Photo of Mike Beetham
Mike Beetham Before School Starts, Building Inclusion, Diverse Learning Needs, Learning About Your Students

Begin With The End In Mind

Welcome to another school year and no matter whether this is your first year or your 29th year of teaching (that is me), the beginning of September brings forth both the anticipation of thrills and chills.  I have spent the last 29 Augusts anxiously preparing, planning and remodeling my classroom to create just the right start for my classroom. A start that will engage my students, a start that will let them experience what a fun and active learning environment they are entering into and most of all, a start that will make them believe that they will be valued, challenged and will work together to help everyone reach their potential.

Together Everyone Achieves More Success

My name is Mike Beetham and I am starting my 29th year of teaching. I have the amazing opportunity to teach an area behaviour class in the Waterloo Region District School Board. I work with some of the most complex Junior age students in our board.

There are five things that I attempt to accomplish with each start to my classroom.

First and foremost is to make a connection with my students as people first and then as students.

Secondly, I set a tone of fun, hands on learning.

Thirdly, I dive headlong into academics by selecting a starting unit that will engage my audience. This year I am starting with a theme of  ‘Then and Now’. We will examine a variety of items or trends about the year they were born and compare them to our current year. Items will include, popular video games, winning sport teams, popular movies, and cost of items. I will be learning along with them as I model the task using my year of birth (1959). Did you know that a postage stamp only cost 4 cents back then? I am aging myself.

The fourth is that our classroom is community whereby everyone has a responsibility to make it work. I start this process through the development of a classroom agreement that is worked out by the end of the first week and the sharing of the expertise within the room. I do not nor do I need to know everything about everything. I will capitalize on the talents and skills within the class.

Finally, I demonstrate to my students that this room is going to be a safe place physically, emotionally and intellectually. The message is sent often, consistently and in a calm and straight forward way to students that in no way, shape or form will disrespect toward each other be allowed.

The plan for the above five items are a proactive approach rather than a reactive response. They are all carefully thought out, planned and put in place based on my understanding of the grade level, individual student needs and setting that I will be working in. Good luck with your start!

 

A butterfly on a finger
Katie Pryde Celebrating Success, Diverse Learning Needs, Inquiry, Learning in a Real Life Context, Year End Activities

Life Cycles in Kindergarten

For the past few weeks, we have been exploring Life Cycles in my Kindergarten classroom. First, we started off by learning about plants. I read some stories to my class including The Tiny Seed, and we discussed how a plant is created. We also discussed the different parts of a plant. This lead in nicely to some discussions about various life cycles.

As a Kindergarten team, we ordered caterpillars (from Boreal) so that we could watch the life cycle of a butterfly occur.Our caterpillars will turn into Painted Lady Butterflies. We watched some youtube video clips so students could see what it was that would be happening in our classroom during this process. We also read a lot of various books, both Fiction and Non-Fiction, about butterflies. We were able to observe our tiny caterpillars turn into bigger, fatter caterpillars, form into their chrysalis and then into butterflies. The students really enjoyed seeing this process first had, authentic learning at its best! I allowed my students to have opportunities to observe and even read to the caterpillars. We also kept a butterfly journal, where students would record daily what stage it was in.

 

After a few days of having living butterflies, we were able to go outside and let our butterflies free into the environment. This also helped our Eco School status. Overall, my students really enjoyed this! They loved coming in each and every morning and checking on the progress. I would highly recommend any kindergarten teacher to use this in their classrooms! It was also a wonderful tool to use at the end of the year when the students are a bit “over” being at school. I felt that by studying the life of a butterfly was able to keep their excitement and engagement right up until the end of the year.

Photo of Tina Ginglo
Tina.Ginglo Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Student Ownership

Differentiating the Learning Environment

Differentiated instruction can be challenging for a teacher, new or ‘not so’ new.  There are so many ways we can differentiate our instruction that it can be overwhelming trying to get the “differentiated” ball (or should I say cube?:)) rolling.  Where do we start?    I suggest that if you are just beginning to explore ways to differentiate your program that you take it one step at a time.  For me, I feel that the self directed and open-ended nature of my writing program helps me to differentiate student learning in many ways.  Guided reading is another example of how we differentiate content to meet the different interests and readiness of our students.  What I need to explore further are ways I can differentiate the learning environment.  This has been one of my professional learning goals for this year.

