Thinking about Katie's previous post made me stop and think about conversations I have had recently with my own students. I teach middle schoolers who love to chat with one another but I am thrilled when they actually want to talk to me! My recently redesigned classroom encourages conversation and collaboration where I hope small ideas will be created.
Last week, as we were wrapping up group presentations, I had one particular student sit next to me in this newly designed space. He's usually the first one in my class and on the computer right way making stuff, but instead he was next to me so I could tell he wanted to talk. I sparked the conversation by asking him what programs he liked working with best this year...we wrote down a list of things that were important to learn for both Digital I and Digital II (classes I teach). I asked him, "What programs could we use for our new poster printer and what could we create?". He got on the desktop and started tinkering with some different logo design programs. As our conversation developed, he suggested making posters for the teachers in our building. The students role would be acting as hired graphic designers who would interview teachers, collect data, and design posters that would represent their subjects they teach. The energy flowing between us and our conversation was on fire! The possibilities starting feeling endless now... As I reflect on this, as a teacher I see the importance of conversation. The act of taking a moment and recognizing a students need for conversation is what opened doors for me. As I give over control of planning on my own, it opens doors for conversations that ignite fire and possibilities. -Kacey
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I love when conversations and energies just flow. Not forced. Not coerced. Just present.
-Dau Voire Some of the best moments in my classroom happened this year when my students and I just talked. Whether chatting about recess, what book a student was loving or talking together through a new idea to reflect on, the conversation was where the lightbulbs went on and the learning began. Knowing young children and their natural desire to jump in and out of conversation, just chatting can be challenging sometimes. Often the conversations we have near the end of the year feel most productive because they've practiced enough together that they are all invested and are able to understand how to process and share their thinking (without all the crashing of voices). So it was awesome to listen to my students talk about what growing means to them in the last weeks of school. They thought about what growing means as a learner--"to change" one said, "try new things" another added. And then they came up with a web of ideas that I jotted on the whiteboard that represented areas of their growth. The discussion and thinking they had after understanding this idea of growing as a learner, energized their writing, reading and creating in the last few weeks of school. Students began to rehearse their favorite picture books with partners. Other students partnered (or joined groups) to write about an idea or make a book they were yearning to create. And others wanted to just write ideas they hadn't tried yet on their own. Our simple discussion about growing ( and lots of choice) set a tone for engagement and kids set off to create purposefully the last few weeks of school. Don't we want this everyday?! To help begin this as soon as possible next year, I 'll start with lots of listening at the beginning of the year and time to just talk about simple ideas that can help them grow. |
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