Kelly.McLaughlin Celebrating Success, Challenging Topics, Constant Learning, Curriculum Planning, Inspiring Teachers, Resilience, self reflection, Student teachers, Teacher Appreciation

Teachers, YOU ROCK!

Do you ever think back in time to the moment when you discovered what you wanted to be when you grow up? Or the moment where you started your education for that career? Or your first official day of work when you have been hired? Well the entire process leading up to that exciting moment is not as easy as one may think. In fact, teaching is actually one of the most challenging careers when you come to think of it.

Just recently, I heard someone commenting on how challenging teaching was, that it was not what they thought it would be. For that reason, they would not be pursuing this career anymore. I think when I was in university, I had some kind of idea how challenging teaching would be, but you don’t really find out until the first day of your practicum. Even then, some candidates do not feel the full challenge of teaching until their first day of work. I feel for the people who go through even half of the process only to discover it’s not for them. Perhaps there needs to be a way for candidates to discover that they be not interested in the career before they put all the time and energy into the program. I remember many students dropping out of my program, maybe realizing the career was more challenging than they had first thought. I am so thankful that was not the case for me as I had been sure since I was 15 that I wanted to become a teacher. I am so grateful I had the most supportive mentors, teachers, friends, family and of course, my placement students who made my job easier than it could have been.

Think about all that teachers do within one day. Not only do they have to care for the safety and well being of 20+ children but they also have to run a successful program while thinking about the specific challenges each child faces. I think during university, I had assumed the lessons we teach were in the curriculum documents or would magically appear in a cupboard within our future classrooms. But no, these lessons have to be carefully curated for our classrooms with what sometimes feels like over 100 things taken into consideration. Then, we second guess them and try to pull them off flawlessly, hoping each child learns something from the lesson and listens to it. That has to be done not once, not twice but sometimes six times throughout a school day. That in itself is a huge success! Plus all the little intricacies of the day have to be perfectly run as well. Teaching is not easy and although it is the most rewarding career in the world (in my opinion), you have to be ready to commit to the time and patience that is required.

Once again, I am so happy my 23 year old self saw past the challenges during my placement, the challenges in the university classroom, the long hours in and outside of the classroom and made it through to where I am today. I do not write this post to scare anyone but really, to congratulate all of us who made it out and are now living proof of what hard work and determination look like. Congratulations and well done because being a teacher is NOT a piece of cake!

Kelly.McLaughlin Curriculum Planning, General, Inspiring Teachers, Mental Health, Questioning, self reflection, Teacher Wellness, Year End Reflection

Reflections from 2022

As I reflect on the year we just had, I can’t help but feel proud of myself, all the educators and of course, the children that endured all of the challenges of the year we had. From countless closures to the uncertainties, our feelings of normalcy were starting to become a thing of the past. For someone who is normally so positive, I found it hard sometimes to carry on with a smile and try to spread the feeling of “All will be well.” So how do we learn from this? How do we use what happened in 2022 to guide us in 2023.

Well as I set goals for 2023, I think I would like to bring a couple of mindsets into the new year:

Never underestimate the power of an experience

2022 was made up of many lovely experiences- whether it be viewing a musical at the local high school or playing in a soccer tournament- students remember every single experience and love to look back on it. So try to take the opportunities as they come. Read every email because you never know when a fun opportunity could come your way. Also, never be afraid to make a fun opportunity happen! I know sometimes I wonder if the students will like something I plan or ask them to plan but they always end up reminiscing on how great of a time it was. So experiences are the greatest treasure I would take from 2022, right down to a game of trivia on the playground.

Nothing is forever 

I remember being upset multiple days during 2022 thinking, “I hope this doesn’t last forever” and the truth is, it never did. So positive thinking almost always wins and stressing over things that are beyond our control never works well. I hope in 2023 that when I am faced with a challenge, I will approach it without dreading its end date and that I can find a way out of it. I know that this will ultimately make me less stressed and will help me stay positive.

Breaks are for taking a break

I remember trying to plan any break we would get: Christmas, March, summer, etc. I would carve out a few days to plan as far ahead as I could get and not actually spend any of my break on break. This summer, I tried something different. I enjoyed getting married, my honeymoon and then after, I didn’t plan. I didn’t read any documents, instead I watched videos and read articles about first day activities. I read the exciting first day back opportunities our board had made and from there, I let things happen as they may. I started to really plan the curriculum after I got to know my students. Spending weeks of the summer mapping out a plan was something I thought I needed to feel confident about the next school year- however doing so during the first weeks of September proved to be much more productive. By then, I knew my learners and knew the style of teaching I would want to use for that group. This is a style of preparedness I want to save and continue on with for 2023. I don’t think I ever really tried taking time to take a break- a break from the business and the planning. Now I know I can do it.