I believe that all students need experiences to work independently and collaboratively regardless of their learning preference.  However, in order for students to be successful, we must provide for their learning needs by giving them the structure and opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in ways that best suit them.

Over the winter break I purchased a dozen privacy panels for my third grade classroom.  They were not too expensive… about twenty dollars. When we returned from the holidays I introduced the panels to the students.  Everyone liked the idea of the panels and wanted to use them ALL the time.  At first, it was a distraction.  My students sit in groups of 4 and every student in a group wanted to use a panel.  I had to explain on more than one occasion that if one or two used a panel in each group then the other students in the group wouldn’t need the panels.  There were times when I had to say, “No panels! Get to work!”

By the time we returned from March Break the novelty of the panels finally wore off.   Now, whenever the need arises, some students will get up from their groups to get a privacy panel and it doesn’t start a “stampede” for the remaining panels!  Students go on with there work indifferent to the colourful cardboard that pops up at different groups throughout the classroom.  I am glad that I didn’t give up on the panels.   I had patience, well… most of the time, and trusted my intuition and the process.  Whenever we introduce something new to the classroom there is usually some excitement and then it just becomes part of the routine.

I have managed to find another way to address the different learning needs in the class.  It is interesting to observe which students decide to use the panels and when.  Jamie, for example, tends to set up a privacy panel when she is writing a reading response in her journal.  Jennifer, on the other hand, needs the panel when we are working on problem solving in math.

It is important for me to create a learning environment where students have as much choice and control of their learning as they can handle at such a young age.  When students are working on an independent activity, I encourage students to support each other in their groups.  As long as they are using small voices and staying on task, I encourage the collaboration.  However, not all students can learn this way.  Some students need to limit the distractions in the environment in order to learn.   These students may choose to work at a desk away from their group, on the carpet or simply put up a privacy panel.   The goal is to teach students to independently decide what learning environment they need in order to be successful in the classroom.    Privacy panels are one way we can offer students choice and control of their learning environment.

Alison.Board Diverse Learning Needs, General, Inquiry, Integration, Literacy, Planning, Use of Technology

Kindergarten Learning Buddies

In January, my Kindergarten class began regular weekly meetings with another class in the school. I was new to the school this year, and Reading Buddies were not formally assigned as they are in some schools. The first few months of the school year had been hectic, as I was new to the staff, the FDK program was just being introduced (with wrinkles to smooth out), and the students were adjusting to the demands of a full day of routines and a new environment. As I got to know the staff, I found that I shared a similar teaching style and inquiry approach with the Grade 6 teacher, Mrs. Robinson. In early December I approached her with the idea of bringing our classes together as “Learning Buddies” – an idea that she welcomed. We made our plans to start meeting in January on a weekly basis for a double period.

The initial meetings were mostly unstructured. It allowed time for the students to get to know one another. Mrs. Robinson and I had previously matched our students based on their needs. I have a few students with communication needs and others with behavioural concerns who would benefit by being matched with empathetic, patient and consistent students from the older class. There were adjustments in the matches that we made, and when students are absent we casually add their partners to another grouping. This relaxed approach makes it easier for the little ones to adjust, and we find the students in the classes are getting to know more than just one student. They tend to team up into small groups now, and we provide opportunities to allow for this development of relationships.

After a few meetings with the students sharing books and getting to know one another, we introduced a project that would integrate language and technology. It included the following:

  • brainstorm/create a story with your Learning Buddy
  • use the graphic organizer provided to record the topic, setting, characters, problem and solution (Grade 6 students write and Kindergartens can write or draw pictures to represent their ideas)
  • use 4 to 8 box organizer to draft story into a comic strip, adding speech bubbles and caption
  • create comic in Bitstrips program using laptops provided
  • teachers print one page comics in colour and take photos of Learning Buddies
  • arrange original plan, completed colour comic strip, and photo of Learning Buddies on bristol board for display
  • participate in a Gallery Walk of the completed work
The outcomes of this project were positive for all involved. We found that the students were engaged at all meetings. We noticed that the older students respected the input of the younger children and there was observable collaboration in their work. The Kindergarten children were able to retell the stories that they created and in addition to understanding the beginning, middle, and end – many also understood the concepts of setting, characters, problem and solution. Mrs. Robinson has noticed how her Grade 6 students have taken on a more responsible attitude with this role and they are genuinely interested in working with the younger students. We plan to meet regularly until the end of the school year. We have just started a topic/project about the environment that will hopefully include some outdoor gardening. This connects to the curriculum that both classes can extend separately in their individual classrooms.

