The First Six Weeks of School

When I started on this reflective blog journey a little over a month ago, I envisioned having much more figured out by now. I will be face to face with students in my classroom two weeks from today and I still have many ideas floating and jumbled.

Last week, having just finished my Responsive Classroom course, I was at the beach with my family. Trying to embrace the chance to relax and unwind, I didn't take (much) professional reading with me. I read for pleasure, I slept in, I went on excursions and all the while the ideas were percolating. My intent was for the ideas to fall into place and organize themselves, but no such luck. They multiplied. Like bunnies.

So now here I sit on the couch, intent on organizing my ideas. As I learned in my RC course I need to focus on the first six weeks of school, and I left that week with a bit of a plan for how that works (And I need to make this need clear to admin who typically expect us to jump into programs on day 2 or 3) Thinking through all that I must model, the teacher language I must use and what I want to accomplish I have to think through what I want to do this year, and what I want to introduce.

Procedures - This is a given in 1st grade, but it is going to be even more important this year. I need to model EVERYTHING, and model some more. If things get off track, I've got to stop and remodel.

Morning Meeting/Closing Circle - This is everything! Though it is a chunk of my schedule the safe community it will build will have greater impact down the road and as the routine is established I can begin to weave in academics.

Reader's/Writer's Workshop - I have not had a true workshop for reading or writing in the past. Actually I haven't even been a great model for writing in the past few years. I read a great article connecting the first six weeks of school and writers workshop which I will read and reread over the next couple weeks. I've also got some amazing ideas from Kathy Collins and thanks to her book, Growing Readers I know this is the year I can do it and do it right.

Seesaw - I am very excited to begin using this app to support my students in creating digital portfolios of their progress. I want to start that first week, even with something as simple as a picture, modeling and supporting students in their first steps towards digital literacy.

Mindsets - I've mentioned before my desire to teach my students what it takes to have a growth mindset and to be flexible and resilient learners. I need to be guiding them through discovering the elements of a growth mindset and spotting it in themselves and others. I think I will be referencing and rereading A Mindset for Learning many times this year!

Inquiry - Even if it is just one topic this year, I want my students to experience and learn through true inquiry. This will be a challenge for me, as my large team often wants to be teaching the same thing, on the same day, with the same final outcome. If I am letting student interest guide the learning it may not lined up with the designated team topic. I know if I can show my team and administration that students can meet objectives and show growth while exploring their own learning, I will be able to incorporate inquiry more in the future.

I am slowly building a map for the year, and a plan for the first six weeks. When I lay the groundwork properly I know my students will be prepared for an amazing year of learning.

Influencing Mindsets

I have been doing a lot of talking, reading, and thinking about mindsets this summer. It has certainly become a buzzword in education and elsewhere, with much talk of growth and fixed mindsets since Carol Dweck's book appeared. Even my trainer talks about mindsets in terms of training and I find myself talking to my running partner about mindsets as I remind her that starting a run with a growth mindset that she may have a faster split than last week could help.

During my 'free time' this summer I have been taking an online math course through my district and the first two sections have focused on math mindsets. I know that families, friends and teachers can influence and play a part in math mindsets ("I was never good at math, so little Johnny will surely struggle.") but I had never thought about the ways media influences math mindsets as well. But as soon as someone points it out to you, you see it everywhere--the girl on the sitcom struggling with math while the Asian boy next door is successful with math, parents on my own Facebook feed making comments about not being 'good at math' which means their children aren't either. All too often it seems that girls are the ones suffering from these math mindsets, with fewer females going on to seek higher education or jobs within a mathematical field.

But what about reading mindsets? Writing mindsets? Science and social studies mindsets? I myself suffer from a fixed writing mindset, which is why I am forcing myself to keep up with the blog. The only way I can get better at writing is to force myself to write with regularity. I have found that my own thinking that "I'm not a good writer" gets passed on to my students because by not being a good writer, I KNOW I'm not a good writing teacher. That needs to change, it needs to change now, and I need to be the one to make the change.

I've also been reading A Mindset for Learning by Kristine Mraz and Christine Hertz this summer. Thinking about teaching students the traits needed to have a growth mindset, a learning mindset has influenced my thinking a lot. I've always taught my students about flexibility and I've tried to teach them persistence and empathy, but never thought through how these with relate to their learning. Looking at the upcoming year, thinking about explicitly teaching and modeling the traits of a learning mindset is powerful.

Today I was reading about Storytelling in relation to mindsets. As Mraz and Hertz state an adult can "unwittingly at times, support or erode a child's self-image based on the details and meaning he helps the child draw from every day events." (p80)  Rather than parents telling the story "I was no good at ___, so it's okay if it is hard for you too," stories need to be shared about resiliency, persistence and how they learned from failure. We cannot change the message students are getting at home but we can certainly use storytelling to model a learning mindset at school. We can look for opportunities to lift a student up, telling the story of how they didn't give up when solving a tricky math problem. Storytelling has many possibilities, and I've only just begun to think about it.

I am excited to work with my students and to help them begin their school career not just learning the foundational skills of reading, writing and math, but learning the skills they need to continue learning throughout school, throughout life. Tomorrow I head to Responsive Classroom, and I feel that as we build a community of learners this year we can build each other up to have a learning mindset in first grade.

It really works!

Two weeks ago I had just dipped my toes into the world of Twitter. Last night I was finally, totally and completely sold. Twitter works.

In the morning I put a question out to the Twitter world. Not much happened and I tried to actually relax for a bit on summer vacation. Before dinner I happened to check (since I felt I had neglected doing the work I said I would do this summer, with Twitter being a tiny piece) and I had SO MANY responses to my questions!!! And as I started thanking people for their great ideas, conversations started and kept going. I began to build my PLN, build my tribe and feel the power of Twitter.

Later I dove into my second Twitter chat. I at least knew what to expect this time! Chatting with other teachers about A Mindset for Learning (ah-mazing!) gave me new ideas and helped to clarify my vision as to how I can bring joy back into the classroom while helping my students build necessary traits for lifelong learning.

So thank you Twitter. You're changing my PD practices and changing how I can connect with others, in the best interest of my students.