Tomorrow we're off. Last week, Caroline shared a poem with us, "The Woodcarver" by Chuang Tsu, that has a line that for me captures the nervous anticipation of all Prairie Creek teachers on the night before school, "All I had to do was put forth my hand, and begin." It seems so simple, "all I had to do was … begin" Of course, we don't begin alone, we reach out to our class, build a community and through that putting forth of our hand, we can actually start.
We begin the school year very purposefully and rather slowly. We find the time we put into building community in the first six weeks pays off in spades in the months ahead. I spend less than 1% of my time in the classroom dealing with discipline issues. Without the foundation of the first six weeks, that would not be possible. Here is a little of what we have planned.
We will guide and participate in recess games for the first month or so of school. Initially, we will lead games with just our class, using the games as discussion starters about fair play, the purpose of rules, honesty in play and other key concepts. We then lead structured games with other 4/5 classes and look at the role of competition in games and how to handle competition gracefully. We play with kindergartners and talk about leadership, multi-age play, and how to make a difference in the lives of our littlest students. Then we have structured play in the woods and talk about the conflicts that occur there, how to help students mediate conflicts and how to involve others in your play.
In the classroom, we discuss the Habits of Mind which help students focus on being successful thinkers. We also establish our classroom norms, discussing what we believe in as a group and what structures or guidelines we will need to achieve our goals. Of course, our classroom routines need to be learned and we take our time teaching how to use the school's resources so that children can gain a lot of freedom and responsibility as the year progresses.
Finally, we spend the first six weeks really getting a feel for each learner in our classroom. We make sure our initial forays into math and literacy do not involve large risks for students so that we can develop the trust necessary to push them in the future. We also watch carefully, noting how each student deals with challenges and various social situations.
Sometimes, especially at recess, it can seem like these first weeks are endless. We're all eager to go, go, go. But the investment of time now pays huge dividends as our year progresses. And so, we reach out our hands to you, and begin. MM
The Rookery 