Daily Self Reflection: Building Self-Efficacy in Kindergarten

After much reflection and discussion we have decided to implement a new tool in our Kindergarten class to help students reflect upon and take responsibility for their daily behavior and learning. Each student will decide how well he/she met the goals of being respectful, responsible and safe. Together we will complete and review these mini-forms at the end of each day and each child will take home the form to share with a parent!

Positive Emotions and Engagement

This week I decided to implement an idea that I thought of some time ago. Now that I have an LCD projector and document camera I have so many possibilities for presentations. Anyway, I decided to try to elicit positive emotions using humor and "awe" to help my students transition from the sometimes stressful time of recess.
As they came back from recess, I let my kids know that I was going to show them a few pictures that would make them smile, laugh or think,"wow!" I was delighted to hear their shrieks of laughter as I showed them photos ( sent to me in various emails from friends) of amazing animals in nature. As we viewed a picture of a fish being carried away by a "big" bird, I asked the kids to share what that fish would be saying if it could talk. I then asked them what the bird might be saying. Their answers were creative, sometimes silly, and definitely those of kids who were engaged in the conversation. I decided that this ritual of "after-recess" viewing, which took only 5 minutes of our day, was definitely worth it. After the photo viewing, we took a minute of "silence" where the students closed their eyes, thought of a beautiful scene/place and breathed slowly in and out. I told them that it was important to relax and focus their minds in order to get the most learning in a day.
As we moved on to the next part of our day, I noticed that the mood was upbeat and calm. A relaxed state of alertness certainly improved the learning environment. There were no tattling tales of kids hitting each other or saying they wouldn't be friends any longer. Students transitioned to the following learning activity with an excitement about learning. Mission accomplished!

Industrious Little People

Today was such a great day in our class!! As we always do on Thursdays after lunch, we set out to clean out our desks and complete any remaining work. We had begun a fun book, "Monster Colors," during literacy centers, but this book was definitely a longer project than the allotted 20 minute center time. As a special privilege, because students were following classroom expectations, :-) I allowed the kids to use markers to write the color word and to outline the different colored monsters. They understood and appreciated that outlining with markers provided a nice contrast when they filled them in with colored pencils or crayons. In the background, I played the music from the Curious George soundtrack, particularly focusing on the songs that mentioned sharing and friendship. As many of the kids recognized the songs, I enthusiastically shared how the music makes me feel calm and happy. "It makes me happy too," chimed several little voices. Kids began singing along as they worked, staying focused and on task for much longer than I had ever seen them before. As they found and completed papers in their desks, they energetically popped over to ask me a question or hand me a paper to put in their Thursday envelopes. Each and every student was committed, engaged, and fully present, doing their best to take their time and do their highest quality work. I gave them updates on how much time they had until "calendar time", yet when I announced the ending of our work time, they begged for me to reset the timer so that all of their work could be done and sent home. I smiled to myself as I put 10 more minutes on the timer. Kids were begging to work! Who would have imagined that just a few weeks ago?

Daily Exercise Makes Healthy Happy Engaged Learners

Daily Exercise Makes Healthy Happy Engaged Learners

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Building a Classroom that Works

Setting up an engaging classroom environment may sound like one of those tasks akin to rearranging your living room. In some ways, it is remarkably similar, evaluating factors such as lighting, air temperature, traffic flow, physical dimensions of space/fitting in the furniture, noise level, and optimal viewing of any screens. In others ways it can be much more complicated, as a classroom is a relatively small space for 20-30 students to spend 6 hours each day, engaged in learning through listening, speaking, writing, reading and many other activities. This year, many teachers like myself are anticipating an increase in enrolled students and must make accommodations. One of the strategies that helped me most in envisioning the best use of my space was to take before and "in progress" classroom layout photos.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30288470&id=1029677716#/album.php?aid=2017823&id=1029677716
As I reviewed my progress in setting up my classroom, I have decided to change a few things, moving furniture to optimize students' ability to view the teaching walls, moving computer desks up to the wall to increase space for student movement, and hanging signs to clearly label the various activity and curricular areas of the classroom. I am also working on designing some sort of paper holder for student chairs so that I can eliminate my wire racks that have worked well but take up flow/floor space.
What are the key factors that affect your classroom layout? How will you fit in more students (if necessary) without compromising comfort and efficiency?

