This week I had some awesome "oh my gosh, they're actually learning something important" aha moments that I'm eager to share with you! Don't you love when that happens?! As teachers, we want to know that what we're doing matters, that we're helping our students become amazing people and learn worthwhile life lessons along with academic content. I hope you read this and a) realize that what you do matters, b) you have your own aha moment, and/or c) you get some ideas to implement in your classroom!
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| Amazing Directed Drawings! |
The second "aha" moment was part of the first - those directed drawings! I can't believe I haven't been doing more of these, and if you haven't either, you will after you hear about this!! Every month my students are creating self-portraits and writing their names to create a personal book at the end of the year (which I cannot wait to see)! Their handwriting has changed drastically since September, but there hasn't been a large change in their self-portraits. I realize now that the reason we haven't seen a large change in self-portraits is because we haven't spent enough time on learning techniques of drawing and we really should be! Using pictures to express ideas is part of the Kindergarten curriculum. Not to mention - they're 5 and 6. Fostering creativity and a love for learning is arguably the most important part of this job. Later in the week we created self-portraits and the difference was incredible!!
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| A close-up of several MLK directed drawings |
The third and final "aha" moment of this week came when the district's internet went down and I couldn't access any of my flipcharts. (If you don't know what this is, it's like Promethean Boards version of Smart Notebook and it's awesome!!). Because of this little mishap, we had to wing it - which ended up being valuable for everyone. Morning Meeting is my favorite part of the day! (I plan on explaining why in a future post). At this point in the year, it basically runs myself - isn't it awesome when your students can lead the classroom?! But I knew that with a change in routine, that may not be the case today. Instead of utilizing the smartboard to support our morning meeting, we went non-digital. Smartboard off. Classroom calendar posted on the board, singing with no music, and using actual magnetic letters and cookie sheets instead of interactive letters. My students have never been so focused! So teacher friends, I challenge you, stray from the routine every once in a while. Turn off your interactive white boards and connect with your little leaders in a different way.
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| A snapshot of one of our Morning Meeting activities, creating patterns with oversized shapes. They LOVED this! |
So remember, what you do matters. You are making a difference. Your students are learning invaluable lessons.