There are so many other things I’d like to comment on but I have my activities saved in files, my memories saved in photos and of course, actual items saved in my class. I felt it would be most important to write down these mindsets so that others could try them. Although there are many lessons and units I’d love to try again, it’s more important to reflect on the feeling and mindset I’d like to have. Stress is a feeling almost every teacher shares, I’d love to see that change into something else. This blog helps me relieve some of that and I always hope there’s someone out there that will try it too. Either by reading, replying or trying to write their own version. 

Happy new year everyone! 

 

Kelly.McLaughlin General

Winter Celebrations

Each year as we get closer to the end of 2022, I think about what ways we can celebrate the end of the calendar year as a class. When I first started teaching in 2014, I brought in a Christmas tree for my class without thinking that perhaps my class doesn’t celebrate. This year as we are learning about surveys and analyzing the results of these surveys, we decided to pose the following question to the class, “What do you celebrate in December?” This is similar to the question I asked my class last February, “What are the things people celebrate in February?” Students had the chance to pass if they preferred not to say but I found most students were excited to share what they look forward to as 2022 draws to an end.

From here, we graphed the results and saw that almost all of our students celebrate Christmas, many celebrate New Years Eve, two celebrate Diwali (which my student suggested was a winter holiday) and many students just enjoy celebrating two weeks off to themselves. After displaying this graph on our math wall, I brought in some decorations and students decorated the class making sure to have all celebrations equally represented. From there, we started learning about other celebrations and students started to share that they had never heard of them before. We listened to Kwanzaa stories and heard about the history of the day. Later this week, we will listen to stories from other cultures. We also have a calendar with 31 squares on it where each day, the previous student of the day selects a friend to have a treat. This is selected based on who they think has been trying their best and should have a treat. This is a simple way to take a holiday item and turn it into a student-led initiative (non-holiday related).

Next week, once again students in our school will be learning about a variety of Winter Celebrations by helping with crafts and lessons shared by other teachers in the school. Even though December is filled with holidays, it will be important to recognize holidays in the other months that they occur as we need to continue to be mindful of all celebrations equally.

A student in grade three asked me this question the other day, “Why can’t we say the word Christmas?” which I thought was a very important question. I hope I helped him understand that we can say it but not everyone celebrates it. So it is important to know if someone celebrates a holiday before we just assume that they do and before we wish them well on that day.

How do you celebrate the holidays in December with your class?

Kelly.McLaughlin 2SLGBTQ+, Equity, Gender, Gender Equity, Gender stereotypes, Inclusion, LGBTQ2S

Transgender Awareness Week

Earlier this month, my class participated in discussions about transgender awareness week. We looked into the website provided by my school board which offered us many ideas of how we could learn and listen. Here is the website: Transweek Webpage The part of the mentioned website titled “Tips for Allies of Transgender People” was very helpful as it went over various situations many of us had found ourselves in before. The tips page can be found here: Tips These tips can be helpful for students, teachers, family members, etc. as many things we are currently doing could potentially be harmful for our trans students. Even something that we may think is as simple as “We are having a transgender week discussion today” to a trans student could be triggering.

Each student had a chance to write on a sticky note how they could be a supportive ally during transgender week this year. Here are the ideas from my grade 7/8 students:

  • Don’t assume, don’t say the wrong pronouns
  • Learn more about the history or Trans Awareness Week, be supportive and do not make any assumptions
  • Tell everyone about awareness and ask them to spread awareness 
  • Do not be violent or rude to transgender people 
  • Do not make assumptions about transgender people and  their sexual orientation 
  • Be nice, be friends and never ask someone if they are trans 
  • Ask pronouns before assuming genders 
  • Help raise awareness and visibility of transgender people and the issues their community faces 
  • Try not to be rude, everyone can be who they want to people, be careful not to mis gender someone
  • Treat everyone the same, let them be who they want to be, show them that you care and that they can live their life. Never make someone share unless they want to 
  • Respect the person’s boundaries about their pronouns, sexual orientation and how they represent themselves 
  • Believing everyone should be what they want, they have a choice and they should be themselves and we shouldn’t judge that 
  • Post about in a respectful way (hashtag, etc), never ask what someone’s “real name” or use the wrong pronoun, respect them and their gender, listen if they would like to talk about their gender
  • Don’t make assumptions and listen first
  • Be supportive, respectful and respect boundaries and pronouns

