion?' The Soap Box poster is here.
The Brick Wall we use as a place for kids to put up any 'issues' they have with their learning and I put up things too. It's a sort of 'problem shared is a problem halved' ethic. We have notes like 'We didn't get enough time for maths today', 'It's too noisy during inquiry', 'People keep hogging the computers', 'We're leaving jumpers around the room too much' (that's usually from me!). When there's a few notes, we take time to address them and I get the kids to come up with solutions themselves and we add these to the bottom section of the poster. We monitor our solutions for a few weeks then clear the poster of problems that have been resolved. The Brick Wall Poster is on this page.
One year I had a class that had real problems engaging with independent activities like our reading and writing times. I'd just come back from a Deb Sukana inservice about Writer's Notebook and was determined to allow the kids the 'thinking time' necessary for good writing. So I was pretty strict about working without disturbing others at certain times of the day. At the same time, you don't want to inhibit the interpersonal learners and the co-operative learning that can go on, so we set this up, with great success. It's a low table so kids could sit on the carpet, work then head back to their table