Using an Interactive Journal to Build Relationship

As I spent the last 2 days in training for the Teacher Education Collaborative at San Jose State, I realized once again the great importance of the work that we do in education. Over and over presenters reminded faculty associates (mentor teachers) of the importance of transparency. How, I began pondering, can I be sure to involve my intern in my thought processes, sharing the rationale for all that I do in my classroom? One way that we have decided to share our thinking is through an interactive journal, a place where we can both record ideas and respond to each other. Here are a few items I plan to include as we begin the journal together.

• Encouragement: I plan to use the journal to validate emotions such as anxiety of being a newcomer to the classroom.
  
• Humor: Sharing funny snippets of observations/kidwatching will surely convey memorable lessons of our time together. Humor broadens the mind, relaxing each person.
  
• Rationale: Giving my intern a forum to ask my rationale for certain procedures, lesson plans, parent communications etc. will make my teaching transparent and comprehensible.
  
• Opportunities: to ask/answer any questions.
• Goal Setting: I will use the journal to work with my intern to set SMART goals. I will also convey my own goals and be more accountable for them.
• Observations/Insights: We can use the journal to record observations and insights each day. These can provide information for our weekly formal collaborative time.
• Building on Strengths: The journal is a perfect opportunity to express appreciation and awareness of each other's strengths.
• Increase Clear Communication: Having a dedicated place to jump off and communicate will help both of us remember all of the issues we want to discuss later in person.

I am excited about the challenge and opportunity to mentor my intern this year! How else would you use an interactive journal in a mentoring relationship?

Brain Benefits of Exercise: Applying this Knowledge to the Classroom

I have long believed in the value and importance of aerobic exercise and strive to maintain a routine of at least 30-40 minutes at least 4 times per week. I have also experienced many of the benefits cited in Dr. John Medina's,Brain Rules as well as Dr. John Ratey's, Spark, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and The Brain. When I exercise, I am calmer, think more clearly, feel more positive and generally experience a much higher level of well-being and peace. I am able to savor and stay in the moment, regulate my emotions, work efficiently and hopefully play better with others. I am now learning that exercise has a key impact on learning; yes, I knew this! Exercise increases attention and reduces impulsivity, both areas of growing concern among teachers. I am quite amazed at the research showing incredible academic gains by students involved in daily aerobic exercise at school. And I am equally dismayed that many teachers, including myself, are often at a loss on how to best accomplish this goal. For an inspiring look at excellent programs producing remarkable gains, click here. ( Don't worry, it's not an ad, just an uplifting video clip!)
Ok.. so what about it? What am I going to do in the upcoming school year to give my students the opportunity to get this essential exercise? I already incorporate "movement breaks" throughout my teaching day, but research seems to call for at least 20, uninterrupted physically challenging minutes of aerobic type exercise. Here are a few ideas I am pondering:

• Name each day of the week with a theme for the exercise. Perhaps Monday is a "jump rope" day where we intersperse jumping rope segments of a couple minutes with walking in place to keep the heart rate going. Tuesday could be obstacle course day where I set up a small circuit/course in our kindergarten pod or outside. Wednesday could be "jump, hop, skip day" where our movements are all related to bouncing. We could use the relay lines on the kindergarten playground and incorporate teamwork and social skills with out activity. Thursday could be an indoor "kid aerobic" day where we use a fun kid exercise dvd or a yoga based dvd. Friday would be a perfect day for "free form" exercise where I put on music outside and we dance, bounce, jump rope or any other movement of choice, as long as the students keep moving for the entire 20 minutes! I will have to think more about these ideas and hope others will share as well!
  
• In the past, I have written mini-grants Donorschoose.org and I have had great success in receiving supplies and materials to engage my students in learning. I plan to do some research in their catalogs to find some fitness equipment to plead for! Some ideas I have include: stability balls for interactive exercise work, jump ropes, exercise mats and activity mats by Lakeshore Learning suggested by a fellow teacher tweeter.
• I plan to brainstorm with my Kindergarten team;perhaps each member of our team can develop a lesson idea for the day of the week. It would be awesome if we as a grade level could start each day with the exercise that would fuel our brains and prep them for learning. Perhaps we could start an "exercise revolution" at our school!

As my brain ponders the opportunities, I am hoping that folks chime in and tell me what's happening at schools across the globe. How does your school rate? Are your students getting the physically demanding aerobic exercise that John Ratey talks about in Spark? Traditional physical education programs are often not making the cut in terms of keeping the kids in ongoing aerobic movement necessary to obtain the "brain benefits". How can we, as educators, make the changes that will fuel learning? Please share your successes as well as challenges.