I thought all of these ideas were incredible and are a clear sign of how supportive and respectful this generation is. I am really trying to be respectful and diligent in making sure I do not miss any of the Awareness weeks this year. I even left a full period open in my schedule to discuss them each week. I sometimes find it challenging to try to make them all into a lesson so sometimes a discussion is all you need. Discussing these real world topics is so important and I find it is often the most rewarding part of the week.

Looking forward to sharing next time about how our survey project has revealed our December celebrations and how we will celebrate them all equally.

Kelly.McLaughlin self reflection

Remembrance Day

Each year as Remembrance Day draws near, teachers think about how they would like to approach this topic with their class. What worked one year won’t necessarily work the next. Last year, we had a virtual assembly and students reflected privately about the day. This year, we are fortunate to have an in-person assembly where students from K-8 will participate by either reading a poem, playing an instrument or even orchestrating the event. Members from the band will play and the choir will sing. To me, coming together as a school is such a meaningful experience and although we do not do it that often, when we do it means that much more. 

In my class this year, I decided against the colouring of a poppy to put together for the class wreath. Instead, students read a variety of Remembrance Day poems and selected the one word that stood out to them the most. They then would write that word on their poppy numerous times. It was very hard for some students to think of a word that represented a poppy. Maybe they wear one or colour one each year but do not know what the symbol actually represents. Here are some of the words my students came up with: respect, brave, remember, saviour, peace, fearless, hero, strong, hope, and  honour. These poppies will be hung on our class wreath and I hope a few students stop to read the words within them and think about why they were chosen. 

I also did an activity where I posed a few thinking questions to the class and asked them to reflect on the answers. Feel free to use these questions with your class either this year or next. These were the questions I posed along with some student answers:

  • What is Remembrance Day? 
    • Remembrance  day is so important the people who fought for us were brave and had the courage I’m so thankful they gave us the peace even if they didn’t wanna do it they still did.
    • Remembrance day is a day where we honour the soldiers that fought for us.
  • How can we remember our fallen soldiers?
    • We can respect the soldiers by taking a moment of silence. 
    • By being respectful during the Remembrance Day ceremony.
  • Why did people fight in the war?
    • They wanted to represent their country and to feel proud to be Canadian 
    • They had to 

Those are just a few of the many answers my grade 7 & 8 students came up with. 

Each Monday, students make a goal for the week in my class and I wanted to share one of my student’s goals this week. He wrote, “To be respectful on Remembrance Day.” I asked him to share with the class why he chose that goal for the week. He shared that each year, he feels that he doesn’t pay attention or respect the ceremony and this year he really wants to do his best to do that. I think it was a very mature goal to select and I look forward to seeing if he writes yes or no next Monday as it is up to each student to share if they felt they met their goal or not. 

I look forward to hearing any suggestions or any new ideas for Remembrance Day activities that I could try with my class next year. 

Kelly.McLaughlin Celebrating Success, Curriculum Planning, Media Literacy, self reflection, Student-led projects

The Best October Student-led Project- Part Two

This blog post is a reflection of the student-created created drama shows that I blogged about earlier this month. 

One of the reasons I enjoy blogging so much is the chance to reflect. Teachers are always on the go and I sometimes miss the post lesson reflections that are so important. I will look back on this post next year when I start this task again.

The grade seven and eight students in my school came up with eight shows that were written, directed and acted by each other. They performed them over the course of the day yesterday and what a success it was! Of course, all successful events have a few glitches.

The Week of

This week was a four day week for my students so we did not begin to prepare our room for the shows until Tuesday afternoon. My students turned the classroom into a stage- making the front the stage and the back the audience. All desks were pushed back to allow for creepy monsters to hide underneath and to allows room for chairs and mats to be placed in front. They also covered the walls with table cloths and garbage bags. This part was rushed and could have been done better as each morning this week, I picked them up off the ground and re-taped them. Next year, we need to perhaps leave the walls blank and tape props to the walls. 

On Wednesday morning, students worked together to decorate the entire classroom. They made the door extremely spooky as well as all the walls. The director of each show gathered their props and costumes together in one bin. The door of our class also featured the posters from each show (advertising- media literacy piece).

