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What Went Well…What Didn’t Go Well..
What went well today in our classroom: Children sharing in jigsaw groups what they have been learning about one of the six regions of Canada. Children writing headlines (a visible thinking routine) to highlight something interesting or important about a region of Canada that someone else shared. Conversations around division: does the larger number always… Read more
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Silent Writing Time – 5 minutes every day
Every day, at the beginning of writing workshop, we have a 5-minute silent writing time. Sometimes, I do a mini lesson first and sometimes, we just do 5 minutes of silent writing. Afterwards, the kids go off to work on their own writing projects. Most days I’ve given my students free reign about what they… Read more
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Musings on a Tuesday Evening
I am caught between a rock and a hard place…of my own doing. I have made it my mission to say, “Yes. Then, let’s talk about how it went,” when students ask me, “Can I…” or “Am I allowed to…”(This last one really grates on me, for some reason. But that’s a post for another… Read more
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A Philosophical Rumination
One day, as you’re getting on with your life and everything seems great, everything could change. It happens on TV and it happens in real life. I think about the families crossing the border. Hoping for asylum. Thinking they are getting a fresh start on life. Then…separation…cages…despair. I think about the thousands of refugees who… Read more
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A Compelled Tribe Post – October Reading
Even though I am an avid reader, whenever someone asks me to reflect on books that have influenced me in some way, I am not often ready with titles or takeaways. And I wonder why that is. Sometimes it might be because when I read I am in the moment. And then the moment passes.… Read more
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Writing Workshop – A Collaborative Writing Experience
I’m doing something different in writing workshop this year. I didn’t plan it. It just happened. Or maybe I had been planning it in my head without being aware that’s what I was doing. Or maybe, I seized the perfect moment to do this with a student, and it went so well that I ended… Read more
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Inquiry Teaching and Learning
When you hear the word inquiry what comes to mind? Do you envision kids studying abstract topics without teacher guidance? Do you imagine they are left “to figure it out” on their own? Do you picture a chaotic room where kids don’t know what to do? Or worse, do you think that the kids in… Read more
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Homework – Yay or Nay?
I am taking @IanAByrd’s challenge to create a personal philosophy about homework, or at least to have a clearly developed argument for when students and/or parents want to know why I don’t give homework. This has become a topic of interest recently as other teachers at my school start assigning homework. All I say to… Read more
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Stepping Back So We Can Move Forward
This afternoon didn’t go well. Here’s a list of reasons why: I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. I had a headache that started in the morning and never went away. I was teaching something the kids weren’t ready to learn, at least not all of them and definitely not the way I… Read more
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State of the Class – Day #6
We’ve been in school for a total of six days and even though everything still feels new, many things are starting to feel familiar. We’re staying close to the bell schedule…most of the time. Except for this afternoon when the music teacher showed up at our door to pick up the class because I was… Read more
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Elisa Waingort 