"Professional Development"

There were almost 10 of us visiting the charter school this morning. Before I explain what I saw and what I will now do, I figure I'll give some details on the school:
*This charter school is in my school district, but it has its own board of directors and functions under its own policies (read: there is not 1 bulletin board in the entire building).
*The students at this school come from all over the district - from the poorest neighborhoods to the wealthiest.
*They start every morning with a school-wide morning meeting.
*The school is Constructivist - meaning the children construct their knowledge through exploring.
*Parents are required to participate at the school, volunteering at least 10 hours a year.
*The K classes have 15 students each, the 1-5 classes have 20 students each. This will ALWAYS be the case.
*There are 2 teachers in every classroom.

We spent the first 30 minutes of our visit talking with the principal of the school. She told us how the school is run, the expectations of the teachers, and how to apply for a job (she must have known!). After she was through, we were given about 2.5 hours to go into any classroom we wished. ANY. I spent the time between the 3 first grade classes, seeing as much as I could and writing down all of the great ideas.

It wasn't revolutionary. It was just a school, another way of education students. I loved it, though. I like the freedom the children are given. They move around, they're allowed to talk, they comment and confer and wiggle. And it's accepted. Because they are six. I was telling one of the teachers that I let my kids move around as long as they're on task, but if an administrator walks into my room it is expected that they are sitting still and silent in their seats. (Talk about frustrating.) During center time, they switch centers when they've completed their work at the first center - even if it's more than the 'allotted time'.

I'm not going to drastically change my classroom, but I am going to implement a few of the things that I saw:
*We're going to start sitting in a circle on the carpet, and I'm not going to be a stickler about how they are sitting. If they're not sitting right behind someone, it won't matter if they have their legs crossed or not, right?
*I'm going to allow them to wiggle a little more throughout the day (as long as they're on task), but I'm still going to correct them when they lean back in their chairs.
*I'm going to give each kid a magazine file and they are going to put 5 books in it. When they do their independent reading during center time, they will take their file and read those books. I will have a comprehension assignment for them to complete after they have read.
*When I'm reading with a small group of students, I'm going to have them read in a round (like Row, Row, Row Your Boat) instead of reading round robin (where everyone reads a page).


They might not seem like big things, but all of the little changes that I've been making over the last few weeks have been helping. At the end of most days, I feel like we've accomplished something.

I went back to school before the day ended and when I walked in I was bombarded with, "MS. PAGIIIIIIIIIN! WE HAVE A NEW STUUDEEEENNTT!" So, yes, I received a new student on a day when I wasn't at school. She seems very sweet and well behaved, though I'm not sure where she stands academically. Overall, my substitute said that they were well behaved for the day, minus one child in particular, and they left the room a mess but I got over it. I told them yesterday that if they misbehaved they would not receive snack for the rest of the week, so they had their heads on straight for good reason. I also told them that I was going to bring them string cheese and I had to explain what that was. It's the little things, ya know? I think I'll reward them with string cheese tomorrow. Oh, I only have 12 and now I have 13 students. Well, I'll bring it Thursday. Tomorrow they can have pretzels. Have I told you how much they love pretzels?