On Wednesday afternoon, each group had about twenty minutes to rehearse their show with sound effects, settings (on the smartboard/projector), costumes, actors and all. This was hardly enough time as I forgot to remind students throughout the process that they would need to be adding the slide changes, sound effects and stage directions into their scripts. This is something I will do next year during the writing process. Also, twenty minutes per show was hardly enough. I timed each show during this practice to get an idea of how to schedule all the shows throughout the day.

Show Day

The day had finally come and it was show time! Students got into their costumes and had a little makeup added to increase the scare effect! We were all dressed and ready for the first show. Classes came two at a time and stayed for half an hour. This was the perfect amount of time as we usually got through 3-4 shows per viewing. Almost our entire school grades 1-8 ended up coming to see the shows.

The shows went about as well as they could with the amount of practice each show had! By the fourth or fifth performance, a few shows were flawless. The slides were controlled by one of my students who started to memorize when the settings would change. The sound effects were played live from a piano that has creepy sound effects. My student improvised when the sounds were not provided for her and by the second performance of each show, she had memorized them. Each audience was so captivated by the stories and teachers were really impressed with the students. Next year, I will tell students that a show around 3-4 minutes worked the best in terms of audience interest and transitions. The actors in longer shows had a hard time knowing when it was their turn and when they were off stage. 

Tips for Teachers who try this in 2023

I found as soon as I released the responsibility to each director- the show was theirs. Whatever happened happened and I did not feel automatically responsible when a show did not go as planned. It was incredible seeing the students take control of what they had created and very rarely did they need any assistance from me. I think the only question I was asked during the show day was “Can I go to the bathroom?” The student leadership, collaboration and responsibility was so impressive.

Taking on something like this may seem like a lot but the amount of curriculum connections are endless. I also heard a lot of students comment on how many memories they were making during this. Students who have issues coming into the class each day did not during our drama project.

What’s Next?

Students are already asking if we can do this again during the Winter months. I think it would be a great idea during December to show all the different ways people celebrate at that time of year. Perhaps instead of acting, we could try telling stories from various cultures. All things to think about and when you get a group of students who enjoy producing shows this much, the possibilities are endless!

Above is a picture of the live performance of “The Crooked Man”- Written and Directed by a grade seven student.

Kelly.McLaughlin Curriculum Planning, Literacy, Student-led projects

The Best October Student-led Project

This is my ninth year teaching which means it is my ninth October with a class. October is one of my favourite months in the classroom as it lends room for so many exciting activities. For the past seven years, my class has created some sort of Halloween related show or haunted house at the end of the month. Sadly, I missed one year while I was teaching online. I wonder each year if it is something I am doing because I enjoy the tradition or if students are genuinely interested in this activity. So this year, I asked students if they had any ideas rather than share what we could do.

My class of 27 students all celebrate Halloween so we were all set for a brainstorm session. Here are the ideas my students came up with:

  • Escape Room
  • Haunted Gym
  • Student skits in a classroom
  • Student activity centres in the gym

After discussing it with a student-created drama committee, my students came up with student-created skits in a decorated classroom as their favourite idea. Then, we went about discussing how the planning process works. This is what my grade 7/8 drama committee came up with:

  1. Decide on a date (October 27th)
  2. Ask the other 7/8 classes if they would like to participate
  3. Ask permission from our school administration if grade 7/8 classes can show their skits to the other classes
  4. Send an email to all staff
  5. Start to advertise our idea
  6. Sign up classes for the viewing of each show
  7. Come up with a schedule

Yesterday, my four students who had a meeting with admin. were approved for this idea and were reminded to have a fall activity such as a word search or other for students to work on if they do not celebrate Halloween. As teachers, it is important that we use this opportunity to help students and even challenge them to think critically. With our support/modelling they will recognize the importance of being inclusive when the activities are being planned for all students in the school. We can challenge our students to plan alternatives that are equally valued and engaging and still connected to the curriculum. 

Then, we focused on the actual drama part of the project. In our language class, we are working on short spooky stories. My students (along with the other grade 7/8 classes) are working on creating a story where they need to identify the characters, the setting, the problem and the solution. My students presented their plot ideas today to the class and two were selected to be turned into scripts. The rest will be writing short stories and which will be one of their writing marks this term. This was such a fun class activity today as I put on some spooky music and students read their ideas.

