Buying In to the 21st Century Teaching Model

     Plans are in the works to expand the 21st century teaching and learning model similar to what we have in 2nd grade to another grade level wing in our building.  The administration is dedicated to removing walls and opening up the space for collaboration and and communication for teachers and students.  This is exciting news!  

      There is much more to creating 21st century learning than changing the physical environment, though.  I believe that there needs to be a buy in to the transformation of teaching that this entails as a result.  All team members need to be open and communicative on a much higher level than ever and, perhaps, what they are comfortable with.  Without a buy in from all members, the degree of success will be limited.  This reminds me of the three-legged stool.  If one leg is messing, the stool won't stand for long.  For some, this may take some time and encouragement from the other team members.  
     Our team is continuously working on the idea of a team of one, where everyone leads planning and discussions and contributes ideas freely.  We simply cannot sustain the workload and stress if we do everything ourselves.  However, this is no easy task.  There are some natural leaders who are accustomed to that role and feel comfortable in it.  There are others who more quiet and thoughtful and feel like they can't get a word in.  One idea to encourage the quieter members to lead was that the leaders waited for the quieter members to take the initiative.  This was not successful.  Another idea floating out there now is to assign a new "facilitator" each week to lead the planning meetings.  We'll see how this goes.
    One might wonder why the leaders simply don't talk to the quieter members.  This can be awkward and quite uncomfortable.  We work and exist side-by-side the entire day.  Those talks could lead to misinterpretation if not done tactfully.  That could make for a LONG year!  
     

iPads for 2nd Grade Math

I'm just beginning to transform math teaching and learning through the use of iPads in a 1:1 setting.  

I came across this resource while looking for a free and easy app for annotating PDFs.  I will be taking math worksheets and creating PDFs for the students to complete using an annotate app.

Another app I'll be using is Socrative for warm ups at the beginning of math and also for content review quizzes.

Team Dynamics

We are spending a lot of time as a team planning for each day.  Unfortunately, this doesn't leave us time to communicate about non-planning items.  Our team is not as cohesive as I hoped it would be at this point.  The three of us that are veterans of sorts for the grade level have taken a very active role in the planning process and in taking on responsibilities.  The two new teachers to the team are coming along a bit slower than I had anticipated.

Challenges to the team are initiative and sharing responsibilities equally.

• The veterans have a visible leading role in the presence of students.  We place ourselves at the front and center of students.  
• We step up and take charge of clean up, transitions and leading activities.
• We have set up shared documents and spreadsheets on Google apps to make signing up for responsibilities as easy as possible.
• After getting little improvement, we put the "to do list" on a hard copy.  This didn't improve things much.  
• We think we've given enough encouragement to share ideas and step in.  I'm not sure the cheerleader in me is working.
• Patience is turning into frustration for the veterans.

Yes, it's only been 9 days of school.  Yes, the veterans have a leg up because we know the curriculum.  

I'm beginning to realize that a leader needs to emerge.  Not as a task manager, but on a more personal level.  I'm willing to take it on, but I need a lot of guidance.  I'm not a manager of big people--only the little ones!  

Furniture!

We finally got all of the furniture for our space on the third day of school.  We spend two days with the students exploring each piece and coming up with rules of how to use it properly and take good care of it.
Most of the furniture is lightweight and is on wheels.  The idea here is for students and teachers to reconfigure the space and furniture throughout the day according to the particular needs at the time.
I prefer to have the furniture back in its "place" at the end of the day.  I think there should always be clear pathways to get from place to place.
The most popular pieces are the "rolling chairs" and the Hokki stools.  There's been a race to get these everyday!  We've decided to keep the rolling chairs at the desktop computers.  The desktops will get used most of the day and the counter there is a little high for the other chairs.  
The Hokki stools present an inherent challenge for kids to keep their feet planted on the floor; there's a need to pull both feet up onto the base.  But since the base is rounded, down the kids go!  A high probability of hurting oneself and others, so we've had to review that one a few times.
Also, we've noticed that during larger group instruction it's a challenge for students to maintain focus when they're preoccupied with finding a cool piece of furniture to sit on. We've gone to having kids on the floor for now until the newness of the furniture wears off.

Open House Tonight!

We had a successful Open House tonight.  How do I know?  We still had families in the Studio a half hour after the time was up!
Some reflections from tonight:

• Parents wanted to know who the "homeroom" teacher was.  This was one item we neglected to put in the parent folder.  I understand parents' need to have a contact person.  I would recommend a brief note stating who the base-group teacher is along with contact info.  
• Students and parents were super excited to use the iPads that we just unpacked earlier in the day.  We even had some parents helping other parents navigate their way around the iPad.  We put a Parent Survey on Google Forms and had parents complete contact info, volunteer sign up, allergies, technology items at home, and technology comfort level.
• Great vibe of excited kids and parents.  We had several 2nd grade "graduates" that stopped by to see the space too.
• Lots of questions by parents asking how it was all going to work.  So happy to hear their interest and glad they felt comfortable asking those questions.
• Lots of running children!  With no furniture in the space, it was the natural thing for any 7- to 8-year-old to do :)

The Dream Team

Here we all are!  We are fortunate to have two teacher candidates this year (fancy name for student teacher).

Ready Fire Aim

I had the pleasure of listening to Earl Bakken (co-founder of Medtronic) speak today at our district convocation.  He has a wonderful sense of humor and an inspiring story to tell of how it all began for him tracing back to his childhood.
He says that the "secret" to his success has been the philosophy of "Ready, Fire, Aim."  This struck a chord with me because it seems to be what is taking shape as we are planning (more like revolutionizing) everything from our space to our roles and responsibilities as teachers.  I think we need to jump in with both feet, give it a go, and refine our decisions later based on the degree of success or failure.  
I think this idea will help us make quicker decisions.