It's important to reflect

It's an important time to reflect!

      Year after year Alyssa and I spend valuable time in conferences with parents discussing our students.  What an important time of the school year!   At these conferences, we hear how the school year is going from a different point of view. Every day, we see growth from our students at school, but we are always curious about the parent's perspective. When we meet as a team, it helps to reinforce new goals for ourselves as teachers, and our students,  and to get on the same page for the needs of all involved. 

We are growing learners in our classroom. 

In order to do that, one of the skills we are using is the skill of reflection. John Dewey said “We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience.” So with many activities we do in class, an oral reflection occurs afterward. How did this activity go? What did we learn? How can we make this experience better?  It is natural then, after our first term, that students were able to reflect on how their learning went.  I shared these reflections at our conference and was pleased that so many wonderful conversations erupted from sharing these words from our students. Below, you'll see some video reflections from our class as well.

The struggle is real, and it's okay!

     A common theme in our discussions with our class has been that it is okay to make mistakes.  These mistakes point the way to successful learning.  In order to learn,  there also may be a struggle to understand something.  Many parents reiterated these same ideas being discussed at home, so it was great news to hear this has been a supported theme at home and school.

Teamwork makes the dream work

     Recently, our classes have been working toward being kickball experts.   Let me explain how it all got started.  At the beginning of the year in September, we went outside to have some fun and play together.  We were shocked and surprised to find out that we had a hard time playing kickball together.  Half our students had no idea of how to play, some were great players already but they didn't share what they knew to the whole team, and some had no interest at all in working as a team.  As you can imagine, there was a lot we could improve on.  

     After that first game, we reflected as a class and decided that we will have to work on this throughout the year. 

      Our first task was to learn the rules of the game and have a discussion.  Yesterday,  we went out to play the game again, and our students reflected on how the game went. 

      "We are already getting better!"  

     "That was so much fun!" 

     "There are some improvements we can make."

  This made me smile because... 

I think they are getting this learning thing.