 

 

 

 

 

Classroom setup
Sangeeta.McAuley Building Inclusion, Celebrating Success, Classroom Layouts, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Resources

What’s Working

There is nothing like the gift of time. I so look forward to long weekends, not just because I can spend extra time with my family, or catch up on sleep, but also because it gives me time to reflect. I made a few changes in my classroom after March Break and it seemed like the right time to consider what’s working and perhaps not working, and how to make it work. That’s the beauty of teaching…change can happen at any time!

1) The desk arrangement in my classroom seemed to offer less space for movement, so I moved groups of desks together on an angle.

It still somehow feels like too many students at one table grouping…and sometimes group work can be challenging. This one I will have to re-think, perhaps making smaller groups and varying the sizes based on my students.

2) The table basket materials at each grouping often seemed disorganized, and I realized I had assumed that because my last set of Grade 4 students had been relatively organized and independent, this year would be similar. An unfair assumption on my part, given how unique each group can be! Therefore, I tried to add a list to these baskets so students could put materials back in the appropriate spot, thereby allowing them to access what they need.

This idea seems to work when the student assigned to table monitor checks the baskets throughout the day. I’m noticing my students are spending less time getting prepared and more time on actual tasks.

3) Many years ago, I noticed that the amount of unfinished work in different places made it difficult for me to know when my class needed “finish up” time. So, I hung hoops over each table grouping and when students were not finished, they would hang it on the hoop and return to it when they had time. It also helped me to see who might be struggling to complete work and when accommodations might be helpful.

This year, I’ve asked students to put their work on one particular hoop, so that they do not need to search several locations for their unfinished work. I find this method also more helpful for me, so I can support students who have unfinished work at each table grouping.

4) Many of my students seem to have self-esteem issues and it’s hard for them to reflect on what they are doing well. I’ve tried a variety of ideas over the year and most recently, we’ve added this “go-to people” list so that they can feel they have expertise and the ability to help others.

This idea is one I have to followup on and possibly add to, given that some students will not be able to share their expertise in a classroom setting (e.g., swimming)!

5) The last idea I wanted to revisit was reducing anchor charts to frames that can be used at the tables as a reference. This idea has been helpful for some of my students and I hope to continue using it for art activities as well.

 

The best part is, I have to spend less time trying to find places to hang chart paper! Next, I want to take the papers out of these frames and put them in a book that students can continue to refer to later, if they wish.

Now that I have completed my long weekend reflections, it’s time to head back to eating chocolates…

 

 

Photo of Erin G
Erin.Grewar Diverse Learning Needs, Planning

Effective Planning for Core French – From Scratch

Effective Planning for Core French – From Scratch

Core French is an interesting subject to teach that is full of…paradoxes so to speak. Interestingly enough, I’ve never seen any other subject area where the resources are so painstakingly developed. In some, there is a detailed breakdown by the minute of each lesson accompanied by an actual teacher script (Allez à la page 2 de votre livre. Quel est le titre du chapitre?) A little surreal actually. One would think that teaching core French would be the easiest thing in the world; your lessons are all planned out, no shortage of worksheets and someone has even thought out exactly what you’re supposed to say and when. How then to explain the digression of The Young and the Restless into Fear Factor? Well, it’s easy to write a one-sided script but not so easy to gage how the other party might respond. The most common problems for Core French teachers are a lethal cocktail of zero motivation and disruptive behaviour both of which feed into the other. Personally what saved me from successive agonizing 42 minute periods (time and time again) were well-crafted lesson plans and activities. The magic formula? Engaged students don’t misbehave. Does this mean you have to do more than open your book to the prepared scripted lesson of the day? Yes. Does this require a lot of effort on your part? Yes, countless hours. Is it really worth it? Most definitely. What follows are some ideas around
1) Students need to be able to relate to what you’re trying to teach them. That’s why bypassing the unit on Microbes (an actual unit in a popular resource) could save both your students and yourself alike. Instead focus on themes that reflect their actual interests.
2) Stay on top of current trends in everything (music, sports, tv/movies, etc)! No need to overdo it, but be aware of what your students are interested in.
3) Personalize your worksheets/assignments with names of your students and current info. In doing so, you will have tricked them into actually reading through the entire text.
4) Be very creative in terms of the concepts of your assignments. Use the curriculum as your base and integrate the concepts into something fun. An example for the passé composé would be to recount a week in the life of Beyoncé and include all the gossipy tidbits in the descriptions of her activities. Similarly for the future proche, they could write an assignment around winning the lottery and describing how they would spend their fortune.
5) Give them lots of support in terms of exemplars, reference sheets and anchor charts. Always make sure you have given them all the necessary tools to be able to work independently (without relying on Google translate).
6) Use the publishers resources as a guide but be prepared to redesign materials to suit the needs and level of your students.
7) Allow your students to make it as simple as they might need to or as complex as they are able.
8) Have fun in the process and think of it as a future investment. A lot of work up front but beneficial in both the short and long term.

