Time to Reflect

After reading  Pernille Ripp’s blog on reflection, I decided to be vulnerable myself and have my students complete a reflection. It’s not easy to open up your heart for feedback from kids, but it’s important. Since the beginning of the year I made a point to continuously tell both my students and parents that their voice matters in my classroom and our classroom will always be centered around the student’s voice. However, without including them in the conversations was I really inviting student voice.

From day one with Flexible Seating and the talk of having no reading levels or restrictions on which independent books students would be allowed to read, I noticed my students were unfamiliar with having their voice heard. My students faces were filled with nervous looks and in a bit of shock. Day one talks started with kids asking, how will I know what books to read? Will there be letters on the bins? Am I really allowed to choose ANY seat I want to sit in? How will I know where to sit? Why are there no “rules” in the classroom, other than the expectation that we respect ourselves and others?

Their questions reinforced why our classroom would be this way. My students are 9 years old and some didn’t know yet how to make choices for themselves. By 4th grade I truly believe kids need to be more independent in the choices they make. In fact, I feel the first time they are allowed to make choices that affect their learning, shouldn’t be in 4th grade. I often think about how many choices are made for kids in a school setting and how often they are not only told what to do, but how. This comes down to every reward, consequence, assignment, graphic organizer, worksheet, seat arrangement, etc. How often are we giving kids the opportunity to reflect on their learning and the classroom environment? How often are we providing kids with the opportunity to make their own decisions? Too often I hear, my kids can’t do that, they are too young, distracting, easy distracted, talkative, fill in the blank with any other reason. In reality, it’s easier to not give kids ownership over their learning or books choices. Control is always easier, but there is no growth that comes out of easy.  In the end if we continue controlling, the result will be about complacency and not growth. As time goes on, we will need to do more and more for kids, because they aren’t learning how to think for themselves.

After several honest talks, I was ready to hear their feedback on the reflections. As I sat down and read through, I noticed a common theme was distractions during reading and writing time, math being too long, and students noticing other students not being respectful. The first two I was able to take in, the last common theme, I had a bit of a harder time swallowing. My first knee jerk reaction was to think if students are noticing others not being respectful, I must being doing something wrong, and maybe I need to enforce more rules, in order to gain back more respect. Then I reminded myself doing so would be an easy fix and didn’t fit in with my ultimate goal of student voice and advocacy.

Instead we sat down ready to embark on our discussion of how to make our classroom setting more comfortable for all. I went into the discussion with the mindset that if these were issues they were concerned with, it also meant that they valued their reading, writing, and math time, by wanting it to be more focused. I also try to always reflect on the ideas that behaviors are kids ways of telling me something, not a sign of disrespect. With their help, we needed to dig deeper.

We started off our discussion with reading “Most People”. We talk about how “most people” in our classroom are doing the right thing and make good choices, however a few students not making the right choices can affect others learning. Then I wrote the first problem on a piece of chart paper, students are being distracted during reading and writing time during independent work and we discussed solutions.

This is the part where I was taken a little aback. Several students talked about assigned seats, rewards, consequences, and me making tallies for the kids who distract others or constantly go to the bathroom to keep track. This is what they are used to. At this point I had to take a moment to wonder if kids needed these types of interventions and them making choices on their own is not something they are capable of yet. Again, I reminded myself of my end goal, students who CAN make choices for themselves and take ownership of their learning.

We then talked as a class about who is doing the hard work when those types of interventions are in place. I told them that in the past I would sit down with my class list and it would take me a long time to make the “perfect” tables. Who can sit next to each other, who needs to be separated, where will each kid learn best. Looking back I was doing all the hard work and ultimately the kids weren’t learning anything about themselves as learners. I also was not learning about them because I was controlling the learning and making decisions without their involvement.

Our conversation then shifted to how they can make better choices for themselves and also reflect on why they are making their current choices. We talked about choosing just right books on interest in order to be more engaged in our books, quiet ways to take mental breaks without distracting the class, having a non working snack right before reading and writing to help us set up and allow for a mental break, choosing seats that are more spread out, and finally holding ourselves and others accountable.

I told them that as an adult, I have to do this and I wish I had learned strategies when I was younger. They know I am currently a SoulCycle addict. I often bring what I learn there into my classroom. I told my kids that on days I don’t feel like working out, I’ll choose a front row seat because I know that will hold me more accountable. Or at times when I don’t feel up to doing my personal best I’ll remind myself that I showed up and any less would be a waste of my time. The reward in the end is not an incentive from SoulCycle but making myself proud, for myself. I want my kids to to be more intrinsically motivated.

When we talked about math time, they expressed that there are too many math problems to be completed. They also said that sitting through homework review, wasn’t effective because some of them didn’t get any questions wrong, therefore sitting through an extra 10 minutes or so. A few solutions we brainstormed were small group instruction, following the reading and writing workshop model, picking helpful partners to work with, completing fewer problems, and playing more math games to help with engagement.

Next came the talk of kids feeling others weren’t being respectful. We talked about what it means to be respectful to others and ourselves. I wanted to make sure kids truly understood this word and what is being asked of them. I wanted them to know that being respectful didn’t mean being complacent. We discussed whether kids are really being disrespectful or are they exploring a little bit more freedom and advocating for themselves when things aren’t going right for them. Most agreed that we would like to believe it is the latter and we will continue to work on our student voice and  advocating for ourselves in respectful ways.

The last part of their reflections was extremely important and it gave me the opportunity to reflect on myself. This is where I had kids fill in the sentence, I wish my teacher knew/noticed. This sentence starter idea came from both Tara Martin and a session on Kyle Schwartz book “I Wish My Teacher Knew”, that I attended at #nerdcampLI. Some responses included, I wish my teacher noticed I was a good writer… a hard worker… trying my best… I love reading… school can be hard for me. All of their responses showed me that they needed to feel validated and for me to acknowledge their dedication. I noticed it on a daily basis, but I wasn’t telling each student this. In order to work on this, I took on Lynda Mullaly Hunt challenge #TellThemTheyMatter. I’ve already handed out to two notes and their smiles were priceless. I look forward to giving out more!

When we provide kids (and ourselves) with the opportunity to reflect on their learning and happenings in the classroom, we are giving them the opportunity to also grow and learn more about themselves and their classmates. We are helping them learn their true potential. I truly believe that ALL kids are capable of doing this challenging work with our guidance. Providing opportunities for student voice and advocacy in our day, will in turn build a classroom built on community and trust. It may not be easy, but it will be rewarding for both myself and the kids.