Making Changes

I haven't blogged about how things have been going because it has been going downhill lately. I have a handful of students who continue to make choices that demonstrate that they really are taking responsibility for their education. Unfortunately, only a handful. The others just make sure they are sitting with their friends and doing the bare minimum. That will need to change!

It is Christmas Break, okay officially Winter Break, but we have it so we can celebrate Christmas, so I call it what it is. Anyway, I am revamping things so when we go back to school they will either make the choices to responsible for themselves or I will make the choices for them.

I have rearranged the room. There are no three person-desk arrangements anymore. There are single seats still. I have a number of students who like them because they get their work done with less distraction. There will also be two person-desk arrangements and four person-desk arrangements. The big change for them is who can sit at them. There will have to be an even number of boys and girls at each. This will help break-up some of those "friendship groupings" that were becoming a problem.

Another change will be in how I teach Math and Reading. I already made some changes in Reading and the students have embraced them. They went from having complete choice during "May" time to have a limited amount of selections. Actually, that was what I had originally planned to do. They may choose to be part of a student-led group one day a week for example. At this point, the student-led group choice is a strategy study group. I have online and paper-pencil activities already set up that they can do in a small group. There are also activities that they can do up to two days each week, and also activities that can be done up to three days. Obviously, the three day activities are the ones that focus the most on reading skills and strategies.

I also have added a weekly folder that they keep all their papers in that we are working on that week. We still use the cow notebook for some of the work, but shrinking everything was getting impractical. They will still take home the notebook at the end of the week for their parents to review and sign, but now the folder will go home as well. Each Monday, they will take the papers in the folder and place it in a binder to keep everything for future reference. Unless of course we are still using it, then it will stay in the folder. We used the folder for two weeks and the students actually were excited about it.

In Math, I have a few ideas rolling around in my head. The notebook we have been using has not been working for most of them, so I need to rethink that. Also the daily availability of using laptops to review videos and play games will go away. That will be allowed once a week, after the weekly review quiz. Students will also no longer be able to copy notes during class. I had originally planned for that to be homework, and now it will be. I have a few other ideas that I plan to put into place.

I do plan to write more often as I continue to create a responsibility classroom. Wish me luck!