My first school year back in the classroom is well launched. \u00a0Week 1 was about getting to know each other and starting to feel safe together – they all knew they’d have a test during week two to prove they knew the first name of everyone in the class. It was also about supporting new students as they find their way around our large school and our many systems. It was starting to establish key elements of our classroom, such as morning meeting, circle up behavior, laptop and iPad launch. It was working on stamina when reading or writing or listening to a lesson.<\/p>\n
Week 2 was deeper community building and scads of pre-assessments. \u00a0It was beginning of year math test, reading pre-assessment, on-demand writing, spelling inventory and spelling n0-excuse words. It was pre-testing in XtraMath<\/a> and FrontRow<\/a>. \u00a0Along with that came more work on routines and expectations. It was me seeing everything and celebrating as much as I could. \u00a0“I see we are\u00a0only filling\u00a0half of the hallway so that other classes can easily get by us.” \u00a0“I see everyone was almost seated correctly in the group area when the song ended.” \u00a0“I see you remembered to have a book for silent reading today.”<\/p>\n Week 3 wasn’t\u00a0as fun. \u00a0It was time to pull up their behavior, communicating that they\u00a0will<\/em> look at the person who is talking during a group discussion. They\u00a0will<\/em> lower the laptop\u00a0lids or flip their\u00a0iPads when requested or live with the consequences of their decision. \u00a0They will<\/em> start understanding what quality effort looks like. They were surprised\u00a0and didn’t like the change, which tells me I need to do a bit of that earlier next year, and weave it in more joyfully.<\/p>\n Fortunately, one big success was the introduction of accountable talk. \u00a0One of my colleagues, Caitlyn Reighley, recently expanded her understanding of the accountable talk math practice by reading\u00a0Classroom Discussions In Math: A Teacher’s Guide for Using Talk Moves to Support the Common Core and More, Grades K-6: A Multimedia Professional Learning Resource<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/em>She boiled down her learning into a presentation she made to our team. \u00a0I adapted her\u00a0presentation into one I could use with my own class.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n