Classroom Culture 2018-19
Morning Meeting Reflection December 3, 2018
One of my most important teaching goals this year is to effectively implement the use of morning meeting as a means of creating a warm, safe, and positive classroom environment. Having participated in the Responsive Classroom training during the end of the 2017-18 school year, and the beginning of the current school year, I was very eager to make morning meeting a special time of day. The format and components had been Alex and Elliot had modeled morning meetings during our trainings and we had practiced together. I found the sessions to be extremely helpful in clarifying the vision for morning meeting.
Since the first day of school this year, I have been planning and holding morning meetings with 3SS with the exception of occasional visits from Ms. Linda. Our class has learned and practiced a wide variety of different greetings such as the one minute greeting, the salmon slap, the elephant toss, the kindness greeting, along with many others. We practice skills such as making eye contact, using a partner's name, giving a warm smile, and speaking loudly and clearly. Performing these greetings first thing in the morning has become a very pleasant ritual during which each student has a chance to feel included and a welcome member of our class.
During the sharing section of morning meeting, students are asked to share their thoughts and/or feelings on a topic. This is often done as a whole class to allow for our many EAL speakers (and Native speakers) to have a chance to practice speaking loudly and clearly as well as being an opportunity to articulate their thinking. Some students have been very confident and articulate while others continue to be timid, shy, quiet, and still building volume and confidence. It has been great practice. We do sometimes share in a maitre'd format during which children share in smaller groups. We often share what we did during weekends, things we enjoy doing, what makes us happy, favorite restaurants, number of siblings, and many other things. Some times students are very open and candid and share personal struggles with the class, such as being teased or sharing things that scare them.
A definite highlight of morning meetings is the activity. These are times when there is often laughter and a heightened sense of fun an enjoyment. A favorite class activity is the game Silent Ball. Students stand around the room and throw a soft ball to each other. If they talk, they are out. If they make a bad throw, they are out. If they miss the ball, they are out. Students often beg to play this game each week, and the sense of joy brought by the game has a tremendous impact on the happiness level of our class. We have also played many other games such as hangman, heads up 7-Up, the walk, stop, clap, name instruction game, hot potato, four corners and when the wind blows.
My hope for implementing daily morning meetings featuring the four components: greeting, share, activity and message was that it would build a sense of compassion, community, warmth and fun in our class. So far, I feel sure that it is doing just that. Our class usually runs quite smoothly and the students seem happy. Other teachers have commented on how much they enjoy working with our class this year. I believe that starting the day off with our fun, meaningful morning meetings has greatly contributed to our success this year.
Morning Meeting Reflection February 5, 2019
The students of 3SS were given the task to decide what they would like to share during a learning celebration. A wide variety of ideas were generated including topics related to reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. After much discussion and debate, students voted on for the topics most meaningful to them. Many students wanted to share what we'd been learning in math related to concepts of telling time and elapsed time. Most students, however, felt we should share with the audience our learning experiences related to morning meeting. We tried to imagine beginning our day without morning meeting and students were clearly horrified by the idea of NOT having a morning meeting. We discussed why morning meeting was important to us and students named such things as beginning our day in a positive way, having an opportunity to share and learn about others, being able to start the day in a fun way, and knowing what might happen during the upcoming day.
Students formed groups and each group designed a short presentation to teach the audience about each component of morning meeting--the greeting, share, activity and morning message. The collaborated well and most students were flexible in revising their presentations to make the leaner to due time constraints even though they had more they wanted to say and share.
Based on the enthusiasm of our class to share their love of morning meeting and they value they felt it brought to their day, my assessment of the success of morning meeting in relation to the classroom culture of our community is that it is a powerful and overwhelming positive approach in strengthening the morale of our class each day and setting the tone for a day of learning.
Here is the video of the 3SS Learning Celebration Presentation on Morning Meeting:
Morning Meeting Reflection April 10, 2019
Morning meeting continues to be a crucial part of our day. Nearly every day the experience includes laughter and positivity. We have increased our repertoire of fun greetings, interesting share ideas, and interesting activities as the year has progressed. I try to keep our morning message relevant to the day's events or it provides a regular outlet to share important information with students. I've kept a list of greeting, sharing and activity ideas which I have continually added to throughout the year. The document is linked here: Morning Meeting Ideas.
Morning meeting sometimes serves as a time to solve issues that arise in class. Recently Leontheen and I found that many kids were using fancy pens that were being used more like toys than writing tools. We had a rich discussion about the pros and cons of fancy pens and then as a class developed some agreements to ensure that pens were used for writing and not hindering our productivity.
As a teacher, I am well aware of the benefits and the positivity that Morning Meeting has contributed to our classroom culture. In an effort to collect student data on their perspectives on Morning Meeting, I have created a survey to gather their thoughts and feelings on Morning Meeting. I am very curious about the results but expect to receive overwhelmingly positive feedback. This is a copy of the survey: Morning Meeting Student Survey.
Morning Meeting Survey Reflection April 15, 2019
Students have completed the Morning Meeting Survey and, as expected, the vast majority of students feel that morning meeting is an important part of our day. Some student responses to the question: "Why do you enjoy morning meeting?" were:
"So we can start our day happily."
"because it makes me calm"
"Because we can know people's think and feeling"
"because it helps us get out all of the extra energy."
"it is fun, starts your day nicely"
Student Feedback Survey Reflection April 16, 2019
Upon reflecting on the feeback from my students I've learned that most students enjoy school, enjoying learning new things, and feel comfortable in class. There were a few students who said they "sometimes" enjoy school and learning new things, and one student who does not feel comfortable in class. My goal would be for ALL students to ALWAYS enjoy coming to school and learning new things. Ideally, any student who was not happy or comfortable in class would offer some suggestions for improving my teacher, however, only one student provided any suggestion which was to choose more people who are raising their hands. I would love to know more about the one student who does not feel comfortable in class since it is of the utmost importance to me that each student feels comfortable. I believe it may be a student who was given a long term assigned seat as a result of distracting others, although I can't be sure.
Overall, I was pleased with the feedback students gave and most of their comments described me as kind, funny, nice, etc. This is the kind of teacher I aim to be. I would love to reach one hundred percent of students being happy to learn and come to school but it is difficult to gain insight for improvement based on the survey.
One item of concern is the question about being encouraged to work with partners, in groups or alone. Five students marked "sometimes" instead of "yes." I feel that nearly every single day students are asked to work with partners during math or literacy. They are daily asked to do independent reading or writing and also work frequently in groups during book clubs, reading groups, or on projects. I think the way the question is written is confusing. Perhaps some students who replied "sometimes" meant that sometimes we work in each of these ways which makes it difficult to interpret this piece of data.
The student feedback survey is helpful in reflecting on my teaching practice, although I wish it provided deeper insight. Perhaps next year, I might encourage my TA or co-teacher to push students to offer more explanation in the suggestions section. If a student chooses "sometimes" or "no" for an item, it would be much more helpful to have some explanation regarding their choice.
Morning Meeting Reflection February 5, 2019
The students of 3SS were given the task to decide what they would like to share during a learning celebration. A wide variety of ideas were generated including topics related to reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. After much discussion and debate, students voted on for the topics most meaningful to them. Many students wanted to share what we'd been learning in math related to concepts of telling time and elapsed time. Most students, however, felt we should share with the audience our learning experiences related to morning meeting. We tried to imagine beginning our day without morning meeting and students were clearly horrified by the idea of NOT having a morning meeting. We discussed why morning meeting was important to us and students named such things as beginning our day in a positive way, having an opportunity to share and learn about others, being able to start the day in a fun way, and knowing what might happen during the upcoming day.
Students formed groups and each group designed a short presentation to teach the audience about each component of morning meeting--the greeting, share, activity and morning message. The collaborated well and most students were flexible in revising their presentations to make the leaner to due time constraints even though they had more they wanted to say and share.
Based on the enthusiasm of our class to share their love of morning meeting and they value they felt it brought to their day, my assessment of the success of morning meeting in relation to the classroom culture of our community is that it is a powerful and overwhelming positive approach in strengthening the morale of our class each day and setting the tone for a day of learning.
Here is the video of the 3SS Learning Celebration Presentation on Morning Meeting:
Morning Meeting Reflection April 10, 2019
Morning meeting continues to be a crucial part of our day. Nearly every day the experience includes laughter and positivity. We have increased our repertoire of fun greetings, interesting share ideas, and interesting activities as the year has progressed. I try to keep our morning message relevant to the day's events or it provides a regular outlet to share important information with students. I've kept a list of greeting, sharing and activity ideas which I have continually added to throughout the year. The document is linked here: Morning Meeting Ideas.
Morning meeting sometimes serves as a time to solve issues that arise in class. Recently Leontheen and I found that many kids were using fancy pens that were being used more like toys than writing tools. We had a rich discussion about the pros and cons of fancy pens and then as a class developed some agreements to ensure that pens were used for writing and not hindering our productivity.
As a teacher, I am well aware of the benefits and the positivity that Morning Meeting has contributed to our classroom culture. In an effort to collect student data on their perspectives on Morning Meeting, I have created a survey to gather their thoughts and feelings on Morning Meeting. I am very curious about the results but expect to receive overwhelmingly positive feedback. This is a copy of the survey: Morning Meeting Student Survey.
Morning Meeting Survey Reflection April 15, 2019
Students have completed the Morning Meeting Survey and, as expected, the vast majority of students feel that morning meeting is an important part of our day. Some student responses to the question: "Why do you enjoy morning meeting?" were:
"So we can start our day happily."
"because it makes me calm"
"Because we can know people's think and feeling"
"because it helps us get out all of the extra energy."
"it is fun, starts your day nicely"
The vast majority of students enjoyed the activity piece of morning meeting the most which was not surprising since usually, that is the most fun part of the meeting. I also especially enjoy this part of the meeting although I feel there is great value in the sharing time since we learn so much about each other and have great discussions.
This is some more of the data that the surveyed provided. I was not surprised by the overwhelmingly positive response to the value of morning meeting, but I was somewhat surprised that there were one or two kids who did not enjoy morning meeting. It caused me to wonder which student(s) had not been enjoying our meetings and why. I wish I had included a question like "Do you enjoy morning meeting? Why OR WHY NOT?" to gain greater insight into their less than favorable opinion.
Upon reflecting on the feeback from my students I've learned that most students enjoy school, enjoying learning new things, and feel comfortable in class. There were a few students who said they "sometimes" enjoy school and learning new things, and one student who does not feel comfortable in class. My goal would be for ALL students to ALWAYS enjoy coming to school and learning new things. Ideally, any student who was not happy or comfortable in class would offer some suggestions for improving my teacher, however, only one student provided any suggestion which was to choose more people who are raising their hands. I would love to know more about the one student who does not feel comfortable in class since it is of the utmost importance to me that each student feels comfortable. I believe it may be a student who was given a long term assigned seat as a result of distracting others, although I can't be sure.
Overall, I was pleased with the feedback students gave and most of their comments described me as kind, funny, nice, etc. This is the kind of teacher I aim to be. I would love to reach one hundred percent of students being happy to learn and come to school but it is difficult to gain insight for improvement based on the survey.
One item of concern is the question about being encouraged to work with partners, in groups or alone. Five students marked "sometimes" instead of "yes." I feel that nearly every single day students are asked to work with partners during math or literacy. They are daily asked to do independent reading or writing and also work frequently in groups during book clubs, reading groups, or on projects. I think the way the question is written is confusing. Perhaps some students who replied "sometimes" meant that sometimes we work in each of these ways which makes it difficult to interpret this piece of data.
The student feedback survey is helpful in reflecting on my teaching practice, although I wish it provided deeper insight. Perhaps next year, I might encourage my TA or co-teacher to push students to offer more explanation in the suggestions section. If a student chooses "sometimes" or "no" for an item, it would be much more helpful to have some explanation regarding their choice.
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