Hello, Strangers! It’s been a while. I’ve started this post about five different times, each time focusing on something different. I wanted to write and brag about my Student Council kids and my fabulous Co-Advisor, and what a fantastic job they all did with Home Sweet Homecoming 2016. I wanted to write about Veteran’s Day and all the hard work they put into the ceremony honoring all those who have served our great Country. I wanted to write about the opportunity to be part of an amazing group of fellow Teachers and Administrators who are excited to go on fact-finding missions and brainstorm about how we can best serve our students. I wanted to write about how, in November, our plates are full - extremely full for some - but our hearts are somehow always fuller, which keeps us pushing through the exhaustion and frustration that sometimes creeps in this time of the year. What is the common denominator (excuse the math pun) of all of these things? Our kiddos. Why do we do what we do, day in and day out? Because…two words…our kiddos. Many of you have asked how the flexible learning space is going, and I figured this would be a good time to share the results to date. This school year, I find myself observing my students far more than I have in years past. I’ve observed their emotional state during class. I’ve observed their conversations. I’ve observed their seating choices. And I could make many assumptions about how they feel in their math classroom, but as my Mammaw King used to say - and pardon the profanity but I promised from day one I would be real - when you ASSume, you make an ASS out of U and ME. Thanks, Mammaw King, for teaching me that lesson early in life! So, to truly find out how the flexible learning space is going, I asked the most important resource: my kiddos. I made a survey using Google forms. The survey was completely voluntary, and open to all of my Algebra/Geometry A and Algebra Geometry B (mainly freshmen and sophomore) classes. Roughly two-thirds of my students took the survey. Here are the highlights: 86.2% said the flexible learning space made them feel happy. 86.2% said the space made them feel comfortable. 87.9% wished they had more flexible seating options throughout the whole school. 63.8% said it is easier to work in groups. One student said he/she would rather have desks in rows. The most popular pieces of furniture are the futon, bean bag chairs, the kitchen table and chairs, tall tables, and cushioned tall-back chairs. The Fridge (the wall where student work/art is displayed) was also popular with over half of the students who took the survey. But the most surprising favorite of all wasn’t a piece of furniture…it was the lighting! On many days, we shut off the fluorescent lights and leave all the lamps and string lights and lighted trees on, which together with natural light from our one window, produces enough light for them to still complete their work but in a calmer atmosphere. Wow…I didn’t expect that result! And, probably the most important result and the one that had me a little emotional… 100% of students who completed the survey said the space provided a positive environment. So, despite the Big Joe bean bag explosion that occurred during the first month of school, which resulted in a duct tape/staple fix… Despite the other bean bag Deflate Gate (they look more like pancakes now, but kids still lay on them)… Despite the leg randomly falling off of one of the tall tables in the middle of class due to a stripped-out screw, not due to abuse… Despite me having to ban the futon from time to time, when students get a little too comfortable… Our classroom is still a place where kids say they feel comfortable, safe, and a place where they say they feel like they can engage in deeper conversations and take some risks. Do we still have a long way to go? Absolutely. Does change take place overnight? No. Does everyone like change? Not at all. Will everyone react positively to flexible learning spaces? Never. But are we doing some good things in the classroom to help each other be more successful? I believe so. I’ve had to overcome a lot of my Type A personality tendencies throughout this process. If a kid wants to sit in a tall-back chair and prop one of the small side tables on his lap to use as a writing surface, so be it. If a kid lays belly-down on the futon and puts his packet of work on the floor to write in it, as long as the work is being done, so be it. If a kid wants to drag out all of the rubber interlocking mats and sit in a corner to take her test, so be it. If a kid wants to spin around on the wobble stools during a discussion, but still participates, so be it…just don’t fall and break your head. You do you, kiddos. At the end of the day, our classroom is nothing short of a disaster zone. Actually, by the end of 3rd hour, our classroom is nothing short of a disaster zone…and it gets worse by the time the 2:27 dismissal bell rings. Furniture and bean bags are everywhere. Coffee tables are awkwardly sitting in weird places. Stools are all over the place. But kids are using the space to meet their needs, and that was the intent all along. And I am okay with that. And yes, at the end of the day, the first thing I do (after raiding my chocolate drawer) is shut off the fluorescents (if they’re even on), turn on Pandora radio, and spend about 10-15 minutes straightening the room out again before I can even begin to think about tackling grading or working on the next Stuco event or searching for more resources/research for my Innovative Learning Environments group. My colleagues even pop in from time to time to just sit, decompress, and enjoy the calm at the end of the day. The space has not just affected my kids’ attitudes…it has affected mine as well. The environment we have created together is yet one more reason I love coming to work every day. Just this past Friday, I took a break from math packets for a bit and had “Family Meetings” with my morning classes. I’ve pushed these kids hard all year, and felt like we hadn’t had the opportunity to talk, collectively, for a very long time. We moved the tables out of our way and pulled the chairs together. We dragged the carpet blocks toward the center of our sitting area. Some kids plopped down on bean bags right in front of me. Some pulled up their chairs up right next to mine. It truly did feel like a family. And then we got REAL. We talked about what was going well at our school. We talked about what we could do better. We talked about why some students only come to school once every couple of weeks, or not at all. I asked them to dream about what their ideal school would look like if there were no limits on resources. The conversation was intentional, and therefore, incredible. Our kiddos are a wealth of insight. We need to tap into those insights more often. Kids appreciate being heard. I can’t wait to share their thoughts and hear from my Flexible Learning teammates this week about how similar convos went in their classrooms. All in all, this journey is just that…a journey. It continues to be a huge learning process with bumps and roadblocks, and figuring everything out along the way instead of having all the answers up front. The furniture is just the tip of the iceberg when looking at the things that benefit our students. We need to keep pressing on, keep researching, keep trying new things, keep taking risks, and above all, keep talking to students to see what’s working and what could be better. Until next time, I hope your heart stays more full than my bean bags! Sheri P.S. - Below is a slide show of our 2nd quarter happenings. I tried my best to post the pics throughout this blog post. Epic fail. I'm still learning...and trying...
0 Comments
|
Archives
January 2018
Categories
All
|