Building community in school and beyond
I thoroughly enjoyed seeing so many of you at the Fall Fest on Sunday, crooning and picking with my bandmates for y’all. And yum on that chicken. Thank you, Araxi and the advancement team, including the multitude of volunteers that made it happen. In my experience, the better community we build of families, teachers, admin, and students, the deeper the learning. Because learning is hard, and we need each other’s support to put ourselves out there, take a chance, lean into the hard stuff. So not only were you supporting the school by purchasing a ticket or baking a meringue, you were making this place a better learning environment, a place where music, food, joy, friends, and academics peacefully coexist.
In the classroom, we talk about the stages of group development as forming, norming, storming, performing, and adjourning. Sometimes, folks flip the norm and the storm, but I guess it just depends on the group. When we form, we only show the group the side of us that is most comfortable, or that we think will be best liked. We norm by figuring out what role we play within the group – who are friends are, what behaviors will get us what we want, etc. Storming, which is exactly what it sounds like, is the phase that really benefits from some explicit structures, such as community meeting, a community notebook, peace table, etc. Then we are ready to perform, say write a musical in eight acts and as many songs and perform it for parents. Just sayin’. Adjourning…well, we will talk about that when we get there.
MAP testing happens this week. We did a practice test Monday afternoon, do the math section on Tuesday from 8:50-9:50 or so, the reading section Wednesday late morning, and the reading next Monday. Please try not to miss those days or times, if you can at all avoid it, so students do not have to miss more class time for make-ups. I wrote a Master’s thesis on formative assessment, and what I can tell you is that I love good formative data that help us set specific, attainable, and time-bound goals for students. More on that at conferences and in future blogs, but also know that we are really trying to provide tools and techniques for students to manage the inevitable flood of anxiety and feelings that arise around tests. Neck pillows, attenuators, fidgets, and quiet spaces are the norm. Students also have as much time as they require.
Homework
- Always read. 20 minutes is a good start.
- Write one page per night, topic of your choice, in your writer’s notebook. You get one night off this week when I read your notebook.
- Why do people move interview due Tuesday, see last week’s blog for a link to the form
- 4th math page (due Wednesday)
- 5th math packet (due Friday)
- This week’s states are the Northeastern states, which I always found to be the most difficult. They are:
- New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware
You must be logged in to post a comment.