Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Goodbye sweet summer, hello new school year!

Dream ride along Pacific Coast Highway
Ride on Pacific Coast Highway in California
Cinque Terre Italy
Cinque Terre Italy

It has been the most amazing summer of travel and family time. It's so hard to get back to work, but  I  sit here in my classroom I'm finding myself truly excited for this school year.

 I have transformed my classroom into what I like to call a "coffee shop" feel. I have scavenged and purchased and re-purposed fun chairs and tables to create different kinds of seating for all different kinds of learners.

 I have pictures of my trip to England and Italy in 8x10's around the room.  I have surrounded myself with my favorite things and memories. One of my favorite pictures is on the door of my classroom for all to see as they enter. It's a picture of me in a "loving life" moment as I turned a corner on the trail to see Corniglia, one of the "five lands" of the Cinque Terre in Italy. It epitomizes how I feel when I am happiest.

Summer was sweet and now it's time to get back to work!
Hiking with my daughter in Breckenridge, Colorado
A teacher friend was visiting my "new" room and told me she heard at a conference that my kind of room has a name. I can tell you that I have not researched this and I am not following someone's grand new philosophy on learning. I am going from my gut on what I would like as a learner; options.

Do I think that having a room like this will enhance learning for my students? I'm not sure, but I am certain that they will feel as happy as I do when they come to my room. Happy students, happy teacher equals a great place to learn!

I am going to encourage my students to use the tools I provide to teach themselves through questioning and research. I want them all to realize that with creativity and resourcefulness that they can travel the world and make meaninful connections to what they learn in my classroom. I want them to have hope that it can happen and now is the time to set those goals for life. So I will use my travels and life experience to motivate and excite the kids. I want them to be able to have converstions with people about the world whether they've traveled anywhere or not.
Our world is getting smaller because of technology and I want my students to feel a part of of it. I saw this shrinking world first hand while visiting our old home in England. Everything seems more "Americanized" from fashion to language to cars to TV shows and movies. England is not so foreign anymore.

How will my students teach themselves? The same way that I do before I visit a new place, whether it be a small town in Missouri or a far away country in Europe. I saw on twitter recently "Why is it that when adults google something it's considered being resourceful, but when students do we call it cheating?" Kids have to learn how to find answers. "I don't know" has become "Let me look that up.....right now....on my smart phone."

I certainly am not suggesting that we don't have our students memorize or study for a test. I am not saying we should give them a quiz and let them google the answers. Students need to learn and retain new information. They can't walk around with a smartphone and google everything. They can't have an intelligent conversation or score well on the ACT if they google everything. I'm just suggesting that learning on their own by researching  and learning how to do this is the first step in internalizing new material. It gives meaning and ownership to what they learn. Nobody spoon fed it to them, it's all theirs. I want to be the guide with the tools to help them!

So we will research and question and learn and share in a comfortable environment where kids are free to move about and there is no "front" of the classroom. I'm diving in and we will learn together! Let's go 2014/2015...I'm ready for ya!

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It's truly a hodge podge of seating, but it's all "wipeable" which is important when you have lots of 7th graders!
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I feel so happy walking in to my room every day!

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