During drama class, we came up with seven exciting roles that students can sign up for to be involved in this class project:

  1. Acting in the shows (there will be five shows total)
  2. Script writing (working with the students who had their plot selected)
  3. Sound effects
  4. Set design (how to transform a classroom into a haunted stage)
  5. Costumes, hair and makeup
  6. Classroom sign up
  7. Advertising the event (email, posters, imovie trailer and announcements)

Almost all of my students signed up for three or more roles and are excited to get started on this right away.

Each year, I look forward to this project so much as it includes so many curriculum connections in all of the below listed subjects:

  • Art
  • Drama
  • Language- writing, media literacy and oral communication
  • Learning skills- collaboration

Overall, this is a tradition I really look forward to each year but of course, would not proceed with it if students were not interested.  Learning that is integrated like this, with student voice and leadership at the core and has strong curriculum connections does not have to be limited to a holiday or season. A big idea, social issue or other relevant theme helps to connect and motivate the students’ learning. Knowing your learners, who they are and what is important to them will guide you on selecting themes and connections for your students! I am lucky my students want to make such an impact in their school community as each year even in June, I hear students in the halls still talking about the haunted house/stories. I look forward to this year being better than ever as we are not limited to staying within our cohorts, etc. I look forward to sharing about how it went and perhaps even sharing some spooky photos!

Kelly.McLaughlin 2SLGBTQ+, Challenging Topics, First Nations, Indigenous Perspectives, Music, self reflection, Truth and Reconciliation

A Day To Listen

September is a busy month in schools as teachers get to know their students, learn new curriculum, set up classroom norms and some teachers even have to deal with reorganization by the end of the month. It has been an especially busy start for my class as many students are new to our school and some are returning back to the classroom for the first time in almost three years. Getting into a routine has been challenging as I know the routine is an important thing to establish in September.

Having said that, September is an important month about Truth and Reconciliation. As September 30th is Truth and Reconciliation Day, schools prepare differently to reflect as a community. Our school spent time considering a school-wide assembly filled with student created land acknowledgements, a video of all students sharing why they wear orange, various poems, Indigenous art and highlights from the 94 Calls to Action. We shared our thoughts with Indigenous members within our board and were asked to remind the school community that Orange “Every Child Matters” shirts should be worn all year not just on September 30th. They also shared other ideas to ensure our assembly was culturally appropriate.

Students in my class as well as many others started looking at the Land Acknowledgement and thinking about what it really meant. Students hear it on the announcements every day but may not actually understand the meaning of the words. Many students came up with really well written versions and were going to read them to the school.

However, our board sent out an email stating that we needed to avoid assemblies on September 30th and that it would be better to reflect and listen within our own classrooms so that we could support student responses within the classroom. We were asked to concentrate on classroom activities instead. We decided to have students read their land acknowledgements over the announcements and some staff shared their student-created videos by email instead.

I was able to share the video with my class from our member ETFO news from September 28th, where Shawnee Talbot explains her connection to music. The video can be found if you click this link: Music is Medicine. My grade eight history class watched her TedxGrandJunction video about her life as a member of the Two Spirit community and how music has been such an integral part of her life. Students connected with their love for music and how it helps them during their times of need. It was a great discussion and I really encourage you to explore our ETFO news article from September 28th for more resources. The entire resource can be found here: Two Spirit Resource. 

I would like to close this post by sharing a reflective piece of writing by one of my students as she shares how she will help others remember the horrible past of Residential Schools:

“I pledge to remember the people who were here before us on this land and how they suffered in residential schools. Also, to help younger people to remember by telling stories, wearing an orange shirt, watching videos about Truth and Reconciliation and making posters to put up on walls. I would want my teacher to bring a friend or a member of the Indigenous Community to share about Truth and Reconciliation. We should also have moments of silence and reflection to honour the children who died in Residential Schools. I also want the people around to acknowledge that it is Truth and Reconciliation and respect the people who may have lost a family or friend in a Residential school.”

I share this post in a reflective lens and understand I am learning and listening each year as we reflect on the horrible past of our country. 

Kelly.McLaughlin General

Back again!

Hello!

I am so happy to be back blogging for my ninth year on this incredible platform. Last year, I spoke to being back in the classroom after a year of online teaching. This year, I look forward to blogging about curriculum, class-led initiatives, getting back to normalcy and much more. I am excited to inspire new teachers with ideas and to encourage educators to dig deeper when thinking about celebrations, encouraging all students to love math and student-led projects.

