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.