The learning coach in my building, Connie, shared this article on Seating Challenges and I thought - "Let's DO IT!" Each day, beginning on the first day of school, students came into the classroom and completed a seating challenge. It really set the tone that students are going to be expected to work as soon as they enter class and with the exception of one class, all students completed the seating challenge in within a minute of the bell ringing by Thursday of the first week! My favorite one was Day 3 - the students had to complete the task in complete silence! I will definitely do these challenges again. The first one was more challenging than I had anticipated, and may change the order for next year. I have one group that is really fighting me on class discussion and communication (already! It's only week 1!). I'll update you all on their progress this year.
Week 1 Seating Challenges Docs (I published and projected these)
In addition to the seating challenges, I took the idea of having students complete table tents with comments and questions from Sarah VanderWerf's blog. These were a great idea! Although, I had two classes that did not write anything the first day, and it took a lot of prodding to get them to share and make thoughtful comments on the inside. I learned a lot from my students and many shared that they appreciated this activity. I co-teach two hours of the day and we took turns responding to the students and had a lot of fun sharing those experiences.
I created an "about me" slide show to share with students on the first day of school. I chose numbers that describe me and had students guess which each was. Before we went over the numbers we did a "Stand and Talk" (should out to Sarah VanderWerf for the idea). They had a TON of fun with it. The students then each created their own slide (we called #YOU) with their numbers on it and throughout the week we would take breaks and go through a few. The students loved this, they shared more personal details then I thought they would, and the kids supported each other in the process. I assigned homework to my students on Day 1. They completed the "What is Math" assignment that I found on Sarah VanderWerf's blog. Seriously, that place is a goldmine. I spent a lot of time this summer combing through her Week 1resources and figuring out ways to use them in mine.
On Day 2 we started with the second seating challenge and moved to our homework. Other than one class, most kids were ready to start class before the bell rang. One class stood in the middle of the room looking at each other and waiting for guidance. I did not give it. I watched from the door to see what they would do. It took a long time, but it was time where they had to figure it out. The task was not complicated, but they would not talk to each other and were staring at each other waiting for someone to do something. Eventually they figured it out, but many were not sitting where they should have been. We learned about each other by going over some #YOU slides and then we completed the 100# Task from Sarah VanderWerf. This was great! The students all had success and all students were engaged, especially my group of strugglers. Sarah suggests using groups of 4. I did use groups of 3 because of how my classroom is set up, and next year I will use 4. I will also make one class set next year and use my dry erase pockets.
On Day 3 students took their pre-test. This took much longer than I anticipated. They completed it online using Illuminate and between student Chromebooks, Wi-Fi, and logging in problems. I'm glad to get those resolved, and the kids were resilient with it. Students took time after their pretest to log in and sign up for the various accounts we use in class (Delta Math, Classroom, Khan Academy, etc.) and download extensions (Screencastify). I'm finding that even with a clear list of things to do, students are not necessarily following the directions. I have been posting a daily agenda for students every day on classroom, and I'm beginning to reinforce the students come in and pull up the document to access class information. I am adding links, videos, homework all to this doc. I'm hoping to build this into full blown hyperdocs as we progress through the year. This may be a slow process.
Happy Friday! We used today to complete a Growth Mindset quiz, thanks to the AMAZING Sarah Carter. I am so thankful I found her on Twitter, which led me to her blog that is a wealth of resources. I received a lot of positive feedback from the students after they completed this quiz. The students really responded well to this activity and in their week end reflection most students shared how they wanted their mindset to grow. I believe my group that struggled with the seating challenges really benefitted from this activity. After this activity we set up student notebooks. We had a shortened schedule today due to an assembly. It was a great first week! I'm thrilled to be a Chemic!
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