A Star Moment for our Students and Us

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Yesterday, Celina and I had the opportunity to share what we do in our classroom with others at a presentation for empowering learners.  We spoke about the 5 powerful strategies that are the basis for our program: choice, reflection, self-assessment, students as teachers, and student voice.  The 4 ½ hour return trip was spent laughing and reflecting on all that we have been able to accomplish with our students in the last year and half.  How we have grown as teachers, how our students have grown and how our program has evolved into creating an environment for learning that could work in a multiage context or any straight grade setting.

Why does it work?  It is a mindset, a way of thinking.  It is not a canned program or a prescription, it is about starting with the students first, considering what they need, and focusing solely on all of the ways we can meet those essentials.   We start with our students, determine the standards they require, and then pull from our curriculum and other resources in order to meet those needs.

No matter what the standards are, or what the curriculum is, you cannot make it happen without starting from where the kids are and what they still need.

Thinking in this manner, with this mindset, means that the standards and curriculum you work from are basically irrelevant!  They just become a set of “building blocks;” they are those elements that you scale on the path to becoming an accomplished learner. We started our program last year with the state standards, but easily transitioned to CCSS when they were put into use.  In the past few years our district has implemented new curriculum in Art, Social Studies, Math, Spelling and World Languages.  While this could have easily overwhelmed us, we instead chose to look at these materials as just a new set of basic resources from which we could pull (or our students could seek) the knowledge that was needed.

We pass this mindset on to our students. The realization that they can achieve anything they set their minds to, they can grow from where they are, take charge of their learning, and be empowered in their abilities and choices.

We returned today to our classroom tired, but exhilarated and eager to share and celebrate with our students all that we have experienced, shared and received in response. Our students were so proud, so happy that their Brain Books were shared, so excited that “THEY” were our topic of conversations.  Overall though, I felt awe in them and from them, the awe in knowing that their words and work have the power to transform education for all the administrators and teachers who were at our presentation and eventually all the students who will be impacted by this new learning. They have the power to change the world for others as they have changed it for us. It starts with the students and the learning never ends.

~Ann

 

PS Thank you to "our people" for making it possible!

Incredible Us

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As we returned to school yesterday from our spring break, we dove into our third and final theme:  SOAR.  Our students began the year working hard building their own unique STRUCTURE for learning and developing a plan of relevant personal goals.  In the winter, they were courageous as they began to BLOOM.  Students were excelling in their goals, and continued to raise the bar for themselves.  Now they are ready to celebrate their growth and SOAR.

Yesterday we began decorating our classroom with inspiration to encourage us all to SOAR.  They worked individually to decorate a star that represented their personal goals and aspirations for the remainder of the school year.  In teams they developed banners for the windows to inspire others in our school community to SOAR.  We reestablished routines and rituals to help us SOAR to success.  And above all, students reevaluated their personal goals to SOAR to new achievements. 

Today our school Social Worker and her amazing Intern came in and shared a beautiful story, “Incredible You”, written by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer.  They share in our desire for students to believe they can SOAR to new heights and celebrate their amazing achievements.  The book explains 10 ways to let your greatness shine through, which was a perfect tie-in to our theme.  As I thought about each of these, I connected them with the overarching philosophies that Ann and I remind each other of daily; the words of wisdom we truly live by.

1.       Share the Good:  Attempt to inspire others, and seek out inspiration around us.

2.       Find What You Love:  Be passionate and never allow fear to guide us. 

3.       You are Filled with Love:  Extend our compassion and empathy to others.

4.       Find a Quiet Place Inside:  Be mindful and find ways to calm our thoughts to process clearly.

5.       Make Today Great:  Live in the moment and treasure the day we are standing in.

6.       Change Your Thoughts to Good:  Recognize the good and presume the best.

7.       Take Care of Yourself:  We must be healthy and happy to support others.

8.       Picture What You Want:  Honor our vision.

9.       Everyone is Special, Especially You:  Take time to celebrate ourselves and our students.

10.   Good Thoughts Give You Energy:  Thrive on positivity, novelty, and humor.

Ann and I model our Building Blocks to Success (Work Hard, Be Courageous, Celebrate Growth) for our students every day, and these 10 ways allowed me to reflect on how even as adults we must allow our greatness to shine through.  As we work hard, courage is necessary to help us celebrate our own personal growth.  We must soak up our moments of greatness and be careful to not minimize the work we have accomplished.  Every goal reached is a stepping stone on our personal journey, and valuing our own personal successes gives us the momentum to keep going through the ups and the downs. 

Ann and I attribute our incredibility to our students.  They inspire us often and give us the courage to keep going each and every day.  They help us believe.   Incredible Me… Incredible You… Incredible Us… 

~Celina

The Science Experience

Science inquiry through a Project-Based Learning approach is not a new concept, but the idea of tackling it in a multiage experience was new for Celina and me this year.  We approached it as we do any teaching and learning in our classroom through a lens of questions, not unlike the inquiry process:

1.       Students first: What would they need? We have three different grade levels that need high interest and engaging opportunities to build their learning.  They learn best through an active approach to acquiring knowledge, where they have ownership and are inspired.  Many also benefit greatly by building their social skills through interacting and conversing with others along the learning path.

2.       Standards:  Within the Earth Space Science strand there are standards in our state for grades 2-3 and 4-5.  Starting with the students and using the standards as a focus, the questions become around connections.  How could these standards connect to make a cohesive WHOLE to enhance the learning of all 3 groups? 

3.       Curriculum: What could we use to meet the needs of students and the expectations of standards?  Our district kits are big on process and thin on content, and in some cases the activities only connect tenuously to the standard they are supposed to be teaching.  Plus Celina and I feel to make strong connections the content needs to also be integrated across the content areas with authentic reading, writing, communicating, evaluating and thinking skills, just as the Common Core states reading and writing should be used to promote learning of the content areas.

How a Multiage Model Made it Possible to Meet 21st Century Goals

Multiage classrooms are not new in the world of education; they have existed from way back into the one room schoolhouse days and open concept schools of the 1970’s. Yet when we accepted the position of teaching a 3-4-5 multiage classroom last year, many questions quickly arose. How would three different grades be served? How could the various ranges in academics and social-emotional needs be handled? Would these students receive the expected district curriculum? Would they be ready for the next grade? Why were we pursuing this idea? Because there would be three different grades within our two rooms it quickly became apparent that the traditional factory model of education was not going to work. A multiage experience is more like what students will face in their adult world, so why was the idea so hard to grasp? Many of the questions had centered on the curriculum and materials that students learn in school. To us though the question was no longer about WHAT to teach, but HOW to teach it? Asking this question led my teaching partner Celina and me down an entirely new path.

Learning: Intrinsic VS Extrinsic

As you know, the reality in education is there are things we can control and things we cannot. In every situation I do what I can to keep with my building/district/state mandates without compromising my own perspective/philosophy and my students' needs.