This year, I am excited to be teaching a 7/8 split for the second year in a row. For the first time ever, I have four students that I have taught the year prior so I will navigate how to best serve them (without them feeling like they are in grade seven for a second time in a row). I have various needs in my classroom and I look forward to working with an E.A. for the first time in many years. Not only will I build my program around a variety of IEPS, two curriculums and differentiated instruction but this year I will also program for my students who are working on motor skills and life skills. I have a feeling my prep time will always feel short this year!

I wish everyone a great start up as we all rise to the occasion of engaging all of our students and making them feel like part of a community. Month one always feels long but it is so important to establish routines and the building blocks for a successful year. All the best!

Kelly.McLaughlin General

Reflections

Looking back on the year, I think I will find it helpful to write this blog post so I can read it again in September and perhaps some other teachers can read it to assist them in preparations for a new school year. I would like to reflect on things that worked well this year and things that I may leave behind. It has been an incredible year of learning new things, learning how to teach new ways and of course, learning how to get back to doing the things we have loved to do. Without further preamble, here goes it.

Things that worked well

New seats every month

Students looked forward to selecting new group buddies each month in order to form new friendships and work with new people. Eventually, students decided to keep their seats as they had found a group they really messed well with. Students were excited for the change each month and some even reminded me the day before in anticipation for the change. I even threw in the option of teacher’s choice which is when I would assign them a random spot in the room.

Leadership Competition

Each year, I love to run a leadership competition in my classroom which gives students the opportunity to demonstrate their passion and commitment to our classroom and school. Students without the motivation to do anything beyond school work often find the extra energy when this competition is announced. How it works is that students that help out around the class or school would receive a small sticker that they would put beside their name. Before winter break, before March break and at the beginning of June, students count their stickers so far to see who is in the lead. I award the top five at the end of the school year a leadership certificate and a price of their choice. My top student this year volunteered/assisted around the class and school over 270 times this year. I look forward to running this again next year.

Pizza Sales

This year I assisted in selling pizza to the students in our school. Not only that, but I decided to turn it into a small marketing project by having students make posters, announcements and look at the cost/profit per slice. We then looked at the total cost and profit on a weekly basis, tracking why pizza would sell differently from one week to the next. It was an exciting class project as various 7/8 students would sell each week. They used this experience in job interviews for the food sales as I mentioned in a previous blog post.

Job Interviews

I loved hosting job interviews this year which coincided with our resume workshop. Students practiced for either real of fictional job opportunities. They had to provided references and list some experience within the school. The students who were successful were then selected to sell food at our soccer tournament. This was a great way to select the student leaders and I hope to do this again next year with other opportunities.

Student Coaches

Having older students coach the younger students is a great way for them to gain confidence, test their leadership skills and build their resume as a leader in our school. It was great to see my students excel and establish lovely connections with younger students. I also have students job interview for this position as well to ensure equity and transparency within the process. I hope to try this with many more sports next year rather than just soccer.

Equal celebrations for all

Placing the same emphasis on all holidays, board celebrations and spirit days next year will be an important way to establish and promote equity in our school. Making all celebrations optional and making sure all students feel valued. You can read more about how I approached this this year in some of my earlier posts.

Things I would not do again

Pre-planning each month

Planning a month in advance never worked well this year. I would find we would either finish early or late and then I would have to rework the entire plan. I would prefer to plan week by week next year but using the annual plan as a guide. This will ensure that I look at what I did the week before to see where I am going.

Longer assignments

I feel that my students had a maximum amount of time that they would like to spend on a final project/presentation. While students worked on their structures and mechanisms assignment, I found that they would get bored doing it for weeks at a time. The magic number for activities was one week. They would start on a Monday and have to finish or present by the Friday. This would ensure that they put their best effort into it and would also make sure it did not draw on for too long.

Book Roles

Having students all read the same novel with a group of students does have it benefits but of course, none of them read at the same speed as another. I also found that they grew tired of the same six book roles and would rather just do one assignment about the book at the end of reading it. I think for next year I will let them select their own independent novel from the library rather than 1 out of 7 book group books that I had. I would also give the option of all the assignments but perhaps at the middle and end of the book.

That is all I can think of for now but aim to keep a book next year, making sure to keep note of things that worked well and didn’t, marking them down as I go. I hope everyone has a safe and restful summer and I look forward to blogging again in September!