Alison.Board Diverse Learning Needs, General, Integration

Integrating Arts, Language, and Science

In my last post, we left off with an inquiry about snow and ice, which ultimately led to water. It wasn’t that the students were particularly interested in water, but it seemed a natural segue from ice to water, and I had a particular book in mind that I wanted to read to the class. We had also learned about cycles (big idea) in various forms since October, such as the cycle of the seasons and the weekly cycle and daily cycle. To initiate our topic about water, I first asked the students, “Where does water come from?” Some of the responses were:

“Water comes from sinks.”

“Water comes from waterfalls.”

“Water comes from the sky.”

I then read the book titled, All the Water in the World by George Ella Lyon. It is a book that captures childrens’ imagination and interest. I read it to the class a few times. Each time we discussed the descriptive words. We also created a diagram of the water cycle.

At the end of the week, I selected materials that I thought they could use to demonstrate their understanding. The materials were shades of blue paint, white styrofoam, straws, small beads, and construction paper in blue, brown, and black. The children could select from any of these materials, but by controlling the palette I knew the outcome would resemble their intentions.

I asked the students to show where water comes from or where water goes. Their finished works showed their learning and understanding about the water cycle, it also demonstrated their use of language and how effectively they use materials for visual arts.

 

 

 

 

 

“Water comes from the clouds into the lake. Then in the pipes, then in the house.”  (JK student)

 

 

 

 

 

“When we wash our hands it goes from the washroom to the lake through the pipes.” (SK student)

 

 

 

 

 

“This is the cloud. The rain drops are coming from it. Down into the lake, into the tubes to the bathtub.”  (SK student)

These small projects integrate many subjects and provide the children with authentic learning that they can relate to in the everyday world that surrounds them.

Alison.Board Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Inquiry, Learning in a Real Life Context

Science in Play-Based Learning

Science in a Kindergarten classroom looks like many different things. There are learning centres such as the sand or water table, where children are using free exploration and where teachers are guiding specific experiments. There are also inquiry projects that may last a day or a few months that evolve with the children’s interests and are continued with the educators’ guidance. I would like to share an inquiry that has evolved in our classroom this winter.

 

It all started with a fish. The children found a piece of ice on the pavement in the schoolyard. They noticed right away that it was formed in the shape of a fish. One of the children carried it in his arms as we lined up to go back into the school. My first reaction was to tell them to leave it outside, then I realized this could be the beginning of something bigger – an inquiry on ice and possibly how it melts into water – that the children could observe and discover.

 

 

 

 

So, the children were thrilled and brought it into the classroom. We put it in the empty water table container. Before we left for home, I asked the children to predict, “What do you think is going to happen to the ice fish?” Here are some of their responses after a brief discussion:

  • It will melt in spring.
  • It will melt in one hundred days.
  • It will melt if we put it in the refrigerator.
  • It will melt by tomorrow.

The next morning when I entered the classroom, my teaching partner asked me if I had looked at the ice fish. I hadn’t, and figured I already knew what to expect, a container of water. When I looked, I was surprised to not only find the water from the melted ice fish, but an imprint. This was a surprise for me, something I couldn’t have planned for. We were excited to share the finding with the children when they arrived.

 

 

 

 

 

The children were excited to see the shape of the fish made from the sediment in the ice. They instantly realized that it was left from when the ice fish melted. That day, the children observed the dirt and some made drawings. As a group, we discussed the possibilities and the children decided it was the dirt from the snow that had sunk to the bottom of the container.

 

 

 

This inquiry led to more experiments with snow. We talked about the difference between liquids and solids. Through our discussions we wanted to make snow melt faster. The children made suggestions on how to make the snow melt faster and we tried them through various experiments. We set some snow under a lamp in our classroom, and it took all day to melt. We also tried adding cold water and hot water (with adult assistance) to the snow. The students discovered the effects of water and compared these to the conditions outside.
This inquiry has led us to learn more about water…
peer-to-peer book recommendations
Katie Pryde Diverse Learning Needs, Literacy

Reading Suggestions

I have often heard about teachers doing Peer to Peer Book Recommendations (see picture below)in their classrooms, however, I have never heard of doing Student-Teacher Book Recommendations. While reading the Guide to Effective Instruction in Literacy K-Grade 3, I read a section that touched on the idea of having book recommedations in the classroom, and I thought this was a wonderful idea!

1) Peer to Peer Book Recommendations: This is an opportunity for students to recommend books that they have read to other students in the classroom. This is a wonderful idea for many different reasons. Most students will recommend books that they have enjoyed, and that they hope another student would like based on the characters, or plot. This will help students read books that are interesting, as well as show them that the other students in the classroom truly know them if they recommend the book based on the knowledge of the students’s likes/interests; it’s a great way of showing that each student cares about one another and has paid attention to eachothers’ likes and dislikes.

2) Student to Teacher Book Recommendations: This is an opportunity for students to recommend books to teachers, which can be used for novel studies, read alouds, shared or guided reading. This is a wonderful way for teachers to ensure that they are using books in their classroom that are of interest and of relevance to their students based on their interests, culture and reading levels. Of course, teachers will have to evaluate and look at the reading levels to ensure they are appropriate for readers if using as a novel study or guided reading piece, but I think this is a wonderful idea for ensuring students are interested in the reading material which will help instill a true love of reading for all students. This can very easily be done by the teacher, but creating a suggestion-type box where students can write down their book recommendations for the teacher.

* The picture above was provided by www.scholastic.ca

Photo of Sangeeta McCauley
Sangeeta.McAuley Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Learning in a Real Life Context, Literacy, Use of Technology

Kings of Writing

Last year, when it was time to sign up for extracurricular activities, I chose to run a junior Boys’ Writing club.

Sometimes I find writing such a challenge for students. They struggle with how to make it “look right” and when I explain that spelling and neatness do not have to be the main foci, they can find it hard to believe. How is it possible that writing can be effective when there are misspelled words or words crossed out on the page?

So, my mission was born. I wanted the Boys’ Writing club to take writing in a different direction and helps students to see that it can be such a powerful tool for communication.

I began with some research. Namely, what were issues at our school that our club could address through writing? How could I use these issues to give writing a purpose?

Here’s what I came up with:

-775 students in our school

-families that are new to Canada

-lunch recess is 55 minutes

-some areas of our playground are closed during winter

-daily problems happen outside that students talk about when they come in after lunch recess

When our club met for the first time, the vision was clear: we could do an advice column to help the students who have problems outside at recess. We made an action plan, the boys committed to attending weekly meetings and I asked them to come up with a name: “Kings of Writing”, they told me.

We discussed how the advice column could work: we would make mailboxes, students from around the school could write letters to the club and we would write responses to these letters. I decided to add one twist. Rather than writing a good copy of these letters, we would record the final responses on an iPad and play these responses over the announcements once a week.

The “Kings” were thrilled. Hearing their responses made them feel like they were doing something worthwhile and I think writing took on a whole other meaning for them.

Here’s a sampling:

kings of writing advice1

kings of writing advice2

kings of writing advice3

This year, I’m doing a version of Kings of Writing that is open to all my students. They collect issues from around the school and we respond to the letters during class time. In some small way, I feel like I’m preparing my class for their generation. Maybe next year, we can do video responses to be